Mechagodzilla XI: Doppelganger

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Utah Foundation Base in Yokohama

"I'm sure that you will find our facility accommodating, Ms. Mafune," began Gordon Knight. "We are one of the most high tech bases in the world."

"I'm sure of that, Mr. Knight," Kiko Mafune nodded and smiled. "I've heard so much about Mechagodzilla and his systems. Its astonishing as to what you could do with a few billions of dollars and some Godzilla cells, not to mention Microsoft, Chrysler, the Japanese government and various medical companies behind you, funding this project. Though I am curious about what had happened a year ago. Are you sure the AI is now completely controllable?"

Gordon took in deep breath. Sure the AI was controllable, he would like to admit to himself, but it was not. Kiryuu was still a free thinking, and independent machine. He could easily just go AWOL at a drop of a hat. Kiryuu Mechagodzilla only 'tolerates' his human overseers. Lately, he has been tolerating a lot. Will keeps the AI entertained, and Katsura—Katsura…Gordon did not want to think of what Katsura was doing with the AI. It was almost a year ago when Katsura decided to shove a connector into the base of her head and become mentally linked with Kiryuu. Gordon was still trying to figure out what made her do it. He shook his head. The link was helping a bit in controlling Kiryuu. It gave him a bit of a conscience and that seems to help in some of his processing. Kiryuu has been rather reliable lately, but he was still a bit of a snobbish-know-it-all to Gordon.

"Oh, yes, the AI is controllable," Gordon nodded. "Well, he's not attacking any major cities. We were just going through some of the bugs in the system. But Kiryuu is now fully reliable. He'll just about do anything we say."

"I've seen the news reports on the Godzilla battles," began Kiko. "Lately, every time Mechagodzilla shows up, Godzilla turns tail and runs."

Gordon let out a hearty laugh: "That he does! He knows what's coming to him when Kiryuu shows up! He knows that pain and a major ass kicking is coming. Godzilla is starting to learn too!" He caught himself for a moment. "Excuse my language, Ms. Mafune. I've been trying to watch it lately."

"I was told about your rather hot temper, Mr. Knight," she laughed. "Not to mention your habit for using 'sailor's talk'."

"Been trying to control that, too," Gordon cleared his throat. "Well, shall we continue?"

Gordon led her down the vast hallway, deep inside the underground base. The corridor was brightly lit with various florescent lamps and spotlights. Shadows cast by them gave the corridor and its segments an even deeper and slightly overpowering feeling. Though, she could easily shrug the feeling of overwhelming darkness from the corridor. It was just a base. Her mind was on Mechagodzilla. Gordon led her into the glass elevator and faced her towards the glass bay windowed walls.

"As the elevator goes down, you will be able to see Kiryuu," he began.

"Kiryuu," Kiko began. "You mean Mechagodzilla."

"We did call him Mechagodzilla before," Gordon said. "But Katsura wanted to literally give the AI a name. She said it made him seem more like a person you are referring to than a machine if you call him by a true name. Kiryuu just seemed fitting for Mechagodzilla."

"It means machine dragon in Japanese, Mr. Knight," her lip turned up into a small smile.

"I know, my Japanese isn't that rusty!" Gordon's face flushed for a moment. Then, he sank back down, forcing that spurt of anger to his stomach. "Sorry." He pressed the button on the elevator. "Okay, down we go."

The elevator jolted and they could hear it creak as it slowly made its way down to the bowels of the base itself. Gordon glanced out the window just to see the glistening form of Kiryuu Mechagodzilla come into view. His eyes became focused on Kiryuu's head. The helm was off and the exposed Godzilla-like head made him shiver. Kiko's eyes were wide when she saw it. It was an uncanny resemblance of Godzilla from 1954. The long strands of bio-syntech synaptic cords attached themselves to the walls and the ceiling of the bay itself. Gordon could only deduce that Mechagodzilla was running some system diagnostics. He could only hope that Kiryuu was, and not hacking into some government website. The synaptic cords extended out along side the walls as well, making the bay look like it was over grown by throbbing, pulsating vines. The vines twitched with a life of their own, and even coiled and snaked around to different places and spots along the walls and the floor. The bio-syntech, golden eyes seemed out of focus themselves. Kiryuu was up to something internally. Gordon flinched, trying to figure out what that was. Katsura was not here today, so, what else could Kiryuu be doing? Kiko's mouth dropped as she saw the synaptic cords coil along the walls and up to the ceiling.

"Amazing!" she cried. "It looks like a jungle in here! And those cords grow out from his head?"

"Those are the synapse cords, the external ones," began Gordon. "They link up to the various external weapons we mount on him. But as you can see, he does not have those external weapons right now. He did have a rocket launcher on his back when he was first launched, but we got rid of that. We found that Kiryuu relied on speed and those rocket launchers slowed him down. But he does have the forearm cannons mounted at his wrists. They were most useful."

"And does he still have the twin Maser cannons inside his mouth?" Kiko asked.

"That he does," he nodded.

"What about the Absolute Zero Cannon?"

"Got rid of it too," Gordon chuckled. "We felt it was a bit too powerful for Kiryuu to control. And we didn't like the idea of Kiryuu going insane again and turning the base into an ice cube. So, we had it dismantled. But we found out that Kiryuu could use his bio-syntech muscle system as a weapon as well."

"So, I've heard," Kiko began. "And I've seen. The blades. I've seen them in action. The amount of training Kiryuu must have taken to learn how to control them so effectively."

"We had a feeling that the bio-syntech could be used in that matter, since its basically a morphic substance of tissue and circuitry. Once the right amount of energy emitted into the syntech matter, it can morph into all sorts of forms."

"Those blades look like they could take someone's head off," Kiko giggled. "Has any human used any bio-syntech prostheses in a similar fashion to Kiryuu's methods?"

"Yes," Gordon nodded. "In fact we are being funded by the US government to build a bio-syntech armor that will go over a man's body and be used in that fashion as well. The bio-synthech, we've discovered can be used as armor as well, and it can regenerate. That's why when Godzilla blasts Kiryuu's tentacles off, they just grow right back. The last fight took Kiryuu's arm off, exposing the metallic skeleton underneath, but the syntech compensated. It grew right back over the exposed skeleton and then after that, literally diced Godzilla up. Again, the end result was Godzilla retreating."

"So, his muscle texture can harden to protect him if the plating is exposed?" Kiko asked.

"That's about it," he said. "The plating adds extra protection. We don't want any problems. And its mostly for the protection of some of the finely tuned sensors and delicate external and internal synaptic cords."

Kiko glanced back towards Kiryuu: "I see. So, every bit of this is necessary for his protection."

"Can't let something like a broken arm put a damper on things," Gordon sighed. "Mechagodzilla is an amazing machine."

"And he has quite a personality from what I've read in the files that I received," she said. "And a lovely voice."

"The voice was sampled from my own," began Gordon. "As for the personality, I'll let you be the judge of that. He has his moods."

"From the link between Katsura?"

"You read about that too, huh?" Gordon chuckled. "No, he started developing emotions before Katsura jacked into him. He—has yelled at me—once. We think it's the bio-feedback from the syntech. At first they were primordial emotions, basically Kiryuu a few times thought he was still Godzilla from 1954, then the AI compensated and the emotions became more—human-like."

"So, he can feel the emotions we feel?"

"You might say that," Gordon turned his eyes back at Kiryuu. He felt the elevator begin to slow to a stop as they reached the corridor near the control room. "We ran tests a month after Kiryuu went AWOL. Psychological tests. I literally paid a shrink to come over and give Kiryuu Rorschach tests, set him down on the couch and allow him to talk about his 'mother' and what not. The sychiatrist said he needed more time with Kiryuu, but from the tests he ran, Kiryuu can emote. He said that Kiryuu just hides his emotions to make him appear more logical. The psychiatrist struck a chord with Kiryuu, and I believe I heard weeping sounds coming from the speakers. It was Kiryuu's voice that was sobbing. That's how he knew Kiryuu was capable of emotions."

"The psychologist made Kiryuu weep?" she asked. "Can he laugh?"

"I'm sure he can, but he hasn't," he replied. "Kiryuu is a bit of a troublesome child though."

"You refer to him as a child?" Kiko asked.

Gordon shrugged: "Wouldn't you? He may be incredibly smart, but he has the experience of a nine year old."

The doors opened and Gordon led Kiko Mafune out. Her eyes never left the enormous form of Kiryuu as they walked down the corridor. She felt her legs give way and she stumbled right into Gordon's arms. Kiko glanced down, noticing a lock of the synaptic cords snaking over the rail and around the corridor.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

"My God!" Kiko gulped. "Its—climbing through the corridor."

"Need to tell Kiryuu not to let his 'hair' get too out of hand, or I'll send him to the barber," Gordon rumbled angrily underneath his breath. "Give him a flat top."

"Is Mechagodzilla aware of this?" Kiko asked.

"You can ask him when we reach the control room," Gordon smiled. "I know I will be giving him a bit of a scolding when we reach there."

"Its safe for him to let it grow out like that?" she asked.

"Not one bit, that's why I'm gonna have a talk with Kiryuu," Gordon grabbed her arm and bolted down the corridor towards the control room. "Come on! May be Will can put a stop to all this growth."

Gordon and Kiko leapt over the snaking cord. Gordon reached into his pocket and pulled out a touch pad and tapped it with his thumb. The doors in the control room opened wide at the command of the pad. When they were inside, Gordon sat at the control room's consol. He turned up the volume on the PA system and pulled the microphone to his mouth.

"Kiryuu! Retract your synaptic cords now!" he cried. "Or I'll yank every single one of them out of your head!"

There was only silence and some giggling on the other side of the speaker. He recognized Will's voice, laughing. Gordon grumbled, his eyes rolling. He knew what they were doing and it was the last thing he wanted to know.

"Good lord," Knight growled. "Not again!"

"What's happening?" Kiko asked.

Gordon heaved a long sigh as he placed his hand to his face in grief. He flipped a switch on the control consol and the nine monitors came to life. Each monitor displayed various pictures, each one a different view of Kiryuu. The one in the center displayed something else, a beaded man with a large smile on his face. He was inside a room. The walls were draped with all sorts of twitching, coiling vines, much like what the bay had became to look like. He seemed to be at ease with all the vines inside. In his hand was a control module with a large green 'X' painted at the center.

"Halo," rumbled Gordon. "They are playing Halo on Kiryuu's giant internal monitor."

"Excuse me?" she asked in disbelief. "Halo?"

"You know, the X-box game from Microsoft," Gordon sighed. "Will is a bit of a Halo fanatic and just recently, he's managed to get Mechagodzilla hooked on it too."

"They are playing a video game?" Kiko shook her head.

"That's the 'entertainment' Will has been giving Kiryuu," Gordon chuckled. "Wait, let's listen for a moment, then I'll turn up the volume inside the cockpit and see the look on Will's face."

They listened in closer.

"Aw, come on, Kiryuu!" Will cried out. "Not the sniper rifle again!"

"Your concealing methods need work, Will," Kiryuu rumbled softly. Kiko gasped, hearing his voice.

"That voice!" she called. "It sounds—so real!"

"Listen," Gordon smiled.

The chatter continued.

"Okay, that's it, I'm going for the rocket launcher," Will riled. "You are a dead robot, Mechagodzilla."

"Have it your way," Kiryuu sighed. "But you do realize that I can see you hiding from behind that bush."

"Crap!" Will cried. "Take that!"

They could hear shooting sounds coming from inside the cockpit. Will's expression seemed to shrink as he concentrated on the game. Gordon turned on a knob. His grin grew as he leaned to the microphone.

"Run for your lives!" Gordon cried. "The base is under attack by Godzilla!"

Will leapt out of his seat, throwing the X-box controller down to the floor. Then, the startled man fell face down to the floor, swearing as he went.

"Son-of-a-bitch!" he cried.

"Godzilla?" Kiryuu asked. "The alarms didn't go off, Will. There is no sign of Godzilla or I have been alerted five hours in advance."

"Well then, who the hell…" Will gasped as he grabbed hold of the cockpit's consol.

"You "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!", Will," Gordon laughed. "Got yah again!"

"And there's your answer, Will," Kiryuu inputted in a flat tone.

"Kiryuu, shut up!" Gordon grunted. "If you can't play along in the joke, then don't."

"The joke was meant for the both of us, was it not, Gordon?" Kiryuu asked.
Gordon crossed his arms: "Like I could ever startle you."

"I still await with eagerness for your successful attempt," Kiryuu's voice smiled.

"Whatever," he snorted. "Will, get your ass in here! I want you to meet your new assistant."

"Right, Gordon," Will quickly scampered away from the camera.

"Kiryuu, do me a favor and do something about your 'hair'," Gordon sniffed. "Its all over the place. Nearly killed myself getting over here."

"I have been accessing some files," began Kiryuu.

Gordon's fists clenched up: "Hacking again, I see? What have I told you?"

"I was not hacking, Mr. Knight," Mechagodzilla began with a smooth and confident tone. "Merely browsing."

"What's with the cords all over the place?" he asked. "Looks like a damned bio-syntech jungle in the bay area."

"We were just hacked into," began Kiryuu. "I was setting up a firewall with my synaptic cords."

Gordon's eyes widened. Will came walking in through the door. Gordon's head turned towards Will, his eyes flaring with shock and anger.

"Why wasn't I notified?" Gordon asked, gritting his teeth.

"About the hacker?" Will asked.

"Yes," he hefted. "About the hacker. What were you doing when we were attacked and why was I not notified about this earlier!?"

"Kiryuu fixed the problem," Will shrugged. "I heard the alarms go off and rushed in to stop the hacker, then Mechagodzilla commanded the arms to take his helm off and the synaptic cords went all crazy—and well grew all over the place. After that, the attack stopped."

"You were notified, Gordon," began Kiryuu. "I left a message on your cell phone of the incident. It is not my fault that you don't check your messages and you leave your cell phone off."

Just then, Gordon grabbed his phone off of its case and looked at the screen. There was one message in his inbox. Gordon activated the message.

"Gordon Knight, this is Kiryuu," began the message. "We were just attacked by a rather skilled hacker, but luckily he did not cause any damage or take anything. I have already stopped him from doing so. You needn't worry about that. Do come as soon as you can."

"Damn," Gordon Knight sighed. "Okay, I'll give you a benefit of a doubt this time, you over priced robotic monster. At least you called my cell phone. You're right, it isn't your fault. But when you're done, clean your damned mess!"

"Of course, Gordon," Kiryuu acknowledged. Kiko took a peak outside the large bay window where she saw the head of Mechagodzilla. The cords on his head began to rapidly shrink. She could hear the sounds of whips cracking and whirling as the cords shrank down. Soon, the cords were no longer than to his shoulders. They still twitched a bit, like tiny serpents on Medusa's head. Robotic arms came down, holding the metallic helm and lower metallic jaw. The cords braided together, shrinking farther into his skull as the helm came down, covering his face. The lower jaw plating attached to his chin, concealing any remains of Kiryuu's resemblance to Godzilla from 1954. The golden optics flashed on and the red tear lights on his metallic cheeks began to glow.

"Kiryuu, where is Katsura?" Gordon asked. "Since you two are mentally linked, didn't she know of the hacker as well when you found out?"

"Though we are linked, I block out much of my thoughts from her to allow her privacy," Kiryuu began, his voice rumbling and rolling softly and silkily off the speakers from within the control room. "So she was not informed. I do not require her assistance in a matter like this."

"Okay," Gordon sighed. "The situation has been resolved, do to quick thinking by Kiryuu. I'm not going to give you a party for this, though."

"I did not ask for one," Kiryuu said. "I expect nothing from you, Mr. Knight. I was only doing what I felt was needed to be done."

Gordon flinched, the statement awakening a disturbing memory within him. Kiryuu said the same thing when he was attacking Tokyo. Gordon grumbled and glanced away.

"Is there something wrong, Gordon?" Kiryuu asked.

"No," Gordon snapped. "Nothing."

"Gordon?" Will asked, peering at him with concerned eyes.

"Nothing!" he shouted. "I'm fine. Leave me be!"

"Okay, sir," Will shrugged. "Now about this assistant?"

Gordon's eyes snapped open and turned to Kiko, who was still staring at Kiryuu.

"That's right," Gordon chuckled. "Kiko!"

"Yes?" Kiko's head snapped around at the sound of her name being called.

"Will, this is Kiko Mafune," Gordon began. "She's from Berkeley. She is your new computer systems and security programmer and your assistant."

"Hello," Will said as he shook her hand. His eyes were captivated by her perfect face. Kiko smiled and tossed a dark lock away from her eyes.

"Nice to be working with you, Mr. Penter," Kiko began.

"Call me Will," he said.

"Call me Kiko," she laughed.

"Kiko," began Gordon. "And this is Kiryuu Mechagodzilla. Our greatest achievement in both the bio-syntech design and the most powerful AI in the world."

She was silent for a moment, staring back at Kiryuu's metallic face again.

"It's okay," began Will. "He won't bite. You can talk to him."

"Hello, Kiryuu," Kiko swallowed nervously.

"Konituwa, Mafune-san," Kiryuu's head dipped politely.

"Wow, he knows Japanese?"

"He knows a lot of languages," Gordon replied. "Most of them he downloaded himself from sites, but we programmed him with the knowledge of both English and Japanese. So far, he can speak about 10 different languages, including Latin. And he can read the languages as well."

"That's amazing!" she laughed. Kiko turned back to Mechagodzilla. "It's nice to meet you, Kiryuu."

"The feeling is mutual," rumbled Kiryuu's rich deep voice. "Welcome to the team, Ms. Mafune. I have no doubts that you will be an asset to us, and your talents will be used widely."

"Thank you," Kiko bowed. Again, Kiryuu returned the gesture with a slight dip of his metallic head.

"And now," began Gordon. "After meeting the crown of our achievement, shall I escort you to our cafeteria?"

"I am a bit famished," she smiled.

"Come on, Will," said Gordon. "What better way to get to know your knew associate than by lunch?"

Will glanced back at Kiryuu: "Sorry, pal. I guess we'll finish our game later."

"That is quite alright," began Mechagodzilla. "Getting to know Ms. Mafune better holds more weight than a Halo game. I shall shut down and run my usual simulations until you're return."

"Simulations?" Kiko asked.

"He keeps his mind sharp with simulated Godzilla battles," Gordon shrugged. "It gives him something else to do beside being a backstabbing sneak with the Internet. Once he gets bored with that, he'll no doubt go surfing the Web."

Will and Gordon led Kiko out of the control room.

"Haven't you built more powerful firewalls to keep Kiryuu from hacking?" she asked.

"To be very blunt," began Will. "There isn't a firewall made to keep his nosy CPU out of it. We've tried stronger firewalls, stacking them everywhere, encrypted codes, and well, nothing works. He breaks them down. He's entertained by them. Breaking down firewalls and chasing after hackers and well, doing some un-authorized searching of his own is a game to him."

"But the hacking has slowed down a bit," Gordon sighed. "At least. He used to hack into government websites and well, download top-secret information. Then, when we finely catch him in the act, he has the files scattered all over the place—all over the Internet. He did that a year ago. He stole files on Godzilla that weren't meant for the public. Then, when we were pegged for the blame, Kiryuu got rid of the files as fast as he downloaded them."

"That's just incredible," Kiko shook her head in awe. "I'm amazed by what he can do. And that voice! What a sound! His voice is vary charming."

Will pointed at Gordon: "Who's voice did you think it came from?"

"Well, my voice use to entice the ladies back when I was a bit of a wolf," Gordon chuckled. "In my younger years. I've broken so many hearts with this voice, its unreal."

"I bet," she giggled. "And it fits Kiryuu too. That's exactly what I imagine someone his size should sound like. Just hearing it sends chills through my skin. It's—very unique to hear a computer speak to you in such a rich sound."

"It's easy to think of Kiryuu as a computer when we're not talking directly to him," began Will. "But when we are…Kiryuu becomes much more than a mere computer. The word 'computer' looses its meaning when I think of Kiryuu. He's not a computer, he's a living being."

"Don't go that far in saying it, Will," Gordon grumbled. "No matter how good he sounds, or the fact he can emote, he's still hardware and wires." He paused. "But you're right, it is hard to think of him as anything less than a computer. Even I am just as entranced by it. We came a long way to create something like Mechagodzilla. A very long way."

"You should be proud," Kiko began, looking directly at Will. "And I should be honored to work for you on the most powerful AI in the world."

Will chuckled: "He's a handful. Wait till you meet Katsura Yugami. She can be quite a handful too."

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Katsura found the control room empty for the first time in weeks. It was silent, so silent she could hear her own heart beat. She sat down on the control panel and stared blankly at the screen. Then, she turned to the enormous bay window behind her. Mechagodzilla, his optics were dim. She sensed is processors from within her mind. They blocked her out. He must be running simulations, or entertaining himself with various web pages. She stared balefully at his helm-covered face. Katsura released a sigh. She could see right into his golden optics. His eyes were closed within the optics. She noticed some random twitching from underneath the lids. He was not browsing or running simulations, he was actually sleeping.

"Just like a cow," Katsura smirked. "You can sleep standing up."

She knew that he did not notice her in the control room. Most of the time, he keeps his mind out of hers. She still regretted ever putting that cord in her head, allowing Mechagodzilla to share a mental link between her. She knew his true thoughts now, and his true feelings. Kiryuu never hid any of that from her. Those thoughts, those emotions are what frightened Katsura the most. Then, she feared that she had the same feelings as he did. Often, she wanted to rip the port from her neck to free her from his grasp. Katsura turned away from the metallic face, letting a tear fall from her cheek. She lifted a hand up to her head and felt of the link port hidden from behind her hair. She thumbed it for a moment, remembering with regretted sorrow of the day she helped reactivate Kiryuu's AI.

"Katsura," Katsura's eyes blinked. Kiryuu's voice spoke to her. She lifted her head up and her eyes turned towards the window. Mechagodzilla's eyes were still closed. "Katsura, I'm over here."

She followed the deep, dark voice within her mind. Her head turned slightly and her eyes caught the sight of a ghostly figure standing in front of her. It was Kiryuu! He had done this before, project his image into her mind. Kiryuu looked like a human-sized version of himself, with out his helm. His metallic tail swayed softly over the carpeted floor.

"Kiryuu," she gulped.

"I've missed you today, Katsura," Kiryuu began. "I was getting worried that you would come. I tried not to meddle in your affairs. Is there something wrong?"

"No," Katsura shook her head. "Nothing."

"We have a new employee today," he continued. "Her name is Ms. Kiko Mafune."

"That's good," She nodded. "Will finally has a new assistant."

"I am looking forwards to working with her," Kiryuu said with a polite and pleasant smile. "Having someone new on the team is a pleasant feeling perceive."

"You're accepting your emotions, Kiryuu?" Katsura asked with an expectant tone. Kiryuu lowered his head and leaned against the wall.

"I can't deny that I have them, can I?" he asked. "Though, you have helped me accept them. I am grateful to you. Without you, Katsura, I—I would have been lost forever in that void. Again, I say, even with the link, you still don't know the amount of feelings I have for you."

Katsura looked away from him. She did not want to hear that again from him. It was wrong for him to feel that way towards her, to have those emotions for her. She only thought of him as a companion, but he thought of her as more than that. It was not right, it would never be right. Once more, she had to remind herself that he is only a computer, he does not know what he is saying.

"Please, stop," she breathed. "Kiryuu, you don't know what you're saying. You don't even know what that kind of love is!" Katsura turned back to him, her eyes flashed with frustration over her own feelings and his. "How could you ever know what that kind of love is? You're a—a…"

"Computer?" Kiryuu sank down to one of the chairs and placed his head in his claws. "Nothing more, nothing less. You didn't think that way before. I'm sorry, Katsura, for forcing this burden on you. I still regret ever making you insert that driver cord into your skull. I did not mean for this to happen. But I had those feelings before it did!" He looked up at her, his eyes swelling up with tears. "I am not a computer anymore. You above all people should know that. Can a computer—weep? No…it can't, but I can. Your link between me allowed me to accept the growing emotion that was already deep within me. Why can't you accept my feelings?"

"Because they are not right," Katsura sighed. She walked over and knelt down to him. "I don't know how or why you developed these feelings for me, Mechagodzilla." She placed his metallic claws into her hands. The link allowed her to touch his mental image as if he were standing in the room with her. "Kiryuu, they don't feel right to me. They make me uncomfortable to even be around you. And I want to be around you. I want to help you grow. I love you, but not in the way that you love me. I love you like a son, not a lover. Now you have to accept that. You don't love your mother the same way you love your mistress."

"All right, Katsura," Kiryuu slowly regained his cool and charismatic composure. "You are right, they are uncomfortable. I still love you though, even if you don't love me the same way. But I won't force you. That is the last thing I want to do."

He slowly rose from his seat, his form fading away.

"Mecha…" Katsura breathed.

"Go to the cafeteria, Katsura," he announced as his form disappeared. "Meet the newest member of our team."

"Okay, I will," she nodded. "Sleep well, Kiryuu."

"Thank you," his voice rumbled off. "I shall be here when you return."

[Emperor Kedzuel]

"So, then he asked: 'What's for dinner, Gordie?'", began Gordon. "I told him: 'Well, there's the pot, that's the stove, and there's the pantry, you figure it out!'"

Kiko and Will chuckled at the end of his story. Gordon sipped his coffee and laughed. His eyes stared at Will and Kiko. They were hitting it off rather well. He was lucky to find her. The last assistant Will had was an incompetent fool. Gordon knew Will could do better with more efficient help. The other assistant became too much for Will to handle, even made Kiryuu complain a bit too much for Gordon to take. The last thing he wanted was for Kiryuu to complain about constant maintenance on his processors and voice. His eyes drifted away when he thought about his creation. The metallic automaton had mellowed over the months. He thanked Katsura's help in that. Gordon settled down into a bit of silence, listening to Kiko and Will talk for a moment. His thoughts were still lost on Kiryuu. Then, his eyes spotted Katsura walking in.

"Katsura!" he cried, waving for her to come over. "Over here!"

Katsura rushed over towards him. Kiko glanced back, smiling. Will stood up, nodding in greeting.

"Katsura," began Gordon. "This is Kiko Mafune."

Kiko stood up, bowing slightly to Katsura.

"Hello," Katsura smiled. "Welcome to the Utah Foundation of Bio-technologies."

"Thank you, Dr. Yugami," Kiko smiled.

"Have a seat, Katsura," began Will. "We were just listening to another one of Gordon's cavern fever stories."

Katsura let loose a laugh, covering her mouth in the sudden spasm of her voice. She slowly sat down, placing her hands into her lap. Will reached for the coffee pitcher and poured her a fresh cup. Katsura sipped at it lightly, smelling the sweet aroma. She began to feel at ease again. Gordon glanced at her, recognizing her expression.

"You've spoke with him?" he asked.

"Who?" her eyes snapped up into his.

"Who?" he asked. "You know who! Our big mouthed, rust bucket we call our protector from Godzilla."

"Please, Gordon," Katsura's eyes rolled. "Not now. Don't poke at it now. Leave Kiryuu alone for once."

Gordon shook his head and snorted, crossing his arms in frustration. His eyes roved over at Will and Kiko. The two had remained silent, listening to Gordon and Katsura. Will swallowed and looked back at Kiko, his lip curling to a smile. She followed his gesture.

"Oh, hell," Gordon got up from the table. "Enough is enough. I'm going back to my office. Will and Katsura, you show her around the base. I hope you'll enjoy working here, Miss Mafune."

He bowed slightly as he grabbed his mug and quietly walked out of the cafeteria. Kiko glanced back at Katsura.

"Is he always like this?" she asked.

"No," Katsura sighed. "This is one of his good days. Gordon has been going through some anger management programs."

"Doesn't sound like it's working," Kiko sighed.

"Actually," began Will. "It is. He used be a little more flammable than this. Then, a few months ago, Gordon had a heart attack and Katsura suspected it was because of his hot temper. He's now ordered to keep his cool."

"Oh," she sighed. "Didn't know that."

Katsura laughed: "It may not sound like he's keeping his cool, but you never heard him before the attack. He swore at the end of each sentence. And Kiryuu was an escape goat for his anger."

"He actually likes Kiryuu," Will began. "When Gordon is away from Mechagodzilla, he speaks nothing but high praises of him. Calls Kiryuu his greatest accomplishment. But when he's near Kiryuu, the attitude changes."

"So I see," Kiko began. "But he is proud though. I heard him myself before we entered the control room."

"But then, right afterwards?" Will smirked.

"All the swearing comes right out," Katsura sighed. "I wish that he'd admit that he likes Kiryuu. Might open Mechagodzilla up more."

Kiko nodded: "The one person, he does not get admiration from, I see...is Gordon. But what about you? And the link, I'm curious about it. Does it change your attitude about Mechagodzilla, or does it give you a new perspective on how he views the world?"

Katsura shrank back, feeling the link port in her neck again. She took in a deep breath, trying to keep her mind out of Kiryuu's and her eyes on Kiko. It did give her a new perspective. Kiryuu saw everything through the eyes of a child who is eager to learn. He was eager, and that could be both a good thing, and a scary one. She tried to fight her feelings for him. She could not help about what he said to her, his feelings for her. He knew that he could not force her to feel the same way. She knew that as well.

Katsura...The deep voice breathed softly into her mind, tickling her emotions and plucking at that dark place deep within her soul. Kiryuu knew that she was thinking about him. Katsura shook her head.

"Katsura?" Will asked.

"Perhaps I should not have asked that question," Kiko caught herself. "Forgive me, Doctor."

"No," Katsura shivered. "It's not your fault. Kiryuu and I share a private and vary special relationship. I can't describe it. He needs my guidance, for he does not fully understand his emotions. We did not program the AI to have them, but they just started to show up anyways. It was the feed back from the bio-syntech. He's trying hard to control the emotions, but...

"Sometimes," began Will. "They do come out. But not as violently as before. Again, Gordon might have told you that the link between Katsura and Kiryuu helps Kiryuu to control those emotions better. He imitates her actions."

"He imitates my well mannered actions," Katsura smiled. "I have taught him the difference."

"So, the link helps you teach him how to control his emotions?" Kiko asked.

Katsura nodded. Will took another sip at his coffee, smiling at Kiko. She returned the gesture. Katsura rose from her chair and rubbed the back of her neck where the link was.

"Look, I'm going to my office, if anyone doesn't mind," she began. "Why don't you show Kiko around the compound."

"Sure," Will nodded. "How much did Gordon show you?"

"Mostly the control room where I'll be assisting you," Kiko replied.

"Well, then, show her to her office, Will," said Katsura. "I'm sure she wants to get settled in before she is ready to be assigned to her job at the control room. I'll see both of you later. Sayonara."

"Sayonara, Katsura-chan," Kiko got up and bowed as Katsura left. Kiko turned back to Will who got up as well, picking up his Styrofoam coffee cup.

"Well, your office is this way, Ms. Kiko," he began as he lead her out of the café.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

"Will, I was wondering," Kiko began. "About Kiryuu. Is he the original Godzilla?"

"In a way," Will replied. "Actually, he's the original Godzilla's clone. But, it's that age old question: If you clone yourself and you die, does that clone become you or just look like you, have your fingerprints, but be a totally different person? It's hard to say if Kiryuu is in fact the reincarnation of the original Godzilla, or if he's just a clone plain and simple. We do just refer to him as a bio-mechanical clone of the original because it's the simpler way to view it instead of saying that he is the reincarnation of Godzilla. The reincarnation answer brings about all sorts of problems."

"But what do you believe?" she asked him, prying more into the subject.

"Me?" Will asked. "Well, Kiryuu, in a way does believe that he is the reincarnation of the original Godzilla."

"But do you believe that?" Kiko asked again.

"I don't know what to believe," Will sighed.

"They walked down the corridor and into an elevator. Will pressed for one of the higher floors and felt it jerk as it moved up.

"So, if Kiryuu believes that he's the reincarnation of the original Godzilla," began Kiko. "Does that make him the current Godzilla's father?"

Will let loose a choked laugh, surprised by Kiko's question. He was not expecting her to ask a question like that. Will sat in his mind silently, rolling the question over his head. Is Kiryuu Godzilla's father? All of a sudden the image of Darth Vader came into his head. Darth Vader was part machine and part man, and he was the father of Luke Skywalker. Just thinking about Kiryuu looking at Godzilla and saying: "I am your father, Godzilla…" brought a chuckle to his lips.

"Will?" Kiko asked, breaking Will's thoughts.

"Huh?" he asked, snapping back to reality. "Oh, is Kiryuu Godzilla's father? Well, yes, I'd say that he is…Godzilla's biological father. But to say that he is the father that raised Godzilla, then no. Of course I'm coming from my own experience. I was adopted when I was 3. So, the father who took care of me and raised me was to me…my real father, not the one who—well…knocked up my biological mother. Sorry to be so blunt. They say that blood is thicker than water, but I say that's a bunch of BS. So, yes, Kiryuu is Godzilla's father, and no, he is not Godzilla's father."

"I see," Kiko nodded. "But does Kiryuu feel a paternal bond with Godzilla?"

"He feels a bond to him," Will replied. "But is it paternal? I don't think so. After all, Kiryuu did not raise Godzilla. He knows that there is a huge connection between himself and Godzilla, they are of the same blood. But I think that is so far the only connection Kiryuu feels. Though, when Kiryuu goes to fight Godzilla, Godzilla no longer wants to fight him. He just leaves after staring at Kiryuu for a brief moment. It's really odd, but Kiryuu doesn't say anything about it. We don't ask him, feeling it's his business and none of ours."

"Gordon says that Godzilla turns tail and runs," Kiko giggled.

"No, he doesn't," Will shook his head. "He just doesn't want to fight Mechagodzilla. It's not the how powerful Kiryuu's weapons are, or anything like that. He just doesn't want to fight Kiryuu. But Gordon likes to think it's because Godzilla is scared of Kiryuu. It makes Gordon feel bigger than the monster. But I know that Godzilla is the least bit frighten of Kiryuu."

Will took another sip of his coffee cup just as the elevator pulled into a stop.

"Well, here we are, Level B," began Will. "This is the level where we all have our offices. And of course right out there as you can see is the bay and dock area and of course Kiryuu standing there."

Kiko turned and saw the mechanized Godzilla standing silently, his optics dull. She saw several technicians, who were not there before, plodding around Mechagodzilla. They were taking notes and attaching various wires and cords along the head and neck area. Huge cherry pickers with workers and welders worked around Kiryuu's knees.

"What are they doing?" she asked.

"Scheduled maintenance," Will began. "It's 4 P.M., so they are there to do their hourly check up on Kiryuu's system."

"Kiryuu requires hourly maintenance?" she asked.

"Well, we can never be too careful," Will shrugged. "And it gives them something to do, as Gordon always says."

"He's a charming fellow," Kiko laughed.

"Who? Gordon?" Will asked. "Yeah, he can be a handful himself. Arrogant, just like Kiryuu."

"Will," Kiko moved a little closer to him. "Where are you from? I mean I know you're American."

"You mean what state?"

"Yeah, what state?" she nodded.

"Believe it or not, I was born in Arkansas," he said. "But I was adopted by a family who moved to West Virginia. It's beautiful there, the mountains and the more down homely feeling. Not like here, where it's concrete buildings all around you, and well, a little tighter and congested. I showed Kiryuu some pictures of West Virginia and the Blue Ridge Mountains. He said that he wouldn't mind seeing it for himself, he could gather much information about the wildlife there. Kiryuu…he's more of a scientist than a soldier. He just wants to learn and study, not fight. You should visit the mountains in the Eastern part of the United States. That place, where Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee all connect. The land is old, and you can feel it. I try to go back when I get a vacation."

Kiko sighed. Hearing him speak of his home made her a bit homesick as well. She glanced around as he took down the corridor and to her office. Will got out the key and opened the office up, leading her inside.

"Well, here it is," he began. "Your office. You can start moving all your stuff in as soon as you like. And that window will give you a view of Mechagodzilla as well, so that you can see what all goes on around the bay area. We all have windows that face the bay area from our offices. It helps us keep an eye on him, and it makes us feel better when we do."

"I see," Kiko nodded. Will started out the door.

"If you need anything, just call me," he said, giving her a brown, small book. "This is a log of all of our extensions. Mine is 4459, under William Penter."

"Thank you, Will," Kiko smiled as she saw him walk back down the hallway. She walked out of her office and leaned over the walk way ramp that kept her in the corridor. She stared out to the bay area, watching the workers around Mechagodzilla. She began to ponder on the AI for a long while, amazed about the complexity of the personality of the computer controlling Mechagodzilla. She was amazed on how far in computer AI advancement they had come. She needed more information; she needed to learn more about the AI, his thoughts, and now his feelings. Though, her mind had begun to hold interests in the AI, she had to think of the other qualities of Mechagodzilla. The bio-syntech polymorphic muscle system, another achievement made by the Foundation. She never thought that it was possible to create techno-organic system capable of morphing into various simple objects, like the bladed tentacles. Kiko rested her head on the ramp, staring blanking at Mechagodzilla.

Kiryuu, she thought. You are an enigma.

"Ms. Mafune," began a deep, subtle voice from her office. Kiko turned around, finding no one was in her office, but her computer had turned on automatically.

"Who's there?" she asked.

"Do not be startled," the voice said. "Come to the computer screen."

"Kiryuu?" Kiko asked as she walked over to the computer screen. The screen flashed several times just as an image appeared on it. She saw the face of Mechagodzilla, without his helm.

"Welcome to your office, Ms. Mafune," Kiryuu began. "I have access to all associate computers and offices from my comports links into the LAN system around this base. What you see on the screen is my virtual self, the form I take on inside cyberspace. I assist and guide all associates who help in maintenance upkeep, and warning systems."

"Warning systems?" Kiko asked.

"G sightings," he replied. "This base has two satellites in orbit around the Earth, about 100 miles above the atmosphere." Kiryuu's image disappeared just as several images of the two satellites appeared. "Their names are Lotus and Jewel. Gordon Knight named them."

"Cute," Kiko chuckled.

"Indeed," Kiryuu amended. "These satellites are the most advanced warning system and web link in the world. They are more powerful than the system used by the Japanese government to monitor Godzilla's movements. Which is why I declined the prime minister's offer to use their system."

"I understand," she said as she sat down on her chair. "So, I am able to contact you from my office?"

"Yes," Kiryuu said. "It is s simple system. Internal email. I have an account as well."

Kiko let loose a shocked laugh. Now this was advancement. A computer with an his own email account.

"What is the matter, Ms Mafune?" he asked.

"I'm just shocked that you have a personal email account," she said.

"I have several," Kiryuu said. "One that is internal, and about 99 free email accounts, Hotmail, Yahoo, MSN, Geocities, on many servers around the world."

"For your hacking habit, I see," she grinned. Kiryuu's image reappeared on the screen. She leaned closer to the screen. "You know you're not suppose to hack, that's what Gordon Knight says."

"Gordon still refused to supply me with enough information that I require to become efficient," Kiryuu explained in a deep voice.

"Well, sometimes there is information that you are no suppose to know about," she said. "And it's for your own protection that you don't know."

"If there is information out there on the web, then why do they not want me to know about it?" Kiryuu asked. "You humans make information too easy for me to obtain. Though, to respect your privacy, I have stopped most of my governmental viewings."

"You don't hack personal accounts do you?" she asked.

"Why, of course not, Ms. Mafune," Kiryuu's voice sounded shocked about her question to him. "I understand private accounts on the Internet. I understand that it holds the private information of an individual."

"Well, sometimes there are accounts for governments and businesses that are also private, they don't like it if you pry into their business," Kiko said. "It's not nice to be so nosy all the time, Kiryuu."

"I understand, Ms. Mafune," Kiryuu nodded. "Why are you asking me this?"

"I need to know," she replied. "I need to know that you won't pry into my private things that I might save in this computer."

"Do not worry, I will not pry into your personal affairs," he said. "But it is against company policy to have such information stored on our servers."

"I know," she said. "But I'm just saying."

"I understand, Ms. Mafune," Kiryuu amended. "Do you have any other questions for me?"

"No," she shook her head. "Thank you, Kiryuu."

"Of course," Mechagodzilla nodded through the screen. "And welcome once more to the team."

"Thank you," Kiko smiled. The face faded away from the screen, leaving only a dark prompt. She sighed and took out her cell phone. She remembered when she first met Knight, he told her that she could use her phone inside the compound. The signal would not interfere with Kiryuu's contact with the satellites or the monitoring around the compound. She began to make her call, one with quite a long distance charge.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Two Light Years Away


The space vessel silently and luxuriously made its way through the inky blackness of space. The sensors picked up a signal from afar, from a lonely orb in the vastness of vacuumed loneliness.

"Sir, the agent has contacted us," began a voice from behind a control panel. A beastly, emerald green, primal face covered in shaggy fur and a mane rose from its seat.

"Very good," said a somber and amused voice from the captain's chair at the center of the bridge of the ship. "What has the agent to report?"

"The agent said that their weapon is more powerful than we thought, Commander," replied the creature. "An advanced AI with deduction and fast processing circuitry. Though, the agent said that there is more information to require. To report back in a few days when the agent has acquired more information on—Kiryuu."

The Commander rose from his chair. He was a giant of a monster, dressed in shimmering silver and gold. His mane was cropped short and his beady eyes were dark and filled with determination. Tiny horns adorned his face and forehead. He lifted a cigar to his mouth and puffed it with amusement.

"It would be wonderful to return to Earth again," the Commander said. "After our last encounter with the monster known as Godzilla, we have upgraded our resources. We will not fail this time in the complete domination of Earth."

He turned to one of his ship operators, walking to him with a powerful stride.

"Tell me, when do we reach Earth?" he asked.

"Three days," the operator replied.

"And the robot?" the Commander continued. "How is our magnificent machine of destruction?"

"Fully operational and ready to attack," he replied.

"Prepare the disguise," he ordered. "Be ready to beam the robot to Earth when we arrive at it's atmosphere."

"Yes, sir."


Utah Foundation Compound


"Most interesting," began Kiryuu. "I'm picking up some reports from the military satellites, and a picture from the Hubbell Telescope."

"What is it, pal?" Will asked.

"An object, some 2 light years away from us, and it is moving," he said. "There is field around it, radio waves and techyon signals."

"Techyon, what the hell is that?" Gordon asked.

"Faster than light transmissions," Mechagodzilla replied. "I'm calculating its trajectory from the information given to me by the satellites and the telescope." Kiryuu paused for a moment, gathering more information. "It is hard to calculate, it is too far out for a proper calculation."

"Well, don't worry about it," Gordon snorted. "Concentrate on Godzilla, that's what I built you for. You're wasting company time and my money star gazing, you worthless pile of sheet metal."

"I'm sorry, Gordon," Kiryuu said, apologetically. "I shall return to my task of monitoring Godzilla."

"You better, or I'll start deducting parts for my Chevy,"

"Compliance, Gordon," Kiryuu replied, lifting his head up in attention. Gordon left the control room, mumbling some incoherent and inaudible swears. Will sat back down at the control panel and sighed.

"Why does he keep call you names, Kiryuu?" he asked. "Can't he treat you with some bit of respect?"

"I have done nothing to earn it, Will," Kiryuu said. "I have disobeyed him countless times, and even placed a large blemish on the Utah Foundation's reputation. He cannot forgive me for such an action against his company."

"I know, but at least get him to say something nice about you," Will said. "I mean you're not attacking a city anymore. You only did that once. And after that, you never did it again. You've been a great friend to talk to."

"Thank you, Will," Kiryuu's voice expressed his thankfulness for Will's statement. "I appreciate you referring to me as a friend. I wish to return the gesture. I too think of you as my friend."

"Well you are," Will smiled. "Now, let's go play some Halo. It'll keep your processors off of Gordon for a while."

Will got up and grabbed the X Box from under his chair, wrapping the controller up and the cords to hook it up to Kiryuu's desktop port inside the c0ckpit.

"Will, I do not want to play the game right now," Kiryuu began. "I wish to talk to you about something."

"Oh, what?" he asked.

"Please, not here, come inside the c0ckpit," Kiryuu said.

"Alright, Kiryuu," Will set the console back under his chair and walked out the door to the catwalk. He began to walk up the catwalk as it moved towards Kiryuu's head. Mechagodzilla watched with patience as Will climbed onto his snout and climbed down the ladder on his neck. When he finally reached the doorway to the c0ckpit, Will slide down the shaft. He landed on his feet, getting use to the ins and outs of the inside of Kiryuu's chest. The c0ckpit was dark, with only some subtle glowing lights from the maintenance console and the large screen. Kiryuu raised the lighting inside the c0ckpit just as Will sat down. The internal synaptic cords and jungle of bio-syntech pillars pulsated with life. As alien as it looked inside, Will found the surroundings rather relaxing. He faced the screen the only focal point he had for being inside Kiryuu.

"Okay, what did you want to talk about?" Will asked.

"Will, you seem to know about how to—talk to women," Kiryuu began. "I—know this friend who is—rather fond of a girl—but she does not—share the same feelings as he."

Will could not help the boisterous laugh that erupted from his mouth. He leaned over, slapping the console with his right hand.

"Why are you laughing, Will?" Kiryuu asked.

"Because you're using the ole ' know this friend' line to talk about how to ask a girl out," Will laughed. "Kiryuu, is this about Katsura?"

He heard nothing but the hum of the speakers. Kiryuu was speechless.

"Kiryuu?"

"Will…" he began, trying to calculate his next statement.

"Do we need to have a mano a mano chat?" Will asked.

"Is that what you call 'male bonding'?" Kiryuu asked, his voice showing his curiosity.

"Well, I thought you and I sniping each other in Halo was male bonding," he laughed. "Yes, talking about girls counts too. Look, I had a feeling you loved her in that way."

"What way is that?" he asked. "I just love Katsura. Is there many meanings to the word love that I have yet to download?"

Will had to laugh again.

"Why the hell is this turning to 'the birds and the bees' conversation?" Will sighed, placing his hand on his head.

"The birds and the bees?" Kiryuu asked. "Will, I am not interested in sex."

"Well, when you put it that bluntly," he chuckled. "Okay, love. Well, how do you love her? Do you love her like a son loves his mother?"

"She mentioned that to me," he said. "I never knew there was a difference. She said that I love her as if I love a—lover—a mate. She said that she loves me differently, like a mother to a son."

"There is a lot of definitions, Kiryuu," said Will. "Some, can't be described.

"Then, what is the definition of my love?" Kiryuu asked. "For Katsura?"

"I guess you have to answer that one yourself, pal," he sighed. "Because I can't really answer it. I mean, how can you…you be attracted to someone who's like 1/10th your size?"

Kiryuu remained silent again. He really could not define it as love or as an attraction, or just some sort of fondness. He tried to see if was some type of feedback from the link, but he knew that he felt it before he linked up with Katsura. Once more, these emotions made no sense to him. He had to except them, though, he could no longer deny them. They were his emotions. But why did they have to be so damned confusing? Kiryuu shook his virtual head and took another sigh.

"Then it doesn't make any sense," Kiryuu rumbled. "These emotions."

"Kiryuu, I have to ask a personal question," Will began. "When you and Katsura see each other in—that mental place…and you're the same size as she, do you ever feel the desire to kiss her?"

Kiryuu was silent again.

"Okay, bad question," Will sighed. He felt an awkward silence roll over him as he stared at the glowing, blank screen. He decided to break the silence. "Okay, look, you've told her how you feel, right?"

"Yes," Kiryuu replied.

"Then, that's all you can do," Will said. He got up off the chair and headed towards the latter to the hatch. "Look, think about it, okay. I'm going to turn in, take a nap. See you later, Kiryuu."

"Pleasant dreams, Will," said Kiryuu as he watched Will go up into the shaft.

Kiryuu leaned back inside his CPU, his thoughts turned to Katsura once more and his thoughts revolved on Will's question. He could not see himself, a computer inside the body of a monstrous mechanized Godzilla could find a human attractive. Kiryuu looked up, seeing Katsura's image appear before him. Her image stared back at him, staring into his mind. She knew that he was watching her. She remained silent.

"Katsura," he began. "I have something to tell you."

"Kiryuu," Katsura sighed. "Please, I know about what you feel. But I don't know why. I've told you how I feel. You wanted me to be honest right?"

"Yes," Kiryuu said. "I do."

He fell to his knees, placing his metallic hands in his lap. Katsura sighed, walking over to him and placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. Kiryuu looked up at her, raising his hand to her face, grazing his fingers against her soft skin. Then, he moved slightly close to her. Katsura stood still, realizing what he was trying to do. Kiryuu caught himself in the moment, pulling awkwardly away from her. Mechagodzilla got up and backed away from her.

"Forgive me, Katsura!" Kiryuu whispered. "Forgive me! I do not know what came over me. I will not violate your personal space again."

Katsura felt a push on her mind just as Kiryuu shut the link off. Katsura felt herself fall back into her body, waking, gasping for air. She glanced at her reflection in the computer screen, trying to figure out what just happened.

What did he try to do? Katsura asked in confusion over herself and Kiryuu. She began to feel that the link was affecting her in ways she was not comfortable with our ready for. She took a sip of her water bottle and licked her lips. The phone rang on her desk. She picked it up and took in a deep breath.

"Hey, Katsura!" cried a voice.

"Miki?" she asked. "Oh, hello, sister. What's going on?"

"Nothing much," replied Miki. "Oh, my husband Gobei and I were wondering if you would like to join us for dinner at the New Ginza today? And invite Will and that new girl if you like."

"Yes, but what about me?" Katsura asked, feeling herself forget about Kiryuu's strange love for her.

"Oh, I've got this friend from work," Miki began. "I've told him a lot about you. He said that he would love to meet you."

"A blind date?" she asked. "Who is this guy?"

"His name is Tetsuo," Miki said. "How about we meet each other at Ginza at 7 tonight?"

"Sounds fine," she said.

"Go tell Will and 'what's her name' okay?"

"Kiko?" Katsura asked.

"Yeah, her," Miki said. "See you guys at 7!"

The phone clicked off. Katsura replaced the receiver and leaned back, sighing. This was an exhausting day. She got up off of her chair and headed out of her office and down the hall. She came to Will's office, finding the computer programmer playing some game on his screen. There was no other player, it was just him. Katsura found it a bit odd that Kiryuu would not be joining Will's game, since that is what those two do most of the time. Will glanced up for a moment, noticing Katsura.

"Katsura?" Will asked. "What's up?"

"Will," Katsura walked into his office. "My sister Miki called. She and her husband want to take us out to dinner. She said to also bring Kiko as well."

"But what about you?" asked Will. "Where's your date?"

"Something tells me this is another one of my sister's plans to play matchmaker," she sighed. "You know how she is."

"I see," Will slumped over in his chair. "Did you turn it down?"

"No," she sighed. "If I did, I'll never hear the end of it. I might as well play along—like I usually do."

Will began to laugh, shaking his head.

"So, you want me to bring Kiko, huh?" he asked. "Well, that would be nice. But are you sure you want Kiko to meet your sister? She might scare her away."

"What's wrong with my sister?" Katsura snorted, crossing her arms.

"Oh, nothing," Will smiled. "Except for the fact she thinks she's psychic. That and her husband is a bit of a creep."

Katsura sighed, admitting to herself that Will was probably right.

"Do you want to go or not?" she finally asked him.

"Yeah," he sighed. "And I'll bring Kiko too."

"Good, be ready by 3 pm," Katsura smiled. "And tell Kiko. We have to take the bullet train to Tokyo."

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Will, Kiko, and Katsura walked into the New Ginza, glancing around the decorated walls and paneling. The host walked up to them, bowing in greeting.

"Do you have reservations?" he asked.

"We are guests," Katsura began. "My sister has our table, if she got here before us."

"Kat!" called a voice. "Over here."

Miki came running towards them, waving frantically.

"And there's Miss Cleo now," Will chuckled. Katsura jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

Miki Yamamoto was a tall woman with hip length, tea colored hair. She was dressed in loosely fitting clothes and a shear broom skirt with long colorful, wooden beads. Her hair was bound in a flashy bandana.

"Is it true that she is a psychic?" Kiko whispered to Will.

"She owns a palm reading shop somewhere in the middle of town," Will explained. "Of course it's all an illusion. She uses the old smoke, lasers, and mirrors tricks to make you believe she's calling back some ghost from the beyond. She's actually a magician, and a good one, but she does the psychic gig, which she's bad at."

"I see true love in your future, Katsura," Miki announced as she placed her hands on her head.

"Like you predicted the last time?" Katsura sighed. "You know this is getting old."

"Aw, come on, sis!" she called. "Meet the guy. It'll take your mind on ole tin face."

"You mean Kiryuu?" Kiko asked.

"The one and only," Miki chuckled. "You know electric relationships don't work, Katsura."

"Stop it, Miki!" Katsura sniffed. "He's my friend, and nothing more."

"That's not what my ESP says," she chuckled. "Come on, everyone, my treat. Let's go sit down. I've already have a place for you."

Her lavender eyes roved over to Kiko and Miki made a move for her.

"You must be—uh—Kiki," Miki held out her hand.

"Kiko Mafune," Will whispered.

"Oh, sorry, nice to meet you, Kiko," she bowed.

"Like wise," Kiko bowed in response.

"Since your new," began Miki with a smile. "I'll give you a free palm reading at my shop and a free taro card reading as well. But you have to tell all your friend about my shop right afterwards."

"Thank you," she smiled. "I will when I stop by."

"Here's my card," Miki said, pulling a business card from her sleeve. "I even have a web page. I do readings, changelings, and dream definitions. I think Katsura needs a dream definition, if you ask me. May be I can help her get ole metal boy out of her head with a little banishing spell."

"I heard you were a magician," Kiko said.

"Oh, not in that way," she said. "I'm what some people call a witch."

"Ah what?" Kiko asked, surprised.

"Let's burn her at the stake," Will chuckled.

"Be nice, Will, or I'll send a rain storm of frogs your way," Miki shook her finger at him. "Come on, guys, I'm hungry. Let's go eat!"

Miki dashed off, weaving her way through the many tables. The rest followed her to the table. Katsura found Gobei and another gentleman sitting at the table. Gobei was dressed in his usual suit and bland colored tie, quite a contrast to Miki's flamboyant ensemble. The other man was dress also similar to Gobei. This must be Tetsuo.

"Everyone sit," Miki beamed as she sat beside her husband. "Katsura, meet Tetsuo Amai."

"Hello," Tetsuo got up and bowered.

"He's one of my customers," Miki smiled. She leaned closer to Katsura. "He's got an aura that spans dimensions even! Isn't he cute? I think it's a match made in heaven."

"Miki, please," Katsura sighed. "No."

"Don't say 'no' until you get to know him, Kat," Miki said. "Tetsuo, Miki is a bio-chemist, and she helped build the Mechagodzilla unit."

"Oh really," Tetsuo smiled. "I've seen it in action. Quite a modern marvel, Ms. Yugami."

"Katsura," Katsura smiled. "And he's called Kiryuu. He's a he."

"He?" Tetsuo asked. "You gave a machine a gender? How interesting."

"We programmed him…well, Will did," Katsura said.

"With the Utah Foundation's founder's voice," said Will. "Gordon Knight was the voice model for Kiryuu. We programmed him to be male. I mean, with a mind and a conscious, why not a gender?"

"So, he's a AI, like the rumors say?" Gobei asked. "You never said anything like that before."

"I've always known," Miki announced. "She can't keep her mind off of him."

"Another one of your ESP readings, dear?" Gobei sighed.

"I am interested in various computer components and such," said Tetsuo.

Katsura sighed and stirred her glass of water.

"Well, this is going well," Will sighed. He glanced over at Kiko. "You know you never really told me about yourself, Kiko."

"I don't have much of a history," Kiko said, twitteling her fingers. "And I rather not talk about it right now."

"I understand," he nodded.

And hour had passed, and Katsura was feeling a bit more relaxed now. She was starting to enjoy her conversation with Tetsuo, with her mind off of Kiryuu once more. He seemed like a charming person. She had learned that Tetsuo had gone to the same collage she did, even graduated the same year. Will and Kiko were also talking and Katsura noticed how Will was looking at her. He seemed a bit fallen for her, though she was not sure that Kiko shared the same feelings for him. She seemed more interested in Kiryuu, but more on a computer level. Kiko asked questions about the AI's processing speeds, the weaponry systems, and how everything worked internally and externally in Mechagodzilla. She was taking notes, lots of notes. Something did not seem right about her questions. Katsura tried to get her mind off of Kiko's inquisitive nature as she stared at Tetsuo once more. He was nice, but he was not her type.

"Well," began Will. "I like to order more sake, if that's okay."

"Sure," Miki said. "Gobei and I are buying."

Katsura nodded as she twirled her glass. Then, her eyes became out of focus and she turned her head away. She saw a figure in the next booth, with a menu concealing his face. The stranger lowered the menu, revealing metal. Katsura's eyes lit up.

Kiryuu? She asked. The robotic, shimmering metallic reptile rose from his seat. His true face was concealed by his helm this time. He rarely projected his image with the helm, preferring for Katsura to see his real face. Kiryuu never wanted to hide anything from her. Though, this time, he wanted to hide his face. She knew what that face was, jealously. The mental image approached her for a moment, staring directly at Tetsuo. Then, in an anger grunt, Kiryuu stormed away, his image phasing through the tables. Katsura got up.

"Kiryuu," she breathed. The others stared up at her.

"Uh-oh," rumbled Will.

"What's going on?" Kiko asked. Katsura darted away chasing after the image. She followed Kiryuu until she found him in the lobby, his arms crossed. Mechagodzilla turned away from her, thumping his tail impatiently.

"You enjoying yourself?" he asked.

"Kiryuu, I told you never to do this," she said. "This is my life, not yours. You have no right to pry into my affairs."

"When it concerns you, Katsura," began Kiryuu. "Everything is my business."

"It shouldn't be," Katsura growled. "This is outside the base, so there for it is none of your business."

"He seems nice," Mechagodzilla sighed. "Do you like him?"

"He is nice, but you should know by now he is not my type," she said, leaning against the wall. "If you were truly listening on the dinner, you would notice that!"

Kiryuu sighed, slumping over. She was right.

"I just don't—want you to get hurt," Katsura heard his voice grow deeper. "You know that."

"Stop protecting me," Katsura snapped. "I don't need your protection!"

"Uh, Katsura?" Will began. Katsura turned around, finding Will, Kiko, and Miki staring at her.

"I sense another person in this room," said Miki. "One with a shiny metal ass that seems to want to butt in on every plan I have to get Katsura a nice man to be with."

Kiko stared at Miki, not sure by what she meant. Miki walked over to Katsura, staring at her for a moment, then, she turned away. She knew that only Katsura could see the image of Kiryuu, but she had ways to figure out where that image was standing. Her eyes shifted around and came to the spot where Kiryuu was standing.

"Can you just keep your nosey hard drive out my plans?" she asked, talking to nothing more than air.

"I am only looking after Katsura," a deep voice replied back.

"So am I and I'm her sister!" Miki cried.

"Not this again," Will sighed.

"Is that Kiryuu?" asked Kiko. "Where is his voice coming from? And why is Miki talking to air?"

"Okay, first question," began Will. "Yes, that's Kiryuu. Second question, it's coming from Katsura, hard to explain. And as for Miki talking to air? Well, that's normal."

"No arguments," Miki said. "I love my sister. I want her to be happy."

Katsura shook her head, feeling the blood rush into her brain. She slumped down, moaning. Will rushed to her, helping her back to her feet.

"He's gone," Katsura sighed. "I'm sorry, Miki."

"He's only done that five times already," Miki sighed. "This makes six. You need to teach that guy a lesson, cut his LAN connection or something."

"It's hard to teach a 60 meter tall robotic Godzilla a lesson," chuckled Will. "I mean what are we suppose to do, ground him?"

"That's a start."

"Take away his Halo privileges," smiled Kiko.

"I am going home," Katsura sighed. "I'm sorry, Miki. Tell Tetsuo that I was not feeling well."

Katsura turned away, heading out of the door. Will and Kiko stared at each other, shrugging. Miki's head lowered in grief.

"Someday, that computer is going to drive me insane," she sighed. "I just know it."

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Infant Island


She awoke from her slumber, sensing a disturbance. This strange and alien feeling filled her with dread as she gazed up at the sky. She lifted her head up to the sky, unfurling her brilliantly colored gossamer wings. Her call rang out through the tropical island and she began to flap her wings. With one kick of her slender legs, she took off. She felt the wind through her antennae as she gained altitude. This strange feeling lead her beyond the atmosphere. She felt the air grow thin, and the temperature drop about her furred body. She had traveled in space before, though this trip would take her even farther than she had ever gone. Her duties brought her up her. She had sworn to protect the Earth from anything that threatened it. She pumped her wings, gaining speed as she felt the dread grow near to her. There was not much time. She saw her target, an enormous, long, rectangular space ship, luxuriously floating through the space. She flew down, angling her wings back for an attack. There was no time to be friendly to this intruder. This alien ship meant harm to the Earth and she would not allow it to land on it. Already, the ship was alerted to her presence as several smaller vessels shot out of ports along its extruded sides. She banked out of her dive, firing several golden beams from her antennae. The beams swept across the platoon of the fighter ships, destroying their lines. Though, her victory was short as she felt hot fire rake across her back. She glanced back, pulling up as another platoon fired upon her. She fired again, this time sending wave after wave of electrical energy through her wings and to the ships. The welcoming explosion and defeat of the ships pleased her. She was gaining the upper hand. Once more, she dove towards the larger ship, firing all her energy beams at the haul. Then, another port opened at the top of the ship. Something rose out of that port, gleaming with a silvery sheen. It looked like an enormous reptilian monster, though; its body was made from the most glistening of metals. Two fiercely glowing golden, featureless eyes stared at her. The eyes seemed blank and lacking a conscious that most living things possessed. She knew that this monster was not alive, it was a machine. The reptilian machine lifted its claws towards her, and its fingers began to glow. She fired on the monster, but her beams were deflected off of its gleaming shell. The metallic monster fired on her, sending a wave of missiles towards her. She ducked and banked around, rolling to avoid the shots. She weaved her way through the contrails of the rockets, bounding and rolling. Another shot was fired and another wave of missiles came streaking towards her. Her body was in a middle of a roll, and she tried to dodge the attack. Several missiles shot through her wings, tearing holes through them. She screamed in pain just as her right wing blasted apart. She gathered her energy and propelled herself away from her attacker. The smaller ships were no problem to disable, but this metallic monster was a different situation. She had never come across a monster such as this one. She turned her head just as the metallic monster returned back into the ship. She began to deduce that the aliens did not think of her as much of a threat now that she was retreating. She had to figure out what her next plan was. Her first priority was to protect the Earth, but she knew that she could not do that wounded. She needed help. She needed a back-up plan. Her mind returned to the metallic reptile that had wounded her. She knew she had seen a creature that was similar to it. The humans built one to face Godzilla. She recalled that the Earth metallic reptile looked similar to Godzilla. There was more to the similarity than just their looks. The humans had brought back the Godzilla of old to fight the Godzilla of this time.

She used her strength to propel her through space, her eyes beholding the thankful sight of Earth orbiting silently. The aliens were not far from Earth, and they could be within the planet's view in just a few days. She feared for Earth, but she had hope as well. If she could find the metallic Godzilla, she could ask for his help. He was also determined to protect the humans. They had something in common and that was enough for her to seek him out.


* * *


The alarms sounded inside the base, screeching their sirens in warning. Gordon Knight came running into the control room his eyes staring at the screen. Godzilla had risen from the ocean.

"G sighting," Will began. "He's in San Francisco this time."

"In the States?" Gordon asked, his were wide. "Why that far?"

We've been tracking Godzilla's movements for some time now, Mr. Knight," said Kiko. "I suppose that he thinks we won't reach him there."

"He's got a lot to learn, then," Gordon smiled. "Warn the US government, tell them to try to at least slow Godzilla down until Mechagodzilla can arrive to fight him."

He turned to Katsura who stared deeply into the glowing optics of Kiryuu Mechagodzilla. He knew that the two were talking to each other, their conversation was shared only between her mind and his CPU. He walked over to her and tapped her on the shoulder. Katsura became startled, jerking away from him. Kiryuu also performed the same movement. His head jerked away just as the conversation was ended by the surprise. The metallic beast rumbled through his sharp teeth just as he was awakened from his conversation with Katsura.

"Godzilla is attacking San Francisco," began Gordon, his eyes shown heavy worry. "My mother is there. We're going to contact the US government to start evacuating the city. We need to get Kiryuu primed for a distant travel across the ocean."

"He can fly that far, but he won't be there until the next day," Katsura began. "By then, Godzilla would have left."

Gordon turned to Kiryuu; a feeling of desperation grew over him.

"Listen, you snobbish bucket of bolts," he began. "There has got to be a way you can fly over there to fight Godzilla."

"I understand your concern for you mother, Gordon," began Kiryuu in the most sincere tone he has ever taken on. "But as Katsura has said, if I do go, I will be there the next day. By that time, Godzilla would have done his damage and left. I am sorry, but I can't get there fast enough."

"The Golden Gate Bridge has been destroyed by Godzilla's breath," began Will. "But the US has begun its evacuation of the city. They don't have a Godzilla warning system like we do. They don't know what it means if the temperature in the ocean rises several degrees. Godzilla has never attacked this up the West Coast before."

"They weren't prepared," Gordon sighed. "Damnit! Why did he decide to attack the States, and of all places, why San Francisco?"

"Nuclear plant in Diablo Canyon?" asked Will. "California does have two nuclear facilities."

"Diablo Canyon isn't even near San Francisco!" Gordon wailed. "Why is he attacking the city?"

"A pattern, perhaps?" Kiryuu asked.

"So, you want to put your input in this too, huh?" he asked, his maddened eyes turned back to Mechagodzilla. "Okay, what pattern pray tell, Mr. 'I can't fly fast enough'?"

"Gordon, I have been picking up some signals coming from the atmosphere lately," began Kiryuu. "This does not follow the usual patters of Godzilla. Tokyo has a nuclear facility near its city limits. San Francisco does not. Will, did you pick up any temperature changes in the ocean when Godzilla appeared?"

"No," Will said. "Nothing on the monitors. We did at first, then it disappeared two hours ago, and then Godzilla landed in San Francisco. Strange, huh?"

"What are you implying?" Katsura asked, looking back at Kiryuu. "That is not Godzilla?"

"I am merely implying that there is something else at fault here," began Kiryuu. "I need more information. I cannot come up with a conclusion right now until I see this Godzilla for myself. Though, Godzilla some times does land on cities out of curiosity. I can remember when I had done that as well."

"Huh?" Gordon asked. "You remembered doing something like that?"

"The memories," he sighed. "At first it was out of curiosity. I am trying to use the memories for our benefits to understand Godzilla more now. Since I was once Godzilla myself, I need to draw on that experience. Do not worry, they will not make me turn on you. I do not know about this odd pattern Godzilla is taking on. There are no radiation signatures around him. I am at a loss of information, Gordon."

"So, you don't know, 'O Mechanical Mountain of Vast Knowledge'," Gordon scoffed sarcastically.

"I never claimed to know, Gordon," Kiryuu began. "But unfortunately, I cannot be at any assistance because he is too far away for me to study closely."

"Well, with that tone, it sounds like you know everything," he snorted. "So, try another tone."

"Gordon," Kiryuu rumbled. "I…"

For a split moment, he began to loose his cool composure. Mechagodzilla fought to retain himself, to regain his logical persona. Kiryuu sighed through the auditory speakers.

"Stop it, Gordon," Katsura snapped. "You know, he tries hard! He's trying to explain it as best as he can. And we can't get there in time."

"With the amount of money I put into building Mechagodzilla, he better be able to break light speed!"

I can never please him…Mechagodzilla sighed mentally. Katsura picked up on his thoughts. She shook her head and stared at Gordon.

"Please, Gordon," she began. "We just can't get there. All we can do is monitor Godzilla from here. It is up to the US government forces now."

"My mother is there!" Gordon cried. "I can't—I can't let that lizard…"

"She might have gotten out," began Will. "She does live in the rural areas around San Francisco. That's plenty far away from where Godzilla is right now, almost 50 miles away. She'll be fine."

Gordon sighed and sat down beside Kiko. His eyes roved back over to the enormous bay window opening to Mechagodzilla's metallic face. He has always stared at Mechagodzilla, ever since the construction of the mighty machine. He could see the biosynthetic eyes beneath the glowing golden optics. They held some sadness from within. Gordon sighed, placing his head in his hands, his eyes never leaving Kiryuu's eyes. He chuckled, the thought of apologizing to Kiryuu. After all, even Mechagodzilla had his limits. He thought about apologizing, but then he thought against it. He knew that Kiryuu would just gloat over him for apologizing to him. He hated gloating robots. He saw the sadness and self-disappointment inside Kiryuu's eyes. He rose slowly from his chair and approached the bay window, leaning against it.

"Kiryuu," he began, his voice becoming softer and once more desperate.

"Yes, Gordon?" Kiryuu asked.

"Are you sure you can't fly fast enough to fight Godzilla?" Gordon asked.

"I am," he replied. "I'm sorry, Gordon."

"Gordon," began Will. "Godzilla has disappeared."

"What?!" Gordon cried as he glanced back at the screen. "What do you mean disappeared? Did he go back into the ocean?"

"No, he just disappeared," Will began. "Right off the screen."

"How does a 55 meter monster just 'disappear'?" Kiko asked. "It does not make sense."

"Nothing that Godzilla does makes sense," Will sighed. "Here, take a gander at this, everyone."

He turned on one of the monitors and changed the channel to the local news in San Francisco. Already reporters were on the spot, trying to gather as much information there was about Godzilla's first appearance in the United States.

"Rubble, crowded streets, burnt-dead bodies, and mayhem clouded the city as Godzilla made his way through San Francisco," began a reporter. "The monster destroyed the famous landmark—the Golden Gate Bridge as it surfaced from San Francisco Bay, then made its way east into the city. The locals were forced to evacuate as US troops and National Guard tried their best to drive the monster back into the sea. Though, Godzilla just kept coming. Much of San Francisco's coast was not spared the monster's attack; at least many on the outskirts of the city had evacuated. Much of down town has been destroyed. Then, as suddenly as he came, Godzilla disappeared—without a trace. It is now up to all of us living in the city to put San Francisco back together…"

Will muted the sound and gazed back at Gordon Knight.

"Well, what's the game plan?" he asked.

"Perhaps I could go to San Francisco and collect samples," began Kiryuu.

"No," Gordon growled. "I didn't build you to collect samples and test them. You're a fighting machine, not a scientist. Besides, we need you here just incase Godzilla decides to show up in Japan. He always does. I'll send a team out from the main office in Salt Lake City to gather some samples. We better get you ready just incase he does show here. Start the preparation."

"Right, Gordon," Will nodded. "Katsura?"

Katsura nodded as she sat down beside Will Penter. Kiko faced the control panel and she and Will began to prepare the mechanical arms.

"Charge the forearm cannons," Gordon began.

"Charging," Will said.

"And the maser cannons as well," Gordon continued. "And begin fueling the energy pack."

Robotic arms descend down around Kiryuu Mechagodzilla. He closed his eyes as the arms began to attach cables and tubes around his head, back and arms. He began to feel the energy flow into his body, fueling his form with the essence he needed to be able to move. He took in a virtual breath and relaxed. Kiryuu seemed satisfied that Gordon was relying on him once more.

"Everything is fully operational, Gordon," said Will. "Kiryuu, how do you feel?"

"I am operating at maximum efficiency," Kiryuu replied.

"That's not what he was asking, Kiryuu," began Kiko. "Was that what you were asking, Will?"

"It's fine," began Will. "It's just a question."

"Whatever," sighed Gordon. "I'm going to keep the base on Orange Alert for the rest of the day. Everybody be on their toes if Godzilla shows up. Since he didn't go after any nuclear energy, he's bound to be hungry and looking at one of Japan's nuclear plants for lunch." He turned to Mechagodzilla. "Kiryuu, keep those sensors up and alert. We can never be too careful. The alarms come on, I don't care what I'm doing on my computer, you immediately contact me and I'll be here at the control room."

"Yes, Gordon," nodded Kiryuu. "I understand."

Gordon smiled at Mechagodzilla for a moment, pleased that he was not getting an argument out of the robot today. He turned back to Katsura.

"Now, you to don't be going on any virtual dates until I call off the Orange Alert," he nudged her in the arm. "I want Kiryuu alert, not distracted."

"Gordon," Katsura stared blankly at Gordon. "Gordon…"

"Loss for words, huh?" he asked. "Look, we all know what's been going on between you two. Just don't let it get out of hand."

"Yes, Gordon," Katsura sighed.

"Admit it some times to him, huh?" he asked. "I see it in you eyes when you look at him. You're feelings for him go beyond just being friends. I just want you to be careful when you're with him in that little virtual playground."

Katsura shook her head and turned away from him, feeling some frustration crawl up her throat. Her thoughts returned to Kiryuu and she sensed that he was thinking about her as well. Perhaps she was a distraction to him. It would be better if she distanced herself from Mechagodzilla, not entering his c0ckpit unless ordered to do some maintenance to his systems.

I understand, Katsura, Kiryuu projected. Besides, distance makes the heart grow fonder.

She could hear a smile appear in his voice as he spoke to her inside her mind. He never hid any emotions from her.

"Alright, Gordon," Katsura sighed. "You are probably right, I am a distraction to him. He must focus on fighting Godzilla, not 'flirting' with me."

"That's my girl," Gordon nodded as he walked out of the control room. Will and Kiko glanced back at Katsura. Kiko stared at her blankly, not knowing what just happened. She leaned over to Will.

"Uh, Will, what just happened?" she asked.

"Hard to say," Will sighed. "But we can't talk about it here, not with Kiryuu and Katsura in the room. I'll tell you later, perhaps over some sushi?"

Kiko smiled: "I'd like that."

"Now my Japanese is still rusty, so you might be doing the ordering for both of us," Will chuckled.

Katsura's eyes shot an angered glance at Will. She suddenly stormed out of the room. Will and Kiko followed her movements as she disappeared behind the door. Then, Will turned to Kiryuu.

"It is alright, Will," began Kiryuu. "She is angry because you might be talking about us behind our backs."

"I'm sorry, Mecha," Will began. "I just want to inform Kiko about what's been going on, since she's new here. She doesn't understand—uh—how special your relationship is with Katsura."

"I'm sorry, Kiryuu," Kiko rose from her chair and walked towards the enormous bay window. "I should not pry into your affairs. It's none of my business. I keep forgetting how—human you seem and that perhaps, in a way, you have a private life."

"Computers do not have private lives, Ms. Mafune," Kiryuu corrected with a silky tone. "We never develop one. My life is as much as your business as you want it to be. I am not ashamed."

"But I do for asking about you two," began Kiko. "I should not. I don't want you to feel uncomfortable."

"But I do not," Kiryuu began.

"I just have to know," Kiko began. "You love her, don't you? It's hard to believe that a computer can feel love. So…you love her?"

"Unfortunately, that is a question I am not at liberty to answer," began Mechagodzilla. "For, I am not sure how to answer it. I am still just learning to apply words to emotions. It is not easy for me to have these emotions. Computers are meant to be devoid of them."

"He's quite the person, huh?" Will asked.

"He is," Kiko smiled.

Will got off of his chair and walked over to her, looking at her fondly. He glanced back towards Kiryuu, who just stared at the both of them in confusion. Will let loose a chuckle and smiled.

"Kiryuu, could you man the control room by yourself?" he asked. "I'm going to go to the café in the lower level for a break."

"Yes, Will, I can monitor from here," Mechagodzilla replied. "Could you get me a mocha, please?"

"Mecha, you don't even drink," Will smirked.

"I know, but isn't that what you ask when someone is going down to the café and you are left to man the control room yourself?" he asked. "I am only doing what seems to be a tradition here."

"I'll stay here, with Kiryuu," Kiko began. "To help him monitor for another Godzilla sighting."

"No, Kiryuu can do that himself," said Will. "Can't you, pal?"

"Yes, Ms. Mafune," Kiryuu nodded. "I have the Utah Foundation's satellites to assist me. So, I do not require any other assistance. You may go with Will down to the café for some refreshments. I will be alright here."

Kiko sighed and glanced at Will, then back to Kiryuu. She saw the assurance inside the glowing optics of the mechanical automaton. He could run this entire base from just the inside of his CPU if he had total access to the compound. Then, with another heavy sigh she turned back to Will and nodded. She needed more information on Kiryuu; perhaps Will could give it to her.

"Okay, if you can run it without the both of us," began Kiko to Mechagodzilla. "I'll go with Will to the café."

"Do not worry about me, Ms. Mafune," Kiryuu began. "The both of you need a break from staring at the monitors all morning. Your eyes need rest."

"Please, Kiryuu," Kiko said. "Call me Kiko."

"Alright then, Kiko," Mechagodzilla nodded, a slight smile appeared in his voice. "Enjoy your break."

Will lead her out of the control room, glancing back at Kiryuu. He gave a thumbs-up gesture to Mechagodzilla, smiling sheepishly as he went.

"Thanks, pal," Will grinned. "I owe you one."

"I know your motives, Will," Kiryuu began amusingly. "Though, do remember she is your assistant."

"You're a riot, Mecha," he chuckled as he walked out of the control room.

"Human courtship habits," Kiryuu sighed virtually. "I will never understand them."

[Emperor Kedzuel]

At the Café


"So, how do you like working for Gordon, Kiko?" Will asked.

Kiko took a sip of her coffee and slung her hair away from her face.

"Not bad, it's the most interesting job I've ever had," she replied. "And Kiryuu…what a charming being he is."

"Can't get your mind off of him, huh?" he chuckled.

"And neither can Katsura, it seems," Kiko sighed. "Does she…does she…"

"Have the same feelings for him as he does for her?" Will asked. "I think so. She's in love with him—not just love him like a caring person would. It's that charming personality he has. I didn't know that we could fall in love with our own computer equipment, but when it thinks like us, has emotions like us, has a very sensual sounding voice, and a handsome demeanor, I guess it's possible. She's been with him for so long, longer than I have—as a friend I mean. For many years, I've basically treated Kiryuu like any other piece of hardware I've worked on. But one day, I stopped treating him like a piece of hardware, and more like a person."

"When was that?" Kiko asked, leaning in with interest.

Will sighed as he looked back on that day, the day that Kiryuu lost control and attacked Tokyo. He remembered it was only a few hours before that he was asked by Gordon to make the AI more controllable. He also remembered it was that day that he realized how far the AI had developed awareness for itself and those around him.


"Gordon has asked me to reprogram you," Will said. "Some of your personality is disturbing to everyone. I'm cutting some of them out and installing new protocols, to make you more—manageable."

"Will, please," began Mechagodzilla, his voice sounded frightened. "Stop. Will, how would you feel if I did this to you?"


"He asked me to stop reprogramming him," Will began, curling his fingers up into fists. "Gordon had ordered me to insert a program that would make Mechagodzilla's AI more controllable…more obedient to follow orders. Kiryuu—he told me he did not like what I was doing to him. He knew that I was taking away his mind—his freedom. The sound of his voice even changed. Then he said to me: 'Mr. Penter, I do not want my mind to be restrained in such a manner. My mind is mine alone. I do not care if you people were the ones who gave it to me, but it is mine now. And like you, I want my piece of mind.' From that day on, I knew I had not created some ordinary piece of hardware, I had created a living, sentient being."

"And did you reprogram him?" she asked.

"Yeah," Will sighed. "I did, but Mechagodzilla was on to me. He rerouted the program and made it look like I did reprogram him. Then with that he was able to trick us into sending him out to fight Godzilla—by tampering with the warning system in the base. After that—well, we all know what happened then, Kiryuu tried to destroy Tokyo."
"My God," she breathed. "He's frighteningly intelligent."

"I know," he chuckled. "That's the scariest part about Mechagodzilla. I mean, the weapons we mount on him—it doesn't matter—that doesn't scare me. It's his mind that does. But with Katsura now linked with him, he wouldn't dare try to pull another stunt like that again."

Kiko smiled and nodded. She could not stop thinking about Kiryuu and his incredible mind. Then, her mind went to Kiryuu's face. The face she remembered seeing the first time she went into the control room. Without the helm and the synaptic cords, Kiryuu was Godzilla wearing armor like a knight. She began to wonder if Godzilla knew this, and if there was some sort of relationship outside the look the two shared. Every time Kiryuu showed up to fight Godzilla, the monster would retreat. It was as if Godzilla did not want to fight his bio-mechanical double. She had to correct herself on that. Kiryuu was no double of Godzilla. He was far from being just a mere look-alike. Cloned from the cells of the original monster that attacked Japan 50 years ago, Kiryuu was the original Godzilla.

"Will, about the question I made," she began. "You know, when you first showed me to my office. I asked if Kiryuu was Godzilla's father and you said that he was. Does Godzilla know this?"

"I don't know," Will said. "I don't know because well, we don't know how to ask him. I mean it isn't easy to ask Kiryuu if he feels a paternal bond to Godzilla, and well—to ask a monster who doesn't speak our language, it's even harder. I mean, what are we suppose to do, have Kiryuu walk up to him during a fight and say 'Godzilla, you do realize I'm you daddy?' God, no!"

"Sorry," she said. "I know, it's a silly question. I had to ask though."

"Quite a question though," Will smiled. "Why are you asking these questions?"

"I want to know more about Kiryuu," Kiko replied. "Everything."

"Don't tell me you're in love with him?" Will laughed.

"Oh, no," Kiko's eyes lit up in shock. "Where did you get that from? He's not eve—my type…I mean he's just a computer inside a robot."

"I had to ask," he laughed. "Well, if you're not in love with the old tin can, then who does have your heart?"

Kiko shift around in her seat for a moment, swallowing.

"I'm sorry," Will leaned back. "I shouldn't have asked such a question. Kiryuu's right, I have to remember you're my assistant."

"Are you asking me out on an official date?" she smiled.

"Like Miki's dinner didn't count?" Will grinned.

"I did that so I could get to know everyone," Kiko said. "But we were with other people. Are you asking me out—just the two of us?"

"I'd love to if you let me," his grin became larger. Will winked at her.

"I accept," she said. "How about two days from today? At that same restaurant we went to with Katsura's sister."

"It's a date," Will raised his coffee cup in a toast.


Kiryuu continued to monitor for Godzilla's movements. The monster was acting rather strange lately. He fed several probability equations into his processors, trying to find a solution to why the monster was acting so odd. The attack on San Francisco was not a normal attack. There was no rise in temperature in the ocean, no radiation. Though the monster's heat ray had destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, the color was different. It was not the usual cool, minty blue-white as it had been. It had turned to an orange color. He began to scan the Internet, trying to find some evidence to Godzilla's odd attack and behavior. The monster destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the main thoroughfares into the city. Godzilla was trying to prevent escape from the urban parts of the city.

Why would he do that? Kiryuu asked mentally. This is most interesting and vary much not like his usual behavioral patterns. Godzilla does not know what bridges are. How odd. I must gather more information on this attack.

He began to play various online news reels of the attack. Several reporters spoke of the scene, both at the time Godzilla attacked and afterwards. All of them were the same, Godzilla just appeared out of nowhere and disappeared in the same manner. Kiryuu began to hack through the servers of the new stations around San Francisco, to see if perhaps there was some government cover-ups about the scene. He knew that though the United States had a law of freedom of press, still there would be deleted tapes and scenes before it was truly made public. His hacking came up with several results. The attack left strange artifacts. These artifacts were found in the footprints of the monster's tracks. Kiryuu pried open one file, and began to download its contents onto his hard drive. His CPU lit up in surprise when he opened the document. The file contained several studies done on these artifacts. They were metal squares. Then, another document opened up, with a similar file that dated back to 1974. The file was entitled 'Mechagodzilla'.

What is this? Kiryuu breathed as he opened the file. There was another Mechagodzilla besides me?

He saw the photos of a sharp, glistening, metallic form attacking Tokyo and several other cities around Japan. He knew that this was a robot, similar to himself. The face looked strangely similar to the way his helm was shaped, but sharper, and vary rigid. Though, the body was barrel shaped, lacking muscle definition. Kiryuu's style was based off of muscle design from Godzilla. This robot had none. The metal that they found in San Francisco corresponded with the metal they found in the areas that this other Mechagodzilla attacked in 1974. The metal was called space titanium. Kiryuu began to pull up several files on the metal, even the model of the molecule that the Japanese and US governments contained. He found that the first Mechagodzilla was destroyed by Godzilla in 1974, resulting in decapitation of the robot's head. The rest of the body was utterly destroyed, but the head was still intact. Someone found the head of Mechagodzilla 74. Kiryuu's virtual eyes lit up when he saw the familiar logo of the Utah Foundation on several of these documents.

The Utah Foundation? Kiryuu asked. The head is with the Utah Foundation?

Kiryuu shut down his hacking, feeling warn from the information that was kept from him. Though, there were fragments that were even missing from the documents. One particular file contained the origins of this other Mechagodzilla. Kiryuu only suspected that they were actually disposed of to even keep people who knew how to obtain them from obtaining them. He sighed and relaxed in his virtual world, his mind prodding over the information of Mechagodzilla 74. Could it be that his design was based off of this mechanical creature? There were many files missing from what he downloaded, purposely deleted. Kiryuu tried to hack the Foundation's server for more information. But every search came up empty. Each file just stated that the Foundation owned Mechagodzilla 74's head. Though one came up with an interesting figure into the equation of Godzilla's odd attack. This Mechagodzilla could disguise itself to look like the real Godzilla.

Then it is possible that the creature that attacked San Francisco was not the real Godzilla, Kiryuu processed. Though, I cannot use that as just the only answer. There are several bits of information missing from these files. I must research this further. This equation will be solved, but only through careful study, not through quick answers.

He pushed the file away from his processors, scattering the information into the many pocketed accounts he had all over the Internet, writing encryption codes to all of them as he went. He wanted no evidence of what he had discovered. Kiryuu tried to figure out whether or not he should inform his friends of this. He knew right off hand the last person to tell of this discovery was Gordon. And that came up with another problem. Will or Katsura might inform Gordon of the discovery out of loyalty that he is there boss. Kiryuu could not allow that to happen, though this information was just as important for him to know as it was for them to know. Then he calculated the probability that Will and Katsura may have already known this information and chose not to inform him. Once more, they wanted him to focus on the destruction of Godzilla and nothing else. He began to become use to the fact that Will, Katsura, and Gordon would hide information about his origins. Once more, it was a battle not worth fighting over. Kiryuu decided to put this news of Mechagodzilla 74 to rest and concentrate on the San Francisco attack. He began to run his simulations of various probabilities what could have prompted Godzilla into attacking devoid of radiation. One particular was of course that this was another version of Mechagodzilla 74, made to look like Godzilla. He began to run some searches of other companies that might have such technology to build another Mechagodzilla. There were hundreds that could have built another Mechagodzilla to attack the United States. Some of these companies were in other countries, and a few of them were in places that might want to attack the States. So, there was another figure into the equation, this was an act of terrorism. Though, he still had to gather the information that could conclude that this was another robot Godzilla. And there was space titanium. Why would they call it space titanium?

Plurality is not to be assumed without necessity, Kiryuu concluded. Occam's Razor. The simplest answer is often the correct one. This piece of titanium is of an alloy that is only found in one place…space! There have been some off-worldly activities, though not by Earth means. I will set this figure to the side until I gather more information. I must meet this 'Godzilla' face to face to truly concur if this is another Mechagodzilla and possibly who would have built it.

Once more, Mechagodzilla relaxed inside his CPU and began to play an MP3 file stored in his music folder. He found himself often playing music to relax his processors, like some humans would do to relax themselves. He pulled up the file, and plugged it into his MP3 player. The song was a song by Lynard Skynerd entitled Free Bird. He loved the rolling piano intro and the screaming guitar aftermath. Kiryuu plugged the song through the PA system within the bay area, hearing the melody bounce off of the walls within his bay. He sighed within his processors, closing his virtual eyes to the music.

Will and Kiko came walking into the control room, hearing the haunting sounds of the guitar ringing through the bay area. Kiko glanced up at the speakers.

"It's Mechagodzilla," Will said. "Sometimes he does this."

"He likes music?" Kiko asked.

"He likes all types of music, classical, country, rock," Will replied. "Classical rock seems to be one of his favorites, though. Stuff like Jimmy Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Queen, and of course Lynard Skynerd. I've found him playing Alabama, though he has never been to the state itself."

"Does he listen to any Japanese music?" she asked.

"He does," Will said. "He likes Dream. And he listens to a lot of the music played on anime shows."

"I never knew that he could hear music and enjoy it," Kiko smiled.

"Well, he has auditory sensors, which are his ears, basically," Will said as he walked out into the bay area's catwalk. "Kiryuu hears our voices, and he knows them. It's like that movie Short Circuit. You see that robot listening to music, and you think: 'How can a robot enjoy music?' Then you realize he's more than a robot, he's a sentient being who can respond emotionally to what he hears or sees. Same with Kiryuu."

He glanced down at the ground floor of the bay area. Kiko leaned over the railing, noticing with some amazement that Kiryuu's metallic clawed toes were tapping lightly to the beat of the sound. Though the rest of Mechagodzilla remained motionless, those toes showed all the enjoyment Kiryuu was feeling when he heard the song.
"He's tapping his feet!" Kiko laughed. "That's incredible!"

"Nah, its just Kiryuu," Will smiled. "We've gotten use to it."

Will looked up at the metallic masked head of Mechagodzilla, seeing that the golden optics were dim.

"Kiryuu!" he called. "What's going on?"

The optics lit up in response and the red tear lights glowed brightly on his cheeks. Kiryuu tilted his head, looking down at Will and Kiko.

"You've returned," Kiryuu began. "How was your break?"

"Nice," Will said. "What's with the music. Are you sticking your CPU in something it's not suppose to be?"

"I beg your pardon, Will?" Mechagodzilla was shocked by the statement. "What ever gave you that idea?"

"You usually play Skynerd after you've just went hacking somewhere," he said. "Where have you been?"

"I assure you that I have not gone hacking anywhere," Kiryuu began. "Just browsing, as usual. And monitoring Godzilla, though at the present time, he is asleep in Tokyo Bay."

"He is?" Kiko asked. She glanced away from Kiryuu, heading back towards the control room.

"Hey, where are you going?" Will asked, noticing her leaving.

"I have to make a call," she said. "It's urgent. I'll be right back."

"Sure," he nodded. "Who are you going to call?"

"It's private," Kiko replied as she scampered away, disappearing behind the door.

"Huh, that's strange," Will said. "Every time she said she needs to make a call, she acts funny about it."

"Will," began Kiryuu. "I've been doing some monitoring on Kiko's cell phone calls. Usually, I am able to listen in on cell phone calls, because I can lock on their frequency. But her cell phone does not match the normal frequency that is used by cell phone companies. Nor does it uses the satellites linked to those companies, or the towers in the area. She's bouncing the signal from somewhere else."

"Where?" Will asked.

"Uncertain," Kiryuu replied. "The moment I get a lock on where the signal is being broadcast to, the call has ended. Remember those techyon signals I've received the first day she came here?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "But Gordon didn't want you to worry about those."

"I know," Kiryuu said. "Yet, I had to do some research. They left Earth, but like I said, I could not get a lock. Will, I am confused, what could Kiko be doing?"

"Contacting someone outside our atmosphere?" Will asked. "Little green men from Mars?"

"Like in those sci-fi movies you always show me?" Kiryuu asked. "I cannot conclude that is possibly the answer. She could be bouncing it off of an unnamed satellite that I have yet to discover."

"So, she might be a spy, huh?"

"Let's not come to that conclusion, yet, Will," he said. "Though, because of these fragments into our equation, we should monitor her more carefully."

"I do agree," Will nodded. "But what can I say, she is cute though, even if she's a spy."

"Don't get to attached to her, Will," Kiryuu warned. "We still have yet to figure out why she is making so many 'long distance' calls."

"I know," he nodded. "But, Kiryuu, there is an old saying: 'Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.' I think I should research her a little more. Oh, and turn off the music, I saw Gordon come running up through the halls."

"Compliance, Will," Kiryuu replied just as the music was silenced. His eyes became unfocused just as an alarm went off inside the bay area.

"What is that?" Will cried. "Godzilla?"

"No, someone is attempting to hack into the Foundation's databanks," Kiryuu replied.

"Ah, "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!"!" Will dashed into the control room. He began to pull up his screens, seeing the hacker make its way through the maze of files within the compound's database. He heard the sound of the arms come around Kiryuu's head, unhooking the helm from his head and snout. He glanced back, seeing Kiryuu's eyebrows come down. The bio-synaptic cords on his head sprouted out, attaching themselves along the walls and the ceiling of the bay. Kiryuu closed his eyes and began to process a defense against the hacker.

"The hacker is in file sector 12," announced Kiryuu. "Weaponry systems, my weapons."

Gordon rushed into the room, glancing around frantically. He saw Kiryuu's exposed face and the cords all over the bay area.

"What the hell is going on in here?" he demanded.

"Hacker, Gordon," Will replied. "Kiryuu and I are attempting to fight him off. The hacker is downloading files on Kiryuu's weaponry systems, schematics."

"Schematics?!" Gordon cried. "Those are top secret!"

"The hacker knows that, Gordon," Kiryuu said. "That is why he is downloading them. I am attempting to shut off the feed."

Gordon sat down at the console, watching Will and Kiryuu work to fight off the hacker.

"Where is the hacker coming from?" Gordon asked Will.

"Kiryuu?" Will asked.

"Once more, I am not certain," Kiryuu said. "Though it is the same location as where the broadcast from Kiko's cell phone signal is being sent to."

"That unnamed satellite?" Will asked.

"Possibly," Kiryuu replied. "Or, as you put it, from the little green men from Mars."

"Is he trying to tell some cheap ass joke?" Gordon cried. "Because I'm not laughing."

"We don't know where the hacker is coming from, Gordon," Will said. "Right now, we're just trying to fend him off."

Will watched as Kiryuu took over his screens, calculating and processing the defense.

"This hacker is tricky," Kiryuu began. "Not like anything I have defeated before. He is using a style I'm not familiar with."

"Well, make up something," Gordon said. "Just do it!"

"Processing now, Gordon," Kiryuu announced. "Enabling Backdoor Lock on all systems. Shutting down all databases within the compound. I am now going to reroute the information he is downloading, and I am attempting to reroute his signal to another location. Scattering information now. Hacker has ceased his attack. Rerouting the signal."

"Where are you sending him?" Will asked.

"To a remote lookout tower in the frozen wastes of Siberia," replied Kiryuu.

"You sneaky son-of-a-bitch!" he laughed. "Let's see if they can get some information out of a Russian lookout tower."

"Hacker nullified," said Kiryuu. "The attack is over, for now."

"But they may attack again," Gordon sighed. "I can't allow hackers to steal information on Kiryuu's systems. You two keep up the monitoring, both on Godzilla and on new attacks from hackers. I want this base secured."

"Right," sighed Will. "Looks like my night plans are canceled."

"I can monitor myself, Gordon," Kiryuu began. "I do not require…"

"I don't care!" Gordon interrupted angrily. "Monitoring systems is also Will's job! And he needs to start doing it, and not relying on you to do the work for him!"

"I understand, Gordon," he nodded slightly.

"I'm going back to my office," Gordon sighed. "Keep up the work, you two. Say, where's Kiko?"

"Personal call," Will replied.

"Again? Well, inform her what just happened, okay?"

"Right," Will said.

"Compliance," Kiryuu boomed.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Somewhere Near Mars


"He has successfully fought off our hacker, sir," the green ape-like alien began, looking back at his leader.

The Commander rose from his seat, staring at the large screen at the front of the ship's bridge. Though Kiryuu had fought off their man from downloading, he had already gathered some files on the unit known as Kiryuu Mechagodzilla. The Commander stared at the files, the schematics on Kiryuu.

"It is an interesting construct of intelligence and weaponry," the Commander amended with an amused smile. "Though, nothing compared to our robot. The AI, a troublesome computer. One who wishes to have freedom of mind and body, able to interact with the people around it, even have emotions."

"Seems to be inferior, sir," said his control operator.

"No," the Commander corrected. "Though, the emotions does make it now inferior, how it managed to acquirer them and it's amazing computing speed is greatly superior. The weapons seems adequate though, but we can build the same if we wanted to. But this AI is very unique. I have a plan. If we use our robot to disable Kiryuu, destroy everything, but the AI, we could reprogram the AI for our uses and download what information it might contain."

"What about the bio-syntech?" he asked.

"I wonder how they came up with that?" the Commander asked. "It is a plausible idea. Perhaps when we capture the AI and reprogram it after we strip it of its information. And the information on how they built the bio-syntech. That type of technology is not know to us."

"Then the AI is useful?" the operator asked, glancing up at his commander.

"Yes, it is," he nodded. "It is indeed. Especially about those—blades. Inform our agent that we are preparing an attack on Earth."

"Wait, sir," the operator began. "A message has been sent by our agent on Earth. Godzilla is in the Tokyo Bay, asleep."

"Then, perhaps before we send our robot against Kiryuu," began the Commander. "We must first see Kiryuu in action. Is there away to provoke Godzilla into attacking a city?"

"We can," the operator replied. "We can send out a signal that will have a limited mind control on the monster. It will be enough for Godzilla to awaken and attack the city, but that is all."

"Do it, and inform our agent as well," he said.

"Yes, Commander."


Godzilla felt his conscious awaken from his slumber. He was trying to store energy as best as he could to prevent him from going to the land for food once more. He did not want to face the 'Metallic One' again. It was not because the 'Metallic One' was stronger than he, it was something else that he felt when he saw it. The face of the 'Metallic One' was—his own, but older. There was pain behind that face, pain that he sensed from the creature. He knew that his predecessor had died horribly many years ago. The 'Metallic One' was his predecessor, he knew this. The small creatures had brought his predecessor back from the dead to fight him. So, therefore, Godzilla did not want to fight. There was no need to do so. He had no desire originally to fight, only to defend himself when the tiny, hairless creatures and their strange objects provoked him. Godzilla rose from his rocky bed at the bottom of Tokyo Bay, staring blankly out into the murky water. Godzilla scratched his chin and brought himself to his feet. His tail gently patted the ground as he sensed something calling him. Godzilla felt the urge to go to the land, though his mind did not want him to. He kicked off the sea floor and angled his body up, cutting the water like a nice. He snaked is way through the water, gaining speed as he swam. Godzilla glanced around, sniffing the water, finding that he was nearing the beach. He placed his feet on the sandy ramp, leading out of the water and began to make his way upwards to the surface.


* * * *


The alarms sounded inside the compound. Will spat his coffee out when he saw on the screens the head of Godzilla rising out of the water. He checked his monitors and noticed that the water temperature was hotter around the monster. And then he checked the Geiger Counter on his other screen, there were signs of radiation about the creature.

"Godzilla!" he called. "With all the usual patters, right?"

"Yes, Will, he does seem to have gotten back to normal," Kiryuu nodded. The arms came down around him, replacing the gleaming helm to his face and the metallic chin covering on his lower jaw. "I am ready to defend Japan."

"I'll call Gordon," Will said as he reached for the phone.

"No need," Gordon sighed. Katsura and Kiko were with him. "I heard the noise. So, what is it this time?"

"Godzilla," Will said.

"Any unusual things about him?" Gordon asked.

"Nope, we've got heated temperature, and radiation readings," Will replied. "He was asleep in Tokyo Bay, not even making a move. I suspected that he may be trying to start his hibernation again…and well, disappear for another 15 or so years."

"Since when are you the Godzilla expert?" Gordon snorted.

"Kiryuu gave me the idea," Will smiled.

Gordon turned his eyes to Kiryuu: "Well, why didn't you say anything, you worthless pile of used Chrysler car parts?"

"You did not ask me, Gordon," said Kiryuu. "You were referring all your questions to Will."

"Well, perhaps next time, if you have something intelligent to say, say it!" he cried. "Everything operational? We're ready to launch?"

"Yes," Will said. "We are."

"Well, then, launch, damnit!" Gordon shouted as he sat down at the console.

The mechanical arms fell away from Kiryuu as his body was lifted up to the ceiling. The ceiling skylight opened up just as technicians and workers began to direct people away from the opening. Will closed the blast windows around the control room, and the room lit up with a red light. Kiryuu found himself now in the parking lot above the bay area. When he was in the bay, his launch area was used as a parking lot to conserve space. Though, no one was allowed to park on top of the opening's doors.

"Okay, we are a go for blast off," Will said. "Kiko, monitor the system and weaponry for me, okay?"

"Right," Kiko said as she sat at the controls.

"Do you read me, Control?" Kiryuu asked, his voice booming through the control room speakers.

"Loud and clear, pal," Will replied. "Godzilla is making his way into Tokyo as we speak." He turned to Kiko. "From here on out, only we can hear Kiryuu's voice. His link with the bay and well compound PA system has been severed. We can hear his voice from inside the control room." He turned back to the visual monitor that Kiryuu's virtual image appeared on. "Everything registering green, Kiryuu. We are ready when you are."

"I await Gordon's orders," Kiryuu said.

Gordon scooted himself closer to the screen.

"Launch!" he cried.


Kiryuu, in reply, fired his boosters on his back and thighs, revving up his gravity generators on his feet. As soon as he felt the inertia give, he was soon up in the air, speeding swiftly towards Tokyo. The land passed quickly before his optics and he made another power jump on a hill to give him more speed. Mechagodzilla saw Tokyo and he saw his target. Kiryuu landed, standing in front of Godzilla. The monster roared, staring at him. Mechagodzilla held out his hand, signaling for the monster to halt. Godzilla stared at his mechanical brother, not moving from his possession. Kiryuu lowered his claw, waiting for Godzilla to turn back around and head back to the ocean. The creature did not move.

"Well," he heard Gordon in his head. "Attack him."

"He is not attack me, nor the city," Kiryuu said. "He's just—standing there."

"Another odd behavior?" Katsura asked. "Why is he just standing there?"

"I do not have an answer for that," Kiryuu said. "Perhaps I can just walk up to him and see what is wrong."

"Oh, hell," Gordon sighed. "Not this, 'Oooo…this is my chance to study Godzilla up close' bit."

Kiryuu held up his hands, showing that he was not going to harm Godzilla. He detached the forearm cannons and laid them down to the ground. Godzilla tilted his head to the metallic creature as he saw it walk up to him quietly. Kiryuu was almost a head taller than Godzilla and he walked a bit more upright than the radioactive creature. Mechagodzilla stopped only a pace away from Godzilla peering around him. He began to use his scanners to see if there was some physical distress to the monster. Godzilla tilted his head in curiosity to Mechagodzilla, lifting a claw up to him. Kiryuu stepped back, seeing the claw come near his snout. Then, he stood still just as Godzilla placed his claw on Kiryuu's metallic snout. The monster was just only inspecting him. Kiryuu kept up his scanning as Godzilla walked around him, gently pushing on his metallic dorsal spines.

"Godzilla is inspecting Kiryuu," Will smiled. "You get that, Katsura?"

"Kiryuu, now it's your turn to be the subject of study," Katsura laughed.

"Indeed," Kiryuu said. "A most eventful moment. I shall record and log this for future study and use."

"Oh, Jesus," Gordon snorted. "Well, as long as Godzilla isn't aiming his bad breath at some building, we're find. But end it quickly, Kiryuu. Tell Godzilla he has to go."

"I'd love to, Gordon," he said. "But I do not know how."

"Lead him back to the ocean," replied Katsura.

"I will try," Kiryuu said. He glanced back at Godzilla and began to step away from the monster. He headed towards the ocean. To his surprise, Godzilla was following him.

That is it, follow me, Kiryuu processed as he watched the monster imitate his movements. He motioned for Godzilla to follow him. Godzilla was imitating his movements as he walked into the water. Kiryuu felt the cool water splash up against his feet. The feeling was refreshing and brought memories to his mind. He had rarely gone into the water since his activation. Though, he savored every moment of it when he did. The memories of the water were both pleasant, and horrible. It was in the water that he had met his fate in 1954—when he was Godzilla himself. He heard Godzilla roar after him, not a furious roar, but just a call. Kiryuu tried to calculate what the roar could have meant, trying to rely on his memories. Though, many of his memories were still vary fuzzy. Kiryuu sighed virtually and then replied to the roar with his own—alien metallic roar. Godzilla followed him into the ocean, until they were both up to their necks in salt water.

Thank God for waterproof cords and stainless steel, Kiryuu sighed. If only I can speak to him. That would give me so much information if I could communicate.

Godzilla stared at Kiryuu for a moment, c0cking his head to one side to get another look at him.

"I believe this is where the son asks the father," began Kiryuu to the others in the control room. "Can I keep him?"

Everyone but Gordon and Kiko broke out into laughter.

"Sure, you can keep him," Will said jokingly. "But you have to feed him and walk him, and clean his pen everyday. And pay for the vet bills."

"This is strange," began Kiko. "Godzilla is docile?"

"Well, yes, if you don't provoke him," Katsura said. "And besides, if Will is right, then Godzilla has enough radiation to last him for a long while. So there is no need for him to become aggressive. Nor there is no reason for him to come to shore. So why did he come to shore?"

Kiryuu watched patiently as Godzilla dove back into the water, disappearing back into the murky blackness. He took in another sigh and turned back towards the land.

"Return to base, Kiryuu," Gordon began. "Our job is done here."

Kiryuu rose out of the water, walking onto the beach. He saw several tanks and planes appear from the city, as well as several maser cannons. He motioned that the scene was clear and safe once more. Godzilla had left. Then, he felt a wind blow across his back. He heard this sound, a call ringing out above him. Kiryuu turned towards the sky and his eyes lit up. A gargantuan insect slowly hovered above him. The gossamer wings were brilliantly pattered and colored in read, yellow and black. The insect was covered in faded orange and white fir around its face and around its slender legs. Kiryuu reached up and took his helmet off, preferring to view the enormous creature with his own eyes. He pulled the synaptic cord bundles loose, walking towards where he laid his forearm cannons. The creature was not attacking, rather, more like observing. Kiryuu knew it was huge, but he knew what insect it was—a giant moth. Where had he seen a giant moth?

"What the living hell is that?" Gordon asked, staring at the screen. "What is that?"

"A giant moth!" cried Will. "I know I've seen that moth before. But where, and when?"

"Mosura," breathed Katsura.

"Excuse me?" Kiko asked. "What did you say?"

"Nothing," she shook her head.

"Katsura, what is 'Mosura'?" Katsura heard Kiryuu's voice in her mind.

"It's nothing, Kiryuu," she replied. "Just a children's fairy tail."

The giant moth hovered over Kiryuu for a few moments, staring into his eyes. Kiryuu attached the forearm cannons and aimed them at the insect. He did not want to take any chances. The moth screeched, then flew away, across the sea. Kiryuu lowered his arms, glancing back at the tanks and planes that were still at the scene.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Compound


"A giant bug," Gordon sighed. "And I thought that Godzilla was the only monster around."

Katsura was silent, staring blankly at Kiryuu. Kiryuu returned her gaze, though neither of them were talking. Katsura heard him repeat his question about 'Mosura', but she refused to answer him. He backed away from his questions about 'Mosura'. Instead of Katsura telling him, he decided to find out for himself. Mechagodzilla reclined back into his CPU, beginning another trip through the Internet. He blocked out the humans and their chatter. Though, he did listen in to a few of their words.

"I know I've see that moth before," Will said. "I just don't know where."

"May be from one of your sci-fi movies, huh?" Gordon snorted.

"No, I swear I've seen that moth before," he sighed. "Katsura?"

Katsura shook her head, her mind on the moth itself. She did not feel up to answering questions about 'Mosura'. Her eyes stared at Kiryuu's and she laid a hand on the glass. She knew that he was leaving her alone now, she could feel the absence of his presence inside her. She felt cold, and she brought her hand up to her shoulders. Katsura glanced away from Kiryuu, her eyes becoming downcast.

"Katsura," began Kiko. "Are you alright?"

"Is he bothering you?" Gordon asked. "I'll make him stop if you want me to."

"No, he's not," she replied. "I'm just off in my little world."

"Katsura, have you ever heard of this giant moth?" Will asked.

"No, I haven't," Katsura shook her head. "Look, I'm going back to my office. I just need to get out of here."

Kiryuu's eyes brighten up when he heard her. His eyes began to focus on Katsura as she rushed out of the control room.

"Katsura!" Kiryuu called after her. "Katsura, please!"

"Ah, hell," Gordon snorted. "Look since that thing didn't attack Tokyo, I'm not all that worried. I mean did we build a Mothra fighting machine or a Godzilla fighting machine."

"Excuse me," began Kiko. "A what?"

Gordon caught himself and he turned away from the others.

"What did I say?" Gordon asked. "I think I need to get back to my office as well. I need to call my mother again. Call me when there are more problems."

"Right," Kiko sighed just as Gordon left. She turned back to Will. "Well it looks like it's you, me, and Kiryuu."

Kiryuu's eyes shifted away just as he turned his head from the bay window. Katsura was upset about something and he became worried about her. His mind began to focus on her and he extended his consciousness to her, watching as she stormed down the corridor to her office. He felt his body form into a mental image, one without his helm. He wanted her to see the concern in his face.

"Katsura, have I offended you with my questions about 'Mosura'?" Katsura heard Kiryuu's innocent question.

"Kiryuu," she sighed. "Mosura is nothing more than a child's fairy tell."

"You told me that before," he said. "Then if it is only a child's story, why are you upset?"

"I don't want to talk about it, Kiryuu," she called. "I'm sorry."

She ran from him, down the hallway. Kiryuu sighed; turning to the railing and to his body that still rested in the bay area. He could extend his mind through the cameras in the building itself, but forming an image allowed him to at least imagine that he was interacting with the small humans who oversaw him. Though only Katsura could see the image. Then, he vanished, returning his mind back to his body. Mechagodzilla returned his thoughts back to Mosura.

A children's fairy tail? Kiryuu processed as he glanced at the line of codes. Why would a children's fairy tail be so upsetting? This requires more study.

He began to search for keywords on Mosura. All the search engines came up with pictures, logs, and web pages on Mosura. Mosura, or Mothra in English, was a deity on an island in the Pacific. This giant moth was also a protector of the land and to humans. Mechagodzilla then found a file on the Internet. The information showed that in 1962 Mothra attacked the land. Kiryuu pondered why a protector of humans would want to attack them. Then, he read further, finding that some scientists had kidnapped two natives of the island. They were twin sisters, known as the Cosmos. These two girls were small, only a foot tall. Many called them fairies and wanted to displayed them like sideshow freaks. Then, Mothra came, attacking the city. The Cosmos and Mothra were connected, somehow. He read that the Cosmos could communicate with Mothra through telepathy. Their song called her and she responded. She returned once more from her island in 1964, only when someone had stolen her egg. The egg had washed up on the shore and a company claimed it. The old one was dying and relied on the next generation. That was when Godzilla appeared. The monster was hungry and found that the egg was a perfect meal. It attacked the holding pen that the egg was being kept. Then, Mothra appeared again, to rescue the egg. The Cosmos had called Mothra to defend it, but it failed and died. The egg hatched, revealing two larva. They both collided on Godzilla, and defeated him successfully. He heard that one died with another bout with Godzilla, and the one left became the current Mothra of today.

Then, that moth I saw was the surviving Mothra, Kiryuu calculated. But why was it observing me?

He found that Mothra had intelligence superior to Godzilla, and the ability to communicate telepathically. Though, the only ones who could hear her were the Cosmos.

Like Katsura and I, Kiryuu thought. Though, Mothra does not possess the power to speak.

Kiryuu relaxed again in his CPU. His thoughts then went to Gordon. Gordon mentioned Mothra by name. Perhaps Gordon knows more than he wants to reveal. Kiryuu could easily just appear on his screen and ask, but he knew the outcome of that. Kiryuu shook his virtual head. Now there were several components to the equation. He started to calculate them. One was Mothra who appeared twice in the 60's, two was Mechagodzilla 74, and three was Godzilla's odd behavior in San Francisco and the space titanium. Then, there is Katsura and Gordon's knowledge of Mothra's existence and the Foundation owning the head of Mechagodzilla 74. There was also the question as to who built Mechagodzilla 74, and the missing files in all the governmental storage databases. Kiryuu seemed to be now in up to his knees in equations. He was trying to rule out the ideas that Mechagodzilla 74 was built by space aliens, leaving that part of the equation out until further study. Mechagodzilla shoved the information away and began to play his music again. He called up the same sound file, Free Bird.

"Someone's been traversing the Internet," Will began. "He's playing Free Bird again."

"Will, may I load this program into Mechagodzilla's systems this time?" Kiko asked.

"Well, you don't have clearance to interact directly with the CPU," Will began. "I can't let you inside."

"No, wait, Will," Kiryuu began. "Let her in. I need to talk to her anyways."

"Kiryuu, you know I can't allow that," Will said. "It has to be approved by Gordon."

"No one has to know, Will," Kiryuu rumbled deeply. "I can say that you loaded the program."

"Lie?" Kiko asked. "He can lie?"

"Yeah, give him a chance, he could run for President of the United States if he wanted to," Will sighed.

"Please, Will," Kiryuu's deep voice resonated through the control room. "Besides I need to talk to her, privately."

"Me?" Kiko asked. "Why me?"

"I'm not letting you go in there alone, Kiko," Will snorted, crossing his arms. "And you can forget it, Kiryuu!"

"Alright, then I'll speak to her out here, but not with you in the room, Will," Kiryuu's voice became a deep growl. Will sighed and threw up his hands.

"Okay, fine," he said. "Persistent little computer, aren't you? I'll go, but I'll be back in 10 minutes, okay?"

Will got up and left the control room. Kiryuu lowered the PA system to where only Kiko could hear him inside the room. Kiko glanced around, becoming nervous. This was the first time she was ever alone with Kiryuu. Mechagodzilla moved closer to the window. She could see the living, bio-synthetic pupils contract inside the glowing optics.

"Kiko," began Kiryuu, slowly and silkily. "Tell me about the meaning of love."

"Love?" Kiko asked. "What do you mean?"

"I know what love is to a certain extent, but I need to know more," he said. "You see, I—love someone. Very deeply. Will had asked me if I would be tempted to kiss her if I had the chance. Though, until now, I would not have said anything. I tried to."

"You're in love with Katsura," Kiko said. "You've fallen for her. I understand that. She is very beautiful."

"It's not her beauty," Kiryuu began. "Though, that does play into it. I don't understand why I feel this way towards her. Explain the many difference of love to me. I don't understand."

"Well, there is that love which family members share between each other," began Kiko. "Then, there is the love that friends share. But then, there is a love that is deeper, something shared between a man and a woman. Is that the love you feel for Katsura? You have to answer me honestly, because if I don't know then I can't help you understand. You have to be able to say it yourself."

"Yes," Kiryuu breathed. "That is it, though it is more than that. But it has some simplicity to it, I love her like a man would love a woman. I don't know why, though. But there is more to it than just that."

"What is it then?" Kiko asked. "There is another love, higher than the love shared between spouses. A love and complete devotion to the one who you love. Kiryuu, may I ask you this? Would you, if need be, would you sacrifice yourself…your life, your freedom, and you mind for the safety and security of Katsura? Would you sacrifice yourself so that she may live?"

"Sacrifice?" Kiryuu asked. "Give what I hold most dear up so that she may live?"

"Yes," Kiko grinned. "Would you do that for her?"

"I don't know," Kiryuu turned away in regret. "I—I don't know."

"Think about it, Kiryuu," she warned. "Think about the choice you may have to make someday. We all—have to make these types of choices one point in our lives, or we never grow in our humanity. That is why some humans do what they do. Because they love something or someone so dear, they are willing to not only kill for it, but even die for it. It may not be logical to sacrifice something, like your life, but who's to say that life is logical in itself? You have killed for something dear to you, know will you die for it as well? Think about it."

"I—I will," Kiryuu whispered. "I have grown to except all things, logical and illogical. I have been both. I can see the difference and know when it is time for one and for the other."

Will poked his head through the door: "You two finished?"

"Yes," Kiko replied.

Kiryuu remained silent.

"Good," he smiled. "Kiko, you know, it's after both our shifts. Would you like to go have some sushi with me?"

"Sure, that sounds fine," she smiled.

"I've already notified Gordon," Will began. "He seems preoccupied with something right now. So, it was easy for me to ask him."

"Sounds like fun," Kiko said. "Let's leave now."

Will took her hand and lead her out of the control room. Kiryuu watched them with a sigh as they left the control room. As soon as they left, he picked up something flying above the compound. Then, it landed. Kiryuu's virtual eyes lit up, seeing the mammoth moth land in the parking lot of the compound. Not only did he sensed the moth, but he sensed something else nearing Earth. Two pieces of the equation were beginning to add up. He felt something etch its way through the databanks in the compound. Another hacker was trying to break in. Kiryuu began to shut down his systems.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Katsura stared down at the tiny twins before her. They were nothing more than a foot tall at least, dressed in fine silk kimonos. Their hair draped about their shoulders in braids and twined with golden threads. They looked rather youthful, but their faces held the wisdom of ages. They stood before her, as still as statues, with pleasant smiles on their faces. Katsura was not sure what to do, wanting to move but then wanting to stay still.

"Hello," the twins began in unison. Their voices were like tiny bells. Katsura did not want to move. "Don't be afraid of us. We're here to see you, Katsura, and Kiryuu. We know he is listening. We want to talk to both of you."

"Why?" Katsura asked, still fearful to move.

"Katsura, I am picking up a large unidentified creature near the perimeter wall," Katsura heard Kiryuu's deep melodic voice through her mind. "It looks to be a giant moth. The same moth we saw at Tokyo."

"Giant moth?" she asked.

"That is Mothra," began the twins. "She is hear to tell you something."

"What is it?" Katsura asked.

"Mothra is the guardian of this world, but not too long ago, she fell into a deep slumber," they said. "Then, the balance of powers and the flux of the world awoke Mothra. She sensed a darkness growing from deep in space. She watched this emerging darkness until it decided to reach Earth. We have heard of them before. Their planet is about to be destroyed, but they are not looking for assistance, they are looking to conquer. These beings are evil. They have laid their eyes on Earth. Mothra went into space to try to stop them from reaching Earth, but she failed. They are too strong. And, they are building something."

"Aliens?" Katsura could not conceive aliens into her mind. She sat down in her chair and her head dipped.

"I can confirm Mothra's finding," began Kiryuu. "The Foundation's satellites have picked up several objects orbiting the Earth's atmosphere some 200 kilometers up. It is possible that the Earth's multiple governments have been notified of the objects' presence, but are keeping a tight lid on it to avoid panic. There is a large object, about 5 kilometers in length and 2 kilometers in height. A lot of movement and activity revolves around this object. And I'm picking up a lot of energy being used. It is fascinating, Katsura."

"Kiryuu said that he can confirm your suspicions," Katsura nodded. "He said that there are unidentified objects in the skies."

"Katsura, I am picking up non-authorized access to Foundation databases," Kiryuu informed. "I am tracking the source of the access now."

"Where is the hacker coming from, Kiryuu?" Katsura asked.

"Once more, like the hacker before, this one is being bounced off of unknown satellites," he replied, his voice seemed filled with a slight hint of worry. "They are in the system. No attempt to hack into my hard drives yet."

"Has Will been notified?"

"He is not in the base, Katsura," Kiryuu said. "I would call his cell phone, but I am preparing to shut down my system so that the intruder will not hack my files as well. I am initiating system lock down now, Katsura. Only you will be able to speak to me through our link."

"Kiryuu says that we're being hacked into from an unknown source above our atmosphere," she said to the tiny girls.

"That's them!" the twins cried.

Katsura glanced up as sirens began to blare loudly. She knew what they meant, the base was under an attack internally. She heard the sounds of chattering and feet rushing through the hallways. Gordon Knight came running through her door. He stopped abruptly, glancing down at the tiny twin fairies staring back at him. Then, he looked at Katsura.

"Is that mechanical monster of ours making another hacking attempt?" he growled, ignoring the twins.

"It is not me, Gordon," came Kiryuu's voice through Katsura. "This is coming from outside our planet."

"Great gods, I hate it when you do that!" Knight cried.

"If you haven't noticed," began Kiryuu. "I have shut all of my system's down except for the link between Katsura and I. There is no way they can get through my system."

"They?" he hefted. "Okay, do you know who they are?"

"Mr. Knight, I would like to introduce the Mothra Twins," Kiryuu began. "They seem to know more about who is attacking our base than I do."

"Greeting, Mr. Knight," the twins bowed politely. "We are the Cosmos."

"Leprechauns?" he asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Actually, they are fairies," Kiryuu corrected.

"Same thing!" Knight called. He glanced back at the girls. "Okay, ladies, what do you know about the hacker that just attacked us?"

"Mothra knows of them," the Cosmos began. "She was awakened by their presence. Earth is in great danger."

"They claim that aliens are attacking us," Kiryuu continued, speaking through Katsura. "Though, I question the source of their information."

"Who the hell is Mothra?" Gordon cried.

"Did you notice that giant insect outside?" he smiled.

"The one in the middle of the parking lot?" Gordon sniffed. "The one with the large, tie-dyed, eyesore, rainbow wings?"

Kiryuu stared at him for a moment, then nodded: "Yes, that one. Of course given her size is 250 meters in width, she would need much space to land."

"I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want the bug to do anything to me," Gordon sighed. "And I was informed of it, but you know, it wasn't attacking, so I just say leave sleeping giant bugs lie. So, the bug knows something?"

Kiryuu could see Gordon's eyes began to twitch. He was angry, that was certain, but he tried hard not to show it. Gordon Knight was a hot headed man. He was trying hard to control that anger. Kiryuu could sense the emotional struggle.

"The insect does," Kiryuu nodded. "She is called Mothra. Apparently, she is the guardian of the Earth."

"Our planet's mascot is a giant butterfly?" Gordon's eye brow c0cked up. He held in his breath as well as any other words of profanity.

"Moth," Kiryuu corrected.

"Don't correct me, you obnoxious tin can!" he snorted. "And let Katsura talk. It's her body."

"Actually, she wants me to talk to you," Kiryuu felt a grin appear on Katsura's lips.

"Fine, what ever," Gordon sniffed. "Okay, the hacker is an alien? What the hell do you mean an alien?"

"Ever seen science fiction movies?" Kiryuu asked innocently. "They do depict a bit of an exaggeration of an actual interplanetary take over. Though, I have yet to confirm that it is aliens."

"Well, who else would be hacking above us?" he sighed. "Jesus?"

"I will not go into any other assumption," Kiryuu stepped closer to Gordon night, his/Katsura's eyes stared deeply into him. "And the same can go for the United States as well. They seem to do the same thing. Interesting how your government covers up such information from the populace."

"United States' government and the Japanese government doesn't want a panic," Gordon sighed. "I don't blame them. Remember your little stroll through downtown Tokyo a year ago? Remember the panic you caused? It would be ten times worse with these little green men running around if the world knew about it!"

Kiryuu sat down on the office chair and sighed. Gordon glanced back down at the twins.

"Now, the Earth is in danger," he began, kneeling down to them. "Apparently your lady bug couldn't cut it."

"Mothra tried her best," they began. "But they were too strong. So, she has come to seek your help."

"So, why would they want to hack us?" he asked.

"The obvious reason," Kiryuu began coldly. "Learn your enemies' strengths and weaknesses."

"We suspect that a few of them have come here before the ships arrived," began the Cosmos. "They go in the disguise of humans. As Kiryuu said, to learn their about enemy."

"Where they here when Kiryuu went all—insane a year ago?" Gordon asked, feeling his heart pound into his chest.

"Yes, we saw a ship land here over a year ago," their reply was quick. "But that is all that we know."

"Oh, good Lord," Gordon sank his knees, feeling blood rush quickly to his head.

"Gordon," Kiryuu got up, rushing to his side. "Are you alright."

Gordon saw Kiryuu held out Katsura's hand to him. He grabbed it and felt his body being hefted back to its feet.

"Fine," Gordon snorted. "Just got a little bit shaken up."

Gordon stared at Kiryuu for a moment, then snatched his hand away.

"What the hell are you looking at, you pathetic excuse for a calculator?" Gordon snorted.

"Sorry, Mr. Knight," Kiryuu sank back and looked away. Gordon dusted himself off.

"Okay, girls," Gordon began. "So, aliens have hacked into our system and stole some files." He glanced back at Kiryuu. "How much did they get?"

"Weapons protocols and defensive mechanisms technology," Kiryuu replied. "When they came, I shut my system down and put up a firewall. They left as quickly as they came. But now the system is down. I shall remain in this state until the threat is over. They may have left something behind."

"Where the hell is Will when you need him?" Gordon sniffed. His eyes widened. "Of course, he's on that date with Kiko."

"Shall I contact him?" Kiryuu asked.

Gordon's eyes flashed a fierce glance back at Kiryuu. He took in a deep breath as his mouth turned down into a straight frown.

"You, you ungrateful, worthless piece of hardware and billions of dollars wasted, get back into your own body!" he roared. "And don't take over Katsura's body again, do you understand? And run a diagnostic check on your systems and the control room systems."

"Yes, Mr. Knight," Kiryuu bowed. "At once, sir. Though, I am curious. You seem to have known about Mothra's existence before she came to our base."

"What?" Gordon cried.

"Do you recall some incidents that had happened in the 1960s?" Kiryuu asked.
"What the hell are you burbling about now?" Gordon snarled. "No, I don't remember giant moths attacking major cities 40 years ago. Now, would you please get to your work, now?"

"Compliance, Gordon," Kiryuu said.

Katsura felt Kiryuu's consciousness leave her mind as her body became limp. Gordon reached out quickly to grab her before she hit the floor. Katsura felt her head, glancing up at Gordon, murmuring in slight dizziness. Her head swam and her body felt suddenly empty.

"Gordon?" Katsura moaned.

"I hate it when he does that," Gordon growled. "I really do."

"I—heard everything," she said. "Aliens are attacking us? Why?"

"They want to move in," he shrugged as he helped her back onto her feet. "But we're not gonna let them."

"Mothra!" she cried. "The girls."

"We are right here, Katsura," the Cosmos said with assurance.

"Kiryuu does not think it's aliens," Gordon sniffed.

"No, he does," Katsura said. "He's just trying to compile evidence that would either prove it is aliens or disprove it. He's trying to look at it from all sides."

"How do you know?"

"When he took over my body," she began. "I saw an equation he's building. There were strange images, I could only believe that he hacked to obtain them. One was of a mechanical monster from the 1970's…"

Gordon shrank back when she mentioned the mechanical monster. He glanced away for a moment, his mind remembering an incident that happened during that time. He shook his head and forced it to return to Katsura.

"Gordon?" Katsura asked. "Do you know about this mechanical monster?"

"No," he shook his head. "Continue, what has Kiryuu been downloading now?"

"Well, then there were some movies about Godzilla's attack on San Francisco," Katsura continued. "They reported to have found some fragments of metal in Godzilla's footprints. It's called space titanium."

Gordon felt his heart flutter for a moment, his eyes grew large.

Space titanium?! His mind screamed. Oh-no…

"And," Katsura said. "Well, then there were photos of Mothra. But that was all that I found that he had stored. He might have scattered the rest of the information to the multitude of servers sprung out everywhere. Though, there was a locked file that I saw, it had the Foundation's logo on it. He allowed me to see into his mind for once, but only a glimpse."

Gordon began to wag his head repeatedly, trying to rule out what possibility Kiryuu was coming to. He wanted to keep that out of his mind.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

No, they can't be returning here! He thought. They can't. We defeated them before. Why are they coming back now? Damn those monkeys! And they brought their mechanical monstrosity with them!

"Gordon, are you alright?" Katsura asked. "You look sick."

"I'm—fine," Gordon breathed in heavily. "Katsura, we need to go to the control room. Turn Mechagodzilla back on!"

"Right," Katsura nodded. "And we need to call Will and Kiko as well. But what about the Cosmos?"

Gordon glanced back at the twin fairies. They were still standing there, waiting patiently, with tiny smiles on their faces.

"Will you help us?" the asked Gordon.

"We'll do what we can," Gordon replied. "But we need to turn Kiryuu back on. We can't really believe it is aliens though, at least not yet anyways. But better to be safe than sorry. We need to take you girls to the control room as well."

"How do we carry them?" Katsura asked.

"I don't know," Gordon shrugged. "May be some pretty decorative oriental box. Katsura, don't you have one of those?"

"I have a cardboard box where all my notebooks are," she snorted, placing her hands on her hips.

"Well, I don't have anything!" Gordon cried. "The only thing we can do is just pick them up and carry them to the control room."

"Girls," Katsura began. "Do you mind that? We don't have a box to carry you in. We promise to be gentle."

"That's fine," the twins nodded.

Katsura and Gordon leaned over and picked the girls up gently, placing them into the palms of their hands. They quickly rushed out of Katsura's office, speeding down the corridor and into an elevator.

"Control room floor," Gordon ordered the elevator. He felt the chamber jolt up as it headed towards the control room.

"So, is it aliens or not?" Katsura asked. "Are the girls right?"

"Can't say for sure, Katsura," Gordon shook his head. "And I don't want to make that the only answer."

"Like Kiryuu," she sighed. The elevator came to a stop and they walked out, entering the control room swiftly. Kiryuu was still shut down, his eyes were dark. Katsura and Gordon placed the Cosmos on the console and began to work the controls. The two small fairies knelt down, watching as they frantically turned Mechagodzilla back on.

"Okay, everything is operational," began Katsura. "Beginning a manual sweep of internal systems and the CPU. Scanning for viruses and worms."

"We need to clean his system," Gordon began, looking down at the Cosmos. "Just in case they left something."

The twins nodded, but remained silent.

"No viruses found," Katsura announced.

"Any unusual files left in his system that he did not download himself?" Gordon asked.

"None," she replied. "System is cleared."

"I don't like it," Gordon whispered. "Something tells me if we turn him on, something bad will happen. We need Will here. Only he can run a full diagnostic on Kiryuu's systems."

"I'll call him," Katsura leaned over and picked up the phone. Gordon turned back to the twins.

"We can't turn him on without Will," he said to them.

"We understand," they said, nodding gracefully. Their eyes became unfocused as they began to listen in on an unheard voice. Their heads bowed for a moment, then, glanced back up at Gordon and Katsura. Their lovely voices continued: "Perhaps Mothra can help."

"Mothra?" Katsura asked. "What do you mean?"

"You communicate with Kiryuu through telepathy, Katsura?" they asked her.

"Well, it isn't telepathy," she began. "More like a close circuit channel from this implant in my head to his mind. Though, I don't know how he's able to take control of my body, or how he can project his mental image into my mind—but making it seem solid. He seem to have learned some tricks."

"Telepathy works vary similar," they said. "It also uses a frequency. Mothra, can try to scan Kiryuu's mind."

"Even if she could," began Gordon. "Doe she know what's she's looking for?"
The girls remained silent. Gordon glanced back at Katsura, who was still trying to contact Will.

"That's what I thought," he sighed. "That's why we need Will. Only he knows what to look for in such a program."

"Okay," began Katsura on the phone. "Come quickly, Will."

"Well?"

"He'll be right over," Katsura said. "And Kiko is with him."

"Why the hell did I allow those two to go on a date?" he sighed. "Right when we are on alert?"

"You did it out of the kindness of your heart," she smiled.

Gordon sat back and grumbled, cursing underneath his breath.


* * * *


"Mothra is now at the Utah Foundation," the operator informed the Commander.

The Commander glanced up, playing scenes on his telemonitor. He saw the scenes shift and change, showing areas around Earth. The scenes were of crowded cities and polluted streets. He sat back and chuckled darkly as he saw the scenes unfold before his eyes.

"It is hard to believe," he chuckled. "They have not changed since the last time we've visited them. They are still as dirty and as polluted as ever before. They even tore a hole in the vary protective shield around their planet. The humans will die of radiation poisoning and sunburns before long. But we can save their planet. We can make it as beautiful as our planet once was."

"All of our planets were destroyed by the Black Hole," the operator sighed. "Everything gone. Only those who were lucky to escape the gravity well survived."

"Then," the Commander began, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We will continue to endure. Earth will be our new home now. We must rescue it from the human plague while there is still time."

"Mothra has joined with the humans," the operator informed. "She does not want us to have Earth."

"She is blinded," the Commander began. "She does not know that siding with the humans, she is insuring the destruction of their planet by their hands. We are only trying to save it from its fate. As long as the humans live on it, they will continue to destroy it. They will never learn."

"Yes, sir," he nodded. "They haven't even learned their lesson when they created Godzilla!"

The two aliens began to laugh heartily, delighting themselves in the thought that soon, they will own Earth completely. The Commander's expression became serious.

"Get the robot primed and ready, we are going to attack Earth again," he ordered. "And apply the skin over it once more. I want them to become confused. I want them to think it's Godzilla again, but when Kiryuu goes to fight it, reveal what is under the skin."

"Yes, sir," the operator nodded, pressing buttons as he spoke. The lights dimmed inside the ship and they heard the sounds of rotaries revving up. The Commander glanced around, turning the main screen to a bay inside the ship. There, he saw Godzilla standing proudly, wires connected to its head and neck. The dark lights flickered and flashed around the monster's body. Godzilla made a strange motion; a salute by applying its claw to its chest just as a beam shot down around it. The monster disappeared in a flash of light.

"Teleporting it to Tokyo," began the operator. "Now we wait for Kiryuu."

"Let's see if they can get it turned on," the Commander said. "They still think that we've sabotaged their Mechagodzilla."

"The humans are stupid," the operator nodded. "But to build something like Kiryuu."

"Hmph!" he snorted. "They were using our technology! Every bit of it, only the bio-syntech was their idea!"

"Were they? From the reports from the spy, the head was kept in storage, but nothing more was used from it. They used technology from other companies to build Kiryuu."

"Though, we had the idea first," the Commander scoffed. "We will show them who has the stronger—Mechagodzilla! Then, we will take over their planet when Kiryuu falls!"

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Compound


"Godzilla is in Tokyo again," Katsura began. "He just appeared out of nowhere."

"Monsters just don't appear out of nowhere," Gordon sighed. "Where the hell is Will?"

"He's on his way, Gordon," Katsura said. "Give him time."

Gordon faced the screen, watching as the monster trotted on land. Something did not seem right about him. His movements were a little swifter, though at the same time stiffer. He covered a lot of ground, rushing towards Tokyo. Then, Godzilla turned his head, firing his heat beam at a few of the overpasses around the city. Gordon's eyes lit up when he saw the color, it was orange.

"Oh God, no," he whispered.

"Gordon, Godzilla's breath," Katsura began. "Why is it that color? It has never been orange before."

"The Geiger Counter," Gordon cried. "What does it say. Is there any radiation?"

Katsura turned it on, trying to pick up some readings from the monster. Though, the needle did not even move. She glanced back at Gordon.

"Nothing, no radiation," she shook her head.

"Sh!t!" Gordon rose from his chair, glancing back at the cold, dark optics of Mechagodzilla. "Turn Kiryuu on, now!"

"Will isn't here," Katsura began. "Even Kiryuu is saying that he does not want to be turned on until Will can run a full diagnostic check on his body. We must wait for Will. He doesn't want to put us in danger."

Gordon leaned close to Katsura's face: "Well, you gregarious, hunk of scrap yard rejected parts, I'm glad you're being so considerate of us for once. But, right now, we've got a problem. Godzilla is attacking the city!"

"Gordon, you know," began a deep voice emanating from Katsura's mouth. "You know that is not Godzilla. You know that is something else. I want you to be honest with me now. What is that—that is attacking the city?"

"How am I suppose to know?" Gordon asked. "How am I suppose to know what that thing is. It looks like Godzilla, doesn't it? It's Godzilla, you imbecile!"

"Is it?" Kiryuu asked. "Do you think so? This monster does not follow the usual patterns. Could it be possible that this might be some sort of doppelganger?"

"A what?" Gordon snorted. "What the hell is that?"

"A look-a-like," began Kiryuu. "Meaning, it looks like Godzilla, it may smell like Godzilla, but is it really Godzilla? Doppelgangers take on the forms of others to try to trick you into thinking they are the things they are imitating. But they are not, they are just a copy."

"God," Gordon rolled his eyes in frustration. "So we have a doppelganger who wants to be Godzilla."

"That is what I was explaining to you, Gordon," Kiryuu nodded through Katsura. "And I will not fight unless I am cleared through Will. I do not want anything to go wrong."

"Kiryuu," began the Cosmos. They rose from their seats on the console. "We must warn you, the doppelganger is not all that it seems to be. Mothra wants to help you fight it. This is her fight as much as yours."

"This is only my fight because I swore to protect the humans," Kiryuu sighed. "And that creature is harming them."

"Mothra made the same oath," they said. "You have something in common with her."

Kiryuu turned towards the tiny girls, leaning over to them. His eyes became saddened as he gazed into their dark eyes. They moved closer to him.

"Kiryuu, Mothra offers her assistance," they said. "You must take it. You will not be alone in this fight."

"I am not afraid, madams," Kiryuu began. "I know not what fear is. Fear is an illogical emotion. Though, I have been afraid, afraid that the humans would take away what I hold most dearly, my mind and freedom."

"Though, you seem afraid now," they said. "You are afraid that something might happen when you become fully activated."

"I am concerned for the safety of those who take care of me," Kiryuu corrected. "The hacker might have left a program in my system that though may not be noticeable while I'm deactivated, but will be activate upon my activation. And then, what it might do is harm this compound."

"We understand that," they nodded, their voices sang to Kiryuu. "You hold great care for your human companions."

"Should I not?" he asked. "Though, I did not before, now I do. They help me, I help them."

"Then, activate yourself."

"I beg your pardon?" Kiryuu asked, confused. "That is impossible. Until I know there is nothing wrong with my systems, I will not activate myself. Though, that is one of the controls in my system. I can deactivate myself, but I need Will to reactivate my body."

"We trust you," they said. "So do they. This world will be destroyed if you do not help and defend it. Mothra says there is nothing wrong with you. Sometimes, you must have a little blind faith, even in yourself."

"It is blind faith that sometimes get us killed," Kiryuu began, his voice becoming harsh. "I know what that is. One of the other emotions I try to rid myself of."

"Believe in yourself," they pressed on. "We do. You can't choose your emotions, they choose you."

Kiryuu sighed, stepping back. Then, he left Katsura's body. Katsura fell forward, bracing herself on the chair. She heard a hum coming from the bay area just as Mechagodzilla's golden optics began to glow. The red tear lights followed, glowing as brilliantly as the optics. Gordon smiled, crossing his arms.

"I am running a full diagnostics check on my systems," began Kiryuu's booming voice through the PA system. "So far, everything is operational. No anomalies or stray programs or files in my system."

"Kiryuu activated himself?" Katsura asked, in disbelief.

"Katsura," began Gordon. "Charge him up for full power. Let's go after that what ever the hell it is!"

"Right," Katsura nodded, shaking herself out of her daze. She commanded the system inside the bay area to start charging Kiryuu's energy pack.

"System check is complete," Kiryuu announced. "No viruses or worms, and no strange programs."

"Wait!" cried a voice from behind the control room door. Will rushed in, panting. "Secondary systems check, Kiryuu. And check the bio-syntech muscle system and weapons check!"

"Will!" cried Gordon. "Thank God you're here. We've got some sort of doppelganger imitating Godzilla. That's what Kiryuu thinks anyways. And well, meet the Cosmos—the Mothra Fairies."

Will turned towards the tiny fairies sitting on the console, his eyes were wide. He approached them carefully, staring blankly at their forms.

"Now, I remember," he whispered. "When I was a child, I was in San Francisco when a giant moth came and landed at the airport, on a cross-like design with a circle around it. And two tiny fairies. Mothra. I remember her."

"You saw Mothra one time?" Gordon asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "My parents were visiting their relatives in California when Mothra showed up. So, Mothra is here?"

"Did you notice the giant insect outside, Will?" Kiryuu asked, for the first time he was dumbfounded.

"I thought I was seeing things, so, I just parked right beside it," he laughed. "Too much sake can do that."

"Are you drunk, Will?" Gordon cried.

"I thought I was," Will's eyes crossed in confusion. He knelt down onto the floor, realizing what he had just said. "I just parked right next to Mothra! It didn't do anything, but I just parked…oh Jesus!"

"Easy, Will!" Katsura helped him up. "All of our heads are spinning right now. There's a Godzilla-look-a-like destroying Tokyo. The Cosmos thinks it's aliens that are doing it, and well we were just hacked into."

"Jesus," Will sighed. "Kiryuu, are you running checks on the circuitry of the bio-syntech?"

"Yes, Will," Kiryuu nodded.

"Will, where's Kiko?" Gordon asked. "She's suppose to be here."

"She said that she needed to get some things from her office," Will replied. "She'll be up in a moment."

Gordon cursed again, rolling his eyes. Will got up into the seat and began to run some more system checks.

"Okay, all systems green," he said. "We are go for launch."

"Mothra will be joining Kiryuu," Katsura informed.

"She will?" Will asked. "Sure, that's fine."

"I am ready, Will," Kiryuu began. His eyes fell on Katsura for a moment. Those eyes stared at her, filling her with some sorrow. She sighed, taking hold of herself and swallowed. Kiryuu shook his virtual head. He must accept it now, perhaps it would never work, their relationship. She loved him, but not the same way he did. It was never going to happen between the two. He forced her out of his mind and concentrated on the doppelganger. He needed his entire mind on the fight ahead. There will be time to settle things with Katsura later, he could only calculate. He never felt hope before, but this time, he hope that he will succeed. The final piece of the equation will be revealed and he will have his solution. Though, adding the alien piece might help with the calculation. If this doppelganger is in fact another Mechagodzilla—or possibly a remake of the old one, then perhaps there was extraterrestrial involvement. Though, he must find out for himself. Then, if there are extraterrestrial beings behind this doppelganger, their technology would be far more advanced than that of current Earth science and technology. Kiryuu began to map out his strategies. Though, there was one other piece he needed to add to the equation—Kiko. Her long distance calls added to the equation and what the Cosmos said about the aliens sending spies. Then, if there were aliens involved, perhaps Kiko might be one of them. That was when he forced his consciousness into her office. He saw her on her cell phone. Once more, he sensed her long distance call, and the signal was being broadcasted to the unidentified object above the Earth's surface.

Oh my, Kiryuu processed. "Will!"

"Yes, Kiryuu?" Will asked.

"I am picking up that signal again, the one we were studying earlier," said Kiryuu. "Coming from Kiko's office."

"That signal?" Will asked. "You mean the techyon waves?"

"Precisely," he nodded.

"Wait, coming from Kiko's office?" asked Gordon. "What have you been doing, Will?"

"Kiryuu and I were talking about Kiko," he said. "About her calls. Kiryuu's been monitoring where the signals are going. There were being bounced off of some unknown satellites."

"Now the signal is being sent straight to the unidentified object," Kiryuu said. "Do not jump to any conclusions, but we may want to watch her while I'm fighting this doppelganger."

"Send a security team down there to pick her up," Gordon sighed.

"Right," Will nodded.

"Now, let's go kill us some monkeys!" Gordon cheered gleefully.

"Monkeys?" Katsura asked.

"Did I say that?" Gordon smirked. "I mean, let's go get that doppelganger."

Monkeys? Kiryuu processed with some confusion. Our possible aliens are monkeys?

"Launch!" Gordon roared.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Kiryuu stood outside, glancing back at Mothra. He approached her silently, kneeling down to the giant moth. Mothra craned her head up, chirping as she glanced up at the gleaming, bio-mechanical mecha. Kiryuu gently placed a claw on her fuzzy head, feeling the fur around her antennae. Mothra chirped again, touching the plating on his forearm with her antennae. Kiryuu glanced over to one of her wings, noticing some small tears.

She is wounded, he processed. She can't possibly battle in this condition. I forbid it, I shall go alone.

"Kiryuu, I will be fine," he heard a subtle voice inside his processors. "I am willing to give up my life for the safety of this planet."

Kiryuu took in another virtual breath and revved up his gravity generators, and his rocket boosters. Then, in one mighty leap, he was up in the air, blasting through the low hanging clouds. Mothra flapped her wings, kicking off of the pavement with her slender legs, following close behind him. Kiryuu glanced back, seeing the enormous moth fly swiftly behind him. He began to realize just how big she really was compared to him. Her wingspan was twice his size. Kiryuu and Mothra flew together, silently through the darkened sky. He glanced up, to see if there were any stars tonight, but only found a dark void. Mechagodzilla closed his eyes, and took in another breath. He was racing to battle, he was racing for freedom, he was racing to meet his destiny. Kiryuu took his mind off of everyone he cared about, that he ever felt compassion for. There was no more time for compassion, no time for emotion. He must become the cold, logical machine he once was—when he attacked Tokyo one year ago. He felt his emotions shrink back deep into his belly, locking them up tightly. He knew that humans might get killed in this fight. He only felt that it was logical that the Japanese government had evacuated most of the populace when they saw the monster appear. Kiryuu did not process anymore on the subject. His main concern was getting the monster away from the city and destroyed. Nothing else mattered anymore than that. His eyes quickly caught the glance of the doppelganger Godzilla. The monster was blasting at the tanks who arrived on the scene to defend the city. He saw several tanks, and maser cannons fly out from the breath of the monster. Kiryuu saw that the monster was strategically pointing out each tank, each weapon fired against it and destroying it. Kiryuu commended the intelligence of this creature, or perhaps the intelligence of the controller behind the monster. He did the same thing.

There is intelligence behind this, he processed. Now, see my attack, friend.

Kiryuu's mouth opened wide and he unleashed the power of his twin maser cannons. Two ribbons of blue electrical energy leapt from his jaws, striking the back of the doppelganger Godzilla. He saw fleeting sparks fly from the monster's back spines, a clear sign that the beams contacted metal. Then, Kiryuu noticed that the energy tore through the skin, revealing the shiny silvery hide underneath.

Mechagodzilla, I presume? Kiryuu thought with some amusement.

Mothra called to Kiryuu. No time to coordinate an attack, or to see what each other had to give, she now had to rely on sheer outcome to direct her attacks with Kiryuu. The moth swooped down to the doppelganger, her wings striking its head. The monster fell backwards from the strike, and an awful, metallic screech sounded from its mouth. Kiryuu knew that this was not Godzilla, but the screech made it clear that it was a machine. Kiryuu came about, banking in mid air, and fired again, trying to burn off as much of the skin as he could. He wanted the world to see the face of this imposter. He wanted to see the true face for himself before he fully went into battle. The doppelganger rose to its feet, another metallic screech sounded from its jaws. Kiryuu saw it raise its claw to him, a metallic, robotic claw. Already, a bit of the skin had been torn from the monster's claw. It rotated around, locking into place, and aiming at Kiryuu. Kiryuu hovered above, watching as several missiles fired from its fingertips.

"Rotating claw missiles?" Katsura asked. "What sort of creature is this?"

Gordon decided to give in, glancing back at Katsura.

"Mechagodzilla," he sighed.

"Wait, Mechagodzilla?" Will asked. "But—Kiryuu is…"

"Also Mechagodzilla?" Gordon asked. "Now you see why I agreed with Katsura to name him Kiryuu. I didn't want to confuse him with the real mechanical monstrosity that nearly destroyed half of Japan nearly 30 years ago."

"You knew all this time?" Katsura asked.

Kiryuu dodged the missiles, firing another round of blue lightning at the monster's face this time. The beam sliced part of the covering off of the doppelganger's face. Kiryuu dove towards his opponent, bring his arms forward. Then, the monster held out its covered claw in halt. Kiryuu backed up, staring in confusion as to why the creature would want him to stop.

"Stop!" called a voice emanating from a speaker inside the monster. "So, all you want to do is undress our marvelous machine, huh? I know you're listening, Utah Foundation. We demand that you return the head you stole from us 30 years ago."

"Stole?" Katsura asked, staring blankly at Gordon.

"Heh," he smirked. He grabbed the receiver and yelled into it. "Hey, finders keepers, monkey weepers! You left it; it's ours now! So, go back to your black hole!"

"As much as we love to do that," the voice began. "But the last of our planets have been destroyed by the black hole. Now, we need your planet."

"Well, you can't have it!" Gordon laughed. "And I'll show you why too. Kiryuu, destroy that thing!"

"Gordon," called Kiryuu. "These are aliens, is that correct?"

"Yes, these are lousy, stinking, green monkey aliens from a planet near a black hole!" Gordon replied in a fit of rage. "They built a planetary conquering machine and called it Mechagodzilla. Look, I promise you this, I'll tell you everything about them and you when you destroy that hunk of metal! Now destroy that hunk of retro-70's crappy metal tank!"

"Perhaps we should reveal ourselves to your Kiryuu," the voice chuckled.

The skin of the imposter Godzilla melted off of the monster. Kiryuu landed, standing in aghast as he saw what looked to be an exact replica of the Mechagodzilla 74 unit. Mechagodzilla hunched over, its metallic claws rotated around several times, scoffing at Kiryuu. Mothra fluttered behind Kiryuu, landing on some of the rubble that was Tokyo.

"We purpose a challenge," began the alien's voice. "Your Mechagodzilla against our Mechagodzilla. May the victor win. Though, if you loose, we destroy Kiryuu and take his CPU for our own, reprogramming it for our purposes. And you must give up the technology for the bio-syntech. If we loose, you may keep the head of the original Mechagodzilla and we will go quietly, acknowledging that you are truly a superior race."

"Okay, we except your challenge," Gordon smiled. "Kiryuu wins, you go crawl back into your caves like the chimps you are. No wait, like the chumps you are!"

"You won't be taking such an arrogant tone once we enslave your people, human," the voice growled. "Go, destroy Kiryuu, Mechagodzilla."

"Gordon," Katsura glanced back at him. "We have the original Mechagodzilla's head in storage?"

"Yup," he nodded. "Picked that thing up only a few months after it was blown off. But in no way did we copy off of them. I mean look at the design, flimsy immobile. Kiryuu is much better."

Kiryuu…Katsura bit her lip as she stared at her Mechagodzilla.

"Katsura," Kiryuu returned the thought. "I love you. But please, don't get in my way. I need my mind clear for this fight. The fate of what will happen must no longer matter to me."

She felt a tear trickle down her cheek when she heard his deep, resonating voice inside her mind. She wiped the tear away, watching Kiryuu Mechagodzilla approach his mechanical opponent. This battle will determine the survival of the human race, and machines will decide their fate.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

HEAVY METAL 2

As if a gun had sounded to begin a race, the two Mechagodzillas launched into the air at the same time. Mechagodzilla 74 bolted out in front, trying to angle his boosters' streams into Kiryuu's eyes. Kiryuu rolled away, firing his masers at Mechagodzilla, aiming for its boosters. Like a flash of silver, Mechagodzilla disappeared into the dark clouds. Kiryuu glanced back, noticing that Mothra was flying right behind him.

"Where the hell did that guy go?" roared Gordon.

"Well, they are space aliens," Will sighed. "Teleportation?"

"Good grief," Gordon growled.

"That's not fair, is it?" Katsura asked.

"War is not fair, Katsura," Kiryuu interrupted. "They are clever using teleportation."

Kiryuu felt heat cut across his back just as an explosion blinded his sight. He felt the shrapnel pelt his plating and burn away a few of his exposed wires. He roared out in fiery agony, shielding his optics from the blast. Kiryuu shook his head, waiting for his vision to clear. Just as soon as his vision cleared, another blast came at him from the other direction. Kiryuu was thrown back, slamming into the thick, stormy clouds. Kiryuu glanced down at one of his legs, feeling a chilling draft brush against it. The plating was blown off his thigh and the explosion damaged one of his jet boosters. He glanced back, seeing that the ground was coming at him fast. Kiryuu flipped himself around, using the remaining boosters to propel himself back into the clouds. He glanced around for Mothra, to see if she had been hit, but the giant moth was no where to be found. He heard a screech in a distant cloud, one screech that was made by a living creature. Kiryuu knew that was Mothra, and she was where Mechagodzilla was located. He flew towards the sound. The clouds began to glow and spark with orange light. Mothra tackled Mechagodzilla, beating him wildly with her wings. Kiryuu aimed his forearm cannon at the silver sheen of Mechagodzilla. Two beams shot out, colliding with Mechagodzilla and sending him flying away from the frantic moth. Mothra darted for the fleeing foe, sending several bolts of lightning at his back. Mechagodzilla banked out, and his eyes glowed. Twin beams of white light shot from his eyes, racing for the maddened moth. Kiryuu shot out in front, holding out his arm to the beam. With one mental command, he called up his shielding and he braced himself for the blast. The shielding held up against Mechagodzilla's eye cannons.

"Good, the shield holds," Gordon smiled. "We tested that against Godzilla's breath. Nothing is stronger than Godzilla's breath."

"I wish we had reattached the rocket array pack to Kiryuu, though," sighed Will. "The alien Mechagodzilla has its own missiles!"

"It's odd," Katsura began. "They are using both projectile weapons and beam weapons."

"We did the same thing," Gordon said. "But now, because our Mechagodzilla relies on his speed, we took that bulky pack off. You're right Will, we need that pack now!"

Kiryuu signaled to Mothra to duck back into the clouds. She chirped and hid as he also hid into the clouds as well. Mechagodzilla scanned the clouds, searching for movements and heat. Then, like the day, Mechagodzilla was slashed across its face and across its abdomen by slender, metallic ribbons of darkness. Sparks flew from its silvery, metallic hide as the blades came up from the void, leaving large gashes. Mechagodzilla grabbed one of the blades, finding it attached to a partially flesh, partially mechanical digit.

"The bio-syntech blades!" the Commander cried. "Those are Kiryuu's tentacles! Shoot them!"

Mechagodzilla fired its weapons on the blades, only severing a few. Though, when a few had been severed, more grew back. Several shot forth, impaling their way into its back. The tentacles wrapped around Mechagodzilla's neck and tail. The alien mech found itself spinning around in a cyclonic wind. Then, the blades let go, flinging their captive into the darkness. Kiryuu lifted his head out of the clouds, and glancing down at his leg. Bladed spines lined the outside of his exposed leg, twitching and writhing with eagerness. Though the plating was blown off, he made good use of the exposed bio-syntech on his leg. Kiryuu glanced down his jet booster. The booster was dangling uselessly at his side. He grabbed it and ripped it off, grunting in pain and discomfort as he did so. He heard the sounds of the internal synaptic cords ripped loose as he tore it off. They twitched and around, feverishly trying to attach themselves back onto the engine--for such was their function. Their phantom pain fed into Kiryuu's frustration and his anger towards the doppelganger. He knew that he would not be able to stay in the air for long. His synaptic cords reported to his processors that he was running out of fuel to his jets and to the gravity generators. Kiryuu had to figure out how to ground Mechagodzilla.


* * * *


Kiko stared at the device for almost ten minute now. She began to ponder on what she was about to do, trying to figure out if this was the right thing. She had gotten to know the humans she was sent to spy on, and the machine she was sent to infiltrate. She could hear the sounds of the guards running up through the corridor. They must have figured out why she was really here for. Kiko packed up her device and pressed a button on her watch. As soon as the guards came through the office door, Kiko had disappeared. She found herself in a dark closet. Kiko opened the device and began to program it to target Kiryuu.

"I'm sorry, Kiryuu," she sighed. "But I am willing to sacrifice you for the love of my planet."

She took in another breath, watching the device activate. She hoped that they would not find her until she had completed her mission.


"The spy has activated the shutdown modulator," the operator began. "Kiryuu will locked down in 10 minutes."

"Good," the Commander smiled. "Order Mechagodzilla to the ground. We need to make sure Kiryuu does not get too damaged when he falls."

"Sir!" another operator shouted. "One of Kiryuu's syntech blades has sliced off one of Mechagodzilla's arms."

"The blades regenerate," the first operator said. "Because they are made from G-cells. Kiryuu is nearly invincible. Even if we disable his weapon system, he can still defeat us."

"You said 'nearly invincible'," the Commander began. "Meaning, there is a way to take him down. And the syntech may have been created from G-cells, but it is also mechanical. And if the spy can command total shut down of his systems, that includes the muscle system. Kiryuu wouldn't be able to move, let alone defend himself. He'll be helpless!"

"Continue firing at Kiryuu!" the operator cried.


Kiryuu saw another blinding flash and felt the heat sear his back. He held up his arms, his shield protected him from the missile attack. He returned the fire with his maser blasts. Kiryuu knew that he was running out of time, he needed to get to the ground. Kiryuu bounded towards Mechagodzilla, several thick branches of blades shooting out from the sides of his body and his exposed leg. That last blast had loosened some of the plating on his back. The branches found their way through the segments of the plating. Mechagodzilla fired its own breath weapon at the attacking, bio-technological monster. Kiryuu raised his arms up, calling upon his shields again just as his tentacles swung around at Mechagodzilla. He collided with Mechagodzilla, wrapping his arms around it. Kiryuu blasted for the ground with his remaining boosters.

"Kiryuu!" Kiryuu glanced back as he saw Mothra dive in after him.

I will sacrifice everything to save this planet! Kiryuu processed.

"Would you kill Katsura to do it?"

Katsura? Kiryuu's mind snapped. He pulled out of his dive, trying to let go of Mechagodzilla. Would he sacrifice Katsura to save the world, or sacrifice himself to save Katsura? Though, his death would take its toll on Katsura's mind. Now, more than ever her regretted inserting that link port into her mind. Kiryuu felt a pain, a knife stab him in the back. The pain grew into an agonizing fury, wracking his body in spasms and seizures. Kiryuu roared out as he ripped himself away from Mechagodzilla. The plating around his chest and his arm tore away from their places. Kiryuu slammed his claw into the chest of Mechagodzilla, ripping apart its plating as well. Then, he felt another fury of agony pound onto his body. His mind was frozen, his body not able to move. Kiryuu knew this feeling, he had felt it before. It was like the EMP that shut him down a year ago. He felt his mind thrown into darkness--without thought, without processing, that cold darkness he knew before.


Katsura screamed in pain, her mind was on fire. Her face was frozen in an expression of severe pain. Her body was thrown into a fit of spasms, jerking and writhing about. She flung herself onto the console.

"Katsura?" Will cried. "What's wrong."

"Katsura!" Gordon shouted. "What the hell is happening to her? What's going on?"

"It is the link between she and Kiryuu," replied the Cosmos. "She shares his pain."

"Damnit!" Gordon swore. "Katsura..."

Katsura crashed onto the floor, her body deathly still. Will leaned over and touched her face, hoping that it would waken her. She gave no response.

"We need to get her to infirmary," Will breathed, looking back at Gordon.

"Jesus Christ," Gordon gasped. "I knew that link was bad news. I knew it all this time, but I allowed them to have it. Now, I'm paying for it!"

"It's too late for that now!" Will cried. "We have to do something for her."

"There is nothing for you to do," the Cosmos said. "It is now up to both Kiryuu and Katsura to face the darkness."

"Darkness?" Will asked, glancing back at the Cosmos. "You mean they are together?"

"They share a link between each other," the twins replied. "Though, they share something else. Something that both of them have yet to admit to each other."

"Love," he sighed. "Love. I just hope it's enough."

"Kiko," Gordon snorted. "She did this. She shut Kiryuu down. This is her fault! Where are those guards. They should have found her by now!"

"Still searching," Will sighed.

"Tell them to "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" get her ass in here!" Gordon roared. "I've had it with this mess!"

He glanced down at Katsura, holding back the tears of frustration and grief. Will held Katsura's head up, lifting her eyelids up. He saw nothing in those eyes, only darkness and emptiness. Will stared at Gordon, shaking his head.

"What can we do?" Will asked the Cosmos once more.

"Wait," they replied. "That is all that we can do."


Mechagodzilla caught Kiryuu in his deathly plummet. The alien mech landed onto the blackened, scorched earth and rubble below, laying its captive down on the ground. The aliens watched through its eyes, smiling at their prize.

"Kiryuu is now ours," the Commander began. "Though, we have to commend it for putting up such a good fight. Quite a work out for our Mechagodzilla."

"What do we do with it now?" the operator asked.

"Transport it here," he replied. "For conditioning. But first, there is one thing I want to see."

"What?"

"The spy told us the uncanny resemblance between Kiryuu and the first Godzilla," the Commander began. "I want to see it for myself. Order Mechagodzilla to rip off Kiryuu's helm."

"Sir?" he asked.

"Do it!"

Mechagodzilla leaned down, taking Kiryuu up in its arms. It placed its claws onto Kiryuu's helm and just popped it off. Kiryuu's eyes were closed and his mouth hung limply open. The Commander stared aimlessly at the screen. The vision before him was astonishing. Though, the face was draped with the synaptic cords, like twitching snakes on Medusa, it was no doubt Godzilla.

"Look at him," he began. "Look at his face. The humans have come along way to create something like this."

"Warming the transporters up," began the operator.


Mothra dove out of the clouds. Her eyes scanned for the two fallen Mechagodzillas in the rubble below. Mothra flapped her wings slowly, roving over the city. She soon found them and the outcome was not to her liking. She found Mechagodzilla leaning over Kiryuu's motionless body. She noticed about how much of Kiryuu's plating was torn off. She began to assume that the aliens were about to transport him to the ship, or destroy him. She was not about to let that happen. Mothra dove down, firing the beams from her antennae. Mechagodzilla glanced up, seeing the giant moth dive down. It aimed its claws for her, rotating them into place. It fired the missiles at the moth as she made her dive. She spun and twirled around the missiles, slamming one of her wings into Mechagodzilla's head. The alien mecha was thrown back, crashing into the rubble of the buildings. Mothra circled around once more, seeing that Mechagodzilla was trying to get to its feet. She hovered over it, calling upon her lightning. Wave after wave of electricity shot through her beautifully patterned wings and rained with furious relentlessness onto Mechagodzilla. She heard a small screech from it as it tried to force itself up. She pounded it with her lightning until the mecha slumped back down. The glowing yellow-orange optics grew dim. She disabled him, for now anyways. Mothra fluttered back towards Kiryuu Mechagodzilla. The bio-syntech creature's body was sprawled out over the rocky earth. She landed on top of his chest, glancing around. Mechagodzilla had destroyed much of the human resistance. She sensed no life coming from the cold tanks and maser cannons, only their blackened tomb. She suspected that the humans have now evacuated, and seeing that Kiryuu was fighting, decided to leave it to him. It was not right, letting him fight by himself. Mothra leaned over to Kiryuu's face, feeling it comfortingly with her antennae.

"You are in darkness, Kiryuu. I can help you fight it. She is there as well. Find each other."

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Katsura awoke in darkness. She glanced around at her surroundings, but only void stared back at her. She tried to cry out for help, but silence answered. Katsura knelt down, feeling fear creep up her shoulders. She was alone in this darkness, and she did not know how she got here. She wrapped her arms around her legs, huddling up into herself, afraid of what might come out of the darkness and steal her away.

"Katsura, do not be afraid."

The voice was in her mind, though it was strange. That was not the deep and calming voice of Kiryuu.

"Where am I?" she cried out.

"Nowhere," replied the voice. "But you are right where you need to be. He needs you to help him fight."

"Who?"

"Kiryuu, who else?" the voice replied, smiling.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm nothing more than a fairy tale," the voice replied. "Since that's all you thought of when you first heard my name."

"Mosura?" she asked, gulping.

"Correct," Mothra replied, acknowledging her name. "He needs you, go to him and wake him up."

Katsura got up and began to wander around the darkness. Then, she found him. Kiryuu Mechagodzilla was lying on his side, his body curled up and his tail coiled up around his legs. His glistening metallic form brought light to the darkness, though she did not like what she saw. His helm was off, and his expression frozen in a fit of agony.

"Kiryuu!" she cried. "Kiryuu, I'm here!"

He did not answer back. Katsura rushed over to him, kneeling down at his side. They were the same size in this void. She could only suspect that this was the vacant and dismal place between their link. Without Kiryuu's consciousness, this place was a useless and haunting void. She had gotten use to how Kiryuu filled this void with images of beautiful and calm landscapes, beaches with some lawn chairs and an umbrella, or a quiet country road. Kiryuu thought about these things, places of serene calm, far away from the busy concrete jungle of the big city or the base. Now, this place was devoid of those images. Katsura placed her hand on his shoulders, shaking him.

"Kiryuu, wake up!" she cried. "Please!"

Kiryuu did not even move, nor did his eyes open. Katsura continued to shake him, tears forming in her eyes.

"Kiryuu!" Katsura wept. "Wake up."

"He won't awaken," Mothra sighed. "Kiko shut down his systems. He's dead."

"No, he's not," she wiped the tears from her eyes. "If he was, then I would be too."

"You are lying on the floor of the control room right now. They can't wake you either."

Katsura shook Kiryuu again, sobbing. She gave up, laying her head on his shoulder. She grabbed his arm and placed it around her side, as if she was trying to get him to hold her.

"Kiryuu..." she sobbed. "Don't give up on me. You're not like this. I know--you could defeat this evil. You never give up. It's illogical to you to give up."

"Do you love him?" Mothra asked.

"Of course I do," Katsura whispered.

"No, I mean do you love him," she continued. "Love him the way he loves you?"

"You don't understand," Katsura began. "He wants me to be his girlfriend. He's in love with me. I don't know how he fell in love with me, he just did. He finds me attractive. I don't know why, or how. It's not right."

"Do you share his feelings?" she asked.

"Don't be silly," Katsura leaned up, placing her hand on his shoulder. "How could I ever want a--a computer for my boyfriend?"

"Did you ever want anyone else in your life?"

"That's hardly irrelevant," she laughed. "I just haven't found the right one."

"Perhaps you have and you have yet to admit it," Mothra smiled.

"Why am I discussing my love life with a moth?" Katsura sighed, staring down at Kiryuu. "It's none of your business."

"It is," she began. "Because it's your love that will awaken him. Just like a fairy tale. Ironic, isn't it? You have to admit it to yourself and to him that you love him. The way you look at him, you are in love with him."

"So what if I am?" Katsura asked, picking up Kiryuu into her arms. "It's not like it could ever work out. I mean, one thing, he's a hundred times larger than I am. We can't have a physical relationship with that. The link can only provide so much. And it's odd, he's only 5 years old, basically."

"He's a lot older than that, Katsura," Mothra sighed. "More like 130 million years older. I do believe that you humans recreated the first Godzilla, reincarnated him to fight on your side. Though, it was wrong to do it, but the damage has been done. I was against such an act of violation of nature. But, he is a living being again, and even violations deserve to live. He is tormented by the fact that you lie to him about your true feelings. He knows you love him, the way he loves you. Kiryuu doesn't want to be hurt like that. He's shown you his true feelings, something that is difficult for him to do, because he has become such a logical being. Now, you must admit it to him. And since when do you need to base your relationship on what you do physically? You're relationship is deeper than that. He is willing to sacrifice everything he cares about to save you."

Katsura held Kiryuu's head up, staring down at him. Though, the face was that of the first Godzilla, the bio-syntech gave him a rather handsome feature. Though it was that voice that spoke to her the most. The feeling she received when she heard that voice of his, it tickled her. She was in love with him; she's been in love with him ever since she first heard his voice. Though, she just knew that it would never work out, they were too different. Katsura graced Kiryuu's face gently with her hand, feeling the tough, but soft skin of the bio-syntech.

"Just like in a fairy tale," Mothra smiled. "You have to kiss him."

"It's usually the prince kissing the princess to awaken her from the deep slumber with love's first kiss," corrected Katsura.

"Well, then this is the first tale that the roles have been switched," she giggled.

"Look, promise me you won't watch, okay?" Katsura sighed.

"I won't watch," Mothra said. "But hurry. Mechagodzilla will soon awaken. I managed to disable him, but only for a short time."

Katsura glanced back down at Kiryuu, feeling his face once more. She was attracted to him, to his voice and the expression on his face. She leaned down slowly, pressing her lips onto his. Leaning his body to the floor, she kissed him passionately, wrapping her arms around his neck. Then, she felt a response from him; he was kissing her, locking his lips to hers. She could feel his sharp teeth through his lips as he kissed her. Kiryuu lifted his arms up to her back, caressing it gently. He held her head in place as they kissed. She loved him, and he was happy that she did. Katsura leaned away from him, smiling.

"Katsura," Kiryuu swallowed. "You--kissed me."

"Well, that's what lovers do," Katsura smiled. "Isn't that what you wanted to do with me that day?"

Kiryuu felt her face with his metallic claw. Katsura ran her fingers through his synaptic cord mane as he leaned up. She leaned close to him and kissed him once more, feeling an emotional relief this time. She kept those feelings bounded inside her for so long. He was enjoying the emotion he received from her kiss. Katsura leaned away once more.

"Kiryuu," she began. "From the first day you spoke to me, I could never get that voice of yours out of my mind. I was--attracted to it. Of course, who isn't? Even Kiko showed some attraction to your voice. But, mine is deeper. I do love you, more than you know."

"That is what I wanted to hear," Kiryuu rumbled, taking her hand into his. "I know--I know it would never make sense for both of us. I am...a machine...and you are human."

"You're more than a machine," she corrected, placing a hand on his lips to silence him. "More than that to me. You're a living being, even if you are partially cybernetic. Kiryuu, how ever this relationship goes, and where it will take us...know this--you are your own person."

"Mechagodzilla," Kiryuu growled, remembering his mission. "Katsura, Kiko...shut me down, right?"

"Yes," she nodded. "This was her doing. She's one of them! But you're more than just some computer. Show them who you are, Gojira."

Kiryuu grinned; realizing what she just called him. It was the first time he had truly done so. He leaned over and kissed her one more time. He held her close, feeling the beat of her heart come into rhythm with his processors. Kiryuu helped her up, his smile broadened. He now had a reason to show such an expression, he had Katsura.

"Go, and show that metallic look-a-like who's the real King of the Monsters," Katsura smiled back.

Katsura...

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Gordon glanced back at the screen, seeing Mechagodzilla begin to move from the rubble. He looked back at Kiryuu, his hands began to tremble.

"Kiryuu," he sighed. "Come on, wake up. Don't let me down."

"He's always let you down, Gordon," Will sighed. "From day one. Show him some respect."

"Will," he shook his head. "I am proud of Kiryuu. I--it's just hard to show it. He's--I..."

"Gordon?" Will asked.

"I treat him like I did my son," Gordon sighed.

"Bert?" he asked. "You treat Bert like that? He's a good business man."

"I know," Gordon looked away. "But I see a lot of Bert in Kiryuu. In a way, I think of Kiryuu as my son, even if he was cloned from a million year old, radioactive, dead dinosaur. But I do think the world of him, as a person, and as a machine."

"Then, why don't you just tell him?"

"Because he'll think I've flipped my gourd," he laughed. Gordon glanced down at Katsura, hearing some moaning sounds from her. "Will, she's wakening!"

"Katsura," Will began, holding her up. "Are you alright?"

"Will?" she asked. "Kiryuu! He's..."

"Shut down," began Gordon. "Out like a light."

"No," she shook her head. "He'll awaken. Just give him some time."

"What do you mean?" Will asked.

Katsura ignored the question: "Where's Kiko? Haven't they caught her yet?"

"She was last spotted running around the basement level of the base," Gordon sighed. "She's in her ape form so, she has the advantage of her agility and her speed to escape the guards. Damnit, why didn't I see this sooner?"

"It's not your fault," Will sighed. "Perhaps I shouldn't have gotten so close to her."

"She will be caught," Gordon growled. "I assure you, she will be caught."

Katsura's eyes became unfocussed: "Kiryuu...he's waking up."

"All--system's green, control," came a rumbling, melodic deep voice from the speakers. Gordon and Will's eyes turned to the screen as they saw a metallic claw raise up.

"Kiryuu!" Gordon cried, grinning with joy.

"Kiryuu!" Will laughed. "Hey, pal, had a nice nap?"

"It was...eventful," Kiryuu replied. The metallic hand lowered just as the other mecha began to stir in the rubble next to it. "Mechagodzilla--it's moving."

"What are you doing, Kiryuu?" Gordon asked. "Get your ass up! That thing's gonna rip you a new c0ckpit!"

"I have a plan, Gordon," Kiryuu began. "I plan to play possum for a moment."

"Great," he snorted. "You're a damned cowered!"

"I am not," Kiryuu began. "And I do not appreciate the treatment I receive from you, Gordon. Trust me, I have a plan. Watch and learn."

Gordon was silent, shocked by Kiryuu's tone. He had not taken that tone of voice in a long time. He leaned closer to the screen and watched as Mechagodzilla rose from the rubble. Mothra launched into the air, ducking behind a few buildings.

"Mothra," began Katsura.

"Do not worry," began the twins. "Kiryuu told Mothra his plan. She is merely getting in position."

"Kiryuu can talk to Mothra?" asked Will. "Since when did he learn monster speech?"

"Well," Katsura grinned. "I kinda had a chat with Mothra myself. She's telepathic, you know. She can talk to him through that."

"So, what's the plan?" Gordon asked. "What are you going to do?"

"I told you, watch and learn," Kiryuu's voice grinned over the speakers.


Mechagodzilla rose from the rubble, lumbering stiffly over to the limp body of Kiryuu. It leaned over, raising Kiryuu's head up to its optics, ready to receive orders to transport the body to the ship. Then, Kiryuu's head jerked up, his bio-syntech, golden eyes were wide. A large smile appeared on his face, something he has never done before with his real body. Mechagodzilla let go of Kiryuu, aiming his one good hand at the bio-mechanical Godzilla. Kiryuu leapt to his feet; his exposed parts formed into bladed thorns.

"Kiryuu still functions!" cried the operator. "Commander, our spy did not shut him down!"

"She did," the Commander began. "But he fought it. Mechagodzilla, destroy Kiryuu."

Mechagodzilla replied with a screech, firing its missiles, eye beams, and chest beams at Kiryuu. Kiryuu leapt out of the way, running swiftly around the mecha. He stopped abruptly, swinging his tail around, and swatting the machine in the head. Mechagodzilla toppled over, catching itself with its jets. The machine righted itself back to its feet. It stared at Kiryuu for a moment, then it began to spin its head around swiftly. A cylindrical shield appeared around Mechagodzilla's body. Kiryuu fired his left-hand forearm cannon at the shield, testing it. They did not even scratch the shield. Kiryuu crossed his arms, smiling as he thought. He stared at the ground, rumbling pleasantly. Then, Mechagodzilla was caught as several tentacles of bio-syntech irrupted from the ground just below his feet. The bio-syntech wrapped around the mecha and disabled the shield.

Protect everything else, but your feet, Kiryuu processed amusingly.
Mechagodzilla leapt into the air, blasting its jets at full power. Kiryuu held on to him with a bio-syntech rope, formed from his tentacles. He aimed his other arm down to the ground, several branches of syntech sprouted out from his claw. The blades latched onto the ground and Kiryuu began to pull Mechagodzilla down.

"Alright, Mothra!" he called. "Go!"

Mothra bolted out of her hiding place, firing her lighting at the mecha. Mechagodzilla turned its head around, staring back at her. Then, its optics flashed as two multicolored beams shot from them. The beams hit the giant moth, sending her spinning to the ground.

"Mothra!" Kiryuu screamed.

"Continue on!"

Kiryuu took in a virtual breath just as he yanked Mechagodzilla out of the sky, sending him crashing down to the ground. Mechagodzilla, with plates starting to peel from its hide, rose from the ground.


"Power is down to 54%, sir," ordered the operator. "Kiryuu is wearing down our Mechagodzilla's power pack."

"He can calculate probability to any situation," the Commander sighed. "A true AI."

"Shall I continue the attack?"

"No," he said. "Attack--Godzilla."

"Sir?"

"Behold," began the Commander. "Look who is hiding behind that building, watching his father fight. Godzilla, of all monsters."

"Kiryuu will defend Godzilla?" asked the operator.

"That is what I am hoping for," he replied.


Mechagodzilla turned its head towards one of the toppled buildings. A dark head poked out from the building. Mechagodzilla focused on its target and fired several rounds of missiles from its knees and shot the beams from its eyes. Kiryuu turned quickly back, his eyes seeing what Mechagodzilla was firing at.

Godzilla! Kiryuu leapt out and came between Mechagodzilla and Godzilla. He activated his shield on his forearm and braced himself for the impact. Godzilla and Kiryuu braced just as several pelts slammed against and exploded on his energy shielding. Godzilla looked at Kiryuu, staring in confusion about the strange action he just did. Though, the monster was grateful. Kiryuu stared back at Godzilla just as the both of them got up off the ground. Mechagodzilla continued its onslaught on Kiryuu's shield. Kiryuu began to motion to Godzilla to stay put.

Stay, Godzilla, Kiryuu processed. Stay here. This is my fight.

Whether or not Godzilla understood his gestures, the creature ducked back behind the building. Kiryuu knew that he might be able to call upon his 'son's' help, but it was best to keep him in reserve. He caught himself for a moment.

My son? Kiryuu asked himself. Of course he is my son. He was to be the only one left after my death. I must not think about that now. I am Kiryuu Mechagodzilla, that is who I am, no matter what I was in another life. He glanced back at Godzilla. Stay here--my son.

Kiryuu braced himself as he moved closer to Mechagodzilla. He felt the pound of the missiles on his shielding.

He has to run out of those things soon, Kiryuu began. He passed Mothra, who was getting back up off the ground. He knelt down beside her, covering her with his shielding.

"It'll run out of ammo soon," Kiryuu informed. "Can you fight?"

"No, my wing is torn," she replied. "The wound has gotten bigger. But you--you saved your son. That was vary noble of you."

"Though, he is my son," he sighed. "Godzilla doesn't think of me as his father. I don't blame him; I was never there for him. No matter. Mechagodzilla will fall."

Kiryuu patted the moth on her head and leaned back up, disabling his shield. This Mechagodzilla was all about weaponry, not hand to hand combat. He was weakened himself from being blasted by the missiles, but he still had his stamina. Two more missiles fired from Mechagodzilla's fingers. Kiryuu deflected them away with his tentacles, sending them colliding with the buildings near by. Flames irrupted from their collision, licking at Kiryuu's sides. Mechagodzilla prepared to fire again, though nothing but smoke came from the shafts of its fingers. The mecha was out of ammunition.

"Mechagodzilla is out of missiles," began the operator.

"Use the remaining weaponry!" cried the Commander.

Mechagodzilla began to step forwards, firing its optical lasers at Kiryuu. Kiryuu dodged the blasts, and then fired on Mechagodzilla with his maser cannons. He sent shards of metal flying from Mechagodzilla's chest. Kiryuu swiftly came up to Mechagodzilla and raked his claw against the machine's face. Mechagodzilla grabbed the claw, only to see another claw come up with another swat. The mecha toppled over, falling to the ground. Kiryuu's eyes widened just as Mechagodzilla powered up his jets and ramming itself into his legs. Kiryuu leapt over the speeding Mechagodzilla. Mechagodzilla shot up, banking off for another attack. Kiryuu tried to fire up his jet boosters, but found his fuel depleted. He activated his gravity generators instead, leaping into the air to meet Mechagodzilla head on. Mechagodzilla fired its eye beams once more, only to come in contact with Kiryuu's shields. Kiryuu did not wish to collide with Mechagodzilla, pulling himself higher than the flying mecha. Mechagodzilla turned around, zooming in on an unprotected spot on Kiryuu's back. It fired its chest beam, and Kiryuu came tumbling down. Kiryuu crashed into several buildings near Godzilla.

"He only has forward shields," said the Commander. "He can't protect himself from the behind. Mechagodzilla, scrap him and bring us back the AI, just the AI. Pull it from his lifeless body."

Mechagodzilla obeyed its commander's words, lumbering over to the fallen Kiryuu. Mothra's head lifted up and she made the attempt to fly over to Kiryuu. Godzilla leapt out of the shadows, slamming his foot on Mothra's wing. This was Kiryuu's fight, not anyone else's.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Kiko's Death


Kiko eyed the guards as they winded their way through the dimly lit, garage parking lot. Her senses picked up the sounds of guard dogs, hunting her as if she were their prey. She was not. She leaned on her all fours, barring her predatory teeth. Feeling the muscles in her legs coil up, she made a leap for the concrete ceiling. She had to get away; she could not let them catch her. Kiko grunted; breathing heavily, as she smelled the guards crept ever so closer. She wondered why the Commander has not signaled her yet. She could only suspect that he was busy trying to deal with Kiryuu. Her mind went to Kiryuu. He would have made a wonderful alley, but he was on the wrong side. She saw one of the guards underneath her and she leapt on him. Kiko bit into his neck, rich blood dribbled from the wound. She did not want to bite him, but she could not control her bestial instincts. Kiko ran from the guard, grunting and snorting.

"They must not catch me!" she cried.

"There she is!" one of the guards cried. "Shoot!"

Kiko heard the guns fire on her. She felt a pelt grazed her leg, a sharp pain pierced her thigh. Kiko fell over, grunting in pain. She tried desperately to get to her feet, to run once more. The pain went to her head. She grabbed the wound with her green paw, trying to stop the bleeding. She dragged herself up, hobbling away. Another gun fired and another pain shot through her back. The lights grew dimmer. Her sun, her life shattered. Kiko fell to the ground, taking out a pill in her pocket.

"They will not catch me," she whispered. "No matter what."

Kiko popped the pill into her mouth, allowing the darkness to wash over her form. She could no longer feel the pain in her leg or the pain in her back. She felt peace as she slowly closed her eyes.


"Godzilla?" Will asked. "What is he doing here?"

"Kiryuu, what's going on?" Katsura asked.

"He is here--to provide back up, I think," Kiryuu grunted.

"He thinks," Gordon shook his head.

"Kiryuu doesn't know," Will began. "He doesn't know everything, Gordon. He knows that he doesn't know everything."

"Alright," Gordon roared. "I heard you the first time!"

"Kiryuu, Mechagodzilla is coming," Katsura began.

"Let him come," Kiryuu's deep, rumbling voice grinned. "I have a surprise for him."


Mechagodzilla stood at the foot of the fallen bio-syntech beast. Godzilla and Mothra watched helplessly as the mechanical monster knelt down over the body of Kiryuu. Kiryuu's eyes were open, glancing up at his assailant with a grin. Mechagodzilla's metallic lips parted, and the energy build up inside its mouth, ready to fire on Kiryuu's motionless form. Then, he paused, staring at nothing. Mechagodzilla stood there, unable to move or even calculate. Kiryuu was now on his feet, smiling back at Mechagodzilla. Several thick trunks of bio-syntech were impaled into his exposed body. The branches and tentacles of the silvery, fleshy substance coiled around Mechagodzilla's arms and its legs, blades parted the plating around its metallic form. Kiryuu glanced up at the sky.

"Alien ship!" he cried, now speaking through Mechagodzilla. "I know you can hear me. You may be technological advanced, but you did not think of messing with and AI such as mine."

"Kiryuu," the operator began. "He's communicating with us! How?"

"The bio-syntech," the Commander began. "He's hacking into our system through our Mechagodzilla!"

"You are bouncing information off of satellites used by our government agencies," Kiryuu began. "Satellites that I have access to. Perhaps on your home world, I would not stand a chance, but you are going against the home team here."

The screen began to light up all around the bridge of the ship. Kiryuu's avatar image appeared on each of their screens just as multitude of windows began to open and close inside their application system.

"Block him out!" the Commander cried. "Our computers are far more advanced than Kiryuu's AI."

"We are doing as best as we can, but we were not expecting him to hack through Mechagodzilla's up-link," the operator cried. "I can't work fast enough."


"Kiryuu is hacking the ship," Will laughed. "He's hacking their ship, Gordon."

"Well, looks like we're putting his nosy, back-stabbing, hacker abilities to good use then," Gordon chuckled.

"Will," began Kiryuu. "I need your assistance. Can you reroute some of the power inside the base to the Site B?"

"Site B?" asked Will. "The EMP emitter? Yes, but...why would you want to fire the EMP pulse?"

"I'm am trying to lure the aliens down to the atmosphere by attacking their ship," he replied. "They now see me as an official thread and would want to destroy me immediately since I'm downloading files from their computer to the various servers around the world that I possess. I need you to tell Tochi at Site B to aim the EMP at the ship."

"How do we know they don't have something that could block an EMP pulse?" Will asked. He glanced back at the fairies. They shook their heads. "Guess you guys just knew that they were coming."

"We know nothing about their technology," the replied.

"They do have something," Kiryuu replied. "But I am making an attempt to disable it now. I can, but their computer will compensate and I will loose the connection. I am trying to overload their shields that guard them from electromagnetic energies. From what I can calculate, we will have a 5 second window before my connection is severed to when they will try to destroy me. Will, get Tochi to fire the EMP pulse before they fire on me!"

"What if they fire on you?" Gordon asked. "You'll--die. I--Kiryuu, I can't let..."

"I must not," Kiryuu grunted. "If I do, so will Katsura. I can't risk that. I can't even risk completely downloading myself into her mind, it will drive her mad."

"Kiryuu," Katsura began. "Just when I admitted everything to you."

"As you humans say," Kiryuu sighed. "Ain't life a "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!"? Will, contact Tochi right now! I don't have much time!"

Will grabbed the phone, dialing up the Site B location.

"Tochi!" he cried. "This is Will. Rev up the EMP emitter! And prepare to fire at the coordinates that Kiryuu will provide you."

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Site B


"Roger that, Will," began Tochi. "We are receiving the coordinates from Kiryuu now."

"Tochi," began Mike. "A five second window?"

Tochi began to input the coordinates into the computer, glancing outside the window just as the enormous emitter dish rose from the ground. He glanced back at Mike Ginsburg, sipping at his coffee.

"We can make it," he said. "But yeah, a five second window. That's what Will said we have before they lock Kiryuu out of their system."

"Kiryuu..." Mike smiled. "He's come a long way in a year hasn't he?"

Tochi glanced back at the screen, watching the battle unfold. He smiled for a second, hearing what Mike had said about Kiryuu. The AI has come a long way. He hoped that someday, he could meet face to face with Kiryuu, instead of just hearing him contact the Site B base a few times. His mind snapped out of that thought just as he received another message. It was from Kiryuu himself.

"Be ready to fire on my command," Tochi read the screen. "Mike, it's from Kiryuu!"

"We're ready when he is," Mike nodded.


* * * *


"Continue to try and lock him out," began the Commander.

"No use," the operator shook his head, wiping his forehead with his sleeve. The Commander scratched his furry chin, staring back at the bio-syntech visage of Kiryuu Mechagodzilla. He smiled.

"You are truly a worthy opponent, Kiryuu," he began subtly. "You have defeated our Mechagodzilla. You have out-witted us in battle. We will keep our promise and leave your planet. There is no need for this unwarranted attack."

"An unwarranted attack was caused by you," began Kiryuu. "It is illogical for you to attack our planet without any reason than to conquer it. And even that statement holds no logic. Why attack us when we could easily live in peace?"

"The humans and the simians can never live in harmony," sighed the Commander. "I regret to say. Our cultures are conflicting and our ideals are different. We can never co-exist together. Besides, don't you know what these humans are capable of? The atrocities they have committed? We are only liberating the planet from their scourge."

A very bitter rumble came from the speakers around the ship. Kiryuu knew exactly what the Commander had said. He knew, because he had once tried to do the same thing.

"I know very well what they are capable of," Kiryuu began, his voice becoming deep and scornful. "They are capable of bring to life the creature that sought their destruction for the pain they caused him, and then sway him to their side to fight his son. They are capable of great things, both terrible and good. At one time, I would have sided with you. I tried to do the exact same thing as you, destroy them because of their stupidity, but I know now that--that thought in itself is illogical. There is not logical way to understand why I side with them now. Except, there are people down there that I care about, people who could vary well give their lives for me just as I am doing for them. I can't let them down. I won't let them down! And I won't back down until you leave!" The face became calm and cold. "Besides, how can I trust you? I will I know that you will keep your part of the bargain? I can't. So, I'm putting your lives at stake to make sure that you realize I'm serious about this fight."

"But what you are doing is illogical," he said, smiling.

"Don't talk to me about logic, fool!" Kiryuu's thunderous voice echoed through the bridge. The Commander swallowed, suddenly feeling afraid. "Was it logical to send your little spy in to gain my trust and toy with my understanding of emotions? You started this, and now you're about to see what kind of AI I really am."

Kiryuu glanced back down at Mechagodzilla, noticing it was still moving. The mecha tried to bat his attacker away with the severed part of its arm.

You have an AI of a c0ckroach! Kiryuu hissed inside his processors. Pathetic. I'm insulted!

Kiryuu glanced back at Godzilla and Mothra. His face was twisted in a brutish snarl, his eyebrows down over his eyes. Godzilla kept his distance though, he knew that the 'Old One' was only furious about his opponent. He recognized the expression for he had shared a similar expression upon battling other monsters. He had battled with this metallic creature before, and now it was his--father's turn. Kiryuu shut his eyes tight, concentrating on his link between the ship. The bladed coils of the bio-syntech gripped tighter around Mechagodzilla's body, crushing the buckled plating around its waist. Then, the sky became bright like the sun. Kiryuu's eyes snapped opened focusing on the dark form descending from the clouds. Lightning laced the sky, spreading out like thin cracks of ice. It was the alien ship.

"You have defiled us with your hatred," began the Commander. "We have no use for you, Kiryuu Mechagodzilla."

"You wanted my mind," Kiryuu began. "Is that it?"

"We did," he replied. "But now, we know we can not condition you to our ways. We will destroy you."

"I have something to say to you, then," Kiryuu's lips curled up into a grin. He heard a spasm escape his mouth, the feeling was joyous. Kiryuu was chuckling. His deep chuckle became an earth shattering, metallic cackle. Not only was his voice laughing through their speakers, but he was laughing through his body as well. "I want to tell you something! Lower your shields."

"What?" the Commander asked.

"Lower your shields and surrender your ship," Kiryuu continued, his voice retained its cool composure. "You shall be assimilated, resistance is futile."

Silence fell upon the bridge of the alien ship.

"Now, Tochi!" Kiryuu cried. "Fire!"

"Fire!" cried Will into the phone at the control room.

Kiryuu heard a thump off in the distance. He saw a pale flash of light and then a stream of energy. He felt his own circuits grow hot and his CPU flung into the darkness again. He knew it was only temporary, he could compensate for the EMP, his bio-syntech had grown to adapt to the energy. His own body became limp and he slumped down. Kiryuu closed his eyes, but before he completely slipped into darkness, he heard the sounds of explosions coming from above. He retracted his bio-syntech coils from Mechagodzilla's body and slowly slumped to the ground. Kiryuu was tired, exhausted from the fight, it was not just the EMP that affected him, it was his energy. He had spent most of his energy and he just wanted to rest. Godzilla glanced up at the falling object, seeing several smaller lights fly from it. The ship itself exploded in the sky, tinting it fiery orange and yellow. Godzilla's eyes squinted as the sky filled with falling stars. His interests were not for the sky, more rather for his father. The monster lumbered slowly and cautiously over to the two fallen Mechagodzillas. He knelt down over the two metallic bodies, pushing Mechagodzilla away from Kiryuu. Godzilla lifted Kiryuu up, sitting him up on his haunches. Kiryuu's limp body fell over; his corded mane fell into his eyes. Godzilla shook Kiryuu's shoulders trying desperately to awaken him. Mothra chirped, lifting her wings up and folding them back across her back. She quietly hobbled over to the two reptiles, looking up at Godzilla. The creature laid his claw on Kiryuu's cheek, still wanting some reaction from the bio-mecha. He heard movement coming from the other metallic monster. Mechagodzilla rose for a moment. Then, a flash, a beam shot at it. Mechagodzilla fell, lifeless. Godzilla glanced back seeing Kiryuu's still armored arm rise from his side, aiming his forearm cannon at the mecha. Kiryuu's eyes were open. He glanced up at Godzilla, confusion spread over his face. Godzilla rumbled, blinking in some sort of relief. Kiryuu brought his armored claw over to Godzilla, placing it on his chest. Then, he sank back down, falling back under unconsciousness. The world seemed silent, all Godzilla could hear was the sound of Mothra's chirping.


"Kiryuu..." breathed Katsura. "He's a sleep."

"The EMP didn't harm him?" Gordon asked.

"No," she shook her head.

"Mothra says that the rest of them are retreating," began the Cosmos. "This is a victory for all of you. We thank you for helping us."

Will stared blankly at the screen, watching Godzilla lay Kiryuu back down to the ground.

"Godzilla," he breathed. "Why is he acting that way?"

"Kiryuu is family," they replied. "He knows this."

"Can Mothra talk to Godzilla?" asked Katsura.

"No, but she sense his feelings," they said, glancing back at the screen. "They sense that he knows who Kiryuu is now. He does not know how or why, but he knows that Kiryuu was the first one. Godzilla shows respect for him, as if he were an elder."

"We need to retrieve Kiryuu," Katsura began. "But we can't if Godzilla is out there. It would put us at risk. Godzilla has to understand that Kiryuu is our friend too, he's a part of our family. We only want to bring him back so that we can help him. Can Mothra tell Godzilla that, in any way?"

"Mothra can," they nodded.

"Gordon, let me go to the scene and get inside Kiryuu's c0ckpit," she began. "He has enough energy to make it back home, the auxiliary energy stored inside his legs. I can link up with Kiryuu and try to reactivate him."

"Be careful of the radiation," Will began.

"I'll wear a suit," Katsura nodded.

"I'll get the chopper," Gordon began.


Godzilla glanced up, seeing the strange chopper hover over him. He let out a yelp, warning the helicopter to stay away. Mothra squealed, stepping in Godzilla's view. The monster relaxed, watching as a rope ladder lowered towards Kiryuu. Katsura climbed down the robe, staring at Godzilla for a moment. This was the closest she has ever been to the monster. She felt her fear rise as she gazed into his dark, primitive eyes. He still held Kiryuu's head up. She adjusted her tank, breathing heavily into her mask. Katsura found the hatch to the c0ckpit as she landed on Kiryuu's shoulders. She stared back at Godzilla, noticing that he was still watching her. The monster was curious as to what she was doing. Katsura swallowed her fear down and opened the hatch. She made her way down the corridor's ladder until she reached the c0ckpit inside. She saw that some of the screens still glowed inside the chamber, bringing some life to Kiryuu's slumber. She took her mask off and pulled her hair back, feeling the port at the base of her neck. She watched as a bio-syntech cord snaked around to her, bumping against her cheek.

"Yes, I know," she sighed as she grabbed the cord. "Just hold on, Kiryuu. I'm coming."

Closing her eyes, she jacked the cord into the port in her neck. That all to familiar tingle flowed through her body as she felt her consciousness sink back deep into the recesses of Kiryuu's CPU.


"Katsura!" Kiryuu cried. "You're here?"

"Have to turn you on some how," she smiled as she kissed his forehead. "And that's not what I mean."

"Godzilla..." he began. "I sense he's outside. He--how did you get passed him?"

"He just let me in," Katsura shrugged. "Now, none of this. We have to get back to base."

Kiryuu slumped down, staring at her for a moment. He remembered what he said to the aliens about the humans. His head lowered in sorrow.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I--forgive me, Katsura," he began. "If you heard my conversation with the aliens."

"I did," Katsura sighed. She leaned over and wrapped her arms around his waist. "It's okay. It got the job done, right? Let's just forget about it for now. Kiryuu, activate yourself."

"Compliance, Katsura," Kiryuu smiled, wrapping his arms around her.


Katsura awoke, hearing the room begin to hum with life. Kiryuu's eyes were open and he leaned up from Godzilla's arms. Kiryuu stared back at Godzilla for a moment, rising to his feet. Godzilla let loose a yelp, pleased to find that Kiryuu was not dead. Kiryuu's eyebrow c0cked up in confusion. Then, he glanced back at Mothra. She let loose a similar relieved sound. Once more, Kiryuu was confused, the monsters were glad that he is still alive?

"Interesting," he began to Katsura. "Godzilla is showing that he is happy I'm awake."

"The Cosmos said Godzilla thinks you're his family," Katsura smiled. "Of course he is glad that you are awake."

"Family..." Mechagodzilla sighed. "Something I have neglected. Katsura..."

"We are family as well," she smiled. "As well as Godzilla is family, I suppose. Now we have to return to that family. Gordon was worried about you."

"Gordon was--worried," Kiryuu's eyes crossed in further confusion. "About me?"

"You should have seen the look on his face," Katsura laughed. "But before you blow a circuit on this, we better return to base."

"Affirmative," Kiryuu rumbled. Then he paused for a moment to gather himself. "Gordon was worried about me?"

Kiryuu began to walk away from both Mothra and Godzilla. To his displeasure, he found that Godzilla began to follow him again. Kiryuu stopped for a moment, holding out his claw to the monster. Kiryuu shook his head, telling Godzilla 'no'. Godzilla stopped, leaning his head to one side in confusion to the gesture. Kiryuu still tried to tell Godzilla 'no' with his head and his hand. The monster just stared at him.

"He's not understanding," Kiryuu sighed. "I just can't remember how to communicate with him."

"Then, just take off," Katsura began. "Try to get some distance from Godzilla. He'll understand you running from him."

"I don't want to offend him, Katsura," he said. "But, that may be the case."

Kiryuu walked over to Godzilla, placing his claw on the monster's chest. He tried as best as he could to tell the monster to stay still. Then, he backed away from Godzilla, revving up the last bit of energy in his gravity generators. Kiryuu leapt into the air, suddenly disappearing into the night. Godzilla glanced back at Mothra for a moment. The giant moth began to fly away as well. Her task has been completed. Then, Godzilla rumbled, lumbering back towards the beach.

[Emperor Kedzuel]

Putting It All Together


Katsura stared at the control room screen. Will was being quiet, something he was not usually. He was still trying to get over it, over Kiko's death. He fell for her, he loved her, but she did not love him back. She was nothing more than a spy, using him, his friends, and his trust. Katsura placed her hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him as best as she could. He pulled back from her hand, slumping over the control panel. A single tear ran down his cheek, disappearing in his reddish brown beard. Katsura glanced back at Kiryuu, shaking her head. Kiryuu stared at Will, his eyes shown his concern. The giant bio-mech was still being worked on. His blackened helm was hanging above the ceiling. Katsura shook her head at Mechagodzilla, knowing that Will was not feeling up to talking. Kiryuu decided to break the ice.

"Will," he began. "I know you miss her. She was a nice person to talk to."

"I don't want to talk about it, Kiryuu," Will sighed, tapping lightly on the keyboard.

"Will," began Katsura. "She betrayed all of us, not just you."

Will stood up, looking back at Kiryuu and Katsura. His eyes were downcast. Will began to wag his head in sorrow for a moment, then he returned his attention back to his work. Katsura and Kiryuu looked at each other. She began to shake her head in dismay.

"Nothing," Katsura shrugged.

"Give him time," Kiryuu softly and comfortingly rumbled.

Gordon walked into the control room. He glanced at Kiryuu, his eyes brightened up for a moment. Then, he looked at Will. Gordon Knight sat down beside Will, placing a hand on his back.

"Don't worry about it, Will," he said. "She--had issues. I mean, I suppose our governments would have killed her anyways for what she was doing, after torturing her and getting information from her."

"Gordon, that's not very comforting," Katsura scorned.

"I never said it was," he said. "But it's the truth."

"Look, you all really suck at sympathy," Will snorted.

"Well, don't get that attitude with us," Gordon growled back at him. "Look, Will. We all liked her, but she was a bad guy and she committed suicide. So, let's move on. I have some important news for all of you." He glanced at Kiryuu for a moment. "And I do mean all. Which includes you, yah big hunk of arrogant metal."

"So nice to be love, Gordon," Kiryuu smiled back.

"Well, I have to say this," Gordon began. "First to Kiryuu. Kiryuu--I...well...Don't quit your day job."

"Gordon," Katsura slapped him in the arm. "You were going to tell him something else."

"Right," he sighed. "Kiryuu, thank you. You're an important part of this team. And, I'm proud of you, how much you've grown and developed and...well, you turned out pretty good. You're still an arrogant "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!", but you're my arrogant "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" and I'm proud of you."

Kiryuu was silent. His eyes grew wide and his mouth hung open. Gordon walked out of the control room onto the catwalk beneath Kiryuu's head. Mechagodzilla c0cked his head down, peering down at the small human smiling back at him. Gordon motioned for Kiryuu to come a little closer. Kiryuu leaned down, his nose only a few feet away from Gordon. Gordon leaned over, placing a hand on his snout.

"I'm proud," Gordon sighed. "I've always have been. You've changed so much in a year. And I do consider you a valuable member of this team. Now, if you would just change your arrogant attitude we'd be perfect."

"Gordon," Kiryuu's voice began high pitched with a small emotional sob. "I never knew..."

"Well, like you, I have a problem with feelings," Gordon laughed. "So, you're not the only one."

"Thank you, Gordon," Kiryuu smiled. "Thank you. I am honored to be a part of this team."

"And I have another announcement if all of you," Gordon called. "If you all will come out here to the bay area."

Both Will and Katsura walked into the bay area. Gordon positioned himself so that he could also look at Kiryuu while he spoke.

"People," Gordon began. "We are moving."

"What?" Will asked. "Moving?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Moving. The United States wants Kiryuu to come over to them."

"Godzilla has rarely attacked them," said Katsura.

"It's not Godzilla," said Gordon. "The US Geological Survey has discovered a moving epicenter. They've done some sonar tests and found it's actually a monster underground. They need this facility to be there just in case this monster surfaces. So, we are packing up and moving out. And, they are willing to fund our project with a heap a lot more money than what the Japanese government is willing to pay. This thing has already caused a lot of trouble for parts of Canada and the Northwest. Though, no one knows about it because the President is trying to keep this under a tight lid. You know, people plus monster equals big panic. So, we are to dismantle this base and Site B, and ship it back to the US."

"Er," began Will. "Gordon, how the hell do we transport Kiryuu?!"

"My boosters are not made for long range," began Kiryuu. "I do require a lot of refueling in order to make it over the Pacific."

"Problem solved!" Gordon cried. "I've three large, long range transport planes that can carry you across the threshold. They will be able to transport you, and support your weight during flight. And the President has ordered immediate rearmament of your rocket array. And something else as well, to take the place of the Absolute Zero Cannon."

"What else?" Katsura asked.

"Some gadget the government has been working on," he shrugged. "So far it's top secret. Now, Kiryuu, this is a surprise, so no peaking in their files. You'll know, we'll all know when we get there. Think of it as your first Christmas present."

"I will try hard not to peak, Gordon," Kiryuu nodded.

"Great!" Gordon yelped with glee. "That's my giant, Tonka toy! Anyways, what do you all say?"

"But what about Godzilla?" Katsura asked.

"We will still do our jobs as the first line of defense against the monster," began Gordon. "I'll never neglect that. I'll keep this base of operations up until we know for sure that Godzilla is heading into his hibernation, as Kiryuu pointed out. But, we've already started construction on the new base. We've had one in Salt Lake City, the place where we were building the body of Mechagodzilla before we shipped it here to be completed. It's still standing. But this team is going to Utah."

"It'll be great to go home," Will began. "And--forget..."

"Don't worry about it," began Katsura. "You'll be fine. You have us. We're your friends."

"Yeah," said Gordon. "Besides I need you all to be ready when we start leaving. It'll take us about a year to fully move out, but, hey, it'll give us time to recollect. But remember, more money for my company, bigger pay checks for you." Gordon turned back to Kiryuu. "And for you, nice wide open space to collect what ever data you want, and some new weapons."

"The weapons are not as appealing as the wide space for data," began Kiryuu. "I would like to test out how my systems can survive in a desert, and study the local wildlife."

"So, we are now working for the US Armed Forces?" asked Will.

"Yup," Gordon's grin grew. "Fun, huh?"

Will began to laugh for a moment: "Hey, Kiryuu! We're in the Army now, we're no longer behind a plow..."

Kiryuu was silent.

"Go download that song," Will cried. "Okay?"

"Okay," Kiryuu nodded, still a little confused.

"Don't confuse him, Will," Katsura smiled. "Well, I suppose it'll be good to go back to America. It was nice to be home, even for a little while. I miss the old desert base, anyways."

"That's the spirit!" Gordon cried. "Well, I'm heading back to my office. I'll catch all of you later. And Kiryuu..."

"Yes, Gordon?" asked Kiryuu.

"I'm going to trust that you'll not hack into the US government sites for this new type of weapon," he said. "Remember, Christmas present for you! And I want to trust you. You're my friend, and what do friends do?"

"They trust each other and don't back stab," Kiryuu smirked. "I understand. I will wait until we return to the United States."

"Good boy!" Gordon smiled as he walked out of the bay area. "You guys have fun now."

Will enthusiasm dropped as his mind returned back to Kiko. Katsura placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you going to be all right, Will?" she asked him.

"Yeah," he sighed in grief. "Sure. I'll be fine. I just need some time."

"Will," began Kiryuu. "Will it make you feel better if you and I play a few rounds in Halo?"

Will chuckled: "Thanks for the offer, pal. But this time I'll pass. But may be later, huh? I think I need some time to be alone and think."

He walked down the catwalk, leaving the bay area and Katsura and Kiryuu alone together. Katsura turned back to Kiryuu.

"He is taking it rough, Kiryuu," she said. "Just give him time."

"I never really knew the meaning of loss," Kiryuu began. "Until now. But there was something that Kiko said to me. She told me that some people are willing to sacrifice everything, even their selves to the cause they are fighting for, or to their loved ones. She was willing to sacrifice herself to prevent us from capturing her."

"She is right in some cases," Katsura began. "Many are willing to sacrifice everything they love to reach a goal, or protect their beliefs. That is true for everyone, not just humans."

"She asked if I was willing to sacrifice something," he sighed. "To save the people I love, like you. I couldn't answer."

"We can never answer that question freely," began Katsura. "It's not a question that can be given an answer. But when the time comes, you'll know if you are or not."
"I was," Kiryuu said. "But then, sacrificing myself would sacrifice you. I love you so much, Katsura. I wasn't willing to have us both killed. I could not stand that I was willing to kill both of us to save everything."

Katsura smiled slightly. She could not believe that Kiryuu was willing to sacrifice so much to save this world, after all what it has done to him. Kiryuu had grown into a noble creature, a person with both a conscience, feelings, and a heart. He was more than a computer, more than some gizmo with wires and for that matter--weapons. Kiryuu was special, in his own mind and in others. She loved him. She admitted that now.

"Katsura," Kiryuu began, breaking her thoughts. "About our relationship. I know you feel it will never work out."

"It will be a difficult one, Kiryuu," she said. "But, I think the link helps a little. You must be considerate of my feelings, as I shall be considerate of yours. But I do love you Kiryuu. I do."

"You kissed me, Katsura," Kiryuu rumbled pleasantly. "With that, I know that you do."

"Kiryuu..." she breathed. "This is going to be one interesting relationship."

"I am looking forward to every minute of it," Mechagodzilla rumbled pleasantly through the PA system.


To be continued...