Part Two
Dawn in Osaka. Inside what was once the nerve center of G-Force Command. Munabe escorts Yukio into a vast, unused submarine bay.
"This," he announced. "Is our transport. The Bushido Maru." The ship seemed relatively small for its purpose, perhaps forty feet wide, nearly twice that in length. It was bullet shaped, roughly. Its narrow, flattened deck curving gracefully down into a wide, blunted prow.
"I suppose this beauty serves as an airship as well?"
"Actually no, Saegusa san. More of a hovercraft. Come, let us enter, and prepare." Munabe had used up every contact, every resource, to access this ship and its deadly payload. His bullets serving as well as his bribes. As always, his main weapon was ARES. The Nexus was shielding him. Making him invisible, undetectable. Almost like the mutant Devilfish had become. The irony of it struck him, and he laughed at the thought. Inside now, he began activating the onboard systems.
"Can I assist you, General?" Asked Yukio.
"Not yet, Saegusa san. The ship was designed for easy use. We will be on-line momentarily. Please, sit here at the interface console."
Yukio sat, and Munabe took the helm beside her. He opened the small case he had brought with him, and withdrew two strange looking devices. He passed one of them to Yukio. "What are these?" She inquired.
"Modems. They will link us to the ARES net. Please insert it like so," he pushed the device into a slot in the console, and Yukio did the same. Instantly, the ship sprang to life, startling her. "It's alright, Saegusa san! ARES, are you with me?"
'Affirmative.' The machine replied from the craft's intercom.
"Excellent! Give me an onboard status."
'Bushido Maru systems all activated and on-line,' ARES replied.
"We are ready to begin then?" Munabe looked at Yukio.
"Ready," she replied.
"ARES, commence launch. Hold on Saegusa san, we have begun!"
Yukio glared at the General, praying it would all soon be over.
* * *
Eiji had gone straight to Yukio's apartment. There was no answer, so he let himself in, realizing he was too late. His mother was already gone.
Outside, he could see the old man across the street was keeping an eye on the place. Or on him. Eiji focused, and the man's worn fedora flew from his head. Startled, the old man hurried after the rolling chapeau. TK could be so useful on occasions!
Apparently, Munabe had chosen to ignore the order to delay the mission. Yukio's absence confirmed it. He could not go to ARES for help, but then neither could the Cabal. The Nexus was Munabe's toy now. No, there was only one place left he could go...
* * *
Deep within the Regasala trench, the Devilfish lolls bloated on the ocean floor. All around it, the sea has emptied of life, avoiding the area as if it were filled with poison. Viewing the scene of accumulated garbage and rotting flesh, one would not hesitate to testify that it is.
A distant tremor rumbles through the ground, and the Devilfish stirs. Again the sea floor shakes and subsides. The immense octopus is wary now, its instincts alerting it to danger. It sluices forth from the debris as the terrain erupts with sudden volcanic fury! An enormous gash rips wide the earth, venting plumes of sulfuric gasses. The ocean boils as magma spews forth, forming a cone of molten ash. The Devilfish lies caught between its curiosity and its urge to flee, as a massive paw rises and grips the rim of the cone. The cephalopod shields its eyes as the trench is filled with an intense blast of light, and ghostlike, the monster Godzilla rises steaming from the magma and into the sea!
* * *
"General, I think I feel something happening," said Yukio. The Bushido Maru had been cruising the depths for hours. Hours in which Yukio had begun to see through Munabe's pretenses. He had broken into battlesong in a peak of elation, then sunk back into a grim mood. He was acting like a man who has nothing left to lose. Such men were dangerous, sometimes even mad. Determined not to slip into panic, Yukio knew she had no choice but to cooperate, lest Eiji and her students suffer as well.
"Excellent! ARES, are you reading anything?" Asked the General.
'Sensors registering increase in radiation levels, as well as volcanic and psionic activity. Unable to locate source of phenomena, although the Psionic surge has been pinpointed as manifesting from within the Bushido Maru. Its source is Yukio Saegusa.'
"I believe you have found him," said Munabe. "Now, can you lead us there?"
Yukio tensed, concentrating. "I cannot. It is as if the energy surrounds us, almost a part of the sea. I am sorry, General."
"It's alright, Saegusa san. I have come prepared," Munabe hit a sequence of controls, and the ship's forward motion stopped. "ARES, maintain position." He stood, and took another strange component from his case.
"Saegusa san," the General began, attaching the device to the ARES modems. "Yukio. This is a psionic interface lattice. It functions on much the same principle as the internal units which allow me to control these artificial legs." Munabe was attempting a reassuring tone. He wasn't very good at it. "It will serve to process the biomagnetic field generated by your psilink, and convert it into electronic impulses." Munabe completed the primary connections, then unfolded a slim head band. He passed it to Yukio. "The Nexus will use those impulses to create a program that should be able to mirror your psychic connection, establishing a permanent electronic fix on the beast."
Yukio considered Munabe's words, as well as the device she now held in her hand. She had gone far beyond any fear or trepidation toward the man. Beyond even anger. "General?"
"Yes, Yukio?"
"General, you have made it quite clear to me how important this mission is to you. I have agreed to aid you for the sake of both my son and my students. I am prepared to fulfill my obligations to your cause, as I know you will fulfill yours to mine."
"You are a most noble woman, Yukio Saegusa. You would make any commander proud, as has your late husband, as has your son." The General was moved by the woman's conviction, and bowed before her.
"However," she continued. "I have one final obligation here. One which I must now make clear to you."
"Go on, Yukio."
"I have realized that the Council has had no part in sanctioning our activities here. I believe you would go to any length to reach your objective. You would disobey orders. You would lie. You would even kill. I believe it was not only your body left scarred by the monster, but your mind as well."
Munabe remained expressionless as he listened to her, his face betraying no emotion at her words.
"General, I promise you, if anything untoward happens to my students or my son because of your quest for revenge, somehow I will be there, to see that you pay."
"Honorable, and direct," sighed Munabe. "Again, Yukio, I salute you." Munabe bowed, and Yukio placed the lattice across her brow, affixing it from temple to temple. Munabe held the last of the connecting lead wires ready.
"General, one final thing," she looked the soldier dead in the eye now. "Don't call me Yukio." There. That got an expression out of him.
* * *
The Institute.
Eiji had been hoping to avoid the watchers, but the watchers were already there. No use being subtle now. He parked at the main entrance, and went inside.
The school was silent, empty. Eiji prayed no real trouble had occurred. Up the stairs, the door to his mother's office was ajar. Slowly, he entered. The place appeared to have been searched. "Where the hell are you, mom?" And where were the children? He peered out the window, into the Atrium. There they were! Relieved yet still wary, Eiji rushed to join them.
The coast was clear all the way.
Mr. Noguchi and the students sat in silence around the great tree. They all turned sad eyes to him as he appeared in the doorway. Not one of them rose or spoke a word as Eiji stepped into the room. It was like he was entering a church. Or a funeral.
"She is gone, Colonel," it was little James who spoke. Mr. Noguchi continued.
"Yukio told me she would not be in today. This morning, three men arrived. They said they were government agents, and insisted they examine her office."
"They were lying," said James. "They really wanted to stop her from helping Ahab," the child proclaimed. Eiji knew he was right.
"Can you tell me where she went? Can you help me find her?"
"Hei. I think so," said the boy. "We thought about it real hard. We all did, together. I know this sounds funny, but your mom got ate by a goat."
"A goat?"
"Hei, colonel. A strong image, like a sheep with big horns."
"But it was really like a machine," cried one of the others. "Like a big mechanical ram."
"ARES," Eiji gasped. The image was now indeed clear, but what could it possibly mean? He would have to go back to the Nexus now, to find out.
"Colonel Saegusa, the men outside got guns. You gotta be careful!" James advised.
"Arigato, James." Eiji turned to leave. "Domo arigato Noguchi san, children. Thank you all!"
At the main entrance, Eiji watched the watchers. Two in a car, another conspicuously casual reading a newspaper on a bench. Got to take out the vehicle first.
He focused, and blisters of pressurized air rose upon the tires surfaces. Eiji willed them to balloon and burst! The watchers drew their guns as Eiji raced for his jeep. The one on the bench had a bead on him. Eiji's mind forced the weapon groundward as it fired, shooting its wielder in the foot. His partners took aim as well, and Eiji jammed the triggers tight!
So much for fun and games. He had to get back to the Nexus. ARES was the only one left who could tell him what happened to his mother. Eiji sped away, praying she was all right.
* * *
Godzilla stood his ground and roared a muted challenge into the depths! The Devilfish responded, shifting color from a blood red to a violet so dark it was almost black. This beast, it sensed, would be no easy catch.
The saurian stepped closer, and the devilfish unleashed a cloud of choking, blinding ink. Godzilla withdrew a pace, seeking to avoid the noxious spew. He scanned the area, but the enemy was hiding in the murk. Again he roared, and loosed a bolt of nuclear force from his jaws, blasting at the spreading black nimbus.
With blinding speed the Devilfish burst from the cloud, ramming Godzilla with its spiky cranium! Godzilla screams with rage, biting and clawing at the sucking adhesive arms encoiling him. He blasts at the mollusk, it squirms but does not let go. The octopus tightens its sinewy coils around the monster king. The spark of malevolence that burns within its mutant brain fans into a pyre, anticipating the victory. Anticipating the kill.
* * *
ARES Command.
The control center was in chaos. Systems cross currenting throughout the network. Functions shunting from station to station. Strange images flash across the displays, combining with the digitized memory of the Nexus' programs. Colonel Eiji Saegusa stood in the center of the maelstrom, and took control.
"Everyone, listen up! Maintain your stations. Monitor this activity only. Do not attempt to interface with the system until I give the order." The crew's frantic activity ceased, and slowly, they became aware of a pattern within the chaos. There was a kind of sequence to the flashing lights, the strobing displays. A subtle order to the bursts of static and energy. It was almost like a melody. Like a song. Eiji marched across the command center, and entered the Nexus.
Inside, the subsystems pulsed to the same strange rhythm, only slower, more peaceful. Eiji was terrified as he realized he knew this melody. It was the song his mother sang to the Cherry blossom tree at the Institute.
"ARES," Eiji called. "Activate and display." The subsystems pulsed, then skipped back into tune. "ARES," he called again. "This is Colonel Saegusa, respond please." Another pulse, then a pause. Then the world seemed to fade as the great display filled with light...
'Eiji?' The voice echoed from the audio system. It was his mother's voice.
Eiji's knees began to tremble, and he let them drop him to the floor. "Mother?"
'Eiji, I cannot see you. Open a comline.'
"What?" He replied in shock.
'Open a comline, Eiji. Please.' He crawled to the command station and activated a sequence of controls. The display began to focus, and the image of Yukio Saegusa appeared on screen. 'Eiji, my son.'
"Mother, how did this happen? What is going on?"
'It was Munabe,' she exclaimed. 'He sought to tap into my psionic link with Godzilla, and encode it into the Nexus. The process worked, only too well. My mind is inside the network, Eiji. I have become a part of the machine.'
"But what about..."
'My body? I do not know. I believe it may be dead.' The image shifted its gaze, as if focusing on something far away. 'It is so different here, Eiji. I am linked with so many things. Aware of so many things...'
'Mother, how can we stop him? Where has Munabe gone?"
'I am so glad to see you again, Eiji. Have I told you how proud you have made me?'
"Mother, mother you must listen!" Eiji wanted to keep her attention. He wanted to keep her alive. "You must tell me how to stop him. Please, tell me!"
Yukio's gaze returned, and she looked deep into her son's eyes. 'I do not know. The entire Nexus is his to command now. And yet...'
"Talk to me, mother. There has got to be a way!'
'Perhaps there is. Perhaps together we can succeed,' The image smiled from the display. 'Eiji, I think I may have found the answer.'
* * *
The Bushido Maru streaks purposefully through the subsea depths. Munabe was doing his best to ignore the corpse of the woman that lay bundled on the floor behind him. The transfer had succeeded. ARES had locked on to Godzilla. The General squeezed the speed from the ship, racing madly toward the signal's source. Racing down into the carnal house that the depths of the great trench had become.
* * *
Godzilla lay pinned beneath the giant mollusk's bulk. The Atomfire was almost ineffective against the beast. Godzilla kept blasting it anyway. Shifting its grip, the Devilfish reared to expose its beak. A stream of thick, fibrous ink shot forth and clung to Godzilla's jaws like a muzzle, or a web.
The mutant saurian was almost completely immobilized now. Almost. Godzilla tensed, swinging the immense length of his tail up and over, snaring the Devilfish round the base of its balloon like head. The tail coiled tight, trapping the enemy. The mollusk could not squeeze free.
The seabeast spewed its ink and altered its outer skin, transforming the jelly like membrane into a sheath of spiky armor. Godzilla's tail twisted tighter, and with a single mighty thrash he tore the monster loose and smashed it down to the cold ocean floor!
Godzilla rises to stand before his foe. His triple dorsal spines flaring with power as the beam blasts forth, disintegrating the webs. The Devilfish lay pale and stunned, writhing weakly as the King of the Monsters treads closer. Colors shift across the mollusk's hide as it slowly regains its senses. The beast inhales, filling its saclike cranium with water, preparing to jet away. Godzilla's massive tail crashes down, expelling the fluids and smashing the monster senseless! The Devilfish could only shudder and crawl as Godzilla battered it again. And again.
The beast that was once the very bane of the oceans now lay beaten and powerless, its multiple arms drifting freely on the subsea currents. Godzilla grasped the enemy, bending the head back toward the cluster of arms. He lunged, a single savage bite at the stalk of the neck, and the Devilfish was dead. Godzilla raised its fearsome head and roared his triumph into the sea!
* * *
Now, Munabe attacks! Godzilla reels as the tiny warship fires its own beams of living light, slicing through his scaly hide. The monster drops the lifeless octopus and turns to confront this new enemy.
Munabe glories in the battle, throwing the ship's entire arsenal at the beast! How he has longed for this moment, plotting his revenge for over a decade. He revels in the knowledge that it is he who holds the true power here.
The Bushido Maru was a suicide ship. Like the ancient code of the Samurai for which it was named, it was created to serve a single master. Its destiny to die in service to him, to die in battle. This was the craft's maiden voyage. It would also be its last.
"ARES," the General growled. "Prepare the G-Bomb."
The system pulsed. 'Preparation in progress,' ARES replied. Its voice caught Munabe's attention. There was something about it that reminded him of the words of Yu... of Mrs. Saegusa. Not only your body, she said. It scarred your mind as well. She knew what was coming when she put the lattice on. Be there to see that you pay...
Munabe shook that line of thought, and focused on the monster. Outside, the sea was filling with shrapnel and blood. Godzilla had been wounded, badly. The General decided he would cripple the beast first. Perhaps then he would kill it. Perhaps.
Godzilla staggers against the warship's assault. Its weapons were penetrating the monster's protective plasma field, ripping into his reptilian hide. What unnatural fires had the humans harnessed now? They were hopeless, destined only to destroy themselves. Godzilla loosed his nuclear beams, trying to incinerate the ship. Munabe kept clear of the deadly salvo, hiding among the lingering clouds of ink and piles of debris.
"ARES, I want that weapon ready now!" Munabe screamed.
'Preparation in progress,' the machine replied.
The General primed the ship's last volley of force harpoons, and fired. They struck the beast at the base of the neck and detonated, the combined concussive force slamming Godzilla to the ground. Now Munabe roared in victory, a sound to rival the warcries of the monsters themselves! He slumped into the command chair, spent and exhausted, struggling past the sounds of his own labored breathing to listen...
The sounds of the ship were combining, becoming synchronous. The monitors and lights joined in the pattern, creating a rhythm. Creating a song.
Suddenly, the ship was rocked by an enormous impact! The General was thrown from his station and sent flying across the cabin. Something soft had cushioned his fall, and he struggled painfully to his cybernetic knees. "ARES, report! What is happening?" Munabe screamed as the ship bounced fiercely. Something was dragging it across the ground. Something struck him from behind, and he grabbed at the air in panic. "What is happening?!!" He turned, and the face of Yukio Saegusa stared blankly from its khaki shroud.
'It is revenge, Ahab,' the voice replied from the intercom. Her voice! 'It is what you have always desired.'
Had the lips of the dead woman parted just then? Munabe threw the body aside and ran to the main screen. The landscape shifted as the craft was dragged along the trench's floor, toward the still spewing cone of the volcano. In the distance lay the motionless form of Godzilla. Closer, a tentacle's trailing edge. The screen was blocked as a huge suckered arm encoiled the ship, and thrust it into the flames.
* * *
Eiji Saegusa opened his eyes, and wiped away a tear. Munabe was dead, leaving Eiji looking forward to what would be a most interesting court martial. He raised his eyes to meet Yukio's, gazing back at him from the screen. She was a part of the Nexus now, and for a few brief moments, he had joined her.
'We did it, Eiji! I thank you, my son. Only your TK abilities could have moved that monster,' Yukio spoke proudly.
"Mother, we can get you out somehow. Make you a cybernetic body. Maybe..."
'No, Eiji,' the machine intoned. 'I already know where I am going. Like Munabe, it is where I have always wanted to be.'
"Mother, we need you here," Eiji pleaded.
'Trust me, I will always be with you. Don't you hear the song, Eiji? Is it not beautiful? I don't believe I have ever really taught it to you. Listen, I will teach it to you now.'
Eiji stood before her image, and she began to sing. There was a kind of majesty in her tone. A haunting reverence in her voice that lifted his heart. He joined his voice with hers, and together they sang to the rhythm of the Nexus. Eiji tried to hold on to the spark of joy in his voice as his mother slowly faded from the screen, reverting to electronic pulses. Soon they too were gone. Then the song was over, leaving only silence.
* * *
Godzilla rose from the carpet of bones and garbage that lined the bottom of the trench. Somehow, the tiny man-ship had nearly defeated him. His gaping wounds were a testimony to its power. He had felt the rage and madness that emanated from the warship's human master, like a nexus for the very forces it was his destiny to oppose. Those forces had almost destroyed him, when something incredible happened. Something that moved the form of the fallen Devilfish and killed the man-ship weapon. Something Godzilla had once been connected with long ago. Something buried deep beneath all the hatred and ignorance that poisoned the heart of man. The Devilfish and the man-ship were burning in the volcano now, burning in the fires of redemption.
Somehow, Godzilla knew, mankind had just saved themselves.
Dawn in Osaka. Inside what was once the nerve center of G-Force Command. Munabe escorts Yukio into a vast, unused submarine bay.
"This," he announced. "Is our transport. The Bushido Maru." The ship seemed relatively small for its purpose, perhaps forty feet wide, nearly twice that in length. It was bullet shaped, roughly. Its narrow, flattened deck curving gracefully down into a wide, blunted prow.
"I suppose this beauty serves as an airship as well?"
"Actually no, Saegusa san. More of a hovercraft. Come, let us enter, and prepare." Munabe had used up every contact, every resource, to access this ship and its deadly payload. His bullets serving as well as his bribes. As always, his main weapon was ARES. The Nexus was shielding him. Making him invisible, undetectable. Almost like the mutant Devilfish had become. The irony of it struck him, and he laughed at the thought. Inside now, he began activating the onboard systems.
"Can I assist you, General?" Asked Yukio.
"Not yet, Saegusa san. The ship was designed for easy use. We will be on-line momentarily. Please, sit here at the interface console."
Yukio sat, and Munabe took the helm beside her. He opened the small case he had brought with him, and withdrew two strange looking devices. He passed one of them to Yukio. "What are these?" She inquired.
"Modems. They will link us to the ARES net. Please insert it like so," he pushed the device into a slot in the console, and Yukio did the same. Instantly, the ship sprang to life, startling her. "It's alright, Saegusa san! ARES, are you with me?"
'Affirmative.' The machine replied from the craft's intercom.
"Excellent! Give me an onboard status."
'Bushido Maru systems all activated and on-line,' ARES replied.
"We are ready to begin then?" Munabe looked at Yukio.
"Ready," she replied.
"ARES, commence launch. Hold on Saegusa san, we have begun!"
Yukio glared at the General, praying it would all soon be over.
* * *
Eiji had gone straight to Yukio's apartment. There was no answer, so he let himself in, realizing he was too late. His mother was already gone.
Outside, he could see the old man across the street was keeping an eye on the place. Or on him. Eiji focused, and the man's worn fedora flew from his head. Startled, the old man hurried after the rolling chapeau. TK could be so useful on occasions!
Apparently, Munabe had chosen to ignore the order to delay the mission. Yukio's absence confirmed it. He could not go to ARES for help, but then neither could the Cabal. The Nexus was Munabe's toy now. No, there was only one place left he could go...
* * *
Deep within the Regasala trench, the Devilfish lolls bloated on the ocean floor. All around it, the sea has emptied of life, avoiding the area as if it were filled with poison. Viewing the scene of accumulated garbage and rotting flesh, one would not hesitate to testify that it is.
A distant tremor rumbles through the ground, and the Devilfish stirs. Again the sea floor shakes and subsides. The immense octopus is wary now, its instincts alerting it to danger. It sluices forth from the debris as the terrain erupts with sudden volcanic fury! An enormous gash rips wide the earth, venting plumes of sulfuric gasses. The ocean boils as magma spews forth, forming a cone of molten ash. The Devilfish lies caught between its curiosity and its urge to flee, as a massive paw rises and grips the rim of the cone. The cephalopod shields its eyes as the trench is filled with an intense blast of light, and ghostlike, the monster Godzilla rises steaming from the magma and into the sea!
* * *
"General, I think I feel something happening," said Yukio. The Bushido Maru had been cruising the depths for hours. Hours in which Yukio had begun to see through Munabe's pretenses. He had broken into battlesong in a peak of elation, then sunk back into a grim mood. He was acting like a man who has nothing left to lose. Such men were dangerous, sometimes even mad. Determined not to slip into panic, Yukio knew she had no choice but to cooperate, lest Eiji and her students suffer as well.
"Excellent! ARES, are you reading anything?" Asked the General.
'Sensors registering increase in radiation levels, as well as volcanic and psionic activity. Unable to locate source of phenomena, although the Psionic surge has been pinpointed as manifesting from within the Bushido Maru. Its source is Yukio Saegusa.'
"I believe you have found him," said Munabe. "Now, can you lead us there?"
Yukio tensed, concentrating. "I cannot. It is as if the energy surrounds us, almost a part of the sea. I am sorry, General."
"It's alright, Saegusa san. I have come prepared," Munabe hit a sequence of controls, and the ship's forward motion stopped. "ARES, maintain position." He stood, and took another strange component from his case.
"Saegusa san," the General began, attaching the device to the ARES modems. "Yukio. This is a psionic interface lattice. It functions on much the same principle as the internal units which allow me to control these artificial legs." Munabe was attempting a reassuring tone. He wasn't very good at it. "It will serve to process the biomagnetic field generated by your psilink, and convert it into electronic impulses." Munabe completed the primary connections, then unfolded a slim head band. He passed it to Yukio. "The Nexus will use those impulses to create a program that should be able to mirror your psychic connection, establishing a permanent electronic fix on the beast."
Yukio considered Munabe's words, as well as the device she now held in her hand. She had gone far beyond any fear or trepidation toward the man. Beyond even anger. "General?"
"Yes, Yukio?"
"General, you have made it quite clear to me how important this mission is to you. I have agreed to aid you for the sake of both my son and my students. I am prepared to fulfill my obligations to your cause, as I know you will fulfill yours to mine."
"You are a most noble woman, Yukio Saegusa. You would make any commander proud, as has your late husband, as has your son." The General was moved by the woman's conviction, and bowed before her.
"However," she continued. "I have one final obligation here. One which I must now make clear to you."
"Go on, Yukio."
"I have realized that the Council has had no part in sanctioning our activities here. I believe you would go to any length to reach your objective. You would disobey orders. You would lie. You would even kill. I believe it was not only your body left scarred by the monster, but your mind as well."
Munabe remained expressionless as he listened to her, his face betraying no emotion at her words.
"General, I promise you, if anything untoward happens to my students or my son because of your quest for revenge, somehow I will be there, to see that you pay."
"Honorable, and direct," sighed Munabe. "Again, Yukio, I salute you." Munabe bowed, and Yukio placed the lattice across her brow, affixing it from temple to temple. Munabe held the last of the connecting lead wires ready.
"General, one final thing," she looked the soldier dead in the eye now. "Don't call me Yukio." There. That got an expression out of him.
* * *
The Institute.
Eiji had been hoping to avoid the watchers, but the watchers were already there. No use being subtle now. He parked at the main entrance, and went inside.
The school was silent, empty. Eiji prayed no real trouble had occurred. Up the stairs, the door to his mother's office was ajar. Slowly, he entered. The place appeared to have been searched. "Where the hell are you, mom?" And where were the children? He peered out the window, into the Atrium. There they were! Relieved yet still wary, Eiji rushed to join them.
The coast was clear all the way.
Mr. Noguchi and the students sat in silence around the great tree. They all turned sad eyes to him as he appeared in the doorway. Not one of them rose or spoke a word as Eiji stepped into the room. It was like he was entering a church. Or a funeral.
"She is gone, Colonel," it was little James who spoke. Mr. Noguchi continued.
"Yukio told me she would not be in today. This morning, three men arrived. They said they were government agents, and insisted they examine her office."
"They were lying," said James. "They really wanted to stop her from helping Ahab," the child proclaimed. Eiji knew he was right.
"Can you tell me where she went? Can you help me find her?"
"Hei. I think so," said the boy. "We thought about it real hard. We all did, together. I know this sounds funny, but your mom got ate by a goat."
"A goat?"
"Hei, colonel. A strong image, like a sheep with big horns."
"But it was really like a machine," cried one of the others. "Like a big mechanical ram."
"ARES," Eiji gasped. The image was now indeed clear, but what could it possibly mean? He would have to go back to the Nexus now, to find out.
"Colonel Saegusa, the men outside got guns. You gotta be careful!" James advised.
"Arigato, James." Eiji turned to leave. "Domo arigato Noguchi san, children. Thank you all!"
At the main entrance, Eiji watched the watchers. Two in a car, another conspicuously casual reading a newspaper on a bench. Got to take out the vehicle first.
He focused, and blisters of pressurized air rose upon the tires surfaces. Eiji willed them to balloon and burst! The watchers drew their guns as Eiji raced for his jeep. The one on the bench had a bead on him. Eiji's mind forced the weapon groundward as it fired, shooting its wielder in the foot. His partners took aim as well, and Eiji jammed the triggers tight!
So much for fun and games. He had to get back to the Nexus. ARES was the only one left who could tell him what happened to his mother. Eiji sped away, praying she was all right.
* * *
Godzilla stood his ground and roared a muted challenge into the depths! The Devilfish responded, shifting color from a blood red to a violet so dark it was almost black. This beast, it sensed, would be no easy catch.
The saurian stepped closer, and the devilfish unleashed a cloud of choking, blinding ink. Godzilla withdrew a pace, seeking to avoid the noxious spew. He scanned the area, but the enemy was hiding in the murk. Again he roared, and loosed a bolt of nuclear force from his jaws, blasting at the spreading black nimbus.
With blinding speed the Devilfish burst from the cloud, ramming Godzilla with its spiky cranium! Godzilla screams with rage, biting and clawing at the sucking adhesive arms encoiling him. He blasts at the mollusk, it squirms but does not let go. The octopus tightens its sinewy coils around the monster king. The spark of malevolence that burns within its mutant brain fans into a pyre, anticipating the victory. Anticipating the kill.
* * *
ARES Command.
The control center was in chaos. Systems cross currenting throughout the network. Functions shunting from station to station. Strange images flash across the displays, combining with the digitized memory of the Nexus' programs. Colonel Eiji Saegusa stood in the center of the maelstrom, and took control.
"Everyone, listen up! Maintain your stations. Monitor this activity only. Do not attempt to interface with the system until I give the order." The crew's frantic activity ceased, and slowly, they became aware of a pattern within the chaos. There was a kind of sequence to the flashing lights, the strobing displays. A subtle order to the bursts of static and energy. It was almost like a melody. Like a song. Eiji marched across the command center, and entered the Nexus.
Inside, the subsystems pulsed to the same strange rhythm, only slower, more peaceful. Eiji was terrified as he realized he knew this melody. It was the song his mother sang to the Cherry blossom tree at the Institute.
"ARES," Eiji called. "Activate and display." The subsystems pulsed, then skipped back into tune. "ARES," he called again. "This is Colonel Saegusa, respond please." Another pulse, then a pause. Then the world seemed to fade as the great display filled with light...
'Eiji?' The voice echoed from the audio system. It was his mother's voice.
Eiji's knees began to tremble, and he let them drop him to the floor. "Mother?"
'Eiji, I cannot see you. Open a comline.'
"What?" He replied in shock.
'Open a comline, Eiji. Please.' He crawled to the command station and activated a sequence of controls. The display began to focus, and the image of Yukio Saegusa appeared on screen. 'Eiji, my son.'
"Mother, how did this happen? What is going on?"
'It was Munabe,' she exclaimed. 'He sought to tap into my psionic link with Godzilla, and encode it into the Nexus. The process worked, only too well. My mind is inside the network, Eiji. I have become a part of the machine.'
"But what about..."
'My body? I do not know. I believe it may be dead.' The image shifted its gaze, as if focusing on something far away. 'It is so different here, Eiji. I am linked with so many things. Aware of so many things...'
'Mother, how can we stop him? Where has Munabe gone?"
'I am so glad to see you again, Eiji. Have I told you how proud you have made me?'
"Mother, mother you must listen!" Eiji wanted to keep her attention. He wanted to keep her alive. "You must tell me how to stop him. Please, tell me!"
Yukio's gaze returned, and she looked deep into her son's eyes. 'I do not know. The entire Nexus is his to command now. And yet...'
"Talk to me, mother. There has got to be a way!'
'Perhaps there is. Perhaps together we can succeed,' The image smiled from the display. 'Eiji, I think I may have found the answer.'
* * *
The Bushido Maru streaks purposefully through the subsea depths. Munabe was doing his best to ignore the corpse of the woman that lay bundled on the floor behind him. The transfer had succeeded. ARES had locked on to Godzilla. The General squeezed the speed from the ship, racing madly toward the signal's source. Racing down into the carnal house that the depths of the great trench had become.
* * *
Godzilla lay pinned beneath the giant mollusk's bulk. The Atomfire was almost ineffective against the beast. Godzilla kept blasting it anyway. Shifting its grip, the Devilfish reared to expose its beak. A stream of thick, fibrous ink shot forth and clung to Godzilla's jaws like a muzzle, or a web.
The mutant saurian was almost completely immobilized now. Almost. Godzilla tensed, swinging the immense length of his tail up and over, snaring the Devilfish round the base of its balloon like head. The tail coiled tight, trapping the enemy. The mollusk could not squeeze free.
The seabeast spewed its ink and altered its outer skin, transforming the jelly like membrane into a sheath of spiky armor. Godzilla's tail twisted tighter, and with a single mighty thrash he tore the monster loose and smashed it down to the cold ocean floor!
Godzilla rises to stand before his foe. His triple dorsal spines flaring with power as the beam blasts forth, disintegrating the webs. The Devilfish lay pale and stunned, writhing weakly as the King of the Monsters treads closer. Colors shift across the mollusk's hide as it slowly regains its senses. The beast inhales, filling its saclike cranium with water, preparing to jet away. Godzilla's massive tail crashes down, expelling the fluids and smashing the monster senseless! The Devilfish could only shudder and crawl as Godzilla battered it again. And again.
The beast that was once the very bane of the oceans now lay beaten and powerless, its multiple arms drifting freely on the subsea currents. Godzilla grasped the enemy, bending the head back toward the cluster of arms. He lunged, a single savage bite at the stalk of the neck, and the Devilfish was dead. Godzilla raised its fearsome head and roared his triumph into the sea!
* * *
Now, Munabe attacks! Godzilla reels as the tiny warship fires its own beams of living light, slicing through his scaly hide. The monster drops the lifeless octopus and turns to confront this new enemy.
Munabe glories in the battle, throwing the ship's entire arsenal at the beast! How he has longed for this moment, plotting his revenge for over a decade. He revels in the knowledge that it is he who holds the true power here.
The Bushido Maru was a suicide ship. Like the ancient code of the Samurai for which it was named, it was created to serve a single master. Its destiny to die in service to him, to die in battle. This was the craft's maiden voyage. It would also be its last.
"ARES," the General growled. "Prepare the G-Bomb."
The system pulsed. 'Preparation in progress,' ARES replied. Its voice caught Munabe's attention. There was something about it that reminded him of the words of Yu... of Mrs. Saegusa. Not only your body, she said. It scarred your mind as well. She knew what was coming when she put the lattice on. Be there to see that you pay...
Munabe shook that line of thought, and focused on the monster. Outside, the sea was filling with shrapnel and blood. Godzilla had been wounded, badly. The General decided he would cripple the beast first. Perhaps then he would kill it. Perhaps.
Godzilla staggers against the warship's assault. Its weapons were penetrating the monster's protective plasma field, ripping into his reptilian hide. What unnatural fires had the humans harnessed now? They were hopeless, destined only to destroy themselves. Godzilla loosed his nuclear beams, trying to incinerate the ship. Munabe kept clear of the deadly salvo, hiding among the lingering clouds of ink and piles of debris.
"ARES, I want that weapon ready now!" Munabe screamed.
'Preparation in progress,' the machine replied.
The General primed the ship's last volley of force harpoons, and fired. They struck the beast at the base of the neck and detonated, the combined concussive force slamming Godzilla to the ground. Now Munabe roared in victory, a sound to rival the warcries of the monsters themselves! He slumped into the command chair, spent and exhausted, struggling past the sounds of his own labored breathing to listen...
The sounds of the ship were combining, becoming synchronous. The monitors and lights joined in the pattern, creating a rhythm. Creating a song.
Suddenly, the ship was rocked by an enormous impact! The General was thrown from his station and sent flying across the cabin. Something soft had cushioned his fall, and he struggled painfully to his cybernetic knees. "ARES, report! What is happening?" Munabe screamed as the ship bounced fiercely. Something was dragging it across the ground. Something struck him from behind, and he grabbed at the air in panic. "What is happening?!!" He turned, and the face of Yukio Saegusa stared blankly from its khaki shroud.
'It is revenge, Ahab,' the voice replied from the intercom. Her voice! 'It is what you have always desired.'
Had the lips of the dead woman parted just then? Munabe threw the body aside and ran to the main screen. The landscape shifted as the craft was dragged along the trench's floor, toward the still spewing cone of the volcano. In the distance lay the motionless form of Godzilla. Closer, a tentacle's trailing edge. The screen was blocked as a huge suckered arm encoiled the ship, and thrust it into the flames.
* * *
Eiji Saegusa opened his eyes, and wiped away a tear. Munabe was dead, leaving Eiji looking forward to what would be a most interesting court martial. He raised his eyes to meet Yukio's, gazing back at him from the screen. She was a part of the Nexus now, and for a few brief moments, he had joined her.
'We did it, Eiji! I thank you, my son. Only your TK abilities could have moved that monster,' Yukio spoke proudly.
"Mother, we can get you out somehow. Make you a cybernetic body. Maybe..."
'No, Eiji,' the machine intoned. 'I already know where I am going. Like Munabe, it is where I have always wanted to be.'
"Mother, we need you here," Eiji pleaded.
'Trust me, I will always be with you. Don't you hear the song, Eiji? Is it not beautiful? I don't believe I have ever really taught it to you. Listen, I will teach it to you now.'
Eiji stood before her image, and she began to sing. There was a kind of majesty in her tone. A haunting reverence in her voice that lifted his heart. He joined his voice with hers, and together they sang to the rhythm of the Nexus. Eiji tried to hold on to the spark of joy in his voice as his mother slowly faded from the screen, reverting to electronic pulses. Soon they too were gone. Then the song was over, leaving only silence.
* * *
Godzilla rose from the carpet of bones and garbage that lined the bottom of the trench. Somehow, the tiny man-ship had nearly defeated him. His gaping wounds were a testimony to its power. He had felt the rage and madness that emanated from the warship's human master, like a nexus for the very forces it was his destiny to oppose. Those forces had almost destroyed him, when something incredible happened. Something that moved the form of the fallen Devilfish and killed the man-ship weapon. Something Godzilla had once been connected with long ago. Something buried deep beneath all the hatred and ignorance that poisoned the heart of man. The Devilfish and the man-ship were burning in the volcano now, burning in the fires of redemption.
Somehow, Godzilla knew, mankind had just saved themselves.