Garris sat in Main Control with Kyoko. Suddenly an alarm sounded. Garris had used instruments from the T-ship and integrated them into the Ogasawara main-frame. He quickly checked sensor readings. "A temporal warp is forming above the island. It's got to be Madison," he said.
On the main monitor, there was a flash of energy and the Mothership appeared. "Manabe to all squadrons, target has appeared over sector 5. Stand-by." Then she switched on the com unit. "This is Kyoko Manabe of Ogasawara Main Control to unidentified craft, please identify."
A faint beam of energy streaked from the Mothership and homed in on Kyoko's transmission. There was a faint glow in the center of the control room that began to take the form of a man. Madison stood there, looking very smug with himself. Armed guards pulled their guns and advanced on Madison.
Garris turned to Kyoko and said, "He's not really here. It's a hologram."
Kyoko motioned the guards away.
"Ah, so this is where you got off to Garris." Madison turned to Kyoko. "As you know by now, I'm Madison and I have plans for your little island here, and Japan."
"You're not going to get away with it. We'll stop you," said Kyoko.
"You can try." And with that, Madison's image dissappeared.
"Manabe to all missile silos and lazer cannons. Lock on target and fire."
Missiles streaked up into the sky and converged on the Mothership. Suddenly they exploded before hitting it. Lazers locked on and fired, their energy was being absorbed by the Mothership's barrier shield, which became faintly visible as a bubble around the Mothership.
Garris looked at Kyoko and said, "The shield is too strong for your weapons. M-11 has increased it's strength somehow. Better let me signal Emmee and Pope."
Kyoko hesitated, frowned, then said, "Do so."
MechaGhidorah and MG2 appeared above the Mothership and began blasting, but their energy beams were absorbed by the shield also.
Madison activated the Dimension Tide in the time-stream. Slowly it began pulling the other time-streams closer. Waves of time displacement fanned out from the Mothership, jolting MechaGhidorah and MG2. Down below, all across the islands, there were flashes of light as monsters from the other time-streams began to appear. Miki shuddered. She felt the cold mind of the Orga beast as it materialized on one of the smaller islands.
In the control room, various monitors showed the new monsters as they appeared. One showed the Orga that Miki had felt. Another showed a great dragonfly creature. Several other Godzilla-like monsters appeared also. But they were too far away to take an active part in the main battle.
"What's he doing?", asked Kyoko as she saw several more monsters appear on the monitors.
"I'm not sure. Madison must be gathering all the monsters, along with the Godzillas, from the alternate time-lines. Then he'll destroy them and the ones you have here already at the same time. He doesn't want anything to stand in his way. His original plan was to gather all the Godzillas and use the rift to absorb them."
Madison landed the Mothership. Emmee and Pope continued to blast the shield, but it was useless. They landed not too far away.
A flash of light and a Godzilla appeared. It was very green with heavily armoured skin and the fins on it's back were long and sharp, reminding Miki of swords. An image flashed in her mind, a samaurai. Yes, Samaurai Godzilla. It roared, looked around and saw MechaGhidorah. The fins on it's back began to glow a bright yellew.
"He is building power to blast us," said M-11. Emmee centered on Samaurai Godzilla and was about to fire, when Miki shouted, "WAIT!"
Miki touched it's mind, trying to let Samaurai Godzilla know that the two metallic Ghidorahs were friends and that the saucer shaped ship was the real enemy. It continued to build power, then suddenly whipped around and fired an incredibly powerful heat-ray at the Mothership. Wild energy flickered around the shield, then faded away. It fired again, to be joined by another beam.
"Godzilla-san!" exclaimed Miki. He stood on top of a cliff, firing his heat-ray too. The shield glowed. The Mothership shook slightly from the impact to the shield.
"FIRE!" shouted Emmee. Beams from MechaGhidorah and MG2 converged on the shield, adding their power to the double blasts from the two Godzillas.
Madison held the arms of his chair tightly as the Mothership shook harder. "Now, M-11," ordered Madison.
M-11activated the Dimension Tide unit in the hanger above. It formed the time-space rift over the Mothership. There was a flash of light. As the light faded, there was, in it's place, a blackness, like a hole in the air. A wind started. Air began rushing in from all directions, converging on the Mothership, where it was being consumed by the rift.
Time displacement blurred everything for a moment. Miki felt another Godzilla coming. She gasped, "No."
A ball of energy crackled and grew near the Mothership. The energy took shape and revealed SpaceGodzilla. He looked quickly around and fired it's heat-ray at Godzilla-san. With a quickness that stuned Miki, Godzilla-san ducked and rolled, dodging the blast. He jumped back to his feet and blasted SpaceGodzilla, knocking him back.
Samaurai Godzilla leaped at SpaceGodzilla, tackled him and sent him falling backwards into the shield surrounding the Mothership. The shield flared brightly, then began feeding off SpaceGodzilla's power. The great crystals on his shoulders glowed furiously as SpaceGodzilla tried to use his power to fly, but the shield had him in it's grip.
SpaceGodzilla's roar was long and drawn out, then slowly died away as most of it's energy was drained. The crystals stopped glowing as the shield released him. With a great thundering sound, he fell to the ground, unconscious.
There was another flash of light off to the side. Another Godzilla was coming. "GODZILLA!" shouted Miki with joy. This was the Godzilla she had known. But as he materialized, Emmee's heart sank. His eyes glowed bright red. Plumes of smoke poured out of cracks in his near invulnerable hide. Parts of his body glowed red and yellow. Even though Miki managed to keep the tears back, her eyes glassed over. 'Noooo'. Another flash and Godzilla Junior stood beside his father. But this was the half-grown Junior, not the adult he had come to know.
"That Godzilla is emitting massive amounts of radiation." Said M-11. "Miki?" he asked, turning toward her.
"Yes. Madison has pulled him from a time before he m - melted down," Miki forced out the words.
"Madison IS insane," said Emmee viciously.
Godzilla grunted in confusion. Then he saw the Mothership. He remembered destroying one before. Now there was another. Godzilla flared with energy and let loose a powerful blast at the Mothership. The shield sparked and wavered for a second.
Madison swung the rift slowly around the MotherShip. As it drifted over the ground, it pulled dust, dirt and trees out by the roots. Sparks and flashes of light shimmered over the rift's surface as debris went into it. It approached Samaurai Godzilla and Godzilla-san, but they easily avoided the torrent of wind that tried to pull them in. Madison tried several more times, but the rift moved too slowly.
Godzilla powered up and was about to fire again when another wave of time displacement swept out from the Mothership. There was a flash in between the Mothership and Godzilla that slowly began to take shape.Godzilla stepped back.
"NO!" Shouted Miki in horror. "It's him. The demon, Oni Godzilla."
The light faded and in it's place stood Oni Godzilla. It's pupiless eyes glowed slightly as it looked around and saw the other Godzillas. It roared it's anger and defiance at it's other incarnations.
The fins on it's back glowed and a blinding heat-ray lashed out, striking Godzilla-san and swinging around, it hit Samaurai Godzilla. They both screamed in pain and fell.
Miki almost screamed out loud. She felt their pain.
Raw energy flared around Godzilla as he powered up and fired at Oni Godzila.
Emmee and M-11 aimed and fired. Pope fired at the same time. Oni Godzilla screamed and shrieked as the blasts hit it. It staggered back and fell up against the shield surrouding the Mothership. Energy crackled as the shield tried to absorb Oni Godzilla's power too, but it pulled away easily.
"Incredible," exclaimed Pope.
Oni Godzilla started to fire it's heat-ray at the Mothership. The fins on it's back began to glow, then slowly dimmed. The monster could feel the rage and hatred from Madison.
Madison could see Oni Godzilla outside, through the big viewport. "Yes!" he shouted. "You're different from the others, just as I thought. You want to destroy Japan as much as I do, don't you!"
Oni Godzilla could not hear Madison, but it could sense the emotions and the intent of the man.
"What's going on over there?" Emmee heard Pope ask. She looked at his image in the holo-viewer and said, "I have no idea."
Miki suddenly gasped and said, "It knows. It knows what Madison's trying to do. AND IT'S GOING TO HELP HIM!"
"We'll see about that," said Emmee defiantly and fired again at Oni Godzilla.
Madison continued moving the rift around the Mothership, in hopes that it would respond better.
Oni Godzilla fired a mighty blast at MechaGhidorah. Inside, several panels sparked. Emmee almost lost control, but M-11 quickly began rerouting command lines. The viewers blanked out for a moment. Madison moved the rift up behind MechaGhidorah. Emmee didn't see it coming. Godzilla knew that the small, frail human that had touched his mind was in this one-time enemy. He took several bounding steps and leaped, hitting MechaGhidorah and knocking it out of the way.
Emmee got MechaGhidorah back under control and swirled around, thinking it was an attack, ready to blast. But she quickly stopped when she saw what Godzilla had done. The rift was pulling in great amounts of air and debris. Godzilla was caught in the suction. Suddenly he lost his footing and was pulled into the blackness. A flash of light and he was gone. Godzilla Junior leaped to try and catch him, but it was too late. In mid-leap, he too was pulled into the blackness.
"GODZILLA!" screamed Miki.
Emmee turned and said urgently, "They're not dead. They're in the time-stream. But they won't last long with that other Dimension Tide unit collapsing it."
Suddenly, Miki glowed and was gone.
Oni Godzilla fired a blast at MechaGhidorah. A shower of sparks and metal erupted from it's chest. MechaGhidorah slowly toppled to the ground.
"EMMEE!" shouted Pope. He made MG2 leap at Oni Godzilla, metal claws scrapping Oni Godzilla's side and leg. MG2's right neck wrapped around Oni Godzilla's neck, another around his arm. Oni Godzilla roared and tried to turn his head to fire at MG2. The huge clamp in the front of MG2 snapped open and locked on to Oni Godzilla. Pope activated the anti-gravs and lifted Oni Godzilla into the air, heading towards the rift that was now above the Mothership.
MechaGhidorah stood up and turned. Inside, Emmee saw MG2 lifting Oni Godzilla towards the black hole. "Mr. POPE!" shouted Emmee, "Stop! You've got to change your course!"
But it was too late. MG2 dived into the blackness, still carrying Oni Godzilla. There was a brilliant flash of light and they were gone.
"Emmee, he did it to save us and give us a chance," said M-11.
Miki floated in the time-stream. Godzilla and Junior floated a good ways off.
Miki felt it coming: the demon. Godzilla and Junior felt her fear and began looking around, growling. There was a flash of light. The light faded and revealed MG2 and Oni Godzilla locked in battle. Oni Godzilla blasted MG2.
'NO!' Miki lashed out with her mind at the demon. It paused, shook it's massive head and looked in Miki's direction. The great mouth opened and Miki could see it begin to glow. Before Miki could scream, twin heat-rays hit Oni Godzilla. It roared in pain.
Pope could see Miki on the viewer. He made all three heads of his robot grab Oni Godzilla's tail. Activating the anti-gravs, he spun MG2 around and slung the demon towards the other two Godzillas. Then he locked his teleport beam onto Miki and beamed her on board.
Miki materialized in the control room, behind Pope's chair. His chair turned and Pope said urgently, "Hurry, child. Strap yourself in. We've got to get back."
"No! We've got to stay and help them!" she insisted.
"But - -" Pope started to say, then stopped. He saw the look of concern on her face and couldn't bring himself to force her to leave her friends. Then he thought of Miki's psychic abilities. If she felt they needed to stay, there must be a good reason to.
"Oh no!" she gasped, pointing to the viewer. Pope turned back and saw that Oni Godzilla had Godzilla in a death hold, it's jaws around around Godzilla's neck. Energy began to flow from Godzilla.They watched Oni Godzilla begin to glow. The fires that raged in Godzilla were being absorbed into the demon.
Junior gave a short blast that propelled him towards the two battling giants. He came up behind Oni Godzilla, dodged the furiously glowing fins and reached out, grabbing it's side. Once there, Junior began to claw and rip visciously at the wounds already caused by MG2's metallic claws. Oni Godzilla roared in pain and released it's hold on Godzilla. Swinging it's arm down, it caught Junior by his fins and pushed him away.
Godzilla looked normal now, except for the cracks in his armoured skin. He swung his massive tail up and began pounding Oni Godzilla's head. It was dazed from the now uncontrolable energy raging through his body, Junior's biting, and the blows to its' head. Oni Godzilla burned from within, glowing brighter and brighter. It's skin was cracking and splitting, smoke started seeping out of them.
"My God!", exclaimed Pope.
Miki could see the other time-streams merging around her. But the Dimension Tide wouldn't stop there. She knew it would continue absorbing the time-streams and Earth would be no more.
Pope was busily checking readouts and scan reports. "I found it, the other Dimenion Tide unit," he said as he activated another viewer and zoomed in. It stood out sharply against the blackness of the time-sink. Other sensor readings began coming in. Pope read over them and turned to Miki. "We've got to leave, Miki," he said regretfully. "That one you call Oni Godzilla is going to detonate in a couple of minutes. Apparently, it can't handle the energy it's absorbed."
Suddenly Miki had a flash of insight and she knew what had to be done. "Wait," she said. "Let me try something." She reached out with her mind and touched Godzilla. Godzilla felt her familiar presence. He turned his head at her urging and finally saw the Dimension Tide as a speck of light against the blackness. Godzilla soon realized what Miki wanted him to do.
Godzilla reached out, grabbed Oni Godzilla and slung it towards the blackness. Then he and Junior blasted Oni Godzilla, the force of their blasts accelerated Oni Godzilla's speed and helped push them further away.
As Oni Godzilla fell into the time-sink, Miki said urgently, "We've got the get back, now! And we've got to take them with us."
"Understood", said Pope. He flew near to Godzilla and Junior. Both of them reached out and clung to MG2. Suddenly the time-sink blazed in a soundless concussion of light as Oni Godzilla detonated.
Emmee had been blasting at the Mothership, but it's shield still held. Suddenly she stopped. M-11 looked at her. She sat there, not moving. "Emmee?"
Emmee shook her head. "It's Miki, they did it. They destroyed the other Dimension Tide unit, but the time-sink is still there, still growing." She turned sharply to the viewer where she could see Garris in the control room. "Garris!"
He was taken aback by the hatred in her voice. "I don't understand. The time-sink should have imploded." He thought for a moment, then said, "The rift here must still be linked to the time-sink, maintaining it somehow. If we can destroy the rift, that might destroy the time-sink too. Madison must have had M-11 make changes to the Dimension Tide after they got rid of me, so I couldn't use what I knew of it to stop them."
"Destroy it? How?"
Garris quickly checked some readouts, then said, "Overload it, give it more energy than it can handle. I think the unit in the time-stream allowed Madison to survive all our attacks. There's no way I can see that the shield could have lasted as long as it has. The energy that went into the shield must have been transfered by the Dimension Tide thru the rift. From there it went into the other unit and then was dispersed into the time-stream."
"You'd better be right about this," Emmee said angrily. She began firing at the rift itself.
"Emmee," began Garris urgently, "we have no choice now. It may be too late already!"
Emmee shoke her head defiantly, "No! We can't give up now!"
The other Godzillas saw what she was doing and added their fire-power. At first, the blackness absorbed the massive amount of energy pouring into it, then it began to glow. One at a time, each of the Godzillas would stop, pausing long enough to power up, then continued to blast away.
Inside the Mothership, Madison cursed fluently. M-11 had been unsuccessful in his attempts to restore contact with the unit in the time-sink.
"Sir," began M-11, "with the other unit off-line, there is nowhere for the energy pouring into the Dimension Tide to go. I would advise that we return to the time-stream and regain control of the time-sink before proceeding further."
"NO!" snapped Madison. "We go to the next phase, NOW! Lift off and begin enlarging the rift as soon as we're at a safe distance. That should help it handle the extra energy." ordered Madison.
"Yes sir."
As the Mothership rose into the air, the rift moved under it. It following the Mothership into the sky, but stopped at about a thousand feet up. Emmee took off after Madison.
Kyoko had been watching the monitors scattered across the islands. The monsters that lived here were battling the new monsters that had appeared. When she saw the Mothership rising into the air, she got an idea. Suddenly she said into the com unit, "Emmee, wait." She turned to Garris and said, "You said that the shield around the ship transfers energy to the rift, right?" Garris nodded. "Now that it's in open air space, we can use our lazers on it, to help overload the rift."
Garris looked at her, amazed, then said, "You're right. Emmee, did you hear?"
"Yes," she answered as she landed MechaGhidorah.
MG2 appeared just above the ground and landed beside MechaGhidorah. As Godzilla and Junior stepped away, they saw what the others were doing and added their power. Pope opened fire too.
Overhead, brilliant lazer beams bombarded the shield of the Mothership. The Mothership shook and vibrated from the strain. "Begin enlarging the rift, now!" shouted Madison.
The rift began to grow slowly. The MechaGhidorahs and Godzillas backed up, keeping ahead of the now tornado-like wind that the rift was causing. But their barrage of heat-rays and energy beams continued.
Circuits in the Dimension Tide began to short out. M-11 and the other androids were trying to fix the damage to the over-loaded circuits. Madison was swiftly loosing control of the Dimension Tide. Suddenly the unit in the vast hanger bay began to heat up and glow. Massive bolts of energy jumped from it to the walls and into the wiring, fusing and shorting out everything. Instead of imploding, the rift flared and began to grow larger.
Overhead, the shield around the Mothership collapsed and the lazers cut huge gashes across it's hull. Several huge explosions rocked the Mothership. It slowly tilted and began to fall towards the steadily expanding blackness.
"Everyone get away!" shouted Pope over the com unit.
Miki sent the command to all the Godzillas too. They all turned and bounded away from the rift. MechaGhidorah and MG2 leaped into the sky.
"It's too late!" screamed Emmee. On a monitor she saw the Mothership explode just as it fell into the rift.
There was a blinding flash as the rift absorbed the energy and accelerated it's growth. Shockwaves went out in all directions, knocking down all the Godzillas and sending the two MechaGhidorahs tumbling thru the air. Instead of the rift imploding, it split wide open. In seconds the rift absorbed the Ogasawara chain of islands and with lightning speed the blackness spread across the Earth - - -
"Godzilla is the key Miki. Together, you will set things right"
Miki's mind was in the universal time-stream. Thru a hightened sense of awareness she had never dreamed of, she saw the different time-streams of the space-time that was the Earth being swallowed by the time-sink. Miki tried to calm herself and focused her mind. She remembered seeing the blackness rush in all directions, consuming everything in it's path.
"You must bring the parting threads of the fabric of time together into a new harmony that will save the Earth and the future."
She was afraid. Somehow, she knew what she had to do, but she did not have the power.
- - - 'Godzilla?' - - -
She knew none of the Godzilla's could actually think at her in words, but the feeling, the intent, was the same as if they could. It was not one specific voice or mind she heard either. It was as if all the Godzilla's had merged and become one mind, one focused power, that felt her desperate need and wanted to help.
- - -Miki and the Godzilla-mind merged, became one, and dived into the time-sink - - -
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
- - - The rift had almost consumed the entire world. Suddenly, the rift began to shrink, to implode in on itself. As it did, waves of space-time distortion rippled outward, spreading to encompass the whole Earth. There was a nova-bright flash, a mighty thundering that shook the foundation of the world. Space-time collapsed, ended, then renewed itself.
Miki awoke, got coffee and went out on her balcony. Her house was on the side of one of the Ogasawara mountains, not far from the sea. The morning air was a little cool, but refreshing. Down below, she could see Junior and Minya playing in the lagoon. Their fathers lay on the shore, watching. She looked up and saw Rodan and Fire Rodan gliding over the island. Scattered here and there across the islands, she sensed the other Godzillas and monsters as they awakened to this new day.
Miki remembered that moment when she and the Godzilla-mind joined and went into that horrid blackness. But the memory of what she saw, what she did, was gone. At that point, she was no longer Miki, she had become something more, something so powerfull, so beyond her comprehension that now her mind couldn't hold it all. But that was okay. She looked fondly down at the two Godzillas below and thought to herself, 'It doesn't matter. All I know is that we did it, together.'
Kyoko sat at her console in main control, overseeing the work being done on the island that had been renamed Omega Island. Several of the new monsters had been placed there. It was found that these creatures were too dangerous and had to be isolated away from the other, less aggressive monsters. Work crews had just finished the new force barrier that would contain them. Kyoko was still amazed at the number of different Godzillas that now lived across the islands. There were at least six definate versions of Godzilla and several Godzilla-like monsters. There were even duplicates of some of the other monsters as well.
Many of the personnel on the islands, including Kyoko, had been very disoriented for at least several days after time reasserted itelf. They had two, sometimes three different memories of the past. Garris theorized that as the time-lines merged, the versions of Kyoko and the others that lived in those time-lines, had somehow merged also. Reports from Japan showed that this occurance was very widepread across the world, but that luckily, memories were now settling down.
One truly amazing thing was that several new islands had been added to the Ogasawara Island chain. Among them was Infant Island. Mothra now lived there with the other Mothras that had appeared and the Infant Islanders couldn't be any happier.
Kyoko looked over at Dr. Otani. He had been killed in the Kilaak attack, but in this new time-line, he still lived. Kyoko remembered when she first saw him and almost began crying. It was so good to see him again. In another time-line, the Kilaak war never happened. When the time-lines merged, Dr. Otani and the others that had died appeared, coming from the other time-lines. She had insisted that he resume his position as head of Ogasawara. He accepted only under the condition that they be co-administraters. All in all, this new world was turning out to be full of surprises. Kyoko smiled and went back to work.
M-11 sat at his console and finished his report for the United Nations Science Committee. He, Emmee, Pope, and Garris had decided to stay here on Monster Island. The future they had known was gone now, replaced by whatever this new time-line had in store.
"Very thorough M-11", said Pope, who had helped some.
"Sir", began M-11, "Is time now stable?"
"As best as I can figure, yes. There is now one time-line. Even though it's a combination of the others, it's stable."
Pope sat quietly for a moment, thinking of what the Cosmos had told Miki. 'Yes, my child. I don't know how, but you saved us.' At that moment when the rift expanded and swallowed MG2, he heard Miki cry out, turned and looked at her. She practically glowed and he could feel the power that was coming from her. That was all he could remember. But now he was certain that Miki had somehow saved them all.
"But sir," said M-11.
Pope barely heard M-11, "Um, yes?"
"What if there were, will be, other missions to the past, that will try to change history again?"
Pope sat for a bit and thought, then said with a smile, "Only time will tell, my boy. Remember, 'Time and Tide wait for no man.' "
