With a slick tear, Nemesis’s black skin peels away. She falls back, the skin of her forearms removed like sleeves.
Karkinos puts one of the slabs of skin in her mouth and shakes it around before spitting it out.
Nemesis looks spent, while Karkinos seems almost euphoric.
But then, surprising me and Gordon, who flinches, Nemesis charges with a roar, reaching for Karkinos’s head with her more vulnerable, but still powerful, hands.
Karkinos’s defense is unconventional, but brutally effective. The Kaiju lowers its head, tilting forward, so the great, blade-like spikes at the top of its back come over and down like butcher blades. As Nemesis comes in close, the massive blades come down on her shoulders, cutting through her black flesh, severing what little skin held it all in place. Great sheets of black fall from Nemesis’s body now, totally exposing her to injury from Karkinos and the military.
In Boston, this pure white form of hers served a purpose. She unfurled the reflective wings hidden beneath the carapace of her back and reflected the sun’s light into a powerful, burning beam of retribution. But now, in the dark, with the scene lit by burning buildings and moonlight, I don’t think that’s an option for her. Her greatest weapon has become her weakness.
Nemesis falls to her knees, driven down by the blades in her shoulders. She doesn’t move when Karkinos stands back up, pulling the blades free. Red blood flows over her white form, reminding anyone who is watching that she is not fully Kaiju, that flowing through the monster, is human blood.
Gordon begins to chuckle.
Karkinos turns around, winding up its tail for a strike. While the bladed end is missing, the appendage is still covered in bony plates and hooked spikes. The blow comes quick, kicking up a cyclone of ash as it sails over the ground and pounds Nemesis in the side.
Nemesis falls to her side, eyes closed, body limp. The ground shakes when she lands hard, her body still. Unmoving. I wait for some sign of life, but see nothing.
The Air Force’s continuing missile barrage targets Karkinos now. The giant’s back takes the damage while the monster turns toward the White House.
Gordon holds me up a little higher.
Karkinos roars and steps in our direction.
I’ve never really wondered what it would be like to be a sacrificial virgin, but it looks like I’m going to find out.
50
The White House roof quakes with each of Karkinos’s footsteps, jolting more and more as the immensely heavy Kaiju nears. Its yellow eyes remain fixed on me, which seems impossible, because I’m so friggin small. It would be like me looking into the eyes of a cockroach before I squashed it.
“You’ve won,” I say to Gordon. “You don’t need to do this.”
“Cowardice is a new tactic for you, Jon,” Gordon says. I hate that he uses my first name, like we really know each other. Like we used to be pals. I’ve only ever known the man as a monster. “I thought you were stronger than that.”
“I’m not talking about my life,” I say, pausing as Karkinos takes another thunderous step forward. “I’m talking about the rest of the world. You have your own Nemesis now. No one can touch you. Just go live your life.”
“I’ve seen what you can do,” Gordon says, tapping his head with his free hand. “What Endo tried to do to me. Do you really believe the government, or fucking Zoomb for that matter, will let a 300-foot-tall monster live peacefully? Besides, this world needs to be judged. It sings for it.”
“Nemesis has shown mercy,” I point out. “You can’t—”
“Nemesis has shown weakness,” he says, placing a hand over his chest. “I don’t blame her. I took her heart. The engine that should have driven her resides in me. The world’s judgment has fallen to me.”
“So Karkinos is to be the next Nemesis?” I ask.
“Karkinos...” Gordon tries out the name. He grins. “I like it. But Karkinos is not Nemesis. It’s a tool.” His grin becomes wicked. “I am Nemesis. And I will judge the world and everyone in it. Starting with you.”
With a final stomp that seems to shudder the whole planet, Karkinos stops its approach within the corner of the U.S. Treasury Building, a good 500 feet away. Even at this distance, it’s huge, rising high up into the air. It feels strange, being small again, like Karkinos is cheating. I knew what it felt like to engage this monster as equals.
“Jon Hudson,” Gordon says, “and the rest of this miserable city, I sentence you to death by fire.”
Karkinos reaches its giant claws up toward the large glowing membranes on its chest.
It’s going to self-immolate!