The Tsuchi rises up out of the smoke, flinging its massive form onto Nemesis’s back. While its back four legs grip Nemesis’s broad thighs, its four arms wrap around her, stabbing the scythe-like tips into her chest and shoulders, locking itself in place.
Nemesis reaches back with her hands, but two of the blade-tipped spider limbs snap up with shocking speed, impaling both colossal hands. As Nemesis roars in pain, the Tsuchi pries her arms out to either side, exposing her chest. Locked in place, hands and limbs impaled, bleeding from her side, Nemesis turns her head skyward and lets out a cry that sounds something like defeat.
As monstrous as Nemesis is, the sound breaks my heart. Nemesis has met her match.
“No!” Maigo shouts and punches the floor hard enough to put a dent in it and shake the X-35.
Below us, the Tsuchi’s long tail slips up over Nemesis’s head, the tip aimed toward her chest. The giant mutated spider lunges down, piercing Nemesis’s shoulder with her mandibles. Blue bolts of electricity tear through Nemesis, shaking her body, and silencing her booming voice.
“No!” Maigo screams. “Do something, you brainless bitch!”
Nemesis snarls. I’m not sure if she’s felt Maigo’s insult or is just moving beyond her pain and back into her berserker state, but the defeated look in her eyes is replaced by something else.
If I were Nemesis, what would I do?
The answer comes as the Tsuchi strikes.
“Get us higher!” I shout, and I’m crushed to the floor as Endo quickly complies, launching us upward at surprising speed.
As the view of the world below shrinks away, the Tsuchi’s tail stabs into Nemesis. But it misses the intended target, striking the membrane on the left side of Nemesis’s chest, one of the two largest on the creature’s body. The power in the cell is enough to level cities, and the Tsuchi seems to understand this, refusing to withdraw the stinger, perhaps trying to think of a way to avoid what will happen next.
But Nemesis, that ruthless and cunning monster, has no desire to wait. She flexes her chest exposing a small amount of the orange fluid to the air, igniting it, shooting the stinger free and unleashing the bright orange death within.
The light reaches us first, whiting out the cameras on the outside of the X-35, and sparing us from its blinding brightness. The shockwave hits us next, shaking the aircraft, but not endangering us, as we’re at least 10,000 feet above the action now. The cacophonous sound reaches us next, rattling the ship and my internal organs.
As the light fades, the view of the city snaps back on in time for us to see the explosion’s results. A wave of flame spreads southwest through the city, leaving a blackened half circle that I’ve seen before, in Beverly, in Boston, in Washington, D.C.
The explosion has also launched Nemesis and the Tsuchi back. The massive spikes on Nemesis’s back have impaled the Tsuchi’s chest, including two of its orange membranes. The pair are stuck together. They crash out of the Mormon district and into the more secular part of the city, demolishing buildings and ensuring the city won’t recover for years or decades.
When the giants roll and separate, the Tsuchi’s impaled membranes erupt with a second, blinding explosion that hammers Nemesis into the ground and launches the Tsuchi across the city. We’re once again blinded, holding on as the shockwave and rumbling din rolls past.
When the light clears, the two Kaiju are revealed. They’re separated by a half mile of ruined city. Nemesis lies face down, surrounded by burning city. The Tsuchi is on its back, its eight limbs clenched up over its body. I have no illusions that either Kaiju is dead, but they’re both knocked silly.
“I’m sorry,” Maigo whispers toward the floor, toward Nemesis. I realize too late that the apology is meant for me.
With speed I haven’t seen yet, Maigo grasps my wrist, slaps a handcuff around it and locks the other side to the leg of the seat in the cargo hold. Collins starts to react, but what can she do against someone as fast and strong as Maigo without hurting her? Nothing. Before I can complain, Collins is similarly locked in place. Maigo gets to her feet and thrusts a finger at Alessi. “Don’t try anything.”
Alessi just raises her hands. While Maigo might have only had two pairs of handcuffs—Where the hell did she get them?—Alessi doesn’t stand a chance against the girl with Kaiju blood. Maigo hits the button for the cargo ramp and it slowly, noiselessly opens.
Smoke-tinged air floods into the X-35. The sounds of crumbling buildings, sirens and alarms reach up from below.
“Maigo,” Endo says from the cockpit. “There’s another way.”
I’m not sure what Endo is getting at, but the fatherly side of me hopes he’s telling the truth. “Hear him out.”
“Love you,” Maigo says. She crouches down and kisses my head. Then does the same to Collins. “You’ll make great parents.”
You’ll make... Future tense.
“Maigo,” I say, “If it doesn’t work—”