Flashing red lights undulated through the halls of Apex Headquarters. Staff and facilities crew dashed about between rooms shouting at and trying to self-direct each other to their stations. The PA crackled to life repeating the phrase: Mechgodzilla's power is at 100%. Repeat. Mechagodzilla's power is at 100%. All personnel please take your designated stations immediately. This is not a drill. Repeat. This is not a drill.
On the main platform overlooking Mechagodzilla's chamber, Simmons stood with an ear to ear grin and tapping his foot in anticipation of the awakening of his dream made real.
Ren, meanwhile, stood in front of his chair staring at the computer console and monitors. The power had been routed to Mechagodzilla. And now all that was left was for him to simply take a seat, put on his headgear, and let the mechanical Titan rise to show the dominance of humanity over the Titans.
"Just take a seat and you can prove him wrong." He whispered to himself as he came forward a step.
"Just take a seat."
Ren's hand touched the back of the chair, and instantly he was taken back almost thirty years watching a memory of his father taking the exact same action with a young Ren standing next to the chair.
"Musuko. Sawatte kudasai." (My son, sit down please) A somewhat younger Doctor Serizawa said calmly.
"Kowai." (Scary) Ren stated.
Ishiro chuckled and knelt down to pick up his son and sat him down in the chair while pointing to an image of Gojira on the screen rising out of the water before the detonation of Castle Bravo.
"Gojira da." (That's Gojira) Ishiro whispered, pointing along Godzilla's back and spines. "Titan desu." (He's a Titan)
"Kowai." (Scary) Ren repeated.
Ishiro nodded and patted his son's head.
"Hai. Kowai desu ne. Daga, subarashii desu ne?" (Yes. He is scary isn't he? But, isn't he also amazing?)
Little Ren looked at the image and stared at the spot where Godzilla's head sat just beneath the water. And as he tried to reach out to touch the image he was brought back to the present day and saw he was reaching for the image of Mechagodzilla's head on the main monitor.
"What?"
Ren looked around only to discover he was still alone.
"That's right. Nobody's allowed in here except the two of us." He whispered while taking steady breaths to calm his heart.
The PA system blared to life in the room.
Mister Serizawa. I hope there's no problems?
"No problem."
Good. Then get in the chair.
The PA shut down and Ren forced a breath through his nose as he sat down and donned his head gear. His finger hovered over the "Execute" button, and then tapped the mouse. Instantly his head gear illuminated along with the cables leading to it from the ceiling. And Ren fell into a trance-like state.
His field of vision went dark, and then returned slowly as he saw the chamber opening up around him. He looked left, and Mechagodzilla looked left. He looked right, and Mechagodzilla looked right. Ren couldn't help but smile as he looked down and checked his hands. They were large and clawed and spun when he thought about doing so. It was most amusing.
Suddenly he heard a voice in his ear.
Enough playing around, Mister Serizawa. It's time to act.
Ren looked further left and saw the window to the platform where Simmons stood and gave a nod of his head. Simmons smiled at the response and walked closer to the glass with eyes shimmering with excitement. Ren turned around and prepared to allow the tunnel leading to the outside world to open, but something stopped him.
In Simmons' room, the lights went out and a yellow spark surged through the room.
"What was that?!" Simmons demanded.
"Electrical surge, sir! It fried every circuit in the room!"
"Get us back online! Now!" He shouted.
The chamber went dark and Ren looked around while activating a thermal filter so he could see his surroundings.
What's this? Ren wondered.
Just then, a strange high-pitched warble reverberated throughout the chamber. Or… Was it just in his head?
Did you hear that?
Nobody replied.
Ren could see the heat signatures for Simmons and the others frantically trying to get the control room back online.
They should be able to hear me. Mister Simmons. Can you hear me?
No response. They all continued dashing about like ants over a freshly dropped corpse.
Strange.
The warble returned. Louder this time. Ren looked around, turning in a full circle trying to see where it came from. Simmons and the others all looked on as Mechagodzilla did the rotation while seeing little more than the glowing lights in his eyes and along his body.
"What's he doing?" Simmons asked.
Show yourself! Ren demanded.
Nothing.
Then it hit him.
… Ghidorah.
The warble. It was a perfect match for one of Ghidorah's recorded vocalizations. And they had a near perfectly preserved skull connected to a DNA computer. They engineered Mechagodzilla's head gear by studying the trace leftovers of neural connections and used state of the art tech to establish new ones to power the DNA computer.
I warned him. Ren thought angrily. I warned him nothing good would come from that skull.
A yellow surge of electricity shot through Mechagodzilla from head to toe, and Ren was alerted via the on-board computer of a loss of motor function. Ren then suddenly found himself back in the chair with no control over Mechagodzilla.
"Dammit!"
Mechagodzilla's arms and head slowly lowered until they were limp as the mecha stood only by the natural balance of its posture and body shape.
"No! What happened?!"
"Working on it, sir!"
"As soon as you all fix this mess you're all fired!"
Ren fought with the systems to regain control. But it was no use. Everything was failing. The login ID's and passwords. The system commands. Nothing was working. Ren's headgear suddenly shut down and the lights leading into the ceiling dimmed. Ren threw the headgear off just in time to avoid another massive yellow electric surge which completely fried the control console and threw Ren back as the monitors burst.
Landing on his back with a few shards of glass embedded in his flesh, Ren gasped for breath and rolled to his side as he saw tiny trickles of blood beginning to spread through his clothing.
Outside, Godzilla and Mothra both stared at the mountain looming over the city.
He's here,Godzilla snarled.
Back inside Mechagodzilla's eyes and the lights along his body flickered to life once more while Simmons smiled in relief.
"Ah. There we go. Excellent work, mister Serizawa. I knew we could-…"
Mechagodzilla's piercing red eyes shifted towards Simmons and the others and the titanic mechanical beast lumbered forward and raised a hand into the air.
"… Oh shit."
The arm came down and took out the entire control room in a single swipe with Mechagodzilla emitting a warbling cackle not too dissimilar to a human laugh.
Just then, it felt something. It felt like an impact to the back. A pulse of some kind.
Outside, Godzilla had begun roaring as loudly as he could directly towards the mountain as he stomped in its direction.
The mechanical nightmare faced the walls in the direction Godzilla's roar had come and barreled forward using its red breath laser and claws to tear away at the walls and landscape. Moments later the laser broke free of the mountainside sending tens, if not hundreds of tons of dirt, rock, and trees flying into the air and through the city as the morning sun began to rise. One piece of rubble flew straight at Godzilla who didn't move an inch as it struck him on the side of the head and bounced off to the streets below.
Mechagodzilla tore his way out of the mountain which halted Godzilla in his tracks as he straightened up and his eyes widened. Mothra as well immediately landed on a building rooftop with her wings slumping to either side. The team on board the H.E.A.V. also stared slack-jawed as the mechanical devil shook off the debris sticking to him and began blasting the immediate area around him with his red mouth laser.
"What the fuck is that?!" Ford asked.
"I have no idea." Joe replied.
"It's a robot version of Godzilla!" Mark said.
"It's an abomination is what it is." Doctor Chen growled.
Mechagodzilla "roared" at Godzilla who roared back in response and immediately began jogging towards his new foe through the open streets. Mechagodzilla returned the gesture and began charging Godzilla and taking out all buildings in its path.
"There! The opening! We need to get in there!" Serizawa yelled while pointing to the opening in the mountain Mechagodzilla left behind.
"Why?!" Ford asked.
"It came out of there. So there must be a controller or something in there, right?" Joe asked.
Serizawa remained silent.
"Ah fuck it. Let's go!"
The H.E.A.V. made a bee line for the entrance to the mountain and passed by Godzilla's head as it went, then Mechagodzilla's. And unless Serizawa was dreaming he could swear Mechagodzilla's left eye followed them for just a second before returning its full attention to Godzilla.
The two behemoths collided, and a pulse of concussive energy was released which flattened many of the already weakened buildings around them and pushed Mothra off her perch nearby forcing her to land on a new one. Godzilla pushed away from Mechagodzilla and spun around as fast as he could with a tail swipe. However Mechagodzilla used the boosters in its shoulders to help it lunge forward as it grabbed the base of Godzilla's tail. Safe from the whip-like end, Mechagodzilla pulled Godzilla up and around causing him to skid across the ground as he went before letting go and watching him slide head-first into the base of a skyscraper which promptly fell onto and buried the King of the Monsters.
Mechagodzilla released another warbling cackle like a laugh as Mothra quietly took wing behind it.
Meanwhile, the team managed to make it into the mountain and observed the carnage left behind.
"Over there. That platform." Serizawa pointed to where Simmons' observation deck used to be which had a large slab of metal protruding which seemed a perfect place to land.
The H.E.A.V. landed softly and the makeshift platform then tilted slightly as they started disembarking.
"Whoa!"
Ford grabbed Joe's wheel chair to prevent him sliding off and down to the chamber floor before Mark came to help push Joe up the incline to more stable ground. Inside the room the team saw the rather grisly remains left behind by Mechagodzilla's swipe, but they continued past the debris and to the doors in the back leading further into the facility.
I'm coming Ren, Serizawa thought.
Mechagodzilla suddenly found itself with its head plastered against the side of a building and held down by some strange webbing. Gripping the building and pushing on it to try and pull its head free, it ended up demolishing the building itself which helped the webbing catch the debris and cling to it all around its face. Shaking in anger, the mechanical Titan released its red breath attack and destroyed the rocks hanging in front of its head before using its claws to swipe away the rest. Now cleared of the webs it started turning its he-
Splat!
It only saw her for a split-second. But the vision of Mothra played back in its memory bank as having taken a dive in front of it and unleashing the webbing into its eyes.
The lights in its body began glowing more intensely as it tried scraping the webbing away. And by this time a certain someone had managed to shake free of the debris which buried him and was now stomping towards the mechanical demon with deadly intent.
Mechagodzilla felt the impact on the side of its head from Godzilla's atomic breath and was thrown off its feet and to the ground. The good news for Mechagodzilla was that this burned away Mothra's webbing allowing it to see once more. Turning its head and tilting it down, it looked at Godzilla and fired its red breath into his upper chest and lower part of his neck resulting in a roar of pain from Godzilla who backpedaled away and turned his body to allow his more densely scaled shoulders and side to absorb the blow.
Mothra, meanwhile, was on a dive and preparing to web its mouth shut when Mechagodzilla's head suddenly swerved towards her trailing the beam as it went. Narrowly avoiding it via a barrel roll to the side, Mothra also narrowly missed crashing into a skyscraper and faltered in her flight path for several seconds forcing her to gain distance in order to right herself safely.
Mechagodzilla made it to its feet and turned to Godzilla in time to see him charging his breath. Mechagodzilla returned the charge and both fired their respective breaths at one another which collided with tremendous force and heat almost immediately melting the buildings directly beneath them and scorching the landscape a deep charcoal gray in a matter of seconds. The beams pushed back and forth on a seemingly even playing field. However Mechagodzilla's head reared back as the light at the back of its throat shone more brightly before it lurched forward with the beam gaining density. The red stream of energy began pushing Godzilla's back until it reached the King of the Monsters with explosive result and sent Godzilla flying onto his back in agony.
Inside the facility the team raced through the halls searching for the control mechanism for Mechagodzilla.
"Sensei! Over here!" Doctor Chen called.
Serizawa raced over to her as she knelt down in an open doorway. And as Serizawa came closer he came to a halt and was immediately unable to breathe.
"Ren." He whispered.
Ren seemed to be unconscious, but alive. The blood staining his clothing from the glass and metal shards embedded in his skin had Ishiro's heart racing as he knelt down by his son's side and began checking his vitals.
"Everyone! The control mechanism is here!" Doctor Chen called to the others who all raced over.
"Serizawa. Who's this?" Doctor Andrews asked.
Serizawa was too engrossed in checking Ren to answer, so Doctor Chen responded that it was his son and the team went quiet.
"Can anyone repair that control device?" Doctor Chen asked, pointing to where Ren's chair and the control computer and monitors had been.
"I can." Ren replied weakly.
"Ren!" Ishiro asked while gently holding his son's face.
"So now you come?" Ren asked with a frown.
Ishiro's eyes welled with moisture.
"I'm sorry."
"A little late for that, don't you think?" Ren asked as he struggled to make it to his feet with Doctor Chen and Ishiro's help.
"You need help, Ren." Ishiro pleaded.
"No time. We need to stop Ghidorah."
Everyone froze.
"Ghidorah?" Doctor Chen asked.
Ren nodded.
"I heard him when I first connected Mechagodzilla. I could sense him too. His malice and anger. His desire for death and destruction of Gojira."
"So that thing is-" Ford began.
"Yes. That mecha is Ghidorah." Ren said. "Help me to the computer station. I think I can fix this." He groaned.
