Project Maigo(98)

I’m about to ask Gordon if he’s serious, but then I remember that he’s built to withstand the scorching flame. When the fires die down and everything for several miles to the west is a wasteland, Gordon will be the only thing left standing.

The massive claws slip inside the membranes, and I swear I see a smile on the Kaiju’s fanged mouth. It might just be reflecting Gordon’s pleasure, but I take personal offense at the grin. I lift both fists, giving the giant a defiant double middle finger.

The Kaiju pulls its hands free with a slurp.

Twin rivers of orange fluid pour from Karkinos’s chest like an explosive Niagara Falls.

The delay between puncture and ignition is just a few seconds.

My thoughts turn to Collins. If she’s behind Karkinos, she should make it through this. I send her my love and close my eyes.

The rumble of my death begins, but it sounds different. Strange. In fact, I don’t think the explosion will even register before I’m vaporized.

My eyes snap open.

Gordon is shouting in anger.

A wall of white blocks my view. Sparkling feathers hang from wings spanning 500 feet.

Nemesis!

Maigo...

In her white form she’s—

KRAKOOM!

The explosive force knocks Gordon back. I fly from his hand and slide across the rooftop.

My eyes turn back to Nemesis.

Her massive wings shake violently, but they remain solid, blocking the inferno. Bright orange flames rush by, hundreds of feet overhead. I can feel the heat, but it’s only like a hot summer day. Flames streak out to the sides as well, but Nemesis’s proximity to Karkinos means that she is taking the brunt of this attack, saving what remains of the city.

Saving me.

Again.

Tears fill my eyes. I know she can’t survive this.

The burst of fire fades.

The wings stop shaking and immediately, the large reflective panels people call feathers start to fall away, fluttering to the ground like diamonds, except that one side has been charred black.

Nemesis falls to one knee, trailing a column of smoke. The stench is revolting, not just because of the smell, but because I know what it’s from. Nemesis has been cooked.

She falls in on herself slowly.

Still breathing.

But as she drops down, Karkinos is revealed, standing. Steam rises from its drained chest. Its face is frozen in anger.

Totally frozen.

That’s when I notice the change in the Kaiju’s body. A straight black line has been etched into its armor, head to toe.

Understanding what has happened, I hop to my feet and nearly cheer as Karkinos comes apart. Tons of flesh separate, as strands of viscous fluid stretch out between the halves and snap. Karkinos’s body, cut clean through, falls down, and then apart. When the monster’s cleaved body hits the ground with twin thunderous booms I can feel in my teeth, I let out that victory cry.

Nemesis didn’t just save me, or Washington, she saved us all.

But I don’t think Nemesis deserves the credit. Left to her own devices, that spirit of vengeance would have happily eradicated the human race. It was the human side of her, a little girl, who made the difference and was willing to give her life—again.

When Gordon screams, I flinch back, having forgotten all about him. He’s staring out at Karkinos’s split body. He starts punching himself. Hard. Then he remembers that there is someone else he can take his anger out on.

He reels around and charges toward me.

With his long stride, he’ll reach me in seven steps. He makes it only four, though.

“Hey!”

The voice is young and feminine, but her appearance is anything but. Lilly leaps at Gordon from the side, and drives her legs into his arm. She’s far smaller than him, but she is strong. Really strong. Gordon is slammed to the side, decimating an actual air conditioning unit.

While he pries himself free from the metal case now twisted around his body, lost in a frenzy, I expect Lilly to press the attack. Maybe go for something vital. His throat possibly. But she doesn’t. She waits.

Hawkins steps up next to her. Like me, he’s taken a beating, but he’s alive.

“We weren’t done with you,” he says to Gordon, holding up a small device. I recognize it as the transmitter Endo gave him.

For the arrows.

My eyes widen when I see the collection of arrows jutting out of Gordon’s body.

Holy...

Hawkins pushes the button.

Gordon’s body bulges out from the inside, as the arrow heads explode. His thick skin contains the energy, which makes the damage that much more horrible. The arrows are forced out of their entry holes, followed by spraying flesh and blood. Then he falls still, his body twisted and distorted. Fluid leaks from the wounds and his nose, mouth and eyes. But the explosive membranes have been left intact. Hawkins had been warned about them and kept the arrow tips, and their explosive potential, far away from Gordon’s core.