Complete//Shutdown (Part_1)

A siren echoed across the buildings of the New York skyline, piercing Lucy and Kaden's ears from atop the apartment building.

"What's that?!" Kaden shouted. "Is that a kaiju?"

"I don't think so." Lucy replied anxiously. "This hasn't happened before."

Lucy's gaze searched the city for any disturbance and was drawn to a set of military helicopters charging towards the ocean. Out in the distance she could make out a blurry silhouette, something barely mimicking a human.

"You see it too, right?!" Kaden asked. "That thing out in the ocean."

"Yeah." Lucy took her phone out of her coat pocket and aimed it towards the figure in the distance before opening the kaijufinder app. Kaden peered over her shoulder. Once the app had opened, it scanned the creature in an instant. It was a kaiju.

"You said this hadn't happened before, why are they sending helicopters now?" Kaden took his own phone out and snapped a picture.

"Something is wrong." Lucy began to look towards the city again, only to see a creeping white glaze envelop the world below. "What the hell?! Why are they using lockdown on the whole city?"

"What's lockdown?" Kaden asked.

"That." Lucy pointed towards the line where the frozen and unfrozen met. The line was now quickly climbing the buildings and had fully covered the streets.

"Should we run?" Kaden was getting nervous, a reasonable reaction.

"Where to?" Lucy answered. "We just have to hope that they take down the kaiju and fix the city." 

Lucy felt the heat completely leave from her legs as the sensation climbed up from her feet. Kaden screamed as his body began turning to stone. Unlike last time, however, Lucy's vision went black as her eyes were enveloped. Eventually she lost track of time as her brain faded to nothing.

-cut-

"This is outrageous, you can't expect the commander to take this lightly?!" Dr. Miller shouted at Gabriel, who had just issued an order to use the lockdown function on the whole city. Both of them were in the DCP room examining a full 3D map of the entire city.

"What else am I supposed to do? There's no way to secure the tamer before the kaiju gets into range." Gabriel walked towards the door, not even turning to meet eyes with Dr. Miller. "I'm going to go pick up the tamer in question, you need to stay here and stop the kaiju if it tries to blast its way underground."

"Blast its way underground?" Dr. Miller muttered to himself after Gabriel left the room. "How?"

-cut-

Gabriel returned to the room two hours later. He was wheeling in the petrified Lucy on a hand truck with minimal effort. "I need you to disable the lockdown, the data should already be transferred to the DCP Mini."

Just then, a loud explosion could be heard overhead.

"What was that?!" Dr. Miller asked. "What haven't you told me?!"

"Just release the tamer and I'll tell you everything you need to know."

"Very well then." Dr. Miller sighed. "You'd better make good on your promise." He tapped the panel on the projector table and Lucy's restored body fell to the floor.

"The kaiju is equipped with a high-power beam weapon. It can destroy a building in an instant. Any direct hit to a DC Projector will instantly destroy it, meaning you'll have to be extra careful, Miss Turner." Gabriel sat down on a chair with one of his legs crossed over the other. "Any questions?"

"You bastard!" Lucy propped herself up into a sitting position on the floor. "You don't even know what the effects of the lockdown function are, do you?"

"I certainly know more than you do." Gabriel remarked. "I need you to reactivate the 2nd kaiju."

"Second?" Lucy asked. "What do you mean by second?"

"The kaiju that you can control was the second one we found." Dr. Miller answered. "It was sent to us by the Japanese government after they discovered it out in the ocean. The first one was the one that destroyed New York eight years ago."

"Where is it? Where is the 2nd kaiju now?" Lucy asked.

"We're going to launch the 2nd kaiju's DCP to the surface from the Atom-3's location, is that correct?" Dr. Miller said.

"Indeed." Gabriel replied. "We needed to activate it pre-emptively so that we can release the lockdown on the city above."

"The Atom-3?" Lucy asked.

-cut-

Lucy's memory jumped. Now she was standing in an enclosed room with silver steel walls surrounding her. At the center of the room was a strange, giant device; a device that Lucy knew well. This was a Data Conversion Projector. Next to it was a similar device, though the central one was covered in a thick layer of dust and small patches of rusted metal.

"Is this what fell eight years ago?" Lucy asked. "The Atom-3?"

"Indeed." Dr. Miller replied. "Though you just asked that question a few minutes ago."

"Are you read to fight, Miss Turner?" Gabriel asked. "We're going to open a hole in the ceiling, you'll jump through it to combat the 5th kaiju."

"I'm ready." Lucy replied. She took out her phone and aimed it at the smaller DCP in the room. She knew that it was the correct one, somehow. Something was off, though. She did remember that the central DCP was the Atom-3. She faintly remembered walking to an elevator and stepping out onto this floor. Whenever she had an attack, she lost all of her memory from that time. What was she suddenly remembering things now?

The ceiling disintegrated in a cubic pattern, opening up to reveal a bright blue sky. 

"You'll have to use your phone after the DCP has left the facility, it should give you the aerial advantage." Gabriel said. "If you take control too early, you'll destroy the building."

Lucy aimed her phone skyward, waiting in anticipation for the DCP to launch.

-to be continued-