VI: Pursuit
"Aso, Godzilla is escaping." Meru spoke into a microphone attached to the console in front of her, still breathing heavily from the abrasive heaving of the control room.
"Return to base, we need to develop an effective plan to counter him."
Meru winced at Commander Aso's words and shook her head.
"We must stop him while he's wounded." Meru gazed with determination at the viewing screen at the rippling waters of the bay, "We're going after him."
"What were Aso's orders?" Kuroki questioned, turning around.
"He wants us to go after him."
Miki raised her eyes toward Meru, knowing she was being deceptive. She carefully ignored Miki's gaze because she knew her all too well.
"You're lying." Miki mumbled loud enough for her counterpart to hear.
Meru shook her head and placed her palms against the panel in front of her. Since the beginning Miki had always countered her ideas. While she slammed her hand against the panel she cleverly switched off the audio transmissions they were receiving from Counter-G, preventing anybody from hearing Aso's angry hollering.
"No I'm not. Miki, you can't let your love of this beast keep you from doing your job. I'm in command, you listen to me." Meru demanded, "now Kuroki, set a course to follow Godzilla."
Kuroki's throat lurched like a cannon as he gulped nervously. He turned around, manned his own console and set a course to pursue Godzilla's radioactive emissions.
Miki felt her heart revolt behind her ribs at the thought of Godzilla being killed so callously—and to think it was her fault for allowing this to happen. The pain in her heart made her entire chest ache. The sound of the Argus booster-rockets sickened her and served as a fiery lament to the Little One's soon-to-be demise.
Moll and Lora's hair flipped around in the wind created by MechaGodzilla's departure. With every moment that passed the flames of his engines faded into the night, a hell-fire sinking into a cloudy void. Lora felt a cold wind blow across her neck which contributed to her morose feeling about the situation.
"Moll… we already know what's going to happen. I fear this Meru is going to actually find a means to kill Godzilla." Lora whispered beneath her breath, still nearly being muffled by MechaGodzilla's distant rockets.
"I know."
Moll's subdued response made Lora feel even more burdened by frustration. It wasn't like her sister to be so limited in her words.
"Shouldn't we do something?" Lora raised her voice while staring down at the still waters.
Moll turned to face her sister with an inquiring expression.
"If Miki cannot stop Meru.. Godzilla will surely die and humanity will face Mothra's wrath… Lets implore Mothra to re-consider…" Lora pleaded in an animated manner. Every movement of her mouth shook her beaded earrings like tree limbs.
"Mothra was set in her opinion of the situation, Lora, I fear she will not change her perspective." Moll responded, emotionlessly.
"But shouldn't we try?" Lora immediately interjected.
Moll remained silent and shook her head, not wanting to defy their guardian's wishes. But she knew Lora—the love in her heart always seemed prepared to find another way. Before Moll could react, Fairy Mothra's bearing in the wind shifted as Lora stood on the back of the steed, carefully keeping her hands braced on Moll's shoulders.
"MOSURA…" Lora sang into the clouds and stars.
"Mosura ya Mosura
Dongankasa kuyan indo muu,
Rusutoridoa hamba hamba muyan
Randa banu radan tonjukanra
Kasaku yumne!"
The power in Lora's voice belted across the night like a battle song, but seemed unharmonious because Moll did not sing the stanza in unison. She felt the determination in her sister's voice and realized that love always was always the wisest way to resolve hatred, so she too began to sing:
"Mosura ya Mosura
Dongankasa kuyan indo muu,
Rusutoridoa hamba hamba muyan
Randa banu radan tonjukanra
Kasaku yumne!"
Moll and Lora knew their voices stretched around the world, there was no place on the Earth where their melody could not reach. Their only hope was that Mothra would respond and come to humanity's aid.
The annoying hum of Argus's flight mode irritated Miki beyond belief. Between the metallic buzzing of the nuclear powered rockets to the consistent bleeping of the control panels around her, she found herself in a fantasia of distractions. The distractions along with her own personal dilemma of having to partake in Godzilla's destruction almost made her catatonic. She stared blankly at the viewing screen and watched the darkening clouds disperse in MechaGodzilla's wake.
I feel so cruel.. I've let Baby down twice now. She wallowed in her thoughts.
"Meru, Godzilla is swimming back toward shore." Major Kuroki's voice broke Miki's introspection.
"Track his route, where is he heading?"
"He's still in Wakasa Bay. His course is for the city of Miyazu."
"Damn him. He just won't quit." Meru grumbled, flipping her black curls out of her eyes, "keep following him."
Miki didn't know how to proceed. Part of her wanted to intervene and stop Meru but she knew that any disruption of the mission would result in her being removed from Counter G, and quite possibly from the E.S.P. Institute. The Psychic never knew contempt for a person until that moment. She had no idea who Meru was anymore. The young aspiring telepath she once knew was completely gone—buried in a thick gainful muck.
"Meru, we can't do this.. This is wrong." Miki tried to appeal to any humanity in her former friend but it was only met with a glare.
"Are you going to let the deaths of millions of people weigh on you the rest of your life?"
"What do you mean?" Miki stammered in an almost angry tone.
"If we let Godzilla live, it'll mean more destruction. It's time we stop it, now. And I'm going to be the one to make it stop."
Miki couldn't even recognize the sound of Meru's voice anymore. Regardless, Meru did have some logic in her words: if Godzilla continued to live, he'll continue to destroy. As much as she knew humanity would suffer, she couldn't forget what the Elias told her. Godzilla deserved to live, just as much as any other creature.
"This time we aren't holding back. Preparing offensive and tactile weaponry." Meru muttered while focusing in the eye piece tracking Godzilla's location.
Water curled and sloshed as Godzilla's spines sliced through the ocean's surface like knives. In the wake of his arrival, water along the shore rose and covered the countryside. Tsunami sirens belted into the night as Godzilla neared shore and the terrified screams of Japanese citizens mixed with the clangor of boats and other sea-faring craft slamming into buildings rang out into the night.
The clouds flashed and parted as the Argus MechaGodzilla descended. The metallic behemoth's maw opened and released a cry sounding like metal scraping against metal. The segment joints of his skeletal body gnarled as his jets aimed downward, allowing him to fly in a stationary position.
Godzilla could sense the enemy in the air directly behind him, he was cornered against the shore and couldn't flee back into deeper waters. Hesitantly, he rose and was instantly met with an impact from MechaGodzilla's mega-buster ray against the back of his head. The explosive force of the weapon flung Godzilla forward, casting him onto the beach.
Godzilla had only ever fought one creature, so he didn't have the battle experience his father possessed. This enemy was different, yet similar at the same time - the hate in its eyes seemed to rival Destoroyah's. The radioactive mutant gazed upward at his foe, nearly being blinded by the light emitted from his jets.
Before Godzilla could gain a clear view of Argus, two rotating spiral grenade missiles burst from the jet-light; drilling violently into the reptile's shoulders. He released a bone-piercing cry as his arteries ruptured, spraying his viscous blood onto the beach below. The kinetic shock from the weapons nearly knocked him over once more, but this time he managed to maintain his stance despite the agony. Godzilla hissed and cradled his regenerating wounds as the silver giant landed on the beach a few hundred meters away.
Godzilla shook his head and backed away slightly as MechaGodzilla took one stride forward. The atomic beast spat a radioactive stream from his mouth, this time aimed at the ground directly below Argus as opposed to his armor. Sand, water and fire burst in every direction, nearly concealing the diamond-plated demon completely. Fortunately for Godzilla, the unstable ground beneath his opponent caused him to fall forward.
Without hesitation, Godzilla thrust himself forward and slammed his entire bulk into Argus - knocking him into the shallow waters of the bay. Godzilla released an elongated primal roar as he watched Argus sprawl out beneath the water, causing his misaligned jets to sputter and steam.
Inside Argus, Miki screamed as the force of the fall slammed her torso into the console in front of her. Similar exasperated responses came from Meru and Kuroki. Deep down Miki feared what Godzilla could do - after all, his father nearly killed her and the rest of the former MechaGodzilla's crew.
"Meru, we have to get out of here!" She hollered, attempting to discern Meru against the sparks flashing across the room.
"No." She responded sternly while re-activating the P.T.S. program.
"We are in the water and our jets are malfunctioning!" Kuroki's voice raised above the computer signaling the P.T.S. re-initialization sequence.
"We don't need jets. Kuroki, get us standing upright, it's time we took this up a notch." Meru smiled with a bit of malevolence in her expression. She concentrated her mind on activating the grappling arm and the shock anchors.
Miki's spine tingled while sensing the weapons Meru began to activate. She felt a wave of nausea take hold knowing the torment her former friend was going to inflict upon the Little One.