GODZILLA VS. TIAMATODON
PART 3
Tiamatodon spawned from a double-yoked egg, in other words, an egg with two embryos. Radiation experiments fused the embryos into one creature. Two souls in one body, one male, one female. Together the rational edge of the masculine mind and the intuitive powers of the female propelled Tiamatodon's intelligence above all other animals including its capacity to be resentful, jealous, and spiteful. It hated its deformity, and since nothing could be done to separate its two souls into their own healthy body, Tiamatodon decided to destroy all other creatures. If Tiamatodon could not enjoy the pleasures of life, neither should anyone else.
The sun had set and the tropical evening took on the flavor of wine as the hotels overlooking the beaches of Maunalua Bay on Oahu Island, Hawaii, became party houses for their gold-plated guests.
Like a black mountain, Tiamatodon rose up in the night-shrouded bay. Water sprayed in the breeze from its lipless mouths. It sensed the joy and heard the laughter and music, albeit faintly across the bay. Killing people when they were happy pleased Tiamatodon more than any other time.
It roared to draw the guests out onto the balconies and when they shrieked at the sight of the armless, twin-headed beast Tiamatodon spewed its twin radiation beams. The hotels burst into flames.
Oh sweet confusion! Succulent terror! Tiamatodon strode onto the shore, soaking in the emotional turmoil of the people trying to flee the stricken buildings, and bashed through the wall of fire.
The late shift at the civil defense administration building overlooking the bay was always prepared for trouble, but never did they imagine it would explode so fast and furious right on their doorstep. As soon as the staff positively identified the Siamese godzillasaurus, the head administrator, Carl Davis, radioed the admiral of the U.S. Pacific fleet.
"Abort your search! Tiamatodon has come ashore in Maunalua Bay! I say again, Tiamatodon has come ashore in Maunalua Bay! We need you to turn the fleet around and return to… oh my god!"
"What is it?" the admiral's voice sounded over the speaker. The horror erupting outside the windows struck Davis speechless.
Tiamatodon systematically marched up the streets setting fire to the residential homes along the slopes rising from the beach. It behaved like a demonic exterminator fumigating the houses for pests. In this instance, the pests were human beings. The entire neighborhood turned into an inferno.
Davis shook as he controlled the tone of his voice so he sounded composed. "Admiral, what is your ETA?"
"Our ETA? Son, we're so far south of the Hawaiian Islands we won't be back until tomorrow morning."
"Thank you, Admiral." Davis signed off and called the mayor. Precious minutes elapsed while the mayor's staff got him out of bed.
"Carl!" the mayor got on the line, sounding bewildered, "give it to me straight. Where's Tiamatodon now?"
"The monster is in the Wilhemina residential district. The entire district is like a lake of fire. I can't see a single house. They're all gone. All gone."
"Where's Tiamatodon?" the mayor shouted over the phone.
Davis jerked as if snapping out of a spell. "He's standing in the middle of the lake. He's huge. The flames barely reach his waist. He's turning toward our office." His coworkers ran from the room. Duty bound, Davis continued his report. "Tiamatodon is looking right at us, right at me. I can sense it somehow. He's…"
The mayor heard Carl cry out, the initial thunder of an explosion, and then the line went dead.
He lowered the receiver from his ear. His lower lip trembled. "Carl's dead," he told his staff.
The mayor contacted the governor who then notified the National Guard. As the authorities tried to get organized, the Siamese godzillasaurus rounded the Diamond Head crater and lumbered down the packed Lunalilo Freeway. Honolulu's nightlife was out in full swing. Once the monster stopped traffic on the freeway, the city's side streets clogged with cars. Fire trucks and ambulances sounded their horns, but no amount of noise could compel the jammed motorists to budge.
Tiamatodon spread a swath of destruction, cutting phone lines and destroying power stations. One by one the governor, mayor, and the commissioner of police lost touch with each other. Soon no civil infrastructure remained intact to aid the public. Compelled to take matters into their own hands, individual police officers established roadblocks to the affected part of city. Tourists and locals alike who were miles away from the destruction were baffled and upset when the officers, decked in riot gear, blocked the roads with their cruisers and ordered them to head west out of Honolulu.
The National Guard wrote off the Honolulu district as a total loss and assumed command over the police department in the neighboring district of Ewa. As far as the National Guard commander, General John Ray, was concerned Oahu was in a state of war. Resources had to be deployed in a practical manner. Save the people who could be saved. With the beast heading west, the commander ordered the citizens to be routed north, up Highway 99 between the Waianae and Koolau mountains. "A half million people are going to have to be pushed up a narrow valley between the mountain ranges," Ray said in his briefing to his staff. "It's going to be like pushing sand up an hourglass."
Tiamatodon attacked Waikiki and sliced its twin beams like knives through the high rises. The top halves of the buildings collapsed in glittering shards of glass and twisted steel upon the people below in the streets. Party goers, newlyweds, boozers and diners saw their neon playtime explode into nightmare. Roaring fires scorched thousands of lives and asphyxiated a multitude more as the gluttonous fires sucked the oxygen out of the air.
Tiamatodon left the city in flaming sorrow and stomped down the runways of the Honolulu International Airport. Passengers spilled like bugs out of a jar from the jet liners waiting for clearance for takeoff. Tiamatodon lashed its punishing rays. Thousands perished as the grounded aircraft exploded and the planes in the air careened out of the sky in flames and struck the airport facilities like bombs. Tiamatodon proceeded to Hickam Air Force Base where the National Guard fighters were just taxiing onto the runways. The hermaphrodite made short work of the fighters. Their ordnance went off like Fourth of July fireworks.
A battleship and two cruisers in dry dock at Pearl Harbor opened fire at the mutant godzillasaurus. The bridge crew cheered as they saw their target on the airfield buckle over from the impact of their shells. But impact did not equate with actual injury. The fins on the hermaphrodite flared as it stood up straight and fired its ray like twin blow torches. The radioactive beams pierced the ships as though they were made of wax and struck the warehouses storing ammunition on the other side of the docks. The whole harbor jolted from the deafening explosions. Every window within miles shattered from the concussion.
Tiamatodon ravaged Pearl City, and turned north toward the valley. General Ray was incredulous when he received radio reports from his troops along the evacuation route on Highway 99. "Tiamatodon is closing on our position!"
"It's just an animal!" He pounded his fist on the map table. "It should have kept going in a straight line due west, straight back into the sea. That's what any other monster would have done!"
Along the highway, tens of thousands fled from their cars for the foothills. Tiamatodon pursued them, leaving many crushed bodies in its tracks.
Humans, Tiamatodon sniffed. These creatures believed they were given dominion over all the other animals. Tiamatodon sensed that about them when it was an infant in the care of the scientists on Lagos. Now the humans abandoned their machines and ran for cover as though Tiamatodon were the apocalypse. No, the hermaphrodite, thought, I'm not bringing an end to the world. I'm just bringing an end to your world.
Tiamatodon set fire to the field and forests in the foothills. Bodies withered like wheat in the whirling flames. The howling screams, the anguished wails, they were a chorus to Tiamatodon's ears!
When the news of what happened in Hawaii reached Tokyo, the Japanese government held an emergency session. As an expert on dinosaurs, Mazaki gave the Diet a threat analysis of the Siamese godzillasaurus.
He put up a side-by-side comparison of Godzilla's path through Tokyo in 1954 to Tiamatodon's route through Oahu. "As you can see," he indicated on the projection screen with his pointer, "Godzilla entered the city from the bay, making one complete circle before returning to the sea. The red dots along his path indicate where he used his atomic ray. These areas tended to be buildings that obstructed his progress. Compare this to the other mutant."
Mazaki directed attention with the pointer to the extensive regions marked in red on Oahu. "Tiamatodon targeted major population areas, not obstructions. Wherever the U.S. authorities tried to evacuate their people, Tiamatodon followed. In 1954, sixty percent of Tokyo still stood. In Oahu, three major cities have been devastated. The fires are still burning as we speak."
The representatives of the Japanese Diet murmured among themselves.
"I hope by now," Mazaki raised his voice to be heard, "it is clear which of these two monsters is the greater threat. Before anyone accuses me of siding with the enemy," Mazaki directed his gaze toward Major Kuroki, "I understand Godzilla is an imminent danger because of his proximity to us, but as the only nation that has the firepower to destroy these creatures it is up to us to stop first and foremost the one that is the greatest menace to the whole world. Tiamatodon"
"So what of it, Major," Segawa said, turning the issue over to Kuroki, "are you going to redeploy your troops to take on Tiamatodon?"
"It won't be necessary," the Major replied. "I have been informed by U.S. naval intelligence Tiamatodon has been spotted heading in our direction. We won't have to go looking for him. He is coming to us."
The room broke apart in an uproar.
Kuroki raised his hand for silence. "I understand many of you feel we missed our chance to stop Tiamatodon at Oahu and now it's too late. Even among my own staff I have been told I should not have withdrawn all of our forces to the home islands to deal with Godzilla," Kuroki smirked, alluding toward Mazaki. "I assure you by the time Tiamatodon arrives Godzilla will be dead. We will be ready."
Kuroki dispatched engineers to the conservancy to clear-cut a three hundred foot wide path through the woods to the shore. He established his rear assembly area by the highway where his troops staked their tents. Two artillery batteries positioned themselves forward of the assembly area, one rocket battery and one self-propelled gun battery with a reserve gun battery left parked back on the highway. The maser tanks rumbled into the clearing to take up their positions while on the beach troops marked fire zones for the tank gunners with orange flags. Destroyers blockaded the bay. It was like the police had arrived with guns drawn. Choppers circled the island, searching for any sign of Godzilla.
Both he and Baby slumbered in the cave all day, seemingly oblivious to the commotion outside. Miki was astounded at the number of troops and equipment brought to bear. She sat atop a knoll working out her nervous tension picking at blades of grass while the army continued to turn their side of the bay into something that resembled the beaches of Normandy. A small boat came over to the island. She recognized Kuroki and Mazaki among the soldiers on board, and went down to meet them.
The Major looked her over. She wasn't the same since he last saw her—tanned, leaner, her hair had grown down to her waist. There was even a feral glint in her eyes. Just a bit, like a domesticated animal returning to the wild.
"Miki," Mazaki said, his voice heavy with regret, "I'm sorry. They had been watching me. I had no choice but to tell them where you were."
"You don't apologize to her," Kuroki interrupted with an upraised hand. "You've done the right thing."
"What do you want?" Miki glared at Kuroki.
"We're about ready to go into action," Kuroki glanced back at his army. "If your friend doesn't show himself soon we will be coming after him. It would be humane to give you a chance to vacate the operation area."
"Will I still be under arrest?"
"Of course."
"Then I'd rather be ground under the treads of your tanks than give you the satisfaction of escorting me back into custody."
Kuroki smiled. He nodded toward the massive rock pinnacle. "Is he in there?" Miki did not answer. "Do you love him?" he then asked.
Miki snorted in contempt, but Kuroki stood his ground. She became uneasy, suspecting he knew more about her than he should.
"Come now," Kuroki continued, "your social life is no secret, and I'm sure your psychic ability allows you to see an aspect of Godzilla we can't. It wouldn't be impossible for that aspect to become a substitute for a companion, eh?"
"Don't taunt her," Mazaki rebuked the Major.
Kuroki found a raw nerve and had pressed down on it for all it was worth. Miki's complexion turned red and her eyes became misty as her lean frame tensed in fury. Kuroki then extended his hand.
"Let's go," he said to her. "It's time to come back to the real world."
Miki looked to Mazaki for support. All he could do was stand by and look upon her with sympathy. He was as much a prisoner of circumstance as she. Miki turned back to Kuroki.
"Let me have my freedom one last night," she requested. "You have the island surrounded. There's no way I can escape."
"To say goodbye?" Kuroki agreed after a moment's thought. "After that you come when we fetch you. If you don't, what happens to you will be your responsibility."
Godzilla remained in the cave and whenever Baby started nosing out of the entrance he hissed at him to get back inside. Being more adapted to an omnivorous diet, Baby happily accepted Miki's offer of the last of her food stores. She would not be needing them and it helped keep Baby settled.
"It looks like I won't be going to China," Miki lamented, stoking a fresh campfire as the sun waned outside. "And you won't have a chance to find the fish-filled seas you wanted."
Godzilla grimaced at her in skepticism. Despite the power of the LaSalle laser he did not believe he could be beaten.
Miki smiled at his confidence, and then wiped away a tear. "I don't care if the rest of the world hates me. I will miss you." The firelight played across her features. She looked tired, as someone who was carrying more than her share of worry. "Even though we're so different you never made me feel different like people do. I never felt self-conscious around you."
Baby nudged her with his snout, wanting something more to eat. Godzilla bared his teeth at him to leave her alone. With his head ducked low, Baby returned to his corner of the cave. Godzilla looked back at Miki who sank into a quagmire of dread.
As agreed, Miki surrendered. Two soldiers took her to the mainland and escorted her to the tent where the Major had established his HQ.
Kuroki offered a chair. Before she could accept the soldiers forced her to sit. One of them rolled up her sleeve as a medic in combat fatigues came forward with a syringe. She struggled and swore at them to let her go. Mazaki tried to intercede, but Kuroki stiff-armed him back. The doctor then drove the needle into Miki's forearm. Her struggling ceased and her head rolled back as she slumped in the chair, sedated.
"Enough's enough!" Mazaki hollered at Kuroki. "I don't care what you think she's done. You don't treat her like a dog!"
"You do not tell me when enough is enough." Major Kuroki put his finger to Mazaki's face. Mazaki stumbled back to get some space between them, but the Major kept pace. "For five years I have lived with failure. I slept with it. I ate with it. It was with me every step I took. As far as I knew I would never get rid of it until, as if a gift had fallen from the heavens, you found on Lagos the means to exterminate Godzilla. I was this close," Kuroki held his finger an inch from his thumb, "in wiping the slate clean, and then she screwed it up! I'm not going to let that happen again."
Mazaki and Kuroki fell silent, but their eyes remained locked. The medic nervously looked from one to the other. "Uh, Sir," he said meekly to Kuroki, "the girl should be unconscious for an hour."
"Thank you," Kuroki acknowledged the medic.
Then Godzilla's footfalls thundered from the island in the bay. One of the radio operators relayed a message from the blockade. "Captain Akagi from the destroyer Shinitsu reports that Godzilla is heading in our direction. He asks permission to fire."
"Tell him no," Kuroki countered. "Let Godzilla come to us. I want all ships to keep watch for Tiamatodon. And scramble the fighters."
"Flight leader Sasaki," the forward air controller announced, "replies that his ETA will be twenty-five minutes."
"Tell him to make it fifteen," Kuroki returned.
Godzilla stepped into view from around the pinnacle. Despite the firepower at the army's disposal tensions were high. At a hundred meters tall his size was still more than enough to send a chill through their blood.
Godzilla sized up the opposition on the island's shore. Five maser tanks were in hull-down positions on a ridge to the right. To the left, three tanks waited atop a hill with two more dug in below. More tanks hunkered down in revetments fortified with freshly cut logs at the front of the clearing.
"Come on," Kuroki whispered between clenched teeth. "Close in like you always do." He double-checked Miki. She was still out, so Godzilla should not be receiving any telepathic help.
This time the behemoth did not follow a predictable course. From where he stood Godzilla brewed up, his dorsal plates flashing in lightning-blue light, and spewed his atomic ray across the base of the ridge, blasting the terra firma out from underneath the tanks. The entire platoon tumbled to the shore, their guns bent and ruined. Without let up, Godzilla swung his beam into the hillside blasting the heart out of the hill. The hilltop collapsed and the tanks at the top tumbled down upon the tanks below.
Kuroki cursed. His first company was out of commission.
The second company in the revetments opened fire. Godzilla shielded his torso with his hands, but the beams burned through his palms. His thick hide blistered and peeled. The LaSalle lasers raked Godzilla's flesh like electric talons, yet he did not bellow. It appeared he was sacrificing less vital areas of his body to buy time as he crossed from the island to the shore on the mainland.
He swiped his tail through the loosened remains of the ridge and the battered hill, burying Second Company in their revetments under tons of dirt, silencing their guns.
Kuroki ground his jaw in frustration. He spoke into the mike, "Third Company, standby," and waited until Godzilla got halfway up the clearing. "Open fire!"
The next ten tanks fired from their ambush positions among the trees. Godzilla ducked. As their beams criss-crossed over the top of him, he dug out the tanks of Second Company with his bloodied hands and threw them at Third Company, smashing them into junk.
"I've under estimated him," Kuroki confessed. "Only a seasoned veteran would've guessed someone would be waiting for him along the edges of the clearing." He committed Fourth Company, his last group of ten tanks, and ordered the artillery to open fire.
The guns barked like the dogs of war. Missiles rocketed over the battlefield. Joined by the LaSalle lasers, the projectiles for the first time penetrated Godzilla's flesh. They struck like rocks thrown into a pool, but instead of water, blood splashed. Godzilla wailed in agony.
Yet he fought on. Godzilla smashed the LaSalle laser cannons under foot, shoving the tanks nose-down into the dirt and hosed the artillery and rocket launchers with his atomic ray. When his beam passed overhead, the tents lit on fire and ammunition stockpiles detonated. Mazaki scooped Miki up from the chair and joined Kuroki's staff as they scrambled for cover.
Kuroki refused to give ground. His army cowed, he stood alone, one man against an enraged, hundred meter tall monster. A tense moment as Kuroki and Godzilla confronted each other like samurai, stoical and fearless.
Godzilla growled.
Kuroki whipped out his pistol and fired in defiance.
Godzilla snorted at the human's futile gesture and raised his foot to crush the major.
Then the fighters arrived.
Godzilla turned to face the new incoming threat, but the planes pounced quicker than he could determine the direction from which they were attacking. Sasaki and his squadron strafed Godzilla mercilessly with their LaSalle lasers. To protect his exposed vitals, he spun his untouched back toward them. The lasers peeled away skin and fat. Several of his dorsal plates were seared at the roots and twisted off his back.
Godzilla blasted them as they passed over head. Three planes blew up.
The formation regrouped for a second run, flying in a packed formation to deliver the killing blow.
Godzilla got ready.
Kuroki figured out what he was about to do and grabbed the FAC's radio headset.
"Flight Leader Sasaki," he cried, "break up your formation! Break it up!"
The command came too late. Godzilla stepped out of the line of fire and swung his beam across the squadron's path. It was like watching a radioactive bat swinging to hit twelve balls. He struck a homerun twelve times over. The planes burst into fire. Smoking debris rained upon the wreckage-strewn field.
Godzilla roared triumphant!
Kuroki raised the destroyer Shinitsu. "Captain Akagi, do you read me? Do you have line of sight to Godzilla? Wait!"
It appeared naval assistance might not be needed. Now that he was no longer threatened, Godzilla came down from his adrenaline high. Blood loss took its tool. He stumbled unsteadily, tried to pull himself up, and collapsed upon the ground.
Excitement lit Kuroki's face. But instead of letting out a whoop, he collected himself. "We got him, Captain," he reported in his usual cool demeanor. "I repeat: we got him." Tossing the headset aside, he leaned forward on the communications table, regarding his fallen foe. Five years… Finally, the slate was clean. All that was left to do was let decay and scavengers clean the mess.
Miki came to in the aid station tent. Mazaki welcomed her with a warm smile.
"Is it over?" she asked groggily.
Mazaki nodded, losing his smile.
"Is he…?" She couldn't bring herself to say "dead."
"He's in bad shape. I doubt he will last long. I'm sorry."
Miki snapped put of her drug-induced head fog, rushed out of the tent, and searched the smoking battlefield. She found Godzilla just as she saw him on Lagos years ago, lying on his side, mortally wounded. It was like coming full circle.
While the people around her labored to extract the crews from the smashed tanks, the dichotomy was not lost on her that she was the only one who was sad for Godzilla.
Why did you do it? She asked telepathically. You should've let them come after you. You could've destroyed the tanks piecemeal from the cave.
But Baby Godzilla could've been killed in the crossfire. The LaSalle laser would've reduced his small body to goo within minutes. Godzilla had no choice. To protect Baby, he had to confront Kuroki's forces head on.
Miki wiped her tears. She felt as though she were losing a soul mate.
Dr. Yamane arrived at the site in a black sedan. Yamane's daughter, Emiko, and son-in-law, Ogata, helped him out of the car. Nearly ninety, Yamane was thin and frail, yet his purposeful manner made him seem impervious to his age. Yamane was regarded as the premier authority on Godzilla back in the 50s and held his nation's respect to this day. Instead of blocking his path, the soldiers saluted.
Mazaki brought the special guests to the grieving psychic at Yamane's request. "Miki, I want you to meet a colleague of mine."
She was overcome by surprise.
"Dr. Yamane!" Miki bowed. She straightened her dusty clothes, trying to look presentable. "I read all your research on Godzilla, Doctor," Miki said. "Everything I know about dinosaurs I learned from you."
"If that's the case, child," Yamane said with a twinkle, "your knowledge is twenty years out of date. You know more about Godzilla than anyone. I would like you to come visit me and tell me everything you have learned about him."
"I would," Miki lowered her gaze. "But I have to stand before a hearing to determine if I helped Godzilla fight the army. If the court believes I did, I'll be convicted of treason. The public hates me and trusts Kuroki. So you know whose side the court will take."
"You will have the best representation," Yamane assured her. "I will see to it."
"Thank you," Miki bowed.
Yamane leaned on his cane, looking upon Godzilla gravely. "So this is how it ends."
"I remember years ago when we were on Odo Island," Emiko said, "and he peered down on us from over the hill. We ran and ran. I thought for certain we were going to be killed. I can still hear his roar ringing in my ears. If someone told me back then that someday I would see Godzilla like this, I would never have believed it!"
A gray overcast covered the sun. Miki sensed an unearthly chill in the air. Her brown eyes went wide when she realized that she was sensing the presence of the two-headed creature that had haunted her in her sleep.
The destroyer Shinitsu exploded. Miki's heart skipped a beat. The ship spilled over on its side, revealing a massive hole burned into the bottom of the hull. The water foamed and churned. Tiamatodon burst from the depths, bellowing like banshee. Its black scales glistened like polished opals. Quickly, Tiamatodon turned its heads in either direction, knocking out ship after ship in the blockade before a single LaSalle laser turret could swivel and return fire.
Major Kuroki was supervising the evacuation of the wounded when he saw his promise to protect Japan go up in smoke.
"How did that monster get in close to the ships without being detected?" his adjutant asked, breathless at seeing their blockade obliterated.
"It's quite simple, Lieutenant," Kuroki replied acidly. "Dinosaurs ruled the earth once before. Who are we to get in their way of ruling it again?"
Godzilla heard the blood lust in Tiamatodon's double roar. He summoned the reserves of his will to force is battered body to stand once more.
"No!" Miki cried. "Stay down! You're too weak to fight!"
Godzilla ignored her pleas and lumbered to the beach.
"Let him go," Kuroki ran up to her. "Godzilla is our last hope!"
"Whose fault is that?" Miki spat. "You squandered our soldiers to salvage your wounded ego and now that you pounded Godzilla within an inch of his life you want him to do your job?"
Kuroki slapped Miki.
She yelped from the sting.
Godzilla heard her cry, stopped in mid stride and spun around. He roared at Kuroki.
Everyone was stunned. Godzilla turned his back to the enemy because of a slap to a girl's face! Kuroki stepped away from Miki with his hands out to show he intended no harm.
The young psychic's heart leapt. She always wanted a sign that Godzilla cared for her just as she cared for him and she got it, but the sign couldn't have come at a worse time.
Tiamatodon took advantage of this little drama on the mainland and blasted Godzilla in the back with its twin atomic rays. Japan's last hope slammed into the beach, stunned.
"Good work, Major," Mazaki said. "You just distracted our only defense."
They ran for cover in the trenches.
No one stood in Tiamatodon's way now. The Siamese godzillasaur stormed across the island in the bay. When it was about to close the distance with Godzilla on the mainland, Baby leapt from the woods and sank his teeth into Tiamatodon's tail. He dug his heels into the soft soil, trying to pull the twin-head monster away from Godzilla.
Irritated, Tiamatodon pulled its tail away.
Baby stood no higher than Tiamatodon's knee. He was clearly no match, but like a loyal son, he bared his teeth and hissed in challenge.
Out of contempt, Tiamatodon grabbed Baby in its jaws, swung the youngster high in the air and slammed him down hard on the ground. Bones cracked. Baby went limp.
But once wasn't enough. Tiamatodon slammed Baby down again and stomped on the juvenile godzillasaurus. One of Baby's feet twitched before he became completely still.
Godzilla was next. Miki's pulse raced faster as the twin-headed beast came ashore on the mainland and rolled Godzilla onto his back. Saliva dripped from Tiamatodon's teeth.
Miki couldn't standby and watch. She climbed from the trenches. Her friends pleaded for her to come back as she ran down to the beach waving her arms. "Hey! Down here! Remember me? You want someone to fight, fight me!"
Oh, yes, Tiamatodon remembered her. The girl wanted to oppose it with psycho-kinesis. Tiamatodon was more than happy to accommodate her in a battle of wills. After all, humans believed their strongest asset was their minds. How fitting it would be to kill one of them on their own turf.
Miki shuttered. This monster understood the use of psychic power. She wasn't going to have as much of an edge as she thought she would. "You got yourself into this," she muttered to herself. "Follow through."
Tiamatodon grunted, signaling her it was ready to begin.
They shut their eyes, the towering giant and the slight girl, and concentrated.
The blackness of the psychic plane took on form and substance. Miki opened her eyes and found herself back in the bunker on Lagos Island. She touched the walls, the tables and chairs. They felt real, but they weren't. They couldn't be. Tiamatodon had created some sort of psychic illusion.
A body lay on the floor dressed in a lab coat. The photo on the nametag didn't match the face of the corpse. Not anymore. The skull had been stripped of flesh. Tooth marks scored the bone. The name on the tag was Leslie Cumbermin, Tiamatodon's first victim.
Miki covered her mouth in horror at the monster's lurid trophy and backed away, right into Tiamatodon.
The twin-headed monster stood no higher than an ordinary man and it had arms. It balled its fist and smacked her across the face with a backhanded swing. She crashed among the tables and stools.
The blow felt real, the knuckles hard and brutal.
Mazaki and the others feared for Miki's life. They witnessed the psychic standoff from the trenches. They saw her body jerk as if she were being struck by invisible fists. They could only wonder what was happening to her, while in the psychic plane Tiamatodon threw her around the room like a doll. It tipped a vending machine on top of her. She barely rolled out of the way before it hit on the floor.
Miki scrambled for the nearest exit and bolted down the corridor, telling herself, "Keep running! The pain isn't real! Keep running!"
Tiamatodon stepped into the hall with a chair in hand. It flung it at her, striking her in the back. She fell on the hard cement. The metallic chair clanged beside her.
Elbows, knees, ribs, every part of her body screamed. Tiamatodon was going beat her to death if she didn't turn the tables. Fast! The bunker was familiar to Tiamatodon. He felt safe here. She needed to imagine a place familiar to her.
Tiamatodon strode down the hall, flexing its fingers. The psychic duel was fun, but it was time to kill the girl.
When the beast reached her, Miki disappeared. The dank, cement corridor switched to the women's clothing section of a department store. Miki seemed to be everywhere. Tiamatodon didn't realize it was looking at mannequins. It took no chances and destroyed the life-sized dolls.
The real Miki came out of sporting goods with an aluminum baseball bat. Without a word she walked up behind Tiamatodon and delivered some payback for the thrashing she took in the Lagos bunker. She bashed Tiamtodon's two heads, knees, and arms. Tiamatodon staggered back and tumbled down the escalator.
Miki pursued. When she came down to the bottom of the steps the lights dimmed. The scene switched to the ocean floor. Water swirled around her ankles, quickly rising up to her head.
Still in its human size, Tiamatodon swam passed Miki, raking its dorsal plates across her stomach. She doubled over, gulping cold seawater. Her fingers sank queasily into the wound. She struggled to regain control of the scene. Tiamatodon swung around and raked her across the back. In desperation, she wished to be home.
The psychic plane morphed, depositing her on the steps leading up to her apartment.
She rushed up and slammed the door, locking it. In one blow, Tiamatodon bashed it open. Miki retreated into her kitchen, grabbing a knife. Tiamatodon slapped the weapon out of her hand and thrust the heel of his palm into her sternum. The blow knocked her into the living room. She landed on her back.
Tiamatodon pinned her to the floor and smothered her with a pillow. She struggled, trying to pry the talons loose. Her lungs felt ready to burst.
Then the psychic link broke. Miki's conscious returned to the real world. She collapsed upon the ground, coughing.
Godzilla had broken up the duel. He managed to get back on his feet and grab Tiamatodon from behind.
Tiamatodon whipped around firing both beams smacking a one-two punch across his face. The first blast sent him reeling. The second knocked him off his feet. Tiamatodon tossed its tail high in the air in glee.
"We must give Godzilla a chance," Kuroki declared to his troops. He ordered the reserve battery to split its twelve guns, six to Tiamatodon's right flank and six on the other. The tracked guns trundled into the uncut portions of the woods.
"On my mark," Kuroki relayed his orders through the forward observer's field radio, "Right flank, stand by. Left flank, fire at the monster's heads…now!"
Tiamatodon reeled around, bewildered by the sudden fusillade. The shells didn't inflict much injury, but they were loud and stung.
"Right flank, fire!"
Incensed, Tiamatodon turned toward the right.
"Left flank, stand down. Right flank fire." So it went, back and forth. The artillery assault bought Godzilla time to get back into the fight. Mazaki fetched Miki before the battling behemoths crushed her underfoot.
Godzilla chomped the Siamese monster's ankle. Howling, Tiamatodon hopped on one foot while trying to pull the other free. Godzilla released it, letting Tiamatodon crash to the ground.
The tussle shook Godzilla's stomach organs loose. They protruded through the wounds inflicted by the LaSalle lasers. Pain speared through him as Godzilla squeezed his entrails back into his body cavity. His crimson life juices drained through his clawed fingers. He didn't panic. He didn't even roar. Godzilla gritted his teeth like a hardened soldier when the chips were down.
Amused at Godzilla having to hold in his guts, Tiamatodon mocked him with a grunting chortle. You're as armless as I am!
Head down, Godzilla charged Tiamatodon and flipped the twin-headed beast over his shoulder. The whole conservancy seemed to hold its breath as 60,000 tons of flesh and bone was suspended into the air and then came plummeting down.
Godzilla fired into Tiamatodon's kicking body. Residual energy crackled and popped off of its scaly, obsidian-colored hide. While Tiamatodon rolled back onto its feet, Godzilla channeled his atomic energy to regenerate his cells.
Tiamatodon hissed in surprise to what Godzilla had done. It had no idea their species could do that.
Godzilla cocked his brow. Experience, kiddo.
Tiamatodon scowled. It did not appreciate being treated like an upstart. I am no fool, it hissed.
However, in his weakened state, Godzilla could only regenerate enough muscle tissue to hold in his organs. But his hands were free.
He grabbed a pair of empty tanks and threw one. Tiamatodon blasted it. Godzilla made a throwing motion with the other, faking Tiamatodon into firing again, which allowed Godzilla to calculate Tiamatodon's reaction time. He threw the second tank and while Tiamatodon blasted the hurled missile he charged.
Still swifter, Tiamatodon swung its whip-like tail.
Godzilla anticipated this move and grabbed the swinging appendage.
Tiamatodon squawked from being out-maneuvered. The head of Tiamatodon's female half sank her jaws into Godzilla's forearm. Godzilla tried to pull away. They engaged in tug-of-war with his arm as the rope. The loose flesh ripped from Godzilla's limb. He bellowed. Pain burned red hot from the open wound. Blood frothed.
Defiantly, Tiamatodon swallowed the loose meat.
Enraged, Godzilla collared the female's throat. That insult spiked his adrenaline. With a juicy crack, Godzilla snapped the vertebrae. The male half wailed in agony as the female head hung limp and lifeless.
Summoning the last of his radioactive reserves, Godzilla blasted Tiamatodon off its feet. The concussion on the ground shook Baby back to consciousness. Pushing himself up, Baby limped on a broken hip toward his abuser with a score to settle. When the dust settled around Tiamatodon, the first thing the male head saw was a small set of jaws opening wide. Baby sank his teeth into Tiamatodon's left eye and pulled the visual organ from its socket.
Tiamatodon howled.
Godzilla grunted at Baby to go ahead and eat his prize.
Tiamatodon, with its optical cavity oozing fluid and its one good eye crazed with panic, floundered on its belly, groveling to reach the water. Godzilla pulled it farther up on the shore by the tail. Tiamatodon flipped to its back, firing its heat ray.
Godzilla swung aside. The beam shot harmlessly into the sky. He smacked the male head to the right with his tail, and then smacked it senseless to the left. He then hammered its head under his heel, breaking the jaw. The broken mandible hung loose. A gory hiss gurgled from the male head's throat. The second blow from Godzilla's foot crushed the beast's cranium like a clay pot.
Tiamatodon died as it lived, in violence.
A struggle of this magnitude did not go unnoticed. The media arrived in force.
Kuroki refused to speak to the press as he withdrew to a temporary command tent. Mazaki inadvertently riled the reporters gathered outside when the guards permitted him to go in. The Major sealed a hand-written message in an envelope and handed it to a runner to be delivered to Tokyo.
"So," Mazaki said, "what are your plans for Ms. Saegusa now? You realize Godzilla showed more tactical aptitude today than he did when you accused Miki of helping him."
"I am aware of that," Kuroki replied, tucking his pen into the inside pocket of his leather army jacket. "The soldier you just passed is delivering a message to Tokyo. I'm withdrawing all charges against her."
Mazaki smiled contentiously. "You admit you were wrong."
"No." Kuroki folded his hands on the table. "It's just that I can't hold her accountable when I am just as guilty of jeopardizing our national security. You will give her the news she's free, won't you?"
"Why don't you do it?"
"Because, Professor, I think she would rather hear it from a friend."
Out on the beach, Godzilla inspected Baby's injury as the juvenile godzillasaurus tottered on his broken hip. Baby had enough strength to stand, he ought to be able to swim, albeit slowly. Godzilla intended to leave regardless of the discomfort the salty sea would cause his open wounds. He had had enough of this place.
The braver souls among the press managed to get around the cordon and headed down to the shore, but Miki was in no mood to speak to them any more than Kuroki. Dr. Yamane took the pressure off her when he consented to answer their questions.
In the midst of the gabble, Miki heard her name spoken. She didn't recognize the voice. "Who just called my name?" she asked.
No one owned up to speaking to her. Then Dr. Yamane touched her shoulder to draw her attention and pointed up in the air, toward the beach. Godzilla was looking down upon her. He spoke her name again, in thought.
For Godzilla to use her name proved he had been listening to her and more importantly he understood her. He was skilled in masking the depth of his soul. Now it was open to her. He did care for her as much as she cared for him.
Miki's own intentions became clear to her. It wasn't destiny she sought, but a return on her emotional investment in him. Miki felt whole.
The press, Dr. Yamane, everyone fell silent and watched Miki approach Godzilla. She spoke to him as one person to another. They could not hear what she said because of the distance. "I can't go" was all they could make out. Miki shook her head when she said those words.
Godzilla then summoned Baby with a grunt to follow him out to the bay. Some would say Godzilla acknowledged her with a nod. But all agreed that during Miki and Godzilla's time together on the island in the bay something special had happened.
THE END
Thanks for finishing the story! The thoughtful emails I've received from you readers has been tremendous! Keep 'em coming. I love feedback. Tiamatodon gets back into the action in my novel I Shall Not Mate, which is available on Amazon. His character has been modified for the novel. For copyright reasons, he is a mutant Megalosaurus.
JD Lees, editor of G-Fan, commented that Godzilla vs Tiamatodon took him by surprise because it read like a contemporary story, which was the idea. I'd love to see the film industry produce a character-driven Godzilla film and market it as such, just like do with all the other action movies. I think the primary reason Godzilla 1985 and G2K faired poorly at the box office is because the commercials focused on the "urban renewal" \ "there goes the neighborhood" wisecracks. Come see Godzilla! He destroys buildings. Woopty-do! Seen it. Done it. Been there.
Then Toho really dropped the ball with Miki Saegusa. Here's this wonderful character with a psychic connection with Godzilla. She should be the star. It's like duh! Here's your story, folks. Flesh it out. After seeing Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, I decided, OK, if they're not going to do anything with Miki, I will.
So I did. Godzilla vs Tiamatodon is the "chick flick" of my Godzilla fan fiction library. It's about a girl who moves in with this guy she likes. The guy is everything a woman wants. He's a tall, butt-kicking bad boy. Her quest is to find out if he loves her as much as she loves him. (The answer is yes. This bad boy has a soft side he hides very well.)
In Spacegodzilla, Toho tried to flesh out Miki, but I think I picked a better boyfriend for her than they did. I'm surprised they didn't think of it. After all, Godzilla is their character!
I wrote Godzilla vs Tiamatodon in the summer of '95. Shelved it. Then dusted it off for a rewrite in 2005. JD Lees posted it to the G-Fan website a year later. I touched it up again and posted it here. I still wish I had connections in the film industry back in the 90s. I'd love to have seen the public's reaction if this story became the 1998 American Godzilla movie with Megumi Odaka, Kenji Sahara, and the other actors from the Heisei series instead of the stale bread Tristar produced for us.
I'd focus the film trailer on Miki, what makes her special, and hint at what's in store for her because of her connection with Godzilla. I'd like to think people would say, "Holy crap! This about a person. This Godzilla flick actually has a story! We never saw that before! " Sadly, I'll never know.
Thanks again for reading my work!