Part Two; POWERPLAY



Godzilla rises from strange waters. Before him lay some vast human hive. Its stench differed greatly from that of Asian cities, but was just as foul. He would leave this place immediately, if he could. But somehow, at the moment, his will was not his own.

What passed for sentience within his mutated reptilian brain watched with detachment as his physical body raged toward the shore. Strange, he could not understand why his target would be a single pair of humans. Stranger still, he knew exactly which ones they were.

Suddenly, a flash of Starfire hurtling toward him, and a mighty impact smashes Godzilla across the jaws! Whatever it was took a few of his teeth with it. Godzilla turns, searching for the foe, when he fealt the weight of the tiny thing atop his skull. A surge of Atomfire coursed quickly up the triple dorsals and along the scaly crest, striking the small attacker! He watched it fall burning from his head, and into the waters of the bay.



Below the waves. Starman took no comfort in the sea's cold embrace. This creature weilded a singular and powerful energy, and it hurt like hell!

The twin antennae aglow with anger, the Starman bursts burning from the waves! A halo of Starfire arcs, sparking from his head to his hands, focusing into a powerful beam and blasting back at the scaly giant! If he could manage to remove the control pod, to free the beast, there was a chance the creature would leave on its own. He hoped.



*



Ogeshewara.

"Nice move, Munabe. Now the whole squad's captured," Fuji spoke harshly to his teammate.

"That's just the good news," said Kazuki. "We couldn't get through to G-Force. They don't know we're in trouble."

Again, a pair of the aliens approach the immobilized soldiers, and one of them speaks; "I have just finished reviewing your psidata, Captain Tanaka. It seems you know our quarry personally."

"What quarry? What do you mean?" Asked the Captain.

"The Godslayers. The executioners of Yog. Kenji and Kyoko Bradley are their names," the creatures rage was fearful to behold. "They are the ones who must die!"

"The Bradleys?! I don't understand," said Tanaka.

"And you need not. You need only obey," the alien replied. "Prepare the humans. We may need to deploy them as well."



*



San Francisco.

The forcebolt burns into Godzilla's skull with the power of a billion billion stars, incinerating the Kartanan control pod! The giant saurian screams in pain, the rage coursing through him now fully his own. Instinctively, he blasts, a beam of thermonuclear fire exploding from his jaws, striking the tiny assailant head on! The two beings seem to pause for a moment, hovering on the brink of renewed violence, then both the King of the Monsters and the Stellar Crusader fall unconscious into the bay!

On the shore,a great cheer rises from the gathering crowd. There was applause and whistles, and even a few calling Starman's name.

"My God, Kenji. He did it!" Cried Kyoko. "That was amazing!"

"Yeah," Ken agreed. "Except for one thing. He's not coming back up."

Slowly, the realisation spread through the crowd, and the cheering stopped. A silence hung over San Francisco Bay, like a shroud. Nothing moved to break the waters surface. The battle was over, and the scene remained dead still.

"Um, is your friend gonna be okay?" Asked the Waitress from the Cafe. It seems she had stuck close by to catch the action.

Anna turned to the young woman, spotting the little greeting badge she wore. "Leslie, is it?" The waitress nodded affirmation. ""Leslie, do you know who that man was?"

"He said his name was Starman, right? Some kind of super-hero."

"Yes, my girl. Starman. Only one of the greatest of heroes," a single tear escaped Anna Bradley's eye. "Please, try not to forget him again."

"I, I won't. I promise," the waitress agreed, then slowly left the scene, returning to her small cafe. The rest of the crowd as well began to thin, dispersing back to the routines of their normal lives. For the Bradleys, however, this sort of thing was normal.

Behind them, a luminous flash of green, shifting quickly to red. Arcs of power flare across the field of living light, and it bursts! Their vision slowly adjusting from the sudden brilliance, the Bradleys could see a group of armored figures coming into focus. They were relieved to find them familiar ones.

"Tanaka!" Cried Kenji. "How the heck did you get here?!"

"You are still in great danger, Mr. and Mrs. Bradley. Please, let us take you to safety," Tanaka spoke flatly.

"Kenji, wait!" Kyoko yelled. "That flash just before they arrived, it was just like the one we saw when Godzilla appeared."

"You mean the aliens sent them?" Mikki growled at Ken's words, yapping twice in agreement.

"You will both come with us now," Tanaka repeated, pointing the business end of his Markalite at Ken.

"Mom, take good care of Mikki," Ken spoke, never taking his eyes off the enemy. Slowly, he and Kyo approached the enslaved squad, the dog still snarling fiercely at the men.

Tanaka nodded to Fuji to initialize the remote teleporter, but as soon as he had turned his head, Mikki leapt from Anna's arms and snatched the unit from Fujiko's hands! The Captain fired once at the dog before Kenji knocked him to the ground. Munabe stepped in, and with a quick kick, knocked out Kenji. Kyoko ran to help him, but Kazuki held her fast. The dog disappeared into the hilly streets.

Anna watched as the Captain motioned for Munabe to use the back up unit. She fealt scared, and angry, and very, very old. The device activated, green-flash-red, and they were gone. Then Anna Bradley stood alone, forcing herself not to cry.



Interlude Two





Osaka. Sato's quarters.

General Iwa had come through again, arranging for ten free days to allow Sato time to recover. Sato took advantage of the time, his first order of business being some much needed rest. The sedatives he bought worked like a charm.

That's when the dreams first began.

Long, brightly lit corridors. An antiseptic smell. A hospital. Sato stood outside his father's room. He was shaking again.

"Go in, Sato san," said Masayo, his aunt. "Go in and see your father." A cold fear creapt upon him as he slowly reached for the door. Reflexively, he withdrew his hand.

"Go on, boy," said his Uncle Komai. "Kirino has been waiting a long time for this."

Sato wanted to explain, to question, to speak, but his voice was not there. He girded himself, and opened the door.

Inside, it was very, very dark. The only sounds those of the life support equipment mingling with his father's labored breath. Even in the darkness, Sato could see the pocked and uneven masque Kirino's face had become. The cancer was raavaging the man, eating him alive. It was an unbearable sight.

"Father," the barest of whispers. "I tried to save you. I wanted only to make you well."

"You can do nothing to help me, Maki Sato," his father's voice! "I am already dead." Kirino's shrunken eyes grew large and bright. "I hate you, Sato." The eyes flared, lighting the room with an intense green glare. "I hate you for what you did. I hate you for what you are!" Kirino seethed. "I hate you!"

"No," Sato croaked, watching as not only Kirino's eyes began to change, but the rest of his body as well.

"I will never forgive what you have done, Sato," Kirino spat, his flesh now green and glowing. His body seemed to shift its shape, to liquify. He was melting!

"No!!" Sato screamed, waking shivering from the dream. Then he saw his own hands before him, a green and liquid mass.

"Noooo!!" He screamed again, this time, snapping truly out of sleep. His hands looked human again. Normal. The nightmare had ended.

He hoped.



*



San Francisco Bay.

A figure clad in gold and white floats motionless on the water's surface. The tides pull the body closer, and wash it upon the shore.

From the darkness, a smaller golden figure comes running toward the man, dropping the strange device it carried in its jaws. It is Mikki, now yapping and licking the face of the fallen Starman.

The Emissary from the Emerald World revives, slowly opening his eyes. A single cough clears his lungs of fluid, and he fills them once again with the atmosphere of the Earth. "Mikki!" He greets the pooch. "What a good girl! Thank you very much for helping me!"

The little dog responded, urgently communicating the message she knew he would understand. It was part of the legacy that made the man a hero; the ability to understand all the creatures of the Earth.

"Oh no. They have been taken?" Starman inquired. The dog confirmed it, running back to retrieve the device she had stolen from the enthralled soldier. Mikki presented it to Starman, hoping he would know what to do.

"You are right, little one. It is a Kartanan remote teleporter," the alien confirmed. "I believe it will bring us to where they have taken your friends."

Again, Mikki yaps her intentions.

"Godzilla?! And why exactly do you think Godzilla would help us?" He asked.

The dog's response was a seething glare.

"Ah, so. Revenge," the Starman surmised. "Good, then I will talk to the monster in terms it can understand. Sounds like a dangerous plan, Mikki girl. I like it!"



*



Ogeshewara.

In the center of the valley now stands the aliens' massive matter convertor. At its edge, the even larger assault ship. Inside, Kyoko scans her surroundings, Kenji immobile by her side. What she see's amazes her!

The room itself was unique in structure; the equipment and wall panels overlapped each other in layers. There wasn't a smooth, unbroken surface in sight. The place looked segmented, disjointed, much like the creatures who built it.

Kyoko watched them. Squat, crablike beings with tripedal locomotion and almost simian like forelimbs, save for the great jagged claw mounted from elbow to wrist. Their faces all eyeballs and mandibles set beneath a wide, hooded brow. She found herself wondering about their culture. Their science and beliefs. Then she remembered, they were going to kill her.

Straining her peripheral vision, Kyo saw a pair of the beings approach the still unconscious Kenji.

"I want to rend the shell-less worm right now, leader!" Kyo's heart sank at the creature's words, punctuated by the sharp clatter of its chitnous claws.

"Soon now, warrior," the leader spoke. "Their forms will serve us well, once we have destroyed their life-energy. What the Earthers call their souls. Ahh," it looked at Kyo. "This one is awake!" The aliens came closer, and her heart sunk again.

"We know you now, Yogsbane. We know you, Kyoko Bradley," spoke the Enthraller. "Now know you this; You and your man have broken cosmic law. You have slain a God."

It motioned at her, and she was free to speak. "We sought only to defend ourselves, our world. Where is the crime in that?"

"The children of Kartane are Yog's children! We alone hold the right to question the Father. To revere him, reject him. Surpass him, slay him..." the creature's claws clamped compulsively at the thought. "When you killed the Yog, you became greater than they. You stole my peoples destiny! That, Earther, is why you must now die."

Kyoko considered the alien's words. She thought, finding only one hope, one response; "Starman will stop you, monster!"



*



San Francisco Bay.

Godzilla snaps awake as the steady glow of Starfire washes over him. Regaining his footing, he calls a low and threatening growl at the fiery humanoid floating in the sea before him. Flashes of energy spark into patterns around the tiny form, and the monster knows, the being is trying to communicate.

"King of Monsters, hear me!" the tiny figure spoke. "I am the Starman. I am not your enemy!"

Godzilla howls, raging into the sea! Making it clear, he would be the judge of who is an enemy and who is not!

"The Enthrallers, the aliens who took control of you, they sent you after the Bradleys. Humans I believe you have encountered before."

The aliens. The pair of humans. Godzilla knew them both.

"My job was to protect the humans. Thanks to you, I have failed. The aliens have them now."

The aliens...

"They have yet to be dealt with, do you agree?"

Yes!

"Excellent! I know your power, Godzilla. You know mine. You know that it was I who freed you from the Enthrallers control. Teleport with me now to their nest, and we shall destroy them!"

The enormous saurian bellows his assent, dorsals flashing, and cleaves the surface of the bay with a burning beam of Atomfire!

The Starman smiles at his success, for which is the greater victory; Leaving an opponent you've defeated, or gaining one as an ally?!