Part 4: Despair Counterattacks
Chapter 11: The Monokuma Anti-G/Anti-Hope
Ethos Oroya, the Ultimate Destruction was in a dark room illuminated by a single desk lamp on a table. But something was wrong. His hairwas longer and styled in a strange shape, like two dark wings on each side of his head, along with two small ponytails on the lower back of his head, one black the other red. He wasn't wearing a formal Future Foundation costume, but a black jacket and white pants with dark combat boots. His robot arm was also different, instead of the color that should match Ethos' skin, it was dark red, and instead of five finger at the end, there was three claws. But the most disturbing thing… was the man, crying on the floor at his feet.
"Well now, let's have some fun. heh , buddy?" he said with a large grin.
He leaned down and grabbed the man's hand, and lifted it all the way up to the table. Ethos set up different hammers of different sizes next to the hand.
"Let's start. You know there's like 200 and I don't know how many more, I think six more, bones in your body, right? Let's destroy them one by one, starting by…" He took the smallest hammer, "the fingers!" he lifted the hammer high up and smashed it down on the tip of the index finger, a loud crack resonated in the room.
A whole ten minutes passed and the only sound coming out of the room were cracks and a whistle. The man's right hand was now jelly and so was his left one. Once the hands destroyed, Ethos went to the arms.
"Hey, hey now! Don't lose consciousness on me now! We're just getting started." he scolded the poor man by slapping him.
The lack of response was unnerving Ethos as he pushed the victim to the ground and stomped on his chest, cracking some rib bones. The tormentor groaned again under the fact that the man wasn't saying nothing.
"Man, you're boring! You're not even screaming!" He took the largest sledgehammer that was on the table, "Maybe this will make you scream." he said as he swung the weapon on the man's foot and toes, making mush of anything inside.
But no screeching of pain, not a single groan or moan came out of the man's mouth. Nothing. And the man's face was contorting with pain, so why the fuck wasn't he screaming?
"WHY ARE YOU NOT SCREAMING? GOD DAMMIT!" Yelled the robot armed man.
"Because he can't." said a feminine voice from behind.
"Yuuko, sweetheart, what do you mean he can't?" asked Ethos.
"He's mute." she answered as she came out of the shadows.
"Well why didn't you tell me sooner?" growled the black and red haired man
He lifted his hammer up before smashing it down on the man's face, making it now unrecognizable while his brain, blood and skull fragments popped out from the crown of his head, the same way when you propel a banana when squeezing one side.
"Nice." Smiled the woman staring at the gore.
"I'm bored now. Have you finished your new game?" he asked as he brought her closer with his robot arm into a hug.
"Not yet. But we can go play Destruction Time a bit." she smiled as she placed a hand on his chest.
"Alright, to the wrecking ball crane!" he laughed, "You always got the best despairing ideas, babe."
"I love you~" she smirked as she leaned for a kiss.
He leaned toward her lips too.
"Hey Mori! Stop daydreaming! We have work to do!" shouted a man with a Monokuma mask.
"Huh? What?" asked the Ultimate Level Designer and Remnant of Despair as she looked around, a trail of drool on her shin, all that scene from before, the torture, the evil Ethos... was just a dream from her, she let out a disappointed sigh.
Yuuko Mori, a Remnant of Despair and Ultimate Level Designer was still on the roof of a half destroyed building around Central Park. Godzilla in the middle of the park, sleeping.
Yuuko was a pretty young woman with chestnut brown hair. She has big red eyes and medium size breast. She was small but knew how to fight. She was wearing a dark jacket and blue jeans with dark boots. On her back was a black and white bag full of different plans and weapons for her 'games'. As a Remnant of Despair, she uses her talent of level designer during the tragedy to set traps, create courses where people will run into to finally death.
"You were imagining of how the traitor would look like if he was one of us, right?" asked the man next to her, walking toward the chopper that landed not far from them.
"Yeah~ But can you imagine? He would help so much! And he would be so hot with all that blood on him." she drooled.
"Maybe but right now, he might be dead since we finally denounced him to Future Foundation. We should have done that a long time ago." seethed again the man with the Monokuma mask.
To this statement, Yuuko sent a sickening glare to the fellow despair behind her while she got in the chopper. But the man ignored her as he wave at her goodbye. The black and white helicopter took off and headed out of the city. They had a plan for the next 'show' but they needed spectators, she and others remnants had the job to look for the humans that ran away from New York when the Kaiju arrived. It might take long but they have until the new robot is done. Speaking of which…
"Hey!" she called out to the pilot by kicking her seat.
"Y-Yes ma'am?" gulped a feminine voice.
"Put me in contact with Hyde-kun."
"H-Hyde? Michael Hyde? The hunter?"
"No, Doctor Jekyll. Of course Michael Hyde, dumbass!" she seethed.
"B-But how do I contact him?"
"God dammit, do I have to do all the damn work here?" she growled as she took a headphones. "Gimme!"
The moment Kirigiri heard a bang inside the room, she requested assistance to where she was. Then there was another loud crash. She stood up with Naegi. Footsteps were heard around the corner as two agents came close, they touched the handle to enter the room but several loud noises coming from the room stopped their track. The four members looked at each other and with a nod, the two agents entered the room, guns out.
The room… was a mess. It looked like a bouncing wrecking ball was thrown inside the room. All tables were destroyed, the chairs broken and cracks on the walls and floor. In the middle of this cemetery of furniture was a single man, back turned to them, in his hands, a dusty sledgehammer. He was breathing heavily. The two agents approached him slowly as the detectives were looking through the doorframe.
"E-Ethos?" the female agent called out.
At hearing his name, Ethos' body stiffen as he slowly stood straight again. He sighed and slowly attached his sledgehammer back on his belt. He turned toward the agents and the surprise on their face was fully present.
He was grinning. Playfully and happily.
"Oh hey guys…" he said, his sad voice not matching his face at all. "I… I guess you heard that…"
"Y-yeah… Ethos you know why we're here."
"Yes. Dammit that bitch, telling my secret before I could confess." he admitted as he rose his hands toward his comrades.
"Maybe you should unplug your arm?" wondered the female agent as she took some handcuffs from behind her back.
"Hey now." The Ultimate Destruction smiled, "How on Earth would I be detained with one arm that I can swing without problem? You guys need to handcuff both hands."
"Y-Yeah you're right…" she stammered as she put the handcuffs on him. "Please follow us."
"Of course."
"What about the hammer?"
"Please leave Jessie alone." Pleaded Ethos, the other made no comment about the fact that he called his sledgehammer 'Jessie'.
As he exited the room, following the agents, he made eye contact with the couple of friends. An awkward silence settled itself between the two parties. Ethos wanted to say something but before he needed to reassure them. So he did his biggest grin yet, if there was a moment for him to not fall for any kind of Despair and prove that he's not one of them it was now. So he smiled. He was about to open his mouth but Kirigiri shook her head to prevent him from doing so. They will speak later, he need to calm down. She showed him the tape recorder in her hand, and with a little nod, both Naegi and her gave him a trusting smile. His eyes widen and his smile weaken. He whispered a thank you with teary eyes and left with the agents to the Prison Block. He entered the elevator that leaded there, it was just two floors below. But before… He still needed to say it.
"Too bad… Tomorrow was Smooch & Smoothie day." he smiled at the couple. Before the doors of the elevator closed.
The couple stood there in the middle of the corridor. Kirigiri was about to leave to prepare the proof of at least that Ethos isn't a Remnant but Naegi talked first.
"His hands were shaking… He's scared." he said.
"Don't worry. We have the whole conversation right here." she lifted the tape recorder, "We can prove that he's not one of them."
"But there's still the fact that he stayed with them and kick started the destructions..."
"For this, there's no doubt from what he said that it's true… but we can still help him in some way… Let's… Just call it a day. A lot of things happened."
"Yeah…" he agreed and both left the eventful corridor.
In some underground factory, many men dressed in black and white were working on a giant robot. The robot in question was the next Monokaiju, but this time with the help of the designs of Monaca Towa, it will be more powerful but smaller. Way smaller, like half the size of a regular Monokaiju. The future problem was already 80% done but needed to be tested once all functions are ready to be used. And the one who will pilot this robot was...
"Hyde! What did Mori say?" yelled a man which seems to be some sort of leader around the place. He had grey hair and was in his mid-30s. He did not seem happy at all.
"Hm? Yuuko? She asked if the robot was ready. Which clearly isn't." answered a man perched on a girder in the darkness. "You guys are slow."
"Hmf, you stupid Despair kids know nothing about engineering."
"One of us did."
"Yes and where is he now? Captured by Future Foundation. I'm the last one who can do something about it. Tomorrow you try to pilot it before we add the final armor and retouch. Are you sure that you can manage to control this?" asked again the man.
The Remnant of Despair jumped down from the girder and walked to the light.
Michael Hyde was a tall man and was known as the Ultimate Hunter. He had green khaki hair and yellow eyes with big bags under it. His left cheek skin was torn off showing the flesh on his skull and also the teeth could be seeing on the left side of his face as the left side of his lips were torn off with the rest of his cheek. He had a collar with five fangs attached on a string. He was wearing a black sleeveless jacket with lion mane at the neck. The jacket was open and he wasn't wearing anything under it, showing his abs to the world, even though he's pretty skinny, but he didn't care. He had bandages at the level of his waist. He was wearing dark brown torn up pants and black boots. He carried on his back his hunting rifle. And on his waist a machete. And playing between his fingers was a hunting knife.
But before the Tragedy he had all his face alright. His torn off left cheek is due to, like he place it: 'a kiss from a giant squid'.
He was the Ultimate Hunter but he never killed his 'preys', except for survival and food during long hunts. But mostly when he hunts endangered species it's only to put a tracker on them for the animal helpers. He's kind of a ranger whenever he wants. But when he became Ultimate Despair, he started to hunt non-despair humans like animals but then got bored one day and started to look for the alpha animal, on land and in the ocean. He killed every single dangerous animal he could find. But they weren't the alpha.
"Are you kidding me? The kid showed me how to control it with only two joysticks and some buttons. It's so damn easy."
"Hmf. I see. Well you're not needed for the moment so if you could just leave, it would be nice of you." shooed the man.
"... I'm bored… Can I play with one?" The Ultimate hunter smirked with hunger.
" Fine." the man sighed.
Michael looked up to the men working on the robot and pointed to one of them.
"You there!"
One of the man pointed at himself, and the hunter nodded.
"Run." he said as he firmly held his knife and his eyes glittered with malice.
The designated man knew what was coming and decided to at least try instead of doing nothing. He ran as fast as he could toward the exit door. Pushing any other person on his way to safety. But as soon he reached for the handle of the exit door he felt a stabbing pain spread all over his body coming from his back. He collapsed on the ground and Hyde slowly approached the stabbed man.
"My, my. That was way too easy, man." he sighed, his knife was planted on the man on the floor. His leaned toward the man's back to grab his weapon but movement from the man on the floor stopped his track as his eyes widen a bit when he saw the man still moving and trying to get away. "Wow! You're still alive?" he reached for an item on his hind pocket of his pants and threw it on the floor next to the man, it was a towel and disinfectant, "Here patch yourself up and go back to work." Michael concluded as he grabbed his knife and pulled it out of the man back, the latter letting out a scream because of the pain.
He stood up and was about to call out another man but the 'leader of the factory' told him to stop and that if he wanted to play he should just go outside. With a shrug and a heavy sigh, Michael went to the elevator to exit the place. Once outside, Michael Hyde went to a rooftop from a nearby small building. He laid down his body near the edge of the rooftop and took out his rifle.
He started to look around for a prey. But it's pretty damn boring here, there's no big dangerous animals… Some Monokuma units looking for people to kill, Monokuma Kids running and playing around with some corpses. Even after like one year and a half, there was still enough people for the kids to kill and play with. Not a single animal around except rats and stray dogs.
Oh, there's those two girls who defeated Monaca Towa over there, should he shoot them? Too late, they went inside a building. And hunting humans is boring. Too predictable. Hm? A cat? That's new. Interesting. He aimed his rifle towards it.
It won't satisfy his thirst to kill, since it's just a cat. But it's something new and he was ok with that. He breathed slowly, focusing his aim. That cat wasn't the alpha animal he will fight soon… that's for sure. The cat was thin, like very thin, as if it didn't eat at all in days, or years. It was trying to hunt some rats but it was doing such grave mistakes that made the prey run away easily. This cat certainly wasn't used to hunt, it's a house cat that always got pampered with everything it wanted. But now it doesn't have a master, so it's doing its best to survive. The cat will soon die from hunger.
"Be grateful, little kitty… I'm gonna shorten your suffering…" the hunter whispered.
He hunt a lot of animals during The Tragedy and even before getting called to kill the big threat. None of the animals he killed were the alpha… but this one… He was the alpha, he was even the King!
The cat tried once more to catch another rat. But failed.
"Godzilla… You're head is mine." he said before pulling the trigger.
The next day
The five ex-students of the 78th class of Hope's Peak Academy were sitting in an awkward silence at the dining hall. Still confused by last night's revelation about Ethos. Even though Naegi and Kirigiri reassured their friends about the fact that the possibility that he isn't a Remnant of Despair is actually pretty high, Ethos still started unintentionally the destructions during the Tragedy, and this is certainly something that the higher ups won't overlook.
There was also this mystery… When Kirigiri contacted the higher up to tell them the situation, she was surprised that the diffusion of the conversation between Ethos and Yuuko was only at the building of the 14th Branch, no other Branch heard about it and were also very surprised. Thankfully, Ethos' 'judgement' was postponed until the whole Kaiju situation was done, or at least calmed down. Right now they were starting their research for the last Monokaiju that the Remnants of Despair were working on.
"But still… why on Earth were we the only ones to hear about the conversation? How could they know that he was at the 14th Branch?..." sighed Togami, readjusting his glasses.
"Someone might have told them." said the Clairvoyant.
"But doesn't that means that we might have a traitor between our rank?" gasped Asahina at the thought.
"Stop it. We don't need paranoia now, Asahina-san." interrupted the head of the 14th Branch.
"Y-Yes you're right…" apologized the swimmer.
And another awkward silence. At least until Naegi decided to light up the mood.
"You know… He said that today was supposed to be Smooch & Smoothie Day." he smiled, at hearing this the others chuckled.
"What an idiot." sighed the heir.
"Speak for yourself, his smoothies were delicious!" laughed Hagakure.
"And seriously, only a smooch on the forehead or cheeks for a smoothie, it's a great deal." smiled Asahina.
"It was pretty surprising the first time he put this idea into place." said Kirigiri with a faint smile.
"Yes. It sure was to suddenly jump and yell that he had the best idea ever. Hehe… 'Smooch and Smoothie', what a dork."
And they all laughed with smiles. But it quickly faded away when an agent came in to look for Kirigiri because there's a footage from an agent in a mission about the new Monokaiju. A whole city got destroyed by the new threat and 80% of the inhabitants perished during the attack. All as one, they ran to the head's office and watched the video.
During the first whole minute, nothing was wrong, people were living their life peacefully. Almost as if there was no Despair in the streets. But suddenly, from far away something flew toward a big building and hid behind it. And some seconds after a drill poked out of the building's facade facing the camera. And immediately after, a giant robot emerged from the building in an explosion. It landed on the street, flattening a pair of cars in the process. The robot didn't looked a bit like a Monokuma, more like a giant fat stickman it was all grey. It was also way smaller than a normal Monokaiju, almost half the size. On its back was two sort of rocket engine that was lifting it in the airs. There was also two other under each feet. On the right arm was a giant futuristic looking cylinder with three giant claws poking out at the end. On the left arm was a giant drilling machine. It also had big cubic spaulders with three some sort of cannons on top of each, shooting at the residents and the houses. And finally, the head of the robot was some sort of helmet with the face of Monokuma plastered on it.
Togami immediately recognized that helmet.
"It's a Monokuma Kid helmet!" he exclaimed.
"What? From Towa City?" asked Naegi.
It's been almost a year and a half that his sister, Komaru Naegi and Toko Fukawa, the Ultimate Writing Prodigy stayed on the forsaken city where a war between adults and kids (+ monokuma units) took place, and might be still taking place. And now there was a confirmation that the city is connected to the Remnants of Despair. The little robot designer, Monaca Towa must have helped the Remnants of Despair into building this new robot.
Togami stood up and said that he'll contact the agents that he sent there under cover to keep an eye on the girls. There's a chance that the Remnants of Despair might be communicating with the others around the globe to prepare the Monokaiju to kill Godzilla, which means that there's a chance that the reception might be working again. Also, there's a good side to all of this. If this robot manage to kill the King of Monsters, they could destroy the robot with the hacking guns. It will be a very hard fight, but not impossible. If Komaru and Toko could destroy thousands of Monokuma units and the Big Bang Monokuma. They can destroy this one. The robot flew away once the city was well destroyed. Togami left the room to try and contact the agents.
Despair now has a new weapon, more dangerous than ever.
A week later
"Hello?! Hello?! Can you bastard see me?" suddenly shouted a female character as all the screens in all branches of Future Foundation suddenly turned on.
Everyone gathered on the main hall with the biggest screen of the building to watch the sudden broadcast. On the screen was a woman wearing a Monokuma mask, she was waving at the screen.
"Ethooos~! Can you see me? I hope you're still alive, sweetheart! What?" She looked over the camera, "what do you mean 'get to the point'?... Fine fine!" She wailed her arms in the air.
"Welcome to the first, and maybe only, episode of: 'the Fall of the King' or if you prefer: 'Despair wins the Kaiju battle'..." She laughed. "as you can see…"
She walked toward the edge of the roof she was on. The cameraman followed her, still filming her. Once over the edge, Godzilla was visible, laying on the ground of a burned Central Park. Good as new. The filming was then done on a roof of a building surrounding the park, again.
"... that fucking lizard is still there, and still alive! We can't get close to Godzilla because of the radioactive activity near him… But! As you may all know by now, Thanks to sweetheart~ we have finished our new Giant Monokuma!" She opened her arms wide, "he'll be there soon! But before, let's present you our guests!"
The camera zoomed on the window of a building, there was people inside. Couples, adults, ancients, children, families and everybody were scared. All of them knew that there was one chance out of three that they will survive: if Despair wins, they will be executed, if Godzilla wins he might or might not attack them. Either way, they were terrified by the outcome of the upcoming battle.
"We can't have a good fight without spectators on the spot, am I right~?" the woman under the Monokuma mask laughed, "Oh? What is it? He's coming?! Ahem… Ladies and Gentlemen. We Remnants of Despair present you… the Monokuma Anti-G/Anti-Hope!" she exclaimed as a giant shadow flew over her and went down on the ring.
He slept enough. His wounds are healed, he's fine now. He opened his eyes and with a grunt, he slowly stood up. He felt the humans first, they were still on the roofs, but there were more inside the once abandoned buildings. Why did they come back, how stupid can they be? But it doesn't matter.
Actually, it's good that they came back. He can start his-
What the hell?
Another one?!
He spun around and saw it, another giant human weapon. Another freaking one! And it was flying!
Godzilla hardened his features, ready for another fight as the robot slowly landed in front of him. The King of Monsters locked his eyes on the new threat and lowered his gaze at the same pace as the machine while it was slowly going down… and down… and down…? And down. It finally landed.
What the-? This thing is ridiculously small, half the size of the leviathan. But Godzilla wasn't stupid, he knows that no matter the size, when his instincts were telling him that the thing in front of him was a threat… it is.
And this one… Is oddly an even bigger one that the other robots he destroyed.
He got ready to fight. But suddenly, the robot spoke.
Next chapter is the last fight of this story. Who will win? Despair or fake Hope?
You'll see soon enough.
Plus: The description of Despair Ethos at the beginning, his hair and robot arm is to match Destroyah, a badass Kaiju, style.