Godzilla at World's End

by Marc Cerasini

  The missile shot from the tube with a fiery backwash and raced toward the target. A second later, the projectile impacted on Battra's head, hitting the creature right between his slitted red eyes as he approached the airship for another pass. The warhead exploded without doing any visible damage or slowing Battra down.

  Johnny Rocco was hurriedly loading a second missile into the tube when a dark shadow fell over him ...

  In Osaka ...

  Godzilla waded through the burning ocean just as the drizzle, which had continued intermittently all day, turned into a steady torrent of rain. Sheets lashed against buildings, obscuring everything. The people trapped inside the Umeda Sky Building were suddenly blinded. They saw only the dim glow of the distant fires, and the black shape in the center of them.

  Sirens finally began to wail throughout the city. Those on the ground rushed to subway entrances and cellars, seeking shelter from the twin behemoths that threatened their city.

  One creature did not seem to be afraid of Godzilla. The flying creature with the toxic exhaust slammed to the ground in front of the Sky Building, crushing smaller structures under its tremendous bulk.

  The people on the deck, who had been watching with awe, now panicked and crowded the few emergency exits.

  In the plaza, the entire form of the creature seemed to bubble and shift. Hedorah's shape gradually changed, and it seemed to grow right before the eyes of the shocked and unbelieving witnesses. Bubbling pseudopods appeared all over the creature's body.

  Its head bulged and enlarged, and the thing now swayed on what looked like two thick legs. The monster waved flapping, dripping forearms that popped out of its sides.

  Only the eyes remained the same. With an evil intelligence it focused them on Godzilla.

  For many minutes, the creature stood still, waiting for the King of the Monsters to reach it. Godzilla obliged, knocking buildings aside, crushing streets and sidewalks, and shaking the Earth with each mighty tread of his massive feet.

  Then Godzilla twisted his head and roared a challenge. His bell-like voice boomed over Osaka. Rain washed off his gigantic body in torrents. His tail lashed back and forth angrily as a deep rumble emerged from Godzilla's throat.

  The shape-shifting thing that waited for Godzilla finally reacted. A beam of energy burst from the corner of the creature's huge eye, striking Godzilla on the shoulder. As his flesh burned and rain sizzled in the wound, Godzilla snarled in rage. Rearing back his head, Godzilla raised his forearms in a defensive posture.

  But despite the ray that danced across his body, searing his hide, Godzilla did not slow his relentless approach toward Hedorah.

  Aboard the Destiny Explorer ...

  Leena Sims lay at the foot of her bunk, unconscious.

  And she dreamed.

  She dreamed of a flat, icy plain with terrible winds. She dreamed of falling down a pit in the ice and of being trapped in a deep crevasse. Walls towered above her, and a polar storm raged. Leena tried to move, but she was paralyzed. In the dream, she could not feel the cold, though she somehow knew it was there.

  What she did feel was a fear that crept up from deep inside her and threatened to overwhelm her sanity.

  Finally, with an act of will, she rose. But just as she was on her feet, the ice under her simply dropped away. Leena looked down at her feet and saw a bottomless pit opening up.

  Then she was falling.

  She screamed and screamed until she could scream no more, but still she fell. Finally, when she thought she'd fallen to the very center of the Earth, everything went black.

  When Leena opened her eyes, she was lying against the trunk of a tree. The tree was so thick it seemed more like a wall. Long tendrils snaked out of the top of the tree, wiggling on the ground around her. At the end of those vinelike tentacles, huge pods with snapping mouths rolled and slavered soundlessly.

  Leena looked up and realized that she was inside something. Far above her was a roof. Then she realized she was in a cave, but a cave so huge it dwarfed the Grand Canyon. Cautiously, Leena rose and stepped around the enormous bole of the ancient tree. It took a long, long time.

  Finally, when she was on the other side, she saw another world.

  A city ... a city made of ice ... and it spread out in front of her for miles and miles - endless buildings of strange shapes, leaning at unsettling angles. Some of the city looked more like an M.C. Escher print or a painting by Nicholas Roerich than a real metropolis.

  Then Leena shuddered. A cold, blasting wind suddenly sprang up, chilling her to the bone - to the depths of her soul as well. Then Leena heard a sound behind her. She whirled around fearfully.

  A shimmering, glowing light bathed her. Blinded her. For a moment she felt fear, then a sudden peacefulness washed over her, calming her nerves and soothing her troubled soul. In the center of that mass of shimmering light, a million tiny butterflies with multicolored wings beat the air around her.

  Then a voice spoke to Leena, filling her head with its melodious tones.

  "Be not afraid." The soft, feminine voice seemed to caress her.

  "Who ... who are you?" Leena whispered.

  "I am Mothra, the Protector of the World ..."

  "What do you want with me?" Leena demanded.

  "You are to be my vessel, my messenger," the voice replied. "Heed my warning. There is danger to your world ... from one of your own ..."

  "Someone on the ship?" Leena asked.

  "Someone in the Antarctic," Mothra replied. "Monsters are being created there by an ancient technology that is being horribly misused. These monsters will be unleashed on your mute and helpless civilization. It is there you must go to stop it before everyone on Earth is destroyed."

  "We're already going," Leena insisted. "We have soldiers and weapons with us ..."

  "They will be useless," the voice replied. "You can save your people, Leena Sims ... you and your comrades ..."

  Then the voice faded, and Leena awoke on the floor of her stateroom, bathed in a cold sweat.

  ***

  Outside the airship, high above the aircraft's hull, a battle was raging.

  Just as Battra was about to deal the Destiny Explorer a mortal blow, the monstrous creature was attacked from an unexpected quarter.

  Rodan, who still circled the airship, flew at the insect creature like a bird of prey. With wings beating and claws flashing, the prehistoric flying kaiju streaked out of the sky and struck the insect monster.

  Johnny Rocco, on the hull, fired a second Stinger missile at Battra, but didn't stay to see the result. He ducked down inside the hatch as Rodan sank his claws into Battra's flesh. The creatures rushed toward the Earth. As they twisted and turned through the air, one of them swiped the Destiny Explorer.

  A rush of green blood spurted out of Battra and splashed across the airship's hull, covering some of the observation windows. Still twisting in the air, Battra broke free. Rodan, streaming blood, circled the creature once, then attacked again. This time Rodan plunged his pointed beak into one of Battra's red, slitted eyes.

  In the cockpit, Captain Dolan saw his chance. He pushed the throttle forward, and the airship pulled away from the titanic struggle beneath them, but still high over the Pacific. Slowly, inexorably, the Destiny Explorer moved away from the battling aerial behemoths.

  Streaming smoke from its shattered engine, the airship flew into miles of high, billowing clouds and was gone from sight as the monsters continued their battle to the death ...

  Midnight in Osaka ...

  The battle between Godzilla and the creature made of sludge had been going on for many hours. Night fell over the city, which was still without power. Much of Osaka was in ruins, and more was threatened. But nothing human could stop the monsters.

  Though Godzilla towered over the toxic creature, each time the King of the Monsters grappled with Hedorah, the sludge creature melted out of his claws - only to re-form a few seconds later.

  Try as he might, Godzilla could not prevail a
gainst a creature as mutable as water and as dangerous as poison. Godzilla's fiery breath had some effect, but the rain, which still poured out of the sky, seemed to shield the creature from serious harm. When the radioactive blast struck Hedorah, hunks of the creature were boiled or blasted away. But in the rain, that dust quickly turned to mud and flowed back into the sludge creature's body.

  Now, as Godzilla stood in the center of a pile of rubble that had once been the Nissei Baseball Stadium, the rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

  Hedorah stood in the middle of Osaka Castle Park, its huge eyes blinking. The two creatures eyed each other warily.

  Then, with a frustrated bellow of pure hatred, Godzilla attacked his formless foe once again. The ground shook as the King of the Monsters trampled over parkland and through small stone structures in his rush to get to his enemy.

  Godzilla slammed over 60,000 tons of animalistic fury against a monster almost half his size and two-thirds his weight. The sludge monster flew backward, stunned.

  Hedorah splattered against the facade of Osaka Castle like a ripe fruit. The castle, an Asian fortress made of concrete and wood, was a reproduction of the original sixteenth-century castle, which had burned down in 1868. The new Osaka Castle, built in 1931, was one of the most famous landmarks in Japan.

  Now it was reduced to rubble.

  As Hedorah was splattered against its walls, the building crumbled. Then Godzilla, continuing his headlong rush, crashed down on top of the castle's remains. As the building collapsed under them, Godzilla tore at the body of the sludge creature with fang and claw.

  Chunks of the sludge monster were ripped loose. As he grappled with the flowing, mutating creature, Godzilla opened his jaws and let loose with a blast of radioactive fire.

  And Hedorah began to burn.

  Still Godzilla poured more and more fire on the sludge monster, which squirmed helplessly under the destructive torrent.

  With a shrill cry of unearthly pain, Hedorah began to break apart. Its huge eyes popped and sizzled. Chunks of its body broke away as the fire from Godzilla's maw consumed it.

  Then Godzilla closed his mouth and stared down at the creature. Hedorah's arms and legs were flailing blindly as it struggled to rise. Godzilla blinked and snarled; blue lightning danced across his three rows of dorsal spines. A blast of withering energy burst from Godzilla's throat.

  Godzilla dug in his hind legs, fighting the recoil of his own blasting stream of unimaginable energy. The sludge creature sputtered and sizzled. The ruins of the castle began to burn, too, with Hedorah trapped in the center of the firestorm.

  With no rain to protect it or help it to re-form, the monster made of sludge and industrial waste bubbled away. Osaka Castle and the land around it continued to burn, serving as a funeral pyre for the dying monster.

  Finally, Godzilla closed his jaws. His eyes blinked, and he stood watching the flames for many minutes, staring as if hypnotized. Then, without a sound, Godzilla turned away and trudged slowly toward the ocean once again, as if guided by an errant instinct.

  Minutes later, as Godzilla waded into the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese submarine Takashio took up position behind the King of the Monsters.

  To the surprise of Captain Sendai and his crew, Godzilla swam quickly away from the Japanese mainland. He was headed due south ...

  15

  JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH

  Monday, January 22, 2001, 4:15 A.M.

  75° 15' south latitude, 113° 10' east longitude

  Wilkes Land, East Antarctica

  Though the Destiny Explorer had not been attacked by any more giant monsters, it was a harrowing voyage to Antarctica and beyond. From the moment the airship and its crew and passengers crossed the Strait of Magellan and entered Drake's Passage, the weather seemed to fight them for every mile of progress they made.

  The loss of the starboard engine conspired with the weather to slow their progress. They finally managed to compensate for the loss by reprogramming the computers that controlled all the engines. Though Shelly understood the basics, it was Michael Sullivan who performed the task.

  And as they approached the Shetland Islands, freak storms blew up constantly. The settlements on the chain of islands were either destroyed or abandoned. Sometimes a village remained fairly intact, but there was no sign of life.

  Once they saw a ship off the coast of Palmer Land, but when they flew closer it was apparent that the vessel had been wrecked on the ice for many days, or even weeks. The frozen bodies of the men who were trapped in the wreckage could be seen on her decks.

  As the Destiny Explorer floated over the ghost ship, the winds howled mournfully outside the observation windows.

  Despite the disaster to humanity, Antarctic wildlife seemed to have been relatively unaffected. From the observation decks, they saw emperor penguins and hundreds of thousands of seals. Whatever the threat was, it seemed to target only humans and their civilization - at least so far.

  Katabatic winds blasted the airship, and temperatures were well below zero, even though this was supposed to be the most temperate time of the year - the beginning of the continent's long summer of eternal day.

  But not this year. As the new century truly began, even the world's climates seemed to have changed quickly and drastically. Ned Landson and Peter Blackwater, both natural scientists, realized that the cataclysm originating here in the Antarctic would have far-reaching effects on the planet. Those effects would be felt even if the catastrophic events ended tomorrow, as suddenly and mysteriously as they began.

  Each day storms kicked up, and on three separate occasions they'd been blown miles out of their way. On one of those unwanted detours, they spotted the wreckage of an airplane. It was Captain Dolan who recognized the type of aircraft by its long, narrow wings and black fuselage.

  "It's a spy plane," he announced from the helm. Gazing down at the wreckage, Sean Brennan swore he saw something crawling away from the aircraft - something not human. But when he blinked and rubbed his eyes, the vision was gone.

  He soon forgot the incident.

  When the airship tried to cross the Ronne Ice Shelf, the katabatic winds were so powerful that they sucked an engineer out of the hangar bay window to his death. Shelly, already upset over the death of Gil Givers in Battra's attack, became distraught when she heard the news.

  Corporal Sean Brennan tried to comfort her, but he wasn't much help. Brennan was painfully aware that he would soon lead his meager forces in a battle against an unknown enemy. He, too, could die, or worse - lose the men under his command. He and Shelly Townsend shared a bond that only two people who are responsible for the lives of others could comprehend.

  On the way to the Antarctic, Sean, Jack Dolan, and Shelly argued the merits of searching for survivors on the bleak, hostile continent of Antarctica. There were many bases from many nations, and Sean felt that someone who'd been on the continent when the disasters began might be able to shed some light on the subject.

  Shelly simply felt that it was their duty to humanity to rescue anyone trapped on the inhospitable continent.

  But the point became moot. There were no survivors. Sometimes, when they passed over a ruined station, it was obvious that the katabatic winds had swept away all life. At other times, when they reached the exact coordinates of a settlement or scientific outpost, it was just gone - vanished, as if it had never existed.

  To get to Wilkes Land, the Destiny Explorer had to fly over the South Pole. As they approached the bottom of the world, the storms grew more intense.

  During the final leg of the voyage, Nick Gordon and Robin Halliday seemed to spend more and more time together. Though she would have preferred otherwise, Robin spent much of that time taking care of Nick. Even with his medicine, the violent flight over Antarctica had taken its toll. Nick's motion sickness returned.

  Peter Blackwater and Ned Landson spent time in the lab studying the blood found on the hull after the battle between Battra and Rodan. They di
scovered that Battra's DNA was not so unearthly after all. It proved Ned Landson's theory that Megalon, Battra, and probably the other monsters were of terrestrial origin.

  Or at least they were mutated from earthly life-forms.

  Leena Sims continued to spend most of her time in her stateroom. Robin Halliday finally relented and had a girl-to-girl talk with Leena about her fear of flying. To Robin's surprise, Leena didn't lie or try to hide her fear. Robin thought she acted as if she suddenly had other things to worry about - or as if she had an even more terrible secret she was now trying to hide.

  Robin, in a sense, was correct. Leena had never shared her powerful dream with the others. She kept Mothra's message to herself.

  It wasn't because she didn't care or wouldn't try to do her best when the time came. It was just that Leena felt that she'd learned a lot about herself on this journey of discovery. One thing she came to understand was the unnatural hold her dead father still had on her life. She realized that everything she did - from inventing a new microchip process to taking this trip - was done because it was part of her father's grand design for her life, not hers.

  Leena decided that if she survived this voyage, she would live her own life, not the one her father planned for her, no matter how much she loved him and cherished his memory.

  And now, just freed of one ghostly master, Leena didn't want another. She wasn't going to let Mothra control her or tell her what to do, either.

  ***

  The Destiny Explorer crossed the South Pole on January 2, but no one was in any mood to celebrate. Most of the crew was exhausted. They had to constantly repair wind damage and engines that froze in the cold. The living conditions were uncomfortable. The heating aboard the ship was not sufficient, and even on the warmest deck the temperature was hardly above fifty degrees.