Chapter IX: The Battle Begins
:Northern Pennsylvania, Allegheny Plateau:
"Okay, we have a visual." The American pilots voice came over the comm system.
A minute later, Takahashi saw it as well.
At least a dozen helicopters hovered a safe distance away from the Tsunagara. Buzzing around them, and zipping back and forth between tall, rolling green hills were jets, all American. His was the only JSDF plane left in the sky, all the others had turned around back in Florida.
The Tsunagara's head was down, casually munching on the trees. The US military had stopped their fight against the creature long ago. As long as they didn't harass it, the beast seemed to ignore them, and did a pretty good job of migrating around larger cities and towns. There was some damage, but no where near as to what had been originally estimated.
Behind them, Gojira lumbered closer, not quite moving as fast as he usually did. Takahashi could tell he was tired, hungry. This isn't going to work...
The Tsunagara was bigger in person than what he had seen from feeds and pictures. It seemed to be easily three times bigger than Gojira, and no less hideous. Although it looked healthier now, its scales gleaming brighter, the clumps of feathers a bit brighter, more vibrant looking, it was still a hideous beast with its long, thin neck, tiny head and long, muscular arms and gigantic hands.
There is no way Gojira is going to win this fight...

The sounds suddenly stopped. He was glad for that, but he was hungry, tired...
And something smelled very dangerous.
Rising over the crest of the hill, he sniffed the air, glancing down at it. A strange, new monster, larger than himself. He could tell by its scent that this was what had caused all the destruction behind him. But this creature wasn't from here, from anywhere on the planet. Although even this place smelled unfamiliar to him, it was still more familiar than this creature's exotic scent.
Growling in hunger, he began to turn away, to the northwest. He could smell large waters. There would be food there.

Takahashi growled to himself in the copilots chair.
The plane captain nodded.
Takahashi had thought of that. He didn't bother mentioning the fact that there was a good chance it wouldn't work, that the kaiju would end up retaliating on the shooters instead of turning on each other.
The pilot continued.
I supose. Takahashi sighed, watching as Gojira continued to walk away from Tsunagara. Slowly, he flipped on the ship-to-ship comm headset he wore. "Captain Brown, this is General Takahashi. I have a suggestion..."

The strange flying things began to buzz around her. She was a bit wary of them, but continued on with her feeding. She would need her strength when she found the Young One.
Suddenly, there was a loud sound as pain erupted in her flank. Crying out, she threw her head up, watching as the flying things began attacking her.
Evil things.
Swinging up both of her long, muscular arms, she caught one of the things, crushing it slightly, throwing it towards the other one. It barely hit it, yet the other object began to flip wildly out of control, landing in a burning heap not to far away from its brother.
Loud, angry cries came up from over the next hill, and she guessed that it was from the other creature that she had spotted moments before. It sounded as if it were in pain.
-Help. I must help it.- She thought to herself, taking off at a surpassingly fast gallop in its direction.

Gojira missed again. He was too tired, couldn't seem to focus on the planes that were shooting at him.
One came in close, and he leaped at it, smacking it with a giant clawed hand. Roaring in triumph, he turned, watching the other two regroup and come at him, small licks of fire spitting from their artificial wings.
The ground shook, and he paused a second to look, watching as the strange being galloped towards him.
-Leave me alone,- he growled at it, turning his attention back to the humans who were attacking him.
With an irritated cry, he opened his maw wide, releasing a horrific wave of thermonuclear atom fire. It caught one of the planes, which quickly crashed into the landscape below. The other veered off, barely in time, skimming his body and nearly clipping his shoulder.
And then sudden, he was knocked off his feet.
The creature mewed in triumph, furling and unfurling its strange tail. It had smashed the plane into his shoulder with one of its hands.
-I said, leave me alone!- Gojira roared, climbing back to his feet. In a fit of rage, he released another wave of atom fire, hitting the creature straight in the chest.
It moaned it pain, bringing up its large arms to block it. Instead, it left horrible burns on its arms.
Shutting his mouth, Gojira growled warningly, turning away.

It was a threat. She was only trying to help, but instead, it attacked her. There was a chance, then, that it could attack her Young One.
A mothers first responsibility was to protect her child.
A loud, high pitched cry rose from deep inside her. Pushing off with all four legs, she leaped, pouncing on the creatures back.
It roared back at her in shock, immediately trying to turn over. Before it had the chance, she began to beat it with her hands.
The creatures back suddenly began to glow, an unbearable warmth emitting from the spines on its back. With a strange sort of yelp, she backed off.
That gave the creature enough time to turn over, attacking her with another wave of unbearable heat and pain.

Gojira climbed to his feet, rage building up inside of him. He didn't think it would attack him back, especially the way that it had. Growling, he dove at it, grabbing at the scrawny neck. The creature mewed in pain, trying to pry his arms away with its enormous hands.
And then it hit him.
Blood sprayed from his shoulder as the creatures normally curled tail unfurled, the sharp point driving deep into his shoulder. He released his grip on its neck, staggering backwards, trying to pull out the end of the tail. With a terrible jerk of pain, the creature pulled it out itself, raising its arms high.
He took the opportunity to dive straight at the creature, sinking claws and teeth past cold, hard scales and into flesh, pulling.
The creature cried out shrilly in pain, grabbing the back of Gojira's head, but he pulled away on his own, huge chunks of bloody flesh yanked out, some bits stuck to his claws.
A horrible, metallic taste flooded into his mouth as a strange, blue substance began to flow around the wounded areas. He rubbed his paws against his snout, trying to get the sticky, blue stuff off.
The creature sank to all four of its knees as red blood gushed from the wounds and began to mix with the blue substance.
It was down and weakened! Focusing as hard as he could past the hunger and weariness, Gojira released another spray of atom fire, watching in silence as the creature screamed and writhed in pain, unable to rise to its feet as blood ran from its wounds, the fire enveloping it.

She was dying, she could feel it, but she couldn't! Her Young One was still at risk, wasn't safe. She couldn't die here, now. And yet, she had never fought before, not like this, against whatever this creature before her was. But she no longer had the strength to keep going.
She suddenly stop her cries of pain as a strange warmth and numbness flowed through her. Closing her eyes, all she saw was her home, shadowed in the shade of blue.