Godzilla at World's End (27 page)

"How comforting to know that," Peter replied.

Megalon was the name Ned Landson had given to the monster that had attacked Lima. It was not a scientific classification, though he had one of those, too. But Megalon was the name he liked best - "Mega" because the creature was so large, "Lon" simply because Ned thought it sounded cool.

Suddenly, twin scarlet beams of light issued from the creature's red eyes. One beam streaked harmlessly past the airship's belly. The second struck one of the starboard engines on the
Explorer.
The turbofan exploded instantly, vibrating the entire airship and throwing Ned and Peter off their feet. Shards of the steel propellers tore through the thin metal-and-plastic hull, shorting out electrical systems and mortally wounding Gil Givers, who was stationed on the engineering deck.

"I thought you said that a deadly ray would come out of his
horn
," Peter remarked.

Ned ignored him.

"I might add that this creature seems very aggressive - just as Megalon was," Ned concluded as the airship shuddered.

"Well, it might look like a bug," Peter proclaimed. "But I never heard of a bug that could do
that!
"

A secondary explosion from the damaged engine rocked the airship once again. Ned, clinging to a handhold, continued to stare at the creature.

"I think I'll call him Battra," he announced.
My second major life-form discovered during this trip
, he thought proudly.

"Fine," Peter replied. "I'll read your scientific paper when we get home -
if
we get home!"

On the second observation deck, Nick Gordon and Robin Halliday watched the action. Nick tried to shoot footage, but the creature kept flying out of the range of his camera. He howled in frustration and rushed from one side of the deck to the other, trying to get a shot while Robin taunted him.

Meanwhile, inside her stateroom, Leena Sims was paralyzed with fear. When the collision alarm blared the first time, she had been frightened. It took her a half-hour to master that fear. When the alarm went off for a second time, she was sure that the airship would fall from the sky, dragging her with it.

This is the end
, her mind screamed. Then the ship was hit by something and lurched violently. Leena, standing next to her bunk, struck her head on the night table and was knocked unconscious.

On the bridge, Michael Sullivan was working at the fire-control station now. The automatic fire extinguishers were activated, dousing the blaze where the engine had exploded. But soon other red warning lights lit up his panel. Michael's fingers flew across the keyboard, releasing fire-prevention foam in several sections of the lower hull.

Battra, meanwhile, attacked the airship, his wings beating against the hull. The ship was battered by the force of the powerful wings and the rush of air that slapped the airship to the side with each beat. Several aluminum struts buckled inside of the hull - dangerously close to the helium cells.

The collision alarm continued to wail.

Watching the greenish black creature on the monitor now, Ned noted that Battra had six legs that ended with tiny claws. The monster had a wingspan of more than 180 meters. And Ned knew that though Battra was dwarfed by the huge airship, the creature was much more deadly. Its attempts to grab the
Explorer
with its sharp claws and rip it apart showed a dangerous, feral intelligence.

On top of the hull, Johnny Rocco aimed the Stinger missile launcher down at Battra. He steadied himself with the safety harness as the creature beat his wings against the airship. In a moment of calm, Rocco stared through the sight and waited impatiently for the tone to sound. When the beeping commenced - signaling that the missile's seeker warhead had found the target - he depressed the trigger.

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 against 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.