"Godzilla Vs Godzilla" - Part Three

 

Part Three

            Before leaving behind his adventures in the Infinite DC years ago, Alan’s phone was upgraded to a “superphone” by Sonia, so that they could have the privilege of communicating between dimensions. It was a useful feature that allowed him to talk to his mother whenever she (or he) was available. Right now, he figured on using it to call Erica, who he assumed had finally returned home after a long night of patrolling the streets of Gotham.

            Unfortunately, his call went straight to voicemail.

            “Where are you, babe?” he muttered in frustration.

            “Did you say something, dear?” He heard Suri’s voice nearby without even realizing that he wandered aimlessly into the TARDIS console room. He grew up aboard that ship and knew every end of it – an impressive feat considering how much bigger it really was on the inside.

            The only thing that had changed was the pilot, who Alan found at the central console. Her back was facing him, occupied with the controls and the readout on the overhanging monitor. Initially, Alan didn’t suspect that it was Suri. The woman at the controls was dressed like a biker chick in black. It was a stark contrast to the festive apparel she wore upon her initial visit to Wayne Manor and the pink, oversized shirt she wore earlier.

            “Whoa,” Alan uttered in amazement. “I didn’t figure this version of you was so…hardcore.”

            Suri turned away from the console to inquiringly look at him; in doing so, Alan got to see another article from her attire – a black-and-white-striped crop top. “What do you mean, dear?” Her maternal address sort of juxtaposed with the look, reminding Alan of the kind-hearted individual behind it.

            “Nothing,” he dismissed, approaching her with his superphone. “I still haven’t been able to reach Erica.”

            “Maybe she put her phone on silent, so it wouldn’t give her away to the criminals,” Suri surmised. “Did you leave her a voicemail?”

            “Several,” Alan worriedly replied, staring at his phone in his trembling hands. Suri placed her steady hands comfortingly over them. Looking away from his phone, Alan saw her tender brown eyes and instantly felt calm. He wasn’t sure what sort of mental Time Lord method she was doing to him; it could’ve just been the way this incarnation naturally soothed the edgiest of souls with her warm character. Not since the original incarnation of his mother had he felt such wonderful nurturing.

            Seeing that it was working, she asked him, “How do you feel now?”

            “Better,” Alan sighed. “Thanks, Mama. I’ve probably been looking like a psycho these past few hours.”

            “You’re just concerned for your wife – and that’s normal,” Suri told him.

            He appreciated her justification. Pocketing his phone, he moved onto the matter at hand and asked, “So, what’re we gonna do about Godzilla? Are you really gonna help that Marshal dude kill him?”

            Suri huffed, overwhelmed. “Well, I don’t want to make any rash decisions just yet, so I’m going to find proof of his innocence first. The last couple of times I’ve seen Godzilla, he’s helped humanity…helped the entire multiverse. It doesn’t make any sense for him to suddenly turn evil.” She returned to the console monitor, which displayed a 3D render of the current Earth they were on. “I’m cross-referencing his nuage signature and radiation levels. Together, they should pinpoint his precise location.”

            After rapidly typing on the console’s keyboard, Suri received a ping from the monitor. Alan looked on it to see one specific area highlighted on Iceland. “Looks like you’re gonna need another change of clothes,” Alan smirked.

            Suri smirked right back at him. “So will you,” she indicated his well-pressed shirt, tie, and pants. “That is, if you wanna come. I understand if you want to go back home.”

            “I do,” Alan admitted. “But I also miss hangin’ with you on one of your trips. So…I’ll stick ‘round for just this one…for old times’ sake. As long as A.J. keeps safe in the TARDIS.”

            Suri kept her joy to a minimum, knowing that her son would be by her side again.

            “Don’t worry about A.J.,” she reassured. “The Minions will watch over him.”

            “Yeah…the Minions,” Alan wavered, still uncertain about his mother’s stout, energetic yellow companions.

--------------------------

            “Oh, man! Is it brisk out here!” Goku whooped, finding a surge of energy from the frigid Icelandic climate. Wrapped up in a blue snow jacket with a high turtleneck, he looked as comfortable as Suri and Alan did in their own winter attire. “Reminds me of when Broly and I duked it out. You guys should’ve seen it! We shattered at least half a dozen mountains that day!”

            Suri admired Goku’s exhilaration amid the ice-cold atmosphere. She didn’t want to admit to either the Saiyan warrior or her own son, but she felt like she was turning into a popsicle, in spite of her jacket, sweater, and thermal pants. Her black locks whipped around uncontrollably from the frosty winds, pressuring her to put her cap on. Luckily, as she soon discovered from Alan, she wasn’t alone in her discomfort.

            “Glad you’re enjoyin’ it, bruh,” he told Goku. “Personally, I hope Godzilla blows his atomic breath at us when we find him. Anything to keep our butts from freezin’ off!”

            Suri kept her trans-temporal sonic screwdriver held up high in her gloved hand, using it as a detector for Godzilla’s signature. At the same time, she maintained her footing over the landscape, which teetered between the slippery ice and patches of the steady grasslands.

            Halfway through their trek, Goku whiffed something in the air that made his stomach growl. “Oh, wow! Something smells good!”

            Initially, Suri believed he was delirious with hunger from the cold.

            But then she smelled the delicious aroma as well.

            It was close by, along one of the larger grassland patches. Following it, the three explorers were surprised to find an Asian man sitting near a campfire and sipping a warm cup of coffee while roasting a couple of seasoned rainbow trout (the source of the delectable scent that made Goku’s mouth water).

            Alerted by their approach, the man stood up and offered a friendly greeting. “Hello,” he said, his surprise over their presence evident. “I didn’t figure anyone else to be this far from civilization.”

            “Neither did we,” Suri said, enthralled by how handsome the man was.

            Likewise, the man was captivated by her beauty, gazing up and down at her wintry apparel, which looked toasty in more ways than one.

            There was a long pause between their gawking over each other.

            Alan and Goku felt awkward in the duration of it. A minute longer and it would’ve reached cringe territory for the third and fourth wheels. As such, Alan stepped forward and stuck his hand out to the man. “Hey, what up,” he greeted. “I’m Alan. My friend here with the gaping mouth hole is Suri.” He nodded to her before gesturing to their Saiyan cohort. “And that over there is Goku.”

            “Yo!” Goku saluted.

            The man regarded each of them politely, yet his attention was still fixated on Suri. “Nice to meet you all. I’m Willys Lazuardy, but you can call me ‘Will’.”

            “Pleasure to meet you, Will,” Suri said in a hushed, enchanted voice.

            It was clear to Alan that she was falling for him. Amusing as it was to witness love at actual first sight, his curiosity of Will’s seclusion amidst the Icelandic wilderness got the best of him. “So, what’re you doin’ out here, man?”

            Will was hesitant to explain. “I, uh…Aw, heck. What does it matter?” He folded rather quickly and disclosed to the group, “I work for Monarch, a covert scientific organization dedicated to the study of MUTOs.”

            “MUTOs?” Alan frowned.

            “Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms,” Suri elaborated.

            Will was impressed by her familiarity of the term. “You study them, too?”

            “I have a bit of experience,” Suri blushed.

            She was just that much more amazing in Will’s eyes. Moving past his personal feelings, he continued, “I was working with a team to find one specific Titan in Dubai before we were caught in some sort of dimensional rift. One second, I’m sweating like crazy in the desert…and then in the next, I’m freezing in Norway. I don’t know what happened. None of my credentials check out – my passport, my driver’s license, U.S. citizenship. No one in the whole world has ever heard of Willys Lazuardy. It’s like I’ve been erased…or marooned on some alien planet that looks like Earth.”

            Suri knew his situation to fall more in line with the latter possibility. “You poor dear,” she pitied him.

            Will deeply appreciated such compassion from a lovely woman. “But it’s not all bad news. I still have the Titan I’ve been seeking before I ended up here. The people where I’m from call him ‘Godzilla’.”

            Alan and Suri gasped, while Goku blurted out, “That’s who we’re looking for!”

            “I’m not surprised,” Will grinned. “Considering all the Titans in your world, or ‘Kaiju’ as you refer to them, I wouldn’t blame you three for being more than a little curious. I should warn you: chasing after these monsters isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. There are risks to this sort of thing.”

            “I can’t necessarily speak for my friends, Mr. Lazuardy, but I have some…”

            Suri was cut short of her statement when her sonic screwdriver pinged, having received a strong read on Godzilla’s signature. It was right underneath where they were standing. The only accessible way there was a cave just a few clicks from Lazuardy’s campsite. Within the far reaches of the cavern, they discovered the slumbering, colossal form of Godzilla.

            “Whoa,” Alan was petrified, sharing the same space as the Godzilla.

            “He’s so cool!” Goku exclaimed in excitement. “I wonder what it’d be like to go toe-to-toe with him!”

            Alan scoffed at the Saiyan. “You straight trippin’, bruh.”

            “Naw, I’m pretty careful on my feet when it comes to fighting,” Goku claimed, assuming Alan was speaking in the literal sense from his jargon.

            As Goku and Alan kept their distance from the legendary Titan, Suri and Will bravely moved in close enough to place their hands on one tiny section of its scaly, gargantuan snout. “He’s always so majestic to look at,” Suri said.

            Sharing this moment with her, Will found himself looking away from Godzilla and towards Suri. “Yes, she is.”

            In hearing the feminine pronoun he used, Suri was drawn to him again.

            They stared longingly into each other eyes.

            And then, a loud familiar shrill from outside the cave broke their contact.

            It also awakened Godzilla from its slumber.

            Suri, Alan, Goku, and Will immediately evacuated from the cavern, just as Godzilla rose to its full height, shattering through the terrain. Across from the mighty Titan was another massive reptilian kaiju that bore a noticeable resemblance, even from the way it roared.

            Suri could hardly believe what she was seeing. “Two Godzillas?!”