Chapter Fourteen
Circling above the Hive of the Swarm as if he were some vulture anticipating a feast from a dying man, was the Prince of Skyllans, King Ghidorah. He had fought fiercely against many foes and had killed many of the Swarm and splattered them like the insects they were yet all of a sudden they stopped and flew away. The demon knew why, even if he hadn't the power to see the thoughts of others, he would still have known why. Their leader, their king, sought single combat between them and had had his minions fall back to allow the enemy to come and be fought by the greatest one of them. Now King Ghidorah was there and was waiting for the challenge; he was waiting for battle for he would teach the Locust King what battle was. He who had he made war for power would fight he who made war for carnage.
That was when the three-headed monster heard a hum. He turned one head away from the Hive where he hovered and saw that it was a small swarm of ordinary locusts; he turned that head back to the Hive where the other heads looked. After all, those gnats were less than a nuisance. Yet the cloud of those gnats kept coming around him they swarmed and hovered around him, hundreds and thousands, more and more kept coming. They began to claw and bite at his eyes and flew down his nostrils and mouths slashing all the way. Intolerable! What were these locusts; he was waiting for the Locust…
Before King Ghidorah could act on that knowledge, Inagos struck from behind with all his might. The force of the blow was so great that the demon was sent crashing towards the ground in front of the Hive and Inagos flew down towards his foe at full speed. The wicked King Ghidorah immediately got up on his feet and hurled a volley of fireballs at his enemy yet Inagos was an aerial acrobat and he dodged each one, his transparent wings humming all the while. The Prince of Skyllans stretched his wings to the utmost to fire scattershot Crimson Lightning yet Inagos dodged that attack as well; the Locust King had seen his enemy's attacks through the eyes of his minions and knew what to do. Armed with that knowledge, he dove down to the ground for another attack.
The insect monster sprinted downwards from the sky to slash the demon with the blade of his razor sharp transparent wings yet the demon slyly side stepped his foe's attack. Perfect. Slightly distracted from the attack by his dodge, King Ghidorah reeled in pain for seemingly no reason at all though he quickly knew from what. Wings no longer suspended Inagos, rather he was suspended by blurs whose hum had turned into a whine to make ears bleed and it was doing that and worse to evil one. As everything seemed to blend together and the whine became deafening to cripple the demon, the Locust King that that it was a fitting that the chaos child of battle die by something he couldn't even touch.
The Prince of Skyllans fell to the ground writhing in pain all the while; that was when Inagos decided to take his chance and finish it. With his claw like forelimbs tucked into his body, the Locust King once again crashed himself into the demon and plunged his stinger as deep as could be done into the three-headed monster in order to unload its payload of venom. Inagos forcibly shot the toxin in with all his force, because he knew that he could not touch the demon for long lest the Taint weaken him. The corrosive acids had the power to melt diamond, and gallons of the stuff were being pumped into the evil one, more and more every second.
As this happened, the insects of the Swarm watching their master do battle could not believe it. Those who would defy the master would receive the poison and would fall dead in seconds. How many minutes had past since the master of the swarm had impaled the enemy, they did not know but that the foe still alive was nearly impossible. Inagos saw that his enemy yet lived and so put all his strength into his sting; such preoccupation was to be Inagos' final mistake.
It was while the Hive Lord's attention was diverted that King Ghidorah swung his spiked club tails in a wide arc in order to crash them at Inagos' sides. A vile and unearthly shriek came from the Locust King as those spines dug themselves in yet there came an even greater shriek when the spiny tails tore away their victim in a bloody gory spray from King Ghidorah's body. It was with such force that, while the insect was cast off, the stinger remained, like a bee. With that Inagos was cast aside with half his body ripped off and embedded in the enemy, still pumping venom from the sack and into the victim. Barely alive as his abdomen dripped his entrails into the ground, Inagos fell down in utter agony; however, he still had one hand left to play.
Even as King Ghidorah turned his necks to remove the venom sack that still kept pumping its toxin from his back, the five Kamacuras came to the assault and wrought their vengeance against he who would harm their master. Even with his regenerative powers, healing him, the Locust King's poison him dizzy and confused and in no condition to fend off the mantid attack. They came in slashing with their Grim Reaper like sickle claws and drew blood with each stroke. Their strategy was hit and run and it served them well; as fast as King Ghidorah tried to strike, all he hit was empty air. He couldn't even aim his beam attacks; Inagos' toxin was apparently narcotic as well as necrotic.
The mantis quintet slashed again with their scythes so quickly that it seemed that they were only blurred knives. Against such as onslaught, the already weakened Prince of Skyllans seemed soon to fall. Unable to focus his thoughts due to Inagos hallucinatory venom, he even failed to use scattershot Crimson Lightning. He tried to use the Fear against them but it was of no use; their wills were too strong and their noble devotion to their master too great for Fear to affect them. It seemed that this time it really was all over.
That was when Shiigan leapt down from the Hive and onto King Ghidorah's back. She crashed onto where the Locust King's venom sack was harpooned into the demon's flesh to burst the sack apart. As she did that, as she slickly slid off from the demon's back, drenched in liquid death. The Kamakuras saw what their old mistress did and knew what she was trying to do; they knew what was going to happen and they would not allow it!
Seeking to keep it from happening, the five of them, all at once, rushed at Shiigan and began slashing at her with their scythe-like claws. At first some of the hooked blades cracked her exoskeleton and sliced the tender innards kept beneath it but that quickly changed as Shiigan's armor grew hard and the mantis's claw strikes quickly bounced off. The same was not true when their target returned the attack.
Shiigan knew that the venom that Inagos used, while fatal to others, was mother's milk to her and would giver her strength. Even now it was doing that, making her armor hard, her senses acute, her claws sharp, and her muscles swell; before they knew it, Shiigan was her old self again and with her power returned cast the Kamakuras aside like so much chaff.
The limp was gone, her wickedly curved stinger glistened in the sunlight, and her claws stuck out from her forelimbs like bayonets. With her gigantic muscles flexing under her armor, she fairly towered over the five Kamakuras and was ready to kill them; they for their part were ready to die. In the days before Inagos, they had been Shiigan's chattel and she all too easily cast them aside; among the mantises, the female is more powerful than the male and a female of Kamakuras race she was. Now that the five mantises had used up much of their strength in the battle against King Ghidorah they had even less a chance of survival against her. However, the freedom that their master had given them was too sweet for them to ever live as the witch's slaves again.
One immediately rushed her, and while Shiigan moved to intercept another Kamakuras came in from behind. Their wicked mistress lanced the one in front of her with her right and spun around to slice the one from behind in half with her claws. The third was already at her sides and slashed with his claws with so much force that Shiigan's armor was pierced. As for the witch, she howled in pain when that happened and she kicked the male with such force with her spiked foot that his back was broken.
As for the remaining two, they took the defensive as Shiigan advanced and her claws stuck every which way. They had to duck and dodge as the evil giantess struck with claws that sometimes shattered stone and sometimes sliced it. However, her right claw was about to connect against the puny males when something knocked her down from behind. She looked up and saw that Inagos, though on his last legs, was there to fight his final battle.
It was perfect, just what she had wanted for so many years and now it was here, she was ready for it. Scythes raised, Shiigan lunged to attack but he, with waning strength, sidestepped at the blow and spun around to knock her down with a claw strike. Before she could rise up, Inagos spun around and sliced her with his razor edge wings, leaving her bellowing in pain. The two remaining Kamakuras took advantage of this and leapt with sickle claws raised to cut open her face yet they fell back as if they had bit a brick wall when she brought her forelimbs to shield herself.
She raised her hind legs with all her strength and managed to snap one of the mantis' necks. The last one flew up and began a diving attack to circle and confuse the giantess yet flight was not the male's power alone. She leapt up into the air yet just as she was about to do so, Inagos brought all his force on her left wing shattering it. In pain and rage, Shiigan brought all her strength together in a scissor movement to slash the Locust King's chest open and succeeded. She then brought her bayonet claw backward to gut the final Kamakuras that sought to attack from behind.
Ever so sickeningly and slowly the last mantis monster slid off Shiigan's claw, making a slurping sound as it did and making a dull thud as it hit the ground. Shiigan then, despite her agony, hobbled towards the fallen form of the Locust King, to revel in her victory over this fallen foe. However, if she was to expect any pleas for mercy from Inagos, they were not coming, no, a thousand times no. The final assault had used up the last reserves of his strength and what little bit of life he had was quickly ebbing away as the blood and entrails spilled out from his body, but with his last breath did he curse Shiigan, or would have if he had the power to speak. With his last breath, the Hive Lord gave one final act of defiance and spat at her. For that, Shiigan raised her scythe like claws up and cut off the Locust King's head and the head rolled about on the desert sand.
It was over, or so Shiigan thought. The mistress of the Kamakuras was triumphant and yet she knew that it would not be so if not for the three-headed monster that had come. She turned around and saw the Prince of Skyllans; he was strong again because he had rested while she had fought. Shiigan looked up towards him and he seemed strange to her. After all, she was used to dealing with fellow insect monsters and King Ghidorah was certainly not such a creature, yet even so he had come and he had done battle with Inagos just as she knew he would. She had saved his life from the Kamakuras and from Inagos; surely he would reward her and gave her a place at his side.
As for King Ghidorah, he looked at her with his three heads and six eyes for one brief moment before blasting her apart into so much bloody paste with his Gravity Beams, red slime and gore raining down. He was the Devil's Hammer; what else did she expect? That Shiigan had proven useful as he had anticipated was true but now that that use was ended, he had had no further reason to keep her alive. (Not that he had ever really needed her; he could just as easily exuded Taint to make the Kamakuras fall down dead just by his wishing it.) However, as King Ghidorah's heads looked this way and that, he knew that he would have to do something about the viscera smeared across his body; the drenching of blood was rather intolerable. However, that would have to wait because he had something more important to attend to and that something was coming.
The Swarm had held back as they saw this and had waited for their master to win yet now the master was dead and so they could only take revenge for him. King Ghidorah saw this and looked and felt an evil pleasure rise up in him at the thought of what he was going to do. He saw the mad mob swarm towards him and he thrust himself into the sky with his legs and stayed there by his wings. Each head looked around and saw the Swarm coming to wreak its vengeance, even there in the air but it was not to be.
Just as the flying insects came rushing towards him to bite and claw yet just as they were but a few feet away from him, the fliers stopped. As for King Ghidorah, he eyes were glowing as he looked at them and so did theirs. With blank, multifaceted eyes and seemingly no volition of their own, the flying insects that had come up went back down. Now alone in the sky, the Prince of Skyllans extended his necks and his wings to the fullest as his whole body began to glow. If the insects of the Swarm had any wits about them they would have begun to run for their lives out of fear for what might soon happen but since Inagos had always done all their thinking for them they stayed right where they were.
What happened next was this. Having charged for some time, he was now ending the cycle for by now King Ghidorah shone the color of gold and was of a hideous beauty as he did so. Then, as if he could contain no more power, he released it all in a raging Death Storm from his mouths and wings onto all that lived. As each child of the Swarm was struck by the light show, each one wailed in agony and writhed in torment as every bit of thought and memory was erased and each insect was made a mindless puppet—the power he had stolen from Apophis proved useful. They all screamed a cry like that of a thousand rusted nails scraped across a thousand chalkboards until the finally fell down as one dead.
By this time, little Meganulon had made it to the edge of the Hive and was now peeking her multifaceted eyes over the edge of the drop. She had been hidden well and was thus unaffected by the demon's mind control yet now the slimy little grub wished she hadn't. She had seen the battle for herself; she had seen the end of the Swarm. At this sight, a great hatred filled the larval child, a hatred that belied her age, at seeing this happened to the Swarm, her Swarm. Inagos had bequeathed it to her and the three-headed monster had stolen it from her on killing him, he whom she called father.
Meganulon had lost her father and the kingdom that she would rule and knew a sick fury unlike any she though she could. The child felt it boil in her, her hate, her rage, and all her sorrow. She knew she could not counter this, not yet, but she also knew that when the time came, she would have her revenge. Until then, she would have to bide her time and so she slunk off into the shadows, safe from prying eyes and listening ears, where she would wait until the time would come.
Four lasers all fired simultaneously at Godzilla from their turrets on Cyber-Saur's shoulders and that strike was followed up by a strike from the Beam Sword of Red Ronin's Discus Shield. Desperate, Godzilla fired his Red Spiral Ray at Cyber-Saur yet that was of no use as the robot's electric field managed to absorb the energy and then it was sent back as massive laser attack from its shoulder, wrist and mouth cannons. With that, Red Ronin fired a rapid maser burst from the Discuss Shield to further disorient the monster. Then the two machines stepped aside to let MOGUERA come flying in to do a head but attack but with head pointed forward with drill nose spinning; it sent the King of the Monsters flying back with a huge bloody wound in his shoulder. Ignoring the pain, Godzilla sent the machine down as well with a tail whip and wrestled MOGUERA on the ground
From her helicopter vantage-point, Miki could see the other two war machines pull back to let the chief one deal damage to the target. The lesser machines were quite unlike their compatriot. Like the lost Jet Jaguar whose creator is shared, Cyber-Saur was a true robot in that it didn't rely on a human operator; it carried out its orders independently. Unlike G-Force's other weapons, the saurian war machine hadn't been designed by Dr. Yoshizawa; rather, it had been built by renegade "gadgeteer" Roxa based upon the plans of his mentor, Mr. Goro.
As for its appearance, Cyber-Saur lived up to its name. The gold robot was designed like an art deco predatory dinosaur down to the fanged mouth, taloned feet that balanced on the toes, and a long rail. The arms were slender, more for grasping than grappling, but were protected by flaring shoulder guards. On those shoulders rose up missile launchers and atop them were laser cannons; rising up over the robot's head, the weapons were like some bizarre collar. At the smooth metallic head, there were no eyes, merely an odd visor.
As for Red Ronin, that machine was another matter altogether. Instead of being shaped like a dinosaur like Cyber-Saur, it was, as some said, a Godzilla-sized robot samurai. The metallic titan was man shaped and its limbs were made up of gleaming silver bands; the metal making up its "boots" and "gloves" was red as were the shoulder guards, and the trunk. The robot's circular shield was also red, however, the samurai helmet covering its silver human face was yellow.
The human like construction design was intentional. When Dr. Yuriko Takaguchi built his robot soon after G-Force's founding, he made it to resemble a human being for the psychological benefit of the world's people seeing a machine made in the image of man doing battle with the monsters that ended the Age of Man. This was further emphasized by how the robot was controlled by the pilot's mind by means of psionic interface so that the machine was, in fact, an extension of the pilot.
Watching from well above the battle zone, Miki was near panic because she knew Kyle was piloting Red Ronin just as she knew all too well how such a robotic control system could affect a pilot's mind. As she saw Godzilla do battle with the three war machines at once, she could see that more and more of the city was being destroyed. She knew that the battle had to be stopped before it was too late so, knowing she couldn't call the robots directly, she put aside her camera to call in HQ.
She heard static before the call went through and a familiar voice was heard. "Commander Raschell? …Oh Commander Raschell, thank God it's you! We have a major crisis… No, it's not the city sir; I know its expendable… It's the people; the city hasn't been evacuated! There are still innocent people he—"
Miki's ear all but bled at the shocked scream that she received over the phone. "Yes I know the US Army assured us that the city was evacuated but that's not the case. You're G-Force North America Commander and this is North American soil, you have to call off the attack before any more innocent people are killed!" She waited for a reply but for a time there was none coming. The silence worried her; she knew that she didn't have to be a telepath to realize what the Commander was contemplating.
That's when she heard the reply, however soft and weak it was; it was too late to stop the battle. The city was already forfeit and Godzilla had to be destroyed. Miki was in shock on hearing that. "But sir, it doesn't have to be that way. Godzilla is only reacting defensively; if the attack is called off, he'll leave. Sir? …Sir!"
That was when Commander Rascell ended his transmission. In a rare fit of anger, Miki threw down the phone and growled. The helicopter pilot looked towards her in confusion when he heard that but she ignored him and closed her eyes as she began to concentrate. It would tax her powers to the utmost, but if the men of G-Force wouldn't end the battle by making their robots leave, then she would end the battle by making Godzilla leave.
As for the King of the Monsters, he was at that moment doing battle with the machine called Cyber-Saur. It dodged back and forth as its foe tried to land a blow but not one punch connected. Instead, Godzila winced in pain as his face was burned by Cyber-Saur's shoulder lasers and was then bombarded by the shoulder missile launcher's ordinance. Yet it was during this stream of fire that Godzilla, regardless of his injuries, rushed towards the machine, grabbed its right arm by the wrist, and tore it off. Then to the amazement of all those watching, the King of the Monsters raised the dismembered metallic arm and used it like a club to bludgeon Cyber-Saur again and again.
By that time, the machine had already been damaged but with this new onslaught cracks began to appear and sparks began to flare all over its body. Already staggered thus, Cyber-Saur's remote operator at HQ never saw the Atomic Ray coming that sharp shot their machine's shoulder lasers and missile launchers. Seeing it unarmed and damaged, Santos ordered HQ from MOGUERA to recall Cyber-Saur before it was destroyed; he and Kyle would handle things from there.
As the injured machine flew crookedly into the sky, Godzilla roared his defiance at it and proclaimed to it his victory. However, the King of the Monsters knew that it could easily prove a hollow victory with what he faced in its brother robots. Red Ronin and MOGUERA were still there and even then were readying themselves for another attack against their foe. With blistered skin and worse, the exhausted Godzilla knew that the humans that controlled the remaining machines would still be eager to kill him and might indeed overwhelm him in his current condition. But if it would be so, then bring it on!
With eyes glowing with fury and fists clenched, Godzilla was ready to face any challenge and battle any foe. He would face his enemies and destroy them to show them that nobody could defy the King of the Monsters! That was when he heard Miki. Of all the...! An angry look flashed across his face and he could only think, what on Earth was she doing? Didn't she know that he was in the midst of a battle?
From her helicopter vantage point, Miki psychically said "Godzilla, you have to listen. Stop fighting, there are still people here! If you don't leave right now, they'll die! Run!"
On hearing her psychic plea, Godzilla was stunned. There were still innocents here? He looked around to see the city made flaming ruins around him; it was then that he let himself see that he saw the thousands of people running in fear. On seeing them he felt a wave of disgust and asked what kind of monsters were these humans to leave those weak and helpless among them in a place of danger? (Monsters, he would have to retract that thought; it would be an insult to his kind.) Didn't they even care about the lives of others of their own kind? And yet… even if they didn't, Godzilla did. Even if he had fought the humans time and again, he would not strike down an innocent life and so, even though he burned at the mere thought of running from the field of battle, he, ever so slowly, began to fall back.
Though exhausted, Miki could still see this from her helicopter and managed a weary smile. The men at HQ and aboard MOGUERA saw this and clung to a fragile hope that Godzilla would be gone from this place and leave the city be; destroying Godzilla had been the secondary goal, saving the city had been the primary. Godzilla saw that nobody was stopping him and, although he never took his eyes from either of the two robots, he made good his exit.
However, it was just as he was turning to leave when he felt something strike him from behind with enough force to knock him down flat atop an overpass. Though stunned, Godzilla immediately got up from the broken bridge to look around and to see who had done that; that was when he saw the round discus shield return to the arm of Red Ronin and knew what had happened. To strike a retreating foe whose back was turned was deceitful and treacherous and that filled him with rage. Godzilla could not have known it but he was not alone in that anger; the men of G-Force were also infuriated at the thought of the pilot's actions. As for Miki all she could was scream.
Burning with contempt for the humans, contempt for their pettiness and deceit and cruelty, Godzilla was barely able to keep himself in check. Fists clenched and unclenched and he was barely able to keep himself from lashing out, even with the knowledge that innocents were in danger and even with Miki's voice. Yet even despite all this, he was willing to turn the other cheek and leave it be, however that was when he heard another voice and it was not Miki's voice.
"That's right lizard boy, run! Run like the crawling cowardly reptile you are. You don't have the guts to fight me then? Then crawl on your belly and eat dust!"
Those were the taunts that he heard coming from Red Ronin's audio system. Godzilla, of course, couldn't understand any spoken human language (the psychic rapport that he had with Miki was a different thing altogether) but he was smart enough to understand the meaning behind the words. He was also smart enough to remember the voice as belonging to Kyle Martin. The sheer insolence of the maggot! Godzilla knew that he should have killed him when he had had the chance but if the human wanted to fight him man to monster like this then he would—no; he couldn't. Though the Great Tyrannosaur only knew why, Miki cared for the human and if only for that reason, he could raise no hand against him… however much he might want to crush the insect.
In Red Ronin's command center, Kyle was hooked in and had his hands on the controls. From behind the neuro-helmet that connected his mind to the machine, he frowned because Godzilla would not fight him, would not grant him the vengeance he so sought. When he had received command of Red Ronin for understanding the design better than anyone else, Kyle had told himself over and over that if he killed Godzilla that day that it wouldn't be out of revenge. He knew that he couldn't afford to lose control, not with Miki there. But now that he had Red Ronin's power at his command, he thought… differently.
"Kyle what are you doing? Let Godzilla go!" Kyle looked around for the tinny sound until realizing that it was coming from the machine's communications system and the person saying it was his friend, Lieutenant Tomas Santos. "You heard me, let the monster go. That's an order! He wants to retreat? Let him! To drive Godzilla away from the city was why we came; we can finish him off later, away from all this."
Drunk with power and hungry for revenge, Kyle yelled, "NO! No way Santos, this ends here! That monster killed my brother and he's killed thousands more! But he's not going to kill anyone else ever again, Tomas. I swear it. Kyle Martin, over and out." With that Red Ronin hurled his shield with full force at its foe.
Unable to block it or dodge it in time, the shield hit the King of the Monsters with its full force and sent him flying out of the park they had been and crashing into a building that immediately turned to rubble. The people in the city were running in mad panic and many there were killed when the building collapsed on them. With that Godzilla went fairly mad with hatred and exploded from the rubble of the building to roar his blood red rage and sharp shoot the machine straight in the chest with the strength of anger. In the robot's control center, Kyle winced in pain as he felt its damage; at the same time he smiled, however, because he knew that the fight was on.
Yes the fight was on so with that both titans charged each to make the city ring with the din of battle. The pilot and gunner of the MOGUERA looked to their leader for what they should do and saw him curse the situation. "Damn!" cursed Santos. "We can't risk a lose cannon with power like that; we have disable him. Open fire on Red Ronin!"
With that MOGUERA opened fire on Red Ronin. The crimson machine immediately felt the stung of twin Plasma Laser Guns and the pilot cursed the pain. Santos and his men took advantage of it and locked Kyle's robot into place with their own machine's weapon pods so they could grind the machine's drill nose into it. Yet just as they were doing that, Godzilla came and tore MOGUERA from Red Ronin and sent his fist crashing into the metal samurai's face; it would be his fight and nobody else's!
MOGUERA got up from the blow and rolled back on its tank tread feet. Hoping to lure Godzilla away from the city, the robot opened fire with its Plasma Laser Cannon and Guns yet neither combatant would yield one inch; both were determined to destroy each other. Thinking to up the ante, the Mysterian descended war machine opened its weapon pods to fire a hail of Spiral Grenade Missiles at the King of the Monsters.
It was as this happened that Red Ronin's unshielded arm turned itself into charging gigantic futuristic cannon to shoot its saurian foe. Godzilla was by then arching back by MOGUERA's increased assault yet he saw the robot samurai firing its now glowing weapon. At the last possible second he dropped to the ground and did a sweeping tail whip that sent the machine falling back so that its shot went flying past him altogether and hit MOGUERA. As for said machine, the tremendous shot went straight through it and hit the building behind it, seemingly splitting it in half and that half began falling towards the people below.
In Red Ronin, Kyle saw this and couldn't believe what he had done. Miki and Godzilla gasped at the horrific sight and for those who would perish. From inside their fallen, prostrate, and damaged robot, Lieutenant Santos and his men, Glen and Fuji, went silent in despair in the knowledge and at the thought of those who would die. As for those hundreds of people there who would die they looked up at the shadow of death cover them and felt the dust and stones fall on them. They then did the only thing left to them; they screamed.
They screamed as the shattered half of the building came down to crush them to death yet the sound of the rushing building suddenly stopped with a deafening thud well before it hit the ground. The fleeing people there in the shadow of the building were almost dead with fear but confusion over the fact that they were not dead slowly overcame fear and, trembling, they turned their eyes upwards. Yet when they did so they gasped at the sight because there was Godzilla and he had caught the falling building thus saving all their lives.
He stood there, towering over them as he held it up, even though broken glass, loose masonry, and and things well out on the frightened grimy people. Although they were at first too stunned to move, the people quickly regained control of themselves and ran as the King of the Monsters turned downwards at them and seemingly roared at them to move. Not wanting to be there when the offer expired, the people ran for their lives and evacuated the place. As they did so, Godzilla held the half of the building over his head as those in danger made their way to safety even as he felt his titanic strength waning. Yet it was only when the last human was safely away that the King of the Monsters moved his arms away and let the building he had caught fall to the ground and crash into rubble.
With that, Godzilla let his colossal frame fall to the ground, making the city tremble as he did so. Holding the broken upper half of an entire skyscraper had taxed what remained of his mighty strength after his three on one battle; now he almost trembled atop the rubble that he buried his hands and knees in. For a time, there was no movement. Instead, there was only a stunned silence at what had happened because at both HQ and Ground Zero the people watching this couldn't believe what had just happened.
Godzilla had… saved those people? Why? At that moment nobody knew, not even Godzilla himself. In confusion, he looked down at the rubble around him and realized that he had saved those people's lives. Almost frightened at this, all the King of the Monsters knew was… he couldn't let them die, he just couldn't. With that he looked up at the helicopter where Miki was and he managed the saurian equivalent of a smirk; he knew she was smiling.
That was also when he felt an enormous pain lance through him that swept him across the ruined rubble strewn streets and left him buried the flaming wreckage of the building in which he crashed. When the saurian looked up past the broken buildings and shook off the rubble he was buried in, it was to see Red Ronin standing over him, the barrel of its arm cannon still smoking and its pilot still wishing for blood. At that moment, Godzilla felt hatred, a venomous rage, the likes of which he had never known burn inside him for what had happened. The treacherous, back stabbing, freak! He had spared his life after one battle, had done so for the sake of Miki's pleas for mercy and union and this? It was Shindo on Lagos all over again! Godzilla would kill him! He'd kill him!
Looking down at Kyle and Godzilla do battle from high up in her helicopter, Miki curled up into a ball and wept at what she knew would happen. Because of her link to the saurian, she felt his pain and his rage; she knew that now Godzilla would stop at nothing to claim blood. Neither was willing to accept even the existence of the other, instead agreeing to fight until they were both destroyed. Did not they now that hatred leads only to further hatred, that violence begets violence? How could they both tread the path of madness so willingly?
Back on the ground, the war amidst the ruins of the city continued between the two belligerents. With energy reserves for its beam cannon depleted, Red Ronin was now fighting hand to hand, albeit with an energy blade projecting from above its fist. As for Godzilla he was fighting with every bit of strength he could muster and was bringing all his fury to bear against his metallic foe. He kept the machine on the defensive with a barrage of claw swipes yet that was quickly proved useless when the machine brought up its near indestructible shield. Thinking to go on the offensive, Red Ronin slashed with his shield at his foe but that quickly proved useless as Godzilla grasped the shield with his teeth and tore it away in a spray of sparks.
Feeling the robot's damage as his own pain, Kyle was in no way prepared for how the King of the Monsters then slammed the shield into the iron titan's mid section so hard that the machine was all but split in two. Forcing the thought through his mind that he felt no pain, that it was all in his head, Kyle had Red Ronin grasp the shield, tear it out from its mid section, and it let it drop. The machine staggered as its belly shot out sparks and dropped its electronic innards; Kyle knew that if he were to end the fight he would have to end it now.
However, watching from above in her helicopter, Miki knew that Godzilla would not let Kyle end it. She saw yellow lightning danced along his spines and saw the King of the Monster fire his Red Spiral Ray at the mechanical foe. She then saw the machine raise up its arms to block the blow and that that deflected a stream of fire in her direction. Unable to think as she saw this, Miki, in mad panic, jumped out even as the stray shot vaporized the entire helicopter and the poor pilot within. Godzilla saw this and froze leaving him open to attack from his robot foe; as for Miki, she used all her psychic energy in a futile, desperate attempt to slow her descent.
Thinking to go to her, Godzilla struggled against Red Ronin yet when Kyle saw that Miki's helicopter was destroyed, he redoubled his efforts to end the fight so he could go to her. On the King of the Monster's part, he fired his Atomic Ray straight into the damaged area of Red Ronin. Inside the robot's command center, Kyle saw he was nearly finished but he also knew on looking at his hated foe knew that he couldn't die without making sure that his brother's killer, and perhaps Miki's, die first. With that, Red Ronin charged forward one last time.
Godzilla saw it coming and ducked down to send it flying back with a tail whip. The machine then fell on its back and under assault by a barrage of blows from the King of the Monsters. Then, with fists bleeding and nearly broken from striking the near impenetrable armor, Godzilla continued his assault and sank his teeth into Red Ronin's shoulder. Red Ronin gathered all its strength and knocked its foe aside with a right hook, followed, up by a left jab. Back on his feet, though bloody and wounded from the robot's energy blade, the King of the Monsters saw his boxing foe and rallied his strength for a head butt. However, the robot anticipated this move and grabbed the oncoming dinosaur to send them both flying back.
The force of that backward bodyslam was so great, that it was felt as far away as Canada.
For a time, neither combatant moved for both were so injured by the blow. Bleeding and bruised, Godzilla forced himself up on wobbling legs yet as he hobbled towards Red Ronin the nearly destroyed machine stabbed its fist blade all the way through Godzilla's ankle. With blood spurting, the King of the Monsters screamed his agony and brought his other foot crashing down of Red Ronin's arm with such force that the hand was torn from it. Then bracing himself through the agony, he tore the blade out from his ankle and struck the now standing robot with a roundhouse tail whip.
The last machine of Steel Reign II was on the verge of destruction and its pilot knew it. From inside his machine's control center, Kyle Martin cursed this and frantically typed the escape codes into the barely functional controls. He knew that Miki was out there somewhere and that, though he would die to avenge his brother, he also had to live to save the woman he loved. Not noticing the escape pod as it shot out from Red Ronin's head; Godzilla continued his assault and finished off the steel colossus with a final blast of Red Spiral Ray.
That last burst of energy had used up what little strength the King of the Monsters had left and for the moment he could only tremble as he lay on the ground. Looking around him, Godzilla could see that both Red Ronin and MOGUERA had been mangled into flaming twisted wrecks; he'd left them destroyed, perhaps beyond repair. It was small comfort as he looked and saw the city was no more; the French Quarter was a flaming crater and downtown had been stamped flat. How many innocents had paid the price for Kyle Martin's madness? That was when Godzilla's golden eyes went wide as he remembered his innocent, Miki!
Forcing himself to his feet despite the agony, he hobbled towards the Louis Armstrong Park above which the helicopter had been destroyed in a vain hope of finding her. As the King of the Monsters went there he could see from his vantage point that the Park had been mostly untouched save for the brief fight he had had there with MOGUERA; in fact, the level of serenity was almost eerie. As he entered the park, Godzilla watched his every step because he knew not where Miki was and thought he might crush her by accident. He looked about and scanned everywhere but he found nothing; as this happened he began to feel the way he had when Gigantis died. That was when he finally caught sight of her and when he did he felt that which all thought he never could: fear.
Surrounded by branches and leaves, she was lying bleeding, bruised, & broken on the grass below a tree and although she was dying it was nonetheless a miracle that she was alive at all. What had happened was that after she leapt from the helicopter, she had used her telekinesis to slow her descent though if she had stopped to think about it she would have used it accelerate the fall and make her death as fast a one as possible. Yet unwilling to say die she had used all her power to stop and had crashed atop a large tree whose branches broke her fall. Even so her clothes were torn, bones were broken, she was lacerated and bloody all over, her spine was snapped, and it was only a matter of time before she died.
However, Godzilla saw that the one person that he truly loved was not alone in her hour of need; kneeling at her side atop the grass and broken branches was Kyle Martin. Hoping to find her as well, he'd managed to crash his escape pod in the park and had searched for her since he had done so. However it was seemingly in vain because he was too late to save her and could only comfort her unknowing form. Shaking in fear and whispering over and over, he held her hand as he rocked her back and forth.
He whimpered, "It's alright Miki, I'm here. C'mon, you gotta get up. I know you're hurt but we gotta get you to a doctor. We'll get a doctor and everything will be alright." He saw that she wasn't moving. He ran his hand across her broken head and across her blackened eyes and across her bloody lips and could barely feel a breath. "Miki?" He shook her and yelled "Miki!"
It was as this happened that Kyle saw a shadow come across him and across much of the land around him. He knew what it was and was not pleased so with that he gently laid Miki's head onto the ground before slowly turning around to face his foe. He craned his neck up to see Godzilla's one hundred-meter tall frame towering over him into the sky like a giant would stand over an insect yet this insect did not scurry about. It raged.
"You… you freak…! God damn you!" Still reeling at the thought of Miki being hurt, the King of the Monsters was stunned at what he heard. That he could hear it from as high as he was shock enough but more shocking still was that he could understand the angry, crying human's words. "You rat bastard! You dare show your face here after this? She loved you, God only knows why she did but she loved you. And what did you do? You killed her!"
At hearing this condemnation, Godzilla felt his jaw drop and everything turn upside down. Shaking in revulsion at the thought of the blood that was on his hands, at the thought of what he had done, he began to walk back. Knowing the King of the Monsters well enough to realize what was happening, Kyle pointed an accusatory finger the living mountain and screamed, "You're sorry? Do you think being sorry will bring Miki or anyone else you've killed back? These people are dead! They're dead and it's all your fault."
Consumed with remorse for what he had done, Godzilla covered his head. On seeing this Kyle shook his fist and screamed at the top of his lungs. " 'Wretch! It is well that that you come here to whine over the desolation that you have made. You throw a torch among buildings, and when they are consumed, you sit among the ruins to lament the fall. Hypocritical fiend!' Pity the poor monster, even as he goes and kills everything you hold dear? Never! Get out! I SAID GET OUT!"
Soon enough, the shaken and frightened monster walked away and went into the river. With that, he left the twilit city and the two people still there alone. Yes, beneath the tree and atop the grass Kyle was completely alone with Miki; there was thus no one there to hear him weep.