GODZILLA
THE ULTIMATE DUELS

Disclaimer: Godzilla and other characters are copyright Toho Co. Ltd.
I own only my original characters.

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Chapter 7
Preparations

"Godzilla's island", the Pacific Ocean; June 25th, 2011

The early morning sun had risen above the Pacific, casting its rays on the waves of the dark blue water, already warming it a little. The underwater wildlife had started to wake up. All the fish and other animals were ready to continue the never-ending cycle of life: eat or be eaten. It was like a law of nature, a fight for survival.

Even Godzilla, the giant radioactive dinosaur, was familiar with that law. He saw the early morning as the perfect time to go hunting for food. He slowly walked away from the shore of his island home and descended beneath the waves. Godzilla had chosen to go looking for food in the morning because he knew that the fish he needed were waking up right at that time. He swam around the underwater rocks, waiting patiently for the school of fish to arrive.

His patience was quickly rewarded as the fish came from behind the rocks, swimming in a school of hundreds, maybe thousands. Godzilla emerged from his hiding place and swam right towards his unsuspecting prey. Before the fish could react to his approach, he opened his jaws and snatched a large number of them in his mouth. Most of the thousands of fish managed to swim away, as he had expected, but he knew from the ones he had in his mouth that he had got enough food for the day. He started to swim back to his home.

Meanwhile on the island's shore, an impatient, and quite hungry Minilla was waiting for his father to return, hopefully with some food. During the few years he had lived with Godzilla, his playful behavior hadn't changed a bit, although he had otherwise grown. He had lost most of his baby fat, if you could call it that, and he was looking more like his father now. His jaws, teeth, claws, tail and fins were longer, and his skin was more scaly and charcoal grey, just like his father.

Minilla's face changed quickly from nervous to pleased as he saw the fins of his father rising from beneath the waves. Soon Godzilla's head poked out of the water, and then the rest of his body. When he finally made it to the shore, he wasn't surprised to see his hungry son right in front of him begging for food. Godzilla gave a small growl, leaned forward, and then he opened his jaws, allowing the fish to drop on the ground. Minilla jumped in complete satisfaction and immediately started to eat. Godzilla watched with pride as his son grabbed the lifeless fish from the ground and then began to chew them.

After about ten minutes Minilla had devoured all of his food. As he gave a small roar to indicate that he was finished, Godzilla walked to him. As Minilla looked at his father in the eyes, he knew what was about to happen next: fight practice.

Soon Godzilla backed away from his son until there was some distance between the two monsters. Godzilla roared, challenging his son like he would've done with a real enemy. Minilla roared back, ready for fighting. Godzilla took a step forward, and Minilla quickly dashed towards him. Godzilla was prepared, however, and evaded his son's tackle. Minilla had become more intelligent over the years as well, and he took the chance and smacked his father on the legs with his tail. Godzilla roared "in pain" as Minilla quickly took turned to face him again. Godzilla growled and tried to slash his son with his claws. Minilla narrowly avoided each strike as best as he could, and then he was about to throw his own hand at his father. His effort wasn't successful either, as Godzilla grabbed Minilla's arm and threw him on the ground.

After taking a few rolls on the ground, Minilla stood up again and prepared to fire at his father. However, all that came out his mouth was a large ring of blue smoke. Godzilla evaded the ring easily and growled, wondering if his son really couldn't do better than that. Godzilla fins started to glow and after a few seconds, he fired his blue heat ray. On purpose, the ray hit the ground right in front of Minilla, which made the young monster stumble backwards in surprise. Minilla roared and suddenly fired his own heat ray. Minilla didn't miss his target however, and the blue ray hit Godzilla on his chest, making him roar in slight pain and anger.

As soon as Godzilla regained his concentration, he looked at his son. He snarled, and nodded his head. He was very proud. He admired how his son had taken advantage of him missing and then made a successful counterattack. He was so glad how much his son had learned during the past few years.

Minilla roared in victory and Godzilla responded, announcing that the practice was over for the day. But both of them knew that it wasn't over for good yet. As the old saying went: Practice makes perfect. Especially Godzilla understood that they needed to be ready if a new challenge was to appear. And somehow, he even had a feeling that something would happen, and very soon.

Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii; June 25th, 2011

In Hawaii, the sun rose from beyond the sea at around 8 am. The sunrise was really something to witness. One could only feel great, as the first things the sun's rays hit were the shore and all the houses on the shore. All the people on the shore could feel the warmth that was cast on them.

In one of those houses, Jim Hudson was still sleeping soundly. He had found it quite easy to sleep on a Hawaiian bed. His dreams were suddenly interrupted, as he woke up to the sound of a radio newscast. As he got up, the next thing he heard was some kind of "dreamy" music. He moved his eyebrows together, wondering what it was. He opened his bedroom's door and stepped in the living room, still wearing pajamas.

He instantly found the source of the music when he looked to the right. It was the radio all right, but something else caught his attention. He saw Rose in the kitchen making breakfast. And pretty well too, he noted. She was already dressed.

Rose turned and met Jim's amazed face. "Why, good morning, Jim."

"Good morning", Jim answered faintly.

"Are you hungry? Wanna some breakfast?"

Jim felt his stomach growl. "Sure. What have you got?" he said and moved to sit at the table.

"Let's see… I've got cereal, some white bread… Oh, and I'm almost ready with the omelet. So, what would you like to have?" Rose asked smilingly.

Jim thought for a moment, and then said: "Hit me with some of that omelet. Oh, and some orange juice, please."

"Coming right up!" she answered enthusiastically.

After a minute, much to Jim's surprise, Rose put a plate full of omelet and a glass of orange juice in front of him on the table. "You're quick", Jim said. "How can you make food like this?"

"I have my ways", answered Rose, just as automatically as late yesterday evening.

Jim decided not to give that anymore thought and started to eat the omelet. He liked it a lot. It tasted good. Then he remembered the music on the radio again and asked Rose what it was.

"Oh, that's Blue Hawaii."

Jim wondered: "That Elvis song?" Rose nodded. "Put on something else, I'm not into these old songs."

"As you wish", said Rose and switched the channel. Soon the room was filled with old disco music. It seemed to be from the 60s.

"Well, that's kinda old too, but I can live with that", Jim said. "At least it's livelier."

"Yeah, I see what you mean", Rose said and started to dance a little. Jim looked at her little dance moves, completely amused.

"You're good!" he chuckled.

Rose giggled and continued to dance. She moved forward beside the couch, tapping her feet on the floor and swinging her arms around. Soon she started to feel tired. She stopped dancing and walked back to the radio. "I think that's it for the day", she chuckled and turned the radio off. Jim clapped a little, which made Rose giggle again. "Why, thank you", she said and made a curtsy.

"You're welcome."

After Jim had eaten his breakfast, he asked Rose: "Where can I take a shower, by the way?"

"Oh, yeah, I didn't remember to tell you", Rose said. "You can use the shower in the little bathroom you can access from my bedroom."

Jim looked at her a bit nervously. Rose chuckled: "Oh, don't worry! I can assure you, there's nothing there to embarrass you."

"Are you sure?"

Rose looked at him sternly. "Yes."

Jim finally, and quite hesitantly, agreed to use the shower. But still, Rose gave him one more piece of advice: the bathroom door needed to be locked to let other people know that it was occupied. Jim rolled his eyes after hearing all that "obvious" stuff.

After showering, brushing his teeth, and dressing, Jim sat down on the bamboo couch. He got very little time to relax as his cell phone suddenly rang. It was Susan.

"Good morning, Mom."

"Good morning, son. Listen, we're getting ready to leave here in Ka'anapali. Why don't you get prepared and we'll come and pick you up after about 10 minutes or so. What do you say?"

"Sounds fine. I'll just get my stuff ready. Okay, bye."

As he hung up, Rose walked to him and asked: "Are you leaving?"

"Yeah, we're about to go to Haleakala in order to get our mission started." He saw the rather sad look on her face. "We're not leaving Hawaii yet, though. This mission is going to take some time."

Rose immediately brightened up. "Great. I feel so lonely in here so often."

"Yeah, I can imagine."

They both turned to look at the ocean. Rose walked to the windows and watched dreamingly at the waves. "Jim, I want you to know that I'm really, really grateful that you found me yesterday. Who knows what might've happened to me."

"Oh, it was nothing. I just felt like it was the right thing to do." He walked to the windows as well, standing a few meters to the left of her.

They stayed quiet for a few minutes, looking at the blue ocean, until Jim decided start up a conversation again. "You know, I'm still wondering… You said you live here all by yourself… It hasn't always been like that, right?"

Rose turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"

"Rose, you speak so confidently. Have you lived alone for your entire life?"

Rose was just about to stammer something, but then they heard a car parking outside. "That must be my Mom and the others", Jim said.

"Yeah, I guess so", Rose said. "Look, um… We'll talk later, OK?"

"All right." Jim grabbed his backpack and started to head towards the door.

"I-I'll walk you outside", Rose stuttered.

He turned around, and saw her gorgeous smile again. He smiled back. "Okay, if you want."

Rose quickly opened the door for Jim and followed him outside. Jim could sense that something was going on with her. She shook a little. "Why are you so nervous?" he asked.

"I don't know. I guess I'm just so excited for you."

"Okay…" Jim chuckled as if not believing.

They reached the white wall and Rose opened the door. They saw two cars parked beside the wall. In one of them, Susan Hudson waved at her son and then at Rose. After they waved back, Rose said: "Well, good luck on your mission, then."

"Thanks. See you later."

"Bye, Jim."

As soon as Jim got in the car and seated himself next to her, Susan spoke in a monotonous voice to her intercom: "OK, Sato. Let's go."

The car, in which Sato, Gordon and Miyuki were, started up and turned to the road, followed by Susan's car. Jim turned and gave Rose one last wave. Rose smiled and kept waving back until they were out of sight. Contentedly she went back inside.

Thanks to the minimal amount of traffic, the drive to Haleakala took only about 45 minutes. What Jim did not know was how long the actual trip all the way up to the top of Haleakala would take. He hadn't imagined at all how curving the road was. But he didn't mind the dozens of curves. He was more concentrated in watching how they were soon above the clouds. Jim had already seen clouds from an airplane, but now he felt like he was seeing them from above for the first time again.

Finally the crew reached the top of Haleakala. Because of the UFO, the U.S. Army had sealed off the whole area around the crater earlier, so Sato and the others had to gain permission to enter the site.

Once they reached the site, Jim was completely amazed by the sight. It was unlike anything he had ever imagined. He had always thought that all volcanoes have one big, giant crater. Well, now he was proven wrong. Haleakala did have a crater, but it wasn't just a big, wide hole. In Haleakala's crater there were lots of small volcanic cones, as they were called. But that wasn't the only thing that made Haleakala look so fascinating to the young boy. He also noticed immediately how colorful the area around the craters was. Mostly the ground was reddish-brown, but there were also blue and green hues in some spots.

The two cars went down the steep wall to the crater, which was completely covered in a fog of some sort. Thankfully the fog wasn't so thick and the UFO was soon in sight. Everyone took a long look at the immense vessel, especially Jim. His mother had described to him earlier what the vessel looked like, but now he actually saw it for the first time. Needless to say, he was dumbfounded yet again. As he looked at the shape of the UFO, he instantly thought it was straight from a TV sci-fi series like Farscape.

The car doors opened and everyone got out. As they walked closer to the UFO, Kuronuma and Sakai suddenly appeared in front of them. The aliens bowed and shook everyone's hand. Jim had a hard time in believing he was actually meeting aliens from another world.

Some minutes later, Kuronuma and Sakai had led Captain Sato's group to a conference room in their UFO. There the two aliens told the EDF members how they could provide assistance for the Monster Resurrection Project. The meeting lasted for a few hours as every possible detail regarding the project and the aliens' assistance was discussed. In the end, the aliens and the EDF reached a solution, and made an agreement.

Monster Island, the Pacific Ocean; July 1st, 2011

For a week, the aliens had been helping the Monster Resurrection Project's crew. Shortly after the agreement they had made with Sato's group, they had departed from Haleakala and flown to Monster Island. They sent down three members of their species who were talented in the field of science. These three "scientist aliens" brought with them a device which they claimed to help accelerate the monsters' revival from their coma. Furthermore, they explained that every monster needed a device of its own. According to the aliens, the devices would generate electric signals that would revive the monsters, and then they could be controlled with the help of those signals. Sato had wondered earlier why the monsters would require the devices when the crew on the island had already developed a system to control them. Kuronuma had answered that their control system would be much more reliable. Although a bit hesitant, Sato, and the crew on the island, let the aliens use their devices and help them by any means necessary. And now, a week later, Sato was feeling glad about his decision, as there had been a huge leap forward in the progress of the monsters' revival. The humans and aliens had been working hard together every day.

The 1st of July started out like any other day. Everyone on Monster Island was working as usual. Every monster now had a device attached to the neck. Although everything seemed normal at first, something was about to happen which would make that day a truly memorable one.

Five minutes before noon, Sato arrived at Monster Island in a helicopter. The crew on the island was about to completely revive the monsters, and as the head of the project, Sato felt the need to be present at the event. He was led to the main hall, and he smiled at the sight. Five monsters, each was going to wake up within a few minutes. All of them were now free of any wires and such. Kuronuma and Sakai also arrived at the island and were led to the main hall as well. Every single member of the crew gathered in the room, waiting anxiously for the marvelous, great event.

As the clock struck noon, the monsters' control devices were turned on, and the ceiling above the monsters began to open. The electric signals passed through the monsters' bodies. Their neural systems started to pulsate. And then, at last, the first signs of movements could be noticed.

Anguirus, the mutated Ankylosaurus, was given the honor of being the first monster reacting to the waves. Slowly his legs started to move, and he stood up. His eyes opened quickly, and he looked around the room curiously. Then, King Caesar, the god of Okinawa, opened his eyes and stood up too. Kamacuras, the giant praying mantis, and Kumonga, the giant spider, also woke up and stretched their limbs. Finally, the last of the five monsters, Rodan, the giant pterodactyl, was revived.

As Rodan stood up to join the other monsters, he opened his beak and let out a mighty squawk, announcing his full recovery and, in a way, proclaiming himself as the leader of the "MRP monsters", as Sato would say. The other monsters joined their new leader: Anguirus and King Caesar roared and Kamacuras and Kumonga screeched. Everyone in the room watched the monsters with awe, especially Sato, who had a noble smile on his face.

Rodan looked up and saw the clear blue sky. The ceiling was now fully open. Rodan, willing to experience the joy of flight again, stretched his wings and took off. He exited the research center and let out another squawk into the air. Watching its leader proudly, Kamacuras opened up its wings too and soon joined Rodan. The two flying monsters looked at each other and exchanged joyful screeches. Then they looked down at the other monsters and greeted them as well. Anguirus, Caesar and Kumonga bellowed back at them.

The whole crew started to cheer in complete happiness. All their hard work for the past few years finally paid off. Kuronuma, Sakai, and the three scientist aliens joined the humans in the moment of joy. Sato felt great pride for himself and the whole crew of the Monster Resurrection Project. But he knew that the final test still needed to be done.

He ran upstairs and took position at the control desk. He turned on the microphone through which the orders for the monsters would be given. "Rodan and Kamacuras, land."

Rodan and Kamacuras stopped flying for a moment, and then they started to head down. The other monsters made way for them to land. And peacefully and carefully Rodan and Kamacuras landed and stopped to look at the humans.

Everybody cheered with pride again. Now it was proven that the control devices really worked. Sato knew that the monsters were ready to be prepared for the upcoming challenge…