Part Five: SON OF YOG
Kenji Lawrence Bradley walked calmly across the landscape of his mind. The place was verdant, almost tropical. A volcano steamed slowly on the horizon, its gasses mixing with the billowing clouds that marred the sky. This was, he realized, one of the primordial chemical laboratories of Creation. He basked in its natural rhythms, joining with its ancient secrets. He was getting more and more lost.
A pebble dropped from the tree above him, and he saw the little girl crouched in the branches. Then he remembered, she was supposed to be dead. "Suzy! Where... where are we?"
"You are lost, Ken-ji," the child pulled a slim flask from her bag and passed it to him. "This will show you the way home."
"Am I gonna die?" He asked bluntly.
Suzy seemed to consider it for a moment. "In time," she smiled, and faded from the scene. Kenji quickly gulped down the flask.
*
Godzilla paused where the trees met the sand. He could sense the alien spoor here plainly, but there was another, familiar scent. It was accompanied by a tiny spark of brilliance from the ground far below. The beast turned to discover its source.
Kenji became aware of a violent rumbling. He opened his eyes, and saw Saki was with him. Gently, he clasped her hand.
"Mr. Bradley, you've awakened!" She half whispered.
"Saki, where are we?" Ken whispered back.
"In trouble," she replied, the ground trembling with her words.
Ken quickly scrambled from the hollow, and out into the trees. A shadow cast over him, spreading out across the landscape. A low guttural growl rose from somewhere behind and above him. He turned toward the sound, and before him stood Godzilla, the King of the Monsters!
Kenji froze. The immense creature was looking directly at him! From the hollow, Saki signaled for him to get on his knees. With no better ideas in mind, Ken quickly complied!
The surrounding brush rustled as a party of stealthy figures approached. Riko and his spearmen had arrived! Catching Ken's eye, Riko shook his weapon at the looming monster. Kenji shook his head, signaling an emphatic no! Both men turned as Saki emerged from the trees, and began to chant.
Godzilla observed the tiny humans, standing ready to eliminate them at the least provocation. Then he heard the song. The music was familiar, pulsing in time with the glow. It was the same glow which had freed him from the glacier. The glow that disrupted his alien enemy. Godzilla knew, the glow was an ally.
From somewhere offshore came the muffled sound of an explosion. The surface flew into shrapnel and steam as the Helio-7 detonated, blasting forth from beneath the waves! The humans and the monster alike turned toward the sudden eruption to see. The Spiritfire dimmed around Ken as he realized what must have occurred.
"Kyoko?" He asked Saki. fresh tears of horror ran down the woman's cheeks, and she buried her face in her hands, sobbing. Kenji raced from the trees and into the rolling surf. "Kyoko!" He called, over and over.
*
Godzilla watched as the glow faded, revealing the human within. The tiny creature bolted from the trees, racing toward the source of the explosion. The monster could also see the reason why. Another light, another of its kind burned dimly beneath the waves, caught in the blast. This one now ran to its aid.
Then the beast made the connection. The humans were fighting the aliens as well. They had caused the explosion in the sea. They had destroyed the Quasars!
The echoes and images left by the alien supermind had vanished from Godzilla's brain. The island, however, still reeked of their unnatural essence. The monster considered the tiny creatures clustering in the jungle below. He could see the one who had glowed, the ally, pushing farther out to sea. Godzilla turned away then, to let the humans deal with their own. His own mission here was not yet done.
*
Kenji swam fiercely against the waves, and into the growing slick of flotsam. Behind him, Godzilla was heading away from the scene, moving east along the shoreline. Moving toward the resort. Riko drove his spear into the sand, and raced to Kenji's aid. They spotted the bodies almost immediately.
Hiroki and Kyoko were ice cold, and niether of them breathed. Kenji pressed his wife's bent legs up and down, forcing water from her lungs. Riko watched, and did the same for Hiroki.
"The potion. They need the Blood of Mikki!" Riko called as he tried to rub the life back into his son. Kenji placed his wife next to the young sailor and prayed. Saki approached, bringing the Selgans sacred elixir. Ken allowed the woman to pour the fluid down Kyoko's throat. A shallow gurgle was her only response.
"C'mon, Kyoko!" Ken pinched close her nose, locked his mouth 'round hers and exhaled, forcing his breath into her lungs. Kyoko's chest expanded, then collapsed, bringing forth the rest of the choking fluid. She drew a deep reflexive breath, and choked again. "She's breathing," Ken cried. "You're okay now, Kyo. I've got you."
Beside them, Hiroki too choked awake, sucking the air back into his body. "My son," Saki gently forced a sip into him as his father continued to massage his limbs. Hiroki smiled at his family, and they held each other tight.
Kyoko smiled also, looking into her beloved's eyes. "Definitely no more ocean travel, Mr. Bradley," she croaked. Kenji kissed her and wordlessly agreed.
*
Godzilla moved purposefully onward. Inland, the corpse of Gezorah burned slowly on the horizon, filling the air with its smoke and its steam. Behind him lay the mass of rubble once called the Submarine Resort. The place had stunk of Quasar, giving Godzilla a target for his unvented rage. Still ahead lay the monster's final goal.
The trees had given way to hills. The hills soon became cliffs. The cliffs rose, until Godzilla stood before the giant stone facade that marked the cavern of the SeaGod. The mutant saurian's dorsal plates flashed with power as he unleashed the Atomfire, and smashed through the rocky surface of the cave!
Inside, the cavern was aglow with the light of the Spiritfire, the light of the ally. Part of the energy, Godzilla sensed, was human in nature. Part of it was not. The light focused and turned, shooting twin beams of brilliance deep into the cavern's interior. The beams came to rest upon the surface of the underground ocean, illuminating the spot where lay the enemy's spawn!
Corruscating slowly in their creche of magnetic energy, the baby Quasars pulsed and flashed. The Spiritfire also shifted, moving closer to the alien egg. The glowing mass of stellar force seemed to react to their presence, and cautiously, Godzilla approached. He knew then, the nascent life forms were about to hatch!
*
The village.
The natives welcomed the refugees from the resort with open arms. The staffers and guests made themselves as helpful as they could. For once, their mutual animosity was forgotten. They were too busy just surviving to fight.
Kenji watched over his sleeping bride. He had known her primarily as the demure scholar until now. She has turned out to be so much more. She risked her life for these people, and for him. "I love you," he whispered, kissing her smooth cheek.
"Mr. Bradley?" Riko and Saki were approaching, along with a small entourage of islanders. Ken was instantly mortified, they appeared to be bearing gifts. "How is she?" Saki inquired.
"Recovering I believe. Thanks to both of you. And Hiroki?"
"Our son sleeps also. You showed great courage today, Mr. Bradley, as has your wife," Riko began. "We wish to give you our thanks..." The attendants came forward, placing their strange offerings at the foot of Kyoko's resting mat. "Selga has few treasures left to offer. We hope these temple relics will keep you both in the favor of the SeaGod."
Ken studied the objects before him; A runestaff, a length of rope, a pair of slim flasks and a conch. All were decorated with the symbol of Mikki, the Spirit of the Sea. "Thank you," said Ken. "Thank you all. I, I'm afraid I have nothing I can offer in return."
"You have already given us the one thing we most wished for. You have returned to us our son," said Saki, bending to hug him.
"There is a deep faith here, in the magic of these totems," began Riko. "The staff is graven with the song of the SeaGod, as well as the conditions of its use." Riko too bent close now. "We believe you are not among those who would surely abuse these blessings. Do not prove us wrong." A clear yet cheerful warning. Kenji humbly smiled.
A commotion rose at the village's edge. A pair of tribesman yelling something like 'strangers', or 'soldiers', as a line of Defense Force jeeps appeared from the foliage. Instinctively, those who were armed all drew their weapons at once. "I want weapons slung!" Barked Captain Nakano, as the vehicles came screeching to a halt.
"Nakano!" The entire camp turned at Kenji's shout. "It's me, Bradley. Nobody shoot nobody!!"
"Ha ta, Bradley san!" The Captain was wide eyed. "How in the world did you wind up here, Bradley? And what did you do with Godzilla?"
Ken could not supress a laugh. "Do with him? I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but we last saw him heading for the resort. He was mighty pissed, too."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because we managed to take out his enemy ourselves, I suppose. Robbed him of his prey. Don't worry, Nakano, you'll hear the whole story," Ken assured him.
"Listen up!" The Captain barked. "I want all personell deployed to render assistance. There will be no more hostilities here." Slowly, everyone began to relax. The danger was past. Almost.
From the East came a rumble and a great crashing of stone. Then the flash, like lightning. Like fire. A dwarf mushroom cloud began to billow up from the horizon, evidence of what must have been some kind of sub-atomic blast!
"Hey, Nakano," Ken roared. "I think we just found Godzilla!"
*
The Spiritfire danced in the cavern of the SeaGod, flashing and frantic! The magnetic cradle had finally cracked, and the Yogspawn flowed free!
An evil stench assailed Godzilla's flaring nostrils. This was no offspring emerging from the field. It was a duplicate, a fission clone. Yog, the monster from space had been reborn!
Again, the alien images fill Godzilla's mind as the newborn makes contact. The creature was probing, even a slim foothold could allow Yog to imprint on the beast. It's first contact with a bioform establishing the newborns' base frequency. And first contacts with newborn Quasars always end with the chosen host's death!
"Godzilla, no!" Suzy screamed at the monster. It seemed distracted, interested perhaps, in this new form of Yog. It was losing control of its mind.
Quickly, the child uncoiled her rope, slip knotted a hasty loop, and hurled the line at the alien spawn! The throw made its mark, lassooing the stellar symbiont in a shining circle of Spiritfire! "Fight it, Godzilla. Fight it!" She screamed, pulling desperately on the line.
Godzilla could sense the ally's message. He could see the force of its struggle burning in the air around it. The Spiritfire burned around the enemy too, breaking its contact with his mind! Godzilla tapped into his own vast atomic mass, and focused. The triple dorsals flashed, then burned with a rising glow, generating a defensive plasma field around his giant form. He grabbed for the enemy, and tore it free from his flesh. The aliens screamed, trapped by the creatures claws!
Suzy took the slack and moved, entering the ring of boulder stones that had recently cradled the unborn Yog. The rock here was a unique conglomerate of isotopes and ores, creating a magnetically charged anomaly within the cavern walls. It was a natural force field. With the right power source to strengthen it, it could become the perfect Quasar trap!
"Godzilla!" She cried. "Put them back! Put them back in the egg!"
The ally flashed its meaning clearly, catching the beast's eye. Godzilla gripped the shifting mass in his energy enhanced claws, and plunged the Yog back into the pool from which it came. The monster could feel it now, the energy that danced among the stones. It seemed to intensify as his claws entered it. The Spiritfire flashed wildly around the alien now, speaking to him.
"Godzilla, charge the field!" Suzy screamed. The beast observed the ally's glow, considering its meaning. "You must trap the enemy here, your power can make the field unbreakable!" The monster paused, then responded with a deep and deafening bellow!
The subterranean depths shook with the sound, cracking through the very bedrock of the island! The Quasars surged, then fell still. The sonic force had knocked them out. The field grew weaker as Godzilla withdrew his massive paw and scowled. Holding his claws above the stones, the mutant saurian sparked a minute discharge. Lances of Atomfire arcing out and into the ring of rock. The field glowed brighter.
Suddenly, Yog awoke. The monster from space panicked and thrashed against the barrier. The struggle drawing a countersurge from Godzilla, the field expanding and contracting in a micro-storm of magnetic force! The alien was overwhelmed, its matrixes breaking down, caught in the grip of the elemental force that danced around it. As it died, cursing, it began a chain reaction of its own photonic essence that would blast the cavern, as well as the beast, apart!
*
The Defense Force convoy arrived at the site of the seacave. The cliff face had been leveled from treeline to shore. Nakano could see the Atomfire still arcing about the smouldering rubble, but where, he wondered, was Godzilla? "Well, Bradley, what do you think?"
"I'd have to say the Helio-7 blast must not have gotten all the creatures, but it looks like Godzilla did!"
Offshore, the ocean seethed and foamed as Godzilla rose triumphant from the sea! The enemy had blown itself to bits to escape him. The island was clean now, the long hunt had come to an end. With an eerie cry, the King of the Monsters proclaimed his dominance to the world. He turned then, and disappeared once more beneath the waves.
"There is a terrible beauty in that creature's voice," said Kyoko.
"The dragon is immortal," Saki professed. "It possesses secrets from beyond antiquity."
"Godzilla is not the only one with secrets here, is he, Mr. Bradley?" Nakano wasn't kidding. Something was nagging him about these two. They knew something they were not letting anyone else in on. Something that might just make the Captain's job a whole lot easier.
"I've given you everything I've got, Nakano. You know that. We're all searching for the same answers here. Honestly," said Ken.
"Believe him, Nakano," Hiroki spoke out. "These are two of the smartest and most honorable people I've ever met. They helped me find something I'd lost sight of long ago."
"Last time I saw you, you were the harbor drunk," Nakano replied cooly. "But something tells me, I can trust you."
"Trust is a wonderful thing, Captain," Kyo began. "But what we truly need is passage to Hokkaido."
"You are in luck, Mrs. Bradley. I just happen to be heading that way. Barring intervention by any more aliens or monsters of course!" Nakano laughed, and drove off down the shore. Those he had addressed agreed, it wasn't very funny.
