The ocean cleanup had been going on for many days, but the j.a.panese crews were no nearer to finishing now than they were when they started. The tanker that had collided with a container ship off the coast of Osaka sank almost immediately, carrying millions of barrels of crude oil with it.

Since then, raw oil had spilled into the Pacific Ocean in a steady stream. At ten o'clock that morning, the oil slick, which covered miles of ocean on the j.a.panese coast, began to burn. Soon, those fires spread. All ship traffic was immediately halted. Container ships were trapped inside the harbor, while others out to sea were forced to reroute to Kobe or other ports.

The ferry to Shanghai, already canceled because of the turmoil in that Chinese city, burned at the dock in a mysterious fire along with a section of the port. Oil was seen in the area, and fire control units feared that the fire on land might spread out to the oil-slicked waters of the harbor.

That is exactly what happened at about three o'clock.

The fires were out of control, and most of the harbors were already severely damaged, when the waters of Osaka Bay caught fire.

Because of the blackout that affected the world, it was no longer business as usual for Osakans, anyway. The traditional greeting that Osakans used, "Moo kari makka?" - literally "Are you making money yet?" - now took on a bitterly ironic tone.

But if Osakans weren't making money, they were certainly spending it. The bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and clubs of Dotonburi Street were packed on this damp and rainy Wednesday afternoon.

On the northern side of town, in the Kita-Ku area, things were less crowded but still lively. People shopped in the labyrinthine underground mall called Umeda Chika Center, or visited Panasonic Square - the "Futuristic Electro-Fun Zone" - where high-tech virtual reality games and a gigantic jukebox entertained tourists and natives alike.

Though the day was rainy and overcast, people paid 1,000 to ride to the top of the Umeda Sky Building, northwest of Osaka Station. The Sky Building had two tall towers, joined at the top. The unusual, futuristic architecture was loved by some and hated by others, but it certainly was unique. The observation deck was a popular place for Osakans to visit. For the final five stories of the trip to the top, the pa.s.sengers rode on a gla.s.s-enclosed escalator high over the city.

On this particular afternoon, the observation deck offered people a good look at the fires on the ocean and the thick, oily smoke that hovered in the sky above it.

But no one in Osaka could have suspected the twin nightmares that would smite their beautiful and ancient city.

The horror began at the harbor, where the flaming, oily surface of the Pacific began to bubble and churn. As firemen in boats watched warily, a ma.s.sive figure surfaced in the middle of the conflagration. Two huge slanted eyes peered up out of the Pacific.

As the fireboats scattered, the dark figure in the burning water began to move toward the city. As the creature approached the smoldering docks, it leaped out of the water and took to the air. The creature's hide was dark green, and it had an irregular, disk-shaped body. Underneath the curved upper surface, vents or spouts in the creature's underbelly spewed toxic gases as it skimmed the water. Stricken, many of the firemen dropped to the decks of their boats, their eyes, noses, and lungs burning.

The creature swooped over Osaka, continually spewing deadly, toxic sulfuric-acid vapors over everything. As it rose above the seaward section of the city and moved toward the northern end of Osaka, firemen and emergency crews battling the blaze at the waterfront were overcome as well.

Those far from the creature's pa.s.sing were less affected. Their eyes smarted and their skin itched. For those closer, it was much worse. Their eyes burned like fire; if the victim inhaled enough of the toxic gases, his or her lungs would be so damaged that death was almost certain. As the gas settled on the town, the fallen literally began to melt away as the acid ate at their flesh.

The creature continued to circle over Osaka, spreading its poisonous cloud of destruction over a wide area. As the minutes pa.s.sed, the mounting death toll made small sections of j.a.pan's third-largest city into a graveyard. Fortunately, the gas dissipated rapidly, and a few blocks from the most horrible destruction there were no injuries. However, without communications, no one could summon help. More and more people died from the poisonous gases.

As the creature swooped low over the city, citizens ran for cover. Many made it indoors, away from the worst effects of the gas. Those who remained in the streets heard a weird pulsing throb issuing from the creature as it pa.s.sed over them.

Often, that was the last thing they heard.

The creature, which would be dubbed Hedorah by the j.a.panese newspapers in the next few days, seemed to be made of a flowing, living sludge. Circling the city like a flying saucer, Hedorah was clearly visible to the people on the observation deck of the Sky Building.

Most of them felt relatively safe inside the gla.s.s-enclosed, climate-controlled areas of the building. But as power lines melted under the torrent of corrosive gases spewed from the creature, the electricity went off, and a collective gasp of fear issued from those now trapped on the observation deck.

Some panicked, but most remained at the window. A second gasp sprang from their lips a few minutes later. A storm was brewing on the horizon. A flash of lightning in the dark sky revealed a figure looming over the burning ocean - a figure every j.a.panese citizen recognized instantly.

It was G.o.dzilla ...

Aboard the Destiny Explorer.

Off the coast of Concepcion.

Perhaps curious about the nature of the gigantic airship, Rodan paced the Explorer for more than thirty minutes. Nick Gordon was happy because he got a lot of footage with his camcorder. He bragged that he was going to be as good a live-action photographer as he was a science correspondent.

Finally, as they approached the city of Concepcion, smoke began to obscure their vision. Rodan soon disappeared behind a wall of smoke, or might have finally lost interest and flown away.

Worried about visibility, Sh.e.l.ly sent several of the crewmen to act as observers. The chief engineer was sent to the gla.s.s nose of the airship, and two other crewmen were sent to the second bridge in the bottom tail fin.

Sean Brennan ordered Johnny Rocco back up to the Stinger missile launcher, just in case another warplane decided they were a ripe target. Bob Bodusky and Jim Cirelli were at twin fifty-millimeter machine guns mounted in the airship's hangar bay, facing to port and starboard.

But as they flew over Concepcion, it was not an airplane that attacked them. Instead, a gigantic winged horror rose up from the city he had just shattered toward fresh new prey - them.

"What is it?" Captain Dolan cried, pointing at the huge silhouette below them, set against the blue waters of the Pacific. Through the hull cameras, which magnified the image for their monitors, he looked like a cross between a b.u.t.terfly, a beetle, and a bat.

"I don't know what he is," Sean Brennan cried as he raced for the hangar. "But I know that he's coming right at us!"

"Full speed ahead," Dolan cried, pushing the throttle forward. At the engineering console, Michael fed more fuel to the engines. Even in this moment of crisis, Sh.e.l.ly was proud of how well he'd learned to use the board.

The airship slowly picked up speed, but everyone on the bridge knew it was not nearly fast enough to outrun the monster.

Once again, collision alarms echoed throughout the airship. With a shrill, chirping cry that battered their ears, the gigantic flying insectlike predator approached the airship, his eyes glowing preternaturally.

Ned Landson, on one of the observation decks with Peter, studied the strange creature through binoculars with cold scientific inquisitiveness.

"He looks similar to Megalon in many ways," he declared calmly. The monster beat his wings, increasing speed to catch up with the Explorer.

"Yep," Ned said finally. "He's coming for a visit!"

Ned continued to peer through his binoculars as he described the creature to Peter. "Like Megalon, he has antennae, mandibles, and a cl.u.s.ter of bony horns on his head surrounding a longer central horn, I might add. He looks so much like Megalon that I'll bet he fires a weird beam of some kind from that central horn ..."

"How comforting to know that," Peter replied.

Megalon was the name Ned Landson had given to the monster that had attacked Lima. It was not a scientific cla.s.sification, though he had one of those, too. But Megalon was the name he liked best - "Mega" because the creature was so large, "Lon" simply because Ned thought it sounded cool.

Suddenly, twin scarlet beams of light issued from the creature's red eyes. One beam streaked harmlessly past the airship's belly. The second struck one of the starboard engines on the Explorer. The turbofan exploded instantly, vibrating the entire airship and throwing Ned and Peter off their feet. Shards of the steel propellers tore through the thin metal-and-plastic hull, shorting out electrical systems and mortally wounding Gil Givers, who was stationed on the engineering deck.

"I thought you said that a deadly ray would come out of his horn," Peter remarked.

Ned ignored him.

"I might add that this creature seems very aggressive - just as Megalon was," Ned concluded as the airship shuddered.

"Well, it might look like a bug," Peter proclaimed. "But I never heard of a bug that could do that!"

A secondary explosion from the damaged engine rocked the airship once again. Ned, clinging to a handhold, continued to stare at the creature.

"I think I'll call him Battra," he announced. My second major life-form discovered during this trip, he thought proudly.

"Fine," Peter replied. "I'll read your scientific paper when we get home - if we get home!"

On the second observation deck, Nick Gordon and Robin Halliday watched the action. Nick tried to shoot footage, but the creature kept flying out of the range of his camera. He howled in frustration and rushed from one side of the deck to the other, trying to get a shot while Robin taunted him.

Meanwhile, inside her stateroom, Leena Sims was paralyzed with fear. When the collision alarm blared the first time, she had been frightened. It took her a half-hour to master that fear. When the alarm went off for a second time, she was sure that the airship would fall from the sky, dragging her with it.

This is the end, her mind screamed. Then the ship was. .h.i.t by something and lurched violently. Leena, standing next to her bunk, struck her head on the night table and was knocked unconscious.

On the bridge, Michael Sullivan was working at the fire-control station now. The automatic fire extinguishers were activated, dousing the blaze where the engine had exploded. But soon other red warning lights lit up his panel. Michael's fingers flew across the keyboard, releasing fire-prevention foam in several sections of the lower hull.

Battra, meanwhile, attacked the airship, his wings beating against the hull. The ship was battered by the force of the powerful wings and the rush of air that slapped the airship to the side with each beat. Several aluminum struts buckled inside of the hull - dangerously close to the helium cells.

The collision alarm continued to wail.

Watching the greenish black creature on the monitor now, Ned noted that Battra had six legs that ended with tiny claws. The monster had a wingspan of more than 180 meters. And Ned knew that though Battra was dwarfed by the huge airship, the creature was much more deadly. Its attempts to grab the Explorer with its sharp claws and rip it apart showed a dangerous, feral intelligence.

On top of the hull, Johnny Rocco aimed the Stinger missile launcher down at Battra. He steadied himself with the safety harness as the creature beat his wings against the airship. In a moment of calm, Rocco stared through the sight and waited impatiently for the tone to sound. When the beeping commenced - signaling that the missile's seeker warhead had found the target - he depressed the trigger.

The missile shot from the tube with a fiery backwash and raced toward the target. A second later, the projectile impacted on Battra's head, hitting the creature right between his slitted red eyes as he approached the airship for another pa.s.s. The warhead exploded without doing any visible damage or slowing Battra down.

Johnny Rocco was hurriedly loading a second missile into the tube when a dark shadow fell over him ...

In Osaka ...

G.o.dzilla waded through the burning ocean just as the drizzle, which had continued intermittently all day, turned into a steady torrent of rain. Sheets lashed against buildings, obscuring everything. The people trapped inside the Umeda Sky Building were suddenly blinded. They saw only the dim glow of the distant fires, and the black shape in the center of them.

Sirens finally began to wail throughout the city. Those on the ground rushed to subway entrances and cellars, seeking shelter from the twin behemoths that threatened their city.

One creature did not seem to be afraid of G.o.dzilla. The flying creature with the toxic exhaust slammed to the ground in front of the Sky Building, crushing smaller structures under its tremendous bulk.

The people on the deck, who had been watching with awe, now panicked and crowded the few emergency exits.

In the plaza, the entire form of the creature seemed to bubble and shift. Hedorah's shape gradually changed, and it seemed to grow right before the eyes of the shocked and unbelieving witnesses. Bubbling pseudopods appeared all over the creature's body.

Its head bulged and enlarged, and the thing now swayed on what looked like two thick legs. The monster waved flapping, dripping forearms that popped out of its sides.

Only the eyes remained the same. With an evil intelligence it focused them on G.o.dzilla.

For many minutes, the creature stood still, waiting for the King of the Monsters to reach it. G.o.dzilla obliged, knocking buildings aside, crushing streets and sidewalks, and shaking the Earth with each mighty tread of his ma.s.sive feet.

Then G.o.dzilla twisted his head and roared a challenge. His bell-like voice boomed over Osaka. Rain washed off his gigantic body in torrents. His tail lashed back and forth angrily as a deep rumble emerged from G.o.dzilla's throat.

The shape-shifting thing that waited for G.o.dzilla finally reacted. A beam of energy burst from the corner of the creature's huge eye, striking G.o.dzilla on the shoulder. As his flesh burned and rain sizzled in the wound, G.o.dzilla snarled in rage. Rearing back his head, G.o.dzilla raised his forearms in a defensive posture.

But despite the ray that danced across his body, searing his hide, G.o.dzilla did not slow his relentless approach toward Hedorah.

Aboard the Destiny Explorer ...

Leena Sims lay at the foot of her bunk, unconscious.

And she dreamed.

She dreamed of a flat, icy plain with terrible winds. She dreamed of falling down a pit in the ice and of being trapped in a deep creva.s.se. Walls towered above her, and a polar storm raged. Leena tried to move, but she was paralyzed. In the dream, she could not feel the cold, though she somehow knew it was there.

What she did feel was a fear that crept up from deep inside her and threatened to overwhelm her sanity.

Finally, with an act of will, she rose. But just as she was on her feet, the ice under her simply dropped away. Leena looked down at her feet and saw a bottomless pit opening up.

Then she was falling.

She screamed and screamed until she could scream no more, but still she fell. Finally, when she thought she'd fallen to the very center of the Earth, everything went black.

When Leena opened her eyes, she was lying against the trunk of a tree. The tree was so thick it seemed more like a wall. Long tendrils snaked out of the top of the tree, wiggling on the ground around her. At the end of those vinelike tentacles, huge pods with snapping mouths rolled and slavered soundlessly.

Leena looked up and realized that she was inside something. Far above her was a roof. Then she realized she was in a cave, but a cave so huge it dwarfed the Grand Canyon. Cautiously, Leena rose and stepped around the enormous bole of the ancient tree. It took a long, long time.

Finally, when she was on the other side, she saw another world.

A city ... a city made of ice ... and it spread out in front of her for miles and miles - endless buildings of strange shapes, leaning at unsettling angles. Some of the city looked more like an M.C. Escher print or a painting by Nicholas Roerich than a real metropolis.

Then Leena shuddered. A cold, blasting wind suddenly sprang up, chilling her to the bone - to the depths of her soul as well. Then Leena heard a sound behind her. She whirled around fearfully.

A shimmering, glowing light bathed her. Blinded her. For a moment she felt fear, then a sudden peacefulness washed over her, calming her nerves and soothing her troubled soul. In the center of that ma.s.s of shimmering light, a million tiny b.u.t.terflies with multicolored wings beat the air around her.

Then a voice spoke to Leena, filling her head with its melodious tones.

"Be not afraid." The soft, feminine voice seemed to caress her.

"Who ... who are you?" Leena whispered.

"I am Mothra, the Protector of the World ..."

"What do you want with me?" Leena demanded.

"You are to be my vessel, my messenger," the voice replied. "Heed my warning. There is danger to your world ... from one of your own ..."

"Someone on the ship?" Leena asked.

"Someone in the Antarctic," Mothra replied. "Monsters are being created there by an ancient technology that is being horribly misused. These monsters will be unleashed on your mute and helpless civilization. It is there you must go to stop it before everyone on Earth is destroyed."

"We're already going," Leena insisted. "We have soldiers and weapons with us ..."

"They will be useless," the voice replied. "You can save your people, Leena Sims ... you and your comrades ..."

Then the voice faded, and Leena awoke on the floor of her stateroom, bathed in a cold sweat.

Outside the airship, high above the aircraft's hull, a battle was raging.