Godzilla clashes under the sea!

The king of the monsters had moved several miles from his resting place, continuing the long, slow march to -- what? Godzilla had no power of reason. He was merely a force of nature. The only things that filtered through his limited consciousness were the need to eat, sleep, and wage battle. But now he was experiencing another need, possibly the strongest and most compelling of his existence. He was being drawn by a force nearly as ancient as himself and he could feel its call deep in the marrow of his irradiated bones.
With each step, Godzillas huge four-toed feet sank deep into the muck of the ocean bottom causing seismic tremors.
The force of his footfalls awakened another.
About one hundred yards farther on, the floor of the ocean quaked and split open creating a yawning fissure that looked as if it might be the gateway to hell. As the dust billowed and then settled, a swarming mass of mottled tentacles was vomited in slow motion from ruptured sea floor. The tentacles advanced over the broken hulls of lost ships, dragging behind them a bulbous head with phosphorescent appendages and a multitude of eyes on stalks each nearly 15 feet long. The monster from the ocean floor stretched more than 200 feet across the tentacles and the head itself was nearly 70 feet high. It was graced with a nasty beak capable of snapping a speed boat in two. Godzilla stopped for a moment to appraise the creature blocking his path and then reared high and let loose a roar that was immediately swallowed by the depths.
Though the creature was deaf to the monster kings bellowing voice, it read Godzillas body language perfectly and swarmed forward hungrily on coiling tentacles to accept the challenge. The gigantis monster bent low and forward, ready for the attack.
The tentacles, there were five of them, swarmed out and attempted to wrap Godzillas legs in their embrace. Rather than retreating to avoid them, Godzilla instead waded in, attempting to reach the head with his snapping jaws. He was experienced enough to know that this is where victory lay. One suckered tentacle attempted to grab the giant reptile around the neck but instead found only his flashing teeth. Godzilla snapped down hard in the middle, leaving the octopus-like leviathan with a forty-foot stump. Driven to greater action by the pain, the sea monster gathered the remaining tentacles tight around one of Godzillas legs and pulled. The beasts tentacles were armed with fleshy suckers and bony hooks designed especially to capture prey and draw it into range of that wicked beak. The hooks bit into the reptiles skin and held fast. Even all his strength couldnt keep him upright. Godzilla fell in slow motion and disappeared for a moment in a cloud of sediment. Once he had his enemy down, the sea beast pulled his enormous head atop the pile and sought Godzillas throat with his snapping beak.
A veteran of close-in battles, Godzilla protected his throat by rolling onto his stomach. The only parts of Godzilla now visible were the largest of his dorsal plates. They glowed a hot blue-white once, but only for the merest fraction of a second.
Despite the severity of the situation, he failed to use his mighty atomic breath. It seemed that Godzilla was determined to win this life and death struggle with only the most basic of weapons, fang, claw and his enormous strength.
The king of the monsters crashed his massive tail against the sea floor, each time gaining the leverage needed to stand. Slowly, Godzilla managed to pull himself back to his feet. An added bonus was finding the beasts horrific head with his clawed hands. There was no skull to crush but the giant reptile gained a purchase on the leathery bulb and proceeded to bite off each of its many eyes. As Godzilla performed his deadly work, both creatures were bathed in the pale green phosphorescence coming from the beasts appendages.
It finally dawned on the octopus-monster that he could not win and there was no meal to be had here. The creature marshaled all its waning strength and attempted to break free of Godzillas death grasp in order to retreat back into his lair deep beneath the oceans floor. Godzilla could feel the creature trying to escape, but rather than let up, he pressed his advantage and began biting off the monsters tentacles near their roots. One by one the suckered monstrosities dropped to the sea floor, writhing out their lives in a growing cloud of blood.
When the thing was done, Godzilla threw the head to the rocky sea floor and crushed out what remained of its life with the violent stomping of his massive feet.
The gigantis monster surveyed the dead octopus monster for a moment before kicking the remains of the abomination back into the fissure from which it had emerged. Finally, Godzilla turned and continued his quest. Time was growing short.

By the time Professor Whitestone finished explaining to Miles and Salli the lost secrets of the Mu, they both had a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, the Earth could be saved after all. It was clear to them all that the weapons of modern man would have no effect, but perhaps a temple left behind by an ancient civilization could be used as a tool by the king of the monsters.
Salli Yamanis feelings were mixed, however. She had lost her grandparents to Godzillas initial attack on Tokyo more than 45 years earlier and ten years later her mothers village had been destroyed during the creatures wide-ranging struggle against the flying monster Rodan. Like so many Japanese, Sallis life had been irrevocably shaped by Godzilla. That this same force of destruction might also be destined to be mankinds last great hope for salvation was too much for her to bear.
She excused herself from Miles and Professor Whitestone and rushed to the restaurant bathroom. Finding herself alone, she sat and wept.
Two weeks later, Miles, Salli and Professor Whitestone sat in front of television. Like the rest of the world, they were waiting for the rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center. The mighty Pegasus rocket towered over the launching pad, set to carry its atomic payload designed to blow to bits the approaching asteroid. With less that five minutes to lift off, the world was hopeful and the military had high confidence it would work. Miles and Salli gave it one chance in a thousand. Professor Whitestone wasnt inclined to be so optimistic.
The fools just wouldnt listen. It wont work, Professor Whitestone said, shaking his head.
Miles attention was glued to the screen as the countdown continued. he responded to Whitestones statement without even looking up. We already told them. Now theyll have to see for themselves. But I guess we were lucky they gave us the opportunity to present our idea the first time.
Yeah, said Salli Yamani. When we tried to give them Professor Whitestones theory that Godzilla could just possibly stop this thing from happening, they didnt want to give us five seconds.
When the countdown reached zero, the ground shuddered and the launch pad disappeared in a spreading cloud of rocket exhaust. Despite the noise and fury, the rocket remained stationary for a long moment before finally lifting off, slowly at first but then gathering more and more speed as it leapt towards the stratosphere. The television cameras followed it up and away while an announcer stated solemnly, ... and our hopes and prayers travel with the Pegasus rocket as it travels upwards towards the heavens and its rendezvous with destiny...
Miles used the remote control to turn off the set. He got up from his chair and walked over to the window where a driving rain drenched the streets of the Capitol. Itll be another two weeks before the scheduled interception. Whats the world supposed to do, hold its collective breath?
Well, we already have an advantage over everyone else. We wont be sitting on pins and needles. We already know its not going to work. If were right, however, the world will soon see the results of what we already suspect. Too bad modern man does not have the foresight the Mu had.



The huge semi-spherical object lay undisturbed for eons, having sunk beneath the oceans surface long before the emergence of modern man. It had been employed as a temple while its builders were alive but it had always been planned that it would serve another, even greater purpose long after they vanished from the face of the Earth. Their study of the heavens, combined with their powers of prophecy gave them the advantage of seeing the massive rock that would strike the Earth like a hammer hitting an anvil.
The surface of the temple was smooth and it seemed to glow even in the murkiness of the ocean bottom. The surface was like glass and it was easy to see a series of hieroglyphics lying visible just underneath. There was no rosetta stone for the writings and as much as Professor Whitestone knew about the people who created the temple, even he would not have been able to read their writings.
The temples creators had been the earliest of astronomers. They looked up into the night skies, studying the heavens and charting nearly all the objects that came into close contact with Earth.
During his studies of the Pacific Islanders who passed down the teaching of the Mu from generation to generation, Professor Whitestone learned that with their powers of prophecy, the Mu knew what was coming and their intelligence gave them the ability to design and build a counter weapon. They also foresaw the time that their land would disappear beneath the waves but they believed they had to construct the temple if there was any hope that their civilization would rise again. They were wise enough to know that if the Eye of Heaven gazed upon the Earth no one would be left alive to welcome their return.
The waters around the temple were littered with the ruins of the city of which it had once been the center and those ruins were home to a teeming variety of sea life. But there was something else here, too. Something terrible.
A 30-foot great white cruised the lower depths, its black eyes looking doll like and casting about for the slightest movement. Swimming almost effortlessly with smooth undulating body movements, he crossed the courtyard of a long-dead nobleman. Hunting for a meal, one of the seas deadliest predators failed to notice that it had become the hunted.
A brownish black creature scuttled hurriedly across the courtyard beneath and just behind the shark. Six hairy legs, each as thick as the cables on a suspension bridge, propelled it at a speed fast enough to bring it within striking distance. Using 50-foot feelers to gauge the range, it was certain of its ability to make the kill with a needle-sharp proboscis whose tip extended 20-feet from its mouth when called into play. It brushed one of the antennae across the belly of the great white and then leaped upwards and stabbed the shark beneath its gill slits. The shark struggled mightily but its hunter, which could only be described as a colossal waterbug, was fully five times longer and tremendously strong. It reached out with its two front legs and began to rip apart the still struggling shark. Two-hundred pound chunks of shark meat drifted downward amidst a swirl of blood. When the last of the fish was torn apart, the insect-thing dove to the courtyard and began to feed.
After a single bite, its antenna twitched and it looked up, disturbed by something coming its way.
Godzillas quest was nearing its end.



* * *
The Pegasus rocket had shed its final booster. Left with only the warhead, the main rocket streaked towards the giant asteroid. The guidance system was dead on and the militarys confidence remained high as the two objects closed at tremendous speed.
Miles, Salli and Professor Whitestone watched the coverage on CNN. The screen showed the rocket and the asteroid as two blips on a green screen. When Pegasus intercepted the rock, there would be a bright flash and then nothing.
I may have been wrong about their guidance system, said Miles remembering his earlier doubts.
Salli looked at him and shook her head. You don't think that after all, theyll be able to pull this off, do you? Could the three of us have been this wrong?
Ten minutes to impact, Miles said.
Professor Whitestone looked up from writing in his diary. Salvation wont come by mans hand. But it will come and it will come before the end of the day.
The Pegasus closed on the asteroid and the guidance system, at least, worked as designed. But in the end it wasnt the targeting system that doomed the mission. It was the failure of the nuclear payload to detonate. The rocket crashed head on into the oncoming asteroid but the resulting, puny explosion did nothing to change its course or speed.
The CNN announcer fell silent and where there had been two blips on the radar screen, now there was only one and it was streaking towards Earth about 30,000 miles per hour.

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