Godzilla 2000: New Era, Act 2 Promo · 6:03am Dec 14th, 2021
Where an old face stood on the bow of a ship moving at sea, the spray of salt and brine thick in the air and lungs; the mind was elsewhere. Back to a time when all sense of reality and the world itself making sense died. His face wasn't always this old, but it hadn't had much a chance to grow without being subjected to what shouldn't-be.
Hands gripped the railing of the G-Force vessel and eyes closed. The mental journey flung him back, and it was vivid. Many weren't cursed to have to remember what it was like on that night, up close, seeing man's world become and ocean of flames.....
Tokyo, 1954
A terrified face was illuminated by the flashing siren blinking off and on above them, as they turned around a corner of the smoking streets. The headlights were just barely illuminating the thick air before them, that burdened the lungs to even breathe with their weight and viscosity. A large mass suddenly rushed into the illumination and the young man in a Self Defense Force uniform for a mere private nearly had his eyes bulge out of his skull in shock. Wrenching the wheel aside, the car rocked and he was hit with a wave of vertigo during the sharp swerve that lifted one side off the ground. The jeep let out a screech and sparks flew out where the twisted hunk of debris and metal scratched across the side panels and ripped out one headlight. Somewhere in the nausea and tremors he glimpsed what remained of the defensive line.
A 60 meter tall mountain of electrified wire and steel. Bent over and sagged whilst still glowing hot from melting earlier, the warped metal still being hot being the sole reason it was still visible through the smog.
Grit and focus on a singular goal was the only thing that kept him going forward and not crashing into anything, even with more risky turns and maneuvers through streets now full of potholes and rubble.
Familiarity with the city layout and his sole remaining headlight indicating his target were his only way of navigating, the main housing district was up ahead. But unfortunately, the tremors that rattled the bone through the ground and up the jeep tires indicated he wasn’t alone.
A wave of noise so loud that it blurred the vision was the only warning before everything was lit up in a sickly, phosphorus white. Even at the distance, the Private could feel the blazing heat as the wave of fiery wrath washed over a large apartment building like napalm. Windows were instantly burst and walls seared, jets of white blaze shooting out through every other doorway and window in the complex before the foundations gave out. Like a horrid parody of a Christmas tree. The building sagged and loudly bellowed, concrete and support pillars grinding and snapping to spur the structure to lean towards the mainstreet.
Private Takaki Aso, barely 18 years old, cried in raw fear and stomped on the accelerator. The jeep’s engine shrieked and the speedometer ramped up with the increasing RPM. The distance between himself and the path just beyond the building got smaller, and the span between the road and the crumbling building got shorter. It was just a matter of which would reach zero first.
Molten glass and bits of faster-falling rubble pinged off his windshield as the whole building slumped closer. It was like a wave composed of civilization itself and all that entailed. Broken rebar, glass fragments, concrete, and more. Takaki tried desperately not to think about the burning, human sized masses raining out of some burst windows. One fell past and in the millisecond-by-millisecond perception of time he had while flooded with adrenaline, he hated himself for the rest of his life for looking out his window at the face he saw staring back in phosphorous death.
The tunnel formed by the falling building shrank more and more, and the jeep rumbled on faster and faster. The air was distorted by another unworldly siren, totally unlike any living creature could or should make. His vision blurred again and he saw stars from the rattling his brain got inside his skull. The tunnel past the dying home was a gateway to the beyond if he’d been a fraction of a second slower.
The jeep screamed down the road, which made it all the more notable that ash and smoke was thrown past the windows beyond the cab and a hunk of metal managed to rip out the side mirror. Aso gasped and fought to keep control, rapidly identifying anything that lay ahead where the headlight could shine it to vision.
An enormity was glimpsed in his surviving side mirror and he somehow registered it. The horrific rattle that burst the air was what followed, and some instinct compelled him to turn sharply to the left. Said instinct was fortunate as a huge mass came crashing through the front of a movie theater and crushed it and the street before it like matchwood. He couldn’t even conceive what it was, barely able to perceive the mass itself due to sheer magnitudes his mind lacked reference to comprehend, and the enormous gout of dust and debris kicked up. The jeep screamed as it rolled onto one side again and yet managed to turn left.
The sole headlight was choked by fog and falling dust but the very edge of it, for the briefest instant, caught the cusp of scaly skin and ragged, keloid scars visible through the dust; before turning onto another street.
Private Aso sobbed, his gumption broken by sheer terror. It took what felt like an eternity, but was in fact a mere twenty seconds for him to get his wits about him. Contrasting hot and cold sweat poured from every pore, and it was only by glimpsing lights on inside several apartments did a strong drive overtake his shaken body due to a horrifying realization.
His commander had been right before he was crushed to nothingness. There were still people in the buildings, trusting the hardened concrete and steel to shield them from the force of nature outside like it was a mere hurricane.
Private Aso scrambled to pick up the loudspeaker’s transponder, squeezing it tightly and screaming into it so loud his throat felt like it was tearing from a mixture of the thick air and volume after a mere few words.
“GET OUT OF THE BUILDINGS! THEY CAN’T STOP IT! GET OUT OF THE BUILDINGS OR YOU’LL BE CRUSHED!”
Tears ran down his eyes and yet he still slowed down to scream out the warning multiple times. The ground shook and rattled at a steady pace. Footsteps, getting closer.
Aso kept screaming for people to evacuate, feeling a small sense of joyous bliss when he saw doors open and people, way too many people than he ever wanted to comprehend in a place like this, started scrambling out.
There were dozens, dozens of families and friends. Why were they still here?! Why didn’t they run like they were told to?! Why did they-
A family of four carrying an elderly woman who evidently couldn’t walk spilled out of their front door and looked towards the JSDF jeep; eyes locked upon the logo.
A whimper came from the young Aso’s lips, guilt crushing his chest in realization.
They’d stayed because of them. Maybe they didn’t trust the Self-Defense Force, which had only formed officially a few months prior. Some parties had raised plenty of concern this JSDF could just be the next permutation of the Imperial Army which wound up provoking fire and death to be launched at the homeland in retribution. Takaki was no fan of the Imperial Army, the whole reason he’d joined the SDF was to prove it would never be the legacy of men like Tojo.
But in the frantic state of his mind, Private Aso couldn’t help but entertain a more damning possibility.
That the people hadn’t left not because they lacked faith in those fighting to protect them, but because they had too much faith in them. Faith they’d have slew this dragon the moment it came from the sea. Faith their protectors would help ensure the city was in one piece and trains were on-time tomorrow. Faith that nothing would be wrong on the next day; much less everything go wrong on that very night.
Another earthquake of a footstep rattled the world and Takaki acted on pure instinct. This was the last populated district and his stunt of driving around screaming had gotten their attention plenty. The door to the jeep flew open and he waved them down to come as fast as they could. A third and then fourth old-timer were loaded into the jeep and another tremor of a stomp shook the ground.
“GO GO GO! Keep driving! Don’t look back!” Private Aso beat on the doorframe and screamed loud enough he really did tear his throat.
His jeep’s engine deafened him and he watched it go, covering his face to avoid inhaling the smoke coming from the busted muffler. The jeep rolled ahead, thankfully avoiding the crowds.
He wanted to run after them, but the presence of a light still on inside a building gripped his consciousness when he locked eyes with it. Something moved across the light, a clear indicator there was someone still inside the building.
Takaki grimaced and looked about to take light of his surroundings. A tremor, a stomp, rattled his vision and shook his joints so bad it felt like his bones scraping together. Looking back down the street, all he could see for a moment was a gout of smoke, dust, and ash from the road clear into the night sky. And then, in a rush of motion multiple meters off the ground, he glimpsed the smog shift from something moving inside of it. Through the dark haze several hundred meters away, contrails formed cutting through the smoke; four in the shape of a quartet of talons. Another footfall rocked the ground and a gust of shifted air underfoot briefly revealed the presence of pale spires of ivory hues beyond the smoke. They were the size of dump trucks and he only glimpsed them for a half second or two before the smoke obscured them again.
It took a moment for his horror to set in that he just glimpsed Godzilla’s foot, reaffirmed when another footstep slowly stepped down ahead of it.
A plane strafed close overhead, throwing about the air and ash therein. Machine guns clattered and sang, tracer rounds glimmering in the dark sky and pinging off a broad surface that had to be the chest or stomach. Private Aso almost yelled out, realizing just how far above the ground not even half the length of Godzilla’s body was. And it was coming down the street, advancing forward like a slow moving, living tidal wave; step over step; growling angrily as the jet distracted it.
He turned back to the evacuation and to the occupied building.
The drive to run was overpowering, so the only thing he could do was redirect it so he instead ran into the building and up a flight of stairs. The tremor from the footfalls almost knocked him off his feet; they were so close.
It was a fantastic scream, both his own and the building’s death cry when part of it was ripped out, that did send him sprawling. He spun and dangled, feet kicking on empty air. Somewhere in the spiral he’d realized he’d grabbed onto the edge of a stair railing that was now on the ceiling that used to be the floor. The world seemed to constantly be moving, shifting. Walls became ceiling, windows into floors. Most of what he could see looked like the building, but distorted like some kind of Lewis Carrol illustration. Other parts were animate, dark as a void and yet detailed as they withdrew. It attacked his mind and any sense of logic to grasp he'd just glimpsed a fragment of a living thing. Takaki swallowed a breath and held it, trying to keep at least one thing stable. One thing constant in his own breath. Spotting a close ledge that used to be the wall, he swung himself to it and nearly fell backwards upon landing on it, grabbing hold of a doorway.
Taizo Tachibana would one day be one of his right-hand-men, but the first look at him that Takaki ever got, and he was instead looking at a scared young boy, barely six or seven, dangling out of a now sky-facing window. Blood ran down his hands where he was forced to grasp the shattered window seal and its glass.
“Kid! Kid!” Private Aso yelled out hoarsely, almost coughing up blood as he scrambled over and held his arms up, “We gotta get out of here! Come on jump!”
“Help! I can’t my mom!” the young boy sobbed as mucus and tears ran down his face.
“We’ll find her! But you gotta jump! I’ll catch you!”
A tremor shook the building and the already broken window Taizo was clinging to broke away further. Through the smoke and haze outside, a large shadow shifted and darkened the room. Takaki couldn’t see it, the boy was in the way; but Taizo did.
It maybe even noticed him then.
Takaki had never heard a more terrorized, primal shriek; it barely sounded human. Taizo let go of the window, releasing his blood hands from the busted frame. He was limp when Takaki caught him, passed out from shock.
Fantastic burst cried out and echoed through the downed halls, shaking dust. Mere moments after them, deep crashes like bullets striking metal were audible. Private Aso knew the first sound from his unforgettable first field training. That was artillery firing off and hitting something. But the solid rounds of metal and explosive charges that went off after failed to do a damn thing other than provoke a cry of thunder and hellish wailing.
White light flooded the apartments as Takaki stumped foot over foot down the side of a wall, the unconscious boy slung over his shoulders. The moment they got out of the building out the bent side door, something smashed into it. Even whilst he sprinted for the streets, Private Aso couldn’t stop himself from looking at what it was.
It wasn’t it, it was so twisted and mangled it was only recognizable when a shower of sparks from a broken powerline briefly lit it up. A multi-ton train car, pitched into and sticking out of a half-crumbled building like a baseball.
Screaming and shouts were all too audible in a cornucopia of panic, and it was no small miracle he managed to regain his wit to follow the crowds; who were spilling past several advancing heavy tanks. Their guns momentarily lit up the dim, smokey, red night sky. Multiple tons of armored vehicle advanced in a coming wave of mass; and yet none of them could avoid being shouted out by the enraged bellows that were engendered by their harassment.
Private Aso sprinted between their columns, safety long since cast into the wind as he focused upon the crowds of fleeing civilians a few dozen meters ahead. He ran towards it for several long minutes, despite his legs feeling like they’d snapped in multiple places and bile filled with adrenaline being pumped through his body more than blood.
Somewhere in the mass was his jeep, but he could perceive so much more. Especially when a white glow illuminated the world and spurred the first tank to explode far behind him. In the crowd were people in their sleepwear, emergency workers, tattered garbs of the homeless, young, old, weary, sobbing, shouting. And-
His eyes locked upon a sheet of white, pale even before the atomic breath set everything pale.
There was a young woman running, not with the crowds, but through them. Her hair had come undone and was flying everywhere, tears messing her face, and a gash weeping blood down from her forehead. And yet here she was, dressed like this was seventy years or more ago, sprinting in the opposite direction as she tried to get through the crowds.
She was looking up, very high up; yelling something he couldn’t catch.
Takaki unconsciously, as the fractions of seconds ticked by, followed her line of sight and turned his head.
The smoke and ash was as thick as a hurricane of devastation, in a storm that rained fire like the masses that billowed out of slag that used to be fully crewed tanks. The ground shuddered under another tremor, and in tandem with it a set of curved claws poked out of the smoke cloud and tore right through the pavement.
He couldn’t see it, he couldn’t comprehend it. Something that big being alive, an animate mountain. The shape was only briefly fully visible in silhouette when rockets from a passing squadron of jets smashed into its dorsum from behind; backlighting the greatest demon he could have possibly conceived of in a fiery throne. Massive fangs, blank eyes, and limbs that seemed to stretch over the horizon.
Godzilla looked skyward and released another unearthly shriek, one no beast ever should have been able to make in how it forced heaven and earth to quake.
This was Tokyo, in 1954; and the sky was red with human ashes and burning worlds. That abomination of a roar carried through time. Exactly 30 years to the day, it was red with nuclear fires and the smoke of the burning new world. A much older Takaki Aso saw the very same sight. A titan that shouldn’t be standing over the graves of those Aso had been responsible for and sent off to battle with it. He remembered every face the monster cast into Admiral Tojo’s tomb, they flashed before his eyes as vividly now as when the Super-X they piloted was crushed under the Sunshine 60 tower.
He had the same question then as a young man, staring up at that being which shouldn’t exist on ground level; as he did as a grown man seeing the ashes of fallen skyscrapers wreath a towering form.
Why couldn't you just stay in the ocean?
He asked it that night he rescued the now orphaned Tachibana and had to later keep the boy from seeing his mother crushed under rubble. He asked it the same night three decades later when he was the first one inside the ruined Super-X and saw how the craft had become a coffin.
And now, the old man he’d grown into was dreading if he’d be cursed to see such a sight and face such a question again. The unknown UFO hovered ominously above the G-Force column, moving with its escort but refusing any other communication.
Godzilla had yet to resurface as well... and Takaki Aso, not as a young man with the burden of being a Private in the newly formed Self Defense Force, nor as an old man and the head of G-Force, didn't doubt for a second he'd rise again.
For all his lack of credence to the Shinto Priestess' word, he didn't doubt that such things never stayed in the depths of the sea forever...
I was wondering when we would get the next part of this! Man... Takaki Aso's been through some sh*t.
I'm excited to see this Tarb, glad to see it back!
Yeah it’s coming back
Quick impressions. I like how chaotic the 1954 rampage was from the ground view, and that Godzilla was like an unknown demon to Aso in his flashback. And I can't wait to see how Part 2 follows up Part 1.
Damn. What a boots-on-the-ground look at the events of Godzilla's 1954 rampage. Wow...
And on that day the world learned that this is not our World we were nothing more than ants to a real masters of the world the Primal King re awakening the king of kaijus and the rest are still to come
I've been looking forward to this
let go glad to see it back
Nice to see this series continuing.