But now, finally, he stopped, lifted his head, and seemed to search around.
“What was that all about?” Mark asked. He wished that Ishiro Serizawa was here, or Dr. Chen—anyone from the old team who might have a guess as to what the hell Godzilla was doing. Because he was clueless.
Whatever it was, he seemed to be done now, and for a moment it almost appeared that Godzilla was flailing again, trying to decide what was next. Then he took a step, and another. Toward Apex. But with a bit of hesitation.
“Just go home,” Mark murmured. “Nobody to fight here.”
“Holy God,” one of the techs suddenly yelped.
“What?” Mark asked, moving to the screen. Director Guillerman stood to his side.
The picture showed an enlarged view of the hole, its rim still glowing red from Godzilla’s breath. Something had just come out of it. Mark wasn’t sure, but it looked like an axe with a shining blue blade. Then his gaze tracked back to the hand holding it. Immense, human-like—furry.
Another hand reached out of the hole and slapped down on the half-molten surface.
And then, like some monstrous primeval deity of the Earth, Kong rose up.
“I do not understand what is happening,” the director said. “Did Godzilla—”
“Kong was in Hollow Earth,” Mark said. “We got word hours ago.”
As impossible as it seemed, Godzilla had burned a tunnel all the way down to Hollow Earth.
They both fell silent as the Titan clambered out of the hole. He stood, wielding the glowing axe. He turned until he spotted Godzilla.
For a long moment, the two Titans locked gazes.
“Easy, boys,” Mark said.
“Doctor, what’s happening?” the director asked.
“They’re both alphas,” Mark said. “If they were two lizards, or two apes suddenly in the same territory, they might do threat displays. Make a big show of their strength, their power, their size. They wouldn’t necessarily fight.”
“That’s promising,” the director said, as Godzilla and Kong continued to stare at each other. Then Godzilla slashed his tail back and forth, and assumed a threatening posture. In response, Kong put his axe down and pounded his fists into the concrete.
“Threat displays,” Guillerman said.
“Yeah,” Mark said. “If they were both lizards or both apes. But they’re Titans, so—”
Before he could finish the thought, Kong broke toward Godzilla in a dead-on charge, crushing everything in his way, knocking cars and buses out of his path, leveling a high-rise with a brush of his thigh.
Godzilla, in turn, rushed toward Kong.
“I think we’re watching round two,” Mark said.
“My money’s on the ape,” the tech said. “He has a weapon.”
“Yeah,” Mark said. The weapon was interesting—its glow was the same color as Godzilla’s fins when they lit up. “See if you can isolate a radiation signature from that thing,” he said.
“On it, Doc,” the tech said.
Doc? Mark thought. Nobody called him that. Was everything turning upside down?
Kong came out strong, swinging the huge weapon in a blow meant to take Godzilla’s head off.
But Godzilla ducked. The axe sliced into a building and stuck there. Enraged, Kong yanked it free, bringing most of the structure down with it. He swung again, and once more Godzilla avoided the blow, putting his head down and butting Kong into the still-collapsing building. Mark felt the jolt in the concrete floor and tried to imagine what a couple of hundred tons of Godzilla smacking into you would feel like. As Kong tried to recover, Godzilla bit his neck and worried him like a dog with a bone, smashing him into buildings. Mark noticed the blue light creeping up Godzilla’s fins. He was charging up his beam.
Kong punched himself free, then brought his elbow down on Godzilla’s back just as a blue ray shot from his mouth. Kong, recognizing the danger, grabbed Godzilla by the jaws and tried to pry his head apart, but another surge of atomic breath forced him to shift his grip to a hold on the reptile’s neck. Kong then tossed Godzilla into a skyscraper. Before the saurian Titan could recover, the ape leapt, bounced off another building, and landed a haymaker on the side of Godzilla’s head. Kong tried to renew his headlock, but Godzilla shook him off. Kong answered by clutching both of his fists together and hammering Godzilla down to the pavement—and when the giant lizard stood back up, he used nearby buildings to swing forward, slamming into his opponent with both feet and the full weight of his body.
As Godzilla reeled back from the hit, Kong paused to beat his chest a few times and recover his axe, just as Godzilla began charging up another blast. Kong lunged forward, jamming the handle of his weapon into the enemy’s mouth. That worked for a few seconds, staving off the energy attack; then Godzilla hurled Kong back, finally giving him the range he needed to use his atomic blast properly.
That’s it for Kong, Mark thought.
Godzilla let go, the beam jetting from his maw, straight toward the other Titan.
Kong jerked his axe up defensively.
The beam struck the blade and the beam stopped. They stood like that for a moment, Godzilla blasting blue fire and Kong using his axe as a shield. And the blade was glowing brighter, and brighter…
“Wait a minute,” Mark said, leaning in to the monitor. “Is that—”
“Sir,” the Tech said. “I’ve isolated the weapon like you asked. It’s the same as Godzilla—”
“It’s a fin!” Mark said. “See? That axe—the blade is a dorsal fin like Godzilla has!”
The blast forced Kong back, but he kept the glowing weapon in front of him. He seemed as surprised as anyone at the turn of events, staring incredulously at the glowing blade. While
