Disclaimer: All rights to Godzilla and its characters, places and names belong to Toho Studios. All rights to Godzilla (2014) and its characters, places and names belong to Legendary Entertainment. The author of this stories owns nothing; this story is for entertainment purposes only; not money or profit of any kind.
Chapter 4
In the control room designated the 'Crow's Nest', overlooking the entire site, Monarch scientists monitored the pulsing. The lights and control monitors sputtered and flickered before returning to normal.
Dr. Ishiro Serizawa sighed as he observed the screens deliver new readings. He leaned on the railing overlooking the main computer bay as his fellow scientists read off the new data.
Now in his mid-fifties, he felt the weight of his years of study on his shoulders. Fifteen years, on and off, of working here at the site of one of the most incredible finds in history had left him with a frustrating combination of brilliant discovery and maddening unknowns.
"7.2 seconds and getting stronger," Dr. Jainway announced to the room, pointing to the cascading readout. A bearded American scientist in his early forties, Jainway ability with computers was second-to-none, and Serizawa was grateful to have him here in Janjira.
"We're trending exponentially. That's our new curve."
"Jesus, it's worse than I thought," Dr. Whelan muttered, running his hands across his bald scalp. Although a brilliant physicist, Whelan's glaring negativity and almost constant nervousness was an annoyance the entire team, Serizawa reflected.
Although, in this instance, Whelan's concern was more than warranted. It didn't take a scientist to see they were on the verge of catastrophe.
Serizawa was brought out of his musings by Huddleston, the head of Monarch security. "Excuse me, Dr. Serizawa," the man in military fatigues said. "Dr. Yamane and her team have returned. She's asked for you."
"We've got bigger problems," Whelan all but sneered. "Have Dr. Graham go."
"She's with them now, sir," Huddleston responded. "They sent me. Dr. Yamane brought the man who used to work here."
As Serizawa made his way through the facility with Huddleston, he reflected on Emiko's time with Monarch. She had proven herself indispensable in the past five years since he had recruited her, so when she had approached himself and Vivienne about locating Joe Brody, he trusted her judgment.
The ding of the elevator brought Serizawa back to the present and he and quickly walked down the dimly lit hall. He saw Vivienne standing waiting for him.
"Sensei," Vivienne greeted her colleague. She handed him one of the graphs Brody had recovered. "Emiko was correct; Mr. Brody was on to something. Look at the date; it's from fifteen years ago. The pattern matches what we've been seeing for the past few weeks."
She was right. The old dirty print-out was identical to what they had been monitoring. He overheard a voice he didn't recognize, seemingly arguing loudly with someone. Looking past Graham, he saw who he assumed was Joe Brody arguing with Emiko and two of the security guards.
"Dad-," Ford said, trying to calm his father.
"Mr. Brody, please-," Emiko insisted, concern in her voice at Joe's increasing agitation.
"No, no, I'm done talking to you," Joe said flatly. His patience had worn thin. "I held my end of the bargain; I want to talk to whoever is in charge, like you said. This- this 'Serizawa' guy you keep talking about."
"Mr. Brody," Dr. Serizawa said, handing the paper back to Graham. Joe turned to the Japanese man who removed his glasses. "I am Ishiro Serizawa. Thank you for trusting Emiko. She was adamant you could assist us in some way."
"Yeah, well, you guys don't make it easy," Joe said, irritation lacing his voice. He reached over to the table where all of his graphs and disks from his old house were sorted out. "Here's my old data. I started recording this the day after the earthquake in the Philippines, right up until the day of th- the catastrophe."
"We had thought all the data from that day had been lost," Graham said softly as she picked up one of the old floppy disks. Joe noted the her somewhat nervous demeanor when he had arrived, and labeled her as somewhat antisocial and awkward around people.
"Well, if you people had listened to me fifteen years ago when I went to the press instead of painting me like a madman...," Joe huffed under his breath. "But instead, you hid the truth. You lied to me; to everyone! You all said this place was a death zone, but it's not! Now, I want to know what you people have been hiding here."
"Dad, please cool it, alright?" Ford placed a hand on his fathers shoulder.
"Mr. Brody, what we're doing here is trying to keep people safe," Serizawa said. "We-"
"'Safe!?'" Joe scoffed, outraged. He slammed his palms on the table. "My wife died here! Something killed my wife! And I have a right to know! I deserve answers!"
Everyone was taken aback by the raw emotion in Brody's voice as it cracked. Ford once again tried to console his father and Serizawa and Graham shared a sympathetic stare.
The building groaned again, and the lights flickered, once again accompanied by the low droning emanating from the organic structure outside, distracting everyone's attention.
"There, ya see?" Joe gestured to the flickering lights. "You see that? There it is again!" The lights returned to normal once the noise ceased.
"That is not a transformer malfunction; that is an electromagnetic pulse! It affects everything electrical for miles and miles, and it is happening again! This is what caused everything in the first place, can't you see that?"
"An EMP," Emiko repeated, the realization dawning on the group of scientists. She moved over to Serizawa and Graham. "We've been looking at it like a side effect of the MUTO's damage to the plant's power grid. But it's coming from it."
"That would explain why it's been increasing," Serizawa concurred. "Years ago, it only happened once a year or so. But every year, it's been growing more and more frequent."
Vivienne picked up one of the old graphs and compared them to the one she printed out earlier. "And why we never picked up on it. Without the data from that day to confirm, we were only grasping at straws with theories."
Joe took this in with disbelief. "You- you have no idea what's happening," he said. "You've been floundering in the dark for fifteen years, pretending to have everything under control! You have no idea what's coming."
The stark reality settled upon the Monarch team like a dark cloud. As the base rumbled and the lights flickered again, more strongly this time, the three scientists quickly made their way to the elevator, with Joe Brody yelling a warning behind them.
"That thing out there is going to send us back to the Stone Age!"
In the Crow's Nest, alarms were beeping as the lights flickered more and more. Monarch scientists were frantically moving from console to console. Each pulse of the EMP was accompanied by a small quake that began to shake the foundations of the plant.
"The pulses are seconds apart," Jainway announced as he brought up the newest reading.
"They're getting stronger," confirmed his assistant at the monitor. "It's affecting the power grid.
Whelan leaned on the railing looking over the line of consoles in charge of monitoring radiation. "Any radiation leakage?"
"Gamma levels are still zero," came the response. "It sucked all the reactors dry."
As Serizawa, Vivienne and Emiko rushed into the control center, the largest pulse yet emanated from the cocoon bringing a very loud, rapid thump-thump-thump-thump with it.
Outside as the noise subsided, a large chunk of the cocoon crumbled and crashed to the ground causing several of the workers to scatter for cover, shouting warnings as they did.
"It's done feeding," Serizawa announced.
Graham handed Joe's printouts to Dr. Whelan, who looked them over. "What's this?"
"The data Joe Brody collected fifteen years ago," she explained.
Whelan cursed as he held up the old graph to the monitors. "It's identical."
Serizawa made his way down the stairs to looked out the large bay window that looked over the massive cocoon. The lights flickered again as the cocoon emitted another series of popping noises.
"Fifteen years ago, it's what caused the meltdown," he announced to the room.
"It was an electromagnetic pulse," Graham explained hurriedly as she made her way to Serizawa's side. "That's what it's building to again. Converting all the radiation it's consumed until it hatches."
"We have to shut down," Serizawa ordered.
Whelan gave the order to shut down the grid over the intercom and to initiate 'Wildfire Protocol' and Jainway picked up his own radio and ordered all personnel to immediately clear the perimeter.
Across the site, workers yelled orders in Japanese and scurried to their positions as they had practiced numerous times before. Like clockwork, tons of massive metal wires and cables were raised around the entire perimeter of the cocoon, surrounding it like a cage.
Overhead, more of the steel cables were lowered into place over the top of the pulsing cocoon, fully encasing it. Massive military-grade generators were hooked up to the cables and hummed to life.
Three military helicopters circled overhead. They flew at a high enough altitude to avoid the effects of the small pulses emitted by the cocoon, keeping their spotlights trained on the cocoon.
"Grid's secure," Jainway announced to the Crow's Nest. A sudden silence and stillness filled the room. Emiko and Graham exchanged a glance as Whelan lowered his head briefly. They all knew what would come next.
Realistically, they knew it was necessary, but they also knew that it would mean the extinction of a wholly unique life form and that was something that any human would understandably feel the sad weight of.
Serizawa stared past his haunted reflection in the thick glass window to the slowly pulsing cocoon which was building toward the inevitable. Taking a soft inhale, he gave an order that went against his very being.
"Kill it."
Jainway exhaled heavily and reached over to his console. He pressed his palm against a large switch and a massive roar filled the site as the massive pylons that surrounded the cocoon became charged with electricity.
The cables arced and glowed as bolts of lightning slammed and licked across the surface of the cocoon leaving large burn scars.
Every human eye squinted or looked away from the sheer brightness of the man-made electrical storm.
An unnatural roar filled the air as the power of the generators reached maximum and at the height of the onslaught the curved tip of the crescent shaped structure shattered and fell to the ground below, snapping several of the cables as it struck the concrete below.
In the Crow's Nest, everyone stared out the window as the cocoon had gone dark.
"Did it work?" Emiko asked uncertainty. "Is- is it dead?"
Jainway looked at his monitor as the signal on the screen died off. "All readings are flatlined."
Whelan cleared his throat and put his glasses back on.
"Get a visual," he ordered.
Upon receiving the order, one of the Monarch workers garbed in full hazard gear made his way across the the maze of catwalks up to the spot where the tip of the crescent had broken away which was now oozing with a viscous foamy slime.
Shining his flashlight across the wound, he noted it was completely still until he saw a small pulsing mass about the size of a human. Focusing his flashlight on the spot, he saw the the gray colored ooze covering-
A huge, insect-like limb blasted out of the cocoon at frightening speed, crushing the poor man and slamming into the wall, tearing apart the section of catwalk in the process!
A loud, deep cackling bellow that had never been heard by human ears roared out of the cocoon as an unholy abomination tore it's way from it's crumbling entrapment.
Chaos erupted at the former Janjira nuclear plant as the creature's massive insectoid forelimb that glowed orange at its front knuckle-like appendage lifted in the air and slammed down, crushing three workers attempting to flee with a horrifying crunch.
The movement emitted the largest electromagnetic pulse yet, as a visible pulse rolled across the facility in every direction, knocking out every light, plunging the site into near total darkness with the only light source left was the light coming from the full moon. Above, the helicopters circling above were struck by the pulse and lost power, crashing as a result.
The Monarch scientists in the Crow's Nest stared out the windows in horror as the lights blinked out, while on the ground floor, Joe and Ford looked up as the lights went out and the sound of the helicopters crashing shook the structure. The two stood from the table where Joe was looking over his old files and looked around at the sudden commotion.
Moments before, the two noticed the surge in activity but now, it was chaos. A deep cackling roar reverberated through the building, and Joe noticed the door leading outside that had been locked had opened when the power went out.
In the chaos of scientists, guards and workers scurrying about, Joe took the opportunity to head toward the door. Ford noticed this and followed.
"Dad, what are you doing?" he all but shouted over the commotion.
"Whatever is out there killed your mother," Joe shouted. "I have to see it."
Up in the Crow's Nest, everyone was doing their best in the darkness. Serizawa remained by the window, while Emiko stood near Vivienne trying to stay out of the way of the workers who were trying to bring the lights back on.
As the consoles flickered back to life, the backup generators roared to life and the spotlights surrounding the cage blinked on, the creature bellowed in agitation as it tore itself free from the rest of its cocoon, reducing it to rubble.
The sight and noise terrified the Monarch agents, who stared in shock. Now fully illuminated, they could see the creature in full. The beast looked like some sort of abominable combination of an insect and a mammal. It's elongated head and face was shaped like and arrow with hooked jaws lined with sharp teeth.
A row of small eyes glowed the same red color the cocoon had emitted, encased in a long narrow goggle-like membrane lined the side of its skull. It had a triangular jaw that resembled a beak lined with teeth. It lacked any sort of neck to speak of, and a small body.
The creature had an iridescent metallic-gray exoskeleton that became lighter along it's abdomen. It stood on four long segmented legs that ended in a single hook, and walked along its front knuckle. Two smaller appendages were clutched along its side which moved and rubbed together like praying mantis.
The creature had grown even more agitated with its enclosed surroundings and began thrashing and tearing at the metal catwalks and wires that surrounded it like paper. It croaked in anger and pools of foamy saliva dripped from it's hooked jaw.
Every movement from the gargantuan beast caused the facility to shake violently and the Crow's Nest windows shattered as a piece of debris was thrown towards the building.
"We've got to evacuate!" Emiko yelled.
"Everyone get out, now!" Whelan ordered, and everyone fled the Crow's Nest as fast as they could as the ceiling began to crumble around them.
Outside, Joe and Ford had made their way up a series of catwalks to better view the sight. Joe ignored Fords protests as he pushed his way past the fleeing workers. Rounding a corner, he looked out over the side of the railing into the chaos across the site.
His breathing quickened as his heart froze in his chest at the sight.
The massive spotlights flickered wildly as they shone on the gigantic, thrashing creature that looked like a living nightmare. It croaked and snarled loudly as it pressed its back up against its containment.
Words failed to describe the sheer size of the monster as it was twice the size of the cocoon it had emerged from. Joe's keen scientific mind could make out that the creature was at least two-hundred feet tall. He was transfixed with a combination of fascination, horror and rage at the sight of the monster that had killed his wife and so many others.
Ford finally caught up to his father and was about to grab his shoulder when he saw the creature. His jaw dropped as he joined his father in observing the monster fight to free itself. Giving up on its current attempt to escape, the monster went silent and lowered itself out of sight back below the rim of the hole it was trapped in.
Ford shook himself back to reality and looked around, his military training allowing him to quickly take in the scene. The workers and crew were beginning to evacuate the site, with vehicles being filled and quickly pulling out, while countless others were fleeing on foot.
Ford noticed others seemingly trying to form squads to ensure the cage remained intact or to put out fires that had sprung up as a result of the giant bugs rampage.
A low groaning of rending metal drew his attention back to the pit, where he and Joe witnessed the creature reaching its two massive hooked forelimbs up above itself through the cables keeping it trapped.
It gripped the cables and slowly pulled them down onto itself, causing the huge pylons that surrounded the complex anchoring them in place to topple one after the other in a domino effect. The weight of the falling cranes crashed into the surrounding buildings, crushing any people still unfortunate to still be inside them.
Joe watched in awe and fear at the creatures strength, and saw one of the cranes heading directly for the catwalk he and Ford were standing on. A group of workers wearing hazard suits ran past them, trying to escape, but the masks they were wearing prevented them from seeing the falling pylon.
"No, no; wait, stop!" he and Ford yelled in warning at the men, but they were unable to stop them from being crushed by the falling tower of twisted metal.
The impact was deafening and the Brodys themselves were nearly thrown from of the catwalk as a result. The wreckage of the huge tower lay across the catwalk, but it was still attached to the cables that the huge behemoth was pulling toward itself. Ford saw the cable grow taught and the soldier acted on instinct.
He grabbed his father, who was paralyzed with fear, and threw them both to the hard metal lattice floor of the catwalk. Both men grunted in pain, and Ford clutched Joe to his chest with one arm and grabbed the side of the walkway.
The wreckage was torn apart by the steel cables with the ear-splitting sound of tearing metal and the catwalk was sent crumpling to the ground ten feet below. They landed with a hard crash of twisted metal, were stunned, but alive.
In his dazed state, Ford had the presence of mind to check his father who was unconscious, but alive. No doubt if they hadn't held on, they would have been thrown from the walkway into the sharp, twisted debris around them, almost certainly resulting in their death.
As Fords drifted in and out of consciousness, he looked up to see the the behemoth climb out of the pit it had been previously trapped in. Every step the creature took caused a massive tremor from its sheer weight.
The last thing Ford saw before surrendering to the blackness was the beast letting out a bellow and unfurling a pair of massive, angular wings on its shoulders. With a huge flap of its wings, the creature launched into the air at startling speed, disappearing into the night sky.