by Greg Keyes
“Oh, no,” he said. “More environmental crusaders?”
“Actually sir,” Bernie offered, “I’m a level-two engineering assistant for this company. Uh, provisionally level two but my evaluation was very encouraging…”
A guard nudged Bernie with his gun.
“Just sayin’,” Bernie said.
Simmons turned his quizzical gaze upon Madison. She straightened her shoulders and stared back as recognition dawned on his features.
“Where do I know you from?” he asked. He tilted his head fractionally. “Oh my goodness,” he said, “Director Russell’s daughter, yes?”
“You caused all this,” Madison accused.
Simmons raised his eyebrows a little, then seemed to acknowledge the comment with a cock of his head and a lifting of his arms to take in the room.
“If by ‘all this’ you mean I and I alone have given humanity a chance against the Titans, yes, I will proudly own that title,” he said.
“Godzilla had left us in peace!” Madison said. “You provoked him into war!”
“We couldn’t have known he would react as he did to the Mecha’s construction, that its energy signal would draw him like a whistle, but—there can be only one alpha, Ms. Russell … it seems to have been providence.”
“Providence?” Madison said. “He’s probably trashing Hong Kong right now.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact,” Simmons said. “But, as you will see, we’ll put an end to that in a moment.”
“With that thing out there?” Madison said. “The real Godzilla will shred that.”
“Oh, you’ve seen that too,” Simmons said. “Well.” He frowned. “May I ask what brought you here? Let me be more specific. How did you get here?”
“We took the fast train from Pensacola,” Bernie said.
“And who are you?” Simmons asked.
Bernie straightened up. “Just a guy,” he said. “A guy who has been onto you for years. And just so you know, all of this is out there now. Viral, baby.”
“Wait,” Simmons said, gesturing with his drink. “You aren’t that blogger? Mad Truth? Oh, my God, you must be. This is just all so wonderful. I can’t tell you. Oh. Huge fan. I loved that four-part series on chemtrails. Gave me some seriously promising ideas for future projects.” He took another drink.
“Please,” he said. “Consider yourselves my guests for now. We’ve got quite a show coming up.”
He turned away, back to the window.
“He didn’t even ask who I was,” Josh grumbled.
But Madison was staring at one of the monitors. Godzilla was there, fighting . . . Kong? Where had Kong come from?
* * *
From their aerial vantage, Nathan and the others now had an unobstructed view of how the fight was going. Judging by the state of the city, they had already missed a lot of it.
Following the explosion that sent both Titans flying, Kong had stayed under cover, wary of the other Titan’s energy attack.
Jia was busily signing in the back.
“She says we have to help him,” Ilene translated.
“Yeah,” Nathan said. “I would love to. But we’re clean out of ammunition. No missiles, anyway. And I’m far from proficient at flying this thing. I’m afraid all I can do is get us killed. Anyway, it looks like Kong is doing okay.”
“He’s lost his axe,” Ilene said. “Without that he’s got nothing to protect him from Godzilla’s morning breath. Maybe we can find it for him.”
“Given the amount of energy released,” Nathan said, “it might have been destroyed.”
“We can try,” she said.
He nodded. “I’ll fly. You two look. Let me know if you see anything.”
“Okay,” Ilene said, as Nathan started a broad circle. From the air, it was clear Kong and Godzilla were no longer in each other’s line of sight, but Godzilla, obviously searching for Kong, still tended to move in the right direction.
“He senses him,” Ilene said. “Kong can’t hide.”
“Looks like that’s what he’s doing, though,” Nathan pointed out.
Kong had found a tall building, had climbed it, and seemed to be lying in wait, holding very still.
“Clever,” Ilene said.
“Clever is all he’s got right now,” Nathan said.
They watched as Godzilla stalked the city, drawing nearer Kong’s hiding spot.
“He still doesn’t see him,” Ilene breathed. Godzilla was almost on Kong.
From his perch on the skyscraper, Kong tossed a spire he had snapped off from another building. When Godzilla turned at the distraction. Kong leapt squarely onto the other Titan, throwing his arms around the big lizard and binding him in a headlock. Then he rammed Godzilla’s head into a building. The reptilian Titan writhed like mad, trying to escape Kong’s deadly embrace, but the ape held on, punching Godzilla in the head whenever he could get one arm free. The saurian snapped at Kong’s face and savaged his arm, but the ape held on like a bull rider, refusing to be thrown. Ilene was beginning to think he could hold on forever, but then Godzilla clamped down on his arm and yanked his head down, throwing Kong over and landing him flat on his back. Godzilla tried to stamp on him, but Kong rolled aside, and then they were fighting again in such flurry of arms and legs, it was difficult to tell what was happening. But then Godzilla tossed Kong across the city, crashing through multiple structures until he fetched up hard against the base of a building. Kong reached for his shoulder, groaning, but Godzilla gave him no chance to recover his wind. He came at Kong like a bull, head lowered. The Titan rolled away, and the gargantuan reptile plowed headfirst into the building, but that hardly slowed him down; his tail swung and slammed Kong against the pavement; Godzilla lunged. Kong, still sitting, retreated crab style, kicking at Godzilla with his stumpy legs, clearly very much on the defensive. Godzilla pounced, absorbing Kong’s kicks and slashing his claws across the ape’s chest; then, towering above the pummeled Kong, the reptile slammed his hind foot down on Kong. Kong continued punching, but he had no leverage, and Godzilla, keeping him pinned, screamed his triumph at the heavens.
“That’s it,” Nathan said.
For what seemed a very long moment, the tableau seemed frozen. Godzilla stood there, dominating Kong, a threat display moving up and down his dorsal fins.
“Kong won’t bow,” Ilene said, softly. “Godzilla will kill him.”
Nathan dropped the HEAV lower. He could see Ilene was right; Kong was down, but he glared up in defiance, as if daring the victorious Titan to finish him. Kong might have lost the fight, but he was not defeated; he wasn’t giving in.
Godzilla, done with his victory proclamation, tilted his head down toward his beaten foe.
Maybe if I buzz him, distract him, Nathan thought. But a glance back at Jia, and he knew he wouldn’t. The girl had lost so much. She was about to lose Kong. But Nathan wasn’t going to be responsible for her death as well. He couldn’t.
Ilene met his gaze, then looked at Jia. She nodded.
Then Jia pointed and signed.
Nathan looked back down in time to see Godzilla do something extraordinary.
The saurian leaned down, so his snout was in Kong’s face, and roared. For a moment, Kong just stared back, as if finally acknowledging the fight was over. But then he lifted his head and howled back at the Titan, an act of purest defiance.
Godzilla straightened back up and then slowly, very deliberately, the reptile removed his foot, maintaining eye contact with Kong. Then he turned and walked away, moving once again toward the Apex building, knocking down everything that stood in front of him.
Kong, for his part, struggled to rise, but then his eyes fluttered, and he collapsed back into the street.
Nathan started the HEAV down toward the fallen Kong. He looked back at Ilene and Jia.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
* * *
Ren looked over his readout; the energy upload was complete. And his doubts were stronger than ever. There wa
s something weird going on, behind the numbers.
“Kong has weakened Godzilla,” Simmons’s voice came over the link. “It’s time. Begin bio-integration.”
Ren sighed. He knew what was expected of him; he knew why he was here. This was no time to be timid; Kong was down, and he wasn’t getting up. The upload signal was all Gojira needed to find them, and Simmons wasn’t going to let him power that down. It was either take control of the Mecha and obliterate the Titan or be crushed by him. Why was he even hesitating? He had waited most of his life for this.
You gave your life so that this monster could live, Father, he thought. I now present mine to destroy him.
He put on the helmet and started the link-in. He felt the life-energy, waiting.
No, not waiting, multiplying. Like living cells. And the artificial intelligence was going nuts, pouring out packets of nonsense information, swamping the system. And the skull itself—it seemed to be pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. Not just pulsing, but shrinking, closing in on him—but no, that wasn’t it. He was growing larger as the cells multiplied. Filling it up, merging with the bone itself. He felt the connection establish, felt his will begin to filter over to the other skull, the control mechanisms of his Gojira, expanding all the while, filling it up, too.
But it suddenly wasn’t one way anymore. It was not just him entering the machine—something was also entering him, oscillating, a feedback loop between his own consciousness and the AI. He felt a million years of rage rising in him, hatred that transcended time and space. He felt as if he was sinking into it, dissolving, as another mind full of terrible, alien thoughts began to take his place.
He tried to take the helmet off, but he couldn’t feel his hands. He opened his eyes and realized he was in the Mecha, staring at Simmons through the glass. But when he tried to move the mechanical hands, they wouldn’t move either.
* * *
At least not when he wanted them to. But the Mecha was moving; the other was moving it, and as it did so, Ren’s field of vision began to shrink, pixilating at the edges. Images flashed in staccato bursts, recognizable for an instant, then gone. He saw a shadow in the distance, a man.
Dad? Daddy?
The man looked back at him and smiled, then he, too, broke apart, and the thing that called himself Ren was gone, and it had arrived. It did not know who it was, or what it was, but it was full of rage and the black joy of finally being, and having limbs, and teeth, a boundless, unending energy at its command. It saw everything as a blur, but as the one known as Ren died, its vision sharpened. It felt its hands, its legs, its fins, everything. And it saw a shape, a tiny shape, staring at it from behind a clear wall. One that believed they controlled it.
* * *
While Madison glared helplessly, Simmons walked to the observation glass to stare at his synthetic Titan.
“It’s time to launch,” Simmons said. “Now my Mecha is not just Godzilla’s equal, but his superior. The apex Titan, of my own hand. It’s time to show the world what he can do. This is how we, as a species, win.”
Outside, Mechagodzilla was slowly pivoting, facing the glass and Simmons. But Simmons had turned to address them, so he didn’t see. Madison began inching back, and so did Bernie and Josh.
“You see,” Simmons went on, “ten years ago, when Gojira first revealed himself to the world, I had a dream. And in this dream, I saw one thing. And that beautiful, amazing thing was—”
Then he noticed them retreating. He turned to find Mechagodzilla filling the window—and still coming forward.
“Oh, shit,” he said. There came a sudden flash of movement, and then the window and the entire front part of the observation room was gone, including Simmons. Madison, Bernie and Josh were suddenly thrown back, half buried in debris. It was as if a meteor had just cut the room in half, but Madison’s brain was running it all back, in slow motion—and in that replay she saw Mechagodzilla’s claw, darting out, sweeping through the booth.
Just shy of them. Gasping, coughing, she pushed shattered metal and plastic off of herself, still staring at the gaping hole.
“No fair,” Bernie gasped. “I wanted to hear the rest of that speech.”
The guards and techs were gone, Madison noticed. Obliterated by Simmons’s creation or running for the closest exit.
Was Mechagodzilla done? Or would it kill the rest of them?
But a look through the gaping hole in front of her revealed the mechanical Titan had turned its attention to the far end of the arena. It blasted the wall with its red breath and tore through the stone like it was wet papier mâché.
Beyond, the golden rays of the rising sun shone through the smoke on what was left of the city of Hong Kong.
* * *
“So much for Kong,” Mark said, as Godzilla turned back towards his original target.
“Sir,” the tech said. “We’re getting that signal again. The weird one. It’s coming from inside the Apex complex. But it’s—it’s really strong now. Off the charts.”
“Maybe we’re finally going to see what Simmons has planned,” Guillerman said.
“Yeah,” Mark replied. “I’m afraid you might be right about that. If I were you, I would increase the evacuation radius.”
“Already done,” the director said.
Before Godzilla could reach the Apex building, a string of fireballs erupted on the hillside, opening up a huge breach in the stone beneath. A red beam blasted through, gutting the nearest buildings in eerie imitation of Godzilla’s energy weapon. The mountainside collapsed, revealing a huge hole, and emerging from it, silhouetted against the fire and tumult was—something fantastic. Crackling with crimson energy, it stepped into the light, and roared, a sound like nothing Mark had ever heard, and he had heard his share of Titans hold forth.
But this thing…
He watched in horror as it “breathed” its red beam through the city, torching dozens of buildings.
“What in God’s name is that?” Mark asked. As he watched, it crushed forward through the city toward Godzilla. And Godzilla began a charge. The new thing—it looked a lot like Godzilla. But it also looked built, not grown. And that set it apart from any Titan he had ever seen.
“It’s like some kind of robo-Godzilla,” he said. “Simmons, what the hell have you done?”
“More like a Mechagodzilla,” Guillerman said. “But that’s beside the point. What I want to know is—which one are we rooting for?”
Mark shook his head. It had been clear when Godzilla faced off against Ghidorah. And just now he had been rooting for poor old Kong. But this time…
“Heaven help me,” Mark said. “I just don’t know.”
The mechanical Godzilla launched a fusillade of missiles at Godzilla, causing him to break stride, but not stopping him.
* * *
From the ruins of the control room, Madison, Josh and Bernie now had an excellent view of the fight via the huge hole Mechagodzilla had punched in the mountainside. As the two giants grappled, it quickly became clear the mechanical Titan was faster and stronger than the real Godzilla—and Godzilla was worn down from his fight with Kong.
The guy in the skull is controlling it, Madison thought. All we have to do is get the helmet off of him.
But when she tried to return to the control room inside of Ghidorah’s skull, she found that it had also been annihilated when Mechagodzilla killed Simmons. She found no sign of the pilot.
So, nothing to be done there.
She glanced at the control panels that were still functioning. They showed a fully functioning Mechagodzilla and power readings that appeared to her to be ridiculous.
Something had happened. The mechanical Titan didn’t need a pilot anymore.
She looked out through the gap in the wall in time to see the Mechagodzilla suddenly ablaze, as rockets on its back fired, giving it a power assist as it punched Godzilla again, hurling the flesh-and-blood Titan through the city.
“It’s thinking for itself now,” she t
old the others. “We have to warn Monarch.”
“Or stop that thing ourselves,” Josh said.
“How do we do that?” Madison asked.
Josh was looking at the control console.
“That thing is still linked to a satellite,” he said. “If we can figure out the password, we can shut it down.”
“Okay,” Bernie said, as Josh started in at the console.
Outside, Mechagodzilla knocked the real one back once more—and then unleashed its own energy beam. Godzilla was hurled backward to sprawl in the rubble; the scales on his chest were now glowing like embers. He tried to get up, but the cyborg monster was there, grabbing Godzilla’s arms and biting into his thick hide.
Godzilla roared, but to Madison’s ears, it was more of a groan. He was losing.
* * *
Nathan found what seemed like a safe spot to set the HEAV down, and the three of them climbed out. He realized then that in concentrating on flying the vehicle, he had somehow missed something crucial. Kong was still down, but Godzilla was still fighting—this time with a weird, robotic version of himself.
“What the … hell is that?” he wondered.
He stood, transfixed for a moment, watching the bizarre scene. The mechanical monster had claws that whirled like drill bits and blazed with energy. It punched Godzilla repeatedly, then grabbed him and began slamming him into buildings.
Then he realized Ilene was running off through the rubble-strewn streets. Further in the distance—ahead of Ilene—he saw Jia, racing toward the fallen figure of Kong.
* * *
Jia had never been anyplace so strange, so unsettling. Everything smelled wrong, like the machines back home, but everywhere and everything. What she had taken at first to be strange cliffs and rock formations she now saw were more like termite hives kicked open, filled with little spaces. Except here the termites were people; as if Awati buildings back home had grown and multiplied to fill up the whole world. Her mother had spoken of such places, but she had believed those were just stories to frighten her.
And the vibrations. On her skin, through her feet, even in her skull, the place was alive with the awful tremoring and shuddering of machines, more of them than she could have ever imagined. The noise was worse than the storms that took her people. And that was without the fight, without the wrong thing that looked like the ancient enemy, that sent prickles up her back just to look at; and from it, the worst vibration of all, a sickening feeling in the middle of her bones that felt like illness come alive, like all of the hatred in the world put on two legs.
