Been a while, huh? I've been distracted lately, plus I was away for the past week. Anyway, here's the latest instalment of Maya's fate. Have fun!
Godzilla is © Toho
CHAPTER SEVEN:
Monster Island Research Facility
Professor Birchwood cursed under his breath. Still no luck convincing the authorities to allow him and the girl into Japanese waters. One would think that he had a ship full of plague rats. Still, there were always those people who just plain couldn't see the importance of scientific knowledge.
He glanced up as the door swung open. Saeko stepped in, not looking at him.
"Dr. Hayama," he greeted her indifferently. "I was wondering where you'd got to."
"Save it," Saeko replied bitterly. "I'm just here to check on Maya."
"It sounds to me," Birchwood noted with an air of superiority, "that you have quite a personal opinion on this specimen."
"She's not a specimen," Saeko snapped. "Get that through your damn skull."
Before the exchange could continue, the intercom suddenly buzzed. It was Tagaki, and from the sound of it something was very urgent indeed. "All kaijuologists on base to the Command Centre immediately. All defence forces to positions. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill."
Command Centre
The automatic doors swished open as Saeko arrived, roughly at the same time as Akiba.
"Any idea what this is about?" Akiba asked. Saeko shook her head.
"What this is about," Tagaki said as he paced urgently around the command centre, "is that." He nodded to the radar screen that now occupied the main screen of the centre. It showed two extremely large objects advancing quickly toward the middle of the screen, the third moving even more quickly in a tightening circle. "We've got three damn monsters bearing down on us."
"Which ones?" Akiba pressed.
"Godzilla, Rodan and Anguirus," Tagaki answered. "Just our luck."
"How far away are they?" Akiba asked.
"Two minutes," Tagaki replied darkly.
"How fast can we get backup here?"
"Three hours. We need options, people; you're the experts."
Nobody said anything. The silence hung in the air for several moments, the room almost seeming to darken. It was Saeko who finally spoke up.
"Rodan's main asset is its speed," she explained, "so we might be able to drive him off if we land a solid hit. It's night, so the searchlights might be able to deter Anguirus. But Godzilla…" she hesitated. "Nothing we have on this base can so much as make him flinch."
"Shit," Tagaki muttered, clenching and un-clenching his fist before slamming it on the console in front of him. He turned to the two kaijuologists. "Are they after what I think they're after?"
"It's… almost certain," Akiba answered nervously.
"They're a pack," Saeko reiterated. "What does any pack do when a pup is threatened?"
"They rip whatever's threatening it to bloody pieces," Tagaki said grimly. "Somehow, that doesn't fill me with confidence."
Monster Island Shoreline
Discounting the considerable defences built into the research base, Monster Island was not without means of keeping groups of kaiju isolated from one another; poison gas ejectors, force fields and Master turrets lined many parts of the shoreline.
Presently, those defences were strewn over the beach in twisted, burning piles. Anguirus at his side, Godzilla waded into the rolling waves, snarling at the metal box that contained one of his pack.
On the sides of the research base, the soldiers assigned to defence positions watched with mounting dread as the living mountains of scales and spines. One man, a Russian recruit, Boris Yelnov, stood anxiously at the helm of one of the defence guns. He didn't want to be there; none of them did. They said Godzilla was indestructible. Accounts of his awesome strength ranged from smashing Zilla's skull in Tokyo to hurling King Ghidorah into the stratosphere. It was doubtful that anything could kill him.
Godzilla approached. He swallowed his fear. He knew his duty. "Fire!"
The Maser guns buzzed with life and shot forth streams of shimmering blue energy that blasted and burned against the monsters.
They might as well have been shooting them with water pistols. Godzilla and Anguirus waded through the blasts, with Anguirus reaching the base. The quadruped beast's spiked tail lashed out, smashing through the reinforced steel like a knife through butter. "Abandon positions!" someone howled as the line of Maser cannons was sent flying off to the side.
Monster Island Research Facility, Laboratory
Akiba reached the laboratory first, throwing the doors open as Saeko ran in behind him. The place was a wreck; equipment knocked over, notes strewn over the floor…
And the containment room completely empty. No sign of either Maya or Birchwood.
"Ok…" Akiba gulped. "On many, many levels… this is bad."
Exterior
It took Godzilla and Anguirus to quite literally tear off every defence on the outside of the base. The only thing that made one of them so much as blink had, as Saeko predicted, been the floodlights directed at Anguirus; unfortunately, said floodlights were far from able to stand up to Godzilla's claws.
Rodan descended, howling furiously as his talons jabbed into the roof of the research base. With an enormous flap, the avian monster took to the air, and with the screech of tearing metal, the top of the research facility followed, strewn to one side as the building was ripped open like a boiled egg.
Amid the panic inside, a single young soldier picked up a bazooka and aimed between Godzilla's eyes. The blazing orange orbs narrowed, and the leviathan barred rows of gleaming teeth. It dawned on the soldier that it was probably a very, very good idea to put his weapon down.
Dock
"Birchwood!" Saeko shouted as she and Akiba ran into the dock. Below, the heavy metal doors were opening to allow access into the sea beyond. Below, Maya hissed and threw her weight against the side of a metal cage, while Birchwood settled himself behind the wheel. He looked up at the shout.
"Doctor," he called back, nonchalant. "Come to see us off?"
"Birchwood, listen to me!" Saeko shouted. "The monsters are here for Maya! If they don't find her, they'll rip this place apart!"
"And they'll not find her," Birchwood chuckled. "We'll be in Tokyo by the time they figure out she's gone."
"They'll follow you!" Akiba insisted. "They'll tear that city to the ground to get her back!"
"You seriously think they'll be able to follow a human scent that far?" Birchwood scoffed as he started the engine.
"There are people on this base!" Saeko yelled. "They'll be killed!"
"There are always sacrifices in the name of science," Birchwood replied coldly. "I expect you've heard the term 'occupational hazard'. And now, if you'll excuse me…"
The boat roared to life and began to move out into the sea.
Exterior
In the middle of ripping into the base, Godzilla, Anguirus and Rodan turned their heads. A tiny object was cutting a path across the water. A tiny object with Maya's scent.
Immediately, all three charged for the boat. Being by far the fastest, Rodan reached it first, picking the entire boat up in one claw. As it rose, it tipped upside down, Birchwood struggling and failing to hold onto the wheel. The cage containing Maya fell only a short distance before it landed on the charcoal-grey scales of Godzilla's hand.
Birchwood wasn't so lucky; he fell at least 200 feet, and at that height, the water was like striking cement.
Godzilla lowered his snout to his hand. There was the sound of metal tearing, and when Godzilla's head rose, he spat away the top half of the cage, and Maya crawled out onto his hand. Godzilla rumbled softly and lowered his hand to the water as Anguirus approached, gently rubbing his horned snout against the child.
I guess that's something of an abrupt ending, but I couldn't really think of anything to follow it but, well, the next chapter. Which, incidentally, is the last one.
One last pop quiz: the soldier, Boris Yelnov, is named after a character in a film directed by Guy Ritchie. Any guesses?
All Reviews Welcome!