Down Hill from Here

Godzilla looked out beyond the waves and shivered. Something he could sense in the air he did not like at all. The waves clapped on the sandy beach near his ivory toe talons. He heard the sound of sea gulls cracking shells on the black rocks near the beach. He sighed slightly, his brownish-red eyes staring aimlessly across the horizon. The sky was hazy and clouds covered the dome. He could hear the sound of thunder crackling in the distance and lightning flash. Though storms were never a bother to Godzilla, he had an inner fear of them—mostly from being afraid of the lightning when he was still very young and very small. Sometimes, these fears never go away. The lightning to him represented the breath weapon of King Ghidorah as he laid to waste the land he grew up upon, and the death he had caused. And forever Godzilla would hate the lightning and the sound of the thunder and he feared it. He remembered his father comforting him when he was frightened of the sound of the thunder. His father on the other hand enjoyed the sound. The liquid amber of his father's eyes reflected the bright glow of the lightning. He remembered that look in his father's eyes when the lightning struck. Those golden pools captured the light deep within them.

Godzilla shivered again when he heard the sound of the thunder crackle through the angry heavens above. The wind began to pick up around the great beast as he glanced around. He heard something in the ocean making its way onto the beach. Godzilla at first barred his teeth when he saw the figure rise itself out of the water. Then, he relaxed, backing away when he saw Angilus rise up out of the water. The ankylosaur hobbled weakly out of the ocean. Upon his back was the form of his companion Rodan, lifeless. Godzilla could tell that Angilus was on his last leg as well, blood dripping out from his jaws. There were deep cuts and gashes all over the enormous dinosaur. Godzilla could only ask what happened.

The Father…

Godzilla lowered his head, shaking it in disbelief. Though, in away he suspected something like this would happen. Kiryuu attacked them and he killed Rodan. Kiryuu—his father was unpredictable in his actions. His loyalties lied not with his own kind, but with the Humans. He glanced back up again at the sound of thunder rumbling through the clouds. It sent a shiver through his scales. Once more, he was worried. Angilus glanced up to Godzilla and growled weakly at him, hobbling off towards the rocks. Then, he disappeared behind them. Godzilla did not look back. He did not need to. There were no final fair wells in the world of animals. Angilus said what he needed to say to the son and that was it.

Godzilla walked out into the ocean, letting the salty waves crash against his hide. Then, he took in a deep breath and dove into the water. His body swiftly propelled him through the water. Above he could feel the turmoil of the ocean as the storm came in. His senses focused and he found himself drawn to the east again. Godzilla knew his way now well enough to lead him through the Pacific Ocean into the Atlantic Ocean. He saw that channel through into the Atlantic. But King Ghidorah was not in the Atlantic. He was not even in Florida. He was further inland, further north than Florida. He had to go there. He knew his father would also go there as well. He knew his father, his father would want to protect the smaller creatures of that land. Of course he would go there. Godzilla wanted to help. He wanted to prove to his father that he could be like him. Godzilla began to figure out that if he helped to protect the creatures, perhaps his father would not be so harsh to him anymore. Not even those silly little creatures deserved King Ghidorah's wrath. No one did. Godzilla remembered what happened that day. That was why he was afraid of the lighting. Although, now lightning could not harm him, he still feared it. Because it resembled King Ghidorah. And he feared King Ghidorah. Somewhere, he knew his father did as well.

Something disturbed him though, something that Angilus had said during their small chat. He remembered that Angilus told him Kiryuu changed during the fight. At first Kiryuu lead them both away, to an island rarely used by the humans. Then, they chatted. Kiryuu blamed Rodan for calling him a 'freak'. And then, Kiryuu got angry and attacked both of them. Angilus said that Kiryuu's eyes seemed to have changed color when the attack happened. Angilus told Godzilla that Kiryuu's golden eyes turned to blood red, the same color as the six eyes King Ghidorah held.

Father's eyes turned red? Godzilla thought.

He continued on his journey through the waves, silently as he mulled over that question. It worried him. He sensed where the disturbance was coming from. It was far of into the east, far, into the large landmass that Kiryuu currently resided in. Godzilla made his way there.

Kiryuu's Project

"Another volcano had erupted today," began the news reporter. "The mountain Clingman's Dome, the highest peak in the state of Tennessee, erupted spewing lava, fire bombs, and spreading an ash cloud nearly 300 square miles in diameter, covering Sevier County, Knox County, parts of Loudon County, and Anderson County in darkness. There are power outages spreading throughout the cities of Pigeon Forge, Knoxville, and Sevierville as ash rains down on the buildings, clogging power stations and generators. The water is polluted from the ash."

Kiryuu glanced up at the monitor's screen as he folded the glass casing down. He was in the laboratory, finishing up on the Oxygen Destroyer, but he never kept his eyes off of what was going on with Tennessee.

"Geologists have been keeping an eye on the affects the shockwave has done to America's true active volcanoes in the west," the reporter continued on. "So far, the shockwave has done little to cause any sort of tremor to the likes of Mount Saint Helens, Mount Rainer, or Mount Baker. Neither has this shockwave set off the Yellowstone Volcano, which was a very major concern for geologists. Some scientists have speculated that the right tremor from the New Madrid fault might set off Yellowstone, but so far the earthquakes from the New Madrid has done nothing to affect the famous national park. Still, scientists cannot answer as to why or how this earthquake managed to turn an area that has never been volcanically active, into a volcanically active mountain range. All scientists still state that this is impossible."

"More like improbable," Kiryuu sighed.

"Whether or not it is impossible," said the reporter. "The states of Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky now have volcanoes. Geologist state that the eruption from Clingman's Dome and Mount Mitchell are much smaller than what Mount Saint Helens has done, and because of their remote location, the Pyroclastic damage has been very minimum. So far, Mount Mitchell has quieted down since its eruption just two days ago, but Clingman's Dome has continued its eruption. The ash cloud seems to have found a crosswind against the trade winds probably caused by the mountains themselves and is keeping within the boundaries from the Smoky Mountain National Park to Knoxville. The Little Pigeon River has been a duct for the lava flow from the mountain range itself down to the valley, emptying out into the Tennessee River. Residence in this area have been advised to take shelter under a sturdy building, or evacuate the area. People who must take shelter, have taken shelter in the lower levels of buildings, car lots, schools, churches and court houses. Traffic is backed up on I-40 as residence are attempting to evacuate to higher grounds in Kingston, Crossville, and Harriman. Other residents are making their way down I-75 to Chattanooga and Atlanta. Both main fairways are extremely congested."

Maria walked into the laboratory silently so she would not disturb Kiryuu's work. She slowly sat down on the chair near him, watching quietly as he pieced the weapon together. She glanced up at the monitor, listening to the reports on the updates of what was happening in the east. The scene had switched to the meteor that had crashed into Memphis. Kiryuu glanced up, rumbling deeply. He knew Maria was there, his tail lifting up to her back, giving it a good scratch. Maria smiled when she felt the barbs on his tail rub her back. The holographic projection was becoming more real with every upgrade Will made to it.

Kiryuu glanced up again at the TV screen and growled at it. Everything that was happening, all of this was being caused by King Ghidorah. He glanced down at the glass casing he worked on and snipped at the wirings inside of it. He tapped a few buttons on a box controller on the side of the weapon and then closed the glass cover. Kiryuu tried to keep the design similar to Serizawa's design for the first Oxygen Destroyer.

"It's hard to believe that I promised that I would not build this weapon," Kiryuu sighed. "And ironic that I would build the weapon that killed me."

"Irony has been in play a lot lately," Maria said. Kiryuu glanced up at her.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "This is not boring you any?"

"No," she replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I know I haven't been paying much attention to you lately, Maria," Kiryuu said as he fastened the glass cover tightly. "I've been so busy."

"You've got reason to," she said. "You've been busy at your work."

"History stated that Serizawa had a fiancée," he began. "Who he ignored because he was too engorged into his work, especially with the Oxygen Destroyer. She then fell in love with another. He showed her how the weapon worked though. She was the first to see it and he made her swear that she would tell no one about it. But she did, she told the one she fell in love with later on, and he tried to convince Serizawa to use the weapon against Godzilla—against—me. He agreed to do it as long as it would only be used once."

"And he only made one," said Maria. "And here you are making two."

"Always make two of everything," said Kiryuu, grinning at her. "I cannot afford one of these malfunctioning during the battle."

He turned back again at the screen, seeing the news change back over to the enormous meteor that had crashed into Memphis. Kiryuu blinked slightly when he noticed something on the surface of the meteor. He slowly drew himself closer to the screen to examine the image. A light pulsed from within the surface of the meteor. Kiryuu could tell that the meteor looked a bit more translucent now that it had settled into its crater. He glanced over closer to the image and hit the pause button.

Thank you, Tivo, Kiryuu thought. Hello, what's this?

"What is it?" Maria asked.

"It's glowing," he said. "It's pulsating." Kiryuu glanced up. "Will, get that image off of the news. The one of the meteor. It's on Channel 56."

"Right," said Will over the intercom.

"Zoom in," said Kiryuu.

"Kiryuu, there's a crack in the meteor's side," said the computer programmer. Kiryuu hit the play button again and the live TV continued its feed. Maria glanced over and watched as the glowing crack slowly grew out from the center, splitting the meteor in two.

"Uh-oh," Will said. "Kiryuu…"

"I guess King Ghidorah got bored," said Kiryuu. "He's coming out."

"The meteor, it appears to be—hatching…" said the reporter.

Then, a bright light flashed and filled the screen. Kiryuu leaned back, blinking away the flash from his eyes. When the flash cleared, an immense monster stood in the center of the crater. It was a gigantic golden dragon with enormous bat wings that folded out like a fan. The dragon was a quadruped with three heads. The central dominant head had branched horns and a sly, very devilish smile on its face. Two tails flipped about behind the creature, sweeping across the ground and causing dust to rise up. When the dragon roared, it sounded like a laughing sound of a hyena and a ringing of a bronze bell. But the call was loud enough to shake the ground. It was King Ghidorah. The space dragon was about 100 feet tall to the shoulder, but size wise, he was around 500 feet in length. Kiryuu swallowed and leaned down up against the lab station. Maria glanced down at him, noticing that the color in his face slowly faded away. He was scared.

"Kiryuu?" she asked. "Kiryuu?"

Kiryuu…

Kiryuu growled and shook his head, his lips pulling back across the racks of teeth. Even as a hologram, he was fearsome to look at sometimes. Though, this expression was more of horror than of being fierce. Kiryuu grunted, watching as the space dragon reared his three heads back. King Ghidorah's central head's grin broadened just as the two other heads fired their golden lightning upon Memphis.

"It's horrible!" called the reporter. "It's—it's Monster Zero! The one who attacked London! It's attacking Memphis!"

Maria ran over to Kiryuu and knelt down to him, placing her hand on his holographic shoulder.

"Kiryuu?" she asked. "You gonna be okay?"

"K—King Ghidorah…" he breathed. "Has awakened."

His eyes turned back over to the screen's image being warped through the glass of the casing for the Oxygen Destroyer. He heard the horrid sound of King Ghidorah's bell call through the speakers.

"I have to finish," he said. "I have to finish."

Kiryuu…let's play a game of tag.

Kiryuu blinked for a moment. Then, he saw the image of King Ghidorah turn towards him. Kiryuu rose up off the floor, his image making the motions of breathing as he saw the image of the space dragon push his central head through the TV screen.

"Dios mio," Maria breathed. Kiryuu turned back to her, realizing that she was seeing the same thing.

I hope you are both entertained…said King Ghidorah. Tag, you're it, Kiryuu. You already know where I am going.

"Smoky Mountains," breathed Kiryuu, pushing himself as far as he could against the lab station behind him. "Because…of the energy there."

Did Mothra fill your head with that 'Mountains of the Phoenix' dribble? He asked. That is one reason. But there is another. You will undoubtedly see when you arrive. I intend on showing you.

Kiryuu gripped the side of the lab table when he felt King Ghidorah feed his way back into his CPU. Kiryuu shut his eyes tightly as he heard King Ghidorah's laughter inside his head.

Leave him alone! Called the voice of Biollante. He's mine! Get out!

King Ghidorah flinched, his head snapping back as if something had kicked him there.

I see you have a guard dog, he growled. No matter, I will get rid of her soon enough.

Kiryuu's eyes narrowed in defiance and he let loose a deep growl.

"Get out," he grunted at the dragon.

Very well, Godzilla, King Ghidorah chuckled. You and I will have a polite chat when you reach Knoxville. I'll be waiting there. Now, come and get me…

The head pulled back through the screen and King Ghidorah resumed his attack.

"How the fuck did he do that?" Maria asked.

"I don't know," Kiryuu breathed. He swallowed and turned back at the Oxygen Destroyer. "He stared right at it, but didn't even say anything about it."

"What?" Maria asked.

"The Oxygen Destroyer," Kiryuu said. "He—he didn't say anything."

"Maybe he didn't read your mind enough to know what it was," said Maria. "You almost done now?"

"It's finished," he said. "They're both finished."

Kiryuu leaned over and tightened one more bolt on the casing and then got out the other weapon under the lab table.

"Here, carry these carefully up to the hangar," he said. Kiryuu walked over and pushed a dolly to Maria. "Use this."

He picked both weapons up and placed them onto the dolly.

"Be careful, Maria," said Kiryuu. He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'll treat them like they're our twins," Maria winked at him as she pushed the dolly out of the laboratory. Kiryuu chuckled as he watched her walk away, his long, silvery-armored tail swaying slightly behind him. Then, he turned back at the screen. Within a few minutes of his arrival, King Ghidorah had laid to waste all of Memphis. The Blues Capital of America just disappeared into a pile of rubble. And there was King Ghidorah, standing in the middle of the city, wings fanning out. Kiryuu got closer and watched as tiny golden lights began to rise up from the rubble. The lights floated up towards King Ghidorah and the three heads opened their great maws. King Ghidorah inhaled the sparkling lights.

"Life force," he said. Kiryuu shook his head and turned off the monitor. His image disappeared from the lab.

"King Ghidorah has arisen," said Gordon as he glanced up at Kiryuu's body in the middle of the hangar bay. He glanced over to see Maria wheel in the two Oxygen Destroyers on the dolly. "Damn-it to hell, Maria, do you have to bring those things in here?!"

"Kiryuu told me to," said Maria.

"Kiryuu!" he snapped back.

"Forgive me, Gordon," said Kiryuu.

"That thing better not go off in here," said Gordon. "What happens if it does?"

"Unfortunately, Serizawa's tests were done in water," said Kiryuu. "I have no idea what the effects would be if it was detonated in the air."

"Then, how the hell are you supposed to use those against King Ghidorah, you mechanical moron?" Gordon asked. "Hope he trips over a building and crash into the Tennessee River?"

"Actually, if his body is like ours," began Kiryuu. "Then, there is some water in him. That should be enough to kill him with the Oxygen Destroyer. All I have to do is insert the bomb into his body and ignite it."

"Kiryuu, come here," Gordon sighed. Kiryuu leaned down to Gordon. The CEO of the Utah Foundation grabbed a wadded up newspaper and smacked the bio-mecha on the snout. Kiryuu blinked in confusion. Gordon continued: "What the fucking hell are you on, you lousy, pathetic, construct of Chrysler scrap metal?! Where the hell did all of that money I spent on to build your AI go to? Cleveland? Where do you get off coming to that conclusion? I thought I built you to be smart."

Kiryuu leaned back up: "You did, Gordon."

"First you built the damned thing, now you don't know if it'll work," Gordon sighed. "Are you just going to set this thing off inside of Monster Zero and hope that it does something? Is that your plan?"

Kiryuu's golden eyes glanced away for a moment.

"It is your plan!" Gordon bellowed, his voice echoing through the bay. "You moronic, bumbling, metallic, egotistical, Intel monstrosity! I have a half a mind to unplug you right now and have your AI crushed into a cube and recycled! And just think you're the heir to my company! After this fight, the Foundation is yours. I don't know if you'll even survive long enough to get it. Hell, after realizing what your 'magnificent' plan is, I'm no sure if the Foundation will survive it even if you do."

"Gordon, that's not nice," Maria called.

"Who the fuck cares," Gordon sighed. "It's truthful."

He leaned against the railing of the catwalk. Gordon felt his heart begin to race with the temperature of his anger boiling inside of him. He began to pant as he gripped his chest. Stars filled his eyes.

"Gordon!" Maria shouted.

"Gordon, what's wrong?" Kiryuu called. "Katsura, Will, get in here!"

"Somebody bring my—pills," Gordon gasped.

Katsura and Will ran into the bay area and found Gordon leaning against the rail.

"Gordon!" called Katsura. "He's having a heart attack."

"I got the pills," Will called, bringing with him the bottle and a glass of water.

"I'm calling for the nurse," said Kiryuu. "She'll be here with a wheelchair in a moment."

Gordon took the water from Will and popped the pills into his mouth. He swallowed them down with the water and glanced back up at Kiryuu.

"That's it, Kiryuu…" he breathed. "You've got the Foundation. She's all yours. I'm calling the board of directors. You're the CEO now. All—this stress is getting to me. If you—can pull of that cockamamie plan of yours, I'll—eat my hat." He turned back to Will, Katsura, and Maria. "You three—he's your boss—behave yourselves."

The nurse came in, wheeling the wheelchair up to Gordon. Kiryuu sighed as small, slender tendrils of biosyntech gently sprouted out from his body and wrapped themselves around Gordon. He picked Gordon up with the tendrils and placed the elderly man in the wheelchair.

"Hang on there, Mr. Knight," said the nurse. "I've got a warm bed for yah."

"A bed would be nice," he agreed as she wheeled him away.

Maria glanced up at Kiryuu: "Okay, Mr. Knight, I'd have to agree with Gordon. That's the worst plan I've heard you ever cook up."

"Yeah," said Will. "Kiryuu, you're just gonna hope King Ghidorah has some sort of water inside of him for this thing to work?"

"Actually, he may have some sort of liquid inside of him," said Kiryuu. "That could react to the oxygen in the air that would make the Oxygen Destroyer work. And—there are the cells. Katsura?"

"The M0 cells," said Katsura. "From of course what Kiryuu found about a year ago by hacking into the British servers concerning the cover up of the London attack—there were cells found. King Ghidorah's a carbon based life form."

"Which means he also breathes oxygen just like the rest of us," said Kiryuu. "Or—all of you. I don't anymore."

"But—your syntech is made up of cells from the original Godzilla," said Maria. "Which can also be destroyed by the Oxygen Destroyer—everything except, it seems calcium. This is why the skeleton was left behind. If something goes wrong and that thing sets off, I don't think your armor could protect you."

"It wouldn't," said Kiryuu. "Not unless I shield myself. And I do have shields. That is—if I don't loose one of my forearm cannons during the fight."

"Which commonly happens," Katsura said. "You feel the urge to rip off a damaged cannon and the plating to use the syntech blades."

"And besides, the shield only protects the front," said Will. "Like the hard plastic, clear rioting shield SWAT teams use. It doesn't cover your whole body."

"Will, can the shields be modified to cover my whole body?" Kiryuu asked.

"I guess," Will shrugged. "I could work on one of the shield emitters to see if can. The shield technology, I'm afraid, is a bit of a mystery in itself. The technology came from Omak-Argon Industries, a company in Lexington, Kentucky. They're big Foundation supporters; their CEO Soñador Malcho appears at every Utah Foundation fund raiser. I could—call up their technical support and see if they can tell me how to modify the shield emitter to put a full shield around your body."

"Malcho…" Kiryuu rumbled. "I met him at the last fund raiser. He's the—Mexican with the strange colored eyes. They're lavender."

"He's Mexican?" Maria asked.

"He told me he was born in the Yucatan," said Kiryuu. "I'm afraid he left before you had a chance to meet him, Maria."

"Do we have any time to modify Kiryuu's shields?" Katsura asked. "King Ghidorah is already heading east."

Kiryuu closed his eyes and gathered information from one of the military satellites he was allowed into.

"He's taking his time," said Kiryuu. "From what I've gathered, he really wants to meet face-to-face with me that he's even willing to wait for me."

"Why is he putting so much effort into this meeting?" Maria asked.

"I don't know," said Kiryuu. "Here's something else. Godzilla is heading back east as well. He's swimming up the Mississippi River as we speak."

"Godzilla?" Will asked. "Guess he's looking for a match as well."

"Godzilla was too young to remember," said Kiryuu. "But, he will be there. Mothra had a feeling I would be needing him. This fight is for both of us. I don't think I can do this alone."

"What about Officer Dragon?" Will asked. "Is he gonna lend a helping claw in this?"

"He made a hint that he would when he helped me contain Biollante," said Kiryuu. "He stated that he would help me take down King Ghidorah if I would help him tackle Kraken."

"Well, you held up your end of the bargain," said Will. "Guess it's time to collect."

"So, three against one…" Maria smiled. "Kiryuu, there is something I might want to add. I remember Manda kept referring to King Ghidorah as the Hydra King. There's something about the legend of the hydra you should know."

"And that is?" Kiryuu asked.

"When Hercules cut off one of the heads of the hydra, two grew in its place," said Maria. "So, if the legend holds true, then if you try to cut off one of the heads of King Ghidorah, you might wind up with more heads than you could deal with."

"So, I might end up with 12 heads instead of three?" Kiryuu asked. "I'll keep that in mind. It's not his heads I'm worried about, it's his powers. He can do—similar things that Biollante was capable of—even worse. I hate psychic monsters. It seems I've been running into them every turn."

Maybe you don't like psychic monsters is because you don't like people in your head, sweet Kiryuu…Biollante chuckled. You have too many secrets to hide.

What did I tell you? Kiryuu asked. You want to help me, then cut the crap! You promised to cooperate.

Oh, Kiryuu, I'm only playing, she said. What's a little play time before the fight? It'll help you loosen up. And you'll need to be. King Ghidorah is very powerful.

Meaning you don't think you'll have the power to go against him either.

Not alone, Kiryuu, Biollante said. But together, I think we can win. This is the first time I have ever hoped for anything—and my hope is to win.

I—hope so too, he said finally.

I thought that you 'hoped for nothing of this world', she said, cocking a violet eye at him.

Maybe there is one thing I do hope for, Kiryuu said. Besides, if I loose, who would run the Utah Foundation of Bio-Organic Research?

Well then, Mr. Knight, said Biollante. I guess you have a job to do. Just don't let the money go to your head.

"I know that Gordon has faith in me," said Kiryuu. "Or he wouldn't have done what he did. He needs the rest. Let me take on his worries now. Will, call Omak-Argon! I at least want some options before I go running off into something that may be way over my head in my present state. Even if I manage to stick one of the Oxygen Destroyers into King Ghidorah, I at least want some sort of protection while it goes off. It's not like I can encase him inside a fish tank and fire it."

"Sure thing, boss," said Will, whipping out his cell phone.

"Katsura, Maria, get the pack loaded with its payload and fueled up," Kiryuu continued. "And make sure I'm fueled up. I want everyone in the bay to start the launching checks. Every bit of my system needs to be checked and ready for launch. I want my boosters fueled and the gravity generators charged up as well as the AZC. It's gonna be the back up plan." Kiryuu wrapped the two Oxygen Destroys into a cocoon of biosyntech and absorbed them into his flank. "They'll be here until I'm ready to use them."

"Ryoukai, bosu," Katsura nodded.

"Sí, jefe," Maria nodded as they walked into the control room. Kiryuu glanced at Will, who proceeded to speak with the tech support at Omak-Argon.

"What?" asked Will. "You mean that Malcho wishes to talk to me? Sure, I'll hold."