Godzilla Warriors 6: Breach [Wattys 2017]

Chapter 10: Surgery

The sliding doors opened, and Crimson threw Mothra into the med bay. She slammed against the operation table in the middle of the room.
"Ow! What was that for?" She asked, grabbing her arm. Crimson glared at her, making her want to retract her statement.
"Quiet, Kaiju." He ordered. Mothra gulped in her nervousness. Looking up, she saw Rodan on the table above her.
"Now move, I have work to do." Crimson ordered. Mothra did as she was told and stood up, moving away from the table. With her out of the way, Crimson began his work. His gauntlet transformed and his fingers turned into medical tools. None of them looked exactly safe, but they seemed to work. In less than a minute, he removed the bullet from Rodan's chest with relative ease. Mothra winced as he tossed the blood covered projectile to the side.
"It's a shame, really." Crimson muttered. "If I wasn't getting payed to do this, I would have gotten to enjoy watching another Kaiju die."
Mothra's back hit a wall, and she realized she had been backing away from Crimson slowly. He was really starting to scare her. It was like being locked in a cage with a wild animal.
"I'm not scared of you." She lied, putting on her best brave face.
"Well then, I'll have to try harder." Crimson said, turning towards Mothra. He grabbed her arm again, and dragged her towards another operation table. This one was different from the one Rodan was on. It had five thick leather straps on the top, bottom, and sides, as well as four metal clamps. Mothra gulped again as Crimson ordered her to get onto the table. Once she was on, Crimson began strapping her in.
"So, do I have to wear some sort of lead helmet or something?" Mothra asked, sweating as she felt the cold metal clamp tighten around her ankle. Crimson chuckled darkly.
"No. The psychic incapacitators, or mind blockers, are to be installed in the victim's skull." He explained. Mothra didn't like the way he said "victims". Her breathing started to intensify as she saw a drill pop out of Crimson's gauntlet.
"The process is quite painful." He continued. "I enjoy it every time."
He placed the drill next to the side of Mothra's head. She closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the pain to come, but just before the drill started, the door on the other side of the room opened up.
"Crimson! What the hell, man?" It was Gypsy. He stormed into the room. Mothra opened one of her eyes, only to see that he was now standing in front of Crimson. He looked pretty angry.
"You're supposed to fill out a report and check with me before you do stuff like this." He said. "You know about how the process works."
"I know that it takes too long." Crimson argued. "That can take weeks to finish. In that amount of time, she could kill the entire population of the Shatterdome with her telekinesis."
"Crimson, does she look like the type of Kaiju who would kill anyone?" Gypsy said. He turned to Mothra, and his expression softened. "No offence, Mothra."
"None taken." She replied. She decided not to mention that she actually had killed someone in the past, even though they deserved it. Gypsy turned back to Crimson, and his expression went back to anger.
"Now, I'm going to leave," he began, "and you're going to unstrap her, and personally escort her back to her cell. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir." Crimson nodded, still glaring at Gypsy. Even though he was the commander of the Jaeger division, Crimson held no respect for him. As far as he was concerned, Gypsy was nothing more than an annoyance. After Gypsy left, Crimson simply stood there. Mothra raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was doing.
"Well? Aren't you going to get me off of is thing?" She asked. Crimson ignored her. After a few seconds, he opened the door, checked to make sure Gypsy was gone, and left the room.
"Wait, where are you going? Get me out of here!" Mothra yelled. Crimson slammed the door behind him, completely ignoring her. She rolled her eyes and groaned. She was pretty sure he also locked the door behind him.
"Great. Just great." she muttered. "Now what the hell am I gonna do?"
She got her answer when a vent on the ceiling popped open, and the grate clanged onto the floor. A familiar face popped out and looked around, stopping when it found Mothra. It was Scunner.
"Hey, Mothra!" She said. "I thought you might be in here."
"Whew. You're a lifesaver, Scunner." Mothra said. "Now c'mon, get me out of here."
Scunner dropped down and landed on her hands and feet, like a cat. She quickly got up and unstrapped Mothra from the table. She quickly looked at Rodan on the other table.
"What happened to him?" She asked.
"Long story... actually, wait a second." Mothra said. Once she was unstrapped, she got up from the table and walked over to Rodan. As she predicted, Crimson had barely done any real medical work. He hadn't even bothered to hook him up to an IV. To make up for this, Mothra's hand glowed pink, and she brushed it against his wound. The wound healed almost automatically.
"Whoa, you can heal people?" Scunner asked.
"Yeah. Looks like Crimson did most of the work. That's not saying much, though." Mothra explained. Once she was done healing Rodan, his eyebrows began to move as if he was waking up. His eyes opened shortly after, and a soft groan escaped his lips.
"Mothra? What the hell happened?" He asked. "Did I get shot?"
"Yes, you did. But you're okay now." Mothra said. "Now shush. You're gonna need your rest."
"Who's she?" Rodan asked, referring to Scunner.
"She's my cell mate. Now lie back down." Mothra said. She didn't have to ask twice. Rodan laid his head back down on the table and closed his eyes.
"This table is super uncomfortable." He muttered.
"I know." Mothra agreed. Once she was sure Rodan was okay, she turned back to Scunner. "C'mon, let's get out of here." She said. Scunner nodded, and jumped back up the vent. Mothra flew up after her. They both began to crawl back to their cell. Scunner stopped for a moment.
"Hey, Mothra?" She said.
"Yeah?" Mothra asked, looking behind her.
"You really should tell Godzilla your secret. It might make you feel better." Scunner suggested. Mothra paused for a moment before crawling continuing to crawl. Even though she seemed to ignore her, she did take Scunner's words to heart. She was right. She had to tell Godzilla her secret.

As usual, Muto sat down at an empty table and ate her food silently by herself. She had come to the cafeteria a bit later than everyone else. There were hardly any Kaiju still there. She had her eyes turned downwards towards her food, until she heard someone saying her name.
"There's Muto, over there. You ready for this?" It was Knifehead.
"Yeah. Let's go." This was definitely Raiju.
Muto looked up, and saw them approaching her. A twinge of adrenaline shot up her spine and into her heart. She prepared to stand up and walk away, until she saw someone else sit down in front of her. It was Battra.
"Hello again, Muto." He said. His presence alone was enough to drive Knifehead and Raiju away. Muto sighed in relief as she watched them turn and walk off. After she was sure they were gone, she glared at Battra.
"What do you want?" She asked.
"I wanted to talk." Battra said. "That, and I saw that you were about to have some unwelcome company, and I decided to intervene."
He gestured towards, Knifehead and Raiju, who were staring at them from across the room.
"I told you I could take care of myself." Muto said through clenched teeth.
"Oh, okay." Battra said. He picked up his tray and began to leave. "Well maybe I should just leave then-" Muto's hand shot across the table and grabbed Battra's arm.
"No! You can stay." Muto insisted. Battra smiled and sat back down.
"If you say so." He said.
The two sat in silence for a few minutes, until their food was finished. Muto still didn't want to leave yet, which meant Battra was also going to stay.
"So, Muto, why exactly are you attracting all this attention?" Battra asked. Muto scoffed and crossed her arms.
"I don't know." She said. "Everyone in this place is crazy. That's what the Shatterdome does to people. Why do you think Rodan was shot?"
Battra paused. He hadn't heard about this. "Rodan was shot?" He asked.
"You didn't know? It happened a few minutes ago." Muto said. She left out the part about Mothra, since she didn't want Battra to get too concerned.
"Anyway, did you want anything else, or can I leave now?" Muto asked.
"I want to get to know you, Muto." Battra insisted. "That's all I want. Our last encounter got me curious."
"Well, like I said before, you really don't want to know me." Muto replied. "I've done some things in my life that would probably make you hate me."
"I doubt that. I bet I've done worse." Battra retorted.
"Oh yeah?" Muto said, getting a little agitated. "How about this; I nearly helped to destroy the entire human race in a selfish attempt save my own species."
"Is that so? I betrayed my family and attempted murder to prove my worth as a God." Battra said. Muto furrowed her brow.
"I killed a military officer to bring my ex lover back from the dead." She said, leaning over the table. Battra did the same.
"I tried to kill my own sister. Twice." He replied.
"Well, I nearly killed Godzilla twice." Muto said.
"Same here." Battra smirked. Upon seeing his smirk, Muto realized she had been tricked into revealing part of her backstory. At first she was mad at Battra for tricking her like that, but after thinking about it, she smiled at how much fun it was to compare their crimes. Then she began to laugh. Battra started laughing as well. This was the first time they had heard each other laugh.
"See, you're not as bad as you think." He chuckled. "There are way worse people out there than you."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Muto laughed. For the first time in a while, she was able to forget about what had happened to her during her time at the Shatterdome. For once, she was able to forget, and enjoy the company of a friend.