Into the Crucible

The power finally came back on at the Knight Estate and all electronics were working again. Gordon bid his guests farewell as he personally saw them to their cars. Maria pulled her shawl over her shoulders and shivered. Her mind was on what happened to Kiryuu during the blackout. Because there was no power to the projectors, there was no way Kiryuu could sustain his image. Though, he was not worried about that, she was worried about Kiryuu. When the blackout happened, Kiryuu's avatar looked like he was in pain. That worried her more than the blackout.

Gordon waved good-bye to the last of the guests and walked back over to the stone steps that cascaded up towards his archaic, gothic mansion. Maria sat at the foot of the steps. He sat down beside her and patted her back comfortingly.

"I'm worried about Kiryuu," she said. "I wish I had Katsura's link so I could at least know what happened."

It's nice to know that," Gordon nodded in agreement. "I'm worried about him too."

Maria glanced back at him in some scrutiny.

"Well, why shouldn't I?" Gordon asked. "I put a lot of time, blood, sweat, and money on him. And—I care a lot about that overgrown, refurbished, scrapheap of old Chrysler spare parts. I do. I don't know what I'd do without him."

Maria smiled: "I love him."

Gordon sighed and glanced away. Somewhere he had a feeling that her relationship would end in tragedy much like Kiryuu's relationship with Katsura.

"You think it's not going to work out, do you?" Maria asked.

"Believe me," Gordon began with a heavy sigh. "Kiryuu, like all of us, wants to know love. And I know that he's probably a better man than any man I've ever known. He would treat you with love, respect, and dignity, which is more than what most men do for their women. He could take of most of your needs, but for that particular need—I'm afraid he won't be able to fulfill. He would want to very much, but he can't."

"I guess you didn't exactly equip him with any tool for that," Maria him a cheeky grin which made Gordon turn redder than a lobster with embarrassment.

"Well…" Gordon began, scratching his head and trying to find the right thing to say. "Kiryuu is male. He is a he. And the syntech is very—morphic."

He could not even bring himself to finish that very modest and rather touch and personal subject. But stating that Kiryuu was male was all the answer Maria needed.

He's just probably too big, Maria thought deeply and privately in her mind. Though that thought did give her a slight chuckle.

"Now," Gordon began, noticing the rather cheeky grin on her face again. "Don't you be thinking of those kind of thoughts about Kiryuu."

Maria broke out into laughter and her tanned face blushed with embarrassment.

"Anyways," Gordon's deep voice brought her back to the real subject. "Since my phone is working again, I'll call Will and see just what happened."

He brought out his cell phone, flipping the cover open and pressing Will's number on speed dial. After a long wait, Will finally answered.

"Will?" Gordon asked.

"Gordon!" cried Will. "We've got a crisis here!"

"What the hell is going on there?" Gordon called.

"Kiryuu!" Will began. "He's hacking into government servers again, and Katsura…"

"What's the matter with her?" he asked.

"She's fine," Will replied. "The plug helped. But every time she tries to go near him, she feels sick. She says something is attacking him."

"Is that Biollante bitch causing trouble again?" Gordon's face flushed with rage.

"No," Will replied. "It's not Erika. Katsura says she senses another presence inside of Kiryuu. She says that it is the one controlling Kiryuu. Gordon, Katsura says that he's in pain. And ever since the blackout here, he's been unconscious and he's having seizures."

"Okay," Gordon began. "I'll be down there in a second."

He hung up the phone and glanced back at Maria, a lot of worry was on his face.

"We need to get down there," he shook his head in dismay.

"What's happening?" Maria asked.

"Kiryuu's having seizures," Gordon replied. "Will says that someone is attacking him from inside his AI system."

"Who is it?"

"He's finding out," he replied.

The two rushed back into the mansion and came to the landing pad to the west of the estate. There, Chester McAnderson was waiting for them.

"Evenin', Mr. Knight," he began.

"Does the chopper work?" Gordon asked.

"It does now," he replied. "What happened earlier?"

"I don't know," Gordon replied. "But I have a feeling that this blackout also has something to do with Kiryuu's seizures. I need to get down to the base immediately."

"Aye, Mr. Knight," Chester nodded.

The pilot revved the engine up as Gordon and Maria strapped themselves in. As they took off, Gordon settled down into silently contemplation. He ran several ideas into this head, but still he could not understand why another hacker was causing so much problems. He ran his fingers through his silvery hair, shaking his head. He placed his head in his hand and sighed. Maria was also thinking about what was happening. Her thoughts were mainly on Kiryuu's problem. She stared amiably out the window, her mind was with Kiryuu. He was in pain, he was suffering, and no one knew why. Her eyes became downcast as she thought of him. What worried her was not even Katsura could help him. Maria wondered what she could do to help him, but she knew that if Will and Katsura could not, then there was little chance she could. All she could do was tell him that she loved him.

The chopper landed at the base and Chester's passengers got out.

"Let me know if you need me," began the pilot. "I'll be in the lounge." He turned back to Gordon. "And let me now if Kiryuu's gonna be okay."

"I will," Gordon nodded. "Come on Maria."

The power was on inside the base. Yet, still no attempt at trying to revive Kiryuu was successful. The seizures had stopped though and the great bio-mecha's form was quiet. Gordon and Will was running several in trying to unlock the AI's frozen OS. Gordon, having some understanding with Kiryuu's AI program, the hardware, processors, and the various upgrades that Will had added to the AI for faster processing speed, and compatibility with newer software.

They were running an external scan, which took longer than a scan that was done inside the cockpit. Katsura was running diagnostics on the syntech, hoping that whatever virus has caused the problem was not affecting the syntech's program. Maria assisted Katsura in reprogramming Kiryuu's syntech into bounding him tightly against the brace just in case he had another seizure attack.

Will scanned through the lines of code around Kiryuu's CPU, hoping that he would not loose the AI. Almost 20 years of his blood, sweat, and toil was used in creating the AI that has become like a brother to him. He was not about to let Kiryuu die now.

"Come on, pal," he whispered. "Don't quit on me now."

"Will," Gordon began. "I found something. What the hell is this here?"

Will rolled his chair over to the other end of the control room. He glanced over at Gordon's screen and read along the lines of code.

"It's encoded," Will replied. "One of Kiryuu's secret files. What's this 'Blue Breeze O2' folder?"

Katsura and Maria glanced over at the screen as the two men ran over the folder.

"What folder is that?" Gordon asked.

"Since Kiryuu's system is messed up, I can break through this encryption," said Will.

"Do it," Gordon huffed. "I want to make sure this folder isn't a part of the cause. It could be a corrupted file he downloaded."

"Kiryuu knows if a file he downloaded was corrupted or not," Will explained. "He can run those scans on himself on his own."

"But some times even those scans don't catch everything," Gordon growled back. "Check it! Open it!"

"What about Kiryuu's privacy?"

"William," Gordon began with a scowl on his face. "If that file is the thing causing Kiryuu's problems, I want to know what's in it. I don't want to loose Kiryuu over some files."

"Right," Will nodded.

Katsura sighed and turned back to her screen. Maria glanced up at Kiryuu through the glass. His face held no expression as to what was going on inside. He looked calm despite the turmoil that was happening within his system. She glanced down at her own screen, reading through the lines of code the syntech was feeding her. She scrolled down through the code, searching for any problems with the programs within Kiryuu's biosyntech. Her eyes scanned over a particular set of codes different than all the others. Her eyes widened when she began to recognize the special characters being used in the line of code before her. She grabbed a notepad and began to jot down quickly what the code said. She rummaged through the code, piecing together the code in something she could recognize.

"King Ghidorah," she read silently. "Penned…cannot move…system about to permanently shut down…free Erika." Maria leaned back, scratching her head. "Free Erika?"

She glanced over at Katsura.

"Kat," she called. "Who's Erika?"

"Erika?" Katsura asked. "Erika Munson?"

"Is that who she is?" Maria asked.

Gordon and Will began to decode the encrypted folder, peering inside the files. The various files and pictures inside the folder were all written in Japanese.

"Is this those files Kiryuu stole that one night when we were in Yokohama?" Gordon asked. "I can't believe he still has those files!"

"He probably does," began Will. "But this isn't it."

"Will, you don't read Japanese," Gordon sighed.

"Not much," Will replied. "But I can recognize a few words. Like this one. This character means 'destroyer'. And this one means 'chemical components'. What does chemical and destroyer have in common with Kiryuu?"

"What did he just recently acquire?" Gordon asked, thinking. Then his eyes lit up in realization. "Serizawa's weapon!"

The Oxygen Destroyer!" Will cried. "Gordon, these are the notes written on the Oxygen Destroyer, and how to build one. I knew that Kiryuu had them, but look at these new logs. These weren't written in 1954. These are Kiryuu's personal notes on the weapon. And this is a tally on experiments done in the base."

Gordon slapped his own head: "Kiryuu's creating an Oxygen Destroyer. Where did he get the components and where are they?"

"Gordon, anyone with the equipment you supply in or labs inside this base and with Serizawa's notes can build an Oxygen Destroyer."

"Jesus-tap dancin'-Christ!" Gordon grumbled. "I go and build a mech from the bones of the original Godzilla who died from the very weapon that same mech is now creating."

"Can you say 'irony'?" Will asked, sounding like Mr. Rogers. "I knew you could."

"Where's the lab Kiryuu's using to build this thing?" Gordon asked. "And how did this slip pass security?"

"Kiryuu…" Will sighed. He glanced through the images and the files. There were images of Kiryuu's accomplishments and failures. Though since Kiryuu was going off of notes of a device that had been made before, it made it easier and swifter to make. He had Serizawa's notes since he gained them through outside means. It cost him a few ten thousand dollars to get the hired gun Gordon remembered. He even advised Kiryuu against it, but this own harsh feelings towards the Prime Minister of Japan and his various government operated agencies got in the way of his judgment. Now he saw exactly what he feared would happen—is now happening.

"Why is Kiryuu creating this?" Gordon asked.

"Only he knows," Will sighed. He glanced down on one particular file of a tank of fishes. He clicked on the image and it pulled up a QuickTime movie. Will watched as the holographic avatar of Kiryuu walking around the tank. He held a pair of tongs in his claws and in the tongs was a silver sphere. Kiryuu leaned up over the top of the tank and dripped the tiny sphere into the water. Kiryuu knelt down, flipping a switch under the lab bench. Will leaned in and watched with great interest as the water began to fizzle up with bubbles. It looked like the water itself was boiling. And then, he saw the fish. The flesh began to peal away and dissolve, until nothing more than skeletons were left of the fish. And Kiryuu looked like he was having a conniption. The mecha braced his back against the wall, his eyes bulging out in horror as he watched the fish dissolved into skeletons. Then, Will began to realize that Kiryuu was reliving his own traumatic experience when Serizawa used the Oxygen Destroyer against him. Kiryuu appeared to be exhausted from watching the seeds of his hard labor bear fruit.

"My God," Will breathed. "We are seeing exactly how the Oxygen Destroyer works for the first time in fifty years. Gordon…"

"One of Kiryuu's own notes…" breathed Gordon as he began to read over it. "'What I thought this weapon was and how it worked was wrong. I cannot explain how this weapon works. Perhaps upon more research I could understand more on how this weapon works, but I don't. King Ghidorah is coming and I know that I do not have the power to defeat him. This weapon, even by today's standards, is very advanced. Though following Dr. Serizawa's notes, one with only a minimum amount of knowledge in chemistry and physics can build an Oxygen Destroyer with the right components and equipment, but they would not understand completely on what they were building. Even with my great knowledge, I still don't quite grasp the full mechanics on how this weapon works.'"

"Just like setting tab-A into slot-B," Will began. "Daizuke Serizawa must have been a scientist beyond his time to create this."

"Says here he discovered this thing by accident," said Gordon. "Then, he researched more on it to understand it." He glanced back at the still form of Kiryuu. "When we get Kiryuu fixed, he is so much trouble."

"Yep," Will nodded.

Maria glanced back at Katsura: "Who is Erika Munson?"

"Biollante," Katsura replied. "The one who now currently possess Kiryuu."

"Is she causing the problem?" Maria asked.

"No," Katsura replied. "Why?"

Maria pointed to the screen and then to her pad.

"Free Erika?" Katsura asked. "King Ghidorah? King Ghidorah is…"

She got up from her chair, her eyes widening as she realized what was wrong with Kiryuu.

"Gordon!" Katsura cried.

Gordon glanced back at her: "What?"

"I know what's happening to Kiryuu," said Katsura. "Just like what Biollante did to him nearly two years ago, King Ghidorah is doing the same thing."

"We don't even know where he is," Gordon replied.

"Gordon," began Maria. "Kiryuu is trying to contact us. He said that if we free Erika, she might be able to defend Kiryuu against King Ghidorah."

"Okay," Will sighed. "Even if we go with this insane idea, how the hell do we free her?"

"Kiryuu set up the block," began Katsura. "With the help of Manda. With all of his internal system weakened, we might be able to free her."

"Kiryuu says to hurry," Maria said. "He says that his systems are about to shut down."

"That's it," began Will. "Shut down Kiryuu completely and revert his system to their original start-up mode. It'll even stop the hacking."

"What about freeing Erika?" Maria asked.

"A total shut down should free her as well," said Will. "And it might stop King Ghidorah's attack."

"Will we loose anything—like Kiryuu himself?" Gordon asked.

"No," Will replied. "Everything that has to do with Kiryuu's memory, personality, and individuality is backed up."

"What about the information on the Oxygen Destroyer?" Gordon asked.

"We shouldn't loose it too," said Will. "I'll back it up just in case."

He glanced up at Kiryuu and sighed as he shook his head.

"I think removing the CPU from its casing might be best as well," said Will. "But first, I'm going to shut him down."

"Can you do that from out here?" asked Maria.

Will went back to his workstation and began to command the robotic arms around the bay area without a reply to Maria's question. He commanded the arms to swing around towards the back of Kiryuu's head.

"I don't care how powerful a hacker or psychic we're dealing with," he began as the arms pulled the AI out from the back of the slot. "You can't mess with a removal."

The arms swung around again and set the beach ball-sized sphere down towards an awaiting dolly and three awaiting technicians wearing clean room suits, gloves, and respirators.

"Get Kiryuu to the clean room for maintenance," Will called to them. "And for virus purging."

Maria swallowed as she listened in.

"When I get down there," Will continued. "We'll start to take the AI apart for diagnosis."

"Wait," Maria began. "T—take Kiryuu apart. Will that kill him? Will it hurt Katsura?"

"Kat?" Will asked. Katsura smiled and placed the plug back into her data jack.

"It won't kill him like it won't hurt your own PC if I took it apart in order to fix it," Will replied. "I've done it before when Kiryuu complained about dust clogging in one of the memory slots. And I've added and removed bits of his AI before upgrades." Will took out a memory chip from his pocket. The memory chip was a long, thin piece of hardware with a set of fine teeth running along one side. "This was a memory chip that burned out inside Kiryuu's CPU. See that warped piece at the edge? Kiryuu complained that his random access memory was acting up. His processing power wasn't kicking out the juice he needed. I took Kiryuu's CPU apart and found this burned out chip. I ordered a new one and stuck it in and put Kiryuu back together and he works fine. I even upgraded the RAM with the new chip. Kiryuu said he felt refreshed after the operation. Operating on Kiryuu's brain is a lot easier than a human's brain. Now, I'm going to find what this 'King Ghidorah' damaged and I'm going to fix it. And if I can't, I'll replace it."

"What about Biollante?" asked Maria.

"I might find her too," Will shrugged.

"Find her and remove her," Gordon growled. "We've put that off for too long."

"Sure thing," Will said. "I'll be in the clean room. Don't worry about it, Maria. Kiryuu's gonna be fine."

He walked out of the control room and headed for the clean room prep station to put his gear on. Maria sighed again and sat down on the chair. Katsura sat down beside her and placed a comforting arm around her.

"Will knows what he's doing," she said. "This can be fixed."

"I keep forgetting that Kiryuu's still a computer," Maria sniffed, feeling a tear roll down her cheek. "He's not human…"

"He's a machine," said Gordon. "Sentient, but still a machine. He's still wires, screws, chips, nuts, and bolts—and silicon. And just like any other computer, he can be fixed."

"I hope William will be able to fix him," Maria sighed.

Io silently peeked around the corner as she saw the men dressed in white clean room jumpers and masks quietly rolled a dolly down the hall. She saw on that dolly a gleaming black sphere the size of a beach ball roll down in between the men. The ball had strange wires growing out from the top and the spaces between the panels on its surface glowed an electric, deep blue. The glow of the sphere gave her a dreadful shudder as she saw it pass. She peered around and watched as the men with the dolly disappeared behind a restricted door.

A hand touched her back and she swung around, letting lose a startled yelp. It was Katsura. Io glanced up at her as she leaned in and hugged her.

"I know that I've never seen it," Io began. "But I have a feeling that's Kiryuu's brain."

"It is his brain," Katsura said.

"What's happened?"

"I don't know," Katsura replied. She knew, but she could not bring herself to say what it was. "Will is going to fix him. He's good with that."

Io leaned in again, feeling a slight worried sob tickle her throat. Katsura held her close, rubbing her back comfortingly.

"Don't worry, Io-chan," began Katsura. "We've removed Kiryuu's CPU a thousand times before, even spoken to him in that state."

"I'm just afraid he might die," sobbed Io.

"Kiryuu's not going to die," said Katsura. "He's going to be fine. If you like, you can talk to him when will's is finished. I think Kiryuu will like to know you've been worried about him. He cares about you very much."

Io nodded and bowed. Katsura sighed and gazed fearfully at the door into the clean room. She was very worried about the conflict going on inside Kiryuu's virtual mind. Whatever this being who called himself King Ghidorah was doing to Kiryuu, it was damaging to the AI's system. She hoped that Kiryuu would not come out of this lobotomized.

He pressed against Kiryuu's personality protocols, squeezing the virtual spirit harder. He was enraged that the humans managed to disconnect Kiryuu from the Internet grid. And Kiryuu just chuckled. Will game through for him and disconnected the link.

I suppose your technician thinks it'll be easy to get rid of me, King Ghidorah growled.

"It is illogical for you to continue to force me into controlling something I cannot," Kiryuu rumbled.

He's right! Called Biollante. Let him go.

"I cannot give you what you desire," Kiryuu said. King Ghidorah began to consider this as she slowly let up off of Kiryuu. Kiryuu let loose a great sigh, feeling the pressure lift up from his processors. King Ghidorah leaned back as he began to sense the humans beginning the procedures of taking the AI's CPU apart.

You are free now, King Ghidorah hissed as his consciousness left Kiryuu's processors. But we are not finished with this.

When the space dragon was gone, Biollante turned to Kiryuu.

You told them to free me, she began. Why?

"You have abilities that I do not possess," Kiryuu replied. "I could never how your powers."

So, you need me, Biollante grinned.

"Yes, I need you, Erika," Kiryuu solemnly smiled back. "Can I trust you?"

Yes, Biollante replied quickly without thought in the question's meaning.

"I'm serious, Erika," Kiryuu said. "King Ghidorah is no laughing matter. I need to know if I can rely on you to aid me in defeating him. If I fail and King Ghidorah wins, I will die. He will kill me and with you inside of me, you'll die too."

Biollante leaned back away from the bars of her prison and scratched her head. She knew the seriousness of this situation. She also knew that in many ways there was no hope in Kiryuu winning this fight—that is unless he uses the Oxygen Destroyer. After all, it was she who convinced him to build the weapon. Biollante saw how Kiryuu hid the information, stacking it under a mound of encryptions. Why would he want the information on such a weapon if he had not intentions on using it? Of course there had to be a dire reason why he would resort into using a powerful and devastating weapon. King Ghidorah was a dire reason well on his own. And she convinced him to create it. Though, Kiryuu had a feeling deep down inside that having a weapon he knew that could more like take King Ghidorah down than any other weapon he had installed would give him an advantage. And that was why he made two.

"I need to know if I can count on you, Erika," Kiryuu continued.

You can, she replied. Kiryuu stared deeply into the plant-gator's dark violet eyes. This was the first time he had ever seen a sincere expression on her face.

I'm serious, Biollante said. After I saw what he made you do, I know now that King Ghidorah is no laughing matter. And I don't want to die.

"I don't either," Kiryuu said. "I died once, I don't want to go through that again."

He waved his claw when he sensed Will begin to take the spherical casing off of the CPU. Biollante glanced around as the bars around her disappeared. She was free. She wanted so much to play with him like she did once before. But she could wait until King Ghidorah was gone to play with him again.

"Come here," Kiryuu rumbled. "I can protect you from Will."

Biollante moved towards him as Kiryuu's virtual syntech sprouted from his body. He enveloped her in the silvery vines, holding her close to him. She grinned as she felt his protective warmth around her body. At last, she got part of what she wanted from him. She got him to hold her. Her reptilian form shifted until she was her human self and leaned her head against Kiryuu's metallic chest. And for the first time, Kiryuu actually felt compelled to hold her close, comforting her and to protect her. And they stood there in the darkness of the shut-down as Will began to take the AI apart.