Chapter Fifteen: Rebirth of the Red Bamboo

"We're ready, Dr. Sung" one of the technicians said to her

The doctor nodded in response before she turned back the central control panel. It had been twenty four hours since the commander had given her and her team their deadline, and with only forty-eight hours remaining, every second couldn't be wasted. The commander had told them that they only had three days to refit the digital web after one of the makers was destroyed on Monster Island, and Dr. Sung was well aware that if they failed, the commander would not give her a second chance. Dr. Sung had worked for violent people in the past, but the commander scared her more than any other general or madman she had served under during her career.

The doctor had no illusion that what she was doing would kill millions if not billions of people, but it was for the greater good, or at least that was what the commander kept telling her. Throughout her life, Dr. Sung had worked with men and women who made similar claims in the past, but in the end, they were always out for themselves. However, she felt the commander had at least some truth to his words unlike her past employers. The commander was a mysterious man, even most of his inner circle did not fully understand where he came from or how he came to power within the ranks of the Red Bamboo, all Dr. Sung knew was that once the commander took control over the organization, he took it to brand new heights.

Before the commander became the new head of the Red Bamboo, the organization was in a state of rapid decay. After Godzilla had destroyed their main manufacturing plant on Letchi Island years ago after he had defeated their monster, Ebirah, the supplies for the Red Bamboo grew short and soon the leaders of the terrorist cell began to turn on each other out of desperation. For five years, the once mighty and feared Red Bamboo had broken off into several different cells that either spent their time either fighting amongst themselves for total control of the entire force or committing acts of violence on the world at large, or some cases trying to bring down the group's most hated enemy, G-Force. With all the in-fighting among the once united leaders, it seemed as though that the Red Bamboo would soon destroy itself in no time at all.

But then seemingly out of nowhere, the commander arrived on the scene. No one kne how he had gotten within the ranks of the Red Bamboo so quickly, but in no less than three months, he had united a vast majority of the organization under his banner. It was at this point that he had managed to convince Dr. Sung to join him in his quest to unite the once mighty coalition under his control. At this time, the doctor was in the midst of working on bio-engineering super soldiers made from Kaiju DNA for her government's army, but that project was a failure from the start. The commander offered her a chance to truly save the world from itself, an ambition that she had longed to accomplish.

So, after helping her fake her death, the commander forced the scientist swear loyalty to him before she joined his ever-growing faction of the Red Bamboo. But as his power within the ranks grew, so too did his enemies. It was no secret that the leaders despised the commander and his growing influence within their once great organization that they did not want to admit they had destroyed. The main reason behind their hatred toward him stemmed from the fact that he was an outsider in their eyes, a parasite that had latched itself onto their once glorious empire and was draining it all of what they thought was grand about the Red Bamboo. They tried to kill him of course, but with every failed assassination attempt on the commander's life only showed to his subordinates that he was a man worth following.

Soon, the commander had managed to convince the other faction leaders to meet with him in order to discuss a truce, calming that he no longer wanted any more bloodshed among the rival factions. Thinking that this was the perfect chance to finally kill their common enemy, the other leaders agreed to his terms to meet with him. they gathered on Edo Island, a small island off the coast of the south pacific where the commander's faction of the Red Bamboo had made their base of operations. They were lead to a small meeting room and told to wait for the commander's arrival. However, instead of being greeted by their foe, they were greeted by poison gas that killed them all in mere seconds of breathing it in.

With his adversaries finally vanquished, the commander's rule over the Red Bamboo was absolute. In no time at all, he went about enacting his master plan that would one day bring about both the end and rebirth of the world. he first began by having his top agents infiltrate G-Force, this way they could be one step ahead of their long-time enemy and even keep a close eye on the Kaiju as well. this was the dream all leaders of the Red Bamboo had: to destroy G-Force, but they only thought about defeating them in head-on warfare, even from taking them down from the inside like a silent disease that would slowly rot them away until there was nothing left of them.

The next step was finding the perfect weapons to bring about what the commander had dubbed 'Operation: New Eden', fortunately, he knew exactly what weapons to use for the war he was about to wage as well as how to acquire them. It was a project that had been in the works for three years now, and he would not let anyone, not even Dr. Sung, ruin everything he had worked so hard to build towards all these years.

"Proceed with test one" Dr. Sung ordered

As commanded, her team went about activating the system they had spent so long constructing. The setback they took from the loss of the marker that was supposed to be set on Monster Island had forced Dr. Sung and her team to rework the entire system in order to make their digital web they had spent months painstakingly setting up to work properly without it. This digital web was vital to the commander's masterplan and without it, the commander's dreams, much like Dr. Sung's life shortly thereafter, would be forfeit.

"Beginning dish alignment" one of her staff members said

Dr. Sung watched on the screen as the satellite dish began to align with the digital web that the markers had set up across the globe. It wasn't easy for the secretive organization to get a satellite into orbit without G-Force or the world at large to notice it, but after paying off the right people, and killing the rest, they managed to get their key component of their plan into earth's orbit with the masses none the wiser. Dr. Sung watched as the screen showed their satellite begin to link up with the markers they had placed on earth. The markers themselves were equally difficult to place across the globe. each one had to be placed were they would not be damaged or discovered as well as be able to be placed in an area where they could be able to link up with the markers and the satellite above them.

Knowing that would be a daunting task, the Red Bamboo went about buying up certain real estate from rundown buildings. That part of the plan didn't take much, just knowing who would be willing to take the money without any question asked, though it wouldn't matter in the end, since they all ended up dead anyway. Dr. Sung and her team didn't play a part in the more bloodier side of setting up the commander's plan, but she knew where all the bodies were buried. The commander did this not so much as a sign of loyalty, but more to remind her and those in his inner circle what would happen to them should they fail him more than once. The commander was a fair man, he understood that humans made mistakes, and would forgive the occasional failure from his subordinates so long as they succeeded in their next assignment. However, should one of his underlings consistently fail him, the commander would not hesitate to make an example of them to the others to remind them that his patience only went so far.

Sung and her staff watched with a collective anticipation as the satellite connected to the marker's web. The satellite's task was to activate the marker's after it had linked with their web and send out a signal would initiate their plan, but as they watched, no link was made between the two sides. Dr. Sung let out an audible sigh in frustration, knowing that they didn't have much time to correct this error before she would herself in an unmarked grave.

"Back to the drawing board…" she breathed out "we only forty-eight hours, this has to work!"

"With all due respect ma'am, but forty-eight hours simply isn't enough time to reset the system" one her staff members spoke "it would take at least three weeks to simply reroute everything back to—"

The scientist's words were cut off when Dr. Sung drew her pistol and put a bullet directly into the staff members head. everyone else collectively jumped in fright at the action while their leader merely stood tall with the smoking gun in her hand.

"Would anyone else like to voice a complaint?" she inquired casually

Her staff quickly shook their heads.

"Forty-eight hours" she reminded them all "let's get to work"

Like a hive of bees, her staff quickly returned to their duties. Just as Sung put her gun away, another scientist rushed into the control room just as two guards entered to dispose of the body. The newcomer was a young, Caucasian, man in his mid-twenties with red hair and a plaid bowtie. This was doctor Jeffery Jenkins, another scientist who the commander had brought into the fold of his new Red Bamboo. Jenkins was an expert in bio-mechanics and engineering, but while he was considered a bright mind, he rather enjoyed the idea of being a mad scientist. Ever since he was a boy, he would take apart and stich back together whatever or whoever he could find, weather that be stray dogs, cats, or his parents. While Jenkins was clearly disturbed, the commander needed his expertise in bio-mechanics for his grand plan to work.

"Something the matter, Dr. Jenkins?" Dr. Sung asked uncaringly

"I-its's the pilot, Xie" he replied as he tried to catch his breath "she woke up!"

Dr. Sung's eyes widen in shock upon hearing that.

"Take me to her at once" she ordered

Jenkins lead Sung out of the control room, all the while she pestered him for questions as to how the pilot had managed to reawaken after all these years.

"She was in hibernation Jeffery; how could she just wake up?" she demanded

"We were testing her brain pattern to make sure that it was still active like we always do, but she just woke and started screaming!" Jenkins replied franticly "we don't know how to get her to calm down!"

"Did you try sedating her?" Sung questioned

"We tried that, but her implants make her impervious to sedation" the fellow scientist answered, "we pumped her with enough drugs to knock out an elephant and she won't stop! We should tell the commander about this—"

"No!" Dr. Sung denied sharply "you know as well as I do that if we contact the commander now while he's away with this it'll be the end of both of us!"

"But how are we going to stop this?" Jenkins demanded "if she keeps this up she might wake up the machine!"

Dr. Sung paused for a moment to try to think of a solution, one that wouldn't end with everyone getting killed. This was a crisis no one thought possible, considering that the pilot was supposed to be catatonic. Ever since they recovered her body years ago after discovering her unmarked grave and digging her up, they always assumed that while the pilot's body was dead, her mind was still active thanks to the alien technology that had been grafted into when she was still alive. Their theories proved correct as they saw that while her body had mostly rotted away over the years, her mind was still as fresh as it was for when the pilot was still alive. After removing her brain and placing it in a new body, Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Sung assumed that she would remain in her dream-like state and they could use her mind for their organization's master plan, but clearly that was no longer the case. Finally, after several moments of internal debate, Dr. Sung came to her solution.

"I've got an idea" she told her fellow scientist

While Jenkins still had no idea as to how they were going to solve this problem, he followed her into his lab, where they found this rest of the bio-engineer's staff gathered around a large stasis tube that was filled a dark blue liquid. Within the liquid was the outline of a female figure with wires and scanners hooked into her body that was currently writhing about within the stasis pod in agony, letting out gargled screams as she did. Dr. Sung knew what she was about to do was a gamble, but she'd rather take her chances here than with the commander. She gestured for the other scientists to stand aside before stepping forward and gently placing her hand on the tank.

"You need to settle down, ma'am" she began in a calm tone "You could seriously hurt yourself"

"Where am I?" the pilot demanded "I—I shouldn't be here! I shouldn't be alive!"

"That's true, but we both know that you can't" Dr. Sung retorted "what's the last thing you remember?"

"I…I remember…pain" the pilot began "I remember being in pain"

"Do you remember your father?" the scientist questioned

The figure in the tube stopped her trashing and seemed as though she looked directly at Dr. Sung curiously, if not a bit hesitant. Meaning she either didn't remember her father, or that she didn't want to remember him for what he had done to her. Knowing that she had to play it safe, Dr. Sung had to choose her next words very carefully, for if she didn't, she might cause the pilot to trigger a sudden activation of the machine she linked to and destroy the entire base in a fit of blind rage in doing so.

"You remember him, don't you?" she insisted slowly "do you remember how he saved your life the first time?"

The pilot remained silent for several moments before speaking up once more.

"Yes…" she acknowledged "I died once…then he found a way to bring me back"

"But he didn't do it through ordinary means, did he?" Dr. Sung furthered "He had help from someone"

"Yes…them" the pilot answered in a more solemn tone this time "they my life…."

"Only to damn you to a sort of eternal life" Sung said "they made you a monster and you just want to die"

Jenkins and his team looked visibly shocked upon hearing Sung saying those words. They knew that if she managed to anger the pilot then she would surly unleash the machine upon them and their plans wouldn't matter if they were setback or not, they would all be to dead to fix any errors they made. The machine in question was a marvel of modern technology, but it did not come from this world, instead, it came from one beyond the stars. Mankind was no stranger to alien invasion, and the aliens who had not only brought the machine with them but were also responsible for creating the pilot as well. The machine was twice rebuilt to help these invaders from earth try to conquer the people of earth, and twice it was destroyed by Godzilla. The second it was defeated, the machine's parts were recovered by G-Force and used to help them engineer their own machines to help them in their never-ending battle with the Kaiju they were at constant war with.

The Red Bamboo spent months collecting the parts of the robot they could find and steal from G-Force storage facilities, most that were under top security. The parts they couldn't steal and repair, they had to rebuild from the stolen schematics of the robot that G-Force had also managed to acquire in the aftermath of the battle of the machine and the king of the monster. The Red Bamboo spent nearly two years rebuilding the massive war machine from the ground up while their grand plan was coming together. however, there was a problem: If the robot was to operate properly, then they needed to find the pilot, whom they had first assumed was long dead like G-Force did. But the commander remained vigilant and ordered to find the body of the pilot to perhaps to try to harvest her body or at least examine her remains in order to replicate the process.

They searched for months but found nothing. It wasn't until they found a long-retired detective who had ties to the pilot back when she was alive that they had their first lead. After 'convincing' him to help them in their search, the man showed where he buried the woman he loved. He had left her in an unmarked out of fear of people like the Red Bamboo or G-Force would do if they could get a hold of her body. Jenkins remembered when the commander himself personally oversaw the exhuming of the pilot's body before snapping her new elderly lover's neck and placing him in her grave. Once they returned to their base, the commander ordered Jenkins and his team to examine her body for any way they can learn to repeat the process of creating their own pilot for the robot.

It was during the examination of the body that Jenkins and his colleagues discovered that while her body had withered away, her brain was still alive and active. Jenkins could imagine the hell the woman must had been trapped in for all those years buried in that swallow grave and feeling herself rotting away. But now that she had been brought back placed in a new body it was hard to say if she would willingly help them in their plans or if she would try to kill them all right here and now. It all depended on whatever happened next between the pilot and Dr. Sung.

"Katsura" Dr. Sung said, using the pilot's true name "do you want to do die?"

Even though they couldn't see the pilot's face through the liquid, the group of scientists knew they had gotten to her. Katsura was the daughter of the once great scientist Dr. Mifune, who lost his credibility after claiming that there was a large, aquatic prehistoric creature lived deep below the sea. It wasn't a totality improbable theory considering that such Kaiju like Gorosaurs and Anguirus were once prehistoric creatures themselves. In reality, Mifune was cast out because of his rivals who wanted his position within their academy and used his theory as a way to get rid of him. driven by anger and a thirst for revenge, Mifune took control of his deep-sea creature, Titanosaurs, and allied himself with a race of ape-like, shape shifting aliens known as the Simians, who had created the very machine the Red Bamboo had rebuilt for their plans.

"…yes" she finally said, "I would do anything to die!"

"Anything?" Dr. Sung repeated with interest in her voice "My team and I could help you accomplish that, but first, you must help us with something first"

"I'll do anything!" Katusra begged

"The organization I'm apart of is in the midst of changing the world" Dr. Sung began "the world you once knew has changed for the worse and it needs a new start, and we are the ones who wish to give it that start. But in order to do that, we need you and the machine your connected to for that to happen"

"You need Mechagodzilla" Katsura gathered "So, you want to use me to control Mechagodzilla like those horrid aliens did?"

"No one said anything about using you, Katsura" the doctor countered "in fact, we would've left you in peace had not been for the fact that you were so connected to Mechagodzilla's controls"

"But the control system was in my stomach, and that has since rotted away" the pilot replied, "How can I still be connected to him?"

"The Simians technology was so advanced that the control system for Mechagodzilla grafted itself to your brain when you were dying" Dr. Sung explained "it put you both in a state of hibernation. But we've managed to rebuild him to his former glory, all we need now is the pilot to control him"

"If I do this, then I want your assurance that when the world is yours that you'll kill me" the cyborg ordered

"You have my word" Sung assured before adding "you seem quite at peace with what we're trying to do here. You do realize that you'll have to kill millions, if not billions, of people"

"I haven't been human for nearly thirty years, why should I care what happens to them now?" Katsura coldly answered

"Now that's what I like to hear" Dr. Sung said, smirking as she did "Welcome to the Red Bamboo, Katsura Mifune"

"Sheesh, what a dump" Luan noted as she looked around at her new surroundings

Titanosaurs merely let out a low grumble as he set her down on the island shore. From afar, the girl and her Kaiju partner originally thought that the island they found was full of lush vegetation, but upon actually arriving on the island, the duo found only jagged rocks and burnt trees. They could both feel intense heat with every step they took. It was clear by the turtle skeleton they found that no life could have lived here considering the harsh environment. Luan's heart began to sink in her chest from the sadness that was welling up within her. If any of her siblings had managed to survive the wreck, they more than likely wouldn't have lasted long here.

"Hello?" she called out "Lori? Lincoln? Luna?"

Only silence returned her calls.

"Anybody?!" she shouted

Titanosaurs let out a roar as a way of helping his charge. He still wasn't too keen of taking care of a human, but it did sadden him to see the girl so upset. Upon hearing his roar, Luan suddenly turned around and faced the aquatic reptile with a look of realization in her eyes. Maybe her brother and sisters were here, and they were frightened by the young comedians new 'friend'.

"Easy big guy, but I think your 'roaring' by siblings the wrong way" she noted "Maybe I should go off on my own a bit, I don't wanna give them a heart attack"

"You do not need to go anywhere, Luan Loud" two voices said in unison behind her "We heard you, but we're sorry to say that your family isn't here"

Luan spun around to face whoever had just spoke to her, hoping that they could make sense of whatever they had just said about her family. But upon seeing the people she had spoken to, her jaw nearly dropped to the ground at the sight before her. it was a pair of tiny, brightly dressed women, both of whom were standing on a rock and looking up at her with smiles on their faces.

"Welcome to Infant Island!" they greeted cheerfully

Luan's response came in the form of her fainting.