All original kaiju and character designs are trademarks of Toho Co., Ltd. Tsunagara created and owned by Shannon Miller.
Part 1: The Awakening
:Antarctica:
A sound. A slight, slight rise in the temperature, nothing more then two degrees. It was enough though. Her mind told her awake. Awake; arise, away from the cold, towards the heat. Towards the heat. There would be food there, always food...
She was so hungry...
Aaron Keller hugged himself, stepping in place, struggling to stay warm despite the arctic clothing he wore. The wind at least had died down a bit from yesterday. Yesterday had been hell, the skin piercing, razor-sharp cold wind had made everything zero visibility, lifting up loose snow to blind them and freeze them, rendering operations impossible for the day. Half an hour into the drilling they had to stop due to the conditions.
Oh yeah, it had been a great idea back at the university. Such a great idea in fact, he had done nearly everything besides kill people to be on this project. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Loving it now, Aaron? He chuckled to himself with a shiver. Yeah, just great.
"We've hit our target level." Jessica Langston yelled out to him from the sensors shelter.
"Great." Aaron shouted back, giving her the thumbs up with one gloved hand.
Nodding once, she motioned for Aaron to join her inside one of the science and research teams heated snow terrain vehicles. Without hesitation, he jogged clumsily acrossed the distance though the snow. God, I feel like a kid again. For a second he thought about reaching down and making a snowball to throw at Jess. Nah, too cold.
Slamming the door shut behind him, Aaron began to tear the cold thermotech gloves and headgear he wore off, placing his hands on the vehicles heating vents. Jess giggled, her shoulder length brown hair bouncing with the motion.
"Enjoying the vacation?'
"The middle of freakin' Antarctica. Remind me to sue my travel agent."
Jess smiled, pouring him a thermos cupful of coffee. Aaron gratefully took it. "Blake says he's already getting resonance sensor readings from the hole." She began, pouring herself some of the black brew.
"Positive ID on anything?" He asked over his own cup.
"He says it's something large, but not to get our hopes up yet. Could be false readings. We won't know anything for sure until we get the hole big enough to send a team down."
Aaron shuddered. Part of the team's job was to dig down to the rocky Antarctic surface with the large drill equipment financed by some big cooperation whose name he couldn't remember, some Japanese-American joint company that he didn't even know what they did! Once the hole was large enough to fit a few men and equipment inside the shaft, they'd descend and take some initial rock core samples to send back to their labs for testing. Then, if things looked good, they could continue their paleontological diggings. Good plan, he just didn't like the idea of being stuck down a tiny shaft in the middle of a glacier. Who knew when the damned glacier might shift and collapse the shaft!
Gazing out acrossed the landscape, Aaron tried picturing the land the way it had been nearly 400 million years ago. Plants, maybe some animals, some insects, living on a land not covered in frozen snow and glaciers, but muggy heat. Maybe there had been a tree here, a grass like plant here, a swarm of insects on carrion there.
"Things sure have changed in a few million years." Aaron sipped from the already cooling coffee.
"Don't worry, Aaron. This project'll be a big success, you'll see. So much of history will finally come to light." Smiling, she laid a small hand on the arm of his coat.
Aaron smiled back. Began to say something.
Then the tremors hit.
Godzilla vs Tsunagara
Project Genesis
Story by Shannon Miller
Chapter I: From frozen Dreams
Aaron's face fell as he suddenly turned to look out the window, as if there would be something there he could see that was responsible for rocking the vehicle. "What the hell...?"
Without thinking, Jessica grabbed the trucks walkie-talkie. "Base one, this is truck zero-three. What the hell is that?"
Another tremor, stronger, rattled the insides of the truck.
"I didn't think there were supposed to be earthquakes here." Aaron muttered nervously.
"I dunno, Jess." Mike Galers voice said through the static of the walkie-talkie. "The epicenter though seems to be coming from Blakes position."
Aaron's heart paused. "The drill..."
Jessica nodded, starting the vehicle up. "Here, get a hold of Blake, see what the hell's going on over there."
The snow made muffled crunching noises under the enormous treads of the snow terrain vehicle as it began plowing its way towards the snow dune before them. Yet another tremor, even stronger then the last one, shook them as Aaron tried to get Blakes channel set on the walkie-talkie. "Shit, I thought aftershocks were supposed to be weaker than the initial earthquake."
"This isn't an earthquake." Jess muttered between clenched teeth. "Something's gone wrong. Really wrong."
"Blake, Blake, man, this is Aaron. Do you copy?"
"Dude, what the hell's going on? Everything's jumping like mad over here!" Blakes' rattled voice came over the speakers.
"The drill..."
"No, man, it's not the drill. The drill's just fine."
"Shut it down anyway. Shut it down now!"
"Hey man, the drill's fine I said!" Blake shot back.
"Blake..."
"Wait a second... Something is wrong with the drill. I've hit something hard. It's...it's...
"Blake! Shut it down NOW!"
There was a horrible tremor worse then any of the others as the sound of metal tearing away came crackling over the speakers.
"Oh, shit man, what the fuck is that?"
"Blake, Blake! What is it?"
"Oh god." Jessica muttered.
"Jesus Christ, no way! Help me man! Help!"
Aaron hollered out to Blake. Blake had begun screaming, shouting something and then....
"Blake?"
"Oh god. Aaron, look!"
Setting the walkie-talkie in his lap, shaking and actually sweating, sweating in the middle of Antarctica, he looked up to where Jess was pointing.
And screamed.
"No no, the creature left us alone. We only have one casualty to report. Yes, one, Blake Galers, Mike Galers brother. Yes, yes, I said creature, how many times do you want me to say it. It was a big freakin' monster!" Aaron sighed, his face red from yelling into the stations radio, the only contact the science and research team had with the rest of civilization.
Jessica sat acrossed from him, crying into Mike's arms. He had a few tears for his brother too, but mostly he was too scared to do anything else. Hell, they were all scared, the whole team.
"No, I'm not drunk! We want off this snowball, now! I don't care if you HAVE to drag the pilots out of bed, we want out, you hear!?" With that, he angrily flipped the comm off, yanking the earpiece free from his ear.
"Jesus, Aaron, what was it? What was that thing?" Mike whispered, still trying to soothe Jessica.
Aaron shook his head as the rest of the twenty-member science team looked to him. Looked to him as if he had all the answers. "I don't know, Mike. I honestly don't know."
"We've dug into hell." Jessica sobbed.
Aaron looked at the print he'd made as soon as he returned to the base. It was fuzzy; the vehicle had been jumping around badly. But it was there. The monster that killed Blake, ruined their project...
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have thought it to be a hoax.
It walked on four enormous legs, legs bigger then the trunk of a Redwood. Sitting on those legs was a torso supporting two, long arms covered in layer after layer of muscle so thick it would have made steel cables look like thin thread. The neck was long and thin, whip-like actually, and it could have been mistaken for a tail if it weren't for the small, narrow head attached to the other end. The creature did have a tail though, a thick, scorpion-like tail that was actually longer then the rest of its body and seemed to curl in on itself a bit like a fern in spring before unfurling. It was covered in scales for the most part, strange turquoise and blue scales dotted here and there a bit with silver. But there were places where feathers hung in disgusting clumps from its body, nasty rotting brown and green colored feathers.
He wanted to calm his mind. It was a frozen dinosaur come to life, that's all. But there was never such a dinosaur as this. No creature ever alive on earth that was like this. It had killed Blake when it rose from the ground, and then slowly began to thunder off to the north towards the Americas, dragging its impossibly long arms behind it. Impossible, the creature itself was impossible. Not a dinosaur, but where, where had it come from?
"I'm scared." Jess whispered in the silence.
"Me too." Aaron said.
Scared for me, and scared for the rest of the world who's never seen this type of beast before...
Chapter II: Godzilla Returns
:Tokyo, Japan:
Eric had remembered his exchange family saying something about them having drills set up for this kind of event. He was pretty sure they had, but it didn't look that way from his point of view.
People and students ran from the building, some crying, and some shouting about something called Gojira. He thought at first that maybe that was slang for fire or something of the sort. Yeah, he was an exchange student in Japan, but he didn't know too much of the language, he figured most people here would speak some English anyway, right? No, Samantha was the most efficient in Japanese out of the exchange group that was visiting. Outside of the building, people were screaming and running into the streets away from the industrial district. Wow, must be some big accident. Cool.
"Eric! Are you crazy!?" Samantha screamed at him, grabbing him by the shirt collar and dragging him behind her.
"What's going on? Is it a fire? Why's everyone running?" He hollered to her over the screaming mass of Japanese.
"Are you kidding?! It's Gojira!"
"Yeah, I know, but what's Gojira?"
There was a sudden thundering sound from the industrial district. Eric, now running on his own alongside of Samantha, looked back towards the explosion.
He saw it all right, over the tall buildings and the billowing black cloud that began to spread out around it.
"AHHH! It's Godzilla!"
:Antarctica:
The landscape was quiet again, the eerie quietness that only Antarctica can posses. It almost seemed as if nothing really did happen. Almost. There were still the enormous tracks left in the snow from the creature's feet and arms.
Aaron wanted to be sure. Besides, he promised Mike. Mike who nearly ran out into the freezing cold without gear on, Mike who said he'd rather die with his brother. Mike who said he'd take the beast on. Well, Mike hadn't seen the monster.
Leaving the vehicle running, Aaron stepped out into the freezing cold of Antarctica. The crumpled, metal remains of the drill truck were still visible, half buried in the snow. Next to the remains was an enormous hole where the creature had risen. Bits of frozen dirt and rock were thrown here and there. It was an ugly mess, and one that looked strange against the whiteness of the landscape.
A strong, cold breeze blew, and Aaron turned his back to it, hugging himself against the shivers. Blake didn't survive the monster's birth from the cold landscape, that was obvious. But here? How did it get here anyway, and what brought it to life all of a sudden from its frozen slumber? And yet another question; how long had it been in there?
Out of curiosity more than anything, Aaron walked to the edge of the crater, dropping to his stomach. Carefully, he leaned over the edge, suddenly gasping at what he saw.
Rock, dirt and snow had been pushed up and mixed on the sides of the crater walls, creating a sort of dirty snow crater. A very big snow crater. On the bottom was a strange, blue metal substance like nothing he'd even seen before. It sparkled and shimmered even in the shadows that the wall created.
A shell... It looks like a shell.
It was a stupid idea, but by the time he caught himself in the act, it was too late.
Let's just hope curiosity doesn't kill this cat.
Sliding down the walls, Aaron made his way to the center of the crater. Once at the bottom, he cautiously made his way towards the blue stuff.
Down here, it was warmer, but not warm enough to cause the sweat that had begun to slide down his back. The walls blocked him from the roaring wind up above, also creating an eerie whistling sound above him. He was scared, oh yeah he was scared. His heart was trying to climb out his throat and back up the walls, his breath not that far behind. Slowly, almost slow enough to stop time, Aaron pulled off a glove, reached out to touch it...
:Tokyo, Japan:
"Oh, shit, Samantha. What are we s'pose to do?" Eric whispered to her, as if the king of monsters himself could hear his pathetic voice.
Samantha shook like a leaf beside him in the small ally. Eric couldn't tell if her head was shaking on its own or if it was following the rest of her body.
The thudding sounds increased as Godzilla made his way down the street behind the one they were on. Thud. Thud. Thud. It was the horrible beat to the march that ripped the sides of buildings off, broke water and power mains. The march that left nothing but Hell's destruction behind.
"I... you think maybe we shouldn't be in here?" Eric whispered, looking up the side of the walls, picturing them crumbing down on top of Samantha and him, crushing the very life from them.
No response from Samantha.
"With buildings falling down around us and everything. We should be somewhere else. I don't see anyone else on the streets." Turning, he grabbed her arm. "Samantha? C'mon now, snap out of it!" He continued to tug at her arm.
"I don't want to die, I don't want to die, I don't want to die." She chanted quietly, tears streaming down her face.
"Snap. Out. Of. It." He hissed, slapping her gently acrossed the face, just enough to get her attention.
It worked. Samantha gasped, looking up at Eric as if he'd just snuck up on her. "Eric, we're gunna die. We're gunna die in Japan!"
"No we won't." He growled back, finally able to drag her out into the streets. Oh, I so hope we won't at least.
Then she screamed.
Godzilla had made his way right behind their building, visible as soon as they'd exited the ally's shadows. Visible, up close. Way up close.
Too up close for me.
Yanking a screaming and crying Samantha behind him, Eric continued to run, run away from the tall buildings that lined the streets of Tokyo, away from the green, nuclear monstrosity behind them.
With the sound of a hundred bombs, a hundred claps of thunder that vibrated his entire being, the king of monsters roared, long, low, and deep.
Both Eric and Samantha hit the pavement, halfway acrossed the street, to cover their ears, screaming. Even with his hands over his ears, Eric could still feel the powerful roar working at his brain, threatening to tear it apart, ripping at his insides in the process.
Over here! Over here! Eric could barely hear someone call out to him in Japanese.
Looking up, he saw a man dressed in a Japanese military uniform waving at them, motioning for them to follow. C'mon! C'mon!
Nodding, the two teens ignored the behemoth behind them, running with their savior to a small military style jeep.
What the hell were you kids doing out there? the man yelled at them over the roar of the jeeps engine and Godzilla.
"Playing hide-a-seek with Godzilla." Eric muttered sarcastically, wiping sweat off his brow with a sleeve, watching the building they had been hunkered down next to slowly crumble. Godzilla was just too wide for the streets. He was making his own.
We didn't know where to go, Samantha replied for me in Japanese, tears still streaming from her eyes. The crowd split up and we got confused. We're Americans.
"Jeez, the white skin and non-slanted eyes didn't tip him off."
Samantha shot him an annoyed look.
Oh, I see. the military man nodded, tearing down the empty streets at what seemed like 100 miles an hour.
Eric was loving it. Forget about Godzilla close enough to blast them into oblivion, and it was an awesome ride. Samantha seemed to be thinking otherwise by the look of her knuckles turning white as she clung to the seat.
Who are you? Samantha asked the man as the jeep roared over a small pile of debris left from a building knocked over by Godzilla's tail.
"Duh, I'm thinking military."
General Takahashi of G Force. He said, keeping his eyes on the road ahead.
G Force?
"Yeah, they're the branch of military responsible for Godzilla research and developmental weapons."
"Weapons? Like nukes?"
"Sheesh, for an expert in the Japanese culture, you sure don't know a lot about Godzilla." Eric shook his head. "Nukes'll only increase his strength."
"Sheesh, for such an expert of G Force, you didn't even know Gojira meant Godzilla, huh?" She muttered back.
You're friend is right though, he feeds off the nuclear energy. Nuclear weapons only increase his strength. Takahashi nodded. That's why we have to find alternative weapons.
Both teens were shocked by the fact that he had understood their conversation.
"So, where are we headed?" Eric asked after Samantha had translated for him, watching as Godzilla moved past them in the other direction.
G Force's temporary HQ. I'm afraid I'll have to bring you two with me, I'm in a hurry.
Samantha let out a small whimpering sound, barely audible over the roar of the jeep and Godzilla. Eric, on the other hand, suddenly grinned with joy.
Cool. Way cool.
Chapter III: Enter The Terror
:South Coast, Florida:
Hunger. It was warmer now, much warmer. She liked the warmth. But she was still hungry, so hungry...
Something else tugged at her. A strange, yet familiar calling...
Palm trees swayed gently on a coastal breeze. It was a perfect day, and he should have been at the beach, relaxing with his family. Not here in full uniform, sweating in Florida's god awful tropical summer's heat. And what was this about a monster? A monster, in America, gimme a break.
General alert sirens suddenly began whooping in the silence. Strange, even the gulls were silent, hidden away as if there was a hurricane approaching. The soldier shifted uncomfortably from the heat and nerves. Remember the gulls, his grandfather used to tell him. They can tell you more from their silence than anything else in the world can. Heed their warnings. But that was just an old wives tale to scare him, right?
"Object heading onshore from the southwest." He heard someone call over the radio. "Object ETA is 30 seconds."
Missile, he had heard some of the other soldiers say. It was some sort of new weapon, probably launched by the Cubans. But how had they obtained it?
The other rumor he had heard, and which was the craziest ever, was that it was a monster, risen from an excavation site in Antarctica. Crazy. Nothing lived in the middle of that godforsaken land, much less a monster. Monsters were a thing to scare kids with.
The sirens continued to whoop as ops counted down the objects ETA
"10, 9, 8…"
Well, I suppose we'll find out soon enough what it is, the man thought, clenching his teeth.
"…3, 2, 1…"
An enormous wave formed near the edge of the shore, rolling, boiling. It was so large, and hit with such force that if the platoon had been any closer, they would have been smashed and sucked into the ocean, men, weapons, and vehicles.
Then, behind the wave, he saw it rise like the devil himself..
At first, he though, Loch Ness monster. The head was small, and the neck was so long, a quick memory of playing with dinosaurs in his childhood flashed through his mind. The memory faded fast though as the rest of the monster - a god, actual monster! - climbed up out of the tropical waters and onto the land.
One man screamed next to him. "Welcome to America!" shouted another from somewhere off to the side, opening fire on the beast. The cries of guns went off as men began to open fire on it, military precision and calm stripped away suddenly by the sight of the monster.
The soldier stood there, wetting himself in fear as the beast made a strange, moaning-rumbling sound as it approached.
Missiles went off, splashing small pinpoints of red onto the beasts beautiful scales, yes, they were beautiful. A small patch of the rotting feather things was ripped off. The creature moaned again, rolling its neck around, bringing up its incredibly long arms, swinging, trying to knock away the missiles, small needles that seemed to irritate more than hurt it.
The last thing the soldier saw as he screamed in terror, too late to run away, was one of the giant hands come crashing down on him.
:Tokyo, Japan:
General Takahashi led the two American teens to the temporary command center that had been set up outside of the city. It was in the wake of Gojira's destruction, so they were safe, unless the king decided to come back this way out through Tokyo-wan.
"General, sir!" A younger man ran up to him, saluting. "We're just received a message from the US. A kaiju has made landfall from the Gulf of Mexico onto the southern Florida coast, heading north towards residential and industrial areas. They are trying everything they can, but the situation is out of their hands it seems. They are asking for any international assistance they can get."
Takahashi nodded, a puzzled expression on his face. "Kaiju? Is there anyway to tell which it might be?"
"No, sir. In fact, according to their reports, it's a new one. Our men are calling it Tsunagara for now."
"Tsunagara.." He repeated it silently, looking over at the two teens.
The one teen, Eric, didn't seem to hear what the Lieutenant had said. Samantha though, had. Her face had gone white with shock. Her face had been pretty white most of the way to the temporary command center in fact.
The Lieutenant dropped his salute and looked around the General to the teens. "Gomen, sir, but who are they?"
"They're Americans. They didn't know what to do, and were hiding in an ally. I found them just before Gojira knocked the building over."
The Lieutenant muttered something, nodding.
"Lieutenant?"
"Hai?" He snapped back to attention.
"Take them someplace safe and out of our way for now. We'll try to reunite them with whoever they're with when we're done, but for now, keep them safe."
"Yes, sir!"
As Takahashi strode away, the Lieutenant moved towards the two Americans. "Do you understand Japanese?" He asked them slowly, hoping they did. His own English wasn't that good, it had been years since he had to use it last.
Both the teens nodded.
"I'm second lieutenant Natsuki of G Force command. General Takahashi has put you two into my care until we can reunite you with whoever you were with."
JSDF helicopters buzzed by over head, laden down with large missile launchers, machine guns and advanced antinuclear impulse weapons. Spot lights attached to a few of the lead helicopters raced over the small camp, adding even more light to the already generator-powered fixtures. Eric looked up and stared at them in awe.
Samantha took little notice of them as she smiled politely back at Natsuki. "My name's Samantha, and this is Eric, Lieutenant Natsuki. Are we safe from Gojira now?" She asked in Japanese.
Natsuki shook his head, smiling apologetically. "For right now, yes. Gojira is an unpredictable beast though. Who's to say he won't head back this way?"
The girl seemed to go white again. "And... what about the one General Takahashi was talking about? The one that is in America? Tsunagara, I think you called it?"
Natsuki shifted his weight uncomfortably. How much were these teens supposed to know, and how much was classified? Takahashi hadn't mentioned anything about that. Damn him for leaving me in charge of a decision like this. He just hoped this wouldn't get him booted from G-force, or even the JSDF!
"Hai, there's reports of a kaiju on the North American mainland."
Eric spoke something to her in English, Samantha probably translating what he had said.
"Nani?! Tsunagara?" Eric burst out, excitement from the sight of the JSDF 'copters leaving his face.
"Gomen. Would you two please follow me? The General has left me in charge of your safety."
:Osaka, Japan:
Hiroki Ikeda stood behind a large glass window that overlooked Osaka-wan, hands clasped loosely at the small of his back. Gulls dove and soared below, and even farther down, cars passed, and people dashed around like so many ants in the artificially lit streets. All that though seemed to pass by without his notice. His mind was on something else. A frown tugged at the corner of Hiroki's lips. John Greenfield was late. And Hiroki didn't like to be kept waiting.
"Koban wa." A man said upon entering the enormously spacious office.
Hiroki waited until he heard his secretary close the gigantic double oak doors before turning to face his visitor. "Konban wa, Greenfield-san. You are late." He spoke without emotion, bowing slightly before the tall, built American.
"My apologies, Mr. Ikeda. I had some last minute things to attend to in Chicago. I was lucky enough to catch this flight as it was." John bowed back.
Hiroki grunted in response, moving towards a large, black leather chair behind a matching black desk that was spartan of anything warm and friendly. "Please, have a seat." He motioned to another leather chair, smaller though, on the opposite end of the desk.
Nodding, John shifted a small briefcase to his left hand. Walking up to the seat, he sat down after Hiroki took his own seat, placing the briefcase onto his lap and unclasping its combination locks. With hardly a rustling of the papers, John pulled out three sheets of printout reports, handing them acrossed the desk over to Hiroki.
Accepting them, he sat back into the leather chair and began reading. John sat patiently as Hiroki flipped over one page, then a second, and finally placed the report onto the desk.
"As you can see, everything in both the American and Japanese labs are going as well as was expected." John broke the silence.
"I see." Hiroki said with a nod of his head. "And the results of the Antarctic core samples?"
John's heart stopped as he stared at the one man who possessed more power than even he did with as neutral an expression as he could command. Obviously, Ikeda had somehow found out about the creatures awakening. He knew he should have contacted him, but what could he have done? Neither of them had the power to stop a creature with such a capacity. Might as well just let it go and let the army deal with it. If and when the military had the monster under control, then they could take control of the beast itself. "Sir, I thought it best that the military take care of it. There was nothing either of our groups could have done even if I had let you known."
"I don't like getting information about my projects over the news." Hiroki growled at the man, slightly irritated. John was right though. Even if he had been informed about the development, there wouldn't have been a single thing he could have done, even with his ties in both the Japanese and American military hierarchy. "So, the Antarctican beast has awaken. What of the one from Siberia?"
"Still hasn't awaken. My teams lead scientist thinks it might be in some sort of coma brought on from its landing." All for the better, John thought, smiling to himself. The one from Siberia had been a major pain in the ass to ship to New York where they had to build a holding facility for it, disguised as an military airplane manufacturing warehouse. This one was smaller then the one that had suddenly awaken in Antarctica, and with the new one's sudden arrival onto the mainland, John began to worry that maybe they were holding the baby of...whatever these aliens were.
Yes, aliens. Monsters that had arrived here, according to their latest calculations, just at the extinction of the dinosaurs at the beginning of the first great ice age. Dormant for all those millions of years, and they were still alive. It was incredible, almost impossible to conceive that something in their molecular structure could give them such longevity. Which was part of their research, to unlock those molecular secrets.
"Something else, Greenfield-san?" Hiroki asked, breaking the sudden silence between them.
"Yes. We have reason to believe the new alien is actually the mother. It is larger in size, and is headed on a now direct course for the facility in upstate New York. Sir, unless we destroy the baby, and break whatever telepathic link there is between the two, the larger one is going to wreak hell all over the East Coast!"
"No!" Hirkoi leapt from his chair, moving back towards the window. "You do not have permission to destroy the beast."
"But sir!" John stood, his hands spread out on the desk. "Millions of people will be killed or injured. There'll be hundreds of billions of dollars worth of property damage, and all the equipment and men that our military pour into their efforts to stop this monster will be completely lost!"
"I said no, Greenfield!"
"Mr. Ikeda! You can't condemn us like this! Either you bring in your own men to stop the mother, or I will have the baby destroyed, by god!" Snatching his briefcase, John stormed from the office, letting the heavy oak door to bang shut with loud thunder.
Hiroki scowled as he stared angrily out of the window. Wrong move, he thought, slowly reaching into his business jacket, pulling out a small cell phone. Punching in an already preprogrammed number, he listened as the phone rang twice before someone answered. "I have a job for you. Three million for John Greenfield. I want it done tonight." Replacing the phone back into his jacket, Hiroki continued to stare out the window. He had done so much, and come so far to simply let an ant crush his efforts now.
Chapter IV: Tokyo Trembles
She could sense him closer now. Her baby. Far away yet, so far away. Yes, she could sense him, but something was wrong. He wasn't responding to her calls. Why? Why was he so far away? Was it these strange creatures that impaled her with their loud fire? The fire stung, some hurt bad.
And there was something else. She sensed something else. Not her baby, but it too was close...
:Tokyo, Japan:
Goddzilla, king of monsters, howled as another anit-nuclear, armor-piercing missile ripped past his thick hide and bit into soft flesh.
Turning, he spotted the small, human machine that had let loose its volley on him. With a small growl, Godzilla's three rows of dorsal fins lit up, a sudden surge of nuclear atom fire erupting from his toothy jaws.
The machine lasted for a few seconds before melting in the intense thermonuclear fire. That, as far as he could see, was the last of those annoyances.
Above, the thumping of the humans airborne machines peeled away, finally giving him some moments of peace. It had been a while since he had had to come back to this place, the land of mankind. For as long as he could remember, he had been ruining waste to mankind's lands. He hated man, hated the power they abused, the earth that they destroyed, -their smell- but it was necessary once again to tread on their soils. Yes, there was another challenge calling to him, even greater than his challenge to mankind.
An old, yet familiar nemesis.
Miles away yet, but also headed straight towards him, was the giant winged pteradon, Rodan.
Roaring to the heavens in challenge, Godzilla began his lumbering walked towards the airborne kaiju.
Upon hearing his challenge, Rodan screeched back his own. He dove, snapping opening his wings just above the tops of the tallest buildings. The slipstream left by his monstrous wings ripped billboards off of buildings, scaffolding, and tops of the buildings themselves in some instances. More rumble was added to the city.
Godzilla growled in annoyance. Rodan was constantly showing up in his territory. And the time had come to show him that he wouldn't tolerate it any further.
With a cry loud enough to shake the heavens, Godzilla let his deadly energy play along his spines, waiting, waiting...
Just as Rodan was ready to dive at him, Godzilla opened his maw, a horrifying line of atom fire racing towards the pteradon kaiju. Rodan screeched, spilling the air out of his left wing to avoid the attack. But he wasn't fast enough. With a horrible pain, the atom fire blazed acrossed his right wing, up and over onto his back. No longer able to stay airborne, he crashed into a line of still standing buildings, taking out three of them before coming to rest against a fourth.
Growling in triumph, Godzilla made his way over to the downed kaiju, grabbing him by the spines of his wings. Claws dug tightly into whatever flesh there was, greatly irritating the burn on Rodan's right wing.
In his own guttural language, Godzilla spoke to Rodan.
-Stay away! Leave these mankind lands. They are mine!-
-No! Never! They are MINE!- Rodan cried back, swinging his head around in circles.
In doing so, one of his horns came up under saurian's jaw, throwing his head back and making him bite his tongue.
With a cry of pain, Godzilla let go of the other kaiju's wings.
Suddenly free from his captor, Rodan spun around on his dainty feet and began to beat the saurian's body with his powerful wings.
Godzilla, suddenly taken by surprise, backed up, trying to bring his arms up to protect his head and body.
Rodan let loose a series of hooting cries at his success
-Rodan's! Rodan's! All Rodan's!-
Pissed at the pteradon's sudden proclaimation of victory, Godzilla swung around, catching Rodan with his thick, armored tail.
Rodan cried out again as he fell into another building, its upper levels falling on and around him.
Clapping his clawed, saurian hands, Godzilla chuckled at Rodan's sudden predicament. Turning around again, he began to beat his tail up and down, pounding hard over and over on the fallen pteradon's chest.
Unable to climb to his feet and out of desperation, Rodan shot his head forward, snatching the saurian's tail in his beak, and bit.
Godzilla cried out in pain, swinging his body around to stomp on Rodan instead with his feet. Luckily for Rodan, the motion yanked him up out of the rumble, and he managed to climb back to his feet via his enemies tail.
"At this rate, it won't be worth rebuilding the city." Natsuki muttered, shaking his head as the two kaiju continued to rumble.
"And if we're lucky, they'll finally take each other out." Takahashi replied, lowering his binoculars. Natsuki was right though. If there was to be any part of Tokyo left standing, something had to be done with the two kaiju who played with Tokyo like a bunch of children with toys.
"Any word yet on the American's own problem?" He asked Natsuki, looking down at the man from his perch on top of one of the JSDF's camouflage trucks.
"Hai, but nothing good. Seems they can't diverge the kaiju from its path. Tsunagara is ripping its way right up the East Coast, due to arrive in New York sometime in the next few days."
Takahashi shook his head running a hand through his jet black hair. According to what the Americans were saying, this new kaiju was at least the size of the final form of Biollante, if not bigger, and yet more destructive then that horrid alien kaiju, King Ghidorah.
But why? Why the U.S.? Takahashi asked himself. All the other kaiju are concentrated in Japan or the surrounding islands. Why the U.S?
It almost seemed as if Tsunagara was heading towards something, as if on a mission. But for what, and why?
He had a sudden, strange feeling that there was more behind this whole incident then what was showing on the surface.
:St. Lukes Hospital, upstate NewYork:
Aaron woke up, screaming.
"Stop!! Stop!!! Oh my god, stop shooting me!!! It hurts!!! AHHHHH!"
Jessica and small group of nurses all nearly jumped on him. Someone yelled to hold him down, keep him from moving, as if they hadn't already figured that out for themselves. Another ran out of the room to grab a doctor
"Aaron! Aaron, calm down!! It's ok! We're back in the States. No ones shooting you!" She leaned over his face so that he could see her and hear her over his own frantic shouts.
It took him a second to calm down as his eyes snapped open, focusing on her. Tears streamed suddenly down his face as he sobbed, shuddering in pain. "It hurts, Jessica. Someone's shooting me...it hurts."
"No one's shooting you, Aaron." She replied shakily, wiping a dry towel acrossed his sweaty brow. "We're back in the States now, safe."
"The...the monster." Aaron swallowed hard. His throat was dry. "The monster hatched or something. I, I went into the crater. There was a strange blue substance in there. I touched it, and then..." He shook his head, putting his hands to his face as the nurses finally let him go. "I, I can't remember, Jess. What happened? I can't remember anything!"
Jessica sighed, closing her eyes against the too bright, too white walls of the hospital room. Had it been possible, she would have closed her nose against the nauseating smell of antiseptic and sickness too. She hated hospitals.
Thank god you're all right, she thought with a smile as she held his hand. "Well, when you didn't check in or come back, Mike and I headed out to look for you. We found you, passed out and barely alive at the base of the crater the beast made. After we managed to get you back up to the surface and back to the camp, our ride had arrived. I left Mike in charge of packing up and out while I took half of the crew and you back to the States as quickly as we could." She squeezed his hand, still thanking god that he had woken up. "For a while there, we didn't think you'd make it. You just seemed to have suddenly slipped into a coma. The doctors have no idea what caused it, other then maybe stress. They want to run some tests on you."
Aaron winced in pain as he nodded. "Sure, fine. Anything, as long as it helps get rid of this goddamned pain."
Jess smiled, nodding as two doctors entered the room followed by two FBI looking men and a nurse carrying some medical odds and ends. "I have to go for the moment. Don't worry, the doctors'll take good care of you, okay?"
Aaron nodded slowly, settling slowly back into the paper pillow. "Aright. And Jess?" He held on fast to her hand as she stood to leave. "I just wanted to say..."
"Later." She quickly interrupted. "You need to rest for now."
A slight shocked expression on his face, Aaron nodded, letting her slip out of his hand.
Don't worry, Aaron. We'll get through this. Together.
"Miss Langston?" another one of the FBI types asked her as she stepped out of the door. "You're friend's awake now. If you would come with me..."
"Only if I get some answers in return." She growled at the man, instantly hating him and his cronies.
The FBI type stared at her for a moment, unmoving, emotionless. Then, "Miss Langston? If you would, please."
Chapter V: Ikeda's Plan
:remote area, upstate, New York:
The baby slept silently, it's chest, big enough to hold a small house in, rising every now and then as it breathed.
The baby. His baby.
What secrets do you hold inside, little one? Ikeda smiled, placing a hand on the creatures cold, turquoise scales. What will you teach me?
John had been properly disposed of and, to Ikeda's even greater delight, his sudden death was unquestioned, and he hadn't had time to contact the facility in time to order the destruction of the baby Tsunagara.
Now with the sudden threat to his project eliminated, he could concentrate on the new problem that had suddenly arisen.
The mother Tsunagara.
John had been right, Tsunagara was coming for the baby. She was still headed towards New York, her journey leaving nothing but destruction and death behind. Ikeda didn't care. It was a small price to pay and besides, Japan had been attacked and survived numerous kaiju invasions. The United States would prosper once again as well, someday. But he wouldn't allow her to take away his baby, his project, not with all the time and money he had spent in all of this.
Thanks to his contacts in the American government, who he had promised to rid them of Tsunagara, he finally had the permission he needed to protect his baby from its angry mother.
"Mr. Ikeda?" One of the American scientists interrupted him out of his thoughts.
"Yes, Doctor? What is it?" Ikeda replied in his heavily accented English, irritated.
"We managed to get a hold of a General Takahashi of G-Force command, sir." The doctor offered the cordless phone over to Ikeda.
Nodding, he accepted it. General Takahashi?
This is him, Ikeda-san. We're in a bit of a situation right now, so if you would please?
Certainly. I believe I can help you to be rid of Gojira, General.
General Takahashi stood in shock for a moment. "Get rid of Gojira? How?" He finally managed to ask, skeptical. Ever since G Force had been put into effect, they had never came close to ridding Japan of Gojira. Was it even possible? Had this mysterious new man honestly come up with a solution for their kaiju problem?
"I mean to use him to destroy the American kaiju."
"Tsunagara."
"Yes."
At first, it sounded like a great idea. But hadn't Gojira always won out in the end? Wouldn't that happen again? And then what? But if he was destroyed, what about Tsunagara?
"But how will you control Gojira?" Takahashi asked, looking over a current report on the Rodan-Gojira situation. The two terrors had broken off their fight hours ago, allowing the rescue and salvage crews to finally move in. Suddenly though, Rodan was spotted heading back towards Tokyo. And he was pretty sure that Gojira wouldn't be too far back in following. The two kaiju seemed to have a strange, territorial relationship going on.
"Easily enough, General. In 1985, the Japanese government put into effect a project which utilized the migratory calls of birds to lure Jogger away from Tokyo and to a nearby volcano. While this attempt in his destruction didn't actually work, the system of luring him did. Now, you can use that do direct him to the United States to the area chosen where he'll fight Tsunagara. From there out, my scientists can control him."
"How?"
I'm sorry, General. Ikeda smiled at his end of the line, looking up at the baby. That is a currently classified project. You'll just have to trust me.
There was a long moment of silence from the other end. Give him to me, you fool, Ikeda shouted silently at Takahashi. It can only benefit the both of us!
Agreed. Takahashi's confirmation finally came through. As soon as your team can, send me the frequency of the bird calls and the location and whatever else we may need.
Of course, General. Ikeda nearly shouted, grinning from ear to ear. I'll have my people get right on it. And thank you General. You won't regret it.
I hope not, Ikeda-san. I hope not.
In the best mood he had been in in a while, Ikeda turned off the phone, handing it back to the doctor who still stood patiently by his side. "Gather the rest of the team. Have them send out all the necessary information regarding the bird frequencies, the cleared oceanic route, and the final site within the hour to General Takahashi of G Force command."
The doctor merely nodded, quickly moving away to carry out Ikeda's orders.
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