Chapter 11
Deceptive Salvation
Then the world began to end.
Manda leveled London. The six Kamacuras pummeled Paris. Anguirus destroyed New Delhi. Rodan mangled Moscow. The two Caesars bulldozed Beijing. Ebirah shattered Seoul. Zilla scorched Sydney. Kumonga laid waste to Las Vegas. Gigan totaled Tokyo. And Monster X, wishing to destroy the humans' spirit rather than their infrastructure, turned Vatican City into a smoldering crater.
The monsters continued their rampage. No military power in the world even stood a chance. No conventional weapons had any effect on them. The only forces that had any luck were the Gotengo and G-Force. The Gotengo was out of commission after its fight with Manda.
The monster attacks went on for three days without stop.
Major world governments had fallen apart. Some nations were in shambles to the point that military orders stopped being received from the top. Troops operated independently. Many did not operate at all due to running completely out of ammunition.
Mankind's most powerful weapons that had any effect, the maser cannons, were failing. They were not designed to be used for such an extensive period of time. The masers overheated and their mirrors melted after the second day.
Food in the shelters around the world was almost gone. People were hungry, but the monsters prevented them from going anywhere.
Due to the desperate need for shelter in Tokyo, Admiral Aso and the leaders of G-Force had authorized that G-Force Base be converted into a shelter. It quickly filled with the scared and desperate.
The power to the base was cut, and its emergency generators had failed. In its halls, it was dark. Light was made by candles or flashlights. Dust and smoke had filled the city sky; little light could break through.
While gathering food for the people, Vincent had overheard a conversation between a soldier and another over the radio. Two emergency shelters were gone; destroyed by Gigan.
Vincent made his way down the halls of the dark base giving out rations. The flickering glow of candlelight faintly illuminated the scared people. It ached Vincent to see so many people like that. The despair and fright hung heavy on everyone's minds. Vincent hoped he would not have to live one more day like that.
The G-Force had sent what remained of their GFAAU to Sydney, Australia to aid the Australian Defense Force with Zilla. The problem the ADF was having was not being able to deal any damage, but was being able to hit the giant reptile at all. Missiles, bullets, mines, and even carpet bombings; Zilla dodged every one.
It was in the late afternoon and raining heavily. The sky was thick with grey storm clouds.
Zilla had taken on a new look. His skin was patterned to blend in with the buildings of the city exceptionally well. The beast featured a grid of semi-rough lines and shiny black in the squares of the grid. He looked like a typical building with windows.
Attempts to terminate the lizard only ended in him evading the military's attacks.
He was too fast on land and sea. And cornering the monster was next to impossible. If G-Force had him surrounded, he would burrow underground. In the three days he had been there, he had dug a large and complex system of tunnels under the city.
G-Force had devised a plan to prevent Zilla escaping downwards. They would drive him into a street intersection with electric netting on the ground. He would be surrounded on all sides while electricity would disable him from digging.
The intersection was George Street and Liverpool Street. There was a monorail overhead and nearby was the World Square with its Hordern Towers.
The members of the GFAAU had the lizard on the run. Jason and Philippe whipped him with maser blasts as they followed him using their gravity packs.
Zilla was going right to where G-Force wanted him.
They had reached the intersection when Glenn jumped in front of Zilla.
Zilla stopped and turned around only to find himself surrounded by maser wielding men. His instinct was to dig down.
"Activate the net!" Glenn shouted into his radio.
The supporting soldiers turned on the power to the net.
The net sparked as the rain hit it. Electricity surged through Zilla as he cried out. His muscles tightened and he fell over.
Glenn shouted into his radio "Bring the rain!"
With that, the bomber overhead aimed its guns.
But Zilla would not remain twitching on the ground for long. His kicking leg dragged across the ground. His toe caught a power cable and yanked it. It snapped with a whip and a crackle.
Zilla spared no time and leapt up. He began digging into the side of a tower nearby and just missed the heavy artillery shells from the bomber. The shell hit the asphalt.
Zilla stepped out of the hole he had made and began to climb Hordern Tower.
The GFAAU flew up after him.
Zilla turned around while on the side of the building and faced the approaching G-Force agents. Then he did something unexpected. With a screech, he exhaled some sort of clear gas resembling propane escaping up from an unlit grill. There was another substance that seemed to be secreted from glands in bottom of his mouth. The gas and substance combined and ignited resulting in an eerily bright green flame. The green fire spewed out of his mouth and rushed towards the GFAAU agents.
The agents dodged the flames.
Zilla reached the top. He then leapt to another tower nearby. The top crumbled, obviously not designed to support landing monsters.
Jason flew up to Zilla and aimed his maser.
"No more runnin', you bloody coward!" Jason yelled.
He fired his maser. The rain amplified its effect on the target. The electricity surging through him caused his skin to change uncontrollably. It rapidly shifted from earth tones to rubble to aquatic as well as other odd colors and textures.
Zilla whaled out loud and swatted at Jason.
Jason dodged one claw, but wasn't fast enough to avoid another. He was swatted out of the sky. Jason's gravity pack was damaged and sent him spiraling towards the street.
"Agh!" Jason shouted over the com. "I'm going down! Someone bloody catch me here!"
Closer and closer he got to the street. He was starting to get worries. It was possible that his radio had been damaged and his call for help went unheard.
Jason's mind went back to a moment in his childhood. He was on the roof helping his father string up Christmas lights. His father kept telling him to "watch your damned step!" But all it took was one small misstep for little Jason to tumble down the shingles and over the edge. He remembered that the two story fall felt like forever. "Am I about to die?!" ran through his head over and over again in the short period of time.
Ever since then, he had always been afraid of falling. When he felt like he was falling in dreams, as many people do, he would jump out of bed in a panic.
Again, "Am I about to die?" ran through his head a mile a minute. It was because of one little misstep.
He didn't want to die that day. He still had work to do and he didn't want to put more weight on his companions. But his fate was out of his hands.
His fate was, however, in Philippe's hands. Swooping up from beneath Jason, Philippe grabbed Jason by the useless gravity suit and descended as slowly as he could.
The two landed in the gutter along the street.
"Now you owe me two, no?" Philippe said.
"Let's go of me, damn frog! I had my self!"
Unfortunately, Jason's and Philippe's luck had run out.
Zilla had decided to take to the offensive. The lizard crawled down the side of the tower and faced the grounded agents.
It released another burst of green fire from its mouth.
Philippe used his gravity pack to launch himself and Jason backwards away from the flame.
Jason thought he felt his eyebrows get singed off.
Zilla crawled forward with an open maw. He was going to eat them.
Jason heard his heart beat louder than the rain around him. He closed his eyes and cringed.
But before the two could be devoured, everything appeared to stop in place. All sounds ceased.
Jason opened his eyes.
There was an extremely bright light from above and Zilla was frozen in place. Pebbles and rocks lifted from the ground.
Then Zilla started swirling around against his will. His face and tail smashed into the buildings to his sides. He spun faster until, with a blinding flash, he was gone along with the spotlight.
When Jason's eyes adjusted back to normal. Zilla was gone.
Glenn landed nearby and helped his two comrades to their feet.
They all looked very confused.
"What the hell happened! Did we get him?!" Jason exclaimed.
"Stay frosty, boys!" Glenn instructed. "The bastard probably has another trick up its sleeve."
Glenn walked around inspecting their surroundings in anticipation.
"What are we seeing, guys?" Glenn called.
To Glenn's immediate puzzlement, his men did not respond. While walking backwards, still keeping an eye on the empty streets, he nudged Philippe. When Philippe didn't respond, Glenn finally turned around.
Both Philippe and Jason were looking up. Glenn, a little terrified of what he would see, looked up as well.
The men who were confused before were now completely flabbergasted.
It looked to them like a spaceship. It had the shape of a three sided pyramid stretched on the bottom and slightly hook shaped as well. It was metallic colored with a pattern of dots and lines all over it that looked like star constellations connected with lines.
The ship silently flew off.
That was how it happened all over the globe. Wherever a monster was rampaging, about to crush a desperate civilian, one of the strange ships had arrived just in time.
There were three of them. They shot down their beams of light and wiped the earth clean of all the monsters.
When the three ships, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, were done collecting, they swiftly converged on their mother ship.
The mother ship's name was Chi, and it had just entered the atmosphere. It dipped below the clouds, lightly pushing them away. Below was the United Nations Building in New York.
One at a time, the sub-ships met with their mother ship and orbited it. When the third sub-ship arrived, all three connected with the great spherical vessel.
The great ship, roughly 10 miles in diameter, floated motionless over the East River right next to the UN building. And for nearly an hour, it did nothing.
Military vehicles surrounded the sphere. Helicopters circled it. Tanks aimed their cannons at it. Soldiers watched it intently. News vans were parked as close as the military allowed.
The ship finally relieved the world's anticipation. A beam of light was shot from the bottom of the sphere. The beam was aimed right in front of the UN building.
Within the spot of light formed two figured. They started out blurry and then became fine. It was the Xilian Keizer and Erzherzog. The beam faded.
They both wore slim black visors. The Keizer stood patiently while the Erzherzog looked about with great curiosity.
The soldiers in front of the building backed away from the aliens with caution.
"Who's running this place?!" the Englishmen announced bluntly.
The Keizer showed hidden irritation in his voice. He had hoped that the first thing spoken between Xilian and human would have been a little more eloquent.
"May we speak with leader of your United Nations?" the Keizer asked the soldiers. "Everything will be explained, I assure you all."
Within a few minutes, The UN Secretary General, Naotaro Daigo, was on his way to the UN. The Secretary General was an older man from Japan. He had black hair with touches of grey on the sides and wore glasses. He and other UN representatives were taken to a safe place in the city when the ship arrived. Being the one to make first contact with an alien race, he was beyond nervous as he was driven to the event of the century.
The Keizer and the Erzherzog waited patiently with their hands behind their backs.
Naotaro stepped out of the vehicle in front of the UN. A hundred feet in front of him stood the two aliens. With all the confidence he could muster, he walked forward.
"Greetings; my name is Naotaro Daigo. On behalf of the United Nations and all of Earth, I welcome you to our home!" Naotaro greeted as he extended his hand. His hands were shaking.
"Thank you; I am the Keizer of the Xilian people. This is my second in command, the Erzherzog," The Keizer said with his hands still behind his back. "We are unfamiliar with your customs. Is extending your hand part of a greeting ritual?"
"Oh!" Naotaro grinned as he realized his mistake. "Yes, you take my hand with yours and we shake them once. It's a sign of trust."
"Ah, I see." the Keizer said, mimicking Naotaro's grin. "I would be glad to physically greet you, but I and my Erzherzog are not physically here. What you are seeing is a hologram. We are still in the our mothership as we have not tested your air yet."
Naotaro was a little taken back, but preceded to act welcoming. "Oh, I see. That is perfectly all right, but onto more pressing matters. You claim to know about the monsters?"
"We know much. If you will assemble your world leaders here, everything will be explained."
As fast as possible, the UN representatives were assembled in the General Assembly Hall. Everyone was waiting in anticipation to hear from the mysterious Xilians. The answers everybody needed would soon be given. All the major news networks were present for what was likely to be the most important event in human history.
When everyone was ready, the sphere lit up and projected a hologram of two top Xilians.
The Keizer began.
"Greetings people of Earth. I am the Keizer of the Xilian race. You have been through much these past few days. My people give their deepest condolences. We also wish we could have arrived sooner. To answer the question that so many of you surely have, it was us who abducted the giant monsters and ended their attack.
"Please allow me to explain why we came here. Not too long ago, around forty of this planet's years, the Xilian people lived on a beautiful planet. We had achieved a perfect harmony with nature and our own ambition to build and advance. There was no war. There were no poor regions.
"The planet was so lively, in fact, that it became irresistible to a starving monster that feasts on the life-force of planets. The mighty thing came down and ravaged our great cities. When we proved to be a formidable opponent, the thing used a wicked force we still do not quite understand. It summoned towering leviathans to do its evil work. It came, it annihilated, and it left. Our home was a wasteland unfit for even the most basic of life. The planet had no more to give. The space demon saw to that.
"So, having nothing left on our planet, we sought another. We followed the trail of the demon until we finally caught up with it. We hoped to stop the reign of the kaiju and help the planet's race defeat the tyrant. That planet is now Earth. The tyrant is named Mothra."
A picture of Mothra appeared behind the Keizer. Mothra was firing her wing lightning and kicking up moon dust. The intimidating snapshot was from when Mothra attacked Monster X, but Monster X was nowhere to been seen.
The Erzherzog seemed to be giggling, trying very much not to laugh.
"Mothra is the demon that summoned the kaiju." The Keizer continued. "Her first kaiju was the terror you know as Godzilla. Now, with our forces combined, he shall find Godzilla and destroy him!" the Keizer announced.
The room erupted with cheers and applause.
"Then, we will destroy the demon, Mothra!"
The cheers were greater.
From her home through psychic means, Mothra watched as the invaders bastardized her. The lies they threw made her sick. Everything was going against her. Her children had been stolen and now two races wanted her dead. They wanted her ace as well.
She flapped her wings and left her sacred cave. Perching atop a mountain, she scanned the sea for her tenant. She spied a disturbance in the water.
Erupting forth came Godzilla. He had caught a whale. His wounds were healed and his strength was restored.
Terrified nearby islanders frantically rowed away from the beast.
Mothra hated it when Godzilla startled her people. He had promised not to bother them while he rested, but it was unavoidable at times. Like one with a troublesome roommate, Mothra was eager to send him away.
"Gojira," she called.
Godzilla heard and headed towards Mothra.
"The invaders have revealed themselves. And with them is your son's murderer. Are you ready?"
Godzilla answered by stomping his foot down in the shallow water, sending waves and mist high up, and releasing a roar. It was a pretty affirmative.