Project Maigo (36 page)

The city around me looks fake. Like a model. This must be what it felt like to be one of those Godzilla actors, all dressed up and surrounded by a model city, ready for destruction.
Pretend it’s a model,
I tell myself.
You’re still just six feet tall. None of this is real.

This line of thinking helps, but it’s the high-pitched roar that really distracts me from the vertigo. I turn my heavy head toward the sound. Typhon still has Nemesis by the head. She doesn’t have long.

I try to shout out that I’m coming, but it’s just an awkward roar. I charge out of the Reflecting Pool toward the previous location of the Capitol Building. In some ways, I feel like I’m moving slowly, but in others, I’m moving very fast.
It’s the size
, I realize. When I swing my human arm, it feels very fast, but I’m only covering a few feet’s distance. With Scylla, each step carries me a hundred feet at a time. I might not be pounding out a few strides per second, like a sprinting human, but I’m actually moving a hell of a lot faster.

Karkinos is on the ground between me and Typhon. The monster is thrashing about, fighting against its own bulk, trying to get back to its feet. I tuck that observation away for later and leap over its thrashing tail, which is tipped by a scythe-like blade.

Still feeling Nemesis’s extreme brand of anger, I’m merciless when I reach Typhon. I slam my pointed fingers into the Kaiju’s side, plunging them deeply into him. He lets go of Nemesis, but doesn’t cry out or roar. Instead he turns his horrible, stoic head toward me. Toward Scylla. He’s clearly confused by Scylla’s attack, but his brows slowly furrow.

Scylla is now officially on Typhon’s shit list.

He reaches for my head with both hands, no doubt intending to crush Scylla’s vulnerable eyes, but this isn’t Scylla he’s fighting. I duck back, take hold of one of his arms, twist and throw. The larger Typhon, a creature that weighs untold tons, rolls over my back and falls onto the blackened concrete.

I step back from the fallen Kaiju and glance at Nemesis. She rolls her head around, and then levels her brown eyes at me.
Oh, shit.
Does she know Scylla is helping? Will she attack me? I feel like I should do something to let her know I’m me, but I can’t talk, I doubt Nemesis or Maigo know sign language, and I think doing something human, like the YMCA dance, might just confuse everyone.

With a huff, Nemesis turns away from me and glares at Typhon, who is getting back to his feet along with Karkinos.

As she watches the pair of Kaiju, her lips turn up in a sneer, showing off those sharp teeth. Her brow furrows deeply. A sinister glimmer enters her eyes.

I can feel myself smiling, and I wonder if Scylla is too. Seeing this side of Nemesis, used for good, is exhilarating. Then she barks at me, angry and annoyed. She can sense my mood. And I understand the problem. Controlling Scylla becomes difficult. I need to stay angry.

That shouldn’t be hard. I think about Gordon, about Alexander Tilly and about my father. I remember Christmas morning. I focus on the blood covering the linoleum floor. I feel Maigo’s betrayal as she watched her mother die and was then murdered by her own father.

Nemesis roars, and I join in, once again fueled by righteous anger.

Karkinos and Typhon are unfazed. They roar right back.

But they’re not dealing with Nemesis alone now. And they’re not nearly as angry. And they have one other problem. This isn’t my body. I don’t give a shit what happens to it.

I act first, charging Typhon. I swing hard, aiming to knock his head off, but he’s quick and moves aside. My giant arm pulls me forward. I’m unprepared for its weight. But I’m caught. By Karkinos. The Kaiju’s claws snap closed on my arms, while its jaws clamp down on my armored shoulder. I roar in pain, but fall silent when I see Typhon’s claws stabbing at my throat.

Before Typhon’s strike connects, Nemesis lunges in, biting down on his arm and tackling the giant to the side. Saved by Nemesis. That might be a first for mankind.

Despite the last-second rescue, I’m still trapped, and Karkinos is squeezing hard with those vice-like claws. If not for the toughness of the plating on Scylla’s arms, I suspect they would have been severed.

Twisting my arms back, despite the pain, I flail Scylla’s large hands and hooked claws backward, finding the meat of Karkinos’s thick legs. The Kaiju lunges back, freeing my arms, but it bites down tightly and peels off a large armor plate from Scylla’s shoulder.

As I stagger away, I see Nemesis struggling with Typhon. Despite Nemesis’s agility and speed, Typhon is faster and appears to be out-thinking her. For each of her missed attacks, Typhon rakes her with his claws, peeling layers of skin away from her body, exposing the more fragile white flesh beneath.

He knows exactly what he’s doing.
Once Nemesis’s thick skin has been removed, she’ll be completely vulnerable.

Time to switch things up. I run away from Karkinos and catch both Nemesis and Typhon off guard. Nemesis steps back, but recovers quickly, probably because she’s not the one I’m barreling toward. Typhon reaches out a hand to stiff arm me.

Bad move.

I dive forward, opening Scylla’s mouth as widely as I can. Typhon’s hand slams down my throat. The pain and discomfort is immense, but this was my plan. This isn’t my body. I don’t care what happens to it. And in a way, this is what Scylla was built for. I bite down hard. I feel a few of my teeth break away, but most slip nicely through Typhon’s arm, severing flesh and sinews from either end.

Typhon pounds on the back of my flat head, the impacts traveling through my giant body like earthquakes. But I’m lost in a rage. I barely feel the blows. I’m in a bloodthirsty frenzy, and yet, I’m still able to remember enough Shark Week specials to know what I should do next.

I thrash. Back and forth. Violently. I can feel my long teeth snapping, but it doesn’t matter. Typhon’s flesh gets the worst of it. His hot blood fills my mouth. And then I’m free, stumbling back while still thrashing. I stop when I catch Typhon staring at his handless limb.

I cough his hand up and kick it to the side.

Karkinos suddenly falls to the ground beside Typhon. Its body is torn up, but still mostly hale. The giant is quicker to its feet this time, squaring off with Nemesis again, whose shredded flesh is leaking red blood. She might be taller than Karkinos, but the doppelganger Kaiju is more powerful. Nemesis, on the other hand, is a bit of a savage. She has the end of Karkinos’s tail in her mouth. She spits it away.

We’re a real pair, Maigo.

Typhon roars, and it’s a sick sound, like a crocodile puking up a shrieking cat. Accentuating the horrible sound is Typhon’s face. It splits vertically and opens, as four, long, bone-like mandibles lined with hooks spring out.

Even Nemesis reels back with a
wutdafuck
look on her face.

Round two is about to begin, and I have a strong feeling this will be the end of it.

But like any good tag-team smackdown, a newcomer suddenly appears. The Air Force is back. But they’re not streaking past, firing random missiles. They’re in a holding pattern, a mile out. A line of harrier jets and attack helicopters hover at the edge of the burnt city. I wish I could hear what they were planning and help direct them, but at the moment, I’m a 300-foot monstrosity. I don’t think they’ll listen.

Then it happens. All at once, the legion of helicopters and jets unleash a cloud of missiles. I look ahead, judging their course. My gaze falls upon Nemesis. To the military, all four Kaiju are the enemy, and Nemesis is the most feared. And right now, with her skin falling away, she’s the most obvious target. The problem with that, aside from the fact that Nemesis is our only chance of stopping Gordon’s Kaiju, is that they’re going to hit several of her explosive membranes and that could level the rest of the city.

“No!” I shout, though it sounds more like, “Orgh!”

I step in front of Nemesis and turn my back. The missiles hit one by one, digging through Scylla’s body, tearing away great hunks of flesh. I can feel each explosion, searing flesh. Blood flows down my great back. But Nemesis is protected, and what remains of the city is unharmed.

Nemesis meets my eyes for just a moment. I see surprise and appreciation in them. And then I’m blinded by pain. Real pain, from my gut. I turn my wide head down and see clawed fingers protruding through Scylla’s stomach.

Not my stomach,
I tell myself.

As the hand retracts, I feel the fingers wrap around Scylla’s spine.

This is it. Scylla is a goner. Nemesis is on her own.

49

Typhon’s hand tightens around Scylla’s spine, and I feel sharp pain, unlike anything I’ve felt before, lance up my back. I might not be inhabiting my own body, but it sure as hell feels like it. And if I don’t pull out of Scylla’s mind soon, I’m going to experience the Kaiju’s death, which could possibly result in my own. No one has said as much, but if my consciousness is locked in a dead mind... Even if that’s not the case, I don’t think I want to know what it feels like to die. All I need to do is concentrate. Loosen my grip on the Kaiju’s mind and return to my own. It’s like backing out of a room, except the room and door don’t exist.

But I can’t. When the agony of Typhon’s killer attack screams through Scylla’s body, the gift of rage given to me by Maigo is ignited afresh, like one of those birthday candles you can’t blow out. The fire burns hot and bright, drowning out the pain. With the last of Scylla’s strength, I leap up.

I feel the giant spine break as I rise up and twist around. Vertebrae snap with the sound of a felled tree. The Kaiju’s legs go limp, severed from the mind. But I don’t care. The parts of Scylla I need are all still working.

Typhon’s hand, slick with brown blood, can’t stop me from spinning. When I face the giant, whose mandibles are flexed open in anger—or is it surprise?—I reach out and grasp them, oblivious to the spikes slipping into the flesh of Scylla’s hands.

Then I pull, drawing Typhon’s head closer.

The monster resists, seeing his fate.

With a Nemesis-like rage-fueled roar, I yank harder. One of the mandibles snaps free with a spray of brown blood. Typhon screeches and forgets himself for just a moment.

It’s all I need.

With a final lunge, I open Scylla’s mouth wide, wrapping the jaws and long sharp teeth over Typhon’s head. What are likely the most powerful jaws on the planet snap shut. Long teeth slide through Typhon’s neck. While the life drains out of Scylla, I command her to shake, to thrash and to never let go.

I can feel Typhon’s head coming loose in my mouth, a gush of hot blood spraying down my throat. Both Kaiju begin falling to the ground.

Death, the only unstoppable enemy of life, is claiming them both.

I turn my focus away from Scylla’s body. I free the monster’s mind, allowing it to experience its own confusing death. I will my body to return to me. I try to feel my own lungs breathing. My fingers. My body.

A tingling sensation moves through me, and I think I’ve returned, but everything is wrong. I can’t breathe. Everything feels tight. I’m dying.

I’m stuck in Scylla’s body!

“How does it feel, Hudson?” I barely hear the voice, but I recognize it.
Gordon
. Is he speaking to me through Scylla’s mind?

Suddenly, I snap back to full consciousness, inside my own body, which is wrapped in a tight embrace. Gordon is squeezing the life out of me.

My thoughts turn to Hawkins and Lilly for a moment.

If Gordon is here, are they...?

Gordon applies more pressure. My back isn’t far from snapping. I know, from recent experience.

I look for help. For Endo.

He’s lying on the roof, unconscious. Maybe dead.

“You killed my child,” he says.

“Nem-es-sis,” I manage to say.

He understands the argument I’m attempting to make. He shakes his head. “You, and that bitch, Maigo.
You’re
guiding her now.”

My vertebrae pop like I’m visiting an extreme chiropractor. If he stopped now, I might just feel the dull ache of a spinal alignment. He doesn’t stop. He’s going to squeeze until I burst; a ketchup packet in the hands of a ’roid-raging wrestler.

And then, with a suddenness that makes me wonder if my soul has fled my mortal form, I’m free. The soul theory disappears when I hit the roof and my body screams at me. My first thought is that I’m getting sick of hospitals. My second is,
but I do like pudding
. My third is more timely.

What the hell just happened?

From my sideways view on the roof, I watch Gordon stumble to the roof’s edge. He’s clutching his head, staggering like his legs have gone weak. “What have you done?”

I can’t see what he’s looking at, but I know the direction he’s looking, and I know exactly what I did. I can still taste Typhon’s blood in my mouth, even though it was never actually in
my
mouth.