Chapter Nine
"Mr. Miyamoto, where's auntie?"
On a step ladder, the old man looked down from the shelf he was stacking. He stopped what he was doing and asked, "What was that, Kenichi?"
The college student asked again. "I said if you knew where auntie is."
"Of course. She is in the reading room, writing a letter to the Martins."
The boy nodded and said, "Thank you, sir. I think you might want to come with me."
Though confused, Shigaru merely nodded and got off the step ladder, following his mistress's nephew away from the kitchen. He followed the boy towards a large doorway in the hall and opened it. There they saw Emiko Yamani writing a set of letters on a large table amidst her father's old dinosaur models. Kenichi said, "Auntie, I'm sorry to barge in but there's something on TV you've got to see!"
The elderly woman looked around and asked, "What's going on?"
"Yukari just called in and told me that there was something on the news, it's about King Ghidorah and Gojira in New York City. She said it can be seen on United World Television News."
She sighed. "Them. Ironic, Gojira's being there was why I sent for you to come back here from America. All right, let us see what your sister's friends have to say." At that she got up, reached for the television set on a nearby table, and turned it on. What she saw stunned her and those with her.
"—ust tuning in, I'm Connie Matsu for United World Television News reporting on the situation here at the remains of Jersey City, New Jersey." She herself was forced to speak loudly as thunder and ungodly gale force winds kept drowning her out but the person translating her words into Japanese kept an even tone. "Mind you, there is nothing wrong with your television sets, because in addition to black lightning, it seems that red rain is falling from the sky. Behind me the Hudson River is stained scarlet and behind it Manhattan where King Ghidorah seems to be waiting." In the dark beneath a sky whose impossibly thick storm clouds left the area as black as night, the woman drenched in sickly crimson stopped and turned around, pointing to the island in the distance.
"Its dark now but if you look closely, you can see black lightning bolts illuminate King Ghidorah's outline as he's 'perched' atop the Empire State Building. He looks to have one foot on the Observation Deck and the other atop the Tower while his body is wrapped around the antenna. The last monster to make a stand there was King Kong himself and that was almost seventy years ago; now the monster atop it dwarfs the building little more than half its height.
"As you probably know, King Ghidorah came to New York City, as one witness said, 'like a million tons of gold bricks fell from Mars to Earth.' After destroying the five boroughs and the surrounding New York metropolitan area, it settled here as if waiting for something. Many people are certain that he's waiting for Godzilla to come so that the two of them can fight a final, decisive battle. Not only that, but a military buildup in the Arctic seemed to confirm that G-Force's plan was to let them fight in hopes that King Ghidorah be destroyed once and for all. Though the US Government and the United Nations' Security Council have both denied any such actions, the majority of the American and global public are certain that this is the case."
The camera shifted back to Miss Matsu from King Ghidorah and she looked back with a grim look on her face. After a silence, in which all there was to here was the sick pitter patter of red rain on a blood drenched poncho, Connie Matsu spoke up. "If Godzilla does battle King Ghidorah here of all places, we've every reason to expect that a battle to the death between the two monsters will burn Manhattan and the remains of New York to the ground. In Boston, where the US capital has been relocated yet again, protestors have actually been marching in front of White House III for NYC's sacrifice on grounds that its better to lose one city than the world."
"The world indeed because, frighteningly enough, analysts predict that unless King Ghidorah is defeated within a nearby timeframe, that it won't matter if he's ultimately destroyed or driven off planet. That's because by then the global infrastructure will be so weakened that all world governments will collapse. It has already been seen in Third World nations and is feared such a thing could happen in developed nations such as the United States. In fact, some people even fear that not only is there risk of government collapse and the fall of civilization but the end of all life on Earth within six days."
At that Connie Matsu stopped and let those words sink into her stunned audience; looking on her darkened, blood rain wet face, they saw she was serious. "That is correct, for those that failed to hear me or feel they misunderstood, we potentially face the end of all life on Earth within six days. Ever since King Ghidorah emerged from his meteor prison a year ago, mass hysteria has gripped whole countries, leaving some people to say that it's the end of the world. For those of you who did not hear Secretary General Santos' grim announcement yesterday, it literally is the end of the world.
"Something we've noticed for months now, is that whatever place King Ghidorah destroys is later unable to support life, some have gone on to name this the 'Taint;' we've even seen that living things sicken and die agonizing deaths when in his presence for a long enough time. Seemingly unconnected, scientists have increasingly theorized that the idea of Ley Lines, streamers of energy crisscrossing the Earth in lines supplying energy or 'mana' as if they were blood vessels, may in fact be true. For decades now, psychics and occultists have claimed that it was true, even those in Tokyo's prestigious Psionics Research Center have taken it under consideration. However, if it is, then the two combined is potentially disastrous.
"As Secretary General has told us, it is theorized that King Ghidorah plans to use his 'Taint' in an effort to corrupt Earth's mana here in New York. With Manhattan as the focal point, the Taint and the corrupted mana will flow through the Ley Lines across the globe and thus killing all living things and turning Earth into a charnel house.
"However, for all the black lightning and blood rain here, this isn't limited to the New York metropolitan area." The image on the television screen shifted from that of Connie Matsu, to scenes of destruction that illustrated her narration. "In the middle east, long dormant fault lines have re awoken, causing earthquakes that have killed thousands. In the Philippines, Mt. Pinatubo has began spewing ash and fire, destroying all surrounding areas and turning them into cities of death. All across the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, hurricanes three times more powerful than any on record have been pounding coastlines incessantly and swamping whole cities. Ever since King Ghidorah arrived on Earth, we have experience strange weather patterns and geological upheavals but now it's many times worse.
"With all that's happening, if what is to come is the final showdown between Godzilla and King Ghidorah, most people say so be it. When the Monster Wars first began, people looked on Godzilla and Ghidorah as being equally terrible and that both would have to be destroyed before they both destroyed the world. However, as the three headed monster has razed the Earth, the human race found itself united with Godzilla against a common foe and people have increasingly looked to what they once thought their greatest enemy as their greatest hero, this reporter included."
Allowing herself a smile and one single tear, she looked straight at the camera and at her viewers. "It's true. Near the start of the Monster Wars, I was there decrying Godzilla as being just as bad as King Ghidorah and that he should be destroyed alongside the space demon. But I was wrong, I was so wrong and now I see that the King of the Monsters is the one thing left that can save us. In this reporter's opinion, if we are to survive, then we have no choice but to ally ourselves with Godzilla if only this one time. If we are true to him he will be our savior so wherever you are, believe in Godzilla so that he may believe in us.
"This is Connie Matsu signing off."
Connie Matsu was a good reporter, she would have to be uncover her news report, but even she could not know just what it was that was going on beneath her feet, underneath Manhattan. Deep below street level, below subways and sewers systems, beneath the UN Building, was an enormous subterranean base, the next generation in strategic command centers. Secretly built as a place where the captains of mankind's destiny could make their last stand, it had been built with the notion of world disaster in mind and was thus the last place left where the best laid plans of mice and men could be hatched. Yes, so it was that in a darkened, silent, cavernous war room reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove, the captains of mankind's destiny were gathered around a large round table with a mammoth screen directly behind where their admiral sat.
Shrouded in shadows, Secretary General Santos was turned away from them, looking at the screen and concentrating on Matsu's report. After it ended and the image returned to generic images of King Ghidorah on the Empire State Building, of where in the Atlantic Godzilla was, and of standard charts and graphs, he sighed and whispered to himself, "Six days to destroy the earth… the same number that it took to create it."
On saying that, he turned around in his chair to face his advisors. With a thoughtful look on his face he looked to each and every one of them.
"All right team, here we have the situation. First things first, New York is in imminent danger and we're running out of options. Mr. Mayor, this city is your responsibility; while I hope it doesn't come to it, the city will face terrible casualties should worse come to worst. I don't want any deaths on your conscience; after all, every life is precious and a leader's first priority is the safety of his people. Besides, NYC is a military theater and we can't afford anyone getting in our fighting men and women's way, for their safety as well as for military efficiency of course.
"Has the city been completely evacuated?"
The Mayor of New York cleared his throat before speaking. "Well Mr. Secretary General, in the time following King Ghidorah's arrival in the city, evacuating the civilian population has been my number one concern. Although his destroying various bridges and tunnels made it incredibly difficult, we've evacuated most everyone in Manhattan and the surrounding areas."
Santos raised an eyebrow. "Most everyone? Most but not all?"
The Mayor nervously adjusted his tie before responding to that. "No, sir. Though emptied, there are still a few scattered civilians in Manhattan and the New York area. Its one of the ten largest cities in the world; you can't expect that evacuating a city this huge is going to be easy. It's not just a question of where are all those people going to go, there are still holdouts in the five boroughs too stubborn to move out, you oughtta see the folks hiding in the subway tunnels like they was bomb shelters. Not to mention how the big companies don't want to leave and want their city back. I mean, New York holds the purse strings of the western world; the destruction of New York means who knows what for the economy."
The Secretary General raised an eyebrow and thought, The economy?
"Besides," continued the Mayor, "there's still New Jersey; my authority ends at city limits but King Ghidorah's desire to destroy doesn't."
Santos briefly nodded. "I see. I want you to know that I sympathize with your plight Mr. Mayor and that I pray you manage to get as many of your people to safety as you can. However, while I do hope you succeed and I will help you in what ways I can, the well being of this city is your responsibility, the well being of this planet is mine which brings us to the next point."
Smiling, he calmly looked at them all for a moment and said, "All right men this is it. I don't mean to sound angry or disturbed but tell me…" With a wild look in his eyes, Santos slammed his fist to the table with each exclamation. "WHAT!" Slam. "THE!" Slam. "HELL!" Slam. "ARE WE GOING TO DO BEFORE WE ALL DIE!"
At that the dozens of UN and national representatives; Santos the younger, Director Goodhue, Professor Hayashida, Aso and his underlings from Raschen to Ahmed, Generals Spielburg and Rhodes, Princess Salno, the Mu Emperor, the Elias; all winced. Under a harsh circle of light that illuminated them but left the rest of the room in darkness, they timidly shrank and shuffled the paperwork before them. Normally friendly and personable, the Secretary General was on the verge of cursing in every one of the fifteen languages he spoke and shouted, "WELL!"
With an angry look on his face, Miguel Santos got up from his seat, began pacing around the round table, and glowering at the people assembled. He knew full well what was at stake, he still remembered how he felt that day when he looked out of his brownstone on Sutton Place and looked east to see the demon on the ape's building, and he wasn't going to back down. "Ladies and gentlemen, you are best and brightest the human race has to offer." He gestured with her hand towards the Elias and Salno's Watchika Prime Minister. "Human race and beyond in fact…" He kept walking, his hands behind his back as he looked at everyone. "Some of us on the team aren't even the same species but we're all one big happy family right now because quite simply none of wants to get killed.
"However, as we all know, the Elias have told us and our best scientists have confirmed this that King Ghidorah is going to use a 'World Extinction Attack' to kill us all in one fell swoop. The monster's right above us so gentlemen that means that if he uses his World Extinction Attack, we'll be the first to go. Any ideas on how to keep that from happening? Any at all?"
On seeing their master calmed ever so slightly, there was some movement again; it was with then that Director Goodhue slowly raised his hand. By then the king of the world had made his way back to his seat and stood there before the table and acknowledged the speaker. "Yes Director, do you have anything to add to this conversation?"
The old man cleared his throat and found his voice. "Well, sir, as you know I am the Director of Operations for the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center and I have consulted with my staff off on this… problem. The plan was to have Godzilla and King Ghidorah fight it out between themselves and then for your son, I mean Lieutenant Santos to move in and finish off King Ghidorah with MOGUERA. However, the plan failed. …MOGUERA was terribly damaged and now the monster is here."
The Secretary General shook his head and sighed. "MOGUERA was made to be the best and brightest robot we had and we lose it when we need it the most…" He looked at his son, Tomas. "They say it was damaged, how badly?"
The young man shook his head. "Very badly, sir. I was there when King Ghidorah attacked and we were almost completely destroyed, perhaps beyond repair. Land MOGUERA and Star Falcon might be repaired individually if we focus on one instead of the other but the main robot itself… there's no way its going to be ready in time for the coming battle."
Secretary General Santos rubbed the bridge of his nose as he heard this. "I see. Hayashida, you're our resident genius on all things kaiju. Do we have anything powerful enough to destroy King Ghidorah before he destroys us, whatever the price may be?"
"No sir. We all have to face facts and accept that there is absolutely nothing on Earth capable of destroying or even injuring the three-headed monster. As the Mu Emperor reminded us, we have seen the effects of a nuclear explosion on King Ghidorah when he exploded Super Apophis over eight months ago. As suspected, it only made him stronger. As for the Dimension Tide, he 'reversed' the energy to grow stronger still. Ghidorah's creators made him to be the ultimate weapon and he is quite simply just too powerful."
On hearing that, Commander Aso raised his hand and spoke when the elder Santos acknowledged him. "Sir, we may have a way out, though it won't be a pleasant one. As we all know, the plan we first had took into account the fact that no human weapon could destroy King Ghidorah and instead was to 'team up' with Godzilla in order to win. We thought to hold the battle in an isolated area to avoid civilian casualties and any property damage. However, King Ghidorah caught on to our little idea and came here. He apparently wants a final battle and wants it here, the city's destruction being a final insult if the claim that he is an intelligent creature is to be believed."
He pointed to the screen and as he did so the chief computer programmer, the 'Troll,' generated the image on the mammoth several story tall screen. "This footage shows that while my forces have done all they could to get him off the Empire State Building and return the battlefield to an isolated area, it has not been enough. We've had an aerial assault by Captains Cooper and Shoesdack on the Building; psychic assault by the Elias, Miss Segeusa, and every other psychic the UN could get; and a certain more unorthodox attempt. Troll, run footage."
At that, the men and women saw a pasty arm rise above a computer screen and heard a whiney voice say, "Right boss."
With that, the main screen showed security camera footage from the Empire State Building Tower looking down on the Observation Deck where a wild eyed man in a ragged military uniform waved his fist up at King Ghidorah off screen. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he picked up a kitchen sink he had carried with him to the top, raised it at the demon, and threw it down. Turning away from the screen, Aso said, "Yes, one of our men in uniform has even tried to use the kitchen sink. Literally. If you're wondering what's become of him, he's being treated for mental illness."
Commander Aso looked to Santos. "There is a choice to be made. With the stakes involved, its not going to be a pleasant one either way, but the choice must be made and you sir are going to have to be the one to make it."
At that everyone in the room looked to the man hearing him whisper "Clavos de Cristo…" The Secretary General gripped his seat's hand rests, recalling how he'd thought authorizing Dimension Tide was the most difficult choice he'd ever have to make. He was wrong, and so looking like a man that had gone to Hell and back, he stood up. "The final battle of Ragnarok… If one wins, Earth lives, if the other, Earth dies, simple as that. Well gentlemen, enough is enough and like it or not there's only one thing left to do."
Standing to his full height, he took a deep breath and looked around to all those there. "It knows what we tried to do, that we want Godzilla to fight him and it's decided that if that's going to happen its going to happen here. Well this 'final showdown' isn't going to be about what Ghidorah wants, its going to be about what I want. They say Godzilla is the only thing left that can save us then I say damn the cost! We will stand and fight! They say King Ghidorah's the devil's hammer then I say, by the nails of Christ we're going to send the Devil back to Hell!"
Before Santos could continue, the Mayor of New York shot up. "What are you talking about! Maybe you think you're all high and mighty with your fancy UN job, but I'm not going to sit idly by and let my city be destroyed!"
At that his companion tried to get him back in his seat and to quiet him. "Shut up Aiken! I don't care if you are Mr. Perfect Know-it-all Secretary of State, New York is my city and President Emmerich is with me 100% on this!"
The room growing dead silent, the Mayor stopped and realized the mistake he made. He fearfully turned towards the elder Santos and saw an angry man grow even angrier. "Mr. Mayor, Earth's survival is at stake and that means six billion lives; only Godzilla can save us so I have no choice. You can rest assured that I will have troops stationed around Manhattan to do everything possible to contain the damage. You can tell the President that this isn't a choice I make lightly and that I plan on taking full responsibility for whatever outcome.
"However, if this meeting is so upsetting, I would not wish to see it bother you. You may go outside and wait for the Secretary of State to tell you everything."
"Bur sir-"
"You may go outside!"
At that, the dejected man sullenly got up from his chair and walked through the double doors. On seeing that, every one there made a mental note not to mention Emmerich's name in Santos' presence again.
After that outburst, the meeting continued as would be expected and several of the highest ranking people stayed up in all night session. Lower ranking individuals, however, had the option of leaving after a time and the first of them was Miss Miki Segeusa; she had left the command center as soon as she could and had come out secret exit at the Brooklyn Bridge to look for Kyle—it was one a several exits from the city beneath a city. (A cache of Cold War valuables hidden there in case of nuclear attack! If the people only what was really happening!) That's not to say that she "flaked," far from it, she was one of the most responsible and dedicated people there. No, what happened was that while she was dedicated to the cause, she was also a part of something else, someone else. That somebody was of course, Kyle Martin.
For a time they'd both worked in New York doing clerical busy work, Kyle as punishment and Miki while she recovered. However, when the time for the final battle came, they'd been separated with Miki on the battlefield and Kyle on the home front. It of course had been difficult for Kyle to be separated from her, separation always is, but it had been especially so because he wouldn't have been able to protect her; it was ultimately the reverse with Miki fearing for Kyle.
She had been in the arctic on a frozen battlefield when she learned that New York City had been destroyed and perhaps Kyle with it. On learning that Kyle might be dead, she was frightened, even more frightened than when King Ghidorah entered her mind. Ever after learning of the city's fate, she had tried to find Kyle; nobody knew where he was and she couldn't reach him on phone or anything else. She then tried to search for him telepathically in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, but there had been too much interference from the millions of people screaming and dying.
That was a traumatizing thing for a psychic. Even if she might not to enter the minds of others, she always has the power to feel the presence of others as a sort of a background noise; thus to feel the screams and pain and sufferings of a thousand others was a torture. It had been ever since that night when she first met Godzilla… the night she tried to take her own life. True, Miki had left Greenland and come to Santos's emergency meeting in NYC thinking all the while about Kyle, about whether or not he and his grandfather were alive. Yes, as much as she wanted to just leave and pick through every pile of rubble looking for the man she loved, she knew that she couldn't forsake her duty, they were counting on her.
Yet even so, Miki left as soon as duty allowed to search for Kyle. One would have thought that this was an impossible task; even assuming that he was still in New York, he could be any where among the now more than nine million people in or 369 square miles of NYC's city proper alone. A seemingly impossible task but there was one place where she knew she might find him, if only he was still there. It was with that thought that she was becoming increasingly angry with the guard on the Brooklyn side of the famous Bridge who refused to let her pass.
"I'm sorry ma'am but we can't let anyone pass without clearance, no exceptions. With King Ghidorah up there, it's for your own safety."
Miki got off her motorcycle and unfastened her helmet. "But Private…Morgan," she said after a quick surface scan. "Please understand, someone I love is in Manhattan and I have to find him. It won't take long and I won't ever tell."
The army private said, "We've all lost someone in the Monster Wars miss. I'm sorry for your boyfriend, maybe he got out in time so you should check in the area hospitals and the like."
Knowing that if anything, Kyle would head towards danger, Miki knew that this wasn't what was going to happen. Though she hated playing on her reputation, Miki stood to her full though diminutive height and in her most impressive voice. "Private, do you have any idea who I am. I am Miki Segeusa, chief psychic and top agent of G-Force! If anything you should be following my orders immediately and without question!"
The soldier on guard duty rolled his eyes and shook his head. Clearly losing his patience, he said, "Listen lady, even if you really were the real Miki Segeusa, I'd still need clearance. Yo Jake, you met Segeusa once didn't you? Come over here."
Another soldier in regular uniform and with M-60 walked over saying, "Yeah, I met her. What's up Rick?"
"Does this woman here look like Miki Segeusa?"
The man growled. "Not another one. Rick, this is the fifth Segeusa tonight. I've got work to do so call me if something really important happens." With that, he stomped off.
"You hear that lady, people trying to get in have been saying they're Miki Segeusa all day. Now just run along, I don't want any problems."
Miki though to herself, fifth one tonight? Angry that the they could only get into the UN Base through Brooklyn with the recent damage, angry that she had left her clearance badge back there, she did something she never liked to do. "You will let me pass."
All of a sudden, the guard seemed to go limp and felt dizzy. "…What?"
Miki waved her hand in front of the soldier and repeated her words. "You will let me pass."
Staring off into space, the slack jawed man mumbled, "…I will let you pass…"
Thanking Kami-Sama for her powers, Miki smiled and waved her hand before the soldier once again. "After this, you will return to guard duty and you will tell no one of what you did…"
"…I will return to guard duty and tell no one of what I did…"
"…because you will have no memory of what just happened."
"…because I will have no memory of what just happened…"
On seeing that her "Jedi Mind Trick" had worked, Miki smiled and kissed the soldier. "Thanks Private Morgan! I'll make sure to send you a card for your birthday!"
She then refastened her helmet, walked back to her commandeered motorcycle, and was back to crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. Feeling the hum of the Honda machine drive her along, Miki was startled, though not surprised, by the utter lack of any human life as she drove. After looking ahead to see if there was anything to get in the way, Miki drove to the side and looked at the East River. It wasn't blood red anymore but with ash falling from roiling storm clouds above her, it was like black snow was falling. Increasingly frightened for Kyle's safety, she sped past the enormous stone towers that rose up and held the suspension bridge with so many, mighty cables. As she kept going, she saw the colossal buildings of lower Manhattan seemingly grow taller the closer she got, the Financial Center on her left… and the Empire State Building with a cancerous growth on it to her distant right.
Soon enough she crossed over the Brooklyn Bridge into the midst of the island, driving her motorcycle through deathly silent and empty streets. Scanning left and right, dodging piles of rubble that seemed to be everywhere, looking through her helmet as she sped past the abandoned buildings, she saw just how America's greatest city and quite possible the mightiest city on Earth had been brought to its knees in one day and one night. Once the city-that-never-slept, it now slept the sleep of the dead because not a sound, not a movement, not a whisper was heard. For what seemed like hours, she kept driving past the corporate high rises and apartments and stores and restaurants unhampered despite the infamous but now non-existent traffic jams, instead feeling cold, fetid air choke her nostrils.
She looked up and saw a red light; instinctively, she stopped and let her feet touch the ground. On stopping to think about the silliness of stopping for a red light in these circumstances, she let herself have a tired laugh. She looked behind her motorcycle and saw that she'd left a trail through the ash fall, like tracks through a snowfall, though the ash falling now would soon cover it up. Looking back and looking up, she saw the light turn green and went on her way.
She was going for hours, checking her map at red lights, checking street signs, groping about blindly through the ruined, dark, unlit city. New York… even with its checkerboard streets, it was so much easier in Tokyo where streets and boulevards were logically organized by numbers, wards, and sections. On getting off the bridge, she went past the civic center, Chinatown, and City Hall, taking a right to get on Broadway. Driving along it for some time, she passed Little Italy and Greenwich Village, and thought of how Macy's yearly parade came down here. This year, alas, there had been no parade. No parades, no yellow Medallion Taxis, no hustle, no bustle, nothing, in the silent necropolis. Miki ignored that that and drove her motorcycle past old and venerable buildings and parks… and the Empire State Building.
On the Empire State Building, King Ghidorah still perched like an unholy thing on the edge of the Abyss. Though the monster was almost a block away as Miki drove past on Broadway, she still had to fight the urge to vomit. A shadow against the darkness, the unmoving beast seemed almost dead on its perch but undead it was as illumination by black lightning. Turning her eyes away, Miki focused her attention on the road before her and sped up to get as far away as possible as soon as possible.
Rather difficult as she drove around the rubble of Times Square, she made it past the Theater District to Columbus Circle where she left Broadway and get on Central Park West. Driving alongside Manhattan's famous park, she found what she was looking for, the American Museum of Natural History. With that, Miki pulled her motorcycle to the left in front of the mammoth building, got off and left her Honda on the sidewalk; with the city abandoned, there was no fear of it being stolen. She walked up granite steps, between the columns, and under the high, monumental arches and was awed by the sheer size of it. As she got to the door, she tried to open it but found it locked; shrugging her shoulders, she concentrated and disabled it with a psychic blast.
With that, she pushed the door open and went inside, looking for someone across hall after hall. The first thing she did was look for the main shop where she rifled through models, books, DVDs and T-shirts. She found a map and, not wanting to be a thief, left the money on the empty counter. (Yes there was the motorcycle she had commandeered, but she planed to compensate the owner.) The Museum would never collect the money, but it was the thought that counted. With that, she began walking through the dimly lit halls though she saw few of the many things that once graced the museum. Like the Mayor had said, museum artifacts and the like across the city had been moved to safety soon after King Ghidorah arrived yet even so, Miki could still see some of the exhibits and other things that museum owners hadn't had time to rescue.
She quickly found the stairs and began climbing them. Even so she wanted to look around and stopped on each floor to see what else was there, looking at the Halls; the Hall of Culture, the Hall of Mammals, the Hall of Biodiversity, and the Hall of Birds. The Museum had everything; her powers showing her what she could not see, she saw exhibits on Vikings, chocolate, butterflies, Einstein, Vietnam, a life sized Blue Whale model, stuffed lions and more. One thing that caught her eye was the cast skeleton of a Barosaurus—a "long-neck" dinosaur—showing the animal rearing up on its hind legs and guarding its calf from an Allosaurus. It was on the second floor on the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda and was very near to what she was looking for.
With that thought, she finally found it; it was the fourth and final floor where the Hall of Fossils was kept. In the ghostly silence and emptiness, there was an almost eeriness, an aura of mystery in the air. It wasn't dark but the lights were sparse and intermittent giving a strange feeling; walking from one pool of light to another she felt like she was being watched. The fact that her footsteps kept echoing again and again, over and over in the quiet, didn't help.
She kept walking along the giant bones of beasts from the dawn of time, creatures that time forgot, some beautiful and some grotesque. Reverently walking past all the mounted fossils, Miki saw the remains of the Trilobite and Smilodon and Eryops and the Nautilus and Dunkleosteus and Dimetrodon and Glyptodont. (With how they couldn't be moved, the museum curators were doubtlessly cursing themselves for using real fossils instead of copies.) She saw them as she walked through the Halls of Primitive Mammals, of Advanced Mammals, and that of Vertebrate Origins, but these were not what she was looking for. Yet she saw them, each and every one of them a creature from a land before time, creatures that men were never meant to know and should have lived on only in the minds of men.
It was odd that so many prehistoric and seemingly extinct beasts survive into the modern day as giant monsters but that was the point wasn't it? If they were to have lived for so long, was it not then arrogance for humans to think of them as being so very old when it was the human race that was so very young? Though the beasts were lambasted with claims of being a threat to the human race, weren't prehistoric survivors really just taking back what was rightfully theirs from a band of upstarts? Were the old races then just in destroying the younger races? Miki did not know the answer to this as she walked through the Halls, she merely beheld the parade of the History of Life and left herself undeterred as she kept searching. As one Hall led into another in a great circle, she kept looking and looking through the darkened museum and hearing nothing but her footsteps echoing.
Finally, after what seemed like 65,000,000 years, she finally found what she had been searching for, the sepulcher wherein resided the greatest beasts that ever walked the Earth, the Hall of Dinosaurs. She walked past the dinosaur skeletons on her left and her right and knew that a finer collection of fossils could not be found. She walked past Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Pachycephelosaurus, Apatosaurus, Iguanodon, and the others of Eden's menagerie for these were the true dinosaurs, the old ones and not their modern day descendants. Like most any child, Miki had loved dinosaurs. She was so very small and they were so very big; she'd imagined herself having their strength. That perhaps was why so many children loved dinosaurs. Mythical beasts of every size and name and description that are gone forever and that lived before time but at the same time leaving their very bones as proof they were real? Good God, if dinosaurs hadn't had existed, then someone would have had to invent them.
Walking along and leaving the lesser giants behind, she walked up behind the crowning glory of the Museum, a vast rotunda where the skeletons of Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops were poised in mortal combat. Unlike the rest of the Museum, the lights set in the high ceiling of the huge round room had been left on and the battle was completely visible. "They're beautiful, aren't they?" Miki looked towards the railing that surrounded the exhibit and saw Kyle poised in between the two titans. He was leaning over the edge and looking at the gravel that was strewn on the ground until he looked at the beasts.
"Its true Miki, the way they're here, they're absolutely beautiful. Forever frozen in time, both poised for the final battle, circling each other; Triceratops with head lowered and horns pointing, Tyrannosaurus with jaws agape and claws ready. One, the King of the Dinosaurs, the mightiest hunter to ever walk the Earth, holding the power of life and death over his subjects. The other, the only enemy strong enough to challenge him, the strongest of all horned beasts and mightiest of plant eaters, a creature who feared nothing and kneeled to nobody."
With his back towards Miki, Kyle just looked at them. "The way they're here, making their war 65,000,000 years after they died, the mightiest of their breeds making their belligerence through all time, it's perfect. They're telling each other, 'It's the balance between predator and prey, between life and death, between eternal enemies, between you and I.'"
Still leaning on the railing, Kyle turned his face towards Miki and weakly smiled. "You came."
Miki returned the smile and gingerly walked towards the man, holding her hands in front of her. "That was because you I knew you'd be here. Back when we got together, you were always talking about how you father had taken both you and your big brother, Raymond, to the Museum when you were kids. Back in
May or April of last year when I was at Skull Island and I saw the dinosaurs on Skull Island, you told me how you'd both been so happy and that you hoped to take me here one day."
Kyle walked up to her. "Yeah, I was thinking that after you got back on your feet and you came here to New York, that maybe I could keep my promise… but that didn't go as planned. When you left and Ghidorah came and we were cut off, I was thinking about how I'd be able to reach you. Then I remembered what I said and for all the cliché I knew you'd come looking for me here so I decided, why disappoint? It's kind of appropriate to be here don't you think? You told me about how Ghidorah killed all the dinosaurs and that now he's coming for us.
He looked out to all the erected skeletons. "It's ironic. People have talked about how the dinos were the most successful group of animals that ever lived and that if not for some freak trillion to one meteor strike, they'd still be ruling the place. So in a way, we owe King Ghidorah and his creators our civilization because if not for him then we'd be lab rats in an evolved dinosaur's cage. Miki, you understand Godzilla better than anybody, so do you think that's why Godzilla hates humans so much? Y'know, he sees our civilization and knows that King Ghidorah gave rise to us? He sees what his kind could have been and maybe should have been?"
Miki sighed and walked over to the railing that surrounded the fossil skeletons. "Yeah, that's mainly it, he's all why should these upstarts live when my people died? That and other things too like what happened to the Lost World."
Kyle winced. "I remember when going to a Challenger High was a good thing…" At that, he grew silent and a faraway look came across his face and spoke. "We find living dinosaurs on a South American plateau and its dinomania. Professor Challenger brings back proof that the dinos are alive and everyone sends teams there. Some of them were good guys, they wanted to study the place and preserve it but too many were bad guys who just wanted to steal dinosaurs for circuses or to just go and hunt them on safari. Then we find Kong and Skull Island, it felt that dinosaurs were popping up everywhere and so 'what the hell! Let's take all we want, there's plenty more!' Yeah, sure…
"We tried to make El Tepui Grande into a nature preserve but it was too little too late because by then we'd broken the ecological balance. We were sorry and thought we were absolving ourselves when Shellabarger took the stars of Lothar Gluck's Fabulous Dinosaur Circus home. Belzoni's 'National Geographic' article called it the Dinosaur Summer but the plateau was already dying by 1947. Now, with every last dinosaur dead, the Lost World is nothing but a burned out heap unfit to grow dust.
"Future generations will say how we could have been so stupid; we had an entire Mesozoic ecosystem perfectly preserved 65,000,000 years after it should have been destroyed. It was it was trillion to one treasure, a gift from God, it was a test of how far we'd come." He went silent and began trembling until he threw his hands up in anger. "…and we screwed it up!"
Miki looked at the fossil exhibits and began crying. Biting back her quivering lip, she said, "I remember. I cried myself to sleep when I learned the story. Its ironic, people went crazy about dinosaurs after Challenger came back with proof of the Lost World and everyone had to have dinosaur everything. We forgot about these places and we stopped going to the museums; why should we go when we could go to a dinosaur zoo and see them in person or a circus.
"The circuses were the beginning of the end. Dinosaurs were here first, Earth was their world, we had no right to lock them away and make them jump through hoops!" At that, Miki froze and heard her voice echo through the halls, remembering stories of Triceratops bull fights and how every playboy had to have a duck-bill head mounted above the fireplace, stranger the crest the better. After that, Segeusa regained control of herself but trembled for a moment.
"I remember reading about how the first circuses had no idea of how to care about their dinosaurs and how everyone of them died, Circus Lothar was the only one whose dinosaurs survived. It was also the last dinosaur circus to go broke but it went broke because nobody cared. Soon enough, people forgot about the dinosaurs and took them for granted. The native people knew what to do. At Kahu Hidi, tribes all across the Amazon held the plateau as sacred and sent the bravest there to prove themselves heroes… and we took it from them. Like you said, it was only after all the dinosaurs at the Lost World were dead that we realized what we'd done.
"It's like that Rex skeleton there; it was found in 1902 by Barnum Brown. He was the last great fossil hunter and that was his last great find; you'd think that after finding it for the Museum that it would be put up by 1915 at the latest. It wasn't, I mean sure we all knew about Rex and sure he was always everyone's favorite with how we saw him fighting Kong on Skull Island or Triceratops at the Lost World, but with how we were able to see him in places like that, why bother seeing a bunch of bones ? It was only after every last dinosaur was dead and after every last 'lost world' was destroyed that we finally put the King's bones here. Maybe we do it because we felt sorry that we made the new exhibit the way it is and why it became the holy of holies, a temple to the dinosaurs where we can say we're sorry."
"And now maybe it's our turn to face extinction?" Kyle smiled. "Nah, the last time King Ghidorah came up against the human race we fought him to a standstill and when he went against Godzilla at the end of the Mesozoic, Godzilla mopped the floor with him. With Godzilla and humans working together, the three-headed monster doesn't stand a chance."
Miki laughed when she heard that. "Can this be true? The great Kyle Martin actually speaking good of Godzilla?"
"Don't push it," he said as he smirked. All of a sudden, he grew introspective and turned his head to look at the Tyrannosaur. "Miki, you talked about the Museums being temples to the dinosaurs. When I was a kid, I read a book about the ghost of a T-Rex who asked a human boy to return his fossil bones to him because he wanted to rest in peace. I've always asked myself what Godzilla would think of a place like this. What does he say?"
Miki shook her head. "I've tentatively 'asked' him that as a what-if sort of question. He feels museums like this are places of ghoulish grave robbery that put his fathers' bones on display, this one and this display especially since nearly all the bones here are the real ones. The display here reminds him of his father, Blood Fang."
"A world of gods and monsters…" sighed Kyle. "You know, I can't even imagine a world where giant monsters, lost civilizations, alien invaders, and living dinosaurs aren't real. With how boring that would be I'm not sure I'd want to."
Kyle turned away from Miki and began walking away until he reached a doorway leading out of the rotunda. A year after he thought of asking her to be his wife, the reporter's grandson still had the ring and he had it in his pocket. With his hand there and holding the ring, with his back turned towards the psychic, he looked down at a trashcan.
He said, "Miki, our relationship has never been an easy one and its been made even harder with the hell of the Monster Wars but I always hoped that we were at least going to try to love each other. But its kind of odd, you come here and despite how this is supposed to be all romantic, we begin talking about monsters and dinosaurs. Did you come here worried about me? After all, I know you're always worried about him. So tell me, you're thinking about him right now, aren't you?"
He turned his head around and said, "C'mon, I won't hold it against you. If you don't want to say it, I understand but if you're worried about the lizard, tell me so that that way I know how to look at you."
Even without using her powers, Miki knew what this meant. She didn't know that Kyle was holding a ring in his hand, she'd never stoop so low as to scan him without permission, but in her heart she felt that if she said yes, that Kyle would walk out of the door and never return. He'd almost done that when he asked her to choose and it hadn't been helped when she had exploded in front of the panel. Miki was tempted to say no, tell Kyle what he wanted to hear, because she knew he would stay but it would be love based on a lie.
"Kyle… you know I can't lie to you…" With a dry mouth, Miki desperately searched for the best words to use. "In coming here, in the back of my mind, I did think of Godzilla. I, I am worried about him."
On hearing those words, Kyle felt a sting cut through him. Though deep down inside, he had always known that it could never work out between them, this was the final straw for him. Looking at the trashcan at his side, Kyle pulled his hand out of his pant's pocket and thought to throw the ring away, throw away hope for he and Miki and forget about it, forever. As for Miki, she really had been thinking about Godzilla as she went searching for Kyle; she'd been thinking about how he had "told" her that if he died in the last battle that "the human" would be able to protect her for him. "Yes Kyle, I was worried about Godzilla… and about you."
At that, Kyle's hand froze where it was and held the ring in his hand. He and Miki turned towards each other and looked at one another for the longest time.
[Please note that the real American Museum of Natural History has neither a display featuring Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus fighting each other in a Rotunda, nor just one Hall of Dinosaurs. It has two Halls of Dinosaurs, one for Ornithiscian, or bird hipped, and another for Saurischian, or lizard hipped, dinosaurs. However, it was more dramatic to have Kyle seeing the battle and to say Miki found him in the Hall of Dinosaurs rather than in just a Hall of Dinosaurs. However, the Museum does indeed have a T-Rex skeleton and it really is the very first ever discovered (and, in 1915, the very first ever mounted). It was found in 1902 in Hell Creek, Montana, by Barnum Brown. There also is a Barosaurus model on the second floor in the position described and the majority of the fossils on display are the real fossils as opposed to reproductions.
The dinosaur circus and the usage of the Lost World/El Tepui Grande is from Greg Bear's "Dinosaur Summer." It's an interesting book that I recommend.]