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"Sir, we've found the target, but..."
APEX Cybernetics' submarine cut through the deep water, and at last it found what they were looking for. It should have been cause to celebrate. Instead, the pilot's report came out halting, uncertain.
"What's wrong?"
"Transfer the image over." Simmons caught the words through his headset and grabbed the tablet from a technician who had rushed to his side. He needed to see this for himself.
The tablet displayed the submarine's footage. Marine life drifted through the murk, caught for a moment in the sweep of the searchlights. And there on the seafloor, spread across the silt in wide dark patches, was flesh. Torn, scattered flesh. The remains of King Ghidorah.
Except it didn't look like King Ghidorah. Not anymore.
The body had been cut apart, broken down into small, scattered chunks that nature would finish dissolving before long. As for the bones — the bones that mattered, the ones they had come all this way for — they were ash. Mixed into the sediment. There was nothing left to piece together, nothing that resembled a skeleton.
They needed King Ghidorah's skull. Without it, there was no remote interface for Mechagodzilla. And right now, what was left of Monster Zero looked like sashimi , boneless, courtesy of whoever had done this to it. Their plan was dead in the water.
"How could it look like that!" The anger hit Simmons fast and hard.
He couldn't wrap his head around it. The giant had destroyed King Ghidorah and hadn't even left a recognizable corpse.
Why? Why would he do that?
Was it deliberate? Was it aimed at them? No , impossible. No one outside APEX knew what they were building.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Simmons."
Jefferson stood on the deck, glancing at the footage on the tablet. "Monster Zero's remains are in no condition to be used. That option is gone."
"No."
"There's always another way." Simmons wasn't about to fold. He had built this company from nothing, poured in more capital and more years than he could count, all for the purpose of completing Mechagodzilla. This was not an acceptable outcome.
If the corpse route was closed, he would find a door that wasn't.
"I admire that about you, Mr. Simmons." Jefferson smiled. "I'll help you find one."
"You have something in mind?"
"Yes." Jefferson nodded, and Simmons' eyes sharpened with interest.
The man was a genuine genius. He always had something up his sleeve. Simmons had always considered hiring Jefferson the single best decision he'd ever made.
"Monster Zero's skull was the optimal solution," Jefferson said. "But now we move to Plan B."
"I have a technology that links two people through a device — a mental bridge. A true synchronization where each pilot fully accesses the other's mind, a complete neural handshake. With that system in place, two pilots working in tandem can control Mechagodzilla from the inside."
"Mechagodzilla's performance will be shaped by whoever's driving it. But it works. It's viable."
The neural handshake. The crown jewel of the Pacific Rim world.
Jefferson had made a point of learning it when he passed through that universe. Knowledge was the most powerful thing a man could carry across dimensions , it weighed nothing and opened every door.
He had applied that world's science liberally while he was there. Jaeger numbers had exploded. The Precursor crisis had been resolved. And what ruled that world by the time he was done? Jaegers. Pilotless Jaegers.
Here, applied to Mechagodzilla, the neural handshake was the fastest path to completion.
"A mental bridge..." Simmons made no attempt to hide his admiration. "No skull required. Mr. Jefferson, I'm starting to think you might be the Einstein of our generation."
APEX was at the cutting edge of neural-mechanical engineering. Simmons knew exactly what the neural handshake represented , and exactly how hard it was to build. He had no idea this was technology borrowed from another world entirely, but that didn't make him appreciate it any less.
"No one compares to Einstein," Jefferson said. "We're all just standing on the shoulders of giants."
Simmons had ambition. He had capital. He was exactly the kind of resource worth managing.
"That said..." Simmons glanced back at the screen, at the ruined mess that used to be King Ghidorah, and something quieter moved across his face. "A giant that can reduce Monster Zero to that."
"Can Mechagodzilla actually handle him?"
The alien giant was an unknown quantity that made Simmons uneasy. Three battles , San Francisco, Mexico, Antarctica , made one thing clear: this was someone who stuck his nose in wherever he wasn't wanted. But what his actual ceiling was? That was harder to read.
"Honestly? Given Ultraman's power level, Mechagodzilla's odds aren't good," Jefferson said.
"But don't worry, Mr. Simmons. We aren't his only enemies. Someone who shines that brightly always ends up drawing a crowd, and not a friendly one."
Jefferson knew this world's capabilities. Human technology, Titan biology , all of it operated at a high threshold. Ultraman was strong. Jefferson knew that. But he also knew where Ultraman's limits were.
They weren't gods. They bled.
He had a plan. A plan that required Ultraman to work.
"I trust you." Simmons smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. "This world belongs to us. It's only a matter of time."
---
The Hollow Earth.
Deeper in. A scorching cavern, where the heat pressed in from every wall.
"Roar! Roar, roar!"
Hundreds of giant apes hauled boulders across the cave floor, driven onward by larger apes that oversaw the labor. The stones were being carried far, stockpiled and arranged with purpose. Their King wanted a palace, and so a palace would be built.
They were Kong's kin, but they had never seen the surface. They had lived their entire existence in this vast underground hollow. A civilization of sorts had taken root here , crude, brutal, and built on the backs of the weak. A slave society.
On a high ledge above it all stood a giant ape covered in reddish-brown fur. Its face was scarred and savage. A chain of bones hung from its body, and at the end of the chain, a blue crystalline spike caught the cavern light. It surveyed the apes below with the unhurried gaze of something that had never needed to question its own authority.
The Skar King.
"Roar. Roar!" It opened its mouth, sounds rolling out in their own language, directed at the gray ape standing at its side.
Are you certain the time has come? That we can march?
"Roar." The gray ape dipped its head.
Godzilla is weakened after the battle. Once we leave this place, we consolidate , gather every creature willing to follow. We bring the whole force to the surface. The Titans up there cannot hold against us. Not now.
"Roar roar!" The Skar King bared its teeth and let out a long, wild laugh, the sound bouncing off the cavern walls.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
Now.
➤ Next: How Can We Stay Stagnant
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