Godzilla 2000 (31 page)

But the peaceful moment ended abruptly when a jagged bolt of King Ghidorah's lancing rays struck Mothra's furry body in a shower of sparks and fire. Mothra trilled in pain and surprise, then banked away over the Hudson River.

Godzilla's eyes narrowed and his lip curled, baring his long double row of uneven teeth. King Ghidorah dived and slammed into Godzilla with earthshaking force.

The reptile was knocked end over end by the sheer power of King Ghidorah's body blow. Godzilla slammed into the structures behind him.

Number Three World Trade Center, already partially damaged by Godzilla, was completely demolished in a cloud of dust, splintering shards of glass, office furniture, and debris.

But from the center of that maelstrom, electric-blue fire poured forth in a steady stream, smiting King Ghidorah on its golden-scaled chest. The space monster cackled and spit fire as its massive feet crushed the Commodities Exchange Building, across the plaza from the Twin Towers.

His tail flailing madly, Godzilla rose to his feet and bellowed in defiance. King Ghidorah responded by spewing a second blast, which struck Godzilla on the neck and chest, searing his rutted hide.

As the monsters stared at each other from across the ruins of World Trade Center Plaza, Raptor-One arrived.

* * *

Even inside the soundproof cockpit, the crew of the Raptor could hear the bellows of rage from the two titans.

Each time King Ghidorah spat bolts of energy, buildings were blasted, sending chunks of steel and concrete into the sky. Flames from a dozen small fires licked at Godzilla's legs as his spine danced with the electrical discharge that preceded a blast of his radioactive breath.

Godzilla roared and spit radioactive fire at King Ghidorah in a stream of force that caused the dinosaur to backstep from his own recoil. When this powerful blast struck King Ghidorah full on its massive chest, the winged creature was blown backward across Church Street

Helpless against the rays, the space monster slammed into a row of older granite office buildings, which collapsed under the weight like sand castles.

Inside Raptor-One, the headphones crackled in G-Force's helmets. "Stay out of the way!" General Taggart commanded.

Kip slowed the craft and placed it in hover mode. It hung in a stationary position over Broadway, New York's City Hall behind the aircraft, the two monsters in front.

Some emergency service workers had remained in Manhattan. Now fire engines rushed to the scene of the raging inferno that burned in a wide swath from Columbus Circle down to Battery Park. From the river, firefighting boats laid down streams of water on fires that consumed block upon block of waterfront property. Smoke billowed into the air in great black clouds, obscuring the sky and blocking out the sunlight.

* * *

Using its forked tail for support, King Ghidorah struggled to its feet. The creature's necks writhed like Medusa's hair, and bolts of force continuously spewed from its three heads. Godzilla roared and stamped his massive feet, shattering buildings and caving in streets and sidewalks.

Then Godzilla pushed between the twin towers, breaking windows on both structures. Glass rained down on what remained of the plaza. With an angry wail, Godzilla lowered his feline head and charged King Ghidorah.

The two mammoth bodies crashed together with a tremendous boom that could be heard for miles. Godzilla's bone-white claws dug into King Ghidorah's flesh as its forearms grappled with the thing. King Ghidorah stumbled backward, but remained on its feet.

Desperately, King Ghidorah's mighty wings beat Godzilla's body, creating a hurricane-force wind that snatched up and carried away debris, abandoned vehicles, and helpless emergency workers. As Godzilla grappled with his enemy, King Ghidorah's central neck looped like a python around Godzilla's exposed throat.

Then King Ghidorah began to squeeze.

* * *

Lori wouldn't leave the observation deck, no matter what Nick said or did. So the reporter gave up and sent his cameraman and technician packing, while he stayed behind with this strange woman who had dropped out of the sky and, almost literally, into his lap.

Nick sensed that there was a story here, and he decided it was worth risking life and limb to get it. But even as he made his decision to stay, visions of his old colleague Max Hulse - who had died when Godzilla destroyed Tokyo Tower - stepped a macabre dance through Nick's head.

To his surprise, the smoke rolling about them soon began to clear, as the sprinkler system was activated inside the bowels of the art deco tower.

Nick rubbed his still-smarting eyes and saw Lori dash out to the exterior observation deck. He ran through the shattered windows to her side.

"What's happening?" he asked. Lori pointed to the sky.

"Mothra is coming back," she announced.

* * *

Godzilla's powerful forearms pounded at King Ghidorah's golden chest, but the noose around his neck just grew tighter and tighter, squeezing the life out of him.

Then a familiar shrill keening split the air, and Mothra dived down out of the smoke-filled sky. A thin beam of power crackled from the creature's antennae, striking one of King Ghidorah's horned heads.

King Ghidorah fired back, missing Mothra but taking out a hovering CNN news helicopter. The chopper exploded in a plume of fire, and the burning debris smashed into the Hudson.

Mothra squawked again and circled the two titans, who were still locked in a death grip. Foam flecked Godzilla's gaping mouth as the beast gasped and choked.

Blue lightning arced along his spine, but the blast never left his constricted throat. Slowly, Godzilla began to weaken, and his reptilian eyes glazed over.

* * *

"We have to
do
something," Martin cried. "Godzilla is dying out there!"

Kip, meanwhile, was torn with indecision. Technically, they were still in combat mode, and he was still in command of the Raptor. But Kip wanted nothing more than to turn over command to the older and more experienced Pierce.

"What do I do?" Kip muttered, his fingers tightening on the joystick.

As Godzilla flailed his arms weakly, Mothra hovered over the monsters, beating her wings angrily. But King Ghidorah would not release Godzilla from its death grip.

Suddenly, Kip spotted something dark lodged above King Ghidorah's chest, at the base of the middle neck - the same neck that was slowly strangling the life out of Godzilla. Kip's fingers raced across the control pad, and the HUD magnified the image.

Kip swallowed hard, squinting to make out the contours of the object.

"Yes!"
he whooped finally, startling the others in the cockpit.

"What is it?" Pierce demanded, his hands locked around his own control stick, waiting for Kip to turn over command to him.

But Kip would do no such thing. Instead, he eased the Raptor forward, closer to the writhing, wrestling titans.

"What are you doing?" Pierce demanded. Kip ignored the pilot, concentrating, instead, on the battered warhead of the Teflon-tipped cruise missile, which still projected from a wound in King Ghidorah's center neck.

As the others watched, Kip moved the Raptor closer to the brawling monsters. The headphones in his helmet crackled again.

"Pull back!" General Taggart commanded from the other aircraft. "You're too damn close!"

Kip reached up and shut off his radio, then he directed all of his concentration to the heads-up display in front of him. Slowly, he eased the nose of the Raptor down, then switched over to the eight Avenger cannons. Thousands of rounds of Teflon-coated explosive shells were automatically fed into them.

Martin's eyes widened. Then he smiled in comprehension. "Go get him, Kip!" he cried.

When the targeting computer found the spot Kip was aiming for, the sound it made switched from an intermittent beeping to a steady drone.

"You've got tone!" Pierce and Martin said simultaneously.

Kip squeezed the trigger, and the Raptor rocked backward as the eight cannons spit thousands of rounds of ammunition. The shells struck King Ghidorah, exploding in tiny blasts, and tore at the monster's golden plates, splintering some of the scales like glass. Kip danced the stream of bullets up King Ghidorah's body.

The three-headed monster spied the oncoming aircraft, and the two outside heads opened their mouths at the same time.

Bolts of force slammed into the Raptor, blowing out chunks of the hull and pieces of the wing. Still, Kip held the craft steady, not bothering to close the blast doors over the cockpit because he didn't want to risk flying blind for even a split second.

"Pull up!" Martin cried.

"Get away from those blasts!" Pierce commanded. But Kip ignored them both, continuing to pour a steady stream of cannon fire onto the target.

Finally, as bloody foam began to pour from Godzilla's yawning mouth and his eyes rolled up into his head, a single Teflon-coated shell found the target.

With a white-hot blast that rocked the Raptor, the missiles warhead, still lodged in King Ghidorah's flesh, exploded. The force of the blast completely severed the central neck from King Ghidorah's body. A fountain of hot, gleaming golden blood shot into the sky from the terrible wound.

The head and neck dropped into the street below, smashing a kiosk and some abandoned cars.

Godzilla, released from King Ghidorah's grip, dropped backward, slamming into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. The whole building shook, and shattered glass rained down onto him and into the plaza below.

Flailing his tail, Godzilla opened his eyes-again. The creature didn't even inhale - he simply let out the most powerful blast of his radioactive breath ever recorded by scientists. But the force wasn't directed at King Ghidorah. The blast tore through the first five floors of the North Tower Building behind the space monster. Glass exploded and steel support beams melted under the intense burst. Suddenly, the North Tower began to tilt, then fall.

* * *

Even as the missile exploded, the Raptor was torn apart by King Ghidorah's final blasts. Electrical systems failed all over the ship, and internal fires broke out in the missile bays and near the fuel tanks.

Martin struggled to keep the Raptor in the air, but it was hopeless. The ship lurched to one side, and as Kip fought the controls, the left rotor blades struck the South Tower and broke apart.

"Eject! Eject! Eject!"
Pierce cried as the dying Raptor plunged into the street far below...

* * *

The full weight of the North Tower slammed down on King Ghidorah, crushing the creature under tons of steel, stone, and glass. Lower Manhattan quaked as the building broke apart over King Ghidorah‘s back. The space monster cried out in a keening wail of pain. Godzilla, meanwhile, struggled to his feet.

The prehistoric monster stared at the pile of shattered rubble as Mothra circled overhead. Godzilla's eyes narrowed, waiting.

Suddenly, like a phoenix bursting from the fires that consumed it, King Ghidorah leaped out of the debris and into the sky. Wailing, its two remaining necks writhing in fear, the space monster flew toward the Atlantic.

But even as it fled, Godzilla struck its back with a second tremendous blast of radioactive fire. The creature cried out again and increased speed.

As Godzilla watched, King Ghidorah, minus its center head, flew past Liberty Island and toward the open sea, still spewing golden blood from the terrible, mortal wound.

Mothra, in hot pursuit, streaked over the ocean right behind King Ghidorah.

Godzilla, suddenly alone, blinked, grunted, and flexed his mighty forepaws. Then he lifted his head into the smoke-filled sky.

The monster's final roar of triumph and challenge echoed through the canyons of Manhattan. Then, with a contemptuous flip of his enormous tail, the mighty
kaiju
turned his back on New York City and returned to the banks of the Hudson River.

With a rumbling grunt of satisfaction, Godzilla waded into the cold river and moved ponderously toward the open ocean... his home.

* * *

As the entire crew of Raptor-One floated down from the smoke-filled sky on their parachutes, low storm clouds once again rolled over the city.

Before the G-Force team had all landed with a jolt in the middle of Broadway, gentle snowflakes began to fall. Within an hour, a blanket of clean white snow covered the ruined city, smothering the fires and signaling, somehow, that the long, terrible crisis had finally ended.

The United States of America

Late in the afternoon, the G-Force team was extracted by helicopter from the ruins of lower Manhattan. None of them had suffered serious injury in the ejection, though Martin had sprained his ankle when he slipped in the snow.

Toby saw Lori on INN when she landed on top of the Empire State Building. He dispatched an Army Blackhawk helicopter with an extraction crane to pick her up and bring her to La Guardia Airport. The chopper returned with Lori, the INN reporter who interviewed her, and the rest of his news team.

So Nick Gordon got his story, as well as exclusive interviews with the entire G-Force team.

Everyone in G-Force was delighted to find Lori alive and well. Her emotional reunion with her friends was broadcast worldwide. Even General Taggart wiped away a tear when Lori hopped out of the Blackhawk and ran to them.

Lori didn't remember anything that happened to her between the time she ejected over the Gunnison National Forest and the moment she landed on top of the Empire State Building in Manhattan. But she knew that Mothra had helped save her, as she had helped Godzilla save the world.

As the team was debriefed, Pierce could not stop gazing at Lori. And though she was the center of attention, Lori couldn't help but stare at him, too.

Dr. Markham smiled.

This should be interesting
, she thought.

* * *

Before the sun set on the first full day of the new century, the people of America were taking halting and uncertain steps toward the future.

* * *

On the cold, barren, and windswept plains of decimated Kansas, Eleanor Peaster returned to the ruins of her family's farm. It bore little resemblance to the place she grew up in. The house was now rubble, and the barn and silo had vanished. But Eleanor Peaster was determined to begin again.