"Godzilla Vs Godzilla" - Part Four

 

Part Four

            As fun as it was for A.J. to hang out with the Minions, he got a little bored on playing UNO with them. Kevin, Stuart, and Bob had no idea how the game even worked, which left A.J. sitting in the TARDIS console room and watching Kevin and Stuart bicker in their weird language while Bob kept piling on cards, which was the opposite of a win in the game of UNO.

            In a huff, A.J. stood up and grabbed his snow jacket, heading outside.

            Kevin, Stuart, and Bob didn’t even notice his departure.

            A.J. wandered several feet from his grandmother’s TARDIS, believing he was still on the Wayne Manor grounds. To his surprise, he was in the middle of a seemingly endless frozen tundra that his 8-year-old mind believed could be only one place…

            “The North Pole!”

            And, following on that belief, he continued on his path at an exuberant pace – his destination: Santa’s Workshop.

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            Two Godzillas.

            It had to be the result of a dimensional rift, presumably the same one that brought Agent Lazuardy to the present dimension.

            “One of them’s the culprit of the attack in New York,” Suri gathered.

            She watched along with Lazuardy, Goku, and Alan as the two Godzillas battled, one of them swinging its tail at the head of the other, knocking him down with an earthquaking thud. Suri and the three men were knocked off their feet momentarily. When they got back up, Alan shouted, “We need to get up outta here before they crush us!”

            “Not ‘til we notified the Marshal about what we found!” Suri denied, prior to taking out her phone and dialing the contact number she still kept to the New York Shatterdome. “Stacker! It’s Neas!”

            “Where are you?!” Pentecost roared over the phone. “You, your son, and your friends disappeared on us! We thought you lot went missing!”

            “We’re in Iceland,” Suri told him.

            “What?!”

            “And we’ve found Godzilla…two Godzillas!”

            “WHAT?!?!” There was as much surprised in his voice as there was fury to this news. “I can be angry about you going off on an unsanctioned investigation later. For now, try to stay alive. I’m sending a Jaeger team to assist.”

            Another massive tremor generated from one of the collapsed Godzillas altered the very topography around them, raising the ice and earth beneath their feet into a massive peak. Suri and the men tumbled down the slope, stopping at the base. As they all recovered, they heard the cries of a small child close by. “Oh, no! A.J.!” Alan screamed, spotting his son, who stood out in midst of the chaotic scene, tears streaming down his frightened eyes.

            “Whose kid is that?!” Willys asked. “How did he get all the way out here?!”

            Instead of answering him, Suri ran to her grandson, just as another tremor shook the terrain. Suri made it to A.J. just as soon as it occurred, but the shockwave separated them from Alan, Willys, and Goku. The last thing Alan could see of his mother and son was the both of them plummeting back into the cavern where they found the first Godzilla, before they were caught in a cave-in.

            Alan tried to go to help them, but he was held back by Goku and Willys. He didn’t understand why they did until he saw Gipsy Avenger – the Jaeger that Pentecost sent – storm into the scene and engage with the rogue Godzilla. The other Godzilla fled from the battle, leaving Avenger to subdue the rogue, stabbing at its hard, scaly skin with a titanium needle, extracted from its right fist. The stab wasn’t lethal; its purpose was to tranquilize the rogue.

            Soon after the insanity ended, a black chopper landed near Alan, Goku, and Willys. Mako disembarked from the aircraft to directly confront the men. “I have orders from the Marshal to return you to the Shatterdome immediately,” she sternly said. It wasn’t until she noticed Willys that she asked, “Who is this man?”

            “Willys Lazuardy, scientific researcher,” he introduced himself.

            “Never mind that!” Alan snapped frantically. He pointed to the blocked cavern and alerted Mako, “My son and mama are trapped in there!”

            Willys grimaced at one of his descriptions. “Your…mama?”

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            Dazed but otherwise unharmed, Suri and her grandson stood in the chilly cavern with their only exit blocked by chunks of rock and ice. She activated her sonic as a practicable light source in the dark, freezing climate. The entire time, she kept checking on A.J., whose tears had frozen on his shivering little face. “You poor dear,” Suri held his body close to hers for warmth. “Everything’ll be O.K. I’ll get us out of here.” She didn’t know how much he really trusted her; from the perspective his parents forced on him, she was a total stranger.

            With no other option, they ventured further into the cavern, which seemed more spacious without the colossal form of Godzilla. Such space allowed them to have plenty of air, yet the low temperatures were less than ideal – at least in the case of A.J. Whereas Suri’s Time Lord biology would endure it for quite some time, her human grandson could for only so little time. That was her primary motive for getting them out as quickly as possible.

            In their hope of finding another way out, they discovered a bright light emitting from one corner of the cavern. Where there’s light, there’s a way, Suri confidently thought. And she pursued on this confidence with her grandson, heading towards the light as it glowed brighter the closer they got.

            It soon enveloped them in its golden hue.

            Suri and A.J. could hardly see the way forward.

            Before either of them knew it, they were no longer in the freezing cavern…neither were they in Iceland.

            They were standing in the middle of a street within a city.

            Judging from the model of the cars honking for them to get out of the road, Suri figured the time to be 1947. The faces of the locals staring at them were all Japanese; by this and the large population of citizens, Suri narrowed their current location down to one of four major cities: Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, or Tokyo.

            It was A.J.’s presence that garnered most of the locals’ attention, being the only African-American individual in the city.

            Suri had to get him out of sight immediately before…

            “Sokode yamete kudasai!” a constable ordered them in Japanese. Suri knew he had ordered them to stop, so she did as he swiftly approached them, glaring specifically at the frightened A.J. “Kono otokonoko wa anata to issho desu ka?” (“Is this boy with you?”)

            Suri shielded A.J. behind her and answered, “Hai, kare wa watashi no mago desu.” (“Yes, he is my grandson.”)

            The constable was flabbergasted. “Anata no...mago?!” (“Your…grandson?!”)

            This certainly didn’t help her case, as the constable’s suspicions drove him to arrest them. Suri didn’t resist and encouraged A.J. to remain calm, as they were led away to the nearest police station.

            All the while, their arrest was witnessed by several onlookers…

            …including one young Japanese woman in a navy-blue trench coat, matching pants, and a red plaid shirt.

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            While Gipsy Avenger worked with two dozen Chinook helicopters to hoist the sedated rogue Godzilla for transport back to the New York Shatterdome, Goku and an excavation team worked on saving Suri and A.J. from the cave-in. Goku opted not to use his Kamehame Wave, its destructive force possible to cause more danger to Suri and A.J.

            Alan was a nervous wreck the whole time, watching Goku and the team carefully remove one ice block and boulder after another.

            Mako and Willys stood with him. “They’ll be alright,” the former reassured.

            He was too wracked with guilt to believe her. “I should’ve never invited her into Wayne Manor. A.J. and I would have a nice, quiet Christmas right now.”

            “Wayne Manor?” Willys heard him say. “Like in Batman?!”

            It was just another strange detail that Willys overheard from the young man. Much as he wanted to question it, current circumstances deemed an interrogation to be ill-advised, so he kept his questions to himself until Suri and A.J. were rescued. There was also the matter of Marshal Pentecost arriving at the scene via private helicopter. He was assisted out of it by two men who carried him by his arms and legs before placing him into his waiting wheelchair. He despised every moment of this.

            The Marshal didn’t come alone. Accompanying him with his two carers was a young Caucasian man wearing his cap backwards and carrying a backpack. “This is Dr. Niko Tatopoulos, a biologist and someone who knows quite a bit about our other Godzilla,” Pentecost introduced him.

            Dr. Tatopoulos shook hands with Alan and Willys. “Call me ‘Nick’,” he greeted, sounding as geeky as he looked. “It’s been a weird few days for me. Ya see, like that Godzilla we captured, I’m not from this dimension.”

            “Me, too!” Willys exclaimed, relieved to find a kindred spirit in the biologist. “As a matter of fact, that other Godzilla that your Godzilla was fighting earlier is from my world.”

            Pentecost regarded this new information with a grin. “It seems luck is on our side. Both you men are just the experts we need.”

            “We never suspected the possibility of two Godzillas, until Suri told us in her call,” Mako said. “Before then, Dr. Tatopoulos tried to warn us of his Godzilla’s intentions, but none of them matched up with Mr. Lazuardy’s Godzilla.”

            “Because they aren’t the same Godzilla,” Tatopoulos said.

            “What are the intentions of your Godzilla?” Willys asked him.

            “She has a nest in New York that she’s protecting,” Nick explained. “It’s located in Madison Square Garden.”

            “I made it clear for Dr. Tatopoulos that, in spite of this nest, his Godzilla should still be considered an interdimensional threat,” Pentecost stated. “For the time being, it’ll be kept sedated in the Shatterdome.”

            Suddenly, Goku leaped from where he and the excavation team had cleared all the rubble from the cave entrance, landing delicately where the others were gathered. “Welp, we got good news and bad news,” he announced.

            “What’s the bad news?” Alan nervously chose of the two, bracing himself.

            “The bad news is that Suri and A.J. aren’t in the cave,” Goku said.

            “What?!” Alan howled. “I saw them fall into that cave!” He pointed to the now-open cavern. “Where else could they have gone?!”

            Goku shrugged. “I dunno. But the good news is that they’re alive.”

            “How do you know?!” Alan retorted.

            “Because I can sense them,” Goku said. “I don’t know for sure where they are, but they’re still alive and kickin’.”

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            Suri sat beside her grandson in their jail cell, drying the tears that he shed every few minutes. “It’s O.K., dear,” she consoled him.

            “I want Mama and Daddy,” he whimpered.

            “I know, dear, I know,” Suri embraced him. “I promise you’ll see them soon.”

            “Are you my grandma?” This question from him caught Suri by surprise.

            She looked into his teary, puppy-dog eyes, resisting the urge to tell him the truth. Instead, she asked, “Why would you think that I’m your grandma?”

            “I heard Daddy call you ‘Mama’. That means you’re my grandma, doesn’t it?”

            Suri smiled big and wide, no longer withholding what she desperately wanted to tell her grandson. “Yes, dear…I’m your grandma.”

            With this confirmation, A.J. hugged her.

            He didn’t question it nor did he laugh at the notion of it.

            He just accepted this young Asian woman who he was jailed with was his paternal grandmother.

            Their tender moment would’ve lasted longer had it not been for the loud voices shouting outside their cell. Suri looked up from A.J. to see a Japanese woman briskly walking towards their cell, while the arresting constable chased after her and yelled, “Koko ni tada haitte kuru koto wa dekimasen!” (“You can’t just come in here!”)

            The young woman sharply turned and glared at him, holding up her credentials and yelling back, “Watashi wa nippon seifu no taishi desu!” (“I’m an ambassador for the Japanese government!”)

            “Josei taishi desu ka?!” (“A female ambassador?!”)

            “Watashi wa Katayama Tetsu shushō mizukara ninmei shimashita! Kare ni monku o iitai desu ka?” (“I was appointed by Prime Minister Tetsu Katayama himself! Do you want to complain to him?”)

            The constable stiffened for a brief moment, beads of sweat forming off his brow. After some hesitation, he bowed to the young woman and returned to his office. The woman folded the paper that she held, and as she did so, Suri could see that it was blank. Psychic paper. A handy tool used mostly by Time Lords like herself and the Doctor.

            So where did this woman get her hands on some?

            She approached the cell with the key to unlock its door, freeing Suri and A.J. “Are you two alright?” she asked them in perfect English with a noticeable Japanese accent. “I can’t believe they arrested you just for having a grandson that isn’t Japanese!” She then crouched down to A.J.’s eye level and gingerly asked, “You alright, sweetheart?”

            A.J. shook his head. “I wanna go home.”

            “You’re going back there real soon, I promise,” the young woman told him.

            “Who are you?” Suri asked her. “Why’re you helping us?”

            The young woman looked at Suri, smiling. “Still haven’t figured it out yet, have you, Neas? It’s not your fault. This is a regeneration of me you haven’t met yet.”

            Following on the context clues, Suri gasped in recognition, “Pop?!”

            The young Japanese woman verified this with a wink and a smile. “I call this one of us ‘Satoshi’.”