Oh. My. Gosh. I am so, so sorry that it's been over a year since I last published a chapter. D: College and work have not been kind to me. Writer's block has been even worse. I am overflowing with relief as I type this, as over thirteen months of on-and-off effort on writing this chapter has finally paid off. I really hope that it was worth the wait!
Osaka, Japan
First Sapporo, and now Osaka.
First Rodan, and now Anguirus.
Why?
Why does he keep showing up?
As highly intelligent as he was, Hiroshi Ogata didn't have an answer.
When Anguirus made landfall in neighboring Kobe earlier that day, Ogata wasted no time evacuating the Geological Institute's offices in Osaka. Only after ensuring that the building was clear did Ogata make his exit aboard a Bell 206 helicopter waiting for him on the rooftop. For many of his coworkers, it seemed like an odd way for a mere geologist like him to leave the building.
Little did they know, however, that Ogata was not a mere geologist.
The helicopter, in fact, belonged to G-Force, the international organization responsible for taking action against attacking kaiju. And Ogata was one of its highest-ranking members—his background as one of Japan's leading geologists, while lucrative, was only a cover due to the sensitive nature of his job. Only a handful of his closest friends and family knew about this secret life of his.
As the helicopter circled the night sky over Osaka, Ogata peered downward and watched in horror as Anguirus trudged through the cityscape below, easily demolishing every building that stood in his way. The giant ankylosaur was just the latest in this sudden outbreak of kaiju attacks; G-Force had presumed him to have died of his injuries after fighting Godzilla in this very city all those years ago, but it was obvious now that they had been wrong. This only added to Ogata's horror—if Anguirus could survive the wrath of the King of the Monsters himself, what chance did G-Force or the JSDF have against him?
But even this horror couldn't compare to the sense of helplessness Ogata felt when he saw the massive leviathan rise from the dark waters of Osaka Bay. The transmission he heard from the helicopter's radio confirmed that this wasn't just some bad dream: "Godzilla has just been sighted in Osaka Bay."
Ogata had never been a very religious man, but as he watched Godzilla make his way onshore and then advance towards Anguirus, he began to silently pray—anything to make this turmoil stop.
Desert Replika
"Godzilla?!" Yumi exclaimed in horror. "He's in Osaka now?"
"I'm afraid so," confirmed Jeremy. "Based on data from the supercomputer, Godzilla is still not under XANA's control, so he clearly came to Osaka of his own accord."
"But didn't the Shobijin say that Godzilla is supposed to be our friend?" asked Odd. "Why is he there?"
"For the same reason that he went to Sapporo," Aelita deduced. "To fight kaiju that have been possessed by XANA. First it was Rodan, now it's Anguirus."
"Don't forget that while Godzilla may be on our side, he's still a kaiju in a crowded city," said Jeremy.
"Collateral damage," commented Ulrich.
"Exactly," acknowledged Jeremy. "Our best chance to stop them from fighting is to destroy the Replika and free Anguirus."
"That sounds like a great idea, Einstein," said Odd, "but how are we going to do that if your virus code is all screwed up?"
"I think I've figured out my mistake," Jeremy replied. "The virus code seems to work fine, but I overlooked the fact that it can only be executed from within a certain tower on the Replika—a sort of 'regulator tower,' if you will."
"Regulator tower?" asked Yumi. "What's that?"
"When Jeremy and I rebuilt Lyoko," explained Aelita, "we had to activate all of its towers at once in order to power the defensive measures we added to keep XANA out. Since it takes so much energy to power them, we needed to activate a separate tower that would regulate all of that energy so the other towers would stay activated without overloading Lyoko. That's what the regulator tower does."
"The same principle applies here," Jeremy added. "The power surge that brought the tower back under XANA's control came from the Replika's own regulator tower. Aelita needs to execute the virus code there in order to disrupt the Replika's energy output and trigger an overload."
"I think I'm following along," said Ulrich. "How do we find this regulator tower, though?"
"I've already found it. XANA's consolidating more energy from the Replika to power Anguirus up so he can fight Godzilla. The regulator tower sticks out like a sore thumb here on the interface screen—it's ten klicks west of you."
"What, you're not going to call us a taxi first?" joked Odd.
"Tell you what, Odd, I'll send you three of them."
With that, Jeremy typed some commands into the interface, and the Lyoko Warriors' three vehicles materialized in front of them. Ulrich mounted his single-wheeled Overbike, while Yumi stepped onto her large, silver Overwing. Odd hopped onto his purple Overboard, and Aelita joined him.
"Be careful, though," Jeremy warned, "there's no way of knowing what tricks XANA will have up his sleeve to stop you, especially now that he has upgraded his monsters."
"Don't worry, Jeremy," Aelita reassured him. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
"See you slowpokes at the regulator tower!" Odd jested at Ulrich and Yumi as the teens accelerated away from the Skid.
The entire city of Osaka quaked with heavy footfalls as Godzilla made his way out of the water and began to follow the path of destruction that Anguirus had left behind earlier. While Godzilla was usually not hostile towards humans unless they provoked him, it also meant nothing to him if they happened to stand between him and his objective. So he simply plowed through any surviving buildings that stood in his way without a second thought.
This was in stark contrast to Anguirus, whose ongoing destruction of Osaka was methodical and deliberate. As Godzilla advanced deeper into the cityscape, he roared, announcing his presence. Anguirus promptly halted his assault and howled back in hostility, confirming what Godzilla already knew: his former ally was under the strange force's influence.
Like a pair of duelists squaring off before a fight, Godzilla and Anguirus stood facing each other a few hundred meters apart. Each kaiju stared the other down, sizing up his opponent and trying to determine how to subdue him. Normally a quadruped, Anguirus was shorter than Godzilla, but could easily rear up on his hind legs to better match his height. From head to tail, Anguirus was covered in sharp horns and spikes, each of which could be used as an effective weapon. His tough, spiky carapace was his greatest defense—breaking through it would be no easy task, even for Godzilla.
But Godzilla was still the physically stronger of the two—and as the visible scars on Anguirus's armored body showed, their last meeting had not gone well for the giant ankylosaur. Godzilla had beaten him before, and he was determined to do it again.
Anguirus, however, had other ideas.
The spiky behemoth snorted angrily, his eyes glaring hatefully at Godzilla. Even from this distance, Godzilla recognized the strange, eyelike symbol glowing from Anguirus's pupils—the same one he saw in Rodan's eyes in Sapporo. Then, with a roar, Anguirus charged and lunged into Godzilla, clawing at Godzilla's neck and chest.
Godzilla responded in kind. He grabbed onto Anguirus's forearms, and the two titans grappled with one another, each trying to push the other back. Gradually, however, Godzilla's superior size and strength won out, and he began to shove Anguirus backwards. The giant ankylosaur's rear claws dug into the street the two kaiju stood on, attempting to keep Godzilla from pushing him back, but it was no use. Anguirus skidded backwards several meters until Godzilla shoved him into the side of a building, which quickly collapsed from the force of two giant monsters being pushed into it.
Unfazed, Anguirus dove towards Godzilla again, slamming his spiky body into his opponent's. As Godzilla staggered backwards, he felt a sudden pain in his arm, and looked down at it to see that Anguirus had clamped his long, narrow jaws down on it. Godzilla attempted to pull his arm free of Anguirus's maw, but to no avail.
Now Anguirus was the one pushing Godzilla back. His teeth still sinking into Godzilla's arm, Anguirus forced the nuclear leviathan into the side of another, much taller building. Godzilla's dorsal spikes impaled the skyscraper, causing its exterior to start crumbling. Realizing that the entire building was about to collapse on top of him, Godzilla suddenly jerked his body backwards, not only yanking his arm free from Anguirus's jaws, but also pulling the ankylosaur himself into the side of the building as it gave way.
Godzilla's tactic worked, or so it had seemed. The building collapsed directly on top of Anguirus, burying him in an avalanche of concrete and steel. But no sooner did the dust begin to clear than Anguirus emerged from the pile of debris, almost completely unscathed.
The King of the Monsters growled in frustration. Even under the strange force's possession, the giant ankylosaur was still as tenacious as ever. While Godzilla was still hesitant to harm his old friend, he realized he wouldn't have much of a choice if he had any chance of defeating Anguirus.
"Look alive, guys. There's a swarm of hornets tailing you."
Halfway to the Desert Replika's regulator tower, the four Lyoko Warriors heeded Jeremy's warning. Sure enough, six flying, insect-like hornets were trailing their vehicles in a high-speed pursuit.
"Let's split up," Yumi suggested. "It'll be easier to fight one or two of them at a time instead of the whole swarm."
"Got it," Ulrich acknowledged, and he steered the Overbike away from his friends, causing two of the hornets to break away from the swarm to pursue him. Odd and Aelita did the same, and sure enough, two more hornets went after them. Yumi maintained her course as she unfurled one of her fans, ready to fight the two hornets that remained.
The hornets arched their stinger-like tails, pointing them towards Yumi before letting loose a volley of laser bolts at her. Yumi used her fan to block some of the shots, and then hurled it straight towards the closer of the two hornets. Just before the fan could hit its target, however, it was shot off-course by the hornet's laser fire.
Yumi reacted fast. She placed her fingers to her forehead, and began to concentrate on the airborne fan. Then, using her telekinetic powers, she directed the fan back towards the hornet. This time, the fan sliced through the hornet's body, causing it to explode. Yumi caught the fan and accelerated the Overwing even more, attempting to gain distance between her and the remaining hornet.
Several hundred meters away, Odd and Aelita were caught in a similar chase with the two hornets that had veered towards them. But Odd had led the monsters straight into a narrow canyon, and it was thanks to his daring maneuvers on the Overboard that he and Aelita were able to stay ahead of them within the canyon's narrow confines. Still, the hornets were slowly making headway, and they fired their lasers at Aelita and Odd as they pursued the two teens.
"Odd, I have an idea," said Aelita as she watched the hornets draw nearer.
"I'm all ears, Princess," Odd responded.
"Just keep going," she instructed. "I'm about to lighten your load."
"Wait, what?" Odd turned his head in time to see Aelita wave her hand across a star-shaped bracelet on her wrist. To Odd's surprise, Aelita suddenly sprouted a pair of pink, translucent wings from her back and leapt off the Overboard, taking flight. As Odd and his vehicle accelerated away, Aelita decelerated, forcing the hornets to overshoot her. Then she sped up again, now behind the monsters, and held out her palm towards them.
"Energy field!" she called out as a pink orb of energy materialized from her hand, which she hurled towards one of the hornets. The energy field hit its mark, and the hornet was consumed by the pink energy before exploding.
The remaining hornet kept going, still trying to catch up with Odd. However, the canyon made a sharp turn to the left ahead. Odd seized the opportunity and propelled the Overboard up the side of the canyon's steep, ramp-like wall and straight into the air. As the hornet followed, Odd abruptly slowed the Overboard into a stall, and both he and the Overboard began to fall back towards the ground, forcing the hornet to overtake them. Odd stuck out his fist and fired a laser arrow directly into the monster's eye as it passed, causing it to explode.
Just before reaching the ground, Odd leveled out the Overboard and sped up again. Aelita, still in flight, swooped down to fly alongside him.
"Nice wings, Princess!" Odd complimented Aelita.
"Thanks!" Aelita replied.
"How did those wings I gave you work out, Aelita?" asked Jeremy.
"Like a charm!" she answered. "They're my favorite thing about my new virtual form!"
"That's great to hear," Jeremy responded before adding, "The regulator tower isn't too far away now—as long as Ulrich and Yumi keep the remaining hornets busy, you should be able to make it there easily."
"Sure thing, Einstein!" Odd acknowledged. With that, he and Aelita pressed on towards the regulator tower, both of them assured that it wouldn't be long before they could destroy the Replika and go home.
They couldn't have been more wrong.
Ulrich continuously swerved the Overbike from side to side, dodging the shower of laser bolts from the two hornets that were still pursuing him. It was not an easy task—as with the original Desert Sector back on Lyoko, the plateaus that made up the Desert Replika were vast and mostly empty, providing the Lyoko Warriors with little cover from attacking monsters.
But luck was on Ulrich's side. He eyed the opening of a cave ahead of him, and steered the Overbike directly towards it. Two years' worth of fighting XANA's monsters had taught him that hornets, being aerial creatures, fared very poorly in tight spaces. With this weakness in mind, Ulrich sped into the cave, hoping that the hornets wouldn't be foolish enough to follow him inside.
Looking over his shoulder, Ulrich saw that his wish had been half-granted—only one of the hornets was following him now, although it struggled to keep up with him as they both weaved around the cave's walls. As the cave got narrower, Ulrich withdrew one of his katanas and abruptly hit the brakes on the Overbike. Just before the hornet could overtake him, Ulrich raised his katana into the air, slicing the monster clean in half as it passed.
With the hornet destroyed, Ulrich accelerated the Overbike again, and it wasn't long before he made it to the cave's exit. But no sooner did Ulrich emerge from the cave than the remaining hornet reappeared, having chosen to fly around the cave instead of following him through it like its ill-fated comrade. As Ulrich wondered what to do next, he suddenly spotted Yumi nearby, still being pursued on the Overwing by a hornet herself. Ulrich steered towards her and began driving alongside her, the two hornets now chasing them both.
"Need any help?" Ulrich called out to her.
"I was just about to ask you that," Yumi answered. Then she shouted, "Catch!" as she hurled one of her fans towards the hornet that had been chasing Ulrich. The fan hit its mark, and began to return—but not towards Yumi. Instead, Ulrich caught it from the Overbike before he sent it flying towards the last hornet, slicing it clean in two.
"Nice throw, Ulrich!" Yumi complimented him as she caught her fan.
"I learn from the best," Ulrich responded, eliciting a smile from the Japanese girl.
But their celebration was short-lived.
"Ulrich, Yumi, incoming!" Jeremy exclaimed.
The two teens looked up towards the sky, and saw an orb of white energy—larger than one of Aelita's energy fields—falling towards the ground about a hundred meters in front of them. Upon impacting the ground, the orb detonated in a large explosion, triggering a massive shockwave that spread rapidly across the plateau.
"Watch out!" cried Ulrich as he swiftly swerved the Overbike in the opposite direction of the approaching blast. In a panic, Yumi quickly followed suit, throwing the Overwing into a sharp 180-degree turn before quickly accelerating again, trying to outrun the shockwave before it could engulf her—
And then she collapsed to the floor of the Scanner Room.
As Yumi got to her feet, she slammed her fist into the side of the scanner she had just exited. I've been devirtualized, she realized bitterly. It was not a new experience to Yumi; any time she or her friends lost all of their life points on Lyoko, they would be promptly and forcefully sent back to the real world. Devirtualization was a harmless ordeal, but this made it no less frustrating to Yumi, as it meant she could no longer fight alongside her friends on the Replika.
Yumi walked over to a nearby ladder in the Scanner Room and ascended it. When she reached the top, she was back in the Lab, where she could see Jeremy still sitting intently in front of the interface screen.
"Are you feeling okay, Yumi?" he asked her.
"More or less," she answered, approaching him. "What devirtualized me, anyway?"
"Honestly, I don't really know," Jeremy responded, looking puzzled. Then, into his headset, he asked, "Aelita, can you give me a visual of the regulator tower?"
A few seconds later, an image of the Desert Replika as seen from Aelita's point of view appeared on the interface screen. Yumi could see Odd and Ulrich—who had somehow managed to escape the explosion that devirtualized her—standing next to her. Then, Aelita looked towards the regulator tower, which glowed a darker shade of red than the rest of XANA's towers on the Replika.
Yumi and Jeremy could see that their friends were hiding behind a rock formation, and a wide expanse of empty desert separated them from the regulator tower. In the distance, they saw three large, insectoid figures standing at the base of the tower. They immediately recognized two of the figures as tarantulas—spider-like monsters capable of firing lasers out of their arms at a rapid pace. They were among the strongest monsters in XANA's virtual army, and destroying just one of them was no easy task.
But it wasn't the tarantulas that concerned the Lyoko Warriors the most. Rather, it was the third figure that stood between them, one which they had never seen before.
It was, for lack of a better term, a giant scorpion, roughly the size of a tank. It had all the features of a real-world scorpion—eight legs protruding from its sides, clad in a dark exoskeleton, and sporting two preposterously large pincers at the ends of its equally mammoth arms. Its tail towered above the rest of its body, curled up over its back. But instead of a stinger, the tip of the tail instead featured a large, conical nozzle, which pointed up towards the sky like some sort of artillery cannon.
"What is that thing?" Yumi asked as soon as she noticed the scorpion-like creature.
"A new monster of some kind," Jeremy answered. "Not only is XANA upgrading his existing monsters, he's creating new ones to boot."
Yumi was about to respond when an alarm suddenly went off on the interface.
"Something's going on in Osaka," said Jeremy as he pulled up the map of the Japanese city on the interface. In the chaos of what happened on the Desert Replika, Yumi had almost forgotten about the two kaiju that were still doing battle in downtown Osaka.
"Oh, no," Jeremy gasped. "There's now a third kaiju approaching Osaka from the air!"
"What?!" exclaimed Yumi. In the middle of the map, she could still see the two red dots representing Godzilla and Anguirus. But true to Jeremy's word, there was now a third red dot on the map, approaching Osaka from the north at an impossibly fast rate.
Yumi felt a chill run down her spine. There was only one creature she knew of that could travel that fast.
Godzilla had gained the upper hand against his friend. As ferocious as Anguirus was, the nuclear leviathan was simply stronger.
Their battle had taken them to Osaka's southern side, uncomfortably close to the 300-meter tall Abeno Harukas, the tallest building in Japan. Even though it was three times Godzilla's height, it would stand no chance if either kaiju happened to crash into it. Fortunately, it and the smaller buildings surrounding it had all been evacuated by the time Godzilla and Anguirus drew close to it.
Each time Anguirus was able to land a blow against Godzilla, the King of the Monsters struck back harder, forcing the ankylosaur backwards. Eventually, Godzilla slammed a clawed fist into Anguirus's jaw. Before the spiked behemoth could recover, Godzilla delivered a powerful kick to his abdomen, causing him to fall onto his back.
As Anguirus struggled to get up, Godzilla approached him and pressed his mammoth foot down on the ankylosaur's unprotected belly, pinning him to the ground. Before Godzilla had the chance to inflict further harm to his friend, however, he heard a familiar screech to his side.
Godzilla turned his head, only to be met by a pair of sharp talons that clawed at his face.
The King of the Monsters cried out in pain, temporarily blinded as he stumbled away from Anguirus. When he regained his eyesight, he saw that the ankylosaur had gotten back to his feet. Then, looking up, he spotted a giant flying figure circling the night sky over the two of them. It suddenly dove and landed next to Anguirus, before letting out a threatening screech at Godzilla.
Rodan had returned with a vengeance.
Godzilla snarled as he stared at his two friends. They stared back at him malevolently, that same strange symbol still embedded in their eyes.
He was outnumbered.
But the nuclear leviathan was not deterred. Whether it was his stubborn pride, determination, or both, Godzilla took a step forward and let out a mighty roar to the two kaiju. This was not just a challenging roar—it was one of absolute fury, directed at the strange force for possessing his friends.
In surprise, Anguirus and Rodan hesitated, and actually took a step back. They clearly hadn't expected Godzilla to respond this aggressively to being outnumbered. Only with persuasion from their virtual master did the two kaiju roar back at Godzilla.
Then the King of the Monsters charged.
In response, Anguirus charged on all fours and Rodan sprang into the air just behind him. Just before the three kaiju could collide, however, Godzilla planted his tail and one of his feet into the hard ground, and used the other to stomp on Anguirus's head. As the hapless kaiju face-planted into the street, Godzilla leapt into the air using Anguirus's head as a springboard, clearing the ankylosaur's body in an act that belied his seemingly sluggish appearance. Then, while in midair, Godzilla tackled Rodan, sending the pterosaur crashing back down to earth.
Godzilla swiftly got to his feet, as did Rodan. The pterosaur once again lunged at him, gripping onto his arms with his talons and pecking at his head in a similar manner to what he did in their previous meeting. This time, however, Godzilla managed to wrestle his arms free and grabbed onto one of Rodan's wings. Then he spun around and flung the pterosaur by the wing into the side of a nearby building.
As Rodan crashed into the building, Godzilla suddenly felt an immense pain in his tail. He turned around to find that Anguirus had snuck up behind him and clamped his jaws down on his tail. Godzilla wrangled his tail free of Anguirus's maw and swung a fist at the ankylosaur's face. Anguirus dodged the blow, however, and reared up on his hind legs before countering with a blow of his own to Godzilla's chest.
Wincing in pain, Godzilla once more grappled with his friend. At this point, Godzilla stood facing Anguirus with his back turned to the Abeno Harukas, which towered over both of them. Akin to a pair of sumo wrestlers, Anguirus tried to force Godzilla into the massive skyscraper while Godzilla pushed him in the opposite direction. Eventually, with a mighty heave, Godzilla managed to push Anguirus several steps back before shoving the spiked behemoth away from him.
Anguirus stumbled backwards. When he recovered, he roared angrily at Godzilla, and for a moment, the King of the Monsters expected him to charge again. But instead, the ankylosaur turned his spiky back to him and simply stood there.
It wasn't long before Godzilla figured out why. Rodan suddenly swooped in from overhead, heading straight for the two of them. As he passed over Anguirus, he latched onto the ankylosaur's outstretched arms with his talons, sending him flying through the air like an acrobat on a trapeze—straight towards Godzilla.
The nuclear leviathan braced for the impact, but it was useless—Anguirus's spiky carapace slammed into his body like a colossal wrecking ball, sending him toppling into the side of the Abeno Harukas. Within seconds, the massive building collapsed on top of Godzilla, completely burying him in its rubble.
From the interface's screen, Yumi and Jeremy watched in stunned silence as Japan's tallest building came crashing to the ground in a matter of seconds. When the dust cleared, Godzilla was gone—only a large mound of the building's debris remained where he had stood.
"Jeremy, give us the rundown!" Odd's high-pitched voice rang out over Jeremy's headset, snapping him and Yumi back to reality. "What's going on?"
"Godzilla is down," Jeremy replied grimly. "Rodan appeared in Osaka to help Anguirus, and they just knocked Japan's tallest building down right on top of him."
A brief pause followed before Ulrich asked, "Don't you have any good news for us?"
"Not really—wait a second!" Jeremy exclaimed as he typed some commands on the interface. Yumi could see that his expression had lightened somewhat.
"What is it, Jeremy?" asked Aelita.
"The Replika is controlling both Anguirus and Rodan!" he explained excitedly.
"Meaning that if we destroy it, we'll free both of them at once?" Yumi questioned.
"Exactly," Jeremy confirmed.
"Then let's not waste any time," said Ulrich. "If Godzilla's out of action, nothing will be able to keep Anguirus and Rodan occupied. We have to get to the regulator tower sooner than later."
"Hold on, Ulrich," Jeremy interjected. "We don't even know what that new monster is capable of yet. For all we know, it could annihilate you all the second you venture out from behind those rocks."
"Ulrich's right, Jeremy," Aelita chimed in. "We can't let those kaiju cause any more destruction—we have to take that risk."
Hearing this from Aelita was enough to persuade Jeremy. "Okay," he finally responded. "But be careful."
On the Desert Replika, Odd and Aelita once again hopped onto the Overboard while Ulrich got on the Overbike. They wasted no time leaving their hiding spot behind the rock formation as they made a beeline for the regulator tower and the three monsters that guarded it.
As the Lyoko Warriors sped across the no man's land that separated the rocks from the tower, they braced themselves, as they knew it would only be a matter of time before the monsters engaged them. But all three monsters merely stood their ground at the base of the tower as the three teens approached.
"Something's off," commented Aelita. "Why aren't they attacking?"
"What are you waiting for?" Odd asked the monsters. "Come on, do what you do."
As if on cue, the scorpion-like monster finally stepped forward, still pointing its bulky tail upward. Then the nozzle on the tip of the tail began to glow brightly as a large, white orb began to form on it. Suddenly, the monster's tail—a large cannon—fired the orb into the air. Within the seconds that followed, the orb began to fall back towards the ground, directly over the Lyoko Warriors.
Ulrich knew exactly what was coming. "Odd, Aelita, pull back!"
Odd and Aelita did as they were told, executing a sharp turn as they accelerated back towards the rock formation. Ulrich followed suit as the orb impacted the ground behind him, triggering the same massive explosion and destructive shockwave. It was only their quick reactions and even quicker vehicles that kept the Lyoko Warriors from being devirtualized as Yumi had been—they promptly returned to the cover of the rock formation as the force of the shockwave reached them, which the rocks shielded them from.
Once the shockwave subsided, the three teens peeked out from behind one of the rocks to assess the damage. To their disbelief, a huge swath of the desert in front of them was now almost completely scorched. Meanwhile, the three monsters had barely moved from their post in front of the regulator tower.
"That's exactly what devirtualized Yumi," said Ulrich.
"In all the years I've been on Lyoko, I've never seen a monster with that much destructive power," remarked Aelita.
"Great," Odd grumbled. "If we take even a single step outside of these rocks, we're toast!"
"Not so fast, guys," said Jeremy. "When you made your initial charge towards the regulator tower, I was able to collect some data on the new monster."
"And?" asked Ulrich.
"I can use the supercomputer to analyze our new friend and possibly determine a weakness," he responded. "I'll get on it right now."
Back in the Lab, Yumi watched from over Jeremy's shoulder as the virtual form of the scorpion-like monster appeared on the interface screen. Jeremy typed in some commands as the supercomputer scanned it for its strengths and weaknesses.
As he did this, Yumi happened to glance at one of the interface's smaller side screens, where she could still see Japanese news coverage of Osaka. The shot was still focused on the rubble of the Abeno Harukas. Rodan had perched himself on the top of a nearby skyscraper, and Anguirus stood not far away, both surveying the rubble for any signs of life from the kaiju they had buried underneath it.
It was then that she noticed something. "Hey, what's that?" she asked. Jeremy looked at the screen to see what she was talking about.
Yumi blinked to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. The rubble seemed to be glowing. It was a faint but ominous blue light that seemed to be emanating from underneath the debris. Anguirus and Rodan seemed to have taken notice of this as well, and they looked clearly on edge.
And then it happened.
There was an explosion from the rubble as a beam of bright, blue light erupted from it, heading straight for the building where Rodan rested. The giant pterosaur suddenly sprung into the air and flew away, barely dodging the beam as it struck the top of the building, instantly annihilating it in a fiery explosion.
"What the…?" Jeremy and Yumi simultaneously muttered in surprise. But it was only the beginning.
The pile of rubble suddenly erupted again, and the massive form of Godzilla rose out from the middle of it. For having a skyscraper dropped on top of him, the King of the Monsters appeared none the worse for wear—except that he now looked even more pissed off than before.
Nearby, Anguirus had taken notice of Godzilla's sudden recovery, and roared angrily at the leviathan. In response, Godzilla turned to face him, but he didn't roar back.
Jeremy and Yumi continued to watch in awe as the blue glow suddenly returned—only this time, they could see that it was coming from Godzilla's back. The jagged spines on his back flickered with this strange light as the King of the Monsters began to inhale deeply, a similar blue light appearing from within his maw as he did so.
And then Godzilla opened his mouth, letting loose the full might of his atomic ray on Anguirus.
Even with his thick carapace to protect him, the sheer force and heat of the azure beam was too much for the ankylosaur to withstand. The spiky behemoth could only clamber backwards before the beam finally died. Undeterred, Anguirus lunged towards Godzilla, but was promptly met with another blast of atomic energy to the face. Only when Anguirus collapsed to the ground did Godzilla finally relent, seemingly unwilling to inflict further harm to his friend.
It took the voices of their friends on the Replika to snap Jeremy and Yumi out from the shock of what they had just witnessed.
"Well, Jeremy?" asked Ulrich. "Have you found anything yet?"
Jeremy glanced back at the main screen to find that the supercomputer's analysis of the scorpion-like monster was complete. He looked extensively over the information displayed on the screen before he announced his findings.
"XANA's new monster is stronger than anything we've seen before on Lyoko," he said. "Its body is protected by a thick exoskeleton, and the cannon on its tail has a maximum range of three hundred meters. The shockwave the projectile produces can instantly annihilate almost anything within fifty meters of where it lands—including you."
"Well, that's reassuring," Odd remarked sarcastically. "Now, how do we destroy it?"
"I'm getting to that," Jeremy responded. "The monster has nothing in the way of close-range weaponry apart from the two pincers on its arms. The tail cannon, while destructive, is unable to hit anything less than fifty meters away. Any closer than that, it has to rely on other monsters for protection."
"Hence the two tarantulas," said Aelita.
"Right. The monster is also top-heavy due to the weight of its tail; if you can find a way to topple it over, that should immobilize it."
"I see," said Odd. "So how do we get to the tower without getting pulverized the moment we leave these rocks?"
"I have just the thing for that. Ulrich?"
"Yeah?" Ulrich answered.
"How would you like a little upgrade?"
Roars continued to echo across the Osaka skyline as the battle of the three titans raged on.
While Godzilla's attention was turned towards Anguirus, Rodan seized the opportunity to dive-bomb the nuclear leviathan from behind, his talons latching on to the back of his neck. Godzilla was thrown off balance by the pterosaur's momentum, causing him to stumble into the side of a nearby building. This actually helped him, however, as Rodan was forced to let go in order to avoid crashing into the building as well.
Godzilla recovered from the attack quickly. He turned towards Rodan, who had landed on top of another building. He swiped his claws at the pterosaur, attempting to swat him down. Rodan dodged the blows and countered by pecking at Godzilla's face before flying away again.
Godzilla grimaced. Even with Anguirus out of the picture, fighting Rodan was proving to be an even more difficult task than it had been in Sapporo.
The King of the Monsters continued to watch the giant pterosaur as he circled overhead before he suddenly swooped down for another pass. Rodan whizzed past Godzilla just a few hundred feet from the ground, a loud sonic boom sounding in his wake that caused several of the already-weakened buildings in his path to collapse. As the pterosaur ascended back into the sky, Godzilla let out another blast of his atomic ray towards him, which he expertly dodged.
It was then that Godzilla heard another roar behind him. He turned around to see Anguirus standing just a few hundred yards away, having recovered from his earlier punishment at the hands of Godzilla's atomic ray. The nuclear leviathan prepared to face off against the giant ankylosaur yet again—but by the time he realized his mistake, it was too late.
As it turned out, Anguirus's rebound had been little more than a distraction. While Godzilla's back was turned, Rodan suddenly dove down yet again and slammed into the back of the leviathan's head at almost supersonic speed. The force of the impact was enough to knock Godzilla off his feet and send him tumbling to the ground, after which Anguirus immediately lunged. At the same time, Rodan landed beside him, and the two possessed kaiju began to dogpile on top of Godzilla.
The King of the Monsters had been pinned down.
"I sure hope this plan of yours works, Einstein," said Odd as he watched Ulrich mount the Overbike.
"You and Aelita just sit tight for now," Jeremy instructed. "Ulrich, the moment you leave the rocks, use your Triplicate ability. It should now be linked to the Overbike."
"Got it," Ulrich acknowledged, and with that, he hit the Overbike's accelerator and headed straight for the regulator tower. As he left the safety of the rocks, Ulrich put the first part of Jeremy's plan in action.
"Triplicate!" Ulrich shouted, just as he normally would. Sure enough, Ulrich's two doppelgängers appeared on either side of him—only now, they were both riding digital copies of the Overbike.
"It's working, Jeremy!" Ulrich reported.
"Good," Jeremy responded. "Now scatter. Force the monster to pick only one of you."
Ulrich and his clones did as they were told and veered away from each other in different directions. This way, the new monster would only have time to aim and fire at one of them. Ulrich knew that it was all up to pure chance now; if the monster targeted him over his doppelgängers, he would be devirtualized and the plan would fall apart.
With this calculated risk at the back of his mind, Ulrich watched as the monster took aim with its massive tail cannon, charged the weapon, and fired. The projectile soared into the air and hit the ground, triggering the destructive shockwave—
Which engulfed one of Ulrich's clones before dissipating.
"Now's our chance!" Ulrich exclaimed.
Back at the rocks, Odd and Aelita hopped onto the Overboard and accelerated straight towards the tower. Ulrich and his remaining clone did the same. The scorpion-like monster tried to re-adjust its aim, but it was too late—the Lyoko Warriors were now much too close for it to use its main weapon. Seeing this, the monster backed away in retreat. Its two tarantula escorts, on the other hand, stood their ground. They assumed a crouching position, took aim with their arm-mounted cannons, and opened fire on the nearest approaching vehicle.
Unfortunately for Aelita and Odd, the nearest vehicle happened to be the Overboard. A shower of laser bolts greeted the two teens, forcing Odd to maneuver wildly to avoid getting hit.
But Aelita had an idea. "Odd, let me draw their fire," she said as she waved her hand across her bracelet, causing her angelic wings to appear again.
Right away, Odd knew what she was thinking. "Got it," he acknowledged, and with that, Aelita jumped off the Overboard, taking flight once more.
The tactic worked—as Aelita gained altitude, the tarantulas shifted their attention skyward and tried to shoot her down. With the monsters no longer firing at him, Odd zeroed in on one of the tarantulas. Seeing Odd approaching, the tarantula quickly turned its attention back to him and fired a volley of lasers in his direction.
Odd reacted fast. "Shield!" he exclaimed as he quickly crossed his arms, causing a translucent purple barrier to appear in front of him. The shield absorbed all of the tarantula's shots before Odd separated his arms, breaking the shield. Then he aimed at the tarantula and fired a series of laser arrows directly at the eye of XANA on its skull-like head.
That should have destroyed the monster easily.
Instead, a similar shield suddenly materialized directly in front of the tarantula, blocking the incoming laser arrows before vanishing.
"What?!" Odd blurted out in shock. Before he could react, the tarantula fired another shot at him, hitting him square in the chest. Odd screamed as the impact knocked him off the Overboard, devirtualizing him almost instantaneously.
Back on Earth, a frustrated Odd stumbled out from one of the scanners.
"Oh, come on!" he protested. "That's my party trick!"
Still in flight, Aelita swooped down to confront the tarantula that had just devirtualized Odd.
"That was a mistake," she threatened the monster in a low voice as an energy field formed in her palm. She hurled it straight at the tarantula, only for the shield to appear again and absorb the pink orb.
XANA has upgraded the tarantulas to give them shields, she thought. This complicates things, no doubt. But there has to be a weakness!
The tarantula fired another series of shots at Aelita. With skillful aerial maneuvering, Aelita dodged each and every bolt before flying over the monster and landing directly behind it. The tarantula tried to turn its body around to attack her, but could only manage to peer back at her with its faceless head.
"Energy field!" she exclaimed as she hurled another orb at the monster's eye. This time, the energy field hit its mark, and the tarantula exploded.
So the shield doesn't protect every angle of the monster! Aelita realized. As long as we attack from the rear or the sides, it doesn't stand a chance!
Aelita heard a commotion to her right, and turned to see Ulrich squaring off with the remaining tarantula, which had similarly put up its own shield to block his attacks.
"Ulrich!" she called to him. "The shield only protects the front of the tarantula! Try to find a way around it!"
Ulrich nodded, understanding. "Triangulate!" he exclaimed.
Promptly, Ulrich began to Super Sprint around the tarantula, trapping the monster within a triangle with an effigy of himself standing at each corner. Confused and disoriented by the Lyoko Warrior's trap, the tarantula looked around for a means of escape when Ulrich suddenly sliced off one of its hind legs. The monster lost its balance and fell on its side, giving Ulrich the opportunity to impale the monster's eye and destroy it.
With the tarantulas dealt with, Ulrich and Aelita approached the only remaining obstacle that stood between them and the regulator tower: the giant, scorpion-like monster.
"Be careful, you guys," cautioned Jeremy. "Even though you're too close for the monster for it to use its main weapon, it can still attack you with its pincers."
Almost immediately after Jeremy finished his sentence, the scorpion monster charged at the two teens like a raging bull. Ulrich quickly dove out of the way, narrowly missing being run over by the monster. Aelita was not so lucky—the monster swung its arm at her, knocking her into a nearby boulder.
"Aelita!" cried Ulrich. The monster was now approaching her, its colossal pincers raised in the air, getting ready to finish her off. Ulrich reacted fast, Super Sprinting towards the monster.
"Over here!" he called out, and the monster turned its attention towards him. It charged again, only for Ulrich to leap into the air and land on top of its carapace. He began to hack away at the monster's hard exoskeleton with his katanas, but to no avail—the shell was far too strong for him to even dent it. It wasn't long before the monster managed to shake him off of its body, and Ulrich landed a short distance away.
The monster once again turned towards him and charged, and Ulrich was once again forced to dive out of the way. For being so large and robustly-built, the monster was surprisingly agile, which Ulrich deduced was due to its disproportionately narrow legs.
Wait a second—the legs!
Didn't Jeremy say that the monster was top-heavy? Its eight legs must have supported a lot of weight. If the monster were to tip over—
Ulrich realized what he had to do.
The monster charged straight at him.
"Super Sprint!" he exclaimed, and ran straight towards the oncoming monster, both katanas in hand. The monster raised one of its pincers, ready to strike at Ulrich. Just before it could hit him, however, Ulrich dove to the ground and slid underneath the monster's arm. Then, with his arm outstretched, he slid past the monster, slicing his katana through the monster's legs as he went by.
Having passed the monster, Ulrich got back to his feet and turned around. Three of the monster's four legs on its right side had been completely severed. With its remaining leg, the monster tried to maintain its balance, but it was no use—the weight of its tail was too much, and the mammoth creature toppled over onto its right side, revealing an eye of XANA on its soft underbelly.
Ulrich didn't hesitate. He Super Sprinted back towards his fallen adversary and sliced his katana through the entire length of the eye. Its weak spot having been pierced, the scorpion-like monster exploded.
Ulrich heard cheers from Jeremy, Odd, and Yumi back in the Lab. The monster that had given them so much grief had finally been vanquished.
Aelita, having recovered from the monster's earlier strike against her, ran up to Ulrich. "Well done, Ulrich!" she said.
"Thanks," he replied. "Now let's destroy this Replika and go home."
Aelita nodded and ran to the regulator tower, entering it. Inside, she rose to the upper platform and opened up the tower's interface screen. From there, she began the same process of entering Jeremy's virus code into the tower.
Please work this time, thought Jeremy as he and his friends waited for Aelita to finish her work. If the virus code failed again, there would be no way to destroy the Replika—and no way to release Anguirus and Rodan from XANA's control.
After what seemed like hours of tense waiting, Aelita finally radioed back: "Jeremy, I've executed the virus code! It's working!"
Jeremy let out a sigh of relief. "Good, Aelita. Now get back to the Skid as fast as you can—you only have a few minutes before the Replika overloads and destroys itself."
"Will do," she acknowledged.
Back on the Desert Replika, Aelita ran out of the tower and back towards Ulrich, who was waiting for her on the Overbike.
"We don't have much time, Ulrich," she said as she climbed onto the Overbike behind him. "The Replika is becoming unstable. We have to return to the Skid while we still can."
In response, Ulrich surveyed his surroundings. Everything on the Replika seemed as perfectly normal as it had been.
"What are you talking about?" he asked quizzically. "I don't see anything happening."
He had spoken too soon.
Suddenly, the regulator tower made a loud groaning noise. Ulrich watched in bewilderment as the tower spontaneously ignited on fire, and the plateau began to shake.
"You were saying?" Aelita questioned.
"Point taken," he answered grimly, and hit the Overbike's accelerator.
Regardless of how badly the odds were stacked against him, Godzilla simply refused to quit.
Being pinned down by his two closest friends was no exception. With a sudden surge of strength, Godzilla grabbed onto Anguirus and threw the ankylosaur off of his body. Then he opened his mouth and blasted Rodan in the chest with his atomic breath at point-blank range. The pterosaur was similarly sent flying several yards away.
Godzilla got back to his feet, and Anguirus and Rodan did the same. As with Godzilla, the two possessed kaiju would not give up—not as long as their virtual master kept them from doing so.
With no ending to their battle in sight, the three kaiju squared off against each other once more.
The entire Desert Replika was still shaking violently by the time Aelita and Ulrich made it back to the tower that the Skid was anchored to. Ulrich slowed the Overbike to a stop, and he and Aelita dismounted.
"Jeremy, we're back at the Skid," Ulrich reported. "What now?"
"Give me a second while I energize you back into the submarine," Jeremy answered.
Within moments, Ulrich and Aelita vanished from the plateau of the Desert Replika. Seconds later, Aelita reappeared in the cockpit of the Skid, while Ulrich materialized inside his own Navskid.
"Aelita, the Replika is reaching a critical point," informed Jeremy. "Undock with the tower and get ready to return to Lyoko."
"Roger that, Jeremy," Aelita responded. "Undocking now." She pressed a few buttons in the cockpit, and the energy beams holding the Skid close to the tower vanished, allowing the submarine to start levitating away from it.
Ten klicks away, the Desert Replika's regulator tower now resembled a giant candlestick more than anything, as orange flame had now almost completely engulfed it. Suddenly, the tower exploded, sending a massive shockwave in all directions. Shortly afterwards, cracks started to appear in the plateau, which then proceeded to crumble to pieces and fall into the Digital Sea below.
Quickly, the rest of the Replika similarly began to crack and fall apart. From the safety of the Skid, Aelita and Ulrich watched as the cracks reached the base of the tower where the submarine had been docked, and the entire plateau surrounding it broke apart and fell into the Digital Sea, leaving only the tower standing. Seconds later, the tower broke free from the power cables that anchored it to the Replika, and it, too, plummeted and disappeared into the Digital Sea.
"We did it, Jeremy," announced Aelita, watching the scene unfold in front of her. "The Replika is collapsing. Your virus code is working flawlessly."
"Glad to hear that, Aelita," Jeremy replied. "Hurry back."
With that, Aelita commanded the Skid to commence its nosedive back into the Digital Sea. Within seconds, the submarine accelerated out from the gate that it had used to enter the Replika earlier. As the Skid sped away, Aelita glanced back at the Replika just in time to see it vaporized by a massive explosion.
"Scratch one Replika," she said.
Anguirus and Rodan lunged.
Godzilla braced, waiting for the two kaiju to collide with him yet again.
But the impact never came.
Instead, much to Godzilla's surprise, Anguirus and Rodan both suddenly collapsed to the ground.
As Godzilla watched his two kaiju friends, his confusion only grew. Anguirus and Rodan were now lying on their backs, their entire bodies shaking spastically. Then, without warning, they stopped shaking and simultaneously opened their mouths.
Slowly, two large, black, smoky specters emerged from within the two kaiju's jaws. They floated towards Godzilla, who growled at them belligerently as they approached and began to swirl around his body. As they circled him, Godzilla felt a strange yet familiar presence emanating from them.
You have fought valiantly for a mere creature, a sinister voice suddenly whispered from within Godzilla's mind, which the leviathan deduced was somehow coming from one of the two specters. That was when it hit him: it was a being like this that had tried to possess him while he rested in the Sea of Japan. Upon realizing this, Godzilla roared at the specters aggressively, and they started to drift away from him.
This is just the beginning, the specter warned Godzilla. You will soon learn to serve XANA like the others. Otherwise, your stubborn resistance will be your undoing. With that, the specters disappeared into the night sky.
So the strange force that had possessed Anguirus and Rodan had a name: XANA. Whatever XANA was, Godzilla was now fully aware that it had evil intentions against humans—and it sought to realize those intentions by using his fellow kaiju as unwitting slaves.
As Godzilla dwelled on this revelation, he heard a commotion to his side. He turned to see Anguirus and Rodan getting up. Quickly, the nuclear leviathan assumed his earlier fighting pose, believing that their fight was about to resume.
But their reaction was not what Godzilla expected. Upon noticing their friend standing in front of them, Anguirus and Rodan lowered their heads submissively and greeted Godzilla with friendly roars. It was then that Godzilla noticed their eyes—the strange symbol that had been embedded in their eyes during the course of their battle had now vanished.
In relief, Godzilla relaxed. His friends had returned to normal.
Aelita and Ulrich had returned to the Lab after bringing the Skid back to its hangar in Sector 5. Since then, the five Lyoko Warriors had gathered around the interface to discuss the results of their mission.
"You see, Einstein? There isn't a thing that we can't handle," said Odd, giving Ulrich a nudge on the shoulder. "Thanks to Ulrich, we now know how to destroy those dreaded skorpions."
"Really?" asked Ulrich, incredulously. "That's the best name you could come up with?"
"It's simple, yet straight to the point," Odd defended. "They look like scorpions. The only differences are that they're as big as a tank and have a devastating cannon on their tail instead of a stinger."
"Regardless of what you want to call them," Jeremy interjected, "we're going to have to be extra vigilant from here on out. I would be very surprised if they're the only new monster that XANA has created."
"Well, at least now we have a way to destroy the Replikas," said Aelita.
"Right," Jeremy responded. "But there's no way of knowing how many more of them are out there, or how many kaiju are being controlled by them. It could take days before I'm able to locate another Replika—provided that XANA doesn't use it to launch another kaiju attack first."
"Let's not worry about that right now," Yumi stated. "The important thing is that we managed to stop Godzilla, Rodan, and Anguirus from fighting. The next time something like this happens, we'll know exactly what to do."
The other Lyoko Warriors nodded in agreement. Suddenly, the interface beeped, and a live video feed from Osaka appeared on the screen.
Looking at the video feed, the five teens were surprised to see that Godzilla, Anguirus, and Rodan were still in Osaka, albeit not fighting anymore—rather, they seemed to be making a series of brief vocalizations towards each other.
"Why haven't they left the city yet?" Ulrich wondered out loud.
"It looks like they're communicating," commented Aelita.
"You mean that those giant monsters can actually understand each other?" asked Odd.
"It sure looks like it," said Jeremy.
Eventually, as the Lyoko Warriors continued to watch, the three monsters appeared to come to some sort of agreement. With a squawk, Rodan spread his wings and flew off to the east. Following the pterosaur's departure, Godzilla began to trudge back towards the ocean in the opposite direction, motioning for Anguirus to follow him. The spiky behemoth did so, and minutes later, the two kaiju entered the water and started to swim away from the city.
"Of course," Jeremy murmured, the realization dawning on him.
"What is it, Jeremy?" asked Aelita.
"The Shobijin were right," he concluded. "By freeing Anguirus and Rodan, we've allowed them to join Godzilla in helping us fight XANA. It all makes sense now."
"Are you sure?" questioned Yumi.
"Absolutely," he confirmed. "The next time XANA attacks, we'll be ready—and so will they."
As the Lyoko Warriors watched Godzilla and Anguirus swim away and finally submerge beneath the waves, they reflected on this new chapter of their fight against XANA.
What had started as a hopeless situation had now become a battle.
A winnable battle.
And there you have it: the longest chapter of CLxG to date. (Before author's notes, the total word count for this chapter on its own is well over 9,200!) I don't believe I'll make future chapters quite this long; this chapter was just so jam-packed with action and descriptions that I didn't know where to stop. In hindsight, I probably should have divided this into two separate chapters, but all in all, I'm happy with how this turned out. I really hope that you are, too—and if so, please feel free to leave a review! :D
Replies to reviews for this chapter will be posted here. Watch this space.
ChimaTigon: Thanks! Who they will face next is a secret, but I will give you a hint: to date, the kaiju in question has only appeared in three films (not including stock footage appearances).
Kaiju Alpha: Speculation is fun, isn't it? XD Thanks for the favorite and follow! :)
Matt: It's good to see you again! I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, but I greatly appreciate that you came back! Thank you so much!
Greer123: Glad that you liked it! I don't think you'll be disappointed by what I have in store for the next chapter. :)