"Oh, man… this sucks," Ohyama moaned, hobbling over the wreckage of his garage on a crutch. It was at the edge of the wide swath of destruction Godzilla had left just by strolling through Shizouka; one wall had been carved out by the very tip of his tail in one of its casual sweeps and the whole structure had crumbled. Meanwhile, their hated rival down the street was completely untouched. Figures.
"Dude, I'm really sorry about this…" Kagura patted his shoulder consolingly. "Your insurance will cover it, right?"
"Yeah…" he sighed. "Damn, though!"
Kagura walked out past the garage and looked down along Godzilla's path. She'd been far too busy to just stand there and take it all in until just an hour ago, when Enryu had been deactivated and its members told to beat it because the "real" rescue workers were moving in. Of course, they wouldn't have much work to do—there had been miraculously few injuries and, at least to her knowledge, nobody had actually been killed. (Naturally, Ohyama had been one of the unlucky few, and the splint Kagura had given him was holding up admirably.) All in all, this was the shortest call she'd ever responded to for Enryu.
The brute's course through Shizouka hadn't been completely straight, but she could almost see the suburbs at the end of a corridor paved with grit and rubble, lined on either side by teetering and broken buildings. The swath was almost flat, except for the monster's enormous footprints and occasional deeper fissures where he'd plunged through into a subway or smashed a water main.
"Do you have to go to a debriefing or anything?" Ohyama asked behind her.
"Huh?" She shook her head. Even with her experience in disaster areas, the monster's wake was still mesmerizing. "No, they just turned us loose."
"Want to get lunch, then? I'll treat."
"But what about…?" she started, gesturing at the carnage of his garage.
"Like you said, my insurance will cover it. I need to forget about this for a while."
Kagura shrugged. "In that case, sure."
"Great, I parked around the corn…" Ohyama trailed off upon hearing the most disgusting squish-squish-squish sound in the universe. When an unbearable fishy stench hit them, they turned together to observe a trio of colossal squid (of all things) schlepping their way down Godzilla's path, walking ridiculously on their longest tentacles and leaving a trail of glistening slime on the pavement. "Wha… wha… what the hell?"
"Yog," Kagura coughed out, waving at the air in front of her face. "Stupid… cough! space amoeba thingies… cough, cough! let's get out of here."
"Right, good idea," Ohyama started away, but came up short when another of the Yog-infested squid squished by in that direction. "Gahh! What are they doing?"
Kagura pulled her shirt up over her nose and mouth. "Probably going to fight Godzilla. Cough! He'll burn 'em down fast as they come, though." She grabbed his sleeve and started off again as the fishy monstrosity continued past them. "God, that smell! I didn't think about stuff like this when I signed on…"
"Why did you join Enryu, anyway?" Ohyama hesitated until the odor faded and it became apparent no more marching cephalopods were on their way. Casting a dirty glance after them, he withdrew his keychain and hit the 'unlock' button… but the reassuring chirp-chirp! failed to reach his ears. Oh, no.
"Well, I was originally shooting to be a professional athlete, but… well, what with all the national disasters every other week, it seemed kinda selfish. And right near the end of High School, I was sorta inspired by this paramedic from G-Force, a Rei…" Kagura's voice died as she stared in mute horror along with her friend.
Ohyama's sporty little Toyota Supra had been crushed into a twisted bowl of reeking slime. "For the love of…!" he growled, clutching his forehead. "And do you suppose my auto insurance covers 'stepped on by giant squid'?"
Like every other space owned by the Black Hole People, their control room was uncomfortably dark by Earthman standards. All of the screens were hooded to keep their light from reaching out, and the great screen table that Masema and his lieutenants were gathered around glowed only dimly. Its map of Japan was covered in blue lights to signify their various assets, and currently there was just one big, angry red blot marching around Mt. Fuji towards Tokyo. ("Where is he going?" Masema had asked. "Where does he always go?" an advisor had replied. He wasn't sure if this insolence was execution-worthy or not.)
"We captured five of the seven targets, Supreme Commander. The florist has disappeared and the woman with Enryu was on call," the head of Masema's intelligence team reported. "Yukia has seen to the disposition of the prisoners; if I may, she stuck them in some rather… ah, unorthodox places."
"Are they a security risk?" Masema asked impatiently.
"No, sir. She said that she was putting them where the astral lines were strongest. Do you know what she meant by that, sir?"
"It's not important. She knows more about that stuff than we do, and I'm too busy to worry about a bunch of safely-locked-up twenty-somethings, wherever Yukia put them. Or did you forget about the giant monster that we're dealing with too?"
"Um…"
Masema clopped him across the side of his head, knocking him out of the circle. "Damn it! Everybody keeps forgetting about the giant monster! What's so important about astral lines or these stupid girls? We're under attack!" As he spoke, the four lights representing Yog-infested giant squid winked out almost as one. "I'm tired of wasting the Yogs. Is our little ambush ready?"
"Yes, Supreme Commander," another subordinate said, pointing out three brighter blue motes spaced out around their foe. "They're ready when you give the word."
The thicker woods ahead of the Godzilla seemed to ripple; it was the mottled hide of the sleek Kemular, a quick and agile beast similar in build to a tyrannosaurus. Trailing high over the treetops at the end of his tail was a bony stinger that would be the attacker's trump card. Its wicked point dripped transparent, greenish fluid that instantly killed the foliage wherever it fell.
Up on the face of Mount Fuji, another monster raised an enormous boulder over his head. This was the brutal Red King, a muscular saurian with a rough red hide and a ridiculously tiny head. Apart from being fantastically strong, he was a deadshot when it came to chucking heavy objects, as his target would soon find.
A hole opened in the ground behind him and a wedge-shaped head with curved horns emerged for just a moment. With a dismissive grunt accompanied by a belch of flame from his snout, the insidious Gomora plunged back into the ground and started tunneling towards the Earth monster's feet.
Masema smiled. "Hit it."
Yomi's eyelids drifted open gummily, fluttering with the massive headache that rested like a rock behind them. Whatever drug they'd used on her left her aching all over, but the pain was most pronounced in her wrists, which were bound to the walls on either side of her. Ugh… makeshift bindings, she groaned inwardly, testing them. They have state-of-the-art cells, force-field walls and magnetic bindings. What's with the medieval dungeon routine?
She slowly raised her head and took in her surroundings. The space was obnoxiously dark, as expected, but surprisingly large. It seemed that she'd been tied to the wall of a curving corridor, surrounded by a cold, musty smell and oppressive shadow. At first she thought that the walls were ribbed, but as her eyes adapted she saw that they were really rows of large tubes.
What kind of place is this? she wondered. And why did they put me here?
Yomi waited for a time, standing and sitting alternately so that she wouldn't get stiff. She tried to think of why she could have been kidnapped, but the only two reasons she could come up with were both pretty stupid. It was either because of her connection to Chiyo (which, as far as the Black Hole People could tell, would probably be pretty tenuous) or because of her position as a minor diplomat. Of course, if that were the case, they must be getting pretty desperate to resort to her.
After that, though, her keen mind pretty much went to waste. Perhaps that was the reason for the strange setting… maybe they were just trying to make her uneasy. But the more she thought about it, the more that seemed wrong. There was something behind this… then it hit her.
The tubes. This was where they kept the collateral prisoners! Yomi's calm was instantly shattered as her eyes shot frantically from tube to tube, but of course her eyes couldn't pierce their misty interiors, of course she couldn't find the one that—and a spike of ice thrust through her spine. No…!
Yomi tried to turn, but her arms were held out too far. The bindings wouldn't let her turn around and see the tube she was actually tied to. It couldn't be. It couldn't be. "Yomi, get a hold of yourself… they're just screwing with you… they know you lost a friend in the riots and they… they just want you to stew in the uncertainty… of… shit!"
She twisted fiercely, nearly wrenching her arms, but she could only get the tube behind her into her peripheral vision. She saw a dim shape floating within it, but it was impossible to make out. Was her mind playing tricks on her, or was it the right size to be…? She tried the other side but only succeeded in nearly injuring herself; back and forth she struggled, hissing and growling curses.
Finally, she sagged with a sound that was very nearly a sob. Her captors had found the one thing in all this bleak and frightening world that could shake the composure of Yomi Mizuhara.
Ayumu had an even harder time awakening, though she was on a reasonably comfortable pallet. All she saw at first was a bland gray wall and a few tears that had fallen on her paper-width pillow. To these she gave no notice; tears on her pillow were hardly a new development, after all. Even in a drugged sleep, it had just been the same nightmares as always. You'd think I'd get used to 'em by now! Don't ya eventually get nightmare antibodies or somethin'?
She sat up, blinking drowsily and taking in the Spartan cell in her classic unhurried way. For an instant, something indistinct fluttered about her eyes and she smiled as Gathra's feather weight nestled in her hair, making her feel a little warmer and lighter. "Hey, there!" she whispered.
Xandra was in a pallet across the cell from her, still sleeping fitfully. She murmured incoherently, tossing and turning. In fact, now that Ayumu looked more closely, she saw that the alien girl wasn't breathing properly; tremors shot through her chest every time she tried to draw a breath, which would often emerge as a thick, shuddering cough. Was it some kind of disease?
"Oh, no! Xannie! Are ya comin' down with Consumption?" Ayumu sure hoped not; all she knew about Consumption was that it made you cough up blood and die. It was in a lot of old novels; whenever a character became inconvenient to the plot, they'd just get Consumption and die. It was kind of a funny trend, or would be if her sister wasn't…
But now she noticed something else: past the cell's force-wall in the narrow corridor, she saw a slight movement near the floor. There must have been some kind of air current out there, because tiny grains of white powder were rolling slowly across the deck in a thin layer, like the beach starting its invasion when they left the doors of Chiyo's summer home open for too long.
Ayumu sniffed the air and very distantly caught the nauseating smell of Moth. She would never learn why it was on the Gaijin Mothership, but it turns out that Masema had been the one to think of refining the mysterious Gathra powder and distributing it as a drug. This was one of the many ways he worked to keep the Earthmen down… and if he wasn't such a brooder, he might have paused to wonder why he had to work so hard at it if they were actually so inferior.
"But… but I'm not freakin' out. Why…?" Gathra fluttered his wings impatiently. "Oh, right. Thanks." Ayumu crossed the room unsteadily sat on the floor next to her sister. She rested a hand on Xandra's shoulder, and sure enough, her breathing evened out as Gathra's protection settled over her.
Looking over at her sleeping sister, Ayumu tried to swallow a sudden rise of simmering anger. Who had been cruel enough to put them here? If not for her son, would they even have survived? If she'd slept even a little bit longer, would she have awakened to find Xandra suffocated, dead of Consumption?
Under the aegis of the former Guardian, they rested and waited.
Sakaki sat up, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. She felt ill inside, and not from the drug. In spite of the fact that he'd been out to get them, she couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy whose teeth she'd knocked out with a… hm, now that she thought back, she couldn't remember what she'd been wielding. And where was Chiyo-chan?
Self-disgust was suddenly overcome by worry. She was alone in her cell and the other pallet was mussed but empty, so she could only assume that Chiyo had been brought in with her and taken away… and given how they'd been abducted, this was probably a very bad thing.
What if it was the person that Chiyo had encountered the night before? Sakaki stood restlessly. What were they doing to her? What were the rest of them there for? Would they be… killed?
"Ms. Sakaki?" a male voice called softly. "I thought it was you."
Sakaki crossed to the aisle and saw a tall Xian in the cell across from her, resting a forearm against his own force-wall. He had a long, narrow face that had probably once been sharp, as well as a fall of snowy hair nearly as long as hers. His clothes were well-worn but clean; he'd clearly been a prisoner for quite some time, but not too badly treated. She looked at him questioningly.
"Don't you recognize me?"
"No."
"Not a surprise, I suppose. Still, I'm sure I left quite an impression on you when we met. Not the one I'd been hoping for, but…"
She blinked at him, then her eyes widened. "Prince?" So this was the once-great Prince Xolarus. She wasn't sure how to react to him--after all, he'd lead the first invasion of Earth, attacked Japan with King Ghidora and tried to have her kidnapped to be his bride. But then, he was just a product of his society and an alright fellow for all that. He certainly wasn't in a position to cause any mayhem now.
"Heh. It's King now, not that that matters." Xolarus smiled wanly. "What do they have you in for? Not many prisoners are brought up to this ship."
"Ship?"
"Yeah, we're in their mothership over Tokyo."
"Mm."
"You look like you don't know what you're in trouble for," he said sympathetically. "Lord knows I've seen that look enough in my father's court. You also look… you know, if the drug they gave you is making you sick, you can ask the guard for a pill to ease it."
She shook her head. "Thanks."
"Who was that girl they brought you in with?"
"You saw Chiyo?" Sakaki's voice rose. "Where did they take her?"
He shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. It's not like I can ask for a day-pass so I can go see… wait, that was Chiyo?"
"Yes."
"Your little friend that we pulled out of the rubble? Great space! What happened to her?"
"Genes on her mother's side," Sakaki brushed it aside. "I have to know where she is!"
"You could try asking the guard, but he won't tell you anything." Xolarus sat down behind the lip of the force-wall so she could only see his legs. "Their Supreme Commander doesn't go in for executions or torture, though, so you know. As long as that Second-in-Command of theirs doesn't get his hands on her, they're probably not doing anything awful to her."
Sakaki couldn't find the words within her to tell him that probably wasn't nearly good enough. "…oh."
"You might as well try to relax. Whatever they want from you, you'll find out soon enough. Unless you're some kind of resistance fighter, they might even give you legal counsel."
Sakaki raised an eyebrow. She was getting the impression that he didn't understand the circumstances of her capture, but really had no desire to explain it to him. Rather than give him a chance to start asking questions, she made an effort to deflect him. "Why are you here?"
"Ah, they kicked our asses, too. Conquered Planet X, stole Space Godzilla from my father, took Ghidora's corpse, dissolved our military… man, I still can't believe what an operation they have here. Thinking back, my attempt at planetary conquest was pretty lame. These guys know how to do it right."
Sakaki sat down without responding.
"Hey, you don't have to like it to admire it, right? Right?" Xolarus paused, then realized he'd totally said the wrong thing. "But… Ms. Sakaki? I'm sure your friend is fine."
What Chiyo did couldn't rightly be called awakening, since her body still lay comatose on the deck at Yukia's feet, but she did slowly become aware. Unfortunately, all there was for her to become aware of was an endless, featureless field of white. She stood up, finding that her own form was flickering and uncertain, mostly transparent. "Where am I?"
"Nowhere," a voice replied. She didn't recognize it at first, but a familiar irritated headache throbbed to life behind her right eye at the sound of it and reminded her. She turned, remembering that there wouldn't be a point to it. "Mr. Doesn't-Exist-Not-Even-In-My-Head?"
"How's it goin', luv?"
"What's… what's happening to me?" Chiyo choked when she completed her turn and actually saw him. He had been right when he said he was nothing special to look at; an average looking chap in a white suit and hat, with a trimmed beard and slightly longer than average hair. But the very fact that he was there to see… "Wh-how is it that I'm looking at you?"
"It's because you're on your way here," he explained sadly.
"Wh-what?"
"It won't be long before you don't exist either."
The ambush did not go as planned.
The first five seconds or so were absolutely brilliant, but after that everything went downhill pretty quickly. Predictably, the one-eyed King of the Monsters had plodded stolidly ahead, disdainful of the ominous rumbling and shifting beneath his massive feet. When he reached the arranged point, the ground gave out and he fell sideways with a sharp grunt.
Red King's boulder skipped off the back of his head, throwing him forward onto his chest just as the final attacker closed in. With a gravelly howl, Kemular sent that wicked, venomous stinger lashing down towards one of Godzilla's scars… and it jabbed uselessly into his impervious hide, stuck fast. This is about when things turned around.
Godzilla twisted violently, breaking the stinger off with a piercing crack! Kemular stumbled back for just an instant before Godzilla's prodigious tail knocked him sprawling, spraying his foul venom all over. Next, Godzilla regained his feet and turned calmly to spew an atomic ray skyward, blasting Red King's second boulder from the sky and then scything the beam downward to kill the Red King himself.
Kemular struggled to rise and continue the fight, but another blue ray tore through his body and put a stop to that. You have to give this to Gomora, he was brave; a jet of flame rushed out of the hole at Godzilla's feet and washed over him harmlessly. He responded by drawing a deep breath and sending a third and yet more cataclysmic atomic blast right back, pouring an endless tide of radioactive fire into the tunnels until they'd been seared into glass. Gomora's remains were never found--they'd been reduced to less than ash.
Godzilla shook his head and continued on his way. This victory meant nothing to him.
"Damn it…!" Masema growled, beating his fists on the control room table. "What can we do to stop him? Yukia! Your plan had better be worth it!"
"Hmm?" Yukia looked up from drawing a circle around Chiyo where she sprawled on the deck. If anybody had any questions about this strange operation, they were too smart to ask. "Oh. Yes, this will be more than worth it. And you have to admit that that was not a bad shot for a creature with no depth perception."
"Guess so…" Masema folded his arms and turned back to the table. "Prepare to release Space Godzilla. That monster must to be stopped!"
Yukia sat down next to her prisoner and drew a deep breath. She'd never been stronger or more alive than at this very moment. She could feel the silvery astral lines reaching out from Chiyo to her friends below, as well as the web between each of them, strengthening and sharpening as they worried for and yearned after one another. Between them, she would have all that she would need.
The invisible demon crouched above her, occasionally bending down to nibble at Chiyo again, but there really wasn't much of the girl left. Yukia had been diabolically gleeful about the whole venture before, but now that her victim was actually here… she ran the back of her finger over Chiyo's cheek, feeling something that could possibly have been a distant cousin to affection. "You made this all possible," she whispered. "It must be frightening, but I promise that you will not be alone. You are only the first. Then it will be your friends. And then… everyone."
