Don't Fear the Reaper
All three glared at Alan in utter astonishment. Zapper's expression then changed from shock to anger as quickly as a changing traffic light.
"You're mental," he spat.
"Just look at these!" Alan said, standing up and holding out the paper readings and tracing them with his finger. "Look at where the brain activity spikes! It's the same as the times of the Reaper murders, and more besides! Look..." He pointed at several spiked readings in turn, reading out what happened at those specific times.
"Stephanie Jordan's murder... Sparks' murder... the attack on Covington Watford... and look at these smaller ones..." he continued, pointing at smaller but no less significant spikes, "Those were the times you received the messages from the Reaper! It all fits!"
"Bullshit!" Zapper shouted. "I call it coincidence!"
"Check the system, Gabriel!" Alan ordered the nurse. "I think there are cracks in its security!"
"You mean," Gabriel stammered, "the Reaper's getting to her from outside the system?!"
"Or Catherine's getting out," Alan stated. Both Gabriel and Zapper looked at him, appalled. Zapper in-particular looked murderous.
"No..." Gabriel replied, shaking his head. "Not in her condition! That's not possible!"
"You have a very limited sense of what's possible," Alan rebuked. He had lived too long and seen some very strange things in his time to believe that what was happening was impossible. Somehow Catherine was getting out of the system. She was the Reaper.
"I always thought you were insane..." Zapper snarled. "This time I'm certain of it!"
As he spoke, a loud siren suddenly sounded, and the lights in the ward flashed on and off constantly. Panicked, Gabriel rushed to the ICU and took the readings from the monitors.
"The readings have gone haywire!" he shouted. "Catherine's EEG readings are going off the chart!"
Alan spun all around, as the lights continued to flash erratically like an insane disco. All of a sudden a high-pitched shrieking noise sounded all over the MediCog's announcement system, a metallic noise that caused the hairs on Alan's neck to stand on end. Finally, when he wasn't sure how much of this he could take, the lights suddenly went out.
All except one. For in the prep room the image of the Reaper was still on, only now it was moving. Alan, Zapper and Miki crowded around it, as Gabriel went for the phone.
"It's no good!" he said. "The lines are all dead! I can't reach Burton or anyone else!"
"She's got to be making her move..." Alan frowned, gazing back over towards Catherine's ICU, ignoring the incredulous look Zapper was giving him. On the screen, the Reaper's image swung the dangerous scythe blades, and then the beak began to move as the Reaper's metallic voice filled the entire MediCog.
"I am making my move, changeling! Don't be so surprised about this. You're in a room full of computers, and only three victims remain. As for you, changeling... I hadn't planned on killing you or Cale, but you are going to find out what it's really like to be on the inside. I want you to return to where it began... the library... the Kaiju-ology book. Remove it from the shelf and dig in. Come alone, or I kill again. The stage is set... The roles are cast... The next game of Kaiju Karnage is about to begin!"
Afterwards, the Reaper's image faded, replaced with what looked like a swirling green portal made from computer code. Everyone froze upon hearing the message. Zapper headed back into the ICU chamber and retrieved the VR unit, connecting it to the Reaper's monitor. He looked as white as a sheet.
"No..." he breathed. "Not Catherine..." He turned his ghostly gaze to Alan. "What does she want with you?"
"I..." Alan stammered. "I don't know..." Then he remembered that he was the one who Hamilton Watford had given the Reaper-killing weapon to. This was his chance...
"I've got to find out," he replied.
"No!" Miki exclaimed. "It's suicide! You're no match for a master hacker like that!"
"If it's me she wants," Alan stated, "she'll get me." With that, he grabbed the VR goggles out of Zapper's hands, his determined expression hiding the fact that he was frightened beyond belief. He had no idea what was waiting for him in the Matrix. He turned to Zapper, trying to keep his breathing steady.
"Take care of Miki," he said, before slipping the goggles over his eyes and feeling the tentacles insert themselves once again. Within minutes he was at the library node, and had removed the right book from the shelf. As he watched, it suddenly grew until it stretched across the whole floor, and then there was a sudden blinding flash of light. Suddenly skyscrapers burst out of the ground, some of them hopelessly ruined, as a stormy sky formed above him.
Within seconds, he found himself standing in the ruins of Tokyo in 1984, exactly as he remembered. He also noticed that the silvery avatar form he had was gone, replaced by his real self. He noticed he was almost as tall as even the tallest building. Of course, that would make sense; this was a game about giant monsters, after all. He then thought back to the method of how exactly he came to this place, and a sudden idea hit him.
"A trap..." he muttered.
"Well done, changeling," a harsh female voice that he recognised spoke up. "It took Stein, Estevez and Mendell a lot longer to realise that. You have no idea how hard it was keeping this secret from the library staff or anyone else who came looking."
Peering around, Alan found the source of the voice. Standing before him was the form of Catherine Powell, now dressed in a long silver dress, her blonde hair flowing with the breeze that was blowing through the ruins. She looked around the ruins of Tokyo, with a smile on her face.
"Hamilton Watford really was a genius, wasn't he?" she said. "My little realm is perfect down to the last detail. Cale never knew that I too was fascinated by the titans that laid waste to civilisation only last century."
"So this is your little playground..." Alan snarled. "You turned that book into a prison somehow; once opened, it snares the person here. That was before you perfected your little code."
"How long did it take you to figure out that I was the Reaper?" Catherine asked politely.
"I didn't know for certain until I saw those brain scans," Alan replied, his eyes narrowed. "When Cale mentioned that your mother was Josie Dorset, I had a theory about you, though I couldn't confirm it until now. Revenge is as good a motive for murder as any."
At this, Catherine's face turned foul. She no longer looked like the reasonably attractive young woman Alan had seen before. Now her face looked more like a skull.
"If you had lost your mother the same way I did," she spat, "you would understand. Those wretches that called themselves the WebRunners covered up the whole incident! They didn't even attempt to make amends for what they had done! I got the whole story from that worthless orc Mendell before he died. He found a glitch in the code for Kaiju Karnage, but he mistook it for a gameplay feature that had been overlooked. He implemented it into his Godzilla character, and when my mother was hit by his weapon, the glitch killed her!
"I loved my mother so much... My life was destroyed the minute she was taken away from me. I swore that I would see that her killers paid for their crimes, once I became the greatest hacker in the Matrix! I couldn't believe my luck when I found out that one of my mother's killers, Tanya Burton, was researching the very code that had killed my mother! I stole it, along with Joey Falconetti's plans, and with them I perfected the code and created a new form for myself, one that the whole world will come to fear as the embodiment of Death!"
"You're mad..." Alan muttered. "I hate to think what you went through to send you over the edge, but do you really think you're going to achieve anything by killing all those people?!"
"If nothing else," Catherine retorted, "it'll make me very happy. I've gained a taste for the power the Reaper has given me, and I will not relinquish it for anything... not even nosey creatures like yourself.
"When dear Cale began to stumble upon my research, I knew I had to put myself out of the picture lest he find out what I was up to. I erased my own mind to keep my secrets safe, and once I was in that coma I could place myself in the Matrix entirely."
"I bet Tanya Burton saw right through you," Alan spat. "She must have discovered that code you used in a scan, and tried to keep you from waking up."
"She did seem determined to keep an annoyingly close eye on me," Catherine scoffed. "That flesh-and-blood life doesn't matter to me now anyway. The minute the code struck, Catherine Powell died... and I was reborn as the Reaper.
"Their networks are a lot less secure than they think at the MediCog, so I was able to slip out and go through with my plans with ease. Unfortunately Cale, darling that he is, persisted in restoring my memory, and sadly he and anyone else who was helping him must be punished."
"Well, you're not getting me so easily," Alan taunted. "The dwarf you killed was onto you. The code he developed will keep everyone safe from you!"
"Don't think you're safe just because you have that anti-virus code in your head," Catherine sneered. "It's still possible for me to kill you in the Matrix; I just need to get up-close to do it. Still," she grinned nastily, "killing a Godzilla with a little code wouldn't be anywhere near as satisfying."
Alan's eyes widened when he realised what Catherine was saying. Her expression grew annoyingly smug when she saw this.
"That's right," she said. "I know all about you, Alan Endeavour Tyler. Born in 1966 in Whitby, England, experimented on in the year 2000 with the cells of the creature that caused the damage you see here... and destined to become the new Godzilla when the mutations are complete."
"How..." Alan stammered. She even knew the unorthodox middle name his parents had given him. "How did you know?"
"Oh, you won't believe the trouble I went through to find out about you," Catherine said smugly. "When I first slipped into my coma, I tested just how deep in the Matrix I could go. I found that I was able to go wherever I wanted; no ice could stand in my way. I even outwitted the greatest hacker of them all to learn about you. When I found out what you were, I have to admit I was excited. I knew that I had to meet you for this grand occasion." She peered over Alan's shoulder. "Look behind you."
As Alan turned around, an astonishing sight met him. For there amidst the rubble was what looked like a gigantic spider web made out of miles and miles of cable. Tied to this net were three monsters, all roaring and shrieking as they struggled to free themselves from their trappings. One resembled a reptile, with large membranes that stretched all the way from the arms down to the legs with a row of spikes along its back. Another was a small pudgy creature with purple scales, a large horn and flapping bat-like ears. The final creature resembled a lion covered in armour plating with flapping ears and large, red eyes. All three looked like they were being crucified.
"Meet Varan, Baragon and King Caesar," Catherine said. "You better know them as Dr. Tanya Burton, Joey Falconetti and Detective Vincent Rigden. They figured out where I was the same way you did; they realised the last place their friends had been was the library. They thought they could catch each other in the act, but what they didn't expect was to find me waiting for them.
"I was about to dispose of them, but by watching you through the MediCog's cameras, I realised you were onto me. So I decided to keep them alive for the time being, so that I could make an example out of you." She gazed at Alan with a hungry look in her eyes. "Once they realise that not even Godzilla himself can defeat me, they will be begging me for death. I will give you a chance, of course; I am not entirely unsporting. Show your true self to me, Godzilla, then we will see who is the master of the monsters!"
By now, Alan's irritation with Catherine and her madness had reached fever pitch. It was clear to him that she was completely beyond the pale. Still, he made one last attempt to appeal to her humanity.
"Don't do this, Catherine," he said, in a grave tone of voice and looking at her with a steely gaze.
"Oh, please," Catherine retorted. "There is nothing more tiresome than last-minute appeals."
Alan resigned himself to the inevitable fight, and that he would have to fight her as a Godzilla or she would very likely cease giving him chances. He concentrated hard, and thought about Godzilla and the feelings the titan had given him, the rage that he had felt on occasions where his mind had succumbed to the beast that slept within him. Then a rational part in his mind spoke up; as powerful as Godzilla was, this Gigan creature, the Reaper, could easily slash him to pieces. So he focused on a form that was less vulnerable to a blade. Instantly he felt like his insides were writhing like live snakes and he doubled over as he felt his whole form twisting and warping. Whatever it was that Catherine had done to this place, he doubted avatar creation was meant to be this painful.
After several seconds, the writhing, wriggling sensation stopped, and he looked down at himself. His arms were now covered in what looked like steel, ending in four-fingered claws that he flexed. He noticed his entire body had become much bulkier than before, covered completely in steel, his feet now huge and with four 'toes'. On his waist, he saw something that looked like a giant camera lens. Reaching to touch his face, he felt a snout has grown out of his face, and he was now aware that he was seeing various bars, lines of code and what looked like a miniature crosshairs in front of his eyes. These crosshairs locked themselves onto Catherine, who was regarding him with disappointment, as if Christmas had been cancelled.
"Hmm..." she sighed. "A Mechagodzilla, and not even one as sleek and perfected as President Knight. No matter..." she said as she crossed her arms. Instantly her form melted, twisting and growing more grotesque, and within seconds the Reaper, the Gigan creature that Alan had seen from Falconetti's notes, was stood before him.
"I did not expect you to make it easy," the Reaper's metallic voice gloated as his ruby eye flashed. "Now let the mayhem begin!"
With a deafening metallic shriek, the Reaper instantly jumped at Alan, somersaulting forward in mid-air. As he fell, he sliced downwards with the blades, and Alan was barely able to jump back and avoid being cleaved. There was a metallic scraping noise as the blade scratched the metallic surface of Alan's chest, and he felt a sudden pain across his chest as if he had actually been cut.
Out of shock, he staggered and fell backwards into a building that was still standing. As he hit the ground, he felt as if he was being punched all over his body as the building collapsed on top of him; pieces of mortar and metal crashed down on top of him. As the dust cleared, he saw the Reaper standing over him, scythes raised, and was barely able to roll out of the way as the deadly blades came down where his head would have been. Alan now found that it was more difficult for him to move. The HUD this robotic guise had given him was going haywire.
"Stop thinking like a human, Godzilla!" the Reaper roared. "Don't disappoint me now!"
Alan staggered to his feet. On the HUD a holographic projection showing himself had suddenly appeared. He saw that he did indeed look like a robotic Godzilla, complete with a tail and small squares for dorsal spines. He saw that the display was highlighting various parts of his body; on the back, he saw a spot labelled 'jet boosters'.
As he saw the Reaper charge towards him at blinding speed, he realised that he had to get his mind into the game if he was going to survive this. Thinking hard, he willed the jet boosters into working, and all of a sudden he found himself blasting off to the left, dodging the Reaper's swipe. He was so shocked that he almost forgot to stop, so he quickly switched off the boosters and skidded to a halt beside another skyscraper. He only wished he had been able to practice before being thrown into a life-or-death struggle with a homicidal maniac.
He looked back down the road he had just jetted down. He had been scraping his feet along the ground, as he saw large trenches cut into the road along his path. The Reaper was some distance away, but even now was charging towards him again, the ruby eye flashing dangerously.
As he watched, the crosshairs on his HUD flashed red as they fixed themselves onto the Reaper, and he noticed that the status display was pointing to 'stinger missiles' on his back. Concentrating hard, Alan willed the missiles into firing. As they did, he felt a prickling sensation all down his back as several small hatches opened and the missiles suddenly launched out of them. As he watched, the missiles flew from behind him and headed straight towards the Reaper, exploding in mid-air as they neared their target. Though the Reaper sprung back to avoid the explosions, they did not stop him, and within seconds he was upon Alan, swinging the scythes in front of him.
Instinctively, Alan raised his arms to block the Reaper's swipes, and as the blades collided with the metallic forearms a loud clanging noise was heard and pain shot up Alan's arm. Lunging forward, he was able to grab the Reaper's shoulders and gain a tight hold, while the Reaper swung the scythes down and latched onto Alan's own shoulders. Alan felt like every fibre of his being was on fire, but he didn't dare let go.
Locked in a deadly embrace, the two monsters moved like in a bizarre sumo match, each trying to throw the other away. Though he was feeling dizzy from the sensations of being inside the Matrix, Alan stood firm, willing himself to become an immovable object. As he watched, the blades on the Reaper's chest started moving rapidly, and a loud whirring sound could be heard. If Alan's robotic eyes could have widened they would have, when he realised that there was indeed a buzz-saw inside the Reaper.
Suddenly the monster lunged forward, and Alan felt pain across his chest as the sharp teeth of the buzz-saw made contact, scraping away some of the metal on his chest. Caught by surprise, Alan cried out in pain; his cry came out sounding like a metallic copy of Godzilla's own roar. As he felt the saw dig further in, he knew he could not take much of this. He searched his databanks for anything that might help. The diagnostic, which was now blinking red in several areas, pointed him to the camera-like lens on his waist, which the readout told him was a 'Buster Cannon'.
Thinking fast, Alan willed the cannon into firing. He was shocked when a sudden burst of lightning shot out of his waist, concentrated into a large, short-ranged ray which struck the Reaper square in the chest. Shrieking with pain, he was sent flying backwards, and crashed onto the ground.
That's better! Alan thought to himself. I'm getting the hang of being a MechaGodzilla!
Alan knew the Reaper wasn't actually dead, but he wanted to be sure he could not get back up again while he used the weapon. With loud footfalls he marched over to the Reaper and stood over him. He then proceeded to punch the Reaper hard in the face several times. Every ounce of frustration that he had felt during this whole mess was suddenly pouring out of him, and he found that he couldn't stop himself. He wanted to make the Reaper suffer for what he had done.
In this blind anger, he didn't react in time when the Reaper's red eye suddenly flashed, and a laser shot out of it, throwing Alan off and sending him staggering backwards. As Alan shook himself, he saw the Reaper spring off the ground and land immediately back on his feet. He knew there was no way of him hitting the monster with the weapon now, for he would dodge it easily.
Powering up the boosters, Alan shot forward like a surface-to-air missile, intending to ram the Reaper. As he reached the monster, however, he suddenly vanished in a flash of green light, and Alan had to stop to avoid going straight through another building. He could not see anything on his radar; it was as if the Reaper had completely disintegrated.
Cheating bitch, he thought. He should have guessed that the Reaper wasn't going to make this a fair fight. He backed away from the building and into a clearer part of the city, every footfall causing the ground to shake, keeping a close watch on the radar for any signs of movement.
All of a sudden, a red mark appeared on his radar... coming from right behind him! Spinning around, Alan didn't raise his arm in time when the Reaper's scythe slashed across his chest, scratching deeply. For one moment, Alan thought he saw sparks and circuitry come flying out of the 'wound'. The Reaper continued its vicious assault, slicing at every part of Alan it could reach. Finally, with a particularly strong swipe, the Reaper cut a large hole in Alan's chest-plate. Sent reeling, Alan saw his vision begin to be filled with static as he collapsed to the ground.
He could hear a tinny siren sounding in his head, and the status monitor was flashing red. As he tried to turn himself around and look up towards the sky – moving had suddenly become difficult – he saw the Reaper standing over him.
"This ends now," he said, the beak twisting into a malevolent grin. "The Matrix is mine!" He raised both of his scythe-arms over his head, preparing to cleave Alan in two like a butcher.
Alan knew he had to get this right... It was now or never. Concentrating hard, he willed the weapon into being, and saw the glowing shuriken form itself in his right hand. As the Reaper released a high-pitched shriek for a battle cry, and swung his arms downwards, Alan launched his arm forward and threw the blade straight at the Reaper's chest.
The blade found its target, burying itself in the Reaper's chest and cutting a huge hole in it. Blood and circuitry flew out of the wound, and the Reaper released a loud shriek of agony. The light snaked all over the Reaper's body like electrical sparks, the monster apparently frozen in place. Then it suddenly shook, as if it was having some kind of seizure, and the metallic shriek took on a horrible quality, like a cross between the Reaper's voice and Catherine's. Then, finally, the Reaper exploded in a brilliant white light, and Alan had to shield his eyes.
At last, it was over. The Reaper, Catherine Powell, was dead. As Alan staggered to his feet, he remembered that the Reaper's death would also destroy Tokyo 1984, and already he could feel a sudden earthquake rip through the area and fires appeared in the distance. This he assumed was the realm's interpretation of data being deleted. He turned to look at the trio of monsters, the beings he had suspected as being the Reaper for such a long time. They were still tied to the web of wires. Alan's first instinct was to let them die; all three had committed terrible crimes in the past, and he couldn't help but agree with the Reaper that they deserved to be punished.
However, he knew in his heart that this wasn't the answer. He couldn't let himself sink to that monster's level. So, as the earthquakes worsened and parts of the area suddenly deleted themselves in a flash of green light, he ran forward and cut away the wires, freeing the three monsters. Each vanished as Alan freed them, presumably because they had logged out. Now the earthquakes threatened to throw Alan off his feet, and there wasn't much room left in the server.
As the fires threatened to engulf him, Alan concentrated hard and logged out of the server just as it was destroyed. The final evidence of the Reaper's terrible legacy was gone, and the nightmare was over.