Mechagodzilla: Shiryu

-29-

The blade pierced right through Shiryu Kai's chest.

Seeing that she had damaged the rouge mechagodzilla right in its processions compartment, Akane pulled Shiryu's chain sword out from the machine and stepped back. Shiryu Kai's eyes flickered as it glitched and lost power, falling to its knees before its whole body toppled down with a heavy thud. Akane let out a tired but relieved breath as she saw that the battle was over...for now. When she calmed down, Akane piloted Shiryu carefully around the fallen body of the rouge mechagodzilla and inspected it, to determine if it was still functioning in some way. When the scanners showed that it had no activity, Akane went to the battery compartment on the side of Shiryu Kai's located on the waist. There, she reached and twisted the handle before, just to make sure, yanked the whole thing clear out of the body. All systems of the rouge mechagodzilla began to shut down completely before all that was left was silence. Akane gave a relieved sigh and hung her head down, thankful that there was no further attacks from the machine.

Immediately afterwards, communications with the outpost and surface were restored all of a sudden, and now Akane could hear and see the transmissions. ["Akane? Lieutenant Akane? Do you read me?"] Colonel Togashi said. "Yes, loud and clear. Shiryu Kai is down. I repeat: Shirty Kai is down." Akane said, smiling a bit. Cheering from the military personnel on both the Argo ship and the command base were heard as they heard the news. Akane's friends also were cheerful, the twins being relieved, Sam as well, and Rick was all of her the place. Simon was also relieved as he had his head placed down on the computer desk he was working on. "Oh, and also...sorry for damaging Shiryu Kai. I...had to impale it in order to damage its processing unit and stop them." Akane apologized as she looked down at the fallen mechagodzilla. ["No worries. We can retrieve it and repair it once this is all over."] Simon assured her. ["Yeah. It's Gigan that owes us a new mechagodzilla. Make sure to beat him up for me"] Rick said, having calmed down. "I will." Akane said to her friend, continuing to hear the diminishing cheering.

When the name Gigan was mentioned, Akane suddenly remembered about the primary objective. She began to scan around for any abnormalities far from where she and Shiryu stood. What surprised her was that the interference had abruptly stopped. Then she remembered that all the signals have been restored once Shiryu Kai was defeated. "Wait...this isn't over yet. Gigan is still out there, but not here..." Akane said as realization set in. ["He is not there?"] Colonel Togashi asked. "You heard me. He isn't here. He is in another part of the Hollow Earth." Akane said, and then frustration invaded her nerves as she slammed a fist on her seat. "Damn it!...it's as we thought...Gigan lured us away from him" she said angrily, looking up at the screens. Colonel Togashi and the other military personnel, even if they were aware of this, began to worry. ["Search for any interference spike in any of the outposts! Hurry!"] Colonel Togashi ordered his men, the personnel getting to work right away.

Just when they were about to deliver the location, interference rose up again. Now some of the screens began to turn red, which meant that Gigan had hacked into the system once again. "I am impressed...that you were able to defeat...my ssservant. It's delightful...that now I can have a true fight. A sssavory one...before I conquer this world...and its inhabitantsss. I shall be waiting nearby...if you have the valor and time...to face me once again." Gigan's malicious voice hissed through the speakers, both on Shiryu's screens and also those on the command center. Then the transmission ended and the screen returned to normal. Shiryu's AI glitched for a moment, a growl escaping from its mouth as the eyes flickered red slightly in anger, before calming down. Akane flinched a bit when that happened, but had to agree with the mechagodzilla. "Yes, I know. It's frustrating. Don't worry. We'll soon get to him and defeat him." Akane assured Shiryu from where she was in the cockpit. Though she had to wonder...how would she get to Gigan and the MUTOs in time before they emerged to the surface? There was a feeling inside of Akane's chest which told her that Gigan was planning something else. They could easily have gone through the nearest portal towards the surface where he emerged, saving time and energy to launch its attack on the surface world without warning. Yet there Gigan went, going through random places in the Hollow Earth while being an evil creep through the communications network. From the perspective of a few, which Akane was slowly becoming one of those few, the word 'random' was definitely not the right one to describe Gigan's pattern of advance. This pattern was calculated, covering the tracks so that they wouldn't be followed or be used to predict the next move. And dealing with an intelligent titan that not only could speak, but had an intellect to use what it had to aid for its plan...meant that it had an objective in mind.