Had this ready yesterday but my wifi went out! Glad to finally do it now, because I have been waiting to release this chapter more or less since I started plotting this story. This is one of the moments I pictured whenever I thought of this story. Enjoy.
The soldiers watched and cheered as, amidst the bombardment, Godzilla bowed his head and bent over. Slowly, their collective tension ebbed. Spirits rose. Surely this was it. It'd had taken one heck of a pounding, but the monster was finally beaten.
Then Godzilla's spines began to flash blue.
Slowly at first, with only one or two spines flashing. Then three or four. It quickened, soon, all three rows were glowing bright blue, a pulsing sound emanating from them.
"Why's it glowing?" one soldier said. "Why's it glowing?!
Throughout the army, Geiger counters went wild.
"What the hell is that?!" said Mirko.
"Creati?" said Sero.
"I…I'm not sure…" said Momo. She'd read the Commission's notes several times. They hadn't said anything about bioluminescence! Curse her lack of intel!
What was Godzilla doing?!
"Sir! The creature's back is glowing!" said the comm operator.
"To do what?" said the officer.
The AMF woman, Ogashira stormed inside. "Pull your men out," she said. "Now!"
"We can't do that," the officer said. "We're almost-"
"He's about to unleash an attack that will wipe out your entire force! Pull them-no, tell them to drop everything and run! And tell your pilots to take evasive action!"
"What kind of attack could do that kind of damage?!"
Godzilla parted his jaws, letting everyone see a bright blue vaper gathering in his mouth.
The missile commander had the distinct feeling they were screwed.
Godzilla looked up toward the sky. If the missile commander didn't know any better, he'd have thought the beast was looking for the high-altitude bombers from earlier.
Godzilla narrowed his eyes, then opened his mouth.
A very familiar sound filled Ochako's ears. Turning around, she he saw an orange dot in the sky, barely bigger than a star.
"What was that?!" said Nejire, a nervous edge to her voice.
"D-did that animal just shoot down a plane?!" one of the Heroes said.
The sound returned. A thin blue line of light appeared, shining up like a spotlight from Godzilla's location and leaving another orange star in its wake.
"Come on," Ochako said, looking into the sky. "Take evasive action. Move! He can't hit you at that altitude if you just -"
The line appeared again, leaving a third star.
Three planes destroyed.
Godzilla closed his mouth, but the spines continued to glow. Godzilla turned his attention to the soldiers. The missile commander watched the monster with his usual stoic gaze, ready to meet whatever happened.
Around him some soldiers broke and ran, others panicked, while others still stood frozen. An order to retreat came over the radio, but it was obviously too little too late.
Godzilla glared at the assembled army with a look of rage and utter contempt. Godzilla opened his mouth, letting the glow erupt.
Momo stood in shock as a beam of blue plasma erupted from Godzilla's mouth, blasting the assembled army. The beam exploded on impact, generated a massive fireball.
Godzilla dragged the beam across the plaza in a wide circle, slowly turning so he could blast everything and everyone.
Soldiers ran for their lives as Godzilla's beam consumed them. Those not incinerated flew like ragdolls. Only a precious few escaped.
Godzilla continued his sweep.
In the command post, a solider watched the troop positions on his screen rapidly vanish. "Eighty percent destroyed! No, ninety percent destroyed!"
The officer stood frozen. "Impossible…"
Godzilla finished his attack, leaving a circle of death around him.
Katsuki stared at the nightmare as it loomed over the inferno.
It…it's too strong.
Katsuki remembered that day in Kamino, when All for One wiped out several blocks in a single attack. He'd felt so small and useless then. Katsuki hadn't felt that way before or since. No matter how powerful his opponent was, nothing made him feel helpless like Kamino.
Until now.
"H-how do we beat that…?" he said, his words slurring. "We're…insects to it! Just insects…"
Finally, he felt his mind slipping away. As he closed his eyes, that blazing circle seared into his mind, a towering demon in its center.
"Bakugo? Bakugo!" Sero slapped Bakugo's cheek, but to no avail. He checked for a pulse. "He's alive, but out cold."
Momo slowly nodded, her eyes not leaving the plaza. Godzilla…
He was supposed to be quirkless and he'd just…
Feeling everyone's eyes on her, Momo felt the full weight of her command. She wished she could pass it to someone else, but there was no one to give it to.
Just her.
Momo took a few deep breaths. After a few moments, she said, "There's nothing more we can do here. Gather the wounded. We'll rendezvous with the other Heroes and try to regroup. And be quick. That attack almost certainly spread lots of radiation."
As the others moved, Momo looked back at Godzilla, who marched uncontested to the edge of the plaza, and began smashing through a building. How could they defeat something that powerful?
Was it even possible?
With that last thought, Momo joined the others and began making the long journey around.
The Heroes around Ochako stood frozen as the explosions faded, processing how bad the situation really was. And how thoroughly screwed they all were.
Unfortunately, there wasn't time for that. Godzilla was coming, sending tremors up Ochako's spine with every step.
Ochako shook the Heroes next to her. "Come on! We need to move now!"
"He…he just…"
"Wiped out the entire military, I'm know! And if we don't move we're next!" At that, the Heroes came to their senses. They all began to run away.
There was a loud crashing behind them.
One of the buildings began to crack and shake, while a familiar head loomed over it, smashing through. The front collapsed. Godzilla marched out of the dust cloud.
Despite all her training and experience, for a brief moment Ochako froze.
He looks angry…
Godzilla's gaze fixed itself on the Heroes.
Ochako's breath stopped.
Ochako lunged forward, tapped several of the Heroes then herself. She pulled the ones she'd tapped close, and leaped away, using her grapplers to fly to the nearest building. At the same time, Nejire grabbed a clump of her own and carried them in her arms. However, several were left behind.
Glancing behind her, Ochako saw Godzilla's spines begin to flash.
Ryukyu slowly got to her aching feet and shook herself off. Everything hurt. Looking out, she saw the plaza where the military had been waiting in ruins, covered in the still glowing wreckages of military's weapons.
How-?
Beyond the carnage she saw Godzilla, its spines flashing electric blue.
Beyond that, she saw a group of Heroes.
With a push, Ryukyu took to the air and flew toward the monster's back as fast as she could. The spines were now fully glowing. Ryukyu wasn't what it meant, but she knew it was bad.
She stopped flapping, opting to glide so she could hit the back of Godzilla's head before it knew she was even there. She would save those Heroes!
Nejire flew back down to grab another group.
Fear stabbed through her as glowing vapor built up in Godzilla's mouth. As she was about to leap away, she glanced behind the monster's head.
Ryukyu going in for a sneak attack!
Nejire grabbed the Heroes and charged her quirk to flee. Ryukyu would cover their escape. Nejire believed in her.
Godzilla breathed in, its mouth glowing bright blue. Ryukyu readied her claws.
This is i-
At the last moment, Godzilla closed its mouth, then turned around.
He opened his mouth, and blasted Ryukyu at point blank range.
Ochako watched helplessly as the Dragoon Hero was engulfed in the beam, an explosion erupting from where she'd just been.
It…it couldn't be.
Ryukyu was…
Ryukyu was more than just another comrade-in-arms or even authority figure. Ochako had lost both to Godzilla before. She, and Heroes like her, were like icons. Untouchable, near invincible, barely even mortal.
Now she was…
Ochako shook her head. Death was part of this mission. It was always part of the mission. Ochako couldn't let it get in her way now. She leaped down and floated to Nejire and Heroes with her. She landed and quickly tapped them all, canceling their gravity.
Nejire didn't react. She watched Godzilla, a blank, almost confused expression on her face. "Ryukyu…"
"Nejire-Chan," Ochako said.
Nejire didn't react.
"Nejire-chan! Snap out of it! I've got the other Heroes. We need to g-"
Nejire's face contorted into a look of utter rage. "YOU'LL PAY!" She rocketed into the air straight at Godzilla.
"NEJIRE NO!"
As Godzilla slowly turned back around toward the Heroes, Nejire charged her quirk. "Full charge, output level 100! Nejire WAVE!"
She unleashed her full might on the monster, sending two gold spiraling attacks straight into its ugly mug.
Godzilla's head cocked backward. Nejire pushed harder. However, while her attack was pushing him, it wasn't hurting him. Godzilla's spines began to flash.
Nejire cut off her attack and flew around.
Godzilla fired his atomic breath, Nejire avoided it, sending another blast at its face. "NEJIRE WAVE!"
He fired at her again, with the same result.
"NEJIRE WAVE!"
Nejire circled around, firing blast after blast at the bastard who'd taken her mentor from her. The most her attacks did was make Godzilla flinch, but that fueled her rage more. Her eyes began to water. Nejire blinked and kept firing. He killed Ryukyu! He had to pay!
Godzilla fired his blast just as she fired hers. The two beams collided in the middle and began to push against each other.
Ochako watched in awe as Nejire's beams struggled directly against Godzilla's.
"Holy shit, he's actually matching her in power?" said one of the Heroes. Ochako was surprised for the opposite reason. Just how strong was Nejire's full power if it could go toe to toe with Godzilla?!
Then Ochako noticed it. It was subtle, but definite. Ochako grabbed the other Heroes and readied to take off. No doubt about it.
Nejire was losing.
Nejire put everything she had into her blast, but it wasn't enough! Slowly but surely, Godzilla pushed her back. His beam was too powerful.
Then she began to tire.
Her arms burned from the strain of maintain her blast. The spirals from her legs grew weak, barely keeping her aloft. Meanwhile Godzilla's ray kept pushing hers back, faster and faster. Nejire kept fighting, but it was futile.
As Godzilla's beam barreled towards her, all of Nejire's remaining power flooded into her leg.
Nejire blasting her upward as her beam completely broke, narrowly avoiding the brunt of Godzilla's blast. Nejire screamed as a wave of heat overwhelmed her. Her costume melted around her, her skin blistered, and her hair caught aflame.
Finally, mercifully, she blacked out.
"Nejire…" Ochako said, watching the falling speck plummeting toward one of the rooftops.
She was with the Heroes she'd saved a safe distance away. The Heroes watched, terrified, as Godzilla roared in victory.
"What are you waiting for?!" Ochako said to them, "Get out of here! Grab any civilian you find and get to the nearest checkpoint! Go!"
Nobody said a word. They just obeyed. As the Heroes ran away, Ochako looked to the building where Nejire had fallen.
She wasn't sure, but…
Godzilla unleashed his atomic breath upon the city, sweeping it across the skyline, setting it ablaze. He fired through buildings, maintaining his blast so it could burrow through as many buildings as possible. He blasted the taller ones, slowly raking his breath across them until they toppled to the ground. For others, he swept his breath over the upper floors, blasting them apart.
He fired again and again, spreading fire and destruction all around him.
The President of the Hero Commission watched the unfolding disaster, seeing but not comprehending. How? How had this animal done this? Without a quirk? They'd brought their best Heroes, the military How could they lose? Was this a beast, or a demon?
As she watched her plans literally go up in flames, along with half the city, a stray shot of Godzilla's atomic breath blasted through the President's reinforced window, engulfing her and half offices behind her.
Hanabata numbly watched as the news breathlessly reported Godzilla overwhelming the Heroes and military, using his plasma beam to destroy everything in his way.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be! All his work, his plans… ash...
A glass shattered.
Hanabata turned to see Lord Re-Destroy's fist turning the shards of his goblet to a fine powder. The dark mask of Re-Destro's meta ability spread over his face. His muscles bulged.
Several high-ranking officials quickly left the room. Re-Destroy picked up the table and embedded it into a wall with a noise that resembled an animal more than a man.
"GET OUT!" he roared. Everyone sprinted out as Re-Destro threw another table into a wall.
Outside, Hanabata fell to his knees and stared blankly forward as more sounds of destruction came from the room.
The other bar patrons watched the news broadcast in horror.
Mifune and X clinked their glasses.
"Success," said X.
Shota Aizawa, Pro Hero Eraserhead, carried Bakugo into the back of the improvised infirmary. Most of the injured Heroes had been taken to a closer location, but Yaoyorozu had Bakugo brought here. Not surprising since, given the extent of his injuries, if he didn't receive radical first aid soon he'd likely die within the hour.
Injury and death were always a risk, but seeing his student like this still tore at Shota.
Shota entered the place where they kept their best medics in reserve. They had the strongest healing quirks, which they saved for only the most urgent of cases. Given Bakugo's horrific injuries as well as his value in the field (even for Rescue Work), Shota felt he qualified.
Hero students were forbidden from combat under 13-F, but they were permitted to help with evacuations and healing. Shota approached a teenage girl in a white and red Hero costume with white hair and a horn on her forehead, who was sitting near a boy with brown hair and eyes.
At his approach, the girl's red eyes looked up with curiosity.
"Eri, this Hero needs help, ASAP. Can you heal him?"
Ochako found her on the building, broken but alive. But was that a miracle, or a curse?
Nearly every inch of Nejire's skin was burned, the less damaged parts red and blistered, the rest blackened. Her costume was in tatters, most of it melted. One of her legs was badly damaged while the other was simply gone, with only a bloody stump remaining.
And that was just the visible damage.
Ochako contacted command. "How good are our healers? Do we have any quirks that can heal extreme radiation poisoning?"
Nejire had barely escaped a direct hit. Her dose was fatal. Ochako's Geiger counter was going wild just being on the same roof as her. She was already dead. Her body just didn't know it yet.
Ochako needed to know if by some miracle it could be fixed. If it couldn't…
Ochako didn't want to confront the dark thoughts in her mind. The ones reminding her that only she had to know Nejire was alive when Ochako arrived.
Finally, a gruff voice said, "Yes. We have two students whose quirks should be capable of that. How bad was the dosage?"
Ochako let out the breath she'd been holding. "I found Nejire-chan. She's alive but barely. She's badly burned and received a massive dose of radiation. She needs help now."
They gave her a location. Using her costume's function, Ochako canceled her own gravity without exposing herself. She picked up her mentor. It's alright Nejire. I'll do the job from here. Just rest.
Ochako began the lonely trip to the infirmary, carefully avoiding the epicenter of this nightmare.
Godzilla continued to unleash his atomic breath with utter abandon. Soon he stood tall in a sea of fire.
It was over. The gnats had fled. He'd won. Godzilla threw back his head and let out a triumphant roar.
Once more, in the streets of Tokyo, Godzilla reigned supreme.
The King has returned...
To the HPSC: How about a song on the world's smallest violin, with the help of the world's smallest choir (on loan from Infant Island)?
I really wasn't sure whether or not to kill Nejire, in fact I went back and forth on whether she would miraculously escape or just get nuked more or less up till the last minute. Ultimately I decided that since I wasn't fully committed to killing her that she'd live, albeit horribly maimed. Plus it let me get that moment where Ochako has the dilemma of leaving her due to the severity of her injuries.
Hope you enjoyed! Reviews bring me joy!
