Reader Response

Sir Thames: Always appreciating you kind words. ;-)

Mojave Courier: Glad to have you on board and I'd like to thank you good sir for your kindness! As for your second part... Aside from trying to kill Ghidorah, Godzilla will A) destroy half the world trying to take his revenge and B) learn that Gigantis wouldn't want that.

Supernal Godzilla: ...Not sure if this was meant for the "original" chapter ten from before the restructuring but always glad to have you here!

Now on to the show. :-)

Chapter Ten

"We've lost visual."

General Melissa Rhodes said, "Fix it. Get some cameras going on. We have to know what's going on, if it's attacking the shuttle or Mothra."

"Yes, ma'am."

General Rhodes nodded. She looked at the static filled main screen of the moon base command center. Her command center, she thought to herself. She remembered how Moon Base was built ostensibly for scientific research but also for something else far graver. The UN had created itin the wake of the Mysterian invasion decades ago as the first line of defense if enemies from space were to attack Earth.

She looked over at the rest of her staff and was concerned by what she had seen on the screen before that monster hit that camera and destroyed the rest. What was it called? Salno said it was King Ghidra or something. The general instantly felt her skin crawl at just thinking that name to herself. She felt more nauseous than when she had seen the beast. But she didn't dare show it. Her soldiers looked up to her, their dear old battle-ax. She looked back to the communications station where the technicians were hard at work.

"Well, anything yet?"

"No, sir, nothing yet."

General Rhodes frowned. "All right switch to space radar immediately. And put it on main screen."

"Affirmative"

The screen was once more alive with movement, only this time instead of images it was a standard radar screen. They all heard the space radar operator giving the report.

"Shuttle stationary. Two large objects moving, one significantly slower than the other."

General Rhodes said "The slow one must be Mothra, she was on the meteor when it blew. What about the other object?"

"It's making several passes against her. Spectrometer shows it to be firing energy beams that are..."

"What?" asked General Rhodes impatiently. "What are the energy beams doing?"

"This is impossible but spectrometer and our other instruments show that the beams are creating some kind of gravitational distortion."

"Impossible or not, it's happening." She then turned away from the space radar operator and looked at the rest of the red suited staff in the Moon Base Command Center. "All right people, you heard what the report said and we got its name from Salno. Whatever Ghidra is, it's dangerous and it looks like Earth's first line of defense is finally going to have some fun!" At that, the Command Center burst into cheers. General Rhodes motioned for them to calm down before continuing. "Katsuo Yamabe."

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I want you to pilot Moonlight SY3 to the location. Keep us informed and show us what's happening. King Ghidra has already proven hostile by shooting at Mothra. Use all the capabilities of Moonlight SY3 to destroy it."

Captain Katsuo Yamabe saluted her and said, "I'll do my best, sir. I'll shoot him out of the sky!"

Soon enough Captain Yamabe and his team were in their yellow suits and yellow helmets and on their way to intercept the space demon. Yamabe knew that they should arrive there in a matter of hours, after all Moonlight SY3 was the most advanced spaceship ever built. In a perverse way, he was glad Ghidra was real, it would give him the chance to actually use his ship. For years, Captain Katsuo Yamabe and his crew had been chasing false alarms through the solar system. They knew they should be glad that before then they had only had to deal with that, but still they were more than pleased at the idea of some action.

Walk in the park, Yamabe thought.

/o0o\

"Grandpa, hand me that instrument... Thanks."

Kyle wiped the sweat off his brow. He'd been cleaning a bazooka for the better part of an hour and he was glad to have any help. The tarp did little to keep the sun off his back. Why did Infant Island just have to be in the tropics?

He looked to his workbench and saw the bazooka's component parts were on a table next to him along with Kyle's shirt, he had taken it off in the heat now he was just in a tank top. Over and over he was checking the parts, disassembling them and putting them back together. But more than that, he was checking the shell that would be fired from the bazooka. It was a small—for a bazooka shell—unassuming object. Hidden from sight was a strain of bacteria deep inside; designed to be harmless to humans but deadly to a kaijusaur. And certain death to Godzilla.

The fruit of a thousand nights of labor, it was the end result of Project Toxin and was sure to be the thing to finally kill the monster. Kyle didn't dare let anyone else review it. It had been his creation at U.N.G.C.C. R&D and he thus felt a jealous urge towards it. He knew that he wouldn't be the one to fire it, if it came to that, but if he could make at least this personal, then revenge would be that much sweeter.

He was holding the shell in the palm of his hand when Miki came. She walked in from between some trees wearing some light clothing. "Hi Kyle."

He looked up from his work. "Hello Miki."

"Glad to see you Miki," said Steven. "Did you sleep well?"

Well, she had just had a mind numbing vision; in it had seen that the world was headed for doomsday even as they spoke and that she was in charge of saving it. "I... had a bad dream." That was no lie!

Steven just nodded. "Sorry to hear that."

"Kyle," asked Miki, "What are you working on?"

Kyle ignored her question and mutely checked over the bazooka and the shell.

"Kyle?"

"What?"

Miki walked up to the table and looked over the device. "What is it? Is this the rocket launcher for Project Telepathy?"

Kyle knew that it was impossible to lie to a psychic. Even without using their powers, they could just sense things.

"Kyle... it is for Project Telepathy isn't it?"

He just kept checking and polishing the bazooka. More silence.

A startled look came on Miki's face. "Its not..."

Kyle finally spoke up. "So what if it's not?"

"You don't mean you're going to be helping out Project Toxin do you?"

He glared at her, looking straight in her eyes. "Of course I am Miki, what do you think?"

"I don't believe this Kyle!" she exclaimed. "... You could have at least told me, talked to me, but you went behind my back! ...ugh... I can't believe the gall you had last night 'I'm sorry Miki for being so mean.' You monster!"

Shocked at all she had said, Kyle yelled "Me!? Me the monster!? I'm not the one who smashes Tokyo all day long!"

Miki looked away from him with a dark look on her face. "He should be contained... Don't you think I know that? But if we can stop Godzilla without hurting him, why not try?!"

"Because it can't be done." Kyle sighed and took her hands in his own. "Miki, I know that you care about Godzilla and that he does have some connection to you. He wouldn't knowingly hurt you but what about everyone else? What about the people he places in danger, shouldn't they be protected too? That's what I've been sent to do. I'm here because I was ordered to. The orders came from Director Goodhue himself. I have to do what I must."

Miki froze up at those words and began began hyperventilating. Stephen Martin saw this and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Miki calm down. Kyle's right. Regardless of his personal feelings, he's doing this because he was ordered to; other wise he wouldn't do it. And the orders he does have are to use the Toxin only if Project T fails, but it won't because you won't let it. Will you?"

Miki looked up at her mentor and shook her head.

"No you won't. Miki, you have to do your absolute best because Godzilla will be counting on you. We both know that all force has ever done is tos make things worse. If you succeed, then that will end. When Godzilla first returned, I told Goodhue that there had to be a more effective way of dealing with him than shooting at him and this Project Telepathy is it. Project Toxin won't happen because you won't let it happen, right?"

Miki looked at her shoes. "...Right..."

"Yeah," Kyle weakly said. "My grandpa's probably right. I know you'll be able to pull it off Miki. And once you've done it, Project Toxin and all the rest of it will be on the scrap heap."

"Really Kyle, do you really mean it?"

"Sure." Kyle smiled. "Now when he comes, go and make me proud."

"Su-" Miki froze. She felt it, his presence.

Steven asked "Miki what is it. Are you all right?"

Miki telepathically asked the Elias if it was what she thought it was and all three telepathically said yes.

"Miki?" asked Kyle.

"I'm going to make you proud right now," she said.

"You mean...Godzilla?"

"Yes." Miki looked out to sea. "He's heading for Infant Island."

/o0o\

Mothra was terribly injured. She had been battling King Ghidorah in the vacuum of space for hours and it was beginning to show. Blood from the countless wounds all across her tired body instantly froze her soft fur into crimson ice in the blackness of space. The humans had gotten to safety and were watching the battle from a distance. Many had made it, some had not. Mothra just hoped that if she failed they would be able to escape.

She looked at King Ghidorah and stared him down. That was almost all that was left to her. Bruised and bleeding, her wings were torn and her legs were broken. She didn't dare use her beam weapons because she remembered from her first battle against him, the battle which had imprisoned the King of Terror twelve thousand years ago, that King Ghidorah absorbed energy, all energy. She was restricted to fighting him what few other means she had. Yet she would not yield, she would not fail the planet she had been born to protect. She had beaten him before and if need be she could do it again. She had to...

As for King Ghidorah, he couldn't be better. Hovering in the starry frozen blackness, he was free and ready to rage. In all the millennia that he had been imprisoned, he, ever the sadist, had hoped that he would have something to brutalize when he one day escaped. He never imagined that it would be one of those Guardians that had trapped long ago. However, Mothra would be but the first, the first of trillions more. He was free and he would make the universe bleed once more, he would kill and kill! He would make them suffer and die! He would-! He... would... But, first things first. First he would grind this worm to dust.

King Ghidorah broke the stand off and surged towards his enemy. Mothra dodged the attack just barely, just as the King of Terror had wished. He planned to torment her, to break her, and make her die begging for mercy. He let loose a barrage of his gravity beams and they crashed against Mothra's weakened body. Even as she chirped her agony and the energy shot straight through her, she realized that he was toying with her; this battle was a game to him and he planned to toy with her so that she might have the most wretched of deaths.

Breaking away from the beam attack, she threw herself at the Star of Doom and began furiously slashing with her few good legs. Ghidorah uttered his hideous cry and grabbed her right wing with his mouths and tore it apart. As the red-hot pain burned itself into her core she let loose her poison powder. A suicide gambit for it would deplete her strength, but it was the only when she had left.

And it was a poor one. In the weightlessness on space, the toxin just floated away and what little that did reach the Space Demon was far from enough to hurt him. More annoyed than injured, King Ghidorah spun completely around faster than the eye could see and struck her head with both his spiked tail clubs. Now immobilized in pain, Mothra felt the throbbing agony where a half dozen gaping holes entered her face, some of which went into her blue faceted eyes. In the days to come she would hang between life and death for the spikes were poisoned.

King Ghidorah saw that his enemy was already beaten and was all too disappointed. If only Godzilla were still alive, then he could have a real challenge. Slowly circling his enemy's floating body, the Space Demon was almost reluctant to kill her; it could only end her misery. Then he felt a burning hatred and all six eyes began to glow red. King Ghidorah's whole body began to glow in a golden light as he charged his gravity beams to the utmost. He would obliterate the cursed moth from existence; he favored strong opponents!

But a burst of plasma bolts shot at him changed that. His back still stinging even as he channeled the energy into himself, King of Terror turned to face his new opponents.

"Oh no Ghidra!" yelled Katsuo Yamabe from his captain's chair aboard Moonlight SY3. "Sussano killed his multi-headed dragon and we'll do the same to you!" The Space Demon rushed to the side to dodge the oncoming vessel. A space ship, eh? Then he would have to destroy that too.

"Pilot, turn the ship for another pass," barked Yamabe. "Gunner, arm maser guns to maximum."

"Yes, sir," both men said.

Banking in a sharp turn, Moonlight SY3 raged back firing on King Ghidorah as it did. The Star of Doom smiled as they did so. Fools! They were giving him sustenance because the maser bolts were energy and he absorbed energy!

Mothra saw this and despaired. Gathering what little strength she had left she fired beams from her antenna at the space ship. "What!" Captain Yamabe looked at shock at the screen that showed Infant Island's angel of mercy. "Who's side is she on?! Has that darn bug gone crazy?!" He was about to give the order to fire on Mothra when he saw that King Ghidorah was letting himself be fired upon. If Mothra had known about King Ghidorah to begin with, then what more did she know...

"Break off all maser attacks now!"

"But Captain Yamabe-"

"Do it now! If this thing is a space monster then it would have to use sunlight for food; there's no other source of energy for it. Our energy attacks have just been making it stronger!"

King Ghidorah saw that they were on to him. Oh well if they weren't of any use to him then he might as well destroy them.

"Into the asteroid field! Evasive maneuvers!" The men of Moonlight SY3 did as their captain commanded, but the ship was barely able to dodge as the lightning like bolts rained down everywhere. King Ghidorah extended his wings and flew after them in the airless vacuum firing his rain of death at them. Side to side they moved their ship racing from meteor to meteor, but it was no good. Soon enough a stray bolt hit their engine and left them in mortal danger.

"Status!"

"We're dead in the water captain!"

Even now refusing to submit, "Yamabe took off his yellow helmet and looked through the window shaking his fist as he did so. "Damn you ugly monster! Men, fire all freezer weapons and all conventional explosives!"

At that a blazing torrent of fire and ice was launched at the Demon from the ship. Ghidorah shrieked at this but still held firm. These worms would not defeat the King of Terror! A flurry of gravity beams was launched at them and would put an end to the insects. Or it would have if Mothra hadn't thrown herself in its path. Fine, if Ghidorah could butcher two, then so much the better. With that he increased the force of his beams and Mothra chirped her agony so loudly that even without air to carry the sound, the men of Moonlight SY3 could still hear.

Yamabe looked to his pilot. "Are engines back on line?"

"No captain!" he said. "They're shot dead!"

"Communications send a distress signal. Technician, program self-destruct, everyone else prepare to abandon ship."

But it would not be that simple. King Ghidorah ceased his attack on Mothra, she was no threat, and turned his attention to the ship. Flying past her he trained his eyes on those who would challenge his power. What he did next was really rather diabolical. He let his weakest gravity beams wash over the ship. Nothing blew up; nothing was damaged. That was because King Ghidorah's beams work by increasing the gravitational force on an object to the point that the object exploded outwards under its own weight.

But in weightless space with no up or down, his gravity beams have a very different effect. Instead, they make an object implode. And as weak as the beams he was used on the Moonlight SY3 were, this was made deliciously slow. The ship began to fold in on itself, cracks began appearing all over and inside the crew was beginning to panic. Yamabe, knowing what was happening, rushed to put back his helmet and had his men run to the escape pod. Captain though he was, he would not go down with his ship if he could save just one of his men.

Men without fear, they went to the escape pods hoping to live and fight another day but it was not to be. As the ship was crushed, as walls crumpled and sparks flew everywhere, they got to the escape pods just as they were rendered inoperable. They tore out the panel and desperately tried to rewire the circuits to make it work but they were ruined. Air began to leak out and they began to suffocate, the heat from various reactors skyrocketed. Some lost their courage and began screaming but their Captain slapped them and threatened to kill them for cowardice of the demon didn't kill them first. However, as ship collapsed inwards the nuclear reactor that powered it was clear that the demon would kill them first. It was being crushed and crushed until...

Boom. King Ghidorah liked boom. But with no oxygen in space there was no fire and no sound. But still, King Ghidorah knew they were all dead, probably vaporized, and that their last moments had been one's of fear and despair.

They had been the first but they would be far from the last.

/o0o\

Back on Infant Island everyone was in a swirl of activity. The Islanders had already sought the safety of the caves at the request of their chieftain and Belvera, though they weren't worried that Godzilla would attack. Such people were innocent in his eyes for they were untainted by the "evils" of science. He wouldn't attack them; indeed he might even keep them from harm. But just what if... The Elias, however, were emotionally traumatized by Mothra's defeat at King Ghidorah's hands; without an egg, if Mothra were to die know, she would die forever. They didn't dare let themselves be seen in such state because if the people saw them like that they knew the panic that would ensue.

Back on the surface, the G-Force soldiers were busy preparing for Godzilla's arrival. The computers for Project T were readied and the transmitter was in place. As for who would fire it, the Lieutenant had volunteered Private Johnson for the mission. Racing down to the beach on his motorcycle by the route Miki had given, he only hoped that he wouldn't fail. In a corner, Kyle almost hoped he would so he could use the Toxin.

Private Johnson arrived on the beach and let down his bike on the sand when he saw Steven Martin. Puzzled, the private unslung the pouch containing the launcher and walked past the motorcycle. He took off his sunglasses and asked "Sir, what are you doing here? Its dangerous."

Martin smiled. "Oh it is dangerous all right. I'm here so you could know where to be."

"You mean...?"

Martin uncrossed his arms and held them behind his back. "Yes." Then he looked back out to sea.

The ocean seemed calm enough but then it began to froth and churn. A tail erupted from several hundred meters away from land; swirling and waving above the ocean causing spray as it did. The water then seemed to rise up in a dome as something huge came up from the depths. It exploded in a whitewash of foam as the grim visage showed itself, the face of the King of the Monsters!

Dripping wet, Godzilla threw his head back and let loose his mighty roar. The water swirling around his waist and his tail erect, the King strode towards the island. The world trembled at his presence; invincible, indestructible, immune to all weapons, he was indeed destined to walk the Earth until the end of time. The soldier there began shaking as he saw this but Martin was unmoved. He looked straight up at the monster and merely smirked. "That's it Godzilla, come on to land."

The King of the Monsters looked down at whatever it had been that made that sound. Looking to the ground he raised his brow on seeing that it was an insect, but it was obviously a brave insect. More importantly it was his insect, a familiar face was his. Twice in his first arrival he'd been seen and once on his return was his presence sensed with several other times afterwards.

"That's right Godzilla; you remember me," said the old reporter. "Come and see what we have to show you."

Godzilla of course couldn't speak English or any human language and the only human he could communicate with was Miki, but he was smart enough to understand the meaning of what Martin was trying to say. Godzilla looked down at Martin as if saying all right human, show me.

Author's Notes: Katsuo Yamabe on Moon Base. Can anyone guess which Godzilla movie that comes from? :-)