Time for some explanations at last, so explanations there shall be. Have fun! Oh, and I apologise for the unimaginative chapter title. I'm bad with titles.
Godzilla is © Toho, the Gryphon is © Toho/TriStar. The idea for the Husks is © TriStar, the name for the Husks is © Me.
REVELATIONS
USMCF HQ Testing Area
"These things were worse than useless," Plaqueze indicated towards the three remaining NT-20 units.
"We're aware of that, sir," The technician answered, "But we think the problem wasn't with the quantity of the units, but the quantity. We salvaged what was left of them and we found that the compound had absorbed a great deal of energy, and there was at least some delayed reaction in the units exploding."
"In other words?"
"Theoretically, if we used just two of the remaining units, and added the NT-20 compounds from the third, it should be enough."
"Should?"
"We still don't know exactly how much force is behind that atomic flame breath, and we know that there was a temperature of at least one million degrees Celsius before the internal thermometers exploded. It may even be better to construct just a single unit."
"Do it," Plaqueze ordered, the rate that thing's moving, it's less than a day from Kansas City. This time, we're killing it. Dead."
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USMCF HQ Holding Area
"…Me?" Tina repeated, "What?"
"I could tell," Tomoyuki insisted, "You and your mother, you are one of us."
"Say what?" Tina asked disbelievingly, "I don't think we're related…"
"We're not," Tomoyuki answered, "But… you had a dream, didn't you? A few nights ago, when the meteorite landed."
Tina sat still in amazement.
"…How did you know about that?" She finally asked.
"Like you, I have the gift. Your mother had the potential for it, but it was never awakened, but you… you're still young, your gift never faded. So when it arrived, you knew."
"Knew what?" Tina insisted, "Seriously, you are making less than no sense!"
"Listen to me," Tomoyuki pleaded, "There might still be time. We have to destroy it!"
"Destroy what?" Tina found herself shouting, "I have no idea what the hell you're talking about!"
"The Gryphon," Tomoyuki answered, "It's here already, and its heralds have started their work. They'll birth it any day now!"
"Wait a second," Tina recalled, "I heard that before. Something Jack found in a museum. Some sort of carving."
"A record." Tomoyuki answered. "One from five thousand years ago. The last days of one of its victim worlds."
"Its what?"
"It's from Mars."
"Mars?"
"Yes. It went there five millennia ago. The story goes that there was a grand civilisation there, far beyond what humankind is right now. Imagine it: The sky a brilliant red, vast forests of reflecting red leaves, and the citadels, all within a great dome, entire buildings hovering in the air. They had eliminated the need for competition and war and violence…"
"You're talking about aliens," Tina interrupted, "And you expect me to believe this?"
"If you read the carving, you know it said that the Gryphon travels from world to world. If you sensed it, you would have seen them."
"I saw…" Tina recalled, "Things. Birds, people, fish, but they were different…"
"They were of other worlds. The countless worlds where all life was devoured. Just like the people of Mars. Their world was glorious, and peaceful… so when it came, they were unprepared. They could even sense the evil of it, but they thought it could be calmed, or reasoned with… and that cost them their lives, and their world. Just like it always does, the Gryphon birthed its heralds, they took the blood of the creatures of the planet, and they gave it back to their father."
"They gave it blood?"
"Yes," Tomoyuki answered, "Just as they're doing here. It's the DNA that they seek; they give it back to the form of the Gryphon, sleeping inside the meteorite, where it takes the best it can find in the blood, and uses it to form a body that it uses to consume the planet."
"Yeah… Jack said it could be a breeding cycle."
"Not quite," Tomoyuki answered, "A feeding cycle. The Gryphon not only kills and destroys, but it revels in it. Then it flies away from the world it has killed, and the skin of its body forms a meteor, using the last of the DNA it took to form a new set of heralds. Then it travels through space, always seeking something new to destroy. The Gryphon is evil… it is evil in its purest form."
They both sat still and silent.
"You believe me?" Tomoyuki asked.
"No."
"Then why are you still listening?" He fixed her eyes with his gaze, "You know this is true, but you can't accept it because you were taught otherwise your whole life."
"Well even if it is true," Tina answered, "That doesn't tell me why I dreamed about it."
"Even after a genocide, there can be survivors," Tomoyuki answered. "Some escaped the death of the Martian Race, and a few fled to the nearest world, one where a civilisation was just starting out. They landed here, at the beginning of human civilisation, and some were even mistaken for Gods. The Egyptians, the Aztecs, the Mayans… we showed them how to build, how to organise… our leaders, Ra, Osiris, Quetzalcoatl… their technology was mistaken for magic, and they were treated as all-powerful."
"So there are… Martians… on Earth."
"No. Not anymore, at least. They mingled with humans, interbred… those who possessed the gift would pass it on, but over the generations their history was forgotten, and as empires and kingdoms fell, so was the Gryphon, and so was the gift."
"Ok, hold on," Tina shook her head, "What's this about the 'gift'?"
"Around a third of the people of Mars possessed the gift. The power to see into the minds of other things, to use their minds to affect things and objects around them. They were what we would call 'psychics'. But the power was forgotten and lost, and those with Martian blood who did possess the gift never learned how to use it, and now there are only a handful on this planet that possess it. But you were still young, and the gift was still fresh in you. When it sensed the arrival of evil, of the Gryphon, then it awakened."
"And you know this… how?"
"There were still some who remembered. Families where the story was written down and passed on from one generation to the next. Mine was one of them. I possessed the gift, and it was nurtured, but it was never powerful enough. I could only try and warn them to destroy the Gryphon while it was vulnerable. But then I sensed that your mother possessed Martian Blood, but her potential for the gift was gone. So I came to this city, where I sensed someone else who had the gift. That was you."
Tina leaned back in her chair, taking a deep breath and processing what she'd just heard."
"I'm a Martian?"
"Part Martian. And only an extremely small part. Still, it's enough to have the gift."
"I'm a part-alien psychic?"
"Descended from aliens. So are hundreds of people, but they won't have the gift, and they will most likely never know. I'd hoped to give you the pendant…"
"Whoa, whoa," Tina cut him off, "Pendant? Where'd that come from?"
"It's a relic from the Martian civilisation. They'll have locked it up somewhere, but it was used by Martians who possessed the gift to amplify it, helping them move objects with the power of their will alone. With it, it is possible that you might destroy the Gryphon."
"That's why he's coming," Tina suddenly realised. "Jack said that the stuff from that meteor was found sixty-file million years ago."
"That's right. The end of the dinosaurs."
"And Godzilla's a dinosaur," Tina realised. "He's coming here to stop the Gryphon; to stop it doing what it did back then. He's saving us…"
"Godzilla… he could destroy the Gryphon," Tomoyuki answered, "But if we wait until then, it may be too late. The Gryphon must be destroyed."
"Well I can't exactly go straight to Kansas from here; they've already started evacuating it and sending troops in. And no offence, but…"
"You don't believe me," Tomoyuki realised. "I can hardly blame you, but… go to the room where they put the pendant. Wear it, and see what happens."
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"So did you get any sense out of him?" Jack asked he attached the USB chord to the side of the keypad from his PDA.
"Not much," Tina answered, "Well maybe. I need to check something."
"Great, now you're not making any sense either," Jack shrugged, punching some keys on his PDA.
"So what's that thing for?" Tina asked, referring to the device.
"They won't tell me the pass codes. But honestly, I think your Mom knows I'll figure them out anyway." A succession of beeps sounded from the keypad, "See? It's like she's not even trying."
The door slid open, allowing the two teens inside, where Jack approached a filing cabinet, inserted a key and unlocked it.
"So how'd you get the key?" Tina asked.
"Same way I got us in here," Jack shrugged as he took out a small case, "This it?"
"Yeah," Tina answered as she opened it, "I just have to check something…"
Inside the case, on the end of a silver chain, was a metal pendant of eight perfectly symmetrical lines, joined at the centre, all within a small, gold circle, in the centre of which sat a perfectly circular jewel, divided into seven pieces of emerald, sapphire, diamond, pearl, amethyst, topaz, and ruby.
"Fancy," Jack breathed, "Wait a second, did you just get me to help you steal something?"
"I told you," Tina answered, "It's like a test…"
She slipped the pendant over her neck, and immediately, she felt it grow warm, an alien heat seeming to spread into her from the heart of the jewel.
She suddenly inhaled, her hair rising on a breeze that didn't exist, before Jack suddenly rose from his feet and was thrown back as if by some unseen force, slamming painfully into one of the filing cabinets.
"Jack," Tina gasped, "Sorry, I… Shit, are you OK?"
"Nothing broken," Jack answered as he pushed himself up, "So, uh… what in hell's kitchen was that?"
Shorter chapter there, and the last part was particularly tough. Anyway, that should explain just about everything. Next Chapter, the big guy makes his welcome return…
All Reviews Welcome!