The group gathered around each other, huddling close. There was little point: coming close together couldn't stop the ceiling from falling on them, nor could it thwart Meganulon from catching their scent and coming to rip them apart.

Even so, it felt comforting. Simple human nature.

Raleigh began to speak. "When I was still a Jaeger pilot, my copilot was my brother, Yancy Becket. Or should I say, I was his copilot. He was always wiser, less headstrong. Together, we drove Gypsy Danger against the Breach Kaiju."

"I've seen her in the Shatterdome," Miki said. "Powerful machine."

"You have no idea," Raleigh sighed. "Piloting a Jaeger is… how do I describe it? It's unlike anything you've ever felt before. You feel everything. You can feel being hundreds of meters tall and closing a metal fist. You can feel your hand turn into a plasma cannon and fire. And you can feel it when the Kaiju tear the plating off your armor or rip off a limb. There's really nothing you can compare it to."

"Actually, there is," Miki spoke up suddenly. "I operated the G-Crusher in the Mechagodzilla project. It was a while ago, but you never really forget what it's like to drive a giant robot."

"And I've been inside Gamera's head when he was fighting," Asagi added, then immediately hunched up as though wishing she had said nothing.

Raleigh appeared not to notice. "Well then, I guess there is something you can compare it to, so forget I said anything." He flashed a winning smirk, which Asagi mirrored hesitantly. "Anyway, this would've been a month or so after Gorath. Power was going on and off like some moron kept flipping a giant light switch on the Earth. Kaiju and kaijin everywhere-"

"We were there," Miki said.

"Just checking to make sure you weren't on Mars by mistake. Yancy and I were sent on… I guess it was the last time a Jaeger's been on a combat mission. The techies had detected a Breach Kaiju coming, Cat 3. The boys in the back called it "Knifehead" because its head looked like a knife. Guess the apocalypse kinda messes with creativity. Now, we were wading out into the bay. The storm was getting real bad, and we were up to our waist in the ocean…"

Gypsy Danger waded out into Tokyo Bay. The Jaeger was humanoid in shape, as it was incredibly easier for pilots to Drift with something similar in shape to them. Painted a royal blue, it had a somewhat feminine frame, with lithe limbs built for speed and a large chestplate with a glowing orange turbine in the center. The head held the conn-pod, where the pilots stood behind a green visor.

"Alright, let's kill us a giant monster, eh?" Raleigh grinned as he and Yancy marched in one place in unison. Gypsy mimicked their movements perfectly.

"Raleigh, there is such a thing as losing," Yancy cautioned. Raleigh opened his mouth to argue, but Yancy cut him off. "I'm inside your head right now. I know you think we can't lose. These past few months humanity's been doing nothing but lose, so try not to get cocky."

"Cocky? Me? I'm hurt, brother mine," said Raleigh, exaggeratedly clutching at his chest. A howling screech suddenly carried over the waves. "Target close," said Yancy as they approached the source of the noise, ready for battle.

"It was supposed to be easy. Breach Kaiju do nothing but attack. They don't strategise or wait, and they're not that powerful. Killing a Cat 3 should've been a snap.

"Unfortunately, it didn't want to play along."

Gypsy Danger stood waist-deep in the ocean, surrounded by dark clouds. Light came only from the occasional flash of lightning.

"Here, kaiju-kaiju-kaiju-kaiju-kaiju…" Raleigh hummed as they strode through the ocean.

"It might not even be here-" Yancy started, only to be cut off by a tremendous roar as a massive weight suddenly slammed into their back with the force of a freight train. Gypsy stumbled around, trying desperately to throw the beast off. Its shrieking continued as it clung on, digging its claws into their plating and beginning to tear metal chunks out of their back. Raleigh and Yancy screamed at the same time as they felt those gargantuan claws creep their way towards Gypsy's head.

What do we do, what do we do, what do we do, Raleigh's brain spiraled endlessly. He wouldn't go down like this! He couldn't-

Suddenly, he felt a wave of clarity wash over him as Yancy's influence spread through the Drift, quickly forming a strategy. Raleigh followed his brother's lead.

Gypsy fell backwards, slamming the Breach Kaiju against the seafloor. As its fingers were momentarily dislodged, Gypsy activated its elbow rockets. Thrust roared out of the Jaeger's forearms, burning the Breach Kaiju and forcing it to writhe in pain as Gypsy was pushed upwards by the rockets. She immediately spun around into a punch, sending the Breach Kaiju sprawling away. Recovering, it stood up and roared at them, and that was when they got a good look at Knifehead.

It was predominately black in color, with orange bioluminescent strips crisscrossing its form. Its head was indeed shaped like a blade, jutting forward like that of a goblin shark. It had four yellow eyes, two sets on each side of the blade-snout, and an equal number of arms, the second pair smaller than the first.

Roaring, Knifehead rushed at Gypsy, leveling its blade to impale the Jaeger. "Deploy left plasmacaster!" Yancy shouted. Gypsy's left hand began to unfold into a glowing blue flower-like weapon. Knifehead closed the distance before the transformation could be completed, but Raleigh seized its blade in Gypsy's right hand and turned the Kaiju's charge away. However, Knifehead extended its talons as it ran past, slashing at Gypsy's midsection.

Yancy turned Gypsy at Knifehead as the plasmacaster automatically loaded a clip. With an effort of will, Yancy fired a sizzling blue blast at the Breach Kaiju. Hitting its shoulder, it tore off a chunk of Knifehead's flesh in a spray of kaiju blue, the toxic blue blood that ran through the veins of everything that came out of the Breach. Screeching in pain, Knifehead jumped backwards. "Fire two!" Yancy yelled. Another blue blast, this one hitting Knifehead right in the center of its torso. With a final screech, it fell into the waves.

Gypsy Danger turned its back and began to walk back towards Tokyo. "Howzabout drinks on me, eh, Yancy?" Raleigh said with a grin.

"He turned towards me, and looked like he was about to say something. I don't know what it was, the Drift was glitching a bit after the blows. His face… he looked sad, I think. Or maybe he was about to laugh?

"I wish I knew.

"Because that was when Knifehead decided to stop playing dead… and the last time I would ever see my brother's face."

With a horrid screech, Knifehead leapt out of the water and rammed its blade through Gypsy's chassis. In the cockpit, Raleigh screamed in agony, descending into a world of pain as his eyes squeezed shut. Knifehead twisted its snout, and the entire robot spasmed in agony. Suddenly, the plasmacaster began to unfold again, Yancy once more taking charge of the situation. Two of Knifehead's arms seized the plasmacaster, forcing it away, as its third hand rushed for the conn-pod.

Immense black fingers rammed through the metal like tissue paper, seizing a chunk of machinery and yanking it out before hurling it miles away into the ocean.

And Yancy was part of it.

Raleigh felt his brother be crushed in Knifehead's claws, felt his heart stop, his lungs cease breathing, his body be ground into paste. Or was that happening to him? With Yancy gone, it should be.

But rational thought was immediately cut off as Raleigh immediately felt the strain of piloting a Jaeger solo. He might have been screaming, or he might have been entirely silent. He didn't know anymore. Lost in the great metal behemoth, his mind scattered throughout its limbs, the tension straining, pulling it apart-

-had to eject, get out-

-two great beasts, roaring, ripping each other apart-

-a flash of blue from one beast-

-heat, such heat, turning the water to steam-

"And that's really all I remember," said Raleigh. "I got Gypsy back to shore somehow, but if you're begging me for details about Godzilla's last stand, I'm afraid you'll be sorely disappointed."

Miki bit her lip. She had actually hoped for that, but no matter. It was in the past anyway.

"You drove a Jaeger on your own?" Asagi was asking. "But only Pentecost's done that!"

"Well, he actually killed Onibaba like that, whereas I just walked. And I am not doing it again. No more Jaegers for me, thanks," Raleigh concluded in a joking manner.

"But couldn't you just find another copilot?" Miki asked.

"First, we'd need to actually be able to power the Jaegers for that. Second, I was never that great a pilot. Yancy was the real brains behind the operation, and there's no replacing him," Raleigh said. A note of bitterness briefly entered his voice, but he quickly recovered. "So yeah, that's my horrific trauma right out there! How about you two?"

Asagi gave a faint smile. "Well, I suppose I could tell you about how I went from 'average fishing village girl' to 'prophet of Gamera'."

"Katagiri told us," Miki spoke up. "Your amulet is what provides the link between you and Gamera."

"Yeah. I got it in '95. Everyone wanted an interview back then," Asagi said. "My family and I eventually moved to the country just to avoid them."

"You were so young back then," Miki mused.

"You're so young now!" Raleigh realized. "You haven't changed a bit from those photographs in the papers, but that was thirty years ago! Hell, you should be older than me!"

Miki's eyes burst open. How had she not realized that?

Asagi shrank back. "The amulet… kinda stopped my aging. I've been 15, physically and mentally, for years. I don't know if I'll even ever die."

"Oh," said Raleigh. "Well, any interest in patenting that? I'd love to retain this youthful complexion."

Asagi stared in disbelief. "You… I tell you I'm an undying priestess of a monster, and you make a joke about it?!"

"That about sums me up in one sentence," said Raleigh calmly.

"I agree," said Miki. "No matter what you would become, so long as you remained human at heart, I would not fear you."

Asagi paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. She settled on smiling, fully this time.

With a crash, the battering ram finally broke down the metal door. Kuroki strode in first, followed by the strike troopers. They slowly scanned the room with flashlight and gun, ready to open fire at the slightest hint of Meganulon.

Finally, they appeared satisfied and walked towards the center of the room.

A massive metal box sat there, with numerous warnings not to open. Radioactive, government property, the usual. There was no humming, so Kuroki surmised that Gorath had knocked out the electric defense, so it wouldn't kill anyone who touched it. That was the good news. The bad news was that this meant the keypad was shorted out too, so they would have to open it by hand.

As a couple soldiers went to work with buzzsaws, Kuroki took out the radio again. "We've located the Tide," he said into it.

"About time," Katagiri's voice came over. "I expect you to return to the Shatterdome with it immediately."

"But what about Miki, Asagi, and Raleigh?" Kuroki asked, already knowing the answer.

"You were told when the team left that the Dimension Tide takes priority above everything. They were trained for this scenario and can be retrieved once the primary objective is secure. I do not expect further insubordination, Major."

Kuroki wanted to argue. He wanted to say that the kid wasn't trained for it, that they had told them they would be back, that in these days every life counted.

But he had a duty.

So he said, "Over and out," and went to help his men cut through the box.

"Now then, I believe I was supposed to share my horrific trauma," said Asagi.

"That was, like most things I say, a joke," said Raleigh. "What you endure is your business, not ours."

"I'd like it to be yours," said Asagi. "It's easier than carrying it around everywhere." She took a deep breath, then began.

Asagi Kusanagi walked out into her garden, squatting before a bush of roses. She wore a schoolgirl's outfit, not her deathtrap of a jumpsuit.

Absently, she reached to touch her pendant and felt the familiar sensation of Gamera's voice filling her brain. Cosmo, he said. It was always difficult for Asagi to place his voice. It wasn't deafening, it didn't fill her head like his war shriek, but it was still loud, somehow. His inflection was off, like someone still learning Japanese. It sounded raspy, but if she strained, she could hear the voices of many people she knew in his words, as if he had taken all of them and mashed them all together to speak through.

Hello, Gamera, she thought. And how was your day today?

An enemy came from the Bright Gate, he intoned, using his word for the Breach. She wondered if other kaiju used it too, but she had never managed to read any mind but his. It threatened the Lands I Must Protect, so I burned it dead.

The Deep One did not assist you? she asked.

He would have been no help, Gamera hissed. He is bound to Failure by his pride, his pretensions of being a King.

And yet you bow to him, Asagi thought in what she hoped would convey a wry tone.

Gamera hissed in distaste. He does not threaten the Fire, nor the Land. Only those who would lay claim to it. For this I do not challenge him.

And he'd kick your ass, Asagi added.

I assume this is another of your expressions, Gamera said in what someone unfamiliar with him would mistake for humor.

"Gamera was basically my best friend-slash-brother-slash-mentor. I didn't get close to many others besides my parents, but him I spilled all my deepest secrets to. He never really understood what humans were like, but he always tried. And I never really understood what it was like to be a kaiju, although I was inside his head through all his battles. Whenever he got hurt, I'd feel it.

"I never imagined it would end. Not until Hawaii."

Asagi screamed in agony as her parents dragged her towards the car. She felt the sonic scalpels of Gyaos falling upon her skin, felt them as they bit into her flesh. She could feel the rage of Gamera as he fought valiantly, slashing Gyaos to pieces and incinerating them with fireballs.

But for every Gyaos that would die, twenty more would besiege her.

She barely registered her parents desperately telling her- or perhaps themselves- that it would be alright as they drove at the top speed they could manage. She knew, at some level, that the chirps barely behind them were from Meganulon, that their house, their neighborhood, everything they'd known had been overrun by the dragonflies.

But mostly, she was above Hawaii, doing everything she could to protect what must be protected, yet knowing there was no way to win.

Suddenly, she was shaken out of Gamera's head by his voice.

I am sorry.

She begged him in her mind, in the car, with words, emotions, everything she had. She couldn't lose him. She couldn't.

But nothing would deter him as he began to weave mana into the air and suck in fire. One last mighty shriek would echo above Hawaii before Gamera erupted, a massive fireball consuming him and the Gyaos both.

Asagi felt it.

"I blacked out for a while at that point. Not sure how long it lasted, maybe a few hours, maybe a few years. I think it might've been that one. No one told me."

"It'll be alright, my little girl. Everything's gonna be alright."

"All gonna be okay."

"You'll be okay."

Asagi's eyes opened to see her parents, gray in the hair, cradling her, squeezing her tight like she would float off into the sky if they let go. They whispered endless sweet platitudes to her, telling her that she would be okay, alright, fine, alive, wonderful.

They were in some kind of camp, with dirty tents everywhere she looked. It was all behind tall walls with machine guns balanced on top. A cacophony of screams filled the air as smoke reached her nose and maddening, familiar, chirps began to eclipse the human cries.

They told her she had to run, to be smart, to be brave, and to get to somewhere safe. Asagi didn't know what was happening, she just ran.

She heard the chirping becoming louder, the clicking of claws behind her.

"Hey! Over here!"

"You'd rather have a bigger meal than a skinny kid like her!"

Her parents' voices rose above the din. The clicking and chirping turned frenzied and faded. Asagi didn't ever look back as she ran. She didn't look back as bloodcurdling screams and the noise of tearing meat filled the air.

Asagi Kusanagi ran for a long time. She wasn't going anywhere, just knew that she had to run. The landscape rushed past her, mist and the outlines of destroyed cities.

Eventually, she collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. Asagi felt a weight tug on her neck, and she looked to see she still wore her pendant.

And as she gazed at the one thing that remained of her life, a familiar voice flooded her head.

Hello, my Cosmo.

"You can still hear him?" Miki asked. "But… he's dead."

"No. He is tied to fire and hope, like the Gyaos are tied to corruption and hunger," said Asagi. "Fire still exists, so Gamera does too. He is reincarnating somewhere, inside an egg. He doesn't know where. But he still guides me."

"I'm sorry to hear about your parents," said Raleigh. "I know I can't start to understand it, but you have my deepest sympathies."

"I lost mine in '84," said Miki. "Godzilla destroyed our apartment, and I was the only one to make it out. It feels horrible, I know. But it does get better eventually."

"I'm not sure anything gets better nowadays," said Asagi.

Asagi had no one but Gamera for company for a long time. He guided her to the safest place he knew of: Tokyo. She had a few encounters with Meganulon, but Gamera guided her away from the most dangerous spots.

Eventually, she arrived in Tokyo. The scouting patrols found her quickly and brought her to the Civilian Recovery Council. It was a committee of civilians with the populace's backing, put in charge of all non-military operations in Tokyo. Their ranks included Yuji Shinoda, founder of the Godzilla Prediction Network, Yasuaki Shindo, CEO of the Taiyo Group, Kenichi Watanabe, head of the Tohto Times, and several others.

Asagi told them her story, and most of them were moved to sympathy. But one was skeptical.

Mitsuo Katagiri held a seat on the Council. It was unethical and likely illegal, but the laws hadn't been decided on yet, and at that point they had been too busy trying to reclaim territory from the Meganulon to enforce order.

"So, you are telling us that you can communicate with a kaiju, one we know cares more about the land we live on than us, and you want to be brought inside our safe haven to learn our secrets?" he had said.

"I don't want to learn anything!" she hastily replied. "I don't care about whatever secrets you might have! I just want a place to live!"

"And how do we know we can trust her?" Katagiri pressed. "How do we know it's not Gamera, speaking through her?"

"Mitsuo, be reasonable!" Shinoda snapped. "She's just a child!"

"A child with a kaiju inside her mind! I repeat, if there is any way Gamera could gain knowledge about Tokyo it is a security risk! She is a danger to the safety of humanity and I recommend she be turned away, if not terminated!"

Faces slowly turned mistrustful and suspicious as they gazed at Asagi. Shinoda was desperately arguing with them, but there were so many. Asagi began hyperventilating.

This place was supposed to be safe…

At that moment, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Asagi looked up to see him.

Marshall Stacker Pentecost.

"So tell me again, Mitsuo," he said coolly. His voice was quiet, but at the sound of it, everyone stopped shouting. "Are you seriously advocating we kill a frightened child who came to us for help because she's linked to a kaiju? In the name of 'the greater good of humanity'? Well, tell me, how human will we be after we've killed a little girl because she might be a danger?"

Faces fell and murmurs spread through the room. Katagiri recovered first. "And if she is a danger and we are all killed?"

"Then we die human," said Pentecost.

"I call for a vote," said Shinoda. "All in favor of Asagi Kusanagi being allowed to stay in Tokyo?"

One by one, hands began to raise and the room slipped away from Katagiri. Asagi couldn't believe it. With just a few words, Pentecost had saved her life.

Finally, Mitsuo himself raised his hand, and it was unanimous. Asagi saw the cold look in his eyes and realized he wasn't convinced by the Marshall's words. He began to speak again. "Well, we need some method of control, at least," Katagiri said. "To, if nothing else, stop her from agitating Gamera into an attack when she gets moody."

That was something Asagi had sometimes worried about. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad?

The Council agreed that a method would be used to maintain a level of control on her, and until that was implemented, she would be watched in the Shatterdome.

Her room there- or perhaps her cell- was rather drab, although she didn't have anything to make it familiar. She had remained there, doing nothing but talking to Gamera, for several weeks.

"You lived in the Shatterdome? Why weren't we told this?" asked Miki.

"The Marshall thought I was entitled to my privacy," Asagi replied. "He didn't ever think I'd be in the PPDC."

Finally, one day, guards entered her room. She was escorted to the K-Science division and brought to a laboratory where Katagiri stood.

They showed her the suit, on a table. She was told to strip naked and put it on.

She did so, in front of them, with no coverings or privacy. Then she was allowed to put her pendant back on, and was told to speak to Gamera.

Well, we're finally here, she had said.

You are finally safe, he had replied. She was beginning to get a bit hot, but she was sure that was just the suit.

And soon enough, I'll come and find you. Even hotter now. She could get some water in a minute. And then we'll fix the world.

Asagi-

That was all he could say before the heat doubled. She screamed. It was burning. She tore at the fabric, struggling to get it off, but at that moment, there was a clicking, and she saw Katagiri pointing a gun at her.

"Ah, ah," he said. "No taking it off. Let it run its course."

She collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain, as her flesh sizzled and smoke raised. Eventually, the heat began to lessen and she curled up into a ball, twitching.

"That will happen whenever you make contact with the kaiju," said Katagiri. "Unless you are specifically instructed to do so by someone of the minimum rank of Major, you are not to make contact with Gamera again."

She was led back to her cell, and not removed until the Dimension Tide was found.

There was a frozen silence, broken only by Miki's snarl of rage as several small pieces of rubble around her levitated and began to crack under telekinetic pressure.

"That monster," she hissed. "He dares to treat you like that?! Like you weren't human, and couldn't be trusted?! I wish I could kill him, right here!"

"Well now, that's too simple," said Raleigh in a calm voice that betrayed the raging hatred in his eyes. "Maybe if we stuck him in a Jaeger solo…"

"No," Asagi muttered, curling into a ball. "Don't turn on him just because of me. He's right, I'm not worth the PPDC's stability."

Miki screamed in rage and ground the chunks of rubble to dust. She stood there, panting. "I hate… that we have to ally with people like him to ensure we don't go extinct."

"Well, once the population hits five digits, we can kill him as much as we want," said Raleigh. "But right now… right now, I am going to do everything in my power to have that suit destroyed."

Asagi didn't know what to say. She settled on smiling. "Well, how about you, Miki? We've shared our traumas, you wanna join the misery board?"

Miki swallowed. "I…

Ever-blossoming, ever-evolving, golden death-light.

An accord reached. A deal struck.

Screaming as the ages wound back and…

"No," said Miki. "Not today."

The buzzsaws finally cut through the box, and the Dimension Tide was revealed. The satellite was covered in dust, but still looked operational. "Nobody touch anything," Kuroki ordered. "We'll have transport ready soon."

The Strike Troopers backed off and began to prepare the area for the Tide to be airlifted out. Kuroki went to the radio, but stopped when he saw one Trooper standing stock-still. "Private Miki!" he yelled. "What do you think you're doing! Get to work clearing the boxes!"

Slowly, Ichiro Miki turned to look at Kuroki. The major's eyes widened as he beheld what had seconds ago been an ordinary man.

His eyes were slitted, like those of a cat. He twitched and shivered constantly, and his mouth was turned up into a smile filled with malice, almost too wide for the human face to make. He was muttering something under his breath. "-ara…" Kuroki could make out. "-ab-ara…"

With a sudden shriek, he lunged for the Tide and began hammering at buttons. "Stop him!" Kuroki shouted as what was once Ichiro Miki pulled a lever and the Dimension Tide began to glow black.

"EVERYONE DOWN!" yelled Kuroki. Everyone in the room leapt for cover before, with a clicking of machinery and a woosh, the Dimension Tide fired.

A massive wave of black energy was unleashed and spread quickly through the room. Then the warehouse. Then Tokyo. Before the satellite, space seemed to get caught on a corner as, out of nowhere, a charred hunk of metal covered in plants appeared out of thin air. It slammed into the ground, shaking the building.

Miki, Raleigh, and Asagi jumped as the black wave passed over them. The crash rattled the rubble blocking the exit, and it fell over, revealing an opening. "Any injuries?" asked Miki, recovering first.

"Not that I can tell," said Raleigh. "I think that light- whatever it was- was harmless. I just wanna know where it came from."

Miki sighed. "I think… it might have come from the Tide. Some sort of misfiring."

"And that's bad, yes?" said Raleigh.

"Indeed," said Miki. "It spreads radiation everywhere it passes. It won't hurt anyone… well, it may hurt some people, but they are few and far between. But the real danger is from the kaiju. The rays will attract them."

"What sort of kaiju?" said Asagi nervously.

"Like…" Miki began before being interrupted by a thunderous screech. In horror, they all rushed out of the room, knowing what they would see but unwilling to believe it.

A Hyper Gyaos soared over Tokyo. The massive creature was the size of a battleship, easily ninety meters tall. Its leathery bat wings made up most of its body, reaching two hundred meters when fully spread. Its head resembled an arrow, and its skin was a rough red-brown. Despite its size, it looked incredibly malnourished, its ribcage visible through its skin. Its eyes were mad, feral and ravenous. Letting out a shrill shriek that filled the city, it declared its intention to feast.

"It's heading for the civilian district!" Raleigh realized in horror.

"We have to deploy the defenses!" Miki yelled. "We may not have much electricity, but we can still use the masers and jets!"

"Wait a minute," Asagi said. "Does it feel… a bit cold to you?"

Miki figured it out in an instant. She could no longer feel the warmth from the civilian district's heating grid, nor could she hear any sirens. "That wave… it had the properties of an EMP. All our electricity is down. We can't leave the Shatterdome to attack."

The Gyaos shrieked and plowed into a building, which collapsed in a thunderous crash.

"Then… what do we do?" said Asagi nervously.

"I…" For the first time, Miki saw Raleigh without a joke, or at least an attempt to make one. "I don't know."

Inside the Shatterdome, Katagiri could hear the commotion of the soldiers trying desperately to open the doors. Their computers seemed unharmed, but their vehicles, their weapons? Not as much.

He knew there was no hope they'd manage to mobilize in time to save anyone. There was one person he had to find right there, and he knew where he'd be. In the center of it all, taking control of the situation.

"Marshall!" Katagiri yelled. "We can't last against that thing. We've got to evacuate Tokyo!"

Pentecost turned to him. "No need, Sub-Marshal. The situation is under control."

"Are you serious?!" Katagiri exclaimed. "We cannot stand against a Hyper Gyaos as we are! We need to flee! We might be leaving our secured areas, but at least-"

"Marshall!" a techie yelled. "There's something moving in the bay."

Pentecost smiled.

The seafloor began to tremble. Waves leapt up, higher than ever before, crashing against the shore.

"Increasing tremor activity-"

"Radiation levels rising-"

"Sonar detects a large entity moving underground-"

Katagiri stood speechless as scientists spilled out reports on the bay.

"You didn't think that Gyaos was the only thing that blast woke up, did you?" said Pentecost.

Below the water, the ground began to rupture as an unimaginably vast form moved. Finally giving way, a mass of black scales and spikes surged forth.

"Entity has breached the seafloor and is approaching Tokyo at 20 knots-"

"Oh God, it's not him, it can't be-"

"Radiation at 37% above average-"

"-rather have the Gyaos than-"

"Subject approaching 45 knots, sir!"

Katagiri watched the scene in horror. "What do we do?" he begged Pentecost.

Pentecost stood calmly. "It's him. There's nothing we can do. We just have to trust he'll be benevolent today."

He breached the surface of the water. One hundred meters tall, and twice as long thanks to his tail. Charcoal-black scales covering his form. Sharp spikes running down his back. A proud countenance, with intelligence and fury in his eyes.

He had been buried for so long, but now he returned.

Emerging from the water, he at last stood on his feet. So, a challenger would lay claim to his territory. He would rectify that.

"He's back," Miki said, looking up with tears in her eyes at the gargantuan form, visible even through the mist.

The King of the Monsters. The Deep One. The Atomic Leviathan.

Godzilla.

He threw back his head and let out a mighty roar.

"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOONNK!"

The Hyper Gyaos did not understand the power before it. It only saw food. And so, with a thunderous shriek, it rushed towards Godzilla, causing a sonic boom with a single flap of its wings. Godzilla's dorsal plates began to glow blue… but the glow died out quickly and the Hyper Gyaos slammed into him, knocking him to the ground with a massive crash.

"He hasn't absorbed enough radiation to fire his atomic breath!" Miki realized.

The Hyper Gyaos dug its taloned feet into Godzilla's chest, trying to bite into his neck. With astonishing speed for a creature of his size, Godzilla delivered a punch to the Gyaos' face, knocking it off him. He seized his stunned foe's foot with his tail as he climbed to his feet, then swung it into a building. With a mighty crash, the building collapsed, burying the Gyaos.

Desperately, it struggled its way out of the rubble, only for Godzilla to seize it by its head, pinning it down. With the slightest movement, he could snap its neck.

"SKREEEEOONNK!" Godzilla roared in the Hyper Gyaos' face. The message was clear. I am king. Bow to me or die.

The Hyper Gyaos, however, still saw only food. With a high-pitched shriek, it fired its sonic scalpel into Godzilla's hand. Godzilla recoiled as the thin yellow beam cut through his scales. The Gyaos used the opportunity to take flight again. It circled back around and struck at Godzilla's head with its talons. Godzilla lashed at it with his tail, knocking it to the ground again.

The Hyper Gyaos slapped Godzilla with its wing, but he bit into it and tore into the flesh, ripping a hole into the limb. It spurted yellow blood as the Gyaos shrieked in agony. Godzilla followed up by kicking it in the chest, knocking it backwards.

Distance. Just what the Hyper Gyaos needed. It fired its sonic scalpel again and again, slashing at Godzilla's flesh with yellow rays. Godzilla let out a roar of pain and frustration. His healing factor immediately went to work, regenerating the damage, but doing so was burning through what little radiation he had managed to absorb. He needed some breathing room.

Seizing a bus, Godzilla hurled the vehicle at the Hyper Gyaos' face. It cried out as it was knocked back. Godzilla lunged, tackling the Gyaos through several buildings. His foe bit into one of the wounds its sonic scalpel had left, draining out the blood. Godzilla screeched in pain and began punching the Hyper Gyaos in the face. It promptly fired its scalpel through his eye.

"KRAAAA!" Godzilla let out a roar of agony, stumbling backward as his body tried desperately to absorb enough radiation from the air to regenerate. The Hyper Gyaos, meanwhile, began using one of its stranger abilities. One of the reasons the Gyaos had become so powerful was their ability to manipulate their DNA. By eating continuously, they could develop adaptations to counter previous disadvantages. Normally, it was a slow process, but by assimilating Gozilla's DNA from his blood, the Hyper Gyaos began evolving instantly. It began to regenerate from the wounds Godzilla had given it, repairing the hole in its wing. Once more, it took flight.

The Hyper Gyaos soared into the air, then slashed its sonic scalpel across Godzilla's flesh. While he cried out in agony, it flew past his blind side, leaving a shallow slash from its talons. Godzilla lashed out with a punch, but it was already gone. It spun around and slashed at his back, then shot upward and kicked him in the head. Godzilla hurled a car, but couldn't see the Gyaos and missed. It dropped into a diving kick and slammed him through a building, then forced him further back with its sonic scalpel.

"He's getting his ass kicked!" Raleigh yelled.

"No, wait," said Miki, realizing what was happening.

As the Hyper Gyaos took flight again, it went for Godzilla's blind side. The King of the Monsters seemed weakened, slower. The Gyaos let out a gleeful screech, eager to feast. It couldn't imagine how the tide would turn.

With lightning speed, Godzilla's tail lifted into the air and slammed into the Hyper Gyaos as it dove. There was a crack like thunder as it was sent sprawling, slamming into the ground and skidding away.

"But how?" Raleigh asked. "He couldn't have seen it coming!"

Miki grinned. "He memorized its attack pattern. And he can heal anytime. He's just saving up the radiation."

A blue charge rushed up Godzilla's dorsal plates, but didn't die this time. It gathered in his mouth with an incandescent blue glow.

The Hyper Gyaos climbed shakily to its feet. It still hungered, still desired to feast. But that desire would never be sated.

With a mighty "SKREEEEOONNK!", Godzilla unleashed his atomic breath. A glowing blue column of power shot from his mouth straight at the Hyper Gyaos. The Gyaos had no time to let out a final cry as, in a massive conflagration of flame, its head was blasted off.

Godzilla let out a huff of disapproval as he allowed his wounds to heal at last. Sight in his left eye was restored, and through it he beheld humans cowering in terror behind a window.

What had they done to the world now? He had given them a chance, and they had squandered it. Perhaps it was time to wipe them out for good. He began to charge up another blast.

"Power's reactivating!" a scientist in the Shatterdome shouted.

Pentecost had known exactly how long it would take, but feigned surprise and joy. Covertly, he reached for a remote and activated the Hayashida Transmitter in the bay.

Godzilla could hear the cries. It couldn't be… not her?

But perhaps his son, or another of his kind. Any would be welcome.

With a grunt, he stomped away from the building. Godzilla marched through Tokyo, towards the bay.

Everyone beheld him. Some cheered. Some screamed. Most were silent.

But all knew one thing.

The King of the Monsters had returned.

Miki, Asagi, and Raleigh walked back into the warehouse. Asagi guided them to the room containing the Tide.

All three of them stopped in shock at what they beheld.

Ichiro Miki lay before them, curled into a ball. He clawed at his head, muttering constantly to himself and occasionally letting loose with a mad scream. Sho Kuroki stood above him, one hand on his back, the second on his gun.

In the center of the room lay a charred hunk of metal. Various plants grew out of it, some roses, some unlike anything Miki had seen before.

She took a closer look at the object. A G-Force insignia, faded and marred, but still there, could be seen on a part that jutted out from the rest.

Wait, no- that was a wing.

The metal hunk was a G-Force jet.

As Kuroki turned to greet them, soldiers had turned their buzzsaws on the jet, cutting a hole through the side.

Footsteps sounded as a silhouette emerged. He immediately collapsed as he entered the light, and a soldier caught him.

He was an old man in a lab coat. He looked malnourished and pale. Miki immediately considered how long he had been in the jet.

An ID fell out of his pocket, and she picked it up.

It was faded, but she could make out a few words.

Dr. Genichiro Shiragami

終わり