Been a wait, I know, but at last it's time for the big guy to show himself. I know I've done the 'coming up under the ship' thing before, but God help me, I love that move.

Oh yeah, I know the USMCF's name briefly changed in Chapter 3. My bad.

Godzilla is © Toho. Not sure who the Gryphon is ©.

WAR AT SEA

The door into Major Jill Lampard's office exploded outwards, as the Major stormed out, slamming the door against the wall.

"Wasn't me!" Jack shouted from down the corridor, "Whatever it was, it wasn't me… what is it?"

"Look at this!" Jill pointed into her office. With a Gallic shrug, Jack stepped in and looked down at the computer screen.

It showed the usual, attractive female newsreader matted over a background of the pentagon building, but what had clearly caught Jill's attention was what she was saying:

"…The US Navy will be in position in under forty minutes, despite the fact that Godzilla is presently still in International Waters. Nations including China and Iran have condemned the United States for taking unilateral action toward…"

"Idiots," Jill sighed heavily, "There's a giant monster swimming to San Francisco, we're trying to stop it and these morons are worried about politics!"

"They're congressmen. They get paid to sit around and say stupid things." Jack answered casually. "My Dad always used to say: Politics is Hollywood for ugly people."

Jill couldn't help but crack a smile.

The phone bleeped on her desk, and she simply flicked the 'off' switch.

"I don't have time for this," She cursed, "I've got a city to evacuate, and can you believe this- they don't want to give us first shot at Godzilla if he lands. Apparently we've never demonstrated out capabilities. God… look, Jack, just take care of this for me, OK?"

"Take care of what?"

"Tina… Oh crap…"

"What?"

"Tina doesn't know you work here," Jill admitted. "Look, I'll explain this later, just go and do… something! You're kids. Think of something."

With that, she stormed out of the room.

"And my Dad thought being a driving instructor was a stressful job," Jack shook his head before walking out.

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Tina looked around the front entrance of the USMCF building, moving a strand of hair out of her eyes before she spotted someone approaching.

"Jack?" She smiled as she recognised the person, "What are you doing here?"

"Working," Jack answered, "Ish. You?"

"My mom works here… hold up, you do not work here!"

"Yeah I do. Got a desk and a chair with wheels and everything," Jack gave a goofy grin.

"They don't let teenagers work here," Tina retorted as they walked off.

"They do if they're geniuses."

"And you're a genius?"

"Yep. Can't help it. Born smart, I guess. So what about you? Haven't seen you in years."

"I saw something about Godzilla on the news."

"So did the whole country," Jack cringed, "Your mom was hoping we could keep this under wraps, maybe they could deal with him before he hit shore, so, as you'd expect, she's spitting teeth right now."

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"What?" Jill shouted at the top of her lungs.

"No radio contact," Plaqueze gritted his teeth. "They don't even want us advising on this."

"Bullshit!" Jill snapped, "We've got the world's leading experts on that thing in this very room. They know Jack and Squat about it, and Jack just left town!"

"Jill, we can't exactly force them to listen," Miki reminded her.

"They're going to get themselves killed. This isn't about defence, they're just showboating and trying to beat Godzilla all by their high-and-mighty selves! What are they sending?"

"Two Naval Destroyers," Plaqueze read out, "The SS Intrepid and Arbitrator, one aircraft carrier, the Protector, and a pair of nuclear-class attack subs, the Anchorage and Indiana."

"Major," A technician spoke up, "We just got word that the UN is demanding the Navy pull out."

"Not our call, apparently," Jill snapped. "God, the battle hasn't even started and this is already a disaster…"

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The three craft cut their course through the waves, the rightmost craft, the Arbitrator, foremost and moving in a wide arc, each radar screen picking up that single object; far more than just a blip, 270 feet from end to end.

"Subject's accelerated to 40 knots, sir," A seaman reported aboard the Protector, "The Indiana is closing in Starboard, and our boys are ready to launch."

"And the Anchorage?" The captain asked.

"Moving around it to close in from the rear Starboard."

"Then we've got its retreat cut off?"

"The Arbitrator is in position now, sir."

"Give the order to launch. Get me a fix on this thing and open fire with everything we've got."

"Aye, sir."

Atop the naval destroyer, five fighter craft gunned their engines, blasting outwards on streams of smoke to swoop in wide arcs in the air, as if forming the girders of a dome as they closed in on the shape that rose upwards.

"We're in firing range, sir."

"Open fire!"

The surface of the water started to churn, the waves surging apart as the massive shape broke the surface, rows of jagged, razor-sharp spikes rising from the water as the surf fell from their sides.

Before Godzilla could even rise, a hail of missiles shot forth from each of the Destroyers. At the same moment, missiles fell from the wings of the F-18s, igniting and shooting forth through the air.

The wave of destruction slammed into the rising creature, exploding as one into a sea of fire. The column of flames filled the air, thick, black smoke rising up as the sea boiled.

"Direct hit! …What the… target's still moving!"

A saurian head turned through the walls of flame, a thunderous howl of rage echoing forth as the flames parted. The reptilian head bellowed its fury, blazing orange eyes glaring their anger.

As one of the jets swooped past, Godzilla's parted jaws snapped forth, catching the tiny craft between massive teeth, slicing through metal as fuel and missiles exploded in a cloud of fire.

A wave of light flashed from Godzilla's hips, up his spinal plates and through his eyes the air convulsing around his mouth with the smell of burning ozone, before a stream of blue fire burst forth, consuming two more of the jets. By the time it ceased, all that remained of the craft was falling, charred remains.

With an angry snarl, Godzilla turned and dove down into the water in a column of surf.

Aboard the bridge of the Indiana, the radar technician turned around from his work station.

"Target's submerged, sir, we have a clear shot."

"Fire Torpedo 1 and 2."

In streams of air, the torpedoes shot forth from the Indiana, blasting forwards and slamming into Godzilla's thick hide with dense, dirty explosions and the dull 'thud' of an underwater explosion.

"Direct hit, target still moving! The Anchorage is opening fire!"

Just as he had said, a pair of torpedoes shot from the Anchorage, arcing to collide with Godzilla. Utterly unaffected, Godzilla slammed into the craft, muscular arms grabbing onto the side of the craft.

"Hull breach!" Someone shouted inside, "Jesus Sh…"

The metal buckled immediately, the entire craft bursting into a ball of fire amidst Godzilla's thunderous roar.

Wafting the fire to one side, Godzilla shot forward, shooting forward through the waves as he whipped his tail to one side, smashing into the Indiana, slicing into its hull as the submarine burst into flames.

Turning again, Godzilla shot upwards, gaining speed as he angled himself…

"Target's surfacing!" A soldier aboard the Arbitrator announced.

"Where?"

"At… holy… it's…"

Razor-sharp spikes stabbed into the underbelly of the ship, slicing through metal with that ear-piercing shriek as the ship's engines ignited, the Destroyed burst into flames as steel ribs snapped effortlessly, hull plates shredding like race paper as Godzilla rose, effortlessly reducing one of the mightiest machines every built of man into two sinking piles of scrap.

Wafting the smoke and fire to one side with a massive claw, Godzilla inhaled, the aura of burning air appearing around his mouth again as another wave of energy shot up his back. A stream of fire surged forth, blasting over the distance into the side of the Intrepid. The mighty craft ignited instantaneously, erupting into a mushroom cloud of flame.

"God help us," The captain of the Protector gaped, as Godzilla dove forward, shooting through the waves, colliding with the Protector with impossible force

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USMCF HQ

"Right… I see."

Plaqueze set down the phone, turning to Jill and Mike.

"They lost the ships."

"Which ones?" Mike asked.

"All of them. Every single one."

"God…" Mike whispered.

"We've already started evacuating San Francisco," Plaqueze declared, "We've got forced ready to move in. The D-3s are ready and we've got an air squadron in striking distance."

"Do it," Jill ordered. "Kill that thing."

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"You think they'll stop him?" Tina asked.

"No clue. I'm just the computer guy, but this is gonna be all over the news."

The computer behind Jack suddenly gave a brief, rapid succession of electronic beeps.

"What's that?" Tina enquired as Jack brought something up on the screen.

"Well you probably know that Godzilla's not the only monster that's shown up in the last ten years. Funny, since he was the first, but that's why we're the 'monster countermeasures force', not 'Godzilla countermeasures'. I wrote a little programme that searches for keywords in news articles, broadcasts, stuff like that, to find anything unusual, and it looks like… yup. Found something."

They both looked at the article that sat in the middle of the screen, and Tina's eyes went wide as she recognised the blurred, winged outline against the moon. The headline read:

"Winged "monsters sighted in five states"

"Well," Jack announced, "Either that's something really weird, or the Bat signal got one hell of an overhaul."

Jack glanced from the article to Tina.

"What's up?" He asked, "Look familiar?"

"Yeah," Tina answered, "Yeah, it does…"

Wow, that chapter was longer than I expected it'd be. Anyway, I'm quite pleased with it, and there's another showdown planned for the next chapter. Oh, and by the way, here's a quick list of the characters we've met so far:

All Reviews Welcome!