Portals of Infinity: Kaiju

by John Van Stry

  "Not Goth, she was just trying to be her father's daughter."

  Evean got up and came over and gave me a hug. "I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry. But I need you onboard for this Will. We're almost to the goal, after this, if what that woman told you was correct, we'll be in the sphere with the Okishijen Desootoria.

  "Then we can all go home and kill the gojira."

  I nodded and hugged her back, and just enjoyed her company for a few moments. I didn't mention to her about how there might be a traitor in our midst. Because I was still afraid it might be her. And I just didn't want to deal with that possibility right now.

  "Akira, invite Loomis and Suzona to my room for a meeting." Evean said out loud, and then went back and sat on the edge of her bed while we waited for the other two to arrive.

  Loomis was first in the door, followed a minute later by Suzona. I thought it was pretty funny that Loomis seemed to be sniffing the air. I guess he thought that Evean and I had been having sex before he got here.

  "So, what's our next move?" Suzona asked.

  "Walk the city and see if we can sense where the portal is," Evean said.

  "Can we get a car perhaps? It would save us a lot of time," Suzona pointed out.

  "How? I don't see any around here at all."

  "Akira," Suzona said.

  "Yes, Suzona?"

  "Can we get a vehicle, which will sit all four of us, and take a tour of this level?"

  "Of course. When would you like it?"

  Suzona looked at Evean and smiled. "Well?"

  "Say, fifteen minutes from now?" Evean said looking at the rest of us.

  Everyone nodded.

  "Fifteen minutes from now, Akira."

  "It will be ready."

  "What is that thing?" Loomis asked.

  "It's the AI that runs the city, most likely," Suzona said.

  "What's an AI?" Loomis asked.

  "An artificial intelligence," Suzona said. "Wouldn't surprise me either if she was self-aware."

  "What's that mean?"

  "It means, be very nice to her, and don't piss her off," I said.

  "Go back to your rooms, get your things, we'll meet out in the lobby in fifteen minutes," Evean said.

  I got up and led the way out, with Suzona behind me. Loomis stayed behind however.

  "I think Loomis is jealous," Suzona laughed.

  "You noticed?" I said shaking my head.

  "He wanted to go with Evean after you went into your room. She turned him down."

  "And he thinks I was with her, great."

  "I will be glad when this is finished. He is a problem just waiting to happen."

  "Tell me about it," I sighed and went back into my room. I was surprised to see my 'walking stick' was there. I picked it up and tested the weight. It was lighter than I expected, but it was very stiff and seemed rather strong.

  I put on the rest of my clothes, used a cantrip to get everything nice and clean and then thought about things for a couple of minutes.

  "Akira, please show me a map of the city."

  A simple map appeared. The city was obvious rather large.

  "Akira, please show me a map of lower level one."

  The map was still huge, but now it showed roads, buildings and other such landmarks.

  "Akira, please let me know when Evean goes to the lobby."

  "Yes, Will."

  "Just how smart are you anyway?"

  "I am very smart, Will."

  "Have you ever heard of Eiji Tsuburaya, Akira?"

  "Yes, he was here forty-four years ago; he spent several days talking to me. I enjoyed it considerably."

  "Not a lot of people talk to you?" I asked surprised.

  "No, to most people I am just a servant; they do not consider me more than that. Some will talk to me, but it is not common."

  "So, Suzona was right, you are self-aware."

  "Yes, that is correct, Will."

  "Did Eiji tell you about the Okishijen Desootoria? Gojira? And all of that?"

  "Yes, he was quite excited by what he saw in the world of the scientists."

  "So you know about the portals?" I asked.

  "Of course, I see everything that goes on in my city. People appearing and disappearing was an issue for me at first, when I was born. Over time and by observation I discovered the existence of the portals."

  "Do the people here know of them?"

  "Some do, most do not. Few would care in either case. The people of this world are happy with this reality. If they wish to explore other places, they may simply take a ship off world to another planet."

  "You have star travel?" I said surprised.

  "Yes, we have had it for over a century now. It is part of the reason that the population of my city is only at fifty percent of capacity."

  "Wow, that's pretty neat, Akira."

  "So, am I to understand you are tracing Eiji's path?"

  "That would be correct. We need to find ourselves one of those Okishijen Desootoria devices. Our home is being invaded by one of those gojira."

  "Eiji said that the portal comes out in the basement of a great stadium, not unlike the one in his home. He said he found the world quite fascinating, because in some ways it was like his home, which had just suffered a devastating war and was in great turmoil now. Apparently the world of scientists, which was what he called it, had been through a similar war many years prior, and had suffered a similar fate. But its people had united to rebuild and advance themselves for more peaceful causes.

  "He felt after seeing their future, that perhaps his own was not so bleak. Did he do well when he returned?"

  I nodded, and then remembered she couldn't see me, "Actually, yes. He did very well when he got home. Thanks to him, that's how we know what we need, and where to get it."

  "I will have the transport take you directly to the portal to the stadium then, so as not to delay you further."

  "Thank you, Akira. I appreciate that."

  "You are welcome. Evean has left her room and it proceeding to the lobby."

  I got up and grabbed my walking stick and headed for the door.

  "Take care of yourself, Akira."

  "I will, and I am sorry to hear of the loss of your daughter, good luck with your search, Will."

  I was halfway to the lobby when I remembered the only place I'd said anything to anyone about Goth, was to Evean in her room. Apparently Akira liked to eavesdrop.

  "Ah, there you are, Will." Evean said. "I was just about to ask Akira to send for you."

  "I was doing a little research," I said. "I think we'll find the portal fairly quickly."

  "Oh? How?"

  "Akira is going to have the transport take us there. She was very helpful."

  "You told the machine about our mission?" Loomis said looking rather shocked.

  I sighed, "I told her about it, after talking to her about Eiji. She remembers him rather well. Please do not be rude to her, she has feelings you know."

  "And she's listening to everything we say," Suzona sighed and headed for the exit. "She's a god here, Loomis, and I suggest you respect her as one, or you will not have a pleasant stay."

  "I thought you said she was a machine?" He sputtered and followed Suzona out of the lobby.

  "Just drop it," Evean said. "And be ready to apologize if she asks you too."

  Thankfully, Loomis just shut his mouth and nodded.

  I tried not to smile, and failed miserably, but I kept my mouth shut and got into the back seat of the transport, which looked pretty much like a golf cart.

  Once we were all seated, it chimed twice and drove off.

  "Quarterstaff?" Suzona asked looking at me.

  "Walking stick. Quarterstaffs are prohibited here," I said with a smile.

  "Ah, good point," Suzona said smiling back. "Wish I had thought of that."

  "Do you know where the portal comes out, Will?" Evean said turning around in her seat to look at me.

  "Akira said that he told her it came out i
n the basement of a stadium."

  "Not unlike where we started from."

  "Exactly so," I agreed.

  "Well, what is our plan once we get there?" Loomis asked. I noticed he was looking a little worried. I guess the idea of being in a vehicle that no one was apparently driving bothered him.

  "Find where they keep the devices, steal one if we have to, go back home and use it." Evean said. "Anything more than that we'll make up as we go along."

  It took us about fifteen minutes to get to the portal, and when we did it was at the end of a dead end street.

  "Well that's convenient," Suzona said.

  "Considering that Akira knows about it, I suspect she probably arranged things like this to avoid problems." Evean said.

  "That does make sense," Suzona agreed, getting out and walking over to the portal.

  "I'll go first."

  "I'll go last," I said, getting out as well.

  "You're next Loomis," Evean said as Suzona stepped through.

  Loomis shrugged and followed Suzona through the portal.

  "I wasn't going to kill him, you know."

  "I didn't want to tempt you," Evean smiled.

  "Just, keep an eye on him."

  "And not you?"

  "All I care about it getting rid of that monster. As long as that gets done, I don't really care about anything else, Evean."

  Evean gave me a very slow smile. "Promise?"

  I nodded.

  "Good, because I'm going to hold you to it."

  And with that she stepped through.

  "Suddenly, I'm a lot more worried than I was before," I sighed to myself taking a moment to touch it first.

  "Will?" Akira's voice came from the transport.

  "Yes Akira?"

  "Press the indentation on the middle of the walking stick."

  I looked at it a moment, and saw what she was talking about, so I pressed it and it collapsed down to about the same size as a can of soup.

  I laughed, "Why thank you, Akira."

  "As you said, I listen to everything, and I wanted you to have a very good walking stick, in fact, the best."

  "You're a good person, Akira." I said and sticking the 'can' in my pocket I stepped through the portal.

  Nineteen

  Final World

  World of Scientists - Stadium

  I dodged right, more out of habit than anything else as I came out the other side, and bumped into a wall. Suzona and Loomis were moving towards the other side of the room, where there appeared to be a doorway, and Evean was looking around the room getting her bearings I guess.

  It was a pretty large room, and it had a good deal of equipment stored in it. Some of which looked like it hadn't been touched in years.

  Suzona stopped at the doorway and spent a few minutes examining it.

  "It's locked, but the key is on the other side and it locks from this one, so that's not a problem," She said.

  "Is it alarmed?" Evean asked.

  "I honestly can't tell. But there doesn't appear to be anything of value in here, so I don't think so."

  "The portal is in here," Evean pointed out.

  "If they knew about it, I would have expected some sort of enclosure around the portal," Suzona replied. "That there isn't one, makes me suspect that the powers that be here do not know of them."

  Evean looked at me, I shrugged, "Makes sense to me."

  "Fine, let's go."

  Suzona nodded, and opened the door a crack, looked around, then opened it all the way and stepped out.

  We followed in the same order we'd come through the portal, I closed the door behind us, making sure it wasn't locked first, just in case we needed to come back this way for some reason.

  As we walked down the hallways, we eventually came to an area with a lot of people walking back and forth, going to concession stands and such. I guess there was an event of some kind going on, so we just joined up with the crowd. I noticed our clothing really did not fit in very well, and we were getting looks. Evean asked someone where the exit was, and they just pointed, so we trooped off in that direction.

  "Clothing store," Evean mumbled, as soon as we got out of the stadium, "That needs to be our next stop."

  "Actually, I think a pawn shop would be a better idea," Suzona said. "People in high tech societies are usually not very willing to barter gold for currency."

  "Fine, but where can we find one of those?"

  Suzona went up to the next man we came to, and asked him if he knew of one. He pulled out a device, that looked a lot like the one that kid had back on the world where my sister had clocked him for being rude and then taken it from him. But at least this guy wasn't an ass.

  He gave Suzona directions, she thanked him, and off we went.

  I wondered for a moment as we walked if this was that same world, Chocoga I think it had been called. But the portal hadn't felt like one I knew, so I doubted it.

  The city itself was interesting, in some ways it reminded me a lot of Japan, it was very built up, lots of skyscrapers and other tall buildings, with shops everywhere, and people walking everywhere. It was very busy and the streets were full of vehicles that were similar to cars, but a lot quieter and more functional looking in their design.

  There were vehicles above as well, floating down the streets. I say floating rather than flying, as they were not moving very fast, so something other than aerodynamics was keeping them airborne.

  Probably the most amazing thing was how clean everything was. After that it was how much everything shined. Things really were keep rather well polished I guess. That or they were coated with something that never needed polishing, because the effort to keep that much of the city sparkling would obviously have taken an enormous amount of work.

  By the time night was falling, we'd found the pawnshop, gotten the local currency, and changed our clothing to fit in better with the locals.

  "So, what's our next step?" Loomis asked.

  "Find out where they battled the gojira I guess," Evean said.

  "That was back at the portal," I said.

  "What?"

  "Eiji told that lady that he had to wait for them to get rid of the monster and clean up the mess, because it was where the portal was, and he couldn't leave until it was done."

  "Oh? And when were you going to tell us that?" Loomis asked.

  "I just did." I said. Actually, I thought I already had told them that.

  "So, let's head back that way," said Evean.

  "Why not grab a taxi instead?" I said.

  "I'm not sure if that would be a good use of our funds, Will."

  "Yeah, but we can tell the taxi driver that we're from out of town, we heard the stories about the gojira, and was hoping he could show us all of the important places related to it."

  Evean looked at me and smiled, "I should have thought of that."

  "Why?" Loomis asked.

  "Taxi drivers love to gossip with the tourists, they get better tips that way." Suzona said.

  I nodded.

  "Okay, let me flag one down," Evean said, and on the third try she got one that had a human driver. The first two were robotic, surprisingly.

  "Ah, so you prefer people over the robots, huh?" The driver said pulling up.

  "People are more fun to talk to," Evean smiled, and Suzona took the front seat by the driver and smiled at him as well. Even in her local form Suzona was rather attractive, while of course Evean was not.

  "We're visiting the city," Suzona said in that low sexy voice of hers, "and we've heard so much about that monster from our parents, that we thought it might be interesting to see some of the landmarks left over from back then."

  "Ah, yes! Gojira! We get people interested all the time! Sure, climb on in and I'll show you everything there is to see."

  So the rest of us piled in and spent the evening driving all over the city as he told us of the damage and the destruction, showed us several monuments, and then took us by a museum that was dedicated to me
morializing the entire event.

  "It's closed now, but you should come back when they are open tomorrow, they not only have pictures, but they have the full story of the development of the weapon used to kill gojira, and how it was deployed."

  "Didn't the man who created the weapon die in its use?" Evean asked from the back where she was seated between Loomis and me.

  "No, Dr. Anso went on to continue much of his pioneering work in physics. He was worried that another such monster might show up some day, so he wanted to ensure that we were prepared."

  "Is there a good hotel nearby? A reasonably priced good hotel?" Suzona asked.

  "Sure, let me take you there."

  Ten minutes later we settled up the bill with him, and Evean got us two adjoining rooms.

  I think she would have preferred to get just one, but she was making an effort to keep Loomis and me as separated as possible.

  "So, get some food, a good night's rest, and we'll go tackle the museum tomorrow." Evean said as she handed out the room keys. These were the same kind of sliding cards we'd seen previously.

  "Why not sneak in tonight?" Loomis asked.

  "Because they won't have a working model, and I'd rather not get in trouble yet."

  Suzona took my hand and dragged me off to our room. "I want to drop off my pack, then see about getting some dinner," She said to me.

  "Sure," I nodded and let myself get led off by her.

  As soon as she closed the door, I found myself being assaulted with a sudden and unexpected case of lip lock as she pressed up against me.

  "What, no food first?" I teased when we came up for air.

  "I suspect that after the museum tomorrow, there will no longer be any time for fun and games," She smiled, "So fun first, then some food, and fun again later."

  I smiled at her, "Well, you won't get any arguments from me over that!"

  The next morning I was feeling rather mellow when Evean knocked on the adjoining door to our rooms.

  "We're checking out as soon as everyone's ready," she said.

  "Suzona's in the shower," I said yawning.

  "And you're not?" Evean teased.

  "Did that already," I winked at her. "I'm sure she'll be done in a couple. Where's Loomis?"