Evening was fast approaching and everyone was getting tired as they sat in Marshal Hansen's office arguing in circles about what to do next. Mako Mori, Susan Watson, Herc Hansen, and doctors Geiszler and Gottlieb were all of differing opinions.

"I think we should wait until the search parties report back before we decide on a plan of attack," said Hansen from behind his desk.

"Kong is not a threat," protested Susan. "He only lashed out because he felt threatened and was in a foreign environment. If we can somehow sedate him we can get him back to his native island."

"With all due respect, Lieutenant," Mako said to Susan, "This is the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, not a taxi service for monsters."

"Kong isn't a monster!" Susan and Dr. Geiszler both said at once. Dr. Gottlieb facepalmed. Geiszler looked at Susan and smiled. She smiled back.

"Kong is a good kaiju," Geiszler then went on.

"There is no such thing," Mako said with certainty.

"I agree," Hansen added.

"I don't agree," shot back Geiszler.

"Surprise, surprise," Hansen scoffed.

"What is your opinion?" Susan asked, looking at Gottlieb who had remained silent since the five of them had begun this meeting.

"I... well... I..." He looked at Hansen, his commanding officer, and then at Geiszler, his colleague and sort of friend. "I don't like to take sides," he finally said.

"The question is not, 'how do we deal with Kong?'; the question is, how do we defeat it?" said Mako. She went over to Hansen's desk and leaned on it with one arm so that she was face to face with the marshal.

"I still want to interrogate Dr. Jericho," she said.

"Not right now, now we need to figure out what our plan of attack will be once Gipsy is up and running," said Hansen.

"Look, I appreciate all the PPDC has done for the world, I really do. I'm a huge fan of it and its jaegers, but killing Kong is not the answer," said Susan, almost pleadingly.

"Besides," interjected Geiszler, "Until we find Raleigh it doesn't matter if Gipsy is fixed or not since you don't have anyone to pilot her with."

Mako looked down.

"He does have a point," said Hansen. "We can't do anything until we get Ranger Becket back. That needs to be our top priority. It's getting dark out and every minute that passes makes it less and less likely we'll find him tonight. We need to double our efforts. Send out some choppers."

"I know he's alive. I saw what happened. That thing scooped him up and took him away like a trophy," said Mako.

"Then let's just hope Becket doesn't do anything stupid to get himself killed until we can locate him," said Hansen.

At that exact moment, high in the mountains above Honolulu, hidden among the jungle trees, Raleigh Becket was teaching Kong how to play catch.

It had taken some time before Kong trusted him enough to let him back down from the trees, but once allowed, Raleigh decided that the only thing to do to pass the time with his captor was to play with him.

"Me and my brother used to play this in the backyard all the time as kids," Raleigh explained.

Kong tilted his head, curiously.

"He's dead now," Raleigh went on, "Something... big got him."

Kong made a snorty noise.

"Anyway," said Raleigh, holding up a large coconut, "Ya just toss it like this..." He tossed the coconut at Kong, who was seated, and it just landed in front of him between his legs. Kong looked at it sitting there on the ground. He was confused.

Raleigh sighed and went and picked it up. He was closer to Kong now, so he tossed it at his stomach where it just rolled off onto the ground again.

"You have to catch it," Raleigh said. He picked it up again and sort of acted out throwing it again and then catching it himself.

"Ya got it?" he asked Kong.

Kong snorted.

"Alright," said Raleigh. He backed up some paces and threw it again and Kong reached out and snatched it in midair. When he opened his hand there was only a tiny white smear on his palm.

"I think we need a bigger ball," said Raleigh.

Kong nodded.

Raleigh looked around the clearing they were in until he spotted a small, roundish rock about the size of a basketball. It was made of lava rock, so pretty light weight, but sturdy enough that Kong might not crush it. Raleigh picked it up.

"Let's try this," he said to Kong. "Be careful now." Kong nodded as if he understood. Raleigh threw the rock and Kong snatched it quickly again, then looked at what was in his hand as if he were surprised by it.

"Now you throw it back to me," said Raleigh, gesturing for Kong to do so.

Kong looked at Raleigh, then at the rock, then at Raleigh again, who was acting out throwing, then he just kind of matter-of-factly chucked the rock as hard as he could over Raleigh's head. It flew for about half a mile and then went right over a nearby cliff and into the ocean below.

"Bro!" said Raleigh, angrily.

Kong shrugged.

"Not right," said Raleigh.

Kong didn't care, though. He looked around himself until he saw a boulder that was as big as his fist. He picked it up and hurled that over the cliff into the ocean too, then hooted and clapped his hands.

Raleigh had to duck to avoid the falling dirt and moss from the boulder.

"Not cool, Kong," he said. Kong just continued hooting and clapping moronically.

"I think that's enough catch for tonight," said Raleigh. He turned and looked out at the horizon. The sun was beginning to set into the sea, turning the sky a beautiful blue and purple and orange. "If you're not planning on taking me home anytime soon, then I suppose we should think about getting some sleep here," he said to Kong.

Kong suddenly reached out and picked Raleigh up in one of his enormous hands. For a minute Raleigh thought it was his turn to get thrown into the ocean and he yelped, but Kong had other ideas. He laid down on his back among the leaves and bushes of the jungle floor and then placed Raleigh on his chest. Raleigh knelt down and touched Kong's fur. It was soft and surprisingly didn't smell very bad so he laid down himself and as the moon and stars came out over Honolulu, both Kong and Raleigh fell asleep and began to snore.

Back at the Shatterdome, Hansen was becoming tired and cranky.

"We need to adjourn this meeting and all get some sleep," he finally announced.

Everyone nodded except Mako. She was clearly not prepared to rest until the situation was resolved.

"Ms. Watson, if you'd like to spend the night here as a guest of the Shatterdome, you are more than welcome to an empty barracks," Hansen said to the lieutenant.

"Thanks," said Susan. "I'd like that, but I wish you'd listen to me and Dr. Geiszler-"

"Call me Newt," said Dr. Geiszler.

"I wish you'd listen to us," Susan continued. "Kong is really a gentle giant when you get to know him."

Mako looked at the woman with sad eyes. "A kaiju, just like Kong, killed my entire family."

"Mine too," added Hansen.

"Such a creature is not capable of goodness," continued Mako.

Susan looked at Mako and Hansen sympathetically. "We all lost loved ones during those dark times," she said, gently. "My fiance, Jiro Nomura, died during the Hundun attack, but we can't let our pain blind us into hating all giant creatures. Kong is not an alien from the breach."

"Just because Kong was nice to you once upon a time, doesn't mean we can allow him to roam free where he puts every human life he encounters at risk," said Hansen. "He's already leveled half of Pearl City and he won't get a chance at the other half. That's my final word on the matter."

Susan looked dejected, but Mako looked at her marshal with pride.

"Dismissed," he added.

Geiszler immediately went up to Susan.

"I can show you to a barracks," he said. "There's one right next to mine."

Susan went with him and Gottlieb followed them, scowling. Mako hung around for a moment, though, to talk to Hansen in private.

"Marshal," she said quietly. "If the searchers cannot find Raleigh tonight and that thing still has him by the time Gipsy is finished tomorrow, I want to take her out and find him myself. And when I find him I'm going to kill that kaiju that took him and end this once and for all."

"Dr. Geiszler is right, you can't pilot Gipsy all by yourself," said Hansen. It had been done once or twice before by certain rangers in extreme situations, emergencies, but this was not that type of situation.

"I know that," said Mako. She looked down, almost shyly. "I think you and I are of the same mind on this whole Kong matter, though, Marshal." She looked up into his eyes. "If you catch my drift."

Realization dawned on Hansen's face.

"Ah, " he said. "I think I do. Are you still wanting to talk to Dr. Jericho?"

"Oh yes," Mako said passionately.

The two soldiers made their way to the brig with single minded determination. Marching through the halls of the Shatterdome like they were going to war. When they reached the guard outside Dr. Jericho's cell, Hansen gave him the okay and Mako went inside the small anit-chamber where a chair was positioned in front of some old fashioned bars. Dr. Jericho lay on a cot on the other side of the bars, nonchalantly reading a Scientific America magazine.

"Get up," Mako ordered.

The doctor slowly put his reading material aside and sat up on the edge of his bed. He looked at Mako like she was a small fly that had buzzed into his room.

"Yes, my dear?" he said smoothly.

"I want to know what your end game was in bringing that beast into this facility," she said. Before Jericho could say anything she added, "I want to know about this mind control of yours too and anything else you've been hiding, because one way or another it's all going to come to light in the near future."

Jericho smirked. "I imagine you are very right about that, little bird," he said.

Mako became furious, but you'd never know it as no emotion showed on her face or in her body language. In fact, she smiled.

"I can stop all this you know," Jericho continued, coyly. "I can defeat Kong using the very science you and your comrades are so afraid of."

"Is Kong under your mind control right now?" asked Mako. She tried to hide the horror she was feeling, but her voice shook a bit.

"No, but I have other balls in play. I'm entitled to my little secrets," said Jericho.

"Not anymore you're not," said Mako.

Jericho suddenly stood up and walked towards the bars.

"Let me out of here. Let me get to my lab and I will solve all your problems," he said, almost in a hiss.

Mako quickly reached through the bars and grabbed him by the collar of his purple nehru jacket.

"I can solve my own problems," Mako said through gritted teeth. "But I will tell you this; if anything happens to Raleigh Becket because of your wild animal, you'll be begging to be safely behind these bars instead of out here with me."

Hansen watched through the window in the door of the anti-chamber, laughing with pride.

Mako released the doctor and he quickly stepped away from her.

"You can threaten me all you want, ranger, but history will prove me right. We are living in a new age. It's every man for himself. Only the smart will survive."

Mako had heard enough. She turned on her heel and walked away from Jericho and out of the anti-chamber where she met Hansen again.

"He doesn't know what he's done," she said.

"Agreed," said Hansen. "He's too concerned with whether or not he can, he hasn't even considered if he should."

Mako looked back through the window at the mad doctor as he went back to relaxing and reading his magazine.

"I just hope his callousness hasn't doomed Raleigh," she said.

Several hours later, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the jungle clearing where Kong and Raleigh slept, there was a sudden sound that was so loud it overpowered the sound of all the snoring. It was the sound of helicopters flying overhead.

Raleigh was not ready to wake up, but he did open one eye and glance up to see one off in the distance flying towards him. That woke him up real quick. He sat up and looked down at Kong's head. He was totally conked out. He looked back up at the chopper heading his way and for a minute he didn't know what to do. Should he stand up and signal it? If he did that it would certainly wake up Kong who would probably have a negative reaction to a loud flying machine barring down on him. On the other hand, if he didn't, then he may not be rescued. Was being rescued worth getting this dumb animal shot at by the machine guns mounted to the chopper? Of course, if he did nothing, odds were good that they'd see him, or at least Kong, when they flew over the clearing anyway. Then there'd still be shooting. He had to process all that quickly and come to a conclusion, which he did.

He very slowly crawled on Kong's chest towards his head and began kicking at his chin with his foot. Kong stopped snoring and tried to swat at Raleigh blindly. Raleigh dodged getting hit, but kept kicking until Kong opened his eyes.

"Shhh," Raleigh said, holding a finger to his lips. With his other hand he pointed up into the sky. Kong looked up and saw not one, but two helicopters. One nearer than the other. He began to make agitated noised, but Raleigh shushed him again and made calming motions with his hands.

"Don't draw attention," he whispered loudly. "Just roll over there." He pointed to some thick trees nearby that would easily hide him and Kong from an aerial view. Kong understood and began to do a sideways shimmy in that direction.

Raleigh almost lost his balance and fell, but caught himself by grabbing handfuls of Kong's long fur. After the two were safely hidden from view they both looked up to see the helicopters fly by without incident.

"They didn't see us," Raleigh said, with relief. Then to himself he said, "Wait, why is that a good thing? Why did I just save you and ruin my chances of being rescued?" He looked down at Kong and Kong looked up at him and he immediately knew why. He had always wanted a pet as a kid, but was never allowed to have one. Now, in a way, he kind of did.

"You stupid monkey," he said to Kong.

Kong blinked.

Several more hours later, at the Shatterdome, dawn was breaking and everyone was waking up to face the challenges of the new day. One person in particular, Dr. Clifford Jericho, had an especially large agenda.

"Oh guard," he called out to the man behind the iron door that separated the room his cage was in from the rest of the facility. The guard outside opened the small window in the door and peeked inside.

"Whaddyawant?" he asked.

"That young oriental girl seems to have left something behind in here last night," said Jericho.

"What are you talking about?" asked the guard.

"Why don't you call her or Marshal Hansen and have them come down here and get it," Jericho said as if the guard hadn't said anything.

The door slowly unlocked and opened and the guard came into the anti-chamber.

"What is it?" he asked.

Jericho held out his hand through the bars, palm up.

"Just a small little nothing," said Jericho.

The guard cautiously approached him and looked into his hand. Before he could realize there was, in fact, nothing there, Dr. Jericho struck like a snake and grabbed the guard by the neck with one hand.

"I can stop this. I can stop the gorilla kaiju, but I need to get to my lab," Jericho whispered, very cordially to the gurgling guard as he pulled him into a choke hold up against the bars. "I do apologize for this, but some eggs must be broken." He snapped the guard's neck and let him fall to the floor. Then he stooped down and reached for the keys attached to the guard's belt.

After letting himself out, Dr. Jericho went straight to his lab as promised. He had every intention of helping to stop Kong, but it was going to be through means of his own design, which had nothing to do with the jaeger program.

He entered the enormous and now completely deserted lab of his in sector eleven. The huge hole at the far end stood gaping there as a reminder of his failure. There hadn't been time to repair it while all the mechanics were working on Gipsy. He looked away from it and headed immediately down the hallway near his office. The one that lead to his collection of giant containment cells housing other kaiju. Only one of which was currently awake and implanted with the necessary technology to receive his mind control commands.

Jericho looked down at the colossal yellow and black spider with the glowing purple eyes known as Kumonga and laughed.

"One of your brethren has gone rogue," he said to the kaiju, which could certainly not understand him. "But that's okay. We don't need him. You will be more than enough proof that my technology works when you take down the new threat all by yourself. Then I will be able to complete my work and eventually build my own private army of monsters. Once I have that, I can rule the world."

Kumonga rubbed its pincers together as thick, poisonous saliva dripped from its maw.

"Time to go outside," Dr. Jericho continued. "Time to stretch your legs."

He pressed a button on the wall nearby and the back wall of Kumonga's enclosure began to open like a garage door. The soft morning sunlight outside poored in, which made Kumonga turn around to face the warmth. Cautiously it began to creep forward, one leg at a time.

"Go on, my friend," urged Dr. Jericho.

The spider was timid at first, but once it set foot onto the soft earthy ground outside it became more bold and quickly scurried off into some nearby trees.

"Now they'll see whether I'm crazy or not," yelled Jericho, loudly. Then he laughed and laughed.