Oh, gosh, where do I begin?

I can't express enough just how sorry I am that I've been leaving you hanging for two years. I'm out of college, but that means I'm working full-time now instead of just the summers. Lack of motivation has been a constant struggle, even during the downtime I've had during the height of the pandemic. It's a bad habit I'm trying to overcome, but it hasn't been easy, especially when trying to manage my mental and emotional health at the same time (although graduating college last year and getting rid of some dead weight earlier this year has made that latter part somewhat easier).

On the plus side, my physical health hasn't been impacted by the pandemic. I haven't lost any close family members or friends to it, thankfully. And I also got to watch Godzilla vs. Kong! Though I prefer King of the Monsters, GvK is an awesome follow-up to that movie and wonderfully delivers the rematch between Godzilla and King Kong that us fans been waiting decades for. I still need to get around to watching Singular Point, though...

Anyway, here is Chapter 7. I hope the long wait was worth it.

Shizuoka, Japan

The normally busy streets of Shizuoka had fallen silent. There were no cars; the only visible activity was the occasional piece of trash being blown about by the afternoon breeze.

It didn't stay that way for long, however.

A low rumble began to shake the streets. Within moments, that rumble had grown into a loud, constant roar. Then a large tank roared past. This was followed just seconds later by another tank. And then another. And another.

Lines of tanks, APCs, howitzers, and other military vehicles were making their way down the streets, all heading in the same direction: towards the coast. These modern vehicles were among the best equipment that the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force had to offer; and in the huge numbers that they had been deployed in, they were truly a force to be reckoned with.

Yet these vehicles paled in comparison to the weapons that they had been tasked with supporting: the high-tech Anti-Kaiju Weapons, or AKWs, of G-Force. These were specialized weapons designed for the sole purpose of fighting giant monsters.

The first of these AKWs followed closely behind the more conventional equipment of the JGSDF. These were the Full Metal Missiles, mounted two apiece atop a specialized launching vehicle. These advanced missiles were designed to pierce through almost any known substance—including the thick hides of kaiju—before detonating.

As impressive as the Full Metal Missiles were, however, they were overshadowed by the even more powerful AKWs that had fallen in line behind them: the MBT-92 Light Maser Tanks. Maser weapons like these were a staple of G-Force's AKWs, having been the result of decades of research that might have otherwise gone towards nuclear weapons had testing not been banned in 1966. As such, the maser tanks represented the forefront of humanity's defenses against kaiju.

Despite their effectiveness, however, G-Force's AKWs had been mothballed since the 1990s—partly due to a lack of kaiju attacks to justify their high operating costs, and partly due to fears that terrorists and rogue governments could use them in warfare. It was only yesterday that the U.N. had finally allowed G-Force to reactivate their weapons to combat the sudden resurgence of kaiju activity. But since the reactivation process had only just begun, only a handful of AKWs were immediately available to be used.

Everyone at G-Force could only hope that they would be enough.

The vehicles arrived at the coastline and began to take up positions, training their armaments towards the open expanse of the sea. All they needed to do now was wait—and as it turned out, they did not have to wait long.

Less than a mile off the coast, a massive wave began to form. Moments later, the wave parted to reveal the creature who had created it.

The military vehicles wasted no time. They trained their weapons on the kaiju and simultaneously opened fire.

Anguirus barely had time to react before explosive shells began to pepper his spiked carapace and splash into the ocean around him. Clearly, the humans were afraid that he had come to wreak more havoc and destruction, and had deployed their military in hopes of making him retreat.

Neither of these were Anguirus's true intentions—he was here on a mission, and he was determined to see it through. He began to swim towards the shore, the shower of shells and rockets doing little to impede his progress.

With the conventional weapons of the JSDF once again proving to be ineffective against Anguirus, it was time for the AKWs of G-Force to prove their worth. The Full Metal Missile launchers maneuvered into position and took aim at the spiked behemoth. One by one, the missiles' rocket motors ignited, and they shot away towards the kaiju at a rapid speed.

By the time Anguirus saw the volley of missiles approaching, it was too late to dodge them. They impacted his spiky hide, blowing off chunks of flesh as they detonated.

Anguirus winced in pain. These weapons the humans had developed were more powerful than any of the conventional ones he had experienced before. He tried to duck under the water to avoid more of the incoming missiles, but found it was too shallow for him to do so.

With time of the essence, there was little Anguirus could do but endure the punishment and press harder towards the coast.

Upon noticing that the Full Metal Missiles were doing little to slow Anguirus's advance, the commanding officer ordered the maser tanks to maneuver into position. They pointed their dish-like turrets at the spiked behemoth. When Anguirus was within a few hundred meters from the shore, they each blasted a blue beam of energy at the kaiju.

Anguirus felt a severe burning sensation as the maser beams hit his body. It was just as painful as the missiles, if not even more so.

Despite this, Anguirus refused to relent from his advance. The shore was so close now; if he could just resist the agony for a little longer...

He finally set foot on the sandy beach of Shimizu. The humans and their weapons continued to fire at him as he knelt down and began to rapidly dig at the ground, stirring up a dense cloud of dust, dirt, and sand around him.

With the advent of this dust cloud, the various military vehicles were forced to cease fire, as it was thick enough to completely obscure Anguirus's body from sight.

A tense feeling quickly fell among the soldiers in the company as they anxiously waited for the dust cloud to disperse. Had they driven off the spiked behemoth? Perhaps even killed him?

Within a few seconds—which, to many of the soldiers, felt more like several hours—they got their answer. As the dust settled, they quickly found that Anguirus had disappeared. In his place, however, was a massive, gaping hole in the ground.

For the officer leading the company, it only took him a few moments to piece together what had happened.

"Inform Commander Aso that Anguirus has burrowed below ground," he instructed. "Fan out and search for emergence points."

Forest Replika

This was bad.

This was very bad.

The last time the Lyoko Warriors had seen William was still fresh on their minds: having just let him into their circle of trust, the boy had been captured and possessed by XANA during his first foray into Lyoko. They had tried to stop him from destroying Lyoko's Core, but to no avail—he overpowered and devirtualized all four of them easily.

Now they were presented with a horrible reality. There in front of them stood William, still under XANA's control, blocking their path to the regulator tower. There was no place for them to run, either—five krabes had blocked all of their avenues of escape.

"You have nowhere to go," said William, his voice distorted in the same manner as anyone else who had been possessed by XANA. "Surrender now!"

"Like hell we will, William," Ulrich responded, drawing out his katanas. From the moment he had first met him, he had always harbored resentment towards William for several reasons—not the least of which was his interactions with Yumi—and his possession by XANA had done little to change that.

With a growl, William raised his massive sword and lunged for the nearest person: Yumi. In response, Ulrich leapt into his path, and the two quickly locked swords as Ulrich blocked the blow.

As this happened, Aelita glanced to her left. It was then that she noticed an adjacent path leading to the regulator tower, about 100 meters away from the one she and her friends were on. Although the krabes had blocked off the connecting paths, there was an open void that Aelita quickly realized she could fly across to reach it...

The pinkette didn't hesitate. She bolted for the edge of the path, waving her hand across her bracelet to spread her wings. She leapt off the edge, taking flight for the adjacent path.

One of the krabes was quick to react. It fired its new beam weapon at Aelita and scored a direct hit, causing her wings to vanish. She screamed as she began to fall towards the Digital Sea, a fate that each of the Lyoko Warriors dreaded—

And then she landed on something solid.

Aelita looked up and was surprised to see Odd looking down at her. She quickly realized that she had landed on the Overboard; Odd must have seen her fall and quickly dove down to catch her.

"Hey, Princess," he said, "next time you pull a crazy stunt like that, I want to be a part of it!"

With Aelita now safely aboard, Odd maneuvered the Overboard back up to the path she had flown towards, and the two were quickly on their way to the regulator tower, unhindered.

Still locking swords with Ulrich, William noticed Odd and Aelita getting away. With a heave, he pushed Ulrich away from him, and then turned to the two krabes behind him.

"After them!" he ordered the monsters.

The krabes obeyed, turning around and leaving to pursue Odd and Aelita. William turned his attention back to Ulrich, and quickly the two teens had begun trading blows once again.

Ulrich had always known William was no pushover, but it was only now that he realized just how much raw strength the dark-haired boy had. However hard he hit William, William hit back even harder. He was truly a formidable fighter; it was no wonder XANA saw value in possessing him.

Still, Ulrich retained one advantage over William, and that was his agility. Any blows from William's sword that Ulrich couldn't block with his katanas, he was able to dodge—albeit just barely.

At one point, William landed a particularly strong blow that Ulrich was able to block with his katanas. However, the sheer force behind the attack caused Ulrich to stumble back several feet. In response, Ulrich charged towards William, only for something unexpected to happen.

"Super Smoke!" William exclaimed, just as Ulrich swung his katanas at him. His body suddenly collapsed into a cloud of black smoke on the ground, leaving nothing but air for the katanas to pierce through. The smoke then passed between Ulrich's legs, rushing behind him.

Ulrich was caught flat-footed by William's surprising new ability. Before he could react, William's body rematerialized behind him, and delivered a hard kick to his back, which sent him flying into a nearby tree trunk.

Initially dazed by the impact, Ulrich recovered in time to see William raising his sword, ready to deal him a potentially lethal strike. Ulrich reacted just in time, blocking the sword with one of his own.

As Ulrich and William fought each other, Yumi squared off with the three krabes that remained with them. She unfurled her fans and threw them both at the nearest krabe. The monster ducked, and the fans flew harmlessly over it.

Just as Yumi intended.

The fans arced back and began to return to Yumi. As they did so, they separated from each other and each one sliced across the shell of one of the krabe's two comrades. Yumi caught the fans in her hands just as the two krabes exploded simultaneously.

Now only faced with one enemy, Yumi prepared to do battle with the remaining krabe.

The trees in his path snapped like twigs as Baragon stomped his way through the forested hills just outside Shizuoka. His new master guided his every step as he drew ever closer to the city limits, ready to wreak havoc on the conurbation just as Anguirus and Rodan had done before him.

Suddenly, the kaiju stopped. Baragon directed his gaze upward towards the clear blue sky. There, he spotted a metallic glint moving towards him, growing brighter with every second he spent watching it. It wasn't long before the glint began to morph into a discernable shape—that of a heavily-armored silver aircraft.

The Super X had arrived on the scene.

Just as the maser tanks made up the backbone of G-Force's ground forces, the Super X fulfilled the role of fighting kaiju from the air. Contrary to the conventional airplanes and helicopters used by the JSDF and other militaries, the Super X resembled a flying tank more than anything; its entire hull was protected by a thick layer of armor, and was armed with an array of weapons systems ranging from laser cannons to a wide variety of missiles.

Having been built in 1984, Alpha was the first of the Super X class to enter service; and it was this particular aircraft that was now speeding towards Baragon at over Mach 1. As it drew closer, the two pilots on board began to reduce their vessel's speed. Within seconds, the supersonic flying tank had slowed down to a crawl, and now hovered less than half a kilometer away from Baragon.

The eye of XANA flickering across his pupils, Baragon stared at the peculiar aircraft. From within the Super X's cockpit, the two pilots stared back at Baragon. In the heavily fortified compartment behind them, Alpha's remaining four crew members were hard at work readying their complex vessel for battle.

A large panel on the Super X's dorsal side extended outward from its hull, revealing the aircraft's large missile battery. One by one, the missiles launched, streaking away from the aircraft in sequence before making a sharp turn downward and peppering Baragon's tough hide from above. Although the attack did little harm to Baragon, it succeeded in making him angry, and the kaiju let this be known by rearing on his hind legs and letting out a ferocious bellow at the Super X, which had now been joined by pair of AH-64 Apache attack helicopters from the JSDF.

The three aircraft responded with another barrage of weaponry. The Super X fired its pair of laser cannons, the beams of which burned deep into Baragon's skin, eliciting a yelp of pain from the kaiju. Simultaneously, the Apaches let loose their payload of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, which impacted Baragon in a similar manner to the Super X's own missiles.

Now thoroughly enraged, Baragon got back down on all fours and charged towards the three aircraft. When he was close enough, he reared back again and spewed out a fiery substance from his mouth—his magma heat ray—at the aircraft.

There was no time for any of the aircraft to react to the attack. The Apaches were instantly vaporized by the intense heat of Baragon's ray. However, owing to its thick heat-absorbent armor, the Super X did not meet the same fate. The ray subsided, and although Alpha's hull now glowed orange from the heat, it had come away unscathed.

The Super X's pilots expertly maneuvered their vessel away from Baragon, trying to reorient it for another attack. Before long, their targeting reticle had settled back on the kaiju. The pilots steadied the aircraft, readying themselves to stage another attack...

And then the ground exploded.

The pilots were blinded by the shower of dirt and debris that had suddenly erupted in front of the Super X. Quickly, they switched to the cockpit's thermal imaging displays, and were surprised to see the scene that was now unfolding in front of them.

Anguirus shook the dirt off his carapace as he emerged from the ground. He quickly glanced around, finding that he had surfaced within the confines of a small valley, away from the city he had just burrowed under. Standing in front of him was none other than Baragon—undoubtedly under XANA's control and none too happy to see him.

The two kaiju began to slowly approach each other, exchanging aggressive roars as they got closer. The crew of the Super X watched the situation develop, warranting one of the pilots to key his radio.

"Command, this is Super X Alpha," the pilot reported. "Anguirus has emerged in front of Baragon. It looks like they're about to fight."

"Super X Alpha, this is Commander Aso," said the voice on the other end. "Retreat to a safe distance. Monitor both kaiju and ensure that neither of them enters the city."

"Ryokai," the pilot acknowledged, already turning the Super X away.

No sooner did the flying tank leave the area than Anguirus and Baragon lunged at each other. Akin to a pair of bears fighting over a piece of territory, the two kaiju had reared up on their hind legs and were now viciously tearing into each other using their claws and teeth. Although Anguirus was larger and physically stronger than Baragon, the subterranean beast's massive front claws—mainly used for digging—sliced deep into Anguirus's tough hide.

Even so, Anguirus managed to endure the punishment long enough to overpower Baragon, managing to pin him down to the ground. But the victory was short-lived—Baragon opened his mouth and spewed out another blast of his heat ray directly at Anguirus's face.

The giant ankylosaur yelped in pain as the sticky, napalm-like substance from Baragon's mouth engulfed his head in searing flames, blinding him. He stumbled away from Baragon, which allowed the subterranean kaiju to get back on his feet.

Anguirus pawed at his face, managing to douse the flames. He opened his armored eyelids, finding they had done their job at protecting his eyesight. There was only one problem: Baragon had vanished.

This wasn't the case for long, however. The ground beside Anguirus suddenly erupted in a massive explosion of dirt, out from which Baragon lunged at him.

Anguirus was quick to react. He swiftly turned his body and swatted Baragon in midair with his spiked tail. The smaller kaiju was sent flying several hundred meters, but managed to land on all fours, ready to stage his next attack.

Anguirus growled. Baragon was proving to be a stronger and craftier opponent than he had expected; even Godzilla would have faced difficulty fighting him. He realized that it would take an incredibly tenacious kaiju to stand a chance against him.

Fortunately for Anguirus, he had tenacity to spare.

Odd skillfully weaved the Overboard around the many trees in the Forest Replika as he and Aelita sped towards the regulator tower.

"Hey, Jeremy," he said, "any updates on what's going on in Japan?"

"Anguirus has arrived in Shizuoka and just started fighting Baragon," Jeremy answered.

"And how are Ulrich and Yumi doing?" asked Aelita.

"They're still tied down with William. Careful—there are two krabes about to cut you off!"

Just as Jeremy had warned, Odd and Aelita spotted a pair of krabes—the same ones William had ordered to chase them down—were approaching from an adjacent path. They took positions in the middle of the path that the two teens were on, blocking their way to the regulator tower.

True to his spontaneous fashion, Odd quickly formulated a plan. "Aelita, take over and gun it for the tower," he ordered the pinkette.

Aelita, well aware of Odd's way of doing things, obeyed without question, taking control of the Overboard just as Odd suddenly leapt off the vehicle, firing a barrage of laser arrows at one of the krabes.

The arrows pelted the krabe's eye, destroying it almost instantly. With a gap open, Aelita swerved around the remaining krabe before it had time to react, continuing on to the regulator tower.

Now alone and without a vehicle, Odd confronted the remaining krabe. "You know, it's been a while since we last had seafood in the cafeteria," the blonde boy taunted the monster.

The krabe responded by firing its beam weapon. Odd reacted by putting up his shield, stopping the beam mere inches from his face.

Ulrich locked blades with William once again. His feet skidded backward against the ground as William used his superior strength to push him towards the edge of the plateau. Getting perilously close to falling into the Digital Sea, Ulrich managed to parry William's sword before delivering a swift kick to the dark-haired boy's torso, propelling him back several meters.

Ulrich decided to take advantage of this brief break in the fight. "Triplicate!" he exclaimed, and his two doppelgängers materialized on either side of him, ready to do combat with William.

With an unimpressed scowl, William raised his sword. Instead of charging in headfirst, however, he merely stood there.

It was then that Ulrich noticed that William's sword was beginning to glow. Suddenly, William swung his sword in Ulrich's direction, hurtling a wave of silver energy his way. Ulrich and his doppelgängers had no time to react as they were simultaneously hit by the wave, devirtualizing them all instantly.

Ulrich stumbled out of the scanner, dazed by the impact.

"Damn it," he growled, "how did I forget he could do that?"

"Ulrich!" exclaimed Yumi, having seen William devirtualize her friend in one swift blow. There was nothing she could immediately do about it, however—not while she was locked in combat with the remaining krabe.

Quickly, Yumi unfurled one of her fans and threw it at one of the krabe's legs, slicing it clean off. Having lost its balance, the krabe toppled over, and Yumi used her other fan to finish it off before turning her attention to William.

It was the first time Yumi had gotten a good look at William in months. Although he was under XANA's control, she could still see hints of the boy she had known—the same cocky smirk, the same mannerisms...

Yumi felt a twinge of regret. Among the Lyoko Warriors, she was the only one who had been against bringing him in on their secret. If only she had been more outspoken in her opposition, William might still be living freely in the real world, in the same blissful ignorance as everyone else she fought to protect.

But now was not the time for her to dwell on the mistakes of the past. She needed to focus on defeating William, or at the very least stalling him until Aelita and Odd could make it to the regulator tower.

Yumi hurled both her fans at William. The dark-haired boy responded by swiping one out of the air with his sword and catching the other with his bare hand before proceeding to crush it. Yumi watched with dismay as her weapon disintegrated into a shower of pixels within William's grasp.

Now armed only with her wits and prowess in hand-to-hand combat, Yumi knew she would have to get up close and personal with William. She launched into a series of somersaults towards him, managing to evade a powerful swipe of his sword before kicking him away.

William landed on his feet a few meters away. "Super Smoke!" he exclaimed, turning into that same black cloud of smoke which began winding its way on the ground towards Yumi. William rematerialized behind her, his sword raised. Yumi, however, once again managed to dodge the strike, which ended in William's sword being lodged in the ground.

With both combatants now deprived of their weapons, Yumi and William began to trade fists with each other. Yumi quickly discovered that William was quite adept at hand-to-hand combat. Whether this skill had come naturally or was a byproduct of his slavery to XANA, Yumi couldn't be sure, but he countered nearly every hit she tried dealing to him, and she felt the raw power behind the ones he delivered in turn.

After nearly a minute of this, Yumi head-butted William. While this appeared to catch him off guard, the impact barely seemed to faze him, and before Yumi could react, he head-butted her back—much harder.

Yumi was knocked to the ground by the force of the blow. By the time she had a chance to look up at William, his sword was already coming down. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the Scanner Room floor.

Hakone, Japan

Godzilla's journey from the shore of Numazu to the slopes of Mount Hakone had been uneventful. The humans' military forces had put up no resistance, instead choosing to simply allow him to continue on his way rather than risk incurring his wrath.

His senses were on high alert as he scoured the volcanic caldera. He knew that XANA's second kaiju was lurking somewhere amongst the rough terrain. The last thing he wanted was to be caught by surprise; if he let his opponent get the drop on him, it could turn a simple one-sided fight into a drawn-out battle.

Godzilla soon found himself on the edge of a cliff. He looked down to see he was overlooking Ōwakudani—a rocky valley defined by numerous active sulfur vents and steaming hot springs. It was a popular tourist attraction in this region of Japan, but had recently been closed off due to an increase in volcanism. As such, the area was largely devoid of human activity.

But there had clearly been activity of another sort. As Godzilla peered into the volcanic valley, he made a perplexing discovery: the floor and walls of the valley had been thoroughly coated in a yellow, web-like material.

The nuclear leviathan surveyed the strange sight. He spotted several small aircraft scattered among the webbing, entangled in its strands. As he looked, one of these strands suddenly launched out of the valley and struck him squarely in the chest.

Godzilla let out a surprised roar. While the impact was not very forceful, this thick coil of webbing was now stuck firmly to his body. He grabbed hold of the strand and tried to peel it off his body, but his efforts proved to be in vain.

It was exactly what the King of the Monsters had been trying to avoid—his opponent had ambushed him. As the strand began to tighten and tug him towards the edge of the cliff, his eyes followed the yellow tendril to its source.

There, perfectly camouflaged amongst his own webbing, lay the giant spider Kumonga.

With a heave, the mammoth arachnid pulled Godzilla to the edge of the cliff he was standing on. Unable to bear the leviathan's weight, the cliff face collapsed, sending Godzilla plummeting to the floor of Ōwakudani, where he promptly became ensnared by the carpet of webbing.

Kumonga closed in, the eye of XANA flashing across each of his own eight eyes. He wasted no time as he started to lay down another blanket of webbing over the struggling Godzilla.

This is actually only the first half or so of the Chapter 7 that I originally planned, but like I said, it's been two years and you guys deserve to see something after all this time. I may add the rest of it as part of this chapter at a later date or as Chapter 8, depending on how long it is. I'm actually trying to work more towards writing shorter chapters instead of the 8,000-9,000+ word monstrosities that were Chapters 5 and 6.

You also may notice that this arc in the Forest Replika is more focused on the Lyoko Warriors than the kaiju. This is intentional; remember that this is a crossover fic and I want to appease readers from both fandoms who may be familiar with one franchise but not the other. As the Desert Replika arc was intended to appeal more to Godzilla fans, this one is meant more for the Code Lyoko fans. I plan on making the arc after this one shift focus back to the kaiju side of things.

I will try to make an effort towards cranking out chapters at a faster pace, but it won't be easy. I love this story and I don't want it to become a dead fic, and I'm sure you feel the same way. All I ask for is your continued patience, although even that feels unfair on my part considering how long you've been waiting for this. :/ I guess all I can really do is thank you for sticking around.

Replies to reviews for this chapter will be posted here. Watch this space.