Beginning//End (Part_1)

The date was November 27th, 2029. The day that New York fell. 2:48 PM.

"Where are you going, Alice?!" A girl, somewhere close to 10 years old, chased a younger girl about the busy streets of New York City. "You're going to get lost, or worse!" The younger girl continued to dart around the passers-by though the streets surrounding Times Square. "What's mom going to do if we don't come back?!"

The girl, Alice, stopped to look at the older one. "Whadduya mean sis? What's wrong with mom?"

"Nothing's wrong with her, it's us that's the problem right now." The older girl grabbed Alice by the arm. "We should get back to her while we still can."

"Okay big sis!" Alice said excitedly before releasing herself from her older sister's grip and darting backward to where they came from. The older girl had barely a moment to blink before...

-cut-

December 19th, 2037. 1:33 PM.

"Lieutenant Holt, the 5th kaiju is attempting to carve its way into the underground cavern!" A man in military attire stood behind a door leading into the command room. It was a large chamber with several giant monitors to view the fight on the surface. Below the monitors was the ground team, a group of scientists tasked with analyzing combat data and code patterns within the DCP Grid.

"I'm well aware of that" Gabriel, who had just now entered the room, responded, "all hands should be on reinforcing the protective data shield until the tamer arrives on the scene. If we extend the radius, we should be able to prevent it from breaching a hole directly to us."

"Understood, sir!" The man ran down the stairs to inform the scientists below.

Gabriel watched the monitors closely, waiting for Lucy to pull the trigger. There wasn't a chance that she was going to give up. Out of 197 times she had never backed down when her friends' lives were on the line.

"Lt. Holt sir, there's a processing request on the KF system; address is tamer 7." One of the scientists called up from below.

"Confirm the request" Gabriel replied, "we don't have a second to lose."

-cut-

November 27th, 2029. 6:27 PM.

"So, Dr. Turner, you think this egg theory of yours could stop the creature destroying the city?" A young scientist with long black hair stood next to a slightly older man dressed in a lab coat.

"I do believe that, Mr....?"

"Dr. Miller, I don't know that we've formally met quite yet."

"No, I don't think we have, Dr. Miller. It's hardly the time for introductions right now but it's nice to meet you." Dr. Turner replied. "Now I'll need the prototype, the DSC. Can you go get it for me?"

"What does DSC stand for?"

"Digital Space Communicator." Dr. Turner explained. "I've been messing with it for the past few hours trying to find a way to talk to that thing underground."

"Talk to it, it's alive?"

"I think so. We've been getting weird messages on the computers from no sender, I think it must be the cause."

"Whatever you say boss." Dr. Miller said. "I just hope this works. I've got a wife and kids I'd like to see again."

"Oh, are they above in the city?"

"No, they're away out of state right now, thankfully." Dr. Miller wiped his brow. "I hope they're safe."

"You're lucky, you know."

"What?"

"My family" Dr. Turner added, "they're still up there. I can hardly think about anything else. You said you had a kid, how old are they?"

"I have a son, he's about 10. You have a kid as well?"

"Two of them, actually" Dr. Turner replied, "both girls. The first thing I'm gonna do when we get done with this is take them to the arcade."

"Do your kids like that kind of stuff? It's sort of retro these days."

"Of course they do!" Dr. Turner said. "My older one is really into those rhythm games right now, she's pretty good at them too."

"I should go get your DSC or whatever. Sorry to keep you waiting."

"No problem."

-cut-

December 19th, 2037. 1:38 PM.

Monitors flashed with the image of a titanic armored figure launching itself towards the cyclopean monster terrorizing the city. The 2nd kaiju threw a punch that landed on the cyclops's face before pushing it into the ground.

"Lt. Holt sir, the 2nd kaiju has made contact with the 5th kaiju. It seems to have the upper-hand." One of the scientists below called out to his superior.

"One moment." Another scientist cried. "The 5th kaiju seems to be charging a large amount of data energy; its preparing to launch a counter-attack."

The 2nd kaiju continued to launch a full onslaught against the 5th, landing punch after punch into its reinforced head. The cyclops slowly turned its gaze towards its attacker.

"Send a heads-up to the tamer, they need to abort now!" Gabriel commanded.

"We've already sent warning sir, there's no response over the kaijufinder system!" One scientist replied.

"We could use the data interface connection to manually activate the propulsion thrusters, but it's going to take more time than we have." Another added. "In addition, we have no idea whether they'll function again after the impact damage to the kaiju's interior."

"This is what I get for waiting to reimplement them." Gabriel muttered. "We need to get the thrusters active now!" He shouted. "We cannot lose the 2nd kaiju!"

"t-5 seconds until activation is possible-" One of the scientists below responded before being cut off. The cyclops fired its beam attack directly into the 2nd kaiju's head.

"We've lost connection to the DCP Core Unit, it's been damaged beyond usability!" Another scientist said.

"Oh no." Gabriel said. "We... We've failed."

-cut-

November 27th, 2029. 6:49 PM.

Two scientists began to methodically attach cables between a computer the size of a small dresser and a strange, circular device. 

"Dr. Turner, the last connection is secure, should I boot on the device?" Dr. Miller said as he leaned upwards from the giant desktop.

"Yes, I'm opening the interface on the computer." Dr. Turner sat down in a chair before frantically inputting commands on the keyboard in front of him. "We should be good to go now-" A phone sitting on the nearby desk rang; it was Dr. Turner's. He picked it up and listened to the incoming voice before standing up from his chair and bolting for the door. "I'm sending in my understudy to help you; I need to go!"

"Understudy?"

-cut-

November 27th, 2029. 2:52 PM.

The older girl's ears ringed. She was still in shock at what she had just seen, but the rush of adrenaline stopped her from being debilitated. "ALICE!" She cried. "NO!" Before her stood a massive device, the size of a small car. It was vaguely barrel-shaped and had a large, blinking yellow light that stood facing her. Not even a second before, the device flew out of the sky and struck the ground; her sister with it. The device made a strange ticking sound. Was it a bomb? What was going on? Would Alice be okay?

A cloud of dust and shrapnel impeded her vision of the device, but she knew what had happened. The smell of blood is immediately recognizable to most humans, sending them into a panic. Though she couldn't understand it, Lucy wanted to scream and vomit; she had an overwhelming urge to run away. 

Lucy gave into the panic and fled, looking for a way to escape the chaos. She ran past hundreds of startled adults, each fascinated by the thing that fell from the sky. If she ran far enough, she could find her mother; or so she hoped. Her mind was racing to a blur, time seemed to fly past her as she struggled to return to the comfort of the one who cared for her. She searched for hours, but none of the faces she met were ones she recognized. Everyone was a stranger, someone who couldn't help. 

-cut-

December 19th, 2027. 1:40 PM.

"Sir" one of the scientists below shouted, "we're getting a DCP Grid reading! It's the Atom-3!"

"What the hell?!" Gabriel looked back up towards the monitors. "The Atom-3 has been mostly dormant for eight years. What's it doing?"

"It's a data transfer." The scientist replied. "The information is too large for us to get a reading. The Atom-3 seems to be on the receiving end."

"Who's the sender?!" Gabriel asked.

"We don't know." The scientist called. "It seems to be interfacing with an unknown entity from within the DCP Grid. The location suggests the 2nd kaiju, but its DCP is offline." A moment passed before the scientist added. "Our computer systems can't process the data; it doesn't even seem to be readable."

"Why not?!" Gabriel shouted.

"It isn't encoded in binary, the data uses at least 1,007,324 different integers." The scientist answered. "There isn't a computer on the globe equipped to process that."

"Send the data through the KH system's memory duplicator." Gabriel responded.

"We have a reading." The scientist said after a few moments. "The data registers as a snapshot of a human brain. Most of the bits align to a snapshot taken from Tamer 7 at 13:37, three minutes ago."

"So, it's Lucy then." Gabriel muttered to himself.

-cut-

November 27th, 2029. 6:51 PM.

After Dr. Turner left the room, a young man with long, blond hair walked in holding a large tablet. He looked nervous as he first made eye contact with Dr. Miller. The young man immediately stepped over to the monitor and typed something into the prompt onscreen.

"What are you doing?" Dr. Miller asked. "You're not even going to introduce yourself?"

"We don't have time." The boy said. "I'll talk to you when I have a moment." The young man pressed the enter key before a bar formed on the screen and began to fill. He swiveled his chair around to face Dr. Miller. "My name is Gabriel Holt; I'm working here as an assistant to Dr. Turner on Project Ψ (Psi)."

"How old are you, young man?" Dr. Miller said. "You couldn't be older than 20. How are you qualified to be here?"

"The government offered a full ride scholarship if I worked on this project." Gabriel replied. "When I was in high-school, I wrote a paper on how a computer could theoretically communicate with a human brain using an 'impossible' base-infinity system."

"Base-infinity? That sounds ludacris. There's no way a computer could even read an encoding level with no quantizable end."

"I never said I was correct." Gabriel turned his chair back towards the computer and read the text displayed on the screen.

>Digital Space Communicator systems functional. Setting connection point to Orphan.

"What's orphan?" Dr. Miller asked.

"No idea." Gabriel replied. "It must be the entity that Dr. Turner was talking about." He typed a message onto the screen.

>can you help us?

The text on the screen responded.

>orphan_: salvation will require a sacrifice

"What the hell does that mean?" Dr. Miller said.

>our home is being destroyed
>we think you might be able to help

>orphan_: salvation will require a sacrifice

"That's the same thing it said earlier, is there anything it can actually do?" Dr. Miller asked.

"Hold on, its sending over a file, some kind of image." Gabriel said.

"Shouldn't that be impossible?"

"I don't know."

An image that seemed to be a map of the DEED research facility flashed onto the screen. A red mark noted a point lying below the facility from the central elevator shaft.

"Hold on a second." Dr. Miller said. "That floor is for restricted personnel only. Even the commander isn't allowed to know about it."

"Do we have another choice?"

-cut-

December 19th, 2027. 1:42 PM.

"The Atom-3 is sending a modify signal to the 2nd kaiju, vital status has been restored." A scientist cried. "It's trying to reactivate it."

"There's no point in stopping it." Gabriel said. "We can only hope that Lucy can now defeat the 5th kaiju." 

Several scientists called out to the rest of the ground team.

"The 2nd kaiju has disabled the 5th kaiju's arms."

"There's no tamer connected to the KH system; it seems that the 2nd kaiju is operating autonomously."

"The 2nd kaiju has successfully severed the 5th kaiju's DCP Core."

"The 2nd kaiju is modifying itself; it's trying to consume the Core Unit."

"We've detected a massive data signature from the Atom-3, its DCP Grid is expanding. The estimated radius stretches beyond earth's atmosphere."

"The Atom-3 is trying to rewrite reality; we have 5 seconds before the DCP Grid reaches maximum radius."

Gabriel continued to mutter to himself. "I wonder what she'll do now. What does Alice hope to accomplish by giving Lucy control?"

-cut-