Several other characters join the fray.
In the AMF camp
"Well, that's looking to be a real shitshow," said Emi, watching the smoke rising above the city.
"Yeah," said Hiro. "Damn Heroes. If they're going to fail, they could at least not screw us over too! Right Akai?"
"I'm trying to ignore that," Akai said. "If we're going to be dying out there, I'd rather not spend my last free moments thinking about it!
"Hey look on the bright side!" said Emi with a forced smile. "At least when we die nobody will have to worry whether it should be a closed or open casket funeral!"
"Like with Toji!," said Ken.
"What happened to him?" said Akai.
"Baragon stomped his tank. Had to scrape most of him out. Only part intact was the leg. Buried it with full honors. Nice service. Quite sad. Felt guilty about what I said to him before the battle."
"What was that?" said Akai.
"Break a leg."
Everyone let out an incredulous laugh.
"No seriously! I said that!"
"That's what you call irony!" said Hiro.
There was a brief silence. Ken glanced at the city. "You think Uravity will be there?" he said.
"Not this again…" said Toma.
"What? What's wrong with wanting someone's autograph?"
They all gave him deadpan looks.
"And her number. But come on! She's cute, has a sweet personality, and can kick Villain and kaiju ass! And looks hot in that costume."
"Good point," said Ken. "Just remember, if you meet her, act like me!"
"You are so full of shit Ken!" said Akai. "Last time you tried asking a girl out, you immediately panicked and ran into a pole!"
"Says the guy who wouldn't even try asking a girl out!"
"I'm married dumbass!"
"Soldiers!" a new voice said. "Attention!"
All of them stood. The leader of the AMF forces in Tokyo, Togashi, walked amongst the soldiers.
"Listen up! While we haven't been ordered in yet that could change any moment. I want us ready to go the second the order comes through. Get to your stations."
"Yes sir!"
The group ran to their masers, barring Hiro who ran to his rocket launcher and motorbike with the infantry. Emi climbed into her maser where her gunner Aoba was waiting, taking one last look at the smoke rising above Tokyo as she closed the hatch.
Ochako carried yet another load of civilians to the field hospital. Up ahead, several other Heroes carried their own loads, mostly groups of twos and threes. Ochako landed and deposited her group with the medics before going to catch her breath.
Ochako leaned against a wall and wiped her brow. Sounds of death and despair came from every direction. Mournful weeping, nervous whispers, futile words of comfort came from every corner of the camp. Other civilians simply stared in shell shocked silence. Even some Heroes looked to be cracking. One near Ochako wandered listlessly until another Hero came and pulled him away.
Ochako saw Agonizer and Tsukuyomi nearby, saying something about "mad banquet of the dark" and a "beast of the shadows" while walking toward the infirmary. She had no idea what they meant, but she suspected she agreed. Ochako looked down and noticed her hands shaking. She breathed. In, and out. In, and out. Keep it together Ochako.
A TV showed a news broadcast of Godzilla firing his atomic breath. Ochako had never seen him this angry before.
"Authorities have confirmed that the attacker, Godzilla, is making its way through the Minato Ward, setting massive fires across the district. Prime Minister Okochi has been evacuated from the Diet Building to a secure location. Authorities are calling for additional Heroes to-"
Ochako stopped listening. There was nothing there for her to hear.
She trudged toward the edge of the camp, then jogged, then floated, toward the disaster zone. After all, there was so much more to do.
After his copter landed in the AMF camp, Kenji took a jeep to the primary command post in Tokyo.
As he entered the city felt something…off.
He couldn't properly sense it, like a tingle in the back of his head, a sound too high for the ear to register. But he knew something was in the air. Kenji looked in the general direction the feeling was coming from, wondering what it was. Could it be someone's quirk?
Kenji was distracted from the strange feeling by another feeling: Godzilla's rage. It radiated from him, worse than anything Kenji had felt from Godzilla before.
Even after the attacks he shouldn't be this mad! What the hell?
The jeep dropped Kenji off at the command post. Ogashira stepped out to meet him, her face as stoic as ever. Her body language was a different story. It was coiled and tight, like a spring wound to the breaking point. Her mind was little better, a raging tempest held back by a straining wall of professionalism and duty.
"Saegusa," she said.
"Ms. Ogashira," Kenji said. "I take it things aren't going well?"
"Understatement," she said. "Godzilla's marching completely unimpeded, sowing destruction on a scale I've never seen before."
"Yeah, I've never felt him this mad," said Kenji. "Nothing should have set him off this much…
She nodded. "I've spoken with the military and Heroes. The remaining leaders are consulting us on how to fight him. They don't have the firepower or the tactical experience of the AMF, but with him this angry, distracting him won't take much."
"Can he be distracted?" Kenji said. "Given how determined he was to reach whatever drew him here, I don't see small attacks dissuading him…"
"That's just it," Ogashira said. "Once Godzilla made landfall, his movements stopped resembling a search. Now he's just wandering around."
"Odd," Kenji said. Normally he'd think Masaji was right and Godzilla really did just want to come home, but…he wasn't sure. Something else was at play.
"You two!" A military officer walked up to them. "We're preparing a strike to keep Godzilla from the civilians. You told us he'll follow if we attack him hard enough," he gestured to Ogashira, "How do we do that while minimizing casualties?"
"Stay behind the buildings, use faster vehicles if you can," Ogashira said. "Don't linger when you hit him, just strike and run. Watch Godzilla closely so you don't stumble into his line of fire."
"Be wary of him baiting you," said Kenji. "He'll notice if you attack from the same spot more than once, so watch for that. Keep the attacks from one general direction unless you're distracting him so you can retreat and redeploy."
"Alright. And for aerial combat?" said the officer.
"Keep a distance between any short-range fighters," said Ogashira. "If any see him aiming for them, take extreme evasive maneuvers."
"Godzilla is an excellent shot but it's harder for him to hit long-range targets when they try to evade. High altitude bombers should be safe if they take evasive action," said Kenji."
"Thank you," the officer said. "I will relay that to the others. If you'll excuse me, reinforcements and additional weapons are coming in and I will need to coordinate them.
The drop ships were loud, bumpy, and overall a pain in the neck. Mina always hated flying in them. The only upside were the jumps which could be thrilling in good circumstances.
These were not good circumstances.
Mina and the others had been called in shortly after everything went wrong. Reports were shaky at the camp, something about Godzilla defeating the military with some sort of breath attack. Destruction was widespread, and casualties high. Mina and the others were to help with search and rescue, and to avoid Godzilla whenever possible.
Mina glanced around at the other Heroes. One fiddled with his gear, as if he hadn't been doing that since they left camp. Another tapped his hands to his knees in some sort of musical beat. Mina herself fidgeted with her parachute, trying to keep her mind at ease.
The back of the plane whined as the doors lowered. It was time.
"Alright," said Kaminari, "Let's go!"
Mina and the others ran out the doors and jumped into the open air. Mina kept her body flat to control her movement. Wind whistled passed Mina's face, while the air buffeted her torso. Black smoke choked the air, obscuring the city below. Mina hoped she wouldn't be pulling the chute blind.
"Can't see anything!" she said.
"Me neither!" said Kaminari. "Wait! I think I'm starting to-Oh. Oh…shit."
"What is it? What did you-" Mina passed through the smoke, and instead of a bustling metropolis, she found herself staring at a fiery hellscape. "See."
"How...how?!" Kaminari said. "How'd one monster do this?!
"I haven't seen anything like this since Kamino!" another Hero said.
"This might be worse than Kamino!" said another.
The buildings got larger. Several were missing large chunks. One looked utterly mangled, with large pieces jutting out. Mina pulled the string, deploying her chute. She floated down, aiming into the streets.
Hold on. The mangled building was moving! Why-
Oh.
Oh.
Mina floated less than ten meters from Godzilla's head as the monsters slowly marched through the street, not even noticing her. She felt small. Mina was so distracted by Godzilla, that she almost didn't notice herself about to hit a building.
She swerved at the last minute and gently floated to the ground. Mina took her chute off, then glanced back at Godzilla's. The spines on its back glowed blue, before-
Holy shit, is that a freaking laser beam?!
They said he had a breath a weapon, they didn't say it was a death ray! Mina spotted a landmark, then activated her comms. "This is Alien Queen. I'm near the Sheev Palace Hotel. Godzilla's here too but I'm alright. You?"
"Chargebolt here with Earphone Jack. We hear you Alien Queen."
"This is Battle Fist. I'm with a few others, we're ducking out of the way right now."
"Who fired that blue quirk?" said another.
"Remember that breath weapon they said Godzilla had?" said Mina. "Apparently he has a damn death ray!"
There was a silence on the comms as what Mina said sank in. Then the dam burst.
"WHAT?"
"I thought he was quirkless! Because that looks like a quirk to me!"
"What should we do?"
"Everyone!" said Kendo. "This may be worse than we thought, but the mission's still the same. Look for survivors. Call for help if you need it. Above all, avoid Godzilla at all costs!"
The various Heroes answered in the affirmative.
"Alien Queen, we're coming to meet you," said Jiro. "See you in a bit."
"Got it." Mina deactivated her comms and looked at the row of burning buildings. Where could she even start? The sheer scale began to overwhelm her. But then, a sound pierced her spiraling thoughts.
A child crying.
Mina ran to the source, and found two young girls huddled with their mother, who had a bleeding head wound and a look of utter despair.
"It's alright…" the mother said. "It'll be all over soon. We'll be with your father soon. Just a little-" She noticed Mina. "Longer?"
"Hang on!" Mina ran over and began tending to the woman, who let out a dazed, "A Hero?"
The wound was bad. Mina did her best to bandage it, but she needed real medics. Nevertheless, Mina gave the three the most optimistic smile she could muster. "Don't worry. My friends are coming going all of you out of here!" The daughters looked smoothed. The mother didn't look despairing anymore, but she didn't look hopeful either.
She looked at her daughters, then at Mina. "Thank you," she whispered before telling her kids, "You're going to be fine."
The woman leaned over, her eyelids starting to close.
"Hey, hey!" Mina said. She couldn't let the woman lose consciousness. "Your daughters look sweet, w-what month were they born?"
"Oh…summer," the mother said weakly. "Both were born in the summer. It was so hot out, both times. They're father was a salary man. Died in a plane crash. A shame…leaving children without a father…"
Mina heard approaching footsteps as Kaminari, Jiro, and Setsuna rounded the corner. Mina waved them over. "Guys! This one needs immediate care!" She turned back to the woman. "My friend's taking you to safety. Please hold on."
The woman didn't answer. She just held her daughters while Setsuna came and looked them over. Once she was sure the kids were fine, Setsuna picked up all three with her arms and torso and carried them away. Mina hoped they got help in time.
They searched for more survivors, using Jiro's earphone jacks and Setsuna's detached eyes and ears. They found several. As Mina looked at their faces, the thing that struck her the most was the despair. All of them looked utterly without hope.
Once they'd gathered as many as they could handle, Mina and the others led them to the nearest evac zone.
There, Mina found even more misery. Many civilians, and even a few Heroes, watched the disaster unfolding on their TVs or phones, unable to look away. Mina remembered Kamino, and the horror on everyone's faces when All for One unleashed his attack. However, after All for One's initial blast, the monster was met by All Might. A champion of good to stop this great evil. After a short but intense battle, All Might emerged beaten but victorious.
Here? The Heroes had already failed against this monster. No one could beat it. There was no climactic battle for the city's fates. Instead, everyone had to sit back and watch as Godzilla tore their world apart…
"Send Gallant Eyes east to link up with the Sir Crucible! I want ESG to lead his group of civilians to checkpoint beta!"
"Yes sir All Might!"
Toshinori looked at the readout to plan his next move. What Heroes were available, where was Godzilla moving, where were the nearest shelters? It was a game of speed chess, one where he already lost but now had to minimize the damage.
"All Might?" a familiar voice said.
Toshinori looked down. "Nezu."
"Indeed," said the anthropomorphic animal. "I was coordinating the students' placements when everything went wrong. Since all of them were out of harm's way, I decided to come here and help. I must admit, even I didn't think it'd get this bad this fast."
"Neither did I," said Toshinori. Glad to have you Nezu. Help monitor the-"
"All Might!" a staffer said, "Someone from the government wants to speak with you and you alone. He said its urgent. He's with the AMF?" The staffer pointed to a suited man behind him in his late thirties or early forties.
"Nezu, can you run things here for a little?" Toshinori said.
"Of course, take as long as you need."
Toshinori walked over to the suited man.
"Director Rando Yaguchi, of the AMF," the suited man said. "I need your help."
Mina slid down the streets toward the nearest safe area.
"Alien Queen! Do you read?"
"Yeah," said Mina. "This street's clear, moving on to the next one."
She glanced at some military transport choppers poking just above the buildings carrying something on large cables.
"Forget that! Godzilla's changed directions! He's moving toward the evacuation zone from your direction! The army's readying a delaying tactic, but you have to get out of there!"
Mina was about to respond, but Godzilla's breath weapon hit the building above her, sending concrete raining down. Mina swerved to avoid it, but then heard a much louder noise. Mina looked up as the top half of the building started to lean.
Uh oh.
Mina booked it, sliding as fast as she could without falling. She didn't look back, she just moved! The ground shook with a deafening crash, knocking Mina off her feet.
Mina rolled to a stop and looked back. The way she'd come from was completely blocked by a wall of rubble. Mina turned around and realized she'd run in the wrong direction.
Godzilla was here.
Mina looked for an escape, zeroing on nearby intersection. Godzilla hadn't noticed her. She could make it.
Before she moved, a familiar sound filled her ears. A giant robot, near-identical to the ones UA used as Zero Pointers, came out from the side street and faced Godzilla.
Godzilla bared his claws.
Two more robots came from the opposite direction, followed by two more from different side streets. The group surrounded Godzilla.
Godzilla around at the group. He slammed his tail on the ground and roared at all of them.
"Uhhhh…" Mina felt a sinking as she realized there was about to be a brawl, and she was stuck in the middle of it.
Introducing the AMF's finest redshi-I mean soldiers! I'm sure everything will be fiiine...
Yep! Giant robots have showed up! Couldn't NOT have them fight Godzilla!
Hope you enjoyed! Reviews make me smile!
