How big will they get?
Nemesis reacts to the new creatures with her normal unhinged vengeance, slapping her massive hand down on the opposite wrist. All three Kaiju Tsuchi, still young and unfocussed, are crushed. A flash of light bursts from beneath the giant hand, and then, all at once, an explosion is released. Nemesis’s hands separate, unleashing the bright orange fluid contained in each new Tsuchi. The creatures are torn apart, along with what remains of the GOD building.
I avert my eyes from the brightness and hold on, as the shockwave shakes the chopper. When I look back, Nemesis stands alone, surrounded by a black, charred circle and a giant pile of rubble that used to be GOD. Beyond, I see what little remains of the mammoth hangar, inside of which are the mummified remains of a second Kaiju, similar to Nemesis, but thicker, even in death.
Nemesis Prime. I’ve never seen the body before. She’s uglier than I imagined.
“More F-22s are en route,” Collins says. “Targeting the Tsuchi. ETA thirty seconds.”
Then I see movement on the ground. A Tsuchi, larger than the first, scurries away, heading south. A second one, still larger, bolts east.
“Let them know there are three targets,” I tell her. “One engaging Nemesis, one headed south and one headed east. We need to intercept all three before they reach civilization.” A map of the region pops into my head. Downtown Lompoc is seventeen miles away by car, but that’s via a long winding route. To a giant Tsuchi, able to run right over the tall hills separating us from the town, that distance would be cut in half. “Priority should be given to the Tsuchi headed east!”
Nemesis, turns south, clearly intending to give chase, despite the obvious speed advantage the Tsuchi have, but she doesn’t make it more than a step.
The charred corpse of the GOD building bursts open, and the first Tsuchi, the smallest and boldest of the three giant spiders, leaps onto Nemesis’s back and scurries up, working its way through the double sets of towering spikes. Nemesis reacts quickly, spinning in circles, leveling the area with her long, trident tipped tail, trying to reach the Tsuchi.
The giant spider stops at Nemesis’s shoulder, clinging with all eight legs. Nemesis tries to bite the thing, but can’t reach it. As she lifts her hand to crush it, like she did the others, the Tsuchi strikes with its tail, three times. But the syringe-like stinger can’t pierce the armor on the Kaiju’s shoulder.
Nemesis’s big hand hits hard, but there’s no explosion. The agile Tsuchi suddenly appears on the far shoulder, striking with its tail again, to no effect. Then it’s gone, and faster than seems possible, it’s atop Nemesis’s head.
In a flash, I see how this could all end. Three new Tsuchi, bursting from Nemesis’s head, destroying her brain and forever killing the Kaiju.
Before Nemesis’s raised hand can crash down on her own head, the Tsuchi does something new. It bites down. Blue arcs of electricity spark between the two mandibles. The charge can’t be enough to incapacitate the much larger Nemesis, but it does make her flinch long enough for the Tsuchi to raise its tail, ready to strike.
It never gets the chance. A lone missile streaks in from the south, striking the Tsuchi. The armored spider spins away through the air, its legs like the spokes of a bike wheel, spinning madly.
Before the Tsuchi hits the ground, a line of white web streaks from its backside and strikes Nemesis’s wrist, just below the fresh wound, which appears to have been cauterized by the explosive end of the three newborn Tsuchis. The spinning Tsuchi’s fall is turned into a swing, bringing it around toward Nemesis’s back. The BFS’s legs splay wide, ready to land. Its tail arches and twitches, ready to strike.
But the Tsuchi fails to hit its mark. Nemesis’s large but fast tail swings around and strikes the Tsuchi like a baseball bat hitting a golf ball. The impact’s force snaps the web line and sends the now limp Tsuchi sailing—toward us.
Woodstock angles the chopper to the right, pulling us out over the ocean. The Tsuchi falls short of striking us, landing on the ground and rolling several hundred feet, stopping just before toppling over a cliff, into the ocean.
“Pulling back,” Woodstock announces. Since Nemesis is charging in our direction, I offer no complaint. She roars at us, perhaps seeing the chopper as a threat now, or maybe as competition for her prize, but when we’re far enough away, she ignores us and turns her full attention back to the now twitching Tsuchi.