Skull Island is the latest entry in the MonsterVerse, and the first foray of Legendary studios in turning their billion dollar film franchise into a series for smaller screens. With Apple’s Monarch leading the charge on the live action front, it seems Netflix chose to differentiate their tale within the MonsterVerse by bestowing the series into the hands of the talented animators of Powerhouse Animation Studios, best known for animating the incredible Castlevania (2017-2021). Coupled with Brian Duffield, whose past work includes Love and Monsters (2020) and Underwater (2020), Skull Island proves a solid, (if flawed) first blow, thrown by the streaming giants with the IP. (more…)

Author: Jim Wolf | Banner: Matthew Williams

The dense coniferous forests of North America’s Pacific Northwest were not commonly known for kaiju activity, but that was soon to change. Whether by choice or by sheer accident, the great theropod Gorosaurus had come ashore on a remote beach in British Columbia and ventured deep into the thick forest. The pine trees were much different than the palm trees of his usual stomping ground in the South Pacific, but the ferns were here, and the weather was comfortably warm. The saurian drew comfort from the alien, yet comfortable surroundings as he crashed through the trees, making the local wildlife scatter. Even the mighty grizzly bears knew there was a new king of the forest and they too beat a hasty retreat, giving the massive two-legged dinosaur a wide berth.

Unaware to the emerald saurian, his presence upon the North American continent sent shockwaves around the world, but not of fear. No kaiju could venture anywhere on the planet without at least some human finding out about it and from the arrival marked a fresh opportunity. Acquiring high quality pictures of monsters was about one-hundred times more popular than anything the paparazzi had ever done with taking celebrity photos and when Gorosaurus made a rare appearance outside the Pacific, the excitement could not be contained.

College juniors and best friends, Grant Hubbard and Ken Kennedy, just happened to be north of Vancouver, visiting some of Ken’s family when Gorosaurus made landfall. Grant had tagged along hoping to have one final week of fun before school began again in a couple weeks, but as the young man walked in on his friend’s call, his chances of a normal week vanished in an instant.

“You’re kidding!” Ken said with obvious excitement, “Yes…yes!” he went on speaking on his cell phone practically shaking. Ken saw his buddy talking and knew something was happening. “Yes, Grant’s right here with me. We’re on our way! Keep me posted!”

“What…” Grant began to say but was cut off by his enthused friend, “Gorosaurus! Freaking Gorosaurus is here!”

“You’re kidding!…Where?” Grant asked.

“Just right up the road about fifteen miles. A friend of mine was fishing with his folks off shore and saw him make landfall. I know right where he’s talking about! Come on, man, we gotta go! We can make so much with just a few pics!”

“I’m so on it!” said Grant, who ran to get their Jeep started. Ken was right behind him with their always-ready duffle bag full of equipment. He tossed the equipment into the back of the Wrangler and yelled into the house, “Mom, Grant and I are gonna go take pictures of kaiju. Be back…”

Ken didn’t know how long they would be gone, so he simply decided to wing it. “Be back…sometime!”

Inside the posh home, Ken’s father appeared from the back room and asked his wife what was going on. She shrugged. “Ken said he and Grant are going to go take pictures of …I think he said, kaiju, whoever that is.”

In short order, the two college boys were right on the trail left by the massive dinosaur. In the distance, they could see his hulking form towering over even the largest of trees. Ken was already snapping photos and filming what he could from that interval, but the distance was being closed rapidly as the Jeep tore over the rough ground with relative ease. Soon they were close, really close, as Gorosaurus had paused to drink some water from a clear pond in a wide open meadow. Grant and Ken huddled in the underbrush, attempting to be as quite as possible, but their enthusiasm preventing the necessary silence they so desired.

“I never thought we’d get this close to a real kaiju,” Ken said with amazement.

“Me too,” Grant quivered and soon added, “I wonder what drew him here.”

Making the small pond vanish down his monstrous gullet, Gorosaurus paid the humans monitoring him no mind. What he did draw the saurian’s attention was a rumbling in the ground, surging closer to him with every moment. He looked to the edge of the treeline and saw the ground upheaving. As rocks and huge clumps of dirt were tossed aside, a mighty roar preceded the appearance of a second monster.

“Holy crap, Grant, it’s Baragon!” Ken shouted, feeling terrified yet exhilarated about the appearance of another kaiju. His words were practically obscured by the loud roar from Gorosaurus, who was clearly not happy at the other dinosaur’s presence.

“I can’t believe it, man!” Grant cheerfully yelled out, shaking ecstatically. “I mean, I really can’t believe it!” The two boys did their best to keep their cameras and recording devices steady as Baragon pulled himself from the ground. The huge quadruped pulled all four legs up from the hole he had burrowed from and shook his plump body to get rid of the excess dirt coating his crimson flesh. His big ears flopped as he immediately spied the much taller, two-legged predator, unfazed by saurian’s size. He knew Gorosaurus. They had never fought, but there was always an underlying tension between the two. He felt it and knew his foe did as well.

Gorosaurus parted his gargantuan jaws, proclaiming his discontent at Baragon. He had travelled here to this new land and was staking his claim. This was his domain and any invader would meet a grisly fate. He roared again striding toward Baragon, who stood his ground and answered the big carnivore with a loud bellow of his own, which indicated he was going nowhere. If Gorosaurus wanted him out of this area, he would have to force him off it. Baragon moved forward and met the challenge.

“Oh my god, Grant, they’re gonna fight! Are you recording this?” Ken asked excitedly, jumping up and down. The cameraman simply gave his friend a thumbs up as the two titans collided, both roaring deeply.

“Which one is going to win?” Grant asked, keeping his eyes and camera peeled on the fight before them.

“Hard to tell,” Ken answered. “Baragon’s got that heat beam, but it’s not that terribly strong. Of course Goro has no energy attack, but he has that kangaroo kick.”

Grant simply murmured and added, “But Baragon can leap too, like a long way, maybe even better than Gorosaurus.”

“Battle of the leaping lizards is what we’ll call it!” Ken proudly proclaimed, as the title alone would be enough to get people plopping down in their seats to watch their exciting feature.

“We’re gonna be so freaking famous!” Grant cheerfully yelled out as the two massive reptilian monsters circled each other, sizing their opponent up, growling constantly.

Gorosaurus made the first real move and lunged in with his toothy maw. Emerald jaws snapped at the four-legged beast’s meaty shoulder and managed to snag a bit of flesh, but didn’t secure a firm hold as he merely delivered a nasty nip. That nip, however, was not a welcome one as Baragon swiped his clawed forelimb at his foe and whacked him across the side of the snout, drawing the slightest bit of blood. The prehistoric beast flinched back and angrily snapped back at the subterranean pest, catching a portion of the subterranean creature’s right, floppy ear in his jaws. A swift pull was all that was needed to tear off a bite sized chunk of flesh. Savoring the flesh, Gorosaurus paid little mind to Baragon’s roar of agony or the retaliatory lunge.

The pebble-scaled reptile was able to predict his smaller foe’s plan of attack and raised his leg out of the way just in time. The allosaur kicked hard into the side of Baragon’s head, toppling him over, causing the crimson beast to wheeze in tremendous pain. The red monster was now on his side and kicking to get back up but before he could, Gorosaurus attacked with his hind claws again, raking them twice down the right side of his opponent. Sharp talons ripped through leathery skin and flesh right down to the ribs which could be seen in several places gleaming white in stark contrast to the red flesh around them. Baragon bellowed in agony as his torso was cruelly ripped into.

Gorosaurus thought he might be in a position for a killing blow and lunged to take a huge bite out of the bloody wound. Baragon, in just the nick of time, turned his head and fired a stream of searing hot fire that singed the left side of his attacker. Gorosaurus let out a shriek of pain as he felt his pebbly hide burning. The theropod took several steps back, giving himself time to recuperate from the egregious pain he’d just endured, allowing the horned beast to get back onto his feet.

Baragon roared in both pain and anger as he charged the colossal allosaur again. Gorosaurus, on the other hand, reared backward, shooting his back feet out and slammed the incoming quadruped as he executed his well-known kangaroo kick perfectly. He hit Baragon right in the face and sent him flying backward through the air. The small dinosaur landed in the forest with a resounding thud that shook the ground and sent trees and other assorted forest debris up into the air along with a large amount of dust.

“Damn Ken!” exclaimed Grant, following it up with a volley of observations. “Did you see that! He kicked him like he was nothing! You think it killed him?” Ken continued taking pictures as Gorosaurus lumbered toward the spot his adversary had fallen ready to claim victory.

“I don’t know, buddy,” Ken sighed, snapping yet another shot. “He might have. That was one hell of a hit! I don’t see anything moving at all. It might have killed him.”

Contrary to the two filmmakers’ beliefs, Baragon was not killed, but badly wounded. Inside the treeline, the feudal beast got up to his feet and shook his head to clear the fogginess from it. Blood streamed down his injured side where several flaps of skin dangled from the nasty wound. He winced in pain but was not about to let that outrage go unanswered. Baragon, still hidden by his surrounding environment, braced his powerful back legs and watched his enemy approaching.

Just before Gorosaurus entered the treeline, Baragon sprang forward with all his legendary lumping might. He drove his head hard into the other dinosaur’s midsection, delivering a massive headbutt to Gorosaurus’ stomach. So hard was the impact that both dinosaurs were sent backward in the air. With his eyes wide, mouth agape and tongue flopping out the side, Gorosaurus’ upper body folded right over Baragon’s back, totally winded by the hit. Unfortunately for the legendary theropod, the diminutive creature was also the owner of a long, sharp horn which sat between his eyes, a horn which was now buried deeply into the allosaur’s soft underbelly.

The two hit the ground and separated as they tumbled over the grassy field. Baragon was first to his feet wincing in pain as the fall did not feel good on his already hurting side. The carnivorous hunter laid on his side for a moment, squealing in agony and thrashing his tail and hind legs around as blood spurted from his belly. Despite all the pain he endured, he would not go down so easily to an inferior foe. Gorosaurus got back on his feet and snarled at his enemy.

“Whoa! Freaking amazing!” Grant shrieked out, his camera wobbling in his hands from all the excitement going on. “I thought Goro had him, but did you see that awesome jump?”

“Of course I did!” Ken answered, feeling the same bolt of energy his friend did. “Damn man, I have no idea who’s gonna win this. Both are hurt pretty bad.”

Both combatants were injured severely. Baragon was moving decidedly slower as the blood loss and painfully cracked ribs took their toll. But Gorosaurus was gasping for air as blood spewed from his belly wound. Neither seemed ready to concede. In fact, both seemed even more intent on hurting the other. The ancient hunter targeted the bloody wound on the earth titan’s left side and dove toward it with his mighty jaws snapping. His attack was right on target as the wounded Baragon could not evade quickly enough and the great maw and rows of sharp teeth tore into the already injured area, latching onto some exposed muscle, threatening to rip off a huge hunk of flesh.

Baragon screeched at this painful new attack and retaliated by using his front claws and raked them down the side of the two-legged dinosaur’s side, forcing him to relinquish his toothy grasp. The quadruped then turned tail and put some distance between the two. Baragon demonstrated his burrowing ability once more and disappeared down into the ground. Gorosaurus came over and inspected the hole, only to see nothing but darkness. That changed quickly as a plume of flame illuminated that darkness as Baragon’s projectile struck the looming predator right in the chest, making him cry, immediately backing away from the hole. His chest was now a bright red from the scorching hot flame. He wanted revenge, but didn’t know exactly where his enemy was. The allosaur dared not go back and look into the hole again. However, he did not have to wait long to find out where Baragon was. He was right under him as the burrowing reptile burst through the ground right between Gorosaurus’ feet!

Gorosaurus roared as he was taken by surprise and his roar changed to a higher pitch as that sharp horn stabbed his belly a second time! The allosaur backed off, screeching in pain as his blood painted the ground beneath him a bright crimson color. Baragon, sensing victory, burst all the way out of the ground and charged his staggering adversary ready to deliver the final blow. Gorosaurus was not done yet, not by a long shot! He met the incoming threat with another kangaroo kick. This one was not as powerful as the first due to his wounds, but it was still strong enough to send Baragon tumbling across the ground till he came to a rest on his back against a large mound of boulders. Stunned by the powerful wallop, he pawed at the air with all four legs as he tried desperately to clear his head and to get back on his feet.

Gorosaurus, though hurting badly, came in at the downed dinosaur. He scrutinized the beast below him just for a moment then raised his left leg up and brought it down hard onto Baragon’s exposed underside striking the lower chest area. The subterranean deep-dweller squealed at the impact. The screech of pain was music to Gorosaurus’ ears as he went for it again and shortly after, a third time. On the last impact his foot sank deeper than the first two and created a depression in Baragon’s chest as a rib broke. Now more than screeches came out of the earthbound creature’s mouth, some of his blood came out along with the cries of distress. Gorosaurus backed off, eliciting a victory cry and brought his open maw down ready to rip out the throat of his opponent.

Baragon, even though his injuries were a lingering presence, he was still in the fight. He raised his head and let out a stream of fire as Gorosaurus brought his head down. Searing flame washed over the side of the meat-eater’s head, with some even going down his right ear orifice. The allosaur retreated, howling in agony and shaking his head side to side as smoke wafted off his reddened skin. With his opponent in disarray, Baragon painfully got back onto his feet. Every part of his body ached and even the slightest movement was agonizing, but he was determined to see the fight to the end, regardless if he won or lost.

“Jeez!” Grant moaned in astonishment. “Why don’t they just stop and call it a draw?”

“Guess that’s not how it works,” Ken surmised. “They are gonna fight till one is dead.”

“At this rate, both are going to wind up dead!” Grant proclaimed. A statement that very well could be right. The young men continued their filming as Baragon leapt at the staggering theropod.

The four-legged leaper had intended to drive his long, sharp horn into the allosaur’s chest, but his injuries prevented him from making such a bold leap. Instead, his body merely impacted against Gorosaurus, both of them collapsing to the ground in an instant. The emerald theropod fell onto his back with Baragon landing on top of him. For a moment, both dinosaurs just laid there panting, both nearing exhaustion and dealing with tremendous pain. Baragon was between his adversary’s thighs and when he looked up he saw the two wounds he had given to his foe’s stomach. The subterranean beast opened his mouth wide and sank his fangs hard into Gorosaurus’ wounded underbelly. An act that elicited some ear splitting squeals of pain.

“That’s a death grip if I ever saw one,” Ken called out, watching Baragon on the verge of tearing Goro’s belly wide open.

Grant murmured in agreement once more. “I would have put money on Gorosaurus before I saw this!”

Gorosaurus was indeed on the brink of a savage death as Baragon ripped deeper into his stomach, savouring the warm blood flowing into his mouth. The allosaur’s hind legs pawed madly at the air almost looking like he was peddling an imaginary bicycle in a desperate attempt to escape, but fate would not be so kind to him. In desperation, Gorosaurus summoned up the last of his reserved strength and lashed out with his only remaining weapon, his spike tipped tail!

Raising his tail up and over Baragon’s back, Gorosaurus brought the sharp spike down and down hard onto the space between the armored plating. The pointed spike sank in deep. The allosaur repeated the move, striking the small beast a second time through the back. Both puncture wounds spewed blood and Baragon wanted nothing more than to roar out a cry of anguish. This would not deter the red monster, however, as he sunk his teeth deeper. His teeth weren’t good enough for this last assault as he unleashed his fearsome flames and sent it surging out his mouth and onto his opponent.

Feeling the searing pain of having his belly both torn and burned, Gorosaurus’ squeals of pain intensified. His legs stopped pawing at the air and went straight out behind him as his tail immediately went limp. His head fell back and his screeches of agony ceased, his mouth began discharging huge amounts of white, frothy foam. His eyes blinked rapidly as somewhere deep inside his saurian brain he knew he was about to die.

Baragon felt the fight fade from Gorosaurus and turned off his flame. The subterranean beast completed his previous bite by tearing out a huge chunk of charred belly meat, leaving a gaping, bloody hole in its place. That trauma was too much for Gorosaurus to take in and, though he had fought incredibly well, he could not overcome this latest wound. His legs now turned motionless while his long tongue flopped out from the foam filled mouth, and lastly, his bright eyes went dim, life finally leaving his body.

Baragon gulped down the mouthful of belly meat then let out a cry of victory. He plunged his head down into the hole he had created on the other dinosaur’s belly and began feasting on the entrails. The subterranean beast had suffered terrible injuries and his fallen foe’s nutrient rich organs would be just what he needed to begin healing.

“I can’t believe we got to see this!” Grant exclaimed, barely keeping his camera pointed straight on the feasting kaiju from all of the excitement surging through his body. “A real kaiju fight! And we got the whole thing on video!”

“We’re gonna be stinking rich!” Ken replied.

Both of them knowing they were not returning for their senior year now, but instead, will be living off on the coming royalties.

Winner: Baragon (Universal)

Author: Dao Zang Moua | Banner: Dao Zang Moua

It’s been three years since civilization fell to the monsters.

Dust and debris coated the desolate streets of the Central Valley, with stores and buildings pockmarked with shattered windows or missing chunks of walls. Hiding within a large supermarket, a young woman in a black hoodie and a large backpack peered over the bricks towards a four-way intersection. She could hear the sickening sound of flesh being torn apart as she noticed three man-sized winged creatures voraciously tearing into the corpse of a large grey reptilian monster, their horrid triangular heads dribbled with flesh and blood as they scavenged. As one of them turned towards the store, the girl ducked her head down as she searched for a place to hide, holding a small green magatama.

Humanity arrogantly thought we could defend our nations from any attacks that could happen, whether it be by land, air, or sea.

Panicking, she jumped behind the nearby counter and hid beneath the partially destroyed wood. A loud screech echoed through the air as the creature landed on the destroyed wall. Bricks shifted and fell as the monster surveyed the inside of the store. As it walked about within the store, the girl pulled out a knife that was tied onto her belt. She could smell the foul stench of decaying flesh on the creature as the monster walked closer.

They hadn’t prepared for an attack from all three simultaneously.

The creature released a loud, high pitch screech forcing the girl to cover her ears. Dropping to the floor, a yellow beam of sonic energy sliced through the wooden counter and into the wall just above her. With a burst of adrenaline, the woman started to sprint towards the open doorway. Upon seeing the fleeing girl, the Gyaos cackled in hunger as it took flight.

The skies were overtaken by hordes of Gyaos and Meganeura, devastating the air force.

She continued to run for the nearest cover as the other two Gyaos noticed her presence and followed suit. Just before these creatures could take her as their meal, a long tongue flew through the air and wrapped around the Gyaos closest to the woman as she ducked into another building. Behind her, the Gyaos was pulled into the sharp maw of another monster. This one was of the same species as the creature being devoured by the Gyaos previously. It was bipedal with a long, slithering tail with a bony armored face.

The armies were hit by surprise when the attacks came from all angles from underground to the skies themselves.

It crunched down on the bones and flesh of the Gyaos, blood splattering onto the surroundings. Quickly swallowing the bird, it twisted around and slammed its tail into the second Gyaos, sending it through a window, dead. All the while, it captured the third in its long tongue, where it brutally crunched down on its body. The head and wings of the Gyaos fell to the ground as they were bitten through by the sharp teeth of this sneaky predator. Its deep roar called through the destroyed streets as it stalked past several buildings.

Naval forces were sunk beneath the waves after continuous attacks from aquatic monsters such as Gezora, Ganimes, and Kamoebas. Swarms of invisible Kamacuras and endless waves of the monsters labeled “Skullcrawlers” devoured all traces of land military forces. With no defenses left, the world became a hell filled with monsters.

Watching the Skullcrawler walking away towards its nest, the girl released a sigh of relief. She walked over towards the dead Gyaos and stabbed it in the neck, wanting to make sure it was dead before she took it with her as the blood seeped out of its wounds. Picking up her bag of canned food, she walked cautiously out of the store. Food was scarce these days with the livestock all gone and the farms destroyed. Most stores held decaying meat and plants while canned food slowly disappeared from looting. Dragging the dead Gyaos, Alice Angelo surveyed her surroundings carefully. She knew that most of the Central Valley belonged to the Skullcrawlers, but she had seen several Kamacuras hunting in the past couple days. She knew that her survival today was pure coincidence and that she would have died had the Skullcrawler not decided to make a meal out of it.

Alice was in school when the monsters attacked her town. She had only survived when rubble covered the table she was hiding under, leaving her hidden from the reptilian monsters. She was forced to watch as they devoured those who were less fortunate during the attack. The other survivors of the attack had either left to find family or died scavenging for food, leaving her the last human hiding within the school. Placing the dead Gyaos on a shopping cart, she started back in the direction of her school. It was the safest shelter she had with working electricity due to some of the solar panels still functioning. Heading into the schoolyard, she passed by the makeshift graves that were made for her fellow students. A skittering noise echoed nearby, the sound of something moving closer put her alert. Pulling out her knife, she turned around quickly preparing for the worse to happen. Sighing, she put her knife away as she moved towards a snail-like creature with long yellow and orange tentacles. Its head was rounded with three stubby hornlike protrusions and black spherical eyes on the side.

“Nice to see you too Iris,” she said as she patted the creature’s head tenderly. The baby monster mewled, rubbing its smooth head into the girl’s hand. She had found Iris’s egg while scavenging one day, trapped within a museum with a Gyaos chasing after her. The egg had hatched when she picked up the magatama amulet next to it in the display case. The Gyaos was quickly pierced and drained by the newborn monster the moment it hatched. At first, she was scared that it would do the same to her before she had felt some sort of emotional bond form between them, with the magatama glowing brightly. After taking care of the creature for a while, she decided to name it Iris after her favorite flower. Looking behind the baby creature, she noticed the drained empty shell of a large Meganulon hunched over in the rubble.

“I see you found some food already,” she noted, moving back to the cart.

Pulling the cart over towards the school cafeteria, she dumped the body onto the ground outside and grabbed her bag of food. Seeing the body of the dead Gyaos ripe for the taking, Iris lifted up one of its many tendrils and stabbed into the creature’s neck. The tendril then began to bulge as the tiny creature drained all the fluids, leaving behind only skin and bone. Meanwhile, Alice was busy opening a can of beans and started cooking with what little seasoning she could procure. Baby Iris levitated nearby as he watched his human preparing her meal. A loud skittering noise could be heard from outside along with high pitch chittering. The sounds of things being knocked over outside caused the girl to shudder in fear. Several glowing eyes could be seen outside the broken windows moving closer to the building. Feeling a sense of calm from her magatama amulet, she patted Baby Iris on his shell.

“Iris, dinner time,” Alice remarked, taking cover as the Meganulon pounded on the walls and windows of the room. The floating Baby Iris moved over towards the windows and pierced multiple Meganulon through their eyes and began to feast on his prey. Several of the smaller Meganulon burst through the windows over their larger brethren as they attempted to spray the human with a suspicious green sticky fluid, covering the ground and table she was hiding behind. Iris smacked away the Meganulon with his free tentacles as he pierced through their shells to devour their precious fluids. Alice felt a warmth flow through her body from the magatama as it glowed warmly around her neck. Moving out from the now sticky table, she turned back towards the cooking beans. Baby Iris mewled out towards his human as he dragged the husks of the Meganulon away from the building.

After they had their meal, Alice set up one of the nurse beds as she prepared to sleep the day off. The sound of Gyaos fighting in the night sky reminded her of the dangers night brings as she barricaded the doorway. Taking care to block off all entrances, she then went to rest as Iris laid its head on her peacefully.

*******

Several hours into the night, the sound of footsteps outside awoke the young kaiju from its rest. Taking care not to awaken its priestess, Iris began to inspect his surroundings carefully. He slowly made his way towards the noise, whispers in the distance, with his tendrils ready to attack.

“I told you, this place would be one of the first couple of areas that would be looted,” a feminine voice whispered outside.

“Shut up and check for anything that might be useful,” another voice said, this one male. The two slowly made their way closer to the building as Iris prepared to strike.

The doorway slowly crept open as a figure began slowly making its way inside. They didn’t make it far however, as once the figures crossed the threshold, Iris struck. His tendrils quickly slammed the figure in the gut knocking the air out of their body. Iris then quickly wrapped her up in his tentacles and held his draining spear point ready as a precaution.

“Sam!” The male voice yelled as he broke through the doorway, awakening Alice from her sleep.

“Wha…?” Alice awakened with a mild yawn, confused and out of focus, until a gunshot fired in the darkness, causing her to flinch erratically.

Iris, sensing his partner’s fear, screeched in anger as a bullet ricocheted off his shell. He quickly knocked this new man away with a blow from his tendril. The man quickly smashed through a desk, his gun slipping from his hand. Before he could reach for it, he found a sharp tendril aiming at his head, receding for only a second before shooting forth.

“Iris NO!” Alice shouted, causing the tendril to stop mere inches from the man’s eye.

Backing away, the man went to reach for his gun, only for the tendril to stab into the ground between his hand and the weapon. Now fully awake, Alice surveyed the room and saw two unfamiliar faces in her sanctuary. She picked up the gun and aimed it at the mysterious intruders before turning to Iris, seeing him squeezing a girl in his tendrils.

“Release her, now!”

Begrudgingly, Iris obeyed as he released the girl from his grasp, dropping her next to the man as they held their hands up in surrender.

“We’re sorry for intruding,” the girl apologized, “we didn’t know anyone was living in these ruins.”

Alice stared at them suspiciously before checking outside to see whether any monsters had heard the commotion. Seeing none, she slowly closed the door and began to question her new captives.

“I don’t know who you are, but I don’t have much food to spare for more than a single person to survive,” she stated, putting the gun down.

“Could you tell your little abomination to back off?” the man barked bitterly, adding “Please” begrudgingly as Iris held his tendril closer to his neck at the insult.

A small glow from the comma shaped bead of orichalcum was all that was needed as Iris pulled away its tendrils, holding them protectively around his bonded partner.

“So why here?”

The girl opened her mouth to answer, only for the man to hold a hand out and sighed, prepared to explain. “There was a military announcement over the radio about a week ago about a bunker in Devil’s Slide just three days north of here. It called for any survivors in California to try to make it there. Said they had enough emergency food stockpiled to feed a city and enough firepower to drive away the kaiju for some time.”

“We were passing through searching for food when Chad and Tim here decided to check out the nearby school for supplies,” Sam, the girl, explained.

“Wait, so there’s three of you?” Alice asked.

Just then, the fire alarm system in the school started to sound out in the overhead speakers, causing the three to hold their ears at the sudden noise.

“Damn it! Turn them off!” Alice shouted, rushing out of the building towards the main office. The moment she entered the office, she found a large man fumbling about trying to turn off the PA System alarm.

“Shit! Why does this place still have electricity!” He shouted in a panicked sweat, smashing the system to pieces to finally shut down the alarms. Wiping his brow, he turned his head only to receive a punch across the face.

“You idiot! You’re going to attract the bigger monsters!” Alice scolded, with Sam and Tim rushing in after her. Tim helped Chad up as Sam held back Alice. “You have no idea what monsters live in this city.”

Chad held his face as he stared at the girl in front of him.

“Who the hell is this chick?” He quizzically remarked, trying to push forward. Sam and Tim held him back as Alice checked outside. The four then started on their way back to the nurse’s office when Alice felt Iris push a warning through their connection. Holding her amulet, she motioned for the three to quiet down as she listened to the surroundings. For several seconds, there was only silence. It was only the distinct rumbling of the Skullcrawler that alerted her to the dangers around them. Looking forward, she saw the dim moonlight slowly light up an elongated bony head. Two beady eyes stared at the four meals in front of him as the rumbling grew in intensity.

“RUN FOR IT!” Chad shouted out as he pushed past the three others, knocking them to the ground. The three rushed to get back up only to hear the screams of Chad as he found himself being pulled back and up over their heads. The red tongue retracted as a multitude of sharp teeth tore into the flesh of the human, gulping him down. The remaining three humans then split off into different directions prompting the Skullcrawler to screech out in joy at having such energetic prey.

The reptilian creature then rushed forth giving chase towards the male of the group, knocking the others away with a wild swipe of its tail. Tim reached down to his side, only to remember that Alice still had his handgun. Cursing to himself, he ducked into a nearby building causing the reptilian predator to follow after, smashing its head into the building. Alice was quick to roll back to her feet as she ran for the nurse’s office. Iris floated out of the building with her backpack of food in one of its tentacles. She then jumped onto the creature’s large shell, as she grabbed and slung the bag over her shoulders. The monster-human pair then started to float upwards towards the roof where they would be out of view. Before they could make it far, however, a hand grasped onto Alice’s leg.

“Take me with you!” Sam pleaded as she held tightly onto the other girl’s leg. “We have a truck out on the street to help us get away.” Tim started to run over to the two as Iris began lifting into the air slowly. A loud crashing sound resounded as the Skullcrawler smashed into some rubble.

“Let go!” Alice shouted, Iris struggling to keep afloat with both women weighing him down.

“Wait for me!” Tim screamed in a desperate plea as he rushed towards the two. However, ravenous jaws quickly snapped upon his body and clamped shut around his abdomen. The man’s lower half fell to the ground as the creature greedily swallowed the meat in its maw. The Skullcrawler roared out as it noticed the other two humans and Iris in its vision. It then rushed towards them with its maw open.

Moments before it could chomp down on the three, a loud whooshing noise sounded out. The Skullcrawler found itself being lifted skyward as it started struggling against some invisible force. Fluids dripped from the sky as a single Kamacuras chittered in delight. It had been searching for food for some time now, and its prey had walked right into its path. The two girls watched as the insect brought the small reptile towards its powerful mandibles. The crunch of bones being shattered snapped some sense into them as they ran towards the street. Blood fell to the ground as the screams of the Skullcrawler faded.

“Let’s just get to that truck of yours and get out of here while we can,” Alice exclaimed, with Iris floating behind them. The ground began to rumble around them as Alice grabbed hold of Sam and dove into the overgrown shrubbery. Moments after, a white foot slammed down onto the area they were standing as a long tail swung through the air. The whip-like tail slapped the Kamacuras across the face, forcing the insect back. The body of the partially eaten Skullcrawler fell to the ground as the tail retracted back towards the nearby neighborhood.

The insect chittered in anger as it searched for its attacker. It didn’t take long as a second, larger Skullcrawler rose up on its two legs, a partially eaten Gyaos in its maw. Swallowing the dead bird, the vile lizard barked at this intruder in his species’ territory, with Kamacuras returning the challenge with its own territorial screech. The Skullcrawler charged forth, shoving the insect backward through the school ruins.

“We have to go now!” Alice shouted, as she headed towards the only vehicle that wasn’t crushed or burned down. “One problem,” Sam pointed out, as Iris sat on the truck’s back with the backpack held tightly. “Tim has the keys.” Alice stared back towards the school as the two giants fought for dominance. “Damn it,” she muttered, rushing back to where the first Skullcrawler had died.

Above the school ruins, the two monsters struggled to push each other back. The Skullcrawler rushed forth as he bit into the insect’s abdomen and began to wrap his long body around it, the mantid screeching out as it felt the sharp teeth of the reptile pierce its body. Lifting up its claw, the Kamacuras began to slam it down on the monster’s back, only to strike the bony armored ribs of the Skullcrawler. As the long tail wrapped around its body, the insect found itself struggling more and more as it continued its assault on the ravenous predator.

The gluttonous reptile squeezed as he felt the insect’s tough armor beginning to crack under the pressure. Then he felt a sharp pain in his side as the mantis finally managed to pierce flesh. The reptile released his bite on the insect to howl in pain. Taking the chance, the giant mantis slammed its sharp claw into the monster’s face, batting it aside. With swift speed, it latched its claws around the Skullcrawler’s head and neck, holding it shut as the monster struggled to free itself. Leaning down, the insect opened its mandibles and pulled the reptile in close, knowing these mandibles evolved for slicing through armor and easily tore into the bony exterior of the Skullcrawler.

The reptile began to panic as its facial armor was easily ripped through. Unwrapping itself from the insect’s body, the reptilian menace of Skull Island lashed out. The long tail wrapped around the insect’s neck, pulling the Kamacuras away from the reptile’s head as it started using its elbow claw to push against the strong grip of the insect’s claws. As they struggled, the large mantis began to push back the Skullcrawler, trying hard to knock it down to feed. Blood poured from the open wound on the reptile’s face as it twisted its arm and stabbed the sharp elbow spike into the mantis’s body.

Kamacuras screeched in pain as it released its hold on the lithe lizard. Claws freed the reptile as it rushed to gain distance from the dangerous insect. Red liquid slowly poured from a large hole in the reptile’s bony head, revealing flesh beneath. On the opposing side, the large mantis reeled back as yellowish green fluids dripped from its wounds. The insect chittered as it lifted its wings and took to the air. The Skullcrawler began to warily stare about its surroundings, trying to catch sight of the insect. A sudden blow to the side forced the subterranean reptile to reel back in pain. Another blow hit from behind followed swiftly by another blow to the side.

******

Below the action, two humans were struggling to avoid the battle as they searched through the rubble for the remains of the men. They were forced to duck as the Skullcrawler was knocked down over them, crashing to the ground just meters from their bodies.

“I just had to forget about disabling the fire alarm,” Alice cursed under her breath as they ran to avoid being crushed by the large reptile. As the Skullcrawler rose, they noticed a crushed body below it as the monster roared to the sky. Seeing this, Alice rushed forth as the great beast barreled forth towards its invisible foe. The whipping tail of the large monster flew overhead as she slid across the ground towards the two crushed bodies. Searching through the pockets, she managed to find a bloodied car key, grabbed it and began to turn towards the street. The moment she did, a drop of drool landed in front of her.

Looking up, she saw the drooling maw of the injured Skullcrawler staring down at her. As it opened its mouth, she saw the multitude of teeth inside as it shot downward. She flinched as the Skullcrawler dove down towards her; whether it was fate or pure luck, she would never forget the terror that was pouring through her. Two claws latched onto the jaws of the Skullcrawler as the Kamacuras landed on the back of the reptile, pulling it skyward. Tentacles quickly wrapped around her body as Iris pulled his priestess out of the falling behemoth’s path. Now on the street, the two girls ran back to the truck and went to start its engine.

“Woo! Got it working.” Sam celebrated, pushing down hard on the gas pedal. The truck powered forward, driving over the various rocks on the street as they passed by the battle. Iris held tightly to the back of the truck as it stared at its surroundings passing it by fast. “Devil’s Slide, here we come!”

The ground began to shake as they drove along the street. Alice began to stare around warily for the cause only for the ground in front of them to burst open, a large bony head rising from the ground.

“Turn around!” she shouted as the truck skidded to a stop just in front of the giant reptile, almost double the size of the currently occupied one. “Oh no,” she said with dreaded anticipation, watching the giant skull rising higher, “the big one’s awake.”

The massive Skullcrawler sniffed the air around him as he climbed out of the ground. It had been some time since he had awoken, but a constant rumbling in the ground had warned him that something was trespassing on his territory. The sound of the truck’s engine caught his attention as he watched the vehicle driving away. As his stomach began to rumble, the Alpha Skullcrawler rushed forth, wanting to settle his hunger.

******

Kamacuras held tightly onto the Skullcrawler’s face as the monster bit down on its claws. With its major weapons held tightly in its maw, the mantis quickly began to flap its wings, dragging the reptile across the grounds and slamming it through the rubble of various buildings. With concrete and bricks slamming into his face constantly, the Skullcrawler attempted to lash out with its tail with little success. It began to use its powerful legs to try to push against the ground only for the mantis to forcefully slam its head into the ground.

The giant mutant mantis took great glee as it continued to slam the reptile into the ground. Then with a spark of inspiration, it stopped its path of destruction to fly higher into the sky. Slowly, the large insect began to lift the heavy reptile into the sky as the Skullcrawler continued to hold onto the two claws in its maw. With a loud screech, Kamacuras pulled the lizard close and opened its mouth. The Skullcrawler saw the mantis leaning closer to its eye and released its bite; the moment it did, Kamacuras released its hold on the massive reptile.

The Skullcrawler fell to the ground in a large mess, one of its arms had broken from the fall. Collapsing to the ground, the reptile laid unmoving as the large mantis landed in front of it. Seeing his foe unmoving, the large mantis screeched in happiness as it went to eat. As it leaned down, however, the Skullcrawler opened its mouth as its long tongue wrapped around the insect’s neck, pulling it forward. Kamacuras reeled back in surprise as the large reptile crunched down on the insect’s neck, trying its hardest to break through the tough chitin. The two slammed into the ground with the Skullcrawler on top of the mantis.

Kamacuras went to slam its claws into the reptile’s flesh, only for the reptile’s two arms to slam them to the ground. Pinned to the ground, the insect had no choice as it screeched into the sky. A loud crunching began to echo as the Skullcrawler slowly made progress in breaking through the insect’s body. A loud buzzing sounded out above the the skull-faced cretin as something barreled into its side. Now freed, the Kamacuras stood up as a second mantis made its presence known. The two mantis had separated from their swarm to hunt and nest. The female mantis smacked its mate as they turned to the reptile in front of them. Its flesh would be able to feed them for some time if they managed to take it down. The injured Skullcrawler glared at its two opponents as it limped upright. With a loud roar, it went to strike as the two insects took the skies.

In the distance, a lone truck weaved through rubble as a large monstrosity chased close behind. The roars of the Skullcrawler sounded out as it chased after the humans and baby monster driving away from it.

“Sam, he’s still following after us!” Alice yelled, as she watched the large reptile chasing after them. Taking aim, she started to fire the handgun trying to hit the large monster’s eyes with little success.

“I know that, now shut up!”

The large reptile then snapped its jaws just behind the truck, pushing it forward as Iris stared at the large monster following. The baby kaiju seemed to call out as the orichalcum bead began glowing. Alice felt Iris’s mind connect with her own. Several plans began to go through their minds as they watched the larger monster gaining on them.

“Quick, we need to turn around,” Alice shouted, clenching the orichalcum bead that hung from her neck.

“Are you crazy?” Sam shouted as a second bite nearly knocked over their truck. “You want us to go back to the fight with the Kamacuras and Skullcrawler!?”

“If we bring it to the fight, it will probably join its brethren in defending their territory from the Kamacuras,” Alice explained. “Kaiju are very territorial.”

Thinking it over quickly, Sam grumbled as she saw the mammoth Skullcrawler’s mouth coming closer. She then made a quick turn causing the Skullcrawler to trip as it tried to snatch the truck in its maw. It quickly got back to its feet and started chasing once more, watching as the truck went back the way they came.

The injured lizard shrieked at the pair of insects as it swung its body around. The long tail whipped through the air, but struck nothing as the two insects continued buzzing around him. The male Kamacuras acted quickly and slashed into the injured leg of the Skullcrawler, forcing it to the ground before flying away. The moment he did, the female Kamacuras slashed the reptile across the side, cutting into its flesh. The all-consuming fiend screeched in pain as it twisted about only for a Kamacuras to slam its claw into the bony head of the reptile. Dazed, it found itself being pinned to the ground as the two mantis began to slash and tear into its flesh. The female mantis lifted its claw and brought it down onto the opening in the Skullcrawler’s calcified anterior, tearing through flesh and killing the reptile. As the two insects celebrated their new meal, a new sound caught their attention.

The sound of an automated vehicle caused them to turn and watch as a single truck sped past them. Compound eyes remained fixated on the truck, flexing their mandibles in hungry anticipation. Though without realizing it, quiet footfalls shuffled behind them, slowly and cautiously slithering through the ruins. Then, when the moment was right, the the Alpha Skullcrawler barreled into them. The male Kamacuras screeched, as powerful jaws latched onto his side and started to sway from side to side. This new larger Skullcrawler continued to swing the male mantis about, trying to tear through its tough bug chitin.

With a loud roar, the Alpha Skullcrawler swung its body around to slap the other female mantis with its long tail. The female took to the sky, avoiding the tail before it descended upon the larger Skullcrawler. Latching onto the reptile’s back, the mantis began hacking away at it. Her sharp claws bouncing off the tough bones covering the back of the reptile as the Skullcrawler slammed the male Kamacuras into the ground, before releasing the mantis and slamming his sharp claws into the male’s chest, effectively pinning it to the ground. Grabbing hold of one of the mantis’ arms, the reptile tore off the appendage causing the male insect to cry out in pain.

In response to seeing her mate being injured, the female Kamacuras latched its claws onto the reptile’s two legs and pulled them inward. The Skullcrawler found itself falling onto its face as the female pulled its legs out from under him. The male Kamacuras cried out as the head of the Skullcrawler smashed into his body. Lifting his remaining claw, the male jammed it into the eye of the Alpha Skullcrawler, causing the reptile to reel back in pain.

Now freed, the male mantis flew into the sky with yellow blood leaking from its wounds. The female mantis released her hold on the Skullcrawler’s legs as she joined her mate in the sky. The Alpha Skullcrawler roared into the sky as the two insects screeched back and began to fly around the reptile at high speeds, leaving afterimages of their bodies around the reptile.

The Alpha Skullcrawler roared out as he lunged forward with his maw open, slamming them down on an afterimage. The moment he did so, he was struck in the side by the sharp claws of the mantises. Twisting around, he began to whip his long tail throughout the air trying to strike one of the two speedy insects. More blows began to strike his tough bony hide as he continued his assault on the air.

Sniffing the air, he began to watch the images closely as more strikes hit his body. He noticed that the male was lagging behind before each strike and took advantage of the injured insect. Opening his mouth, the reptile shot out his tongue into the air and the male Kamacuras found itself slamming into the long muscle. The tongue shot back towards the large reptile with its prey captured as the male struggled to get free. Moments before he managed to reel in his prey, a green blur flew past and sliced through the tongue, freeing her mate.

The Alpha Skullcrawler roared out in pain as blood flowed from his severed tongue. Twisting around, he latched onto the male Kamacuras with his long tail and pulled. The large insect found his body being swung around before being slammed into the ground near the Skullcrawler’s face. The large reptile lunged forward and tore into the insect’s head, tearing through one of the insect’s bulbous eyes. With blood pouring from his wounds, the male Kamacuras began to slam its claw into the calcified face, its blows bouncing off. Before more damage could be done to her mate, the female lashed out with its claws, prying open the Skullcrawler’s mouth, freeing him from its hold.

The large reptile then flipped over intending to crush the insect under its weight. Acting quickly, the female mantis flew into the air as the Skullcrawler landed on its back. With its belly revealed, the female quickly slammed her body into the unarmored flesh. The Skullcrawler bellowed in pain as it felt the insect slamming into his body. He started twisting around trying to right himself, only for the male to pin down his arms. Together, the two insects started to slice and tear into the unarmored flesh of the Alpha Skullcrawler, drawing blood and tearing out organs. Slowly, the struggling of the reptile began to die down as the two insects continued to tear into its flesh. Not wanting their prey to fake death again, the male Kamacuras turned its body and slashed its claw through the reptile’s neck. Triumphant, the two insects started to devour their new fresh meat, savoring both its taste and the knowledge that this part of the valley would now be their territory.

Several blocks away, a single truck drove through the ruins of the city and away from the battle behind them.

“Well, at least your plan worked,” Sam sighed with relief as the truck continued speeding through the rubble of the abandoned city.

“Of course it worked,” Alice smirked as the magatama stopped glowing. “Iris thought it up.”

“As if some small monster in the back of a truck could somehow speak and tell you a plan,” she replied sarcastically. “By the way, the road ahead is going to be rough. Who knows when any of those monsters infesting this state might appear and try to kill us.”

Alice merely smiled, leaning back into her seat. The sun slowly began rising, warming them up slightly with its gentle glow. Holding tight to her amulet, she could feel the warmth radiating from it as Iris sent its excitement at travel and the chance to hunt through their connection.

“As long as they aren’t too big, Iris should be able to handle them.”

Winner: Kamacuras (Universal)

Author: Connor Clennell | Banner: Landon Soto

[Continued from Match 259]

It was cold. The coldest place anywhere on the planet. For millions of years, Antarctica was the harshest, most inhospitable place found on Earth. A frozen land of fierce blizzards and wide ice fields that tested the abilities of the creatures with the bravery to scrounge a living out of the soil. Sunlight rarely reached here, at the bottom of the world, but provided just enough for plant life to grow.

For a being like Ultraseven, this was the wrong place to be.

Braving the whistling winds and thick snowfall, the crimson-clad giant crossed the skies over the continent. He was on a mission, a matter of urgent importance, and a hasty accomplishment was needed, given the environment he traversed. Choosing to forfeit the commonplace Color Timers associated with his people for the naturally-occurring Beam Lamp meant that Ultraseven lacked the ability to store the solar energy he needed for reserve. As such, the metallic armor that dressed his breast and biceps doubled as solar collectors, constantly gathering energy for the Ultra, while the Beam Lamp functioned as an indicator of Seven’s physical strength over a warning to an imposed time limit.

But out here, sunlight was in short supply. What light reached the continent was reduced further by seas of dark cloud and frequent snow storms, leaving one of M78’s finest struggling to collect enough power to maintain his gigantic form. Experience had taught Seven the dangers of battling in such conditions, with his encounters against Gandar, Giradorus, and the Alien Kanan long in the past. Those fights had been short and efficient, and with any luck, so would any that awaited him at his destination.

The world was changing and moving on from the past. When giant monsters appeared across the world in the wake of the first Godzilla’s attack in 1954, many organizations were formed to address and control the growing population through whatever means they preferred. Throughout the Showa period of Japan, each generation of these monster-attacking crews gained the support of Ultraseven’s brothers-in-arms, forging friendships and comradery between Ultra and Man. But modernization was affecting everything, and the remnants of those attack teams had been disbanded and absorbed into the larger governmental operations. Decades of history, lost inside the militarized hustle and bustle of the UNGCC and AMF.

Only the Science Special Search Party and Ultra Garrison had escaped such a fate, but their funding and resources were greatly cut. As a consequence, both sister teams were relocating to smaller, under-equipped headquarters, out of sight from the public eye, while the main defense force reveled in the full exposure. Was this how Japan rewarded its heroes? Pushing them into the shadows when their own ego was on the line? It made the warrior of peace’s heart boil with rage.

So when he’d showed up at the current Ultra Garrison base in his human guise to assist in collecting the equipment for transfer (not that any of the staff recognized him with the numerous roster changes in his absence), and unintentionally intercepted a distress signal, he leapt at the chance to return some pride to the team and his old friends. Any act by the intergalactic agent would be trailed back to the organization, by proxy of being their unofficial seventh member. Even after all the years since his time on Earth, the irony of being two members of a seven-man force was not lost on Ultraseven.

The transmission came from a research base on the Antarctic coast. What their mission was, Seven wasn’t sure. Most likely surveys on local temperature or wildlife populations in the region; people rarely came to the planet’s backend for anything besides investigation into the effects of global warming on the continent. That subject was for another time. From what he got from the garbled message, a gigantic creature had appeared and attacked the base, putting the stationed team in great danger in their isolated location. Seven had set out to the coordinates provided at the fastest speeds he could accomplish, and prayed he would arrive in time.

Through the snowfall’s white shroud, a dark mass became visible. Even with eyesight hundreds of times superior to a human’s, Seven struggled to fully identify what lay before him, but it was undoubtedly a building. He had arrived at the site of the transmission at last. The red giant dropped from the air, sinking ankle deep into the thick snowdrift with a heavy thud as he crossed the final mile on foot. With each yard gained, the structure and its details grew clear to his illuminated eyes.

It didn’t look like any base he had ever seen. The structure buried in the thick snow resembled a factory or warehouse more than a research station. It was a far cry from a suitable shelter as well, with parts of it dilapidated or collapsed. Helicopters and vehicles were scattered around the complex, coated with rust and dulled paint from so many years exposed to the elements. From the looks of it, no living thing had used the base for many years, yet someone had tried to summon others here. Why?

There was a sense of familiarity in the back of Ultraseven’s mind. Deep in the confines of his centuries-old mind, part of the star navigator recognized the abandoned base. He’d seen it before; not in person, but in second-hand reports from government forces, dating back to the year of 1967…

A booming, grating sound echoed from the innards of the structure, reverberating across the ice-coated plains and frozen coast. Seven was instantly alert, taking up a stance more suitable for combat as his amber eyes watched the abandoned base for the source of the cry. From the broken roof of the main building, a shimmering mass, partly dulled from the build-up of frost across its surface, rose up. Pushing away the frozen debris around it, the stranger stood tall and mighty amidst the broken structures. It was humanoid, but any defining features were obscured from Ultraseven’s eyes by the thick rain of snow around him.

With a loud crash, the newcomer kicked through the warehouse’s wall, breaking out of the ancient building with the ease of flattening a sandcastle at the beach. The run-down structure was no match against the mysterious creature’s strength, allowing it to step out onto the wide, snow-laden ground beyond the complex’s boundaries.

Now, Seven could see the creature clearly, and its features were unmistakable to the eyes of the Ultra Warrior. It was a metallic ape, standing just as tall as the alien hero. It stepped out from the wreckage with clunking motions, its lamp-like eyes glowing brightly within the blinding snowfall as a screeching roar boomed from the automaton’s mouth.

The memories pieced together perfectly with the mechanical ape’s appearance. A scientific expedition, the machinations of a mad man, a heart-bounding battle atop Tokyo Tower, and an explosive conclusion in the waters of Tokyo Bay. With the complete information, Seven realized the identity of the abandoned base – the former headquarters of the International Judas, Doctor Who!

And the menacing robot striding towards him, the mad criminal’s Mechani-Kong!

Ultraseven raised his fists and sprinted towards the robotic doppelganger. Whatever its purpose here was, he would not grant the machine any chance to complete its mission. Servos whirred and pistons pumped as Mechani-Kong reared back its right arm, throwing its fist forward as Seven came into striking distance. The metal limb struck him square between the eyes, throwing the armored warrior back with explosive force. He crashed to the ground, sinking into the deep drifts of snow with a puff of white flakes as he groaned in agony. The giant’s arms and legs refused to obey his commands, twitching pathetically against the cold, frozen earth. He’d severely underestimated the robotic primate’s strength, and now suffered the consequences for it.

As he lay sprawled across the white ground, Mechani-Kong trudged closer. Its thick legs whirred loudly as it diverted power to keep them moving in the presence of the building frost and thick snowdrifts. The metallic gorilla cocked its arm back again, the gears within locking up for another powerful strike. The looming form of the automaton spurred Ultraseven into action despite his delirious state, and as Mechani-Kong’s fist shot forth, he rolled to the side with seconds to spare. Melted snow and wet mud shot up from the impact, spraying the right side of the robot with a thin, dark coating.

Seven stood up as Mechani-Kong recalibrated, turning stiffly towards the defender of peace and freedom. His hands rose to the metal crest on his head, securing it in the grip of his psychokinetic powers, and hurled it. The Eye Slugger glowed bright with a trail of flame-like energy as it slammed into Mechani-Kong’s forehead, causing the robot’s head to snap back, the entire body briefly stumbling before it corrected its balance. As the Eye Slugger returned to Seven’s head, the Kong of steel turned its luminous eyes back to the Ultraman, broadcasting its screeching cry. A dent marred its faceplate where the metal blade had struck, but the damage was minimal.

How was the robotic doppelganger here? Although his memory was still fuzzy on the full details, Seven knew definitely that Mechani-Kong had been destroyed in its battle with King Kong back in 1967, dismantled and scraped long ago. So how could it be standing here before, looking fresh as the day it was turned on?

The only answer that made sense to the alien guardian was that this was not the same machine, but a new creation. But that was impossible. Its creator was dead, slain at the vengeful hands of the same creature he’d based the automaton on. There was no possible way, after all this time, that Doctor Who was still alive.

Mechani-Kong belt low to the ground, pushing its hand past the snow and into the waterlogged ground underneath. Digging its fingers into the mud, the mechanical ape swung up its arm upward. A shower of dirt and ice flew from the machine’s fingertips in an arc, splattering across Ultraseven’s head and breast. The warrior’s front was coated before he could move out of its path, shouting out with searing pain as mud splashed across his boxy eyes. Flailing wildly, he tried to wipe away the thick substance, only smearing it across his vision more in his attempts as he fell to his knees. Seven thrust his hand deep into the snow around him, braving the fierce chill that engulfed his fingers as he grabbed a handful of slush-like ice and smothered it over his features. The added water helped to break the tension, clearing the crimson giant’s vision quickly, but his sight blurred, taking precious seconds to restore to normal.

Cold fingers grasped Seven’s neck, squeezing tight around it. He gasped for air and clutched at Mechani-Kong’s fingers to try and break the robotic gorilla’s seal. The robot’s grip was as strong as the steel it was made from, crushing Seven’s windpipe tighter despite his efforts to loosen its grip. It pushed its weight forwards, trying to force the warrior against the ground, where it would have better leverage to choke the life from the intergalactic agent.

Ultraseven’s hands found a new target, grabbing hold of Mechani-Kong’s wrists. Pulling using every ounce of strength, he flipped the metal ape over his shoulders. The imitator’s hold around his throat came loose as Seven hurled it across the terrain, crashing down in a burst of ice chunks and snow. Ultraseven slowly stood, his chest heaving while he rubbed his bruising neck to soothe the burning ache there. The feat to remove his attacker was impressive, but it had required a lot of his strength. With each passing moment, Seven could feel the cold Antarctic air permeating his body, robbing the red man of his precious body heat, and his strength with it. A prolonged fight was out of the question in conditions like these. The machine had to be put down immediately.

A sharp click brought Seven’s head up to attention. His body sprang to life as the sprawled Mechani-Kong sat up, tossing something small and metallic at the galactic warrior’s feet. He leapt to the side as the grenade went up, consuming the spot in a geyser of hot flames and shrapnel.

With grinding gears and screeching metal, the metallic Kong got to its feet. It dipped a bulky hand to the belt around its waist and unclipped another grenade, ripping out the pin before tossing it at Ultraseven, accounting for the fierce winds that might blow the explosive off-course. Just as it hit the ground, Seven jumped away from the ensuing explosion. Another grenade detached from the robot’s belt, repeating the same motions as before. Seven dove to the side once more, outpacing Mechani-Kong’s slower movements as the automation threw the explosive too slowly to take him off-guard.

Rolling into a crouch, the M78 denizen turned away from the blast to shield himself from the hail of scorched earth and metal fragments. Fresh heat washed over the custodian’s form briefly, warming his frigid bones just enough to keep his reflexes fresh. As a third grenade was unclipped, the warrior chose to stand his ground, crossing gazes with the lifeless doppelganger. The machine tossed its grenade, but as it flew across the distance, Seven extended his hand. Powerful psychokinetic waves engulfed the explosive as he made a swinging motion with his hand, which it replicated with perfect accuracy. It changed course in mid-air, flying back towards Mechani-Kong and slamming into the robotic primate’s chest, detonating instantly. It howled a scratchy copy of the true Kong’s roar as it was blown down from the blast force, crashing and sinking into the softening earth.

The simian machine began to push itself from the drowned soil, but several of the internal motors that drove its limbs failed to activate. Parts of its circuitry was disabled by the mighty force of the explosion, leaving Mechani-Kong slower and more vulnerable than before while it tried to reboot the damaged components.

Ultraseven took full advantage of the robot’s disabled status. He leapt atop the mechanical primate, using his legs to pin it down as he sat atop Mechani-Kong’s torso. Immediately, his foe tried to remove him from atop its prone form, but the metal ape’s responses were hindered by its weakened articulation, allowing Seven to lay down his assault without a challenge. His fists crashed against Mechani-Kong’s face plate and cranium over and over, striking the most vulnerable point of the deadly robot with every ounce of power to spare. His punches were relentless, and dents finally began to form in the metal from the Ultra Brother’s concentrated assault. It was slow progress, but with enough determination, he could break through the steel ape’s armor.

But it was not to be. Although disabled, Mechani-Kong still possessed other tricks within its metallic frame. As Seven sped up his assault, the robotic monolith jerked up its head, flashing bright beams of light from its eyes like gigantic spotlights. The attack was unexpected, and Seven was left with no chance to act as he took the full brunt of the blinding rays. Crying out, the red giant covered his eyes with an arm in an attempt to soothe the stinging agony. Bright spots flashed in his vision; it felt like thousands of needles were slowly being jammed into his eyes. His free hand flexed and grasped blindly, trying to relocate the mech’s head in his temporary blindness.

Those few seconds were the last measurements of time the armor-clad automaton needed, initiating the last reboot codes to its servos. With renewed flexibility, the machine’s steel arm lifted and crashed into the side of Ultraseven’s skull. He toppled off, rolling across the icy ground for a short distance before the resistance of the snow halted his momentum. Upon his forehead, the Beam Lamp started to blink an alarming red as his energy levels began to drop near dangerously low levels. In the current weather conditions, it was impossible to recharge, and the freezing winds robbed Seven of more strength by the passing moment.

The kaiju slayer was struggling for time against a foe that outclassed him in every way. It could turn out to be a fight that Ultraseven could not win.

Pushing against the rock-hard earth, Ultraseven struggled to rise, straining all of his shivering muscles to get him up as the stomping chorus of the killer gorilla grew closer and closer. Managing to rest upon his knees, he looked up as Mechani-Kong stepped out from the snowy haze, its colossal arms raised high over its head. The foreign protector only had time to raise his own arms in response, crossing over his head to catch the wrists of the Kong of steel as it swung down. He pressed against the metal forearms, fighting with all that he still had in him to hold them back, but it was not enough. Slowly, Ultraseven’s arms were forced down as the robot Kong exercised its incredible, unhindered power upon the hero. His back bended as he was forced closer and closer back to the ground, feeling the bones in his wrists crack under the unrelenting pressure…

Seven recognized that the physical duel was lost. The energy he had left needed to be used in better ways than wasted here. He dropped his arms, causing Mechani-Kong to stumble from the sudden lack of resistance. As it stopped to correct itself, Seven looked directly at the exposed throat of the automaton. Surging bolts of energy fired from his eyes into the machine ape’s neck, throwing off sparks as the heavy armor was compromised. Mechani-Kong staggered backwards, its speakers screeching incoherently, but the damage inflicted by the Eye Beams was not permanent.

While the mechanical terror reeled, Ultraseven rose and stood tall. At least for a moment, as the heroic giant suddenly wavered on the spot, head rolling as his vision blurred. The effects of his hampered stamina grew with every minute; the cosmic warrior needed to finish this right now. Seven managed to stabilize, bringing up his tired, quaking arms and setting them together to form a simple, yet powerful shape. With the back of his left hand pressing against the right elbow, his hands formed the image of a large “L” – the position for the Wide Shot. The last reserves of energy coursed through the limbs in preparation to deal the final blow to the resurrected robot…

Its silver hand grasped Seven’s by the wrist, holding it tightly as Mechani-Kong steadily applied pressure. The Ultra Warrior’s arms fell apart as he gasped, hands twitching in agony as the steel doppelganger squeezed with all its mechanical strength. Ultraseven’s screams reverberated across the empty landscape as Mechani-Kong crushed the bones in his right wrist, slowly and painfully. He chopped and punched the machine’s arm repeatedly, but its grip was just as strong as steel, and would relinquish it easily. With a final, gruesome snap, it released Ultraseven, shoving the crimson guardian back.

Ultraseven dropped to a knee, trembling from the unfathomable pain shooting down his arm. He clutched his broken wrist, gasping from the intensified agony that resulted as he tried to soothe the wound. The damage was already done, though. Ultraseven’s strongest techniques required the use of both hands, but with one no longer of use, most of the alien custodian’s arsenal was rendered unusable.

His crippled body was subjected to Mechani-Kong’s ferocity. One after the other, the robotic ape crashed its fists into Seven’s skull, with the Ultra Brother reeling badly from each overpowering strike. In the brief pauses between each swing, he tried to fight back, but his weakened blows were utterly ignored as the deadly machine continued its unrelenting beating. With a stern right hook, it sent Ultraseven crashing into the thick snow, who could only groan and twitch from exhaustion and wooziness. The odds were not in the favor of Earth’s protector, but he still pressed on with determination. As long as power flowed through his body, Ultraseven could still fight.

With the mechanical Kong looming over, he raised his functional arm. Frost and fatigue made the Ultra’s movements slow and stiff, the task of raising the limb a challenge in itself, but he succeeded in drawing the arm over his metallic protector. Electric Emerium power crackled out from the flashing Beam Lamp, but stopped only a few inches past the object. The beam flashed and wavered, unable to properly concentrate with Seven’s reserves beneath the ability to manipulate energy into attacks. It spluttered for a moment before retreating back into the flickering gem, earning what seemed like howls of laughter from Mechani-Kong’s scratchy speakers.

Panic engulfed Seven. His options were drying up by the second, and no other opportunities were presenting themselves. Perhaps this would be his final battle, a consequence of his overzealousness to protect the memory of his friends. The only weapon left was his Eye Slugger, which on its own could not pierce Mechani-Kong’s armor.

Mechani-Kong’s hand returned to its belt and unclipped a grenade. Seven could only watch, outstretching his hand as if to beg for mercy as the hominid pulled off its pin, raising the explosive high above its head. The joints in its arm hissed with compressed air, moving the limb upwards in preparation to…

The joints!

Seven grasped the Eye Slugger and all but ripped it from his head. With only one working arm, his aim and throwing power was impaired, but it had to work. Before Mechani-Kong could react, the guardian tossed the blade forward with the bit of might left in him. The Eye Slugger flew forwards under psychokinetic power, biting into the servos and cabling between the robot’s arm and shoulder with no resistance from the weaker materials. In one clean slice, it cut through, and the ape automaton’s limb fell to the ground, shooting sparks from both stumps.

Mechani-Kong howled, shaking the remaining arm wildly as it stomped the ground in confusion. After a moment, the machine reorganized itself and returned to its emotionless posture. It reached down for its belt and another grenade, but it stopped just as its hand hovered over the tools of destruction. The Kong of steel’s computer brain whirred, reanalyzing the previous events. It looked up in horror after a second.

The grenade in the robot Kong’s severed arm erupted, engulfing the lower half of the automaton in a titanic blast of fire and shrapnel. Mechani-Kong roared in defiance, but the cry was abruptly cut short as the belt of grenades was caught in the explosion as well. Flying shards of metal and intense heat activated all of the remaining explosives at once, and the mysteriously revived machine was swallowed up in the resulting colossal fireball. Ultraseven had to look away from the bright flames and intense heat, shielding his eyes from the inferno as scraps of metal rained down all around.

As the blaze shimmered down, Ultraseven rose to his feet. His body felt reenergized by the tremendous heat of the explosion, restoring enough of the scarlet giant’s strength to stand unsupported. Where Mechani-Kong once stood lay a wide, scorched crater in the earth, littered with broken machinery and mangled robotic limbs, but most of the artificial primate’s torso had remained intact, to his surprise.

This would have been the perfect opportunity to leave, but curiosity got the better of Ultraseven in spite of his failing health. He approached the machine’s remnants, warming himself with the lingering heat that radiated from the maimed machine as he examined it. With the immediate danger passed, Seven’s mind was allowed to wander and search for answers.

How could someone have built a new Mechani-Kong after all this time? The original had been sent to the scrap heap long ago, and the schematics for the robotic double lost with its creator. These facts did nothing to dispel the reality that the robot had nearly managed to take his life. Someone had put the time into making a new model of Mechani-Kong, but who, and what for? Why place it out in the middle of the Antarctic and send out a fake distress signal to lure others in?

Unless…

That was impossible! No way could anyone on Earth have known of his return, much less his human identity as well. Ultraseven’s mind reeled as the facts slotted together, slowly creating the full picture. A trap set exactly for him. Only a handful of people on the planet had the resources to execute such a scheme, but one name rang out in the Ultra’s head. An impossible name…

With a sharp crackle, Mechani-Kong’s eyes illuminated with blinding light. Ultraseven’s vision became nothing but a white glow as he cried out, waving his good arm in a blind attempt to block the glaring beams. The flash was only for a moment, disorientating the alien warrior as the broken automaton activated the real weapon.

Ultraseven swayed and staggered from the blinding flash. Everything to his eyes was blurry and unfocused, leaving his vision effectively useless, though the effects were only temporary. But as the details of his surroundings slowly grew clearer, Seven became aware of a new change to the environment. He tried to focus on the pulsing object, fearing for the worst with Mechani-Kong still active. It became revealed as his sight was fully restored, allowing Seven to recognize with horror the identity of the object. The hypnotic diode flashed with quick pulses of light behind its technicolor casing, illuminating the hero’s face as it drew in his gaze.

His senses screamed to turn or look away, but the alien giant’s body would not respond to his will. His amber eyes remained glued to the diode, entranced completely by the beacon and its assuring light signal. Ultraseven struggled to fight against its influence. He couldn’t give in! He had to fight it… had… had to…

The form of the Ultra Brother went stiff, arms drooping to the sides as his mind slumbered. Fully under Mechani-Kong’s spell, Ultraseven remained motionless in the dense snowfall, lit up by the hypnotic light’s pulsating rhythm. The robot did not let up on its task, despite its systems slowly failing from the extensive damage and power loss, but it did not matter in the long run, for it did not need to wait long.

Like flicking a switch, the snowstorm began to subside. Heavy winds and walls of snowflakes died down as the erected towers that generated them powered down, restoring the weather to much milder conditions. Based on the Weather Control Capsule constructed on Sollgel Island in 1967, the array of towers were an obvious improvement on the original design. Without the whistling artificial winds, the silence of the white landscape was interrupted by the whirring blades of helicopters. Six of the orange-and-cream flying vehicles emerged from the fading shroud and moved towards the abandoned base, with two breaking off towards the forms of Ultraseven and Mechani-Kong.

The twin craft slowly touched down, whipping up the loose snow dressing the earth into a miniature vortex, while the remaining four circled above. As the Jet Helicopters’ engines cut off and the rotors began to slow, the doors on each side of the crafts slid open to allow the passengers to disembark onto the ice. Men in silver bodysuits filed out, but a different figure stepped from the belly of the lead helicopter. He was wrapped in a thick, dark cloak that appeared too thin to insulate his frail physique, yet the man walked calmly away as if he could barely feel the chill.

The impossible truth was at last confirmed. Doctor Who still walked the Earth.

He approached the immobile form of Ultraseven, flanked by armed men in silver jumpsuits. They, too, showed no discomfort in the blistering cold as Doctor Who retrieved a microphone from within his coat. As he held it to his mouth, Mechani-Kong’s broken jaw screeched open, exposing the speakers housed within.

“Come down, Ultraseven.” The doctor’s voice boomed from Mechani-Kong’s mouth, silencing the whistling winds that would drown out all normal sound. “Join me at my side, where you belong.”

Ultraseven’s arms crossed over his stomach. At once, his giant size began to diminish at a rapid rate, becoming smaller and smaller at the rate of microseconds. Within a quick moment, the red Ultra had reduced himself to being no taller than the average man.

Trudging through the thick drifts of snow, the International Judas and his armed escort moved to the unresponsive giant’s position. Crooked, yellow teeth appeared from behind withered lips as a smile broke out across Doctor Who’s face, walking towards Ultraseven with the aura of greeting an old friend over collecting a prisoner. Next to the alien guardian, he appeared tiny, but the aura of coldness that accompanied him remained as strong as ever.

“I apologize for the circumstances of our meeting,” he explained with true sincerity. “You’re a very difficult man to get hold of, Ultraseven. Or perhaps you would prefer to be addressed as Mr. Moroboshi? I can imagine you’ve grown quite attached to that identity.”

“I’ve been watching this planet for a very long time. Far longer than the JSDF documents would have you believe,” he went on. Seven remained as inexpressive as ever in spite of the old man’s monologue. “Your people, in particular, have caught my attention. So much power in your possession, yet you squander it in the trivial purpose of “peace and justice.”” Doctor Who took on a sour expression from uttering the words. “Had I not been forced to remove myself from the attention of the world, I would have liked to study you and your brothers more.”

“But alas, you are here now before me!” the doctor exclaimed, spreading his arms before him as if to highlight the magnificence of the warrior. “We shall achieve great things working together. History will look back at this moment and recognize the power and genius… of Doctor Who.”

“Must you feed your ego at this time, human?”

The doctor’s arms fell to his sides and he turned, levelling his unamused expression towards the man who had spoken. Unlike the others, he sported a silver, twin horned helmet as a sign of his status. He met the eyes of Doctor Who without hesitation, wearing a smug grin across his features. “Perhaps if you didn’t boast about your power so much, you might have already been ruling this planet,” he snarked.

“Rule?” Doctor Who chuckled with mirth. “Such a bold accusation. I have no desire to rule, Mugal; you and your master are aware of this. I simply wish to ensure my place in the new society to come.”

He leaned closer, bringing his foul, crinkled face meters away from the space man’s own.

“And my role in bringing it about outplays yours. Be sure to remember your place, monkey.”

Mugal’s grin morphed into a scowl, glaring daggers at the old man but made no move against him. With a wave of his arm, he commanded the other men into action, who set off to secure and collect the machinery scattered. What parts could be salvaged were transported to the grounded helicopters, with the broken materials buried beneath the deepening snow.

Watching on, Doctor Who observed as the airborne helicopters descended around Mechani-Kong, securing the automaton with large claws that lowered from their undercarriage. He turned away as his prized machine was lifted into the sky, motioning for his guards to follow.

“Come along, Ultraseven,” he ordered, wrapping his arm around the Ultra’s shoulders as he ushered him to one of the transports. “Let’s get you out of the cold, then we can sort about fixing that hand of yours. My people need you in tip-top shape for what is to come.”

The four entered the helicopter, with the door sliding shut behind them. Both vehicles’ rotors began to whir, lifting them into the air as the convoy carrying Mechani-Kong’s remains followed behind. The snow continued to fall as they disappeared into the white haze, leaving behind naught but buried metal and scorched earth. In hours, the snow would completely cover the landscape and bury all evidence of what occurred here.

And the world would sleep soundly, unaware that the Devil walked amongst them.

Winner: Mechani-Kong

Author: Harley Jameson | Banner: Dao Zang Moua

Waves lapped the shores of Osaka gently. An entire city held its breath as a monster from its past was standing on the beachfront, head to the wind and staring intently towards the ocean. G-Force tanks and military personnel were hovering around the quadruped, keeping a cautious eye on him if he decided to turn his attention back towards the city. This time however, Anguirus had no intention of wading through Humanity. He was waiting for something else.

The waves grew harsher as the tide pulled in. The water swelled up, cascading down in a giant torrent as a creature long thought dead by many suddenly surfaced. A long, thick tail slapped against the water, spraying it everywhere. Jagged-teeth jaws parted and a deep, horrific roar echoed across the shores of Osaka.

Anguirus pawed at the ground, crouching down on his forelegs and snarling at his ancient enemy. He backed away as Godzilla lumbered onto the shore and the two began circling each other as they had done back in 1955. Rearing his head, Godzilla fired a blistering yellow atomic ray that swept across the G-Force militia and set them ablaze with thundering explosions, coating the coastline in searing flames.

Without any warning, Anguirus galloped forward and pounced onto Godzilla, knocking the King of the Monsters over in a furious bloodlust that had laid dormant in the beast for decades. Sand and earth were sent flying as both monsters clawed and grappled against each other, rolling across the ground. Anguirus shunted Godzilla on his back, rearing up on his hind legs and slamming them down against Godzilla’s chest.

Godzilla flailed underneath Anguirus, succeeding in shoving his feral opponent off of him and quickly kicked out, breaking a few of Anguirus’ teeth as he scrambled to his feet and fired an atomic ray at his opponent, the beam skidding across Anguirus’ shell harmlessly. Godzilla flung himself at his foe with equal veracity, throwing his whole weight at Anguirus who deftly swiveled to the side and slammed Godzilla’s legs with his spiked tail, causing the King of the Monsters to crash to the ground with an unnaturally high pitched shriek.

Seizing his chance, Anguirus moved forward and forced Godzilla’s face into the sand with his front legs, leaning down and biting at the neck of his opponent. Ripping into the flesh with sheer hatred as the odd sound of metal tearing suddenly screeched in the air. Shaking his head angrily, Anguirus dug his heels into the ground and tore harder at Godzilla’s skin, starting to rip it off completely.

Finally, with one last savage tear, Godzilla’s skin had nearly been ripped off his body entirely. The light shone off dull space titanium as the mechanical imposter stood to his full height. A gigantic stream of fire from the creature’s nostrils forced Anguirus back, burning the skin held between his teeth into ash. Hands spinning into place before locking, Anguirus glared at the machine he had been waiting for.

Mechagodzilla stood motionless in front of Anguirus, waiting new orders from its robotic controller hundreds of miles away. No one had anticipated that Anguirus would seek Mechagodzilla for revenge after what had happened the last time, and Mechagodzilla’s head twitched a bit as sparks flew from the deep gashes made by Anguirus’ savage attack.

After a few moments of tense silence, Mechagodzilla screeched and unleashed absolute hell upon Anguirus. From its nostrils, a gigantic plume of fire roared out across the battlefield. Missiles, Space Beams, and Cross Energy Attacks were fired from all open ports on Mechagodzilla, shrouding the whole battlefield with a thick layer of smoke and dust as Anguirus’s shrieks were lost to the cacophony of noise being produced.

Through the debris, a massive spiked ball bounced outwards. Smoking and charred, Anguirus’ thunderball attack collided against Mechagodzilla’s chest, sending sparks flying and the machine stumbling backwards. Uncurling on the ground, Anguirus rammed himself shell first against the machine, causing more sparks to fall over him as Mechagodzilla tumbled to the ground, still firing wildly with his missiles that exploded harmlessly against each other in the air.

Anguirus grabbed Mechagodzilla by the arm, dragging it ruthlessly across the ground in a frantic attempt to rip the imposter’s arm clean off. Smoke and sparks whirred from Mechagodzilla’s arm before the loud roar of rockets exploded beneath Mechagodzilla. Feet turning into thrusters, Mechagodzilla began dragging Anguirus across the sandy ground, hurtling across the ground before Anguirus was finally forced to let go, tumbling across and splashing into the surf as Mechagodzilla spun around and angling upwards before landing right back on its feet.

Chest port opening, Mechagodzilla opened fire with its Cross Attack Beam towards the half submerged Anguirus. The quadruped let out a massive shriek of pain as electricity surged across his wet body, spasming and seizing up in pain. Foam began to froth from his mouth as he stumbled back onto the sands, only to get blasted in the face with a couple of Space Beams and sent floundering onto his shell from the force, nasal horn and forehead horns shattering on impact.

Curling up into a ball despite the agonizing pain coursing through him, Anguirus rocked on his back and sprung forward onto his legs again, swinging his tail like a bat to deflect a couple of incoming missile and sending them spiraling into the ocean. Howling like a demon, Anguirus barreled forward and launched himself at Mechagodzilla, ignoring that his whole body was bathed in the high heat of the Destro Fire and tackling the robotic monster onto the sand one more time. Smoke curling around his charred body, Anguirus began beating his forelegs against Mechagodzilla’s chest and head, cranking the already damaged neck joints dangerously against the sand.

The groaning of metal forced the electronic sensors of Mechagodzilla into panic mode. Engines rattling and the whole machine radiating heat, a massive jet of fire erupted from its nostrils, forcing Anguirus scrambling back to avoid getting burnt as a wide stream of glass suddenly appeared where there was once sand. Mechagodzilla whirred its head the other way, beating itself against the sand and digging through it, not even bothering with standing up as its head rotated faster and faster, a blue barrier surrounding the downed Mechagodzilla.

Pushing itself up, Mechagodzilla’s head stopped spinning suddenly and unleashed another Space Beam at Anguirus, the ground exploding behind the bleeding and charred monster. Trembling, Anguirus wobbled slightly and began moving forward slowly, grunting when more missiles exploded against his bruised shell. He could feel it start to crack underneath the intensity and power of Mechagodzilla, but he refused to be beaten again by this mechanical imposter.

Swaying and bloodied, Anguirus gave a hell-raising shriek and sprinted forward, ignoring as chunks of his shell were blown apart thanks to Mechagodzilla’s firepower. Anguirus tackled the machine, sending both crashing back onto the surf again. Anguirus reared up, slamming his forelegs down against the machine’s head. Sparks flew dangerously as Mechagodzilla flailed, desperate to remove Anguirus off of it.

Screaming bloody murder, Anguirus kept slamming his forelegs down on Mechagodzilla’s head, denting the metal and causing the machine to start seizing and firing its weapons at point blank range, fire and missiles exploding upwards as Anguirus was finally thrown off with violent force.

Mechagodzilla tried to rise to its feet, only to crumple as its head burst into flames. Anguirus slowly dragged himself to his feet, panting roughly and watching the flaming wreckage of his opponent. Satisfied that his opponent was finally defeated, he let out a howl of victory before going back to his waiting spot on the beach, laying down in the sun to recover from his injuries.

Winner: Anguirus (Universal)

Author: Vincent Rodger & Andrew Sudomerski | Banner: Dao Zang Moua

[Continued from Match 317]

-Tokyo-

G-Force staff ran outside of their base of operations as Kiryu landed in front of the facility. Soldiers aimed their guns at the captive Attack Titan, prepared to shoot the humanoid if it made any sudden movements. The Mechagodzilla roared at the humans below as he motioned with his free hand towards the side telling them to get back. The humans ran away, as the wires went back into the cyborg, dropping the captured giant onto the ground below. Kiryu then opened up his left hand, kneeling down and gently putting the unconscious Akane onto the ground.

Medical officers and soldiers rushed to her side, picking up the wounded pilot before rushing inside. She needed help, and fast.

Kiryu’s eye dimmed as the guardian’s power had finally run dry. Soldiers surrounded the rogue Titan’s body, waiting for the being to make any sudden movements…

Eren burst from the nape which was quickly followed by a thick cloud of smoke. Blood covered the young man, he held both of his blades in each hand, the soldiers opened fire but missed due to the thick steam. The man lost in time threw one of his swords at a soldier, stabbing him in the throat and killing him instantly. Eren ran through the smoke, dodging the bullets as fast as he could while he made his way towards another soldier. Quickly slicing the man’s leg, forcing him to the ground before he held the blade to his neck.

Sweat ran down the soldier’s forehead as the group of trained officers stopped their movement. Their rifles aimed at the young man, waiting for their chance for Eren to make a mistake. Worry ran through Eren’s mind, he needed to think of something and fast, or he would miss his rendezvous with Emmy.

“If you all back off now, I’ll let this man live. I don’t want to bring any more harm but if I have to I wi-” A sniper high above the group took his shot. A tranquilizer made its mark on the back of the young man’s neck, the drugs inside kicking in as the needle pierced his skin. Eren began to lose consciousness, dropping the sword in his hand as he fell.

The soldiers surrounded him, his vision began to darken as he passed out. “We need this one alive.”

***

-Planet X-

“What have we told you about making plans without our authority, child?”

The Regulator turned around meeting the glance of his elders before being pushed aside by them. Chuck approached the head Xilien, reaching out his hand for a handshake. “So what shall I call you?” the Xilien reached out, shaking the Futurian’s hand.

“Our people do not have names, but you may call me the Controller. Now, what brings you to our planet, human?”

“The Earth has been a target of many extraterrestrial species. The Mysterians, the Black Hole Aliens, and of course your people. None have succeeded in the past.” Chuck reached into his pocket, pulling out a holographic projector. “We have acquired some monsters from Earth’s past, present, and future. With these, your people could take over the planet.” The Xilien commander nodded before giving a response with no emotion.

“And what do you gain out of this, Earthling?” Chuck smiled, before showing a hologram of the one who defeated his masterpiece.

“All we ask is that you destroy this beast… This Attack Titan.” The Xilien pondered for a moment before giving an answer.

“What did this Attack Titan do to you? Defeat your conquest? Kill your monster?”

Chuck gritted his teeth but tried his best to not show his annoyance. “We made a clone of King Ghidorah, the very creature your people used decades ago.”

“You mean the pretender?”

Chuck and Glen stepped back in surprise, waiting for an answer. “The Ghidorah that you used as a basis for your monster, was a pretender to the throne. He was not the entity known as King Ghidorah as we originally thought,” the Commander pointed out the window in their base. Chuck and Glen walked towards the window, their eyes widened as they saw what the Xilien was referring to. “They are known as many things across the stars. The Golden Demise, the King of Terror, the One Who is Many, the Apex of Wishes. Your people call him King Ghidorah, but our people call him… Monster Zero.” King Ghidorah laid on the planet’s surface asleep, their body slightly moving as they breathed in and out.

“How could I have made this mistake? I cloned the wrong Ghidorah…” Chuck grew angry but restrained his emotions the best he could before being stunned once again. Three more monsters approached the sleeping King. “Is that Gigan? I had believed that he was slain decades ago by Zone Fighter.”

“Gigan was indeed destroyed by Zone Fighter and Godzilla. We received his corpse and upgraded him to what you see now.” Gigan screeched, trying to wake up King Ghidorah. Behind Gigan stood two monsters, both unrecognized by the Futurians. One resembled a cactus, yellow beady eyes lighted the area and thorns poked out of its green body. Gororin tried to hide his anger at Ghidorah, for he did not want to agitate the destroyer of worlds.

The second behind Gigan was humanoid in nature. Skeletal armor covered the being from head to toe, twin-connected tails hung from its back, Monster X crossed his arms. Waiting for his superior to wake up. “Those are my creations, Gororin and Monster X.”

A moment of silence passed before Chuck reached into his pocket and grabbed a small button. “With your permission, I would like to commit an experiment.” The Commander stood still before motioning a hand gesture, giving the human permission. Chuck pressed the button, from his ship beams of light emerged. Ghidorah’s eyes slowly opened, their form rising as the light engulfed the area. Monster X, Gororin, and Gigan turned, seeing monsters emerge from the light.

The creature smelled of the ocean, dorsal spines ran down its back, a long slithery tail swung back and forth. The mutated iguana stood like a velociraptor, Zilla looked at the four monsters that stood in their path, ready to attack if they were ordered. Next to Zilla was a monster from an ancient age, the evolved Allosaurus flexed his claws, licking his lips as he stared at Gororin. Gorosaurus was hungry, and if his master would allow it, he would eat the plant. “If you have brought monsters from the past and present, when did you grab this Gorosaurus? Cause if it is from the past, it could create a paradox with the current monster.”

Chuck looked towards the Commander with a grin, his pride taking over as he spoke. “This Gorosaurus is not the same as the one on Earth currently. We grabbed him from Mondo Island, the species roamed freely there.” The commander nodded once again, having no emotion as he returned his attention towards his guests’ ship.

A soul-chilling howl echoed from the light, a large ankylosaur emerged, yellow icy scales graced the being. Spikes covered the monster, eyes a bone-chilling red. Ghidorah recognized this being, they had killed one of its kind while attacking a blue and green world a lifetime ago. Gigan remembered another of its kind as well, he had cut into the flesh of one while trying to conquer the Earth decades ago. Angira, the Yamato Guardian of the sea, had returned.

A large crustacean screeched, clapping his pincers together, the newly discovered Ebirah was ready to brawl. A gigantic mantis flew out of the light, hovering above her fellow monsters before landing among them, Kamacuras screeched, following in her peers’ example. Kumonga, Hedorah, and a white Rodan flew out of the light, each of them roaring as they exited.

Gigan felt his heartbeat slow down, that was the being that destroyed his world… The Smog Monster had attacked many years ago, what seemed lifetimes ago for many. The cyborg chirped into the air and was ready to charge, but once again orders ran through his head, stopping him in his tracks. If he was ever given the opportunity, he would kill Hedorah for what he had done to his homeworld, to his people.

The last monster exited out from the light, the lion king roared as he stood by the others, flexing his three-clawed hands as he approached. The Commander once again turned towards the human pair but before he could ask his question, Chuck began to speak.

“He is a prototype for the Okinawa guardian, King Caesar from the days of Atlantis. One of many who fell to the Gyaos and Garasharp hordes… Until we grabbed him from the past.”

The Xilien Commander pondered before he finally said what was on his mind. “What is it that you plan to do here, human?” Chuck smiled before pressing the button once again, the monsters bowed before King Ghidorah. The four monsters stood in confusion, the group of monsters was just ready to attack and now they were bowing before their alpha? Ghidorah stood in a mix of surprise and confusion before opening his wings and roaring into the skies. The Xilien pondered for a moment before turning towards Chuck.

“The thought of invasion has crossed my mind, human… But if we were to once again try to invade the Earth, we would violate the treaty between our people. Humanity will retaliate and my people would be thrown into a conflict that they never asked to be a part of. I’m sorry but I’m afraid this alliance is quite impossible.”

Chuck grew frustrated.“Then why listen to us at all? Why let me release my monsters onto your land?”

“It is polite to listen to those that are speaking to you, is it not? I allowed you to speak and propose this alliance, but I never said that we would join forces with you humans.” The Commander lifted a hand, the Xilien soldiers raised their weapons, aiming at the pair of Futurians. “I must ask that you leave, or face your demise to the finest in the Xilien’s army.” Chuck and Glen looked at each other, sweat falling from their foreheads. If only they had M-11 with them, he could take down this room of soldiers by himself…

“Damn you, Emmy.”

Lightning struck the Commander across the chest, sending the Xilien leader onto the ground, smoke rose from the blast mark. The Xilien soldiers turned their weapons toward the source of the blast, seeing The Regulator standing with a grin, electricity surrounding his fingertips. “Traitor!”

“The real traitor is that old fool. We get a chance to avenge those lost to humanity and he stands there, not taking that chance. All because he is afraid to get his hands dirty.”

One of the elders spoke up. “You have gone too far this time, Regulator. We will have your head for this.” The young Xilien cracked a smile.

“I would like to see you try.”

The Xilien soldiers opened fire at the Regulator, Chuck and Glen got onto the ground, wishing not to be caught in the crossfire. The Kaizer dropped down and rushed over to the Futurians, throwing them into the air before placing his right hand onto the floor. Time seemed to slow down as electricity ran through the floor, electrocuting the Xilien soldiers. Their bodies falling limp, their skin melting revealing muscle and bone. Chuck and Glen both got up quickly, fearing for the actions that were to come next.

“Don’t worry humans, I’m not going to kill you.” the Xilien super soldier turned towards the pair, “I’m joining you.” Chuck and Glen relaxed their bodies and regained their composure as their new friend approached. “We must hurry. It won’t be long until the bodies are found. We must dispose of the corpses before we, at last, have our revenge.”

Chuck smiled, ready to enact his revenge upon the beast that had wronged him.

***

Screams echoed through the halls as blood poured down the young man’s body. Steam rose from his wounds, his breathing became heavy. Two men stood above the boy, both with very fit builds. The older of the two grabbed Eren by the hair, pulling his head up, blood dripped from his mouth and nose. “Hey, Harou, how long do you think he is going to last before he breaks?” His younger acquaintance walked over, sitting next to his superior.

“I don’t know captain, let’s find out.” Harou got up and walked over to a bloody bench, pushing the chair underneath it and picking up a crowbar that was among the various tools and weapons that laid across the bench.

The door slammed open, Harou and Gordon turned towards the noise, seeing a man in a black and white suit walk through. Both captains stood to have their attention to the man in the suit.

“Mr.Prime Minister, we were not expecting–”

“Leave us.”

Gordon grew annoyed, reluctantly leaving the room. Harou followed close behind, closing the door behind him. The Prime Minister stood above Eren, lighting a cigarette and taking a quick puff before offering it to Eren. “I don’t want anything from you bastard.” The Prime Minister shrugged before taking another puff.

“So young man…how did you escape our facility?”

“I didn’t escape from anywhere…I don’t even know why I am here.”

“I don’t believe you for a second, seeing as you have the same Titan form as another of our members.” The Prime Minister grabbed the chair from the other side of the room, sitting in it, staring at the chained teenager. “Now, I ask you again…how did you escape our facility?” Eren took in deep breaths, lifting his head up.

“I told you…I didn’t escape from any facility. I have already told your goons where I came from…”

“And what did you tell them, young man?” The Prime Minister took another puff, waiting for Eren to answer. Tapping his fingers on his knees, growing impatient. “You wouldn’t believe me.” the young man chuckled. “The others didn’t believe me…”

“Try me.” A moment of silence passed before Eren responded. “I told them that I’m from the future.”

The Prime Minister took another quick puff, finishing the cigarette. “Are you with those Futurians?”

Eren was caught off guard by the Prime Minister’s calm demeanor. He wasn’t shocked by the fact of time travel or the Futurians threat. The young man had to keep on his toes.

“No… I don’t work with bloodthirsty killers. I was sent back in time to stop them, in which it seems that I did. I’m just waiting for my ride home.”

“I see…” The Prime Minister got up from his chair and walked towards the door. Silent as he left the room and the door closed shut behind him. Eren pondered in his mind, what was going to happen to him?

***

Akane opened her eyes, squinting as the light in her room blinded her. She covered her eyes, trying to see what was around her. The room had white walls, and equipment surrounded her as if surgery had taken place. She looked down at her body, a hospital gown covered the young lieutenant, no wounds were to be found. The last thing she remembered was passing out while Kiryu battled the target. She climbed out of bed, tumbling towards a window sill before catching herself on it. “Careful lieutenant. Don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

The young woman turned around, seeing a smile on the Prime Minister’s face as he walked in with Captain Harou and Captain Gordon. Akane saluted her superior before asking him “Sir…what happened? The last thing I remember was Kiryu and the target battling as lava began to surround us.”

His smile disappeared. The Prime Minister turned towards Gordon, “Close the door.” The American captain complied, closing the door before grabbing a seat. Harou put himself against the wall, waiting for his superior to begin talking. “When Mount Fuji erupted, it wiped out most of the forest. We had to use a Firefighter Jet Jaguar to put out the fires and save what remained of the area. You were successful in your mission, the Titan host was captured. Kiryu is undergoing repair as we speak.”

Akane collected her thoughts before asking her superior another question. “How many were killed in the crossfire?”

The Prime Minister paused before sighing and walking over to Akane, putting his hand on her shoulder. “We don’t have an exact number but… Possibly in the thousands.” Akane’s body began to shake. She failed. Emotions and thoughts of judgment rushed through her head as a tear began to roll down her cheek. “Don’t blame yourself, young Akane… You did the best you could in the situation.” Akane walked over to her bed, sitting down and staring at the floor as she realized her mistake.

“How did I survive? I lost so much blood…” The Prime Minister looked over at the two captains. Harou nodded before grabbing a knife and slicing into his arm. Akane looked up and was in shock at the display of self-harm. With seemingly great restraint, steam rose from the wound as it closed up, healing the damage that Harou had just inflicted on himself. He tossed the knife to Akane, landing in her lap, the small amount of blood splattering across her legs.

“You are one of us now. If you don’t believe me… Try it for yourself.” Akane looked down at the knife before looking at the two captains.

“What do you mean by one of you?” Harou rolled his eyes as he approached her.

“What do you think? You are now a Titan Shifter. Like myself and Captain Gordon, you were chosen to become a host of immense power to protect the country against kaiju threats and, if needed, the world against a threat.” Akane’s eyes widened in shock. “It was the only way to save your life. You had lost so much blood, your organs were damaged beyond repair… Until you were injected with the serum. You’re lucky… We didn’t even know if it was going to work. Most people just turn into mindless monsters.”

Akane got onto her feet, knocking the blood-covered knife onto the ground. “What do you mean ‘most people?’”

Harou got closer to Akane, the two looking into each other’s eyes with nothing but malice towards each other. “Experiments require test subjects, no? Us three are the only ones that still had our sanity and retained our human forms after the serum was injected. You knew of more Titans. You knew that the captive could have been one of the escaped subjects.” Rage filled Akane’s being, she put her finger on Harou, interrupting his train of thought.

“I didn’t know they were the people we were supposed to protect!” The Prime Minister stood up separating the two before violence broke out.

“Both of you, lower your voices. We don’t want anyone to get suspicious of our conversation.” The two looked at each other before Harou headed towards the door, opening it and leaving the room. Gordon followed the captain, both of them waiting for their superior to leave the room.

The Prime Minister pointed towards the closet. “Your military uniform and some extra clothes are in the closet. I will return when you have cooled down.” The Prime Minister left the room as Akane stared outside her window. Pondering on what to do next.

***

-The Moon, UN Base-

Professor Miyajima walked down a white hallway. Late to his morning meeting with the fellow leaders of the United Nations Space Station. For his work finding out that Mechagodzilla was made from space titanium all those years ago, the scientist rose high in the scientific community, eventually reaching the position he is now in.

He pressed his badge against a wall, opening up a door and revealing his colleagues. Dr. Ichinose was deeply rewarded after his rediscovery of Titanosaurus. So much so, he was given a job at the space station to find a way for marine life to be on the moon.

Dr. Kusmi turned around with a grin, happy to see his friend and coworker. The leader of the famous Sherbert Operations was hired to try to make the moon inhabitable.

Astronauts Glen and Fuji were the only two to not be scientists at the station. Both were hired as UN negotiators for extraterrestrial life after they negotiated with the Xiliens in the sixties.

The five men shook each others’ hands before taking their respective seats in the room. “I would like to thank everyone that could come today. I know that every minute counts, so I appreciate the attendance. Due to the Futurian attack that has occurred recently, security on the facility will be tight and the Super-X3 project will be moved here in case of an impending attack. Shipments of supplies such as food and water will be heavily guarded and monitored.”

The five men pondered the news given to them before Dr. Kusmi spoke up. “Will our research be affected? Will we have to change how we conduct experiments or–”

The room shook as sirens blared. The windows closed shut with an armored seal. The room turned red, the men all looked at each other all feeling a mix of fear and confusion. “Is this an emergency drill?” Dr. Ichinose asked the rest of the room. “None were scheduled for today, this must be an emergency shutdown.”

Screams echoed throughout the walls, the men all looked towards the door. Fear and confusion filled their minds before the door blasted open, the men sent to the ground, the door hanging on a mere hinge. The doctors coughed as smoke erupted into the room, which was quickly followed by the smell of iron. Blood smeared across the Regulator’s uniform, the Xilien wiping away the rubble and blood. “Disgusting,” the man looked around the room as the men rose to their feet. “So who would be in charge of this facility?”

“That would be me.” the Keizer looked towards Dr. Miyajima with a warm smile.

“I apologize for the mess doctor. But if you all remain calm, no harm will come to you and your friends.” Chuck and Glen walked in, both wearing cocky smirks, with them feeling pride at the destruction of the station.

“How is this possible?” Doctor Miyajima said towards the pair of Futurians. “We thought you were destroyed by Godzilla when he killed your monster.” The pair began to chuckle, almost in sync with one another.

“Then you are all fools. If we were destroyed by Godzilla’s wrath then who would have unleashed Mecha-King Ghidorah only a night later?” Glen began to chuckle, amused with his colleague’s teasing of the doctor.

X took a deep breath as he turned, faking a smile as he did so. “My friends, no need to bother ourselves with such primitive life. Let us watch the fireworks.” The Keizer turned towards Dr. Miyajima. “Would you be of use and open the armor plating?” The doctor reluctantly walked over to the table and pressed a button, opening up the blast doors revealing true terror…

The workers of the station all looked in horror as Gigan stood outside. The Xilien superweapon chirped before flying off towards the Earth. A three-headed golden hydra passed above, meeting up with Gigan as they entered the atmosphere. “Is that… King Ghidorah!?” X smiled as Dr. Miyajima recognized the hydra.

“The true King Ghidorah. The destroyer of worlds. He will reduce your planet to that of what it was eons ago. Lifeless and covered in fire and brimstone.” Dr. Miyajima fell to his knees, panicking as the Xilien’s words sank into his head.

A meteor flew past the moon, heading straight to the planet. A single flying saucer followed the three, aiming to join with their forces.

Dr. Ichinose opened up a locket wrapped around his neck, revealing a photo of the woman he loved thinking to himself. “Soon Katsura. I’ll see you soon.”

“Now witness… The end of your world to this deadly alliance.”

***

-Skull Island Facility-

Goro Ibuki walked down a hallway with his assistant, Azusa Gojo. Both were late to begin their shifts, for his work on Jet Jaguar and the recreation of Mechani-Kong, Dr. Ibuki was given the opportunity to become chief among the Skull Island Facility staff. An opportunity he greatly accepted. Dr. Azusa Gojo had been taking care of Godzilla Junior ever since he was a baby, for that she was given a position on Skull Island to help monitor Junior and the other monsters.

The pair walked into the control room and saw that the crew was panicking. Both doctors rushed towards their positions, Goro’s eyes widened as she read the readings. “Dr. Ibuki, our instruments are picking up four unidentified flying objects breaking through our atmosphere. If these readings are correct, they will be heading straight here.”

Goro stroked his bread, pondering on what precautions to follow. “Do we contact the moon base?”

“No sir, the whole facility has gone dark.” This troubled the good doctor’s mind. It seemed that this was sabotage, but by who was the real question. Goro pressed the screen in front of him, making sure that the island’s defenses were armed. To his surprise, everything seemed to check out.

“What about NASA? Or the JSDF? Is there anyone that we can reach?”

Dr. Gojo shook her head with a face filled with dread. The doctor thought to himself for a moment before standing up. “Listen up men!” The group of scientists turned from their seats, giving their superior their attention. “Activate Jet Jaguar and Mechani-Kong. If we are being attacked by extraterrestrials, I want this island secured and protected, do you all understand me!?” The group of young men and women stood up, saluting. “Yes sir!”

Two people stood in the corner of the room. Ken Yano had received visions in the past of Godzilla and Hedorah’s confrontation in the 70s, and his apprentice Miki Saegusa. They were used to calm down the monsters if they were to become a threat to themselves or others. Both stood behind Goro, Miki pressed her hands against her head, filling with terror as she felt the presence of malice incarnate. Possibly worse than everything that the planet has faced thus far… Worse than… Him.

“What is it, Miki?”

“Sir… I can feel their presence. Four monsters are about to turn this island into a kaiju graveyard.” Though Yano had lost his abilities long ago, he had been teaching Ms. Sagusa from his experiences. He knew by the tone of her voice that something was indeed coming. He could only hope they would survive the threat.

***

The sky above began to be engulfed in darkness, the clouds becoming black as yellow bolts of lightning coursed through. Thunder echoing across the island, an alarm for those that dwelled here.

The wild life watched as the sky had become what was seen eons ago when a dark destroyer emerged onto the island and slaughtered what remained of the guardians. The earth rubbled as one of the inhabitants arrived onto the scene, the tenacious ankylosaur standing tall as he awaited the others. A spiked carapace covered his back as horns topped his skull. His scales being gray in color, his posture being on all fours. His spiked tail swung back and forth across the ground as he anticipated what was to come.

He had seen much battle in his life, but what he sensed was coming made the warrior feel unease.

Water erupted next to the dinosaur, making Anguirus turn his attention to his arriving comrades. The beast was covered from head to toe with spiky red armor, twin pincers repeated to clamp together as it emerged to the surface. The sea monster screeched as it crawled onto the land, its large eyes watching the storm above.

The gigantic shrimp knew not what was coming but perhaps the storm would bring a worthy source of food for it for Ebirah had been dying for a tasty meal.

Trees snapped under immense weight as a blue theropod emerged from the jungle brush, the evolved allosaurus looked upward before unleashing a war cry at the sky. Blue scales covered the predator’s body, while a yellow underbelly lined down the animal. His long tail dragged behind him as he stepped forward, standing next to the other inhabitants.

His black eyes stared upward at the storm, the thunder resembling the roar of what had slain his parent. Gorosaurus flexed his muscular legs and tiny claws, the dinosaur was ready for a fight.

A cry of concern echoed through the skies, catching the attention of the gathered beasts. The ancient beast landed on the ground as he let out a chirp, asking his fellow Titans what was occurring. The ankylosaur simply replied with a grunt towards the brown pterosaur for if he was correct in what he believed was approaching, they would need to be focused.

The sky beast was covered in spikes across the chest, three horns pointed outward from the back of the skull. Yellow eyes observed the storm above, watching as lightning danced across the clouds. A black beak chirped once more as he flexed his wings, Rodan of Adona Island for the first time in years feared the worst was to come.

The island began to shake as a young prince approached, he flexed his arms as he marched forward. Yellow eyes turned his attention towards his pteranodon brethren, nodding before turning his attention upward. The tiny dorsal spines across his back flashing a light blue as the young Godzillasaur made an intimidation display.

Though he resembled the mutant that attacked Tokyo across the years, Godzilla Junior had no attachment to the name.

A cave burst above the group, boulders falling down the landmass as two red glowing gems illuminated. Stone and fur covered the beast from head to toe, twin ears perked up as the sound of the storm caught his attention. His maw releasing a growl as his tail dragged across the ground, the huntmaster liger unleashed a roar into the sky declaring one thing.

King Caesar, Guardian of Okinawa, would protect his new home on this day. Even if it meant his life would cease. The golem had survived a war in the distant past, only surviving against the hordes of Garasharp and Gyaos due to the last of the great black tortoises. If it wasn’t for him, he would have been destroyed just as his brothers had been.

He would not see mercy today, against this new threat. They must drive back whatever was coming, or face extinction.

The earth rumbled as the island’s alpha charged forward, jumping from mountain to mountain with ease. Giant Ants stood still in trees, fearing that they would be crushed by the mighty ape. Leafwings took to the skies, hoping to avoid his wrath. The beast’s fur was brown, scars covered his gray chest. The last of his kind, the mighty defender landed amongst the gathered beasts.

He began to snarl as he looked upon the storm, this island’s ecosystem was delicate. One toss of a stone could cause a great reaction across the land, the devils beneath the earth had already caused much death across his home. Kong clenched his fist in anger, the life signs felt foreign. Invaders from the stars had arrived to decimate his home, kill what he had fought for his entire life to protect.

The ape slammed his chest repeatedly before unleashing a war cry at the storm, daring whatever approached to face them.

In the middle of the group the earth collapsed, giving way to a forgotten deity of Seatopia. Twin drills were in place of where most of nature’s creatures had hands. Gigantic insect eyes looked upon the storm, watching with anticipation to what he felt was approaching. Something… familiar was here. A forgotten ally of the past had returned, the sins of his past catching up with him even to his new home.

As the insect emerged from the earth, he shook off the dirt and clapped his drills as he screeched into the sky. His antenna lightning up golden as he awaited his old friend. Megalon had been abandoned by his people and found a new home on this island, no one would jeopardize that.

Bright colorful wings spread open as a chirp was unleashed above them, the kind goddess of infant island warned the others to not take this likely. She had seen what was approaching once, in a different lifetime eons ago. Though she had felt her rival perish decades ago, it seemed that he had returned from the grave. Mothra released a war cry, challenging the cyborg to land.

Water began to rise in a large lake near the group, Sker Buffalo slowly walked away as the peaceful dinosaur emerged for he did not wish to harm the life forms near him. Black bumps covered his red scales, orange fins covered his back. The animal felt ease for the first time in decades, he had been a slave once to a man filled with hate. He had been used as a pawn against humanity and had been thought to be believed dead for years after he was defeated by a nuclear saurian.

Titanosaurus flexed his body in anticipation, he did not wish for conflict but if this was the only way to protect his home then so be it.

A young kaiju approached the group, shaking as fear ran down his spine. He had only been in one fight in his entire life, having to defend his home against an invader from the stars that brought a blizzard. The hippopotamus attempted to stand strong but this was not like anything he had ever felt, such pressure around this storm made him fear the worst.

But he would not abandon his friends on this day. Though he was young, the last thing he would want is to throw away their lives for his own. If needed, he would die standing on his feet instead of hiding like a coward. Daigoro slammed his fists together as he turned towards Junior, calling out to him.

The Godzillasaurus turned towards his friend and nodded. Until the last breath left their lungs, they would fight for their home.

The last of the island’s inhabitants crawled from a nearby river bed. The gigantic cephalopod dared not go onto land for the island’s alpha would devour him if given a chance, easily capable of destroying creatures similar to himself in the past. Oodako had not ever been put into this position before, he had always hunted for survival but now he was the prey.

He would not fall being hunted like a simple animal, he would fight for tomorrow.

Suddenly from the storm a meteor emerged, approaching at speeds that none of the island’s inhabitants could comprehend. Before any of them could process what was happening…the first to fall had been chosen.

The asteroid crashed into the octopus, killing him in an instant. Flesh and blood sprayed across the environment in an instant. The group turned their attention towards the new arrival. The meteor cracking open, releasing smoke into the air above as a skeletal hand wrapped around the entrance to his cocoon. Four red eyes stared from the darkness as he rose to his feet, twisting his neck to crack it as he revealed himself to his prey.

Monster X stood still as he crossed his arms, grinning with malice as he stared at his targets. The group snarled as he took defensive positions, the air growing tense as the pressure began to build. None of them had felt such rage in one being…

From the storm emerged the golden hydra, landing in front of the group of Earth Defenders and releasing a war cry. Thunder sounded puny in comparison to the might of the Apex of Wishes as they spread their wings, standing at full height against the group. Their eyes widening as their situation only worsened in a matter of seconds.

Kong’s heart beat began to slow down as he stared at the Golden Demise’s form, a memory coming into the light…

***

100 years ago, Skull Island

The birth of new life should be celebrated. On any other day, the entirety of Skull Island would have celebrated the birth of their prince…but today was a day of death and misery.

The Father’s eyes widened as he walked across the plains which were once filled with life, being covered in the corpses of wildlife and his fellow ape. He carried his newborn son in his arms as The Mother followed close behind, trying not to look at the remains of her home.

The storm overhead began to glow brighter as a gigantic shadow could be seen in it. The parents of the newborn knew they would not survive this day, but they needed to at least save their son. Their first and last act of love for their offspring. The Father looked all around him, looking for a safe area to put his son, but all he could see was fire and death. The pair of Kongs marched forward, attempting to not be seen by the invader in the storm when they spotted a small cave for the newborn.

The Father gently placed the son in the cave, cracking a smile as his son wrapped his tiny hand around one of his fingers. The Mother came closer, reaching out for her son as the scream of the horror that appeared on the island echoed in their ears. Reluctantly, the parental figures pulled away, quickly running away from the small cave as to not alert the devil of their son’s presence. A quick flash in the storm revealed the shadow once again before it emerged, the three heads screaming as they charged forth at the pair of apes, the Father and Mother roared back before charging forward.

The Son looked from the cave, watching as his parents were quickly dispatched, their screams echoing through his mind, tears began to flow as the pair were ripped to shreds. The invader sank his teeth into the Father’s throat and arms, blood flowing into the hydra’s maw as they lifted them up and threw the corpse at the Mother, crashing into her and forcing them into the ground. The Mother screamed as the monster unleashed three bolts of lightning from their maws, ending her life in an instant.

The Son turned away, tears falling onto the ground as he crawled back into the cave to avoid being spotted. He would never forget those screams and he would never forget them, the Golden Demise…or HIM.

The leviathan walked through the forest, snarling as he looked upon the hydra’s form. He had already driven them away with the help of some allies but now they were gone and what they died to force away had returned. The ancient alpha predator unleashed a roar demanding the invader’s attention. The three heads turned looking at their rival, each growing angry at the guardian’s presence, they spread their wings as their tails rattled. A moment of silence passed before the two charged at each other…

***

Kong slammed his chest before releasing a cry of rage at the invader, he would avenge all those that had fallen to this abomination. If it wasn’t for what stood before him and the Skull Devil’s horde, he would have had a family.

King Ghidorah smiled as they stared down at the ape, they had enjoyed slaughtering his people. Watching as the life left their eyes into the great void, they would kill this one slowly and smile every moment.

Anguirus looked up the hydra’s form and saw a being that was stronger than the one he faced with his king all those years ago, the sheer presence alone made fear creep into his mind. He revealed his teeth as he looked upon the invader’s form, ready to rip into their flesh with ease.

Suddenly an Xilien UFO descended from the storm, a light exiting the bottom of the ship, releasing another of their creations onto the battlefield. Gororin stared with anticipation at the group, shifting his yellow eyes to choose who to take out first.

Then the last of the Xilien’s forces arrived, the cyborg from Megalon and Mothra’s past, reminding them of their failures. The upgraded psychopath slid both blades across each other, sparks flying as the cyborg smirked. He had waited for a new mission for so long, he would enjoy ripping into the island’s inhabitants… then the cyborg tilted his head as he saw Megalon.

His old ally had been moved here by this world’s people, abandoned by those he had swore to protect. Perhaps…this was a new chance. Gigan stretched out his left arm, offering the insect deity a chance to join them and take back what was his.

Megalon pondered for a moment at the choice in front of him, join his former ally and betray his new home or defend it. His people had thrown him away with ease…even after everything he had done for them. Gone to war for them, killed for them, protected them. Here he found a new home, a new purpose. He stared back at Gigan, standing still for a moment. Silence hung over them before the former guardian of Seatopia opened his mandibles and released a bomb straight at Gigan. The assassin screeched as the bomb detonated across his chest, catching him by surprise and forcing him back.

Gigan released a cry before charging straight at Megalon, he would pay for this transgression.

Gororin looked at the ankylosaur and charged straight forward, rage fueling him as he attempted to take the dinosaur by surprise, only for a bomb to detonate near him and send him flying. Anguirus turned and spotted the mechanical doppelganger of island’s alpha standing before him, wrapping its hand around another grenade as he walked forward. Mechani-Kong was ready for war.

The artificial cactus monster turned his attention towards his attacker, staring at the pair with rage before attempting to charge once more…

His eyes widened as he felt himself rising into the air, looking below him as something began to grow before being thrown to the ground. He quickly turned and saw a new figure arrive.

The robotic defender stood tall with a permanent smile upon his face; orange, blue and red covered his metallic body. Making the humanoid robot more approachable to humans, he quickly got into a defensive position, ready to defend the island’s inhabitants from the alien invaders. For Jet Jaguar was a friend to all on Earth.

Kong roared as he went to charge, only to be stopped by King Caesar. The golem placed his hand in front of the ape to stop him from throwing away his life, they would fight together if they were to survive this massive threat. Gorosaurus and Titanosaurus roared with fury as they approached their allies, demanding that Ghidorah leave or suffer death to them all.

Ebirah clamped his pincers together as he walked forward, declaring with a cry that he would devour the flesh off of the invader’s bones after they slay him.

The Golden Demise stood still for a moment before all three heads chuckled, they would dare defy them? Fight for the lives of this planet as if they mattered? How foolish. They were going to enjoy this…

Monster X stood still as the remaining warriors began to surround him. The young prince snarled as his dorsal spines illuminated, the hippo made his hands into a fist as he circled the other side, while the pteranodon took to the skies above and stood still above them.

The artificial Ghidorah cracked his knuckles as the three took their positions. This would be the first battle against another foe and for his first challengers to be children and weaklings was a disappointment, but he would not let that stand in the way of slaughtering them all.

The young prince of destruction flexed his arms and tails as he got into an aggressive posture. He was ready to bring this world to molten rock.

***

Akane began to uncover her bandages, seeing that her wounds had healed completely. The Titan’s power had worked its way on her wounds, if it wasn’t for what was in the serum, she would have surely perished. But one thought continued to linger in her mind… Could she work for a government experimenting on people to make weapons? These Titans were said to go mad, if they were in a public area, more lives would be in danger.

She looked at the window and pondered on the past. She had sacrificed her mind, body, and soul into the JSDF. But now…was she fighting for the right people? The right cause? People that would put civilians in danger time and time again…

No more. She would have no allegiance to a government that would hurt all those she fought to protect. She made her decision, now was the time for action. Quickly she put on her uniform and placed a pistol in her holster before walking out the door of her hospital room, determined to find the Titan host.

She walked down the corridors, trying to not catch the eye of anyone. She needed to be as discreet as possible if she was going to rescue the person she had wronged. Akane headed towards an elevator that laid straight ahead, people were exiting as she entered, pressing a button to the lowest floor. She knew where they kept prisoners. If she had any hope of finding the one she had battled at Mount Fuji, they would be there.

The young woman took the ammo out of the pistol, counting each bullet she had before putting them back in the gun, cocking the weapon, and putting it back into the holster. Akane knew that this wasn’t going to be easy, but she was ready.

***

As one, the group charged at the apex of wishes. Each released their own roars at the false king with fury as their opponent began to glow, radiating power like that of a star. Their necks became golden before firing their Gravity Beams at the earth defenders.

The shrimp screamed in agony as the first beam struck their form, their face smoldering as the electrical attack seemed to burn the armor plating. The second beam managed to barely miss the approaching allosaurus, striking the ground behind the dinosaur’s form, causing the very earth to be carved into by the invading hydra. The third beam struck against the pacifist’s scales, the aquatic dinosaur released a roar of anguish as he fell onto his primate comrade. Earning a cry of surprise to leave the alpha’s maw as Titanosaurus crashed into him, causing both to slam into the ground.

The huntmaster liger continued forward, releasing another roar as he leaped into the air and then came falling down with his leg stretched out. The golem’s limb slammed into King Ghidorah’s chest, forcing the golden demise back.

The Xilien slave attempted to regain their footing, only for the allosaurus to got onto his tail and then proceed to kick them in the chest. The golden demise screamed as they were thrown onto their back so easily, attempting to rise and immediately charged, only for King Caesar to slam his body into their spine. All three heads turned, the left and right heads reaching out and sinking their teeth into the golem’s hands, earning a groan of pain as the middle head began to charge electrical energy before unleashing the beam…

The energy absorbed into the ruby eye of the lion god, earning a smile of glee as King Ghidorah’s eyes widened with shock. Their attack had been made useless in an instant, the attack being nullified as if their might was nothing.

Gorosaurus charged in to help his ally, only to leave an opening for the genocidal dragon. The right head quickly reached out, sinking fangs into the ankle of the dinosaur and throwing them on top of themselves. King Caesar released the stored energy, striking the evolved allosaur before falling to the ground as the reptile managed to make the golem trip. The pair groaned as they collided on the soil.

The golden demise quickly opened his wings as their prey fell off their form, tossing them further into the earth before changing their attention towards the approaching trio. Ebirah released a screech as he clapped his claws together and charged. Kong gripped his fists as he charged forth with fury. He would prove to this island and the world he was the alpha, he would tear apart this pretender and then eat the flesh from their bones.

Titanosaurus rose from the ground as King Caesar recovered, the lion god going onto all four before charging at his target. The dinosaur quickly began to circle the conflict, waiting to find an opening to aid his comrades. King Caesar roared as he leaped into the air, aiming to tackle King Ghidorah and have the others follow suit. This beast was strong, but together they could overcome this mountain and rid this universe of the draconic overlord once and for all!

But like all dreams, they are simply that.

Monster Zero quickly turned with all three heads, their fangs sinking into the brick flesh across the torso of the golem. The creation of Atlantis released an ear-piercing screech of agony as the necks of ‘the one who is many’ began to glow blue, flowing with the liger’s unique life force. The red ruby eyes flickered as the shisha’s energy was being devoured.

King Ghidorah began to chuckle as he proceeded to drain the guardian, the taste of life being all too satisfying. One of the few true pleasures that the hydra possessed…

All three sets of eyes turned behind them, the middle head releasing his grip and spotting the ape and crustacean attempting to wrap their grips around the twin tails of the serpent. Ebirah’s claws tore into the hydra’s flesh, blood flowing from the wound. Energy climbed up the dragon’s throat, only for the left head to spot Gorosaurus charging at full speed towards them. Before they could react, the allosaur slammed his head into their torso, forcing King Ghidorah to drop King Caesar and miss striking Ebirah with the Gravity Beam.

Their body lashed out in fury at the onslaught, tossing Kong to the side like a rag doll. The ape slammed his head into the side of a mountain, rubble, and earth falling onto his form as he attempted to rise back to his feet. The alpha gained a concussion with just one attack, which proved to be diresome.

The golem rolled onto the ground as he took in deep breaths. He had barely made an effect against the demon of the galaxy, the devil from the stars was to not be underestimated if they were to survive. The evolved theropod walked over to his liger ally, helping him stand back onto his feet. The shisha simply nodded, thanking the reptile for his aid before they both returned their attention to the task at hand.

The gigantic shrimp, seeing his chance to influence the battle, charged forward. His left claw reached out to wrap around the hydra’s right neck, only for King Ghidorah to lash out. Their fangs punctured Ebirah’s elbow and lifted the crustation into the air, ripping off the limb. The shellfish screamed a bloodcurdling cry as he slammed into the earth, ichor spraying across the hydra’s form.

The right head licked their lips as they enjoyed the sweet taste of Ebirah’s blood, placing their foot into the shrimp’s rostrum. The sea monster attempted to cry out in pain but was silenced as the king of terror lifted his leg before slamming it into the shrimp, breaking through the shell and crushing organs in one swift movement. A few muscle spasms made the body twitch for a moment before the crustacean’s body went limp.

The horror of the deep was slain.

The others stared in horror as King Ghidorah simply lifted his leg out of the exposed gore and kicked the corpse to the side. Titanosaurus couldn’t stop shaking, he had faced combat before, but that was when his own mind was not in his control. He had vowed to make this invader pay with his life or leave, and he couldn’t act on his plan in time and watched a fellow member of the island be so easily killed.

The aquatic dinosaur quickly charged the back of the dragon, he had circled around for a surprise attack and with their attention focused on the others of the group, now was his chance.

Titanosaurus charged forward, aiming to wrap his hands around the serpent’s twin tails only for King Ghidorah to simply swipe his tails upward. The limbs struck against the pacifist’s skull, throwing him to the ground with a roar of pain.

Kong snarled as he jumped into the sky, raising his arms above his head, preparing to strike the demon’s spine before throwing his fists downward. The attack landed a direct hit against the invader’s form, pushing King Ghidorah forward. All three heads hissed as Gorosaurus and King Caesar charged forward, the pair unleashing their respective roars before sinking their fangs into the left and right heads of the golden demise.

Black blood filled their maws as they shook their heads violently, earning the full attention of the middle head. Golden divine power began to power up, only for the alpha of Skull Island to wrap his hands around the draconic overlord’s neck, forcing it upward. The Gravity Beam shot into the sky, completely missing its mark.

Titanosaurus rushed forward and wrapped his hands around the false king’s tails, helping the others keep them in place. Energy began to travel across the invader’s form, golden light of unholy power transferring to their wings. All three heads smiled as one thought crossed their mind…

ENOUGH!

Electrical energy shot outward, carving burns into King Caesar and Gorosaurus. The pair released screams of agony as they were pushed back, burns being carved into their forms before collapsing into the ground. Kong roared as he was thrown backward into Titanosaurus, the pair falling to the ground before turning their attention back to their foe.

Before they could even react, King Ghidorah had made their next move. The king of terror wrapped their fangs around the guardian of Okinawa’s brick form before taking to the skies, the shisa only being able to watch as he rose into a storm of the devil, his allies crying out to him.

Kong and Titanosaurus got back to their feet, staring upward at the storm above. Lightning flickering as each second passed. The ape snarled as he walked over to Ebirah’s corpse and wrapped his hands around the shrimp’s right arm before pulling, flesh-tearing with ease as the alpha removed the limb. The ape now had a weapon in this battle for the island.

Gorosaurus quickly dug into the earth, looking for a strategic attack once the demon made landfall, as well as time to recover from the previous onslaught.

As they rose into the storm, King Caesar attempted to slash through the flesh of the golden hydra, only managing to muster the strength to slightly cut through the demon. All three heads of King Ghidorah grinned, even as their fangs sank into the liger’s body, the blood being of little concern as they were about to achieve unlimited power.

The hydra had sensed it the moment they arrived on the island, within the golem laid a great source of power. The middle head released its grip before sinking their fangs into the stomach of the earth defender, earning a roar of anguish from King Caesar as the source of his life was revealed. Not organs or blood as one would expect, but a glowing radioactive mineral, blue light illuminating the storm around the pair. Element X brought such joy in the demon’s heart as they sank their fangs into their prey’s life source, the energy transferring through the neck of the devil of the stars.

Their wounds began to be completely healed, the battle damage being reversed as if time itself was being warped to the demon’s will. King Caesar attempted to release one last roar, only for the liger to fall limp. The once blue crystals being a faded grey, the red in his ruby eyes fading. With full-strength returned to them, King Ghidorah discarded the golem’s corpse. Falling into the storm before they were no longer within the apex of wishes’ sight.

All three heads looked down as they began to chuckle, while the others would deal with the rest of the pests, they would enjoy watching life leave what remained for them.

***

The Xilien experiment watched as the three began to surround him, the gathered warriors trying to get a read on him.

He would not give them the chance.

Gororin charged forward, aiming directly towards the mechanical ape. Mechani-Kong released a metallic roar as he lifted his hand and threw a grenade, the explosive colliding with the ground near the artificial life form and exploding upon impact. The ground burst into the air as Gororin continued forward.

Quickly, Mechani-Kong raised his arms above his head, aiming to slam his limps into the cactus. The plant life released the needles from his body, firing directly at the waiting pair. Anguirus quickly turned around, having the needles bounce off of his carapace and sending them into the jungle. Needles bounced off the robotic defender’s armor but the projectiles managed to force him to take a few steps back, enough for Mechani-Kong’s aim to cease.

Gororin slammed into Mechani-Kong, throwing the ape backward before crashing into the ground. The robot lifted his head as Gororin attempted to slam into him once again, only for Anguirus to swing his tail and collide with the invader’s body. Sending the enemy flying as he cringed, the needles puncturing his scales with ease.

As the invader neared the ground, Jet Jaguar prepared a kick before slamming his limb into Gororin’s form, sending him flying into the air once more. The creation of Dr.Ibuki took to the skies, chasing after the plant life and managing to catch up with his target quickly. The humanoid wrapped his hands around the alien.

Gororin’s eyes widened as he was grabbed midair before releasing his needles. Though they managed to annoy Jet Jaguar, the robot pressed onward before lifting Gororin above his head, calling to the others before throwing the cactus downward.

Anguirus looked up and saw the approaching target, snarling as he quickly turned his back and crouched on all fours. Before the enemy made contact, Anguirus jumped upward, slamming his carapice against the alien, sending him upward once more.

Jet Jaguar charged forward, slamming his fist into Gororin’s face and forcing him into the ground near Anguirus.

Earth launched into the air as the pair made impact, the creation of Dr.Ibuki continued with his assault. Each punch sent shockwaves outward before Gororin once again launched his needles, staggering Jet before the Xilien creation leapt upward and forced the robotic defender to the ground.

Dents being made across his form as the alien attempted to charge at the downed humanoid, only for Mechani-Kong to grab him mid-charge.

Gororin released a groan of annoyance as the mechanical ape threw him to the ground, earning his attention. His yellow eyes stared as the ape attempted to throw a grenade at the cactus, only for Jet Jaguar to quickly wrap his hand around the explosives on his allies’ belt.

The alien plant life went to jump out of the way, only to discover himself to be stuck. His eyes widened as he realized that the ankylosaur had pinned him down with his carapice. Anguirus released a roar, demanding that they finish the invader.

The robotic defender slammed his hand as hard as he could against the Xilien creation’s cuticle, managing to puncture through the alien’s flesh. The lights in Gororin’s eyes dimmed immediately as Jet placed the grenade into the cacti’s form before quickly jumping back.

Anguirus, seeing his opportunity to retreat, leapt backward to avoid what was about to occur. Gororin exploded from the inside, his waxy exterior splashing across the ground and Jet Jaguar’s form. Smoke rising from the corpse as the three defenders turned their attentions towards the other invaders.

The fire monster looked towards the golden demise, seeing his allies fight valiantly against the devil from the stars. Then he turned his attention towards the struggling youngsters facing the skeletal draconic before finally spotting an enemy from the past battle against their rival.

The ankylosaur growled before charging head first towards Monster X. The children needed his aid. The others could handle the new Ghidorah and Gigan, as much as he wanted to see the latter finally fall to the grasp of death, he needed to aid the weaker ones of the island.

Jet Jaguar charged straight towards King Ghidorah at top speeds, aiming to protect the world from the apex of wishes.

Mechani-Kong turned towards the clash in the skies as it marched forward, it did not know what it could do against the cybernetic slasher, but the mechanical ape knew that they must do all they could to defend the planet against this otherworldly threat.

If they failed… the Earth would be doomed.

***

Steam rose from the skeletal draconic’s maw as the Xilien creation got into a running position. Yellow electrical energy traveled across his body before the Ghidoran entered a sprint directly at the trio.

Atomic energy began to charge within Godzilla Junior, opening his maw to release a blast of energy, only for Monster X to slam his arm into his neck at full speed, knocking him to the ground and sending the beam into the air in an instant. Rodan charged directly at the invader, unleashing a roar of defiance aimed to slam his mass into the artificial lifeform. Yet X swung his arm and landed a direct hit, swatting Rodan away and sending him crashing into the ground.

Daigoro quickly wrapped his arms around X’s tails, attempting to pull on the limbs and aid his comrades. The artificial Ghidorah simply pulled his tails away from the hippopotamus’ grasp, throwing him to the ground and earning a cry of pain from the young one. Smiling as he watched the weakling attempt to get back to his feet.

Atomic energy quickly climbed once again to Junior’s throat and unleashed an atomic blast, the energy landing a direct hit on the side of Monster X’s skull. Earning a cry of surprise as he was forced back, returning his attention to the rising Godzillasaur.

Golden light began to surround the draconic’s eyes before unleashing streams of Gravity Beams at the mutant, striking his chest and throwing him backward into the ground. The young prince cried out in pain as he was dragged through the earth before the attack ceased. Smoke rising from his chest as he wheezed, attempting to breathe as he stared at the approaching invader’s form. Snarling before going to unleash a roar of rage when the earth next to the threat burst open, earning X’s attention as another foe appeared.

It stood on two legs, ending with four claws on each set. The spine looked as if it was bursting out of its flesh, a long tail dragged behind its form. A long bone like maw opened to reveal thousands of teeth and a split tongue as it roared at Monster X. Drool falling from the devil’s maw as he stared at the invader, wanting to sink his teeth in and devour every last piece of flesh from his bones.

Ramarak had finally seen an opportunity to take the surface and he would devour all those that stood in his path. As he charged forward, Monster X began to charge his Gravity Beams once more, only to have Daigoro slam into his side. Throwing the blast off target and landing across the landscape. The Xilien creation slammed his elbow into the young one’s snout, breaking it on impact. Blood ran down his face as Monster X went to throw a punch to the face, only for Rodan to slam into his head at full speed, throwing the Ghidorah to the ground.

As the skeletal draconic rose to his feet, the Skull Devil pounced on him. The two thrashed across the ground, their roars of hatred being heard to all before Monster X managed to throw his opponent off of him.

Junior charged forward to Daigoro’s side, letting out a small roar asking if his friend was okay. The young hippo nodded his head as he attempted to seem brave to his friend, he felt like hiding from this as the adults managed to push back this threat. The only fight he had ever been in made him muster all the bravery within him, and now stands something that would make Goliath look incredibly small.

Monster X returned to his feet as he stared at the duo, smoke rising from his maw as hatred began to reach the surface. He was being sloppy. This was his first fight, but the fact that they had managed to slightly annoy him got under his skin. He wished to watch them all die to his will.

The Skull Devil roared as he attempted to pounce onto Monster X’s back for a surprise attack, only for the humanoid to grab the monster by the throat and throw him directly at the charging duo. The animal slammed into Daigoro at full force, the pair slamming into the ground with groans. Before Junior could react, the artificial Ghidorah charged in and slammed his fists into the mutant’s form repeatedly. His speed increased with each strike, eventually breaking a few ribs before the young prince was sent flying with a particularly strong strike.

Slamming into the ground with a loud thud, blood flowing from his maw as he spit out teeth. His chest felt as if it was going to collapse from within, his broken bones causing him to cringe as pain rushed through his body.

Rodan quickly swooped in, peaking his beak into the Ghidorah’s head. Causing sparks to fly with each strike before the invader reached up and wrapped his hand around Rodan’s throat, causing the pteranodon to release a croaked squeal of pain before it was silenced by the draconic slamming him into the ground repeatedly.

Each strike caused the very earth itself to fly into the air, Rodan crying out in agony to his allies to help. Junior stood back up on his feet, energy climbing back up once more. Rage engulfed his vision as he released an atomic blast directly at the attacker. Monster X looked up, golden energy surrounded his eyes before unleashing Gravity Beams, the two blasts colliding in a surge of power.

Sparks of blue and gold flashed as the beam struggle caught the attention of Daigoro and the Skull Devil, the display of power before them sending shivers down the young kaiju’s spine. The ravenous predator, meanwhile, began to attempt to sneak up on the invader.

Lunging forward before being caught with Monster X’s free hand, the skeletal hand wrapping around his throat. Applying pressure and choking him with ease, as he began to stand up. More power being forced into the Gravity Beams with each passing second, Junior having trouble keeping his footing as his genocidal adversary rose from the ground.

The alien smiled as he released one final push, ending the charade. Junior roared as he was thrown into a mountain. Earth falling over him as a landslip began, steam rising from beneath the rocks.

Monster X quickly turned his attention towards the two kaiju he had in his hand, weakening and gasping for air. The devil scratched furiously at his arm, sparks flying as it was desperate to break free. Rodan roared out to Junior, attempting to see if his brother was okay, but his captor slammed his head into the Skull Devil’s and tossed them aside.

The pair of monsters had a massive concussion as a result, their groans of anguish seeming like music to Monster X’s ears. The alien then stared back at the rubble. Once he had dealt with the Godzillasaurus, then he would finish off the others slowly.

As he marched forward, a boulder collided with the back of his head, breaking apart on impact and garnering his attention. He turned to spot a shaking Daigoro attempting to make himself look fierce. His fists protecting his head to show he was ready.

All he needed to do was stall his opponent, give Junior time to recover so that they may drive away the invaders.

Monster X charged forward, roaring with anticipation as he got closer to the hippopotamus…

***

A blade-tipped foot planted into the ground, depressing the soil of Skull Island around it. Gigan grimaced, still in disbelief that his former partner would choose these puny islanders over the glory of war. The cyborg held out his scythe attached to the right arm, directing it at Megalon once more, though perhaps he was holding for a lost cause. This world, this island, it made him soft. An electronic chirp rang from the cyborg’s beaked mouth, trying to persuade the Seatopian deity into joining forces, lest he make this godforsaken land his grave.

A set of two-toed feet pressed into the dirt, pressuring the ground in order to release tension. He wasn’t the brightest nor the smartest, but experience taught him something valuable. This was his home now, his new resolve to see a better tomorrow. The insect god registered the hollowness in such false promises. There was nothing there, a fault he saw in Gigan after decades of being apart. Revving his drill claws, the bipedal beetle shrieked, determined to bring this to an end.

Truly, a pity.

Pressurized air burst from specialized ports on the elongated scythe, with a pair of hooked wires speeding straight to the idle arthropod. Caught in the entangling cords of deceit, Megalon flailed helplessly as he attempted to free himself; but Gigan refused to give his traitorous ally that kind of levity. With smoke sizzling from the ports, the wires tightened as they reeled back, dragging the insectoid juggernaut against his will. A path was carved with Megalon’s enormity, scattering dust and debris across the battlefield.

As Megalon drew closer, Gigan prepped his other blade for the lethal blow. A heartless, savage jab right in the throat–that was the cyborg’s sadistic intention. Killing Megalon quickly wasn’t just an obligation, but a mercy, the only kind Gigan knew he could give. When the moment was prime, the blade swiftly launched directly for its intended target–only to be caught in a vice grip of equally durable metal. The tip had only barely ingrained itself in Megalon’s neck, with the rest held by the signature drills. Despite not being known as the brightest of kaiju, Megalon made up for it in sheer strength, resisting the pressure Gigan was applying.

A lightbulb consciously popped in the disgraced deity, parting his mandibles and spitting a compact ball of geothermal materials. The reddish orb soared directly for the face of the cyborg, Megalon eagerly hoping the bomb would detonate on impact. Successfully, the red ball bumped against the crimson visor of the friend-turned-foe, forcing Gigan to awkwardly stumble back and recuperate his vision. Unfortunately, the anticipated ka-boom never occurred, the napalm harmlessly fell under the influence of gravity, falling right back into Megalon’s still-open mandibles. Steam eructated from his maw, venting the heat from the deteriorating bomb.

Toned stalks for legs backpedaled, metallic blades swatting the residual heat from the brief bump. The cyclopean eye scanned the downed target, systems calibrating for utmost precision. A bright flash of scarlet signified the charge-up of the Gigarium Cluster, and in a moment would inflict damage without remorse. But in the instant, Gigan was sidelined by a tremendous force, one that registered from a fight of ages past. The Gigarium Cluster shot out of the visor, misdirected, and grazed into a mountainside, missing Megalon entirely. Without a shadow of a doubt, it was obvious who it was–and it was a score long overdue to be dealt with.

Mothra soared over the fallen Gigan, flapping her tremendous wings and circling around the fallen cyborg. She chirped at Megalon, inquiring if he was all right. A dazed and confused warble was the only response the moth goddess got out of confuddled deity. Before long, her compound eyes registered a disturbance in the cloud of dust, forcing Mothra to take quick evasion. Just as she banked a hard right, a bluish blur zipped past her, displacing the air around it. An electronic shrill escaped the cyborg’s beaked jaws, cursing for not landing the fatal blow against his ancient nemesis.

Without missing a moment, Gigan immediately readied another Gigarium Cluster, the scarlet streak of light escaping from the dark red brim. Keeping up with the augmented fowl’s speed, the divine moth swerved to the side, once again evading the subsequent strike, leaving her unscathed. Arcing around, Mothra dove straight for the extraterrestrial menace, closing the gap until she came to a slow and abrupt halt, clapping her powerful, majestic wings against the cybernetic sociopath. The tremendous kinetic force threw Gigan back before he could even fully register the blow, hurled from the skies and unto the grounds of Skull Island, carving a trench beneath his incredible mass.

Pressing upward, the tri-finned silhouette rose from the debris cluster, directing seething hatred towards the lepidopteran peacekeeper. Taking a firm stance and cracking its neck, Gigan screeched a metallic war cry with utmost intent. Revving his belly-saw in utter ecstasy and pathological malice, his attention squared solely on Mothra…

Auditory detectors picked up the vibrations of rapid buzzing, Gigan quickly turning to face the intruder head-on. With a star-shaped cephalic horn and arms clamped together, rotating as one enormous drill, Megalon spearheaded a rash maneuver against his once proclaimed ally. Bloody triggers braced the full brunt of the rotating auger, grinding against the enforced cosmo-steel and chipping away at the alien metal. Sparks illuminated between the two, their flaming spite flaring more and more by the second.

However, it wasn’t as if the cyborg was helpless; blaring a brilliant scarlet light, a concentrated streak bombarded the insect’s pronotal visage, blowing Megalon away with scattered light, hurling the brute through the air. The Seatopian avatar crashed with an explosive blast, shifting in the dirt in order to pick himself back up. Large compound eyes, much like Mothra, granted Megalon incredible sight, but the obscuring dust cloud hindered his vision. Not that that mattered in the wake of the footfalls that approached his prone state.

The silhouette of Gigan stood over, mouth gape in such a way that created the illusion of a wicked smile. Another flash, another Gigarium Cluster, as all Megalon could do was brace the pain–or potential death–that would come from it. But a trill of determined hope caught Megalon’s attention, witnessing Mothra descending from the sky, putting herself in the manic cyborg’s path. Her wings permeated with sparkling glitter as a cloud of pollen-like dust shrouded them both. An instant later, Gigan fired his primary weapon.

Caught in the entanglement of reflective scales, the streak broke apart into smaller clusters, bouncing around the defensive veil, each igniting to the point of combustion. Although imprisoned in the confines of the scales, the immense pushback forced Mothra aground, crashing against a nearby slope. Megalon, already partially buried, took the full brunt of the heated shockwave. Once it dissipated, a path was made clear for Megalon and Gigan to lock eyes.

A gleeful chirp escaped Gigan’s mouth, his abdominal saw whirling rapidly. All hopes were dashed; who was once an ally now became dissociated, nothing more than a traitor. A strange relief washed over the cybernetic fiend, now there wasn’t a need to be remorseful once Megalon was slaughtered.

Holding both blades forward, hooking anchors shot out from their ports, following the automated tracking systems installed. Sliding under the drill-tipped forearms, wires constricted and tightened, then Gigan began to reel in. Hauled against his will, Megalon was forced to stand, sluggishly stumbling over his feet as he inched closer to his demise. Louder and louder the whirling became, more evident he’d meet his doom if he didn’t act. If there was anything Gigan knew about this wretched pest, it wasn’t the smartest kaiju that the M Space Hunter Nebula aliens had encountered, nor was it the deadliest. That he firmly believed.

The two came in arm’s range, but just before the devastating blow could be dealt, the star-shaped horn atop the beetle god began to flash a golden light, discharging a sudden blast of electricity at the psychopathic cyborg. So this was Gigan’s true colors? Megalon felt reviled, far more disgusted than he ever thought possible. It became hard to carry that they had once been comrades in arms, but the reality became all too abundant to simply sweep under the rug. With this revelation, however, it ensured that Megalon didn’t need to hold back as he continued to pump his adversary with lethal doses of electricity.

Squalls and shrieks echoed across the battlefield, with the cyborg’s cosmo-steel conducting the electric current like a Christmas tree. Even the wires of the hooking anchors activated emergency protocol, loosening their grip and finally pushing the augmented alien back into one of the many mountains of Skull Island. The trilling screams of the cybernetic fiend continued until Megalon ceased fire, who carefully observed to see what would unfold next.

As his body processed the current flowing through his veins, Gigan propped himself to his feet by his scythes. Steam rose from his blackened armor, with sparks bursting from his internal mechanisms. Hoarse breathing escaped from the metallic beak, the cyclopean visor glaring at his bête noire. This pest, it would pay for that!

But a small snap of a pin alerted him of forthcoming danger.

A swift turn was all the time Gigan had to spare, analyzing the shape off in the distance. Its metallic frame and hominid-like posture told the cyborg everything he needed to know. More importantly than that, though, the automated gorilla held one of its arms back, clenching a massive grenade in its hand. Like a catapult, Mechani-Kong hurled the explosive at the alien menace, stoically eager for a direct hit.

With only a second to choose, bloodstained tri-fins opened wide and soared into the drizzling rains above. Another second later, a calamitous explosion erupted under Gigan’s feet, avoiding it in just the nick of time. But much to the fowl’s dismay, the beetle god intercepted him mid-flight. With elytra spread and wings buzzing, Megalon closed the gap, with utmost intention to gore Gigan apart, piece by piece. Steel scythes and metal drills resounded a powerful clang when they scraped against each other, the two exchanging a flurry of counters and blows to the other.

Blades and augers clasped into one another, deadlocked until the other moved. However, Gigan knew he could improvise. Surging his lithe tail, the claw-tipped appendage skewered into Megalon’s gut, earning a pained shrill from the mighty coleoptera. With ecstatic glee, the belly saw began to rev once more, anticipating the moment this thorn in his side would be sliced open by the blade cutter.

But a certain moth would ruin this precious moment for him.

Having sped through the skies, Mothra reached where the dueling monsters were and unloaded another wave of golden particles. Electronic components short-circuited the cyborg’s internal mechanisms, causing him to temporarily stutter. This gave Megalon ample time to break away, distancing himself from Mothra’s onslaught against the cyborg invader. Screeches and squalls rang in their auditory senses as Gigan struggled to maintain mobility, though the cybernetic sociopath proved to be a persistent nuisance through and through.

With a surprising bark echoing from Megalon, the Seatopian lord of lords ordered Mothra to retreat. She complied, as she understood what came next. Parting his mandibles, a geothermal bomb propelled into the golden shroud, combusting on impact. Combined with the reflective nature of Mothra’s scales, the Xilien war-machine was consumed in a fiery blaze, and Megalon hoped he died in anguish. From the flaming cloud, smoke drifted from the falling cadaver, carried by the pull of gravitational force.

The instant felt like forever, his mind wavering into the unconscious. He had been here before, long ago when he had been a pawn of the Nebulans he once hailed as his masters. An ebbing darkness overtook his body, dimly blending in with the rolling thunder clouds above. Software and internal hardware powered down, scrambling for a quick and immediate reboot. As the reactivation process went underway, memories cycled through the cybernetically augmented brain. Every fight, every loss, every gratifying indulgence… All stained in the blood of his enemies.

The instant concluded with a flash of his visor, life returning to his twisted mind and body.

Spreading his fins out to regain aerial buoyancy, Gigan scanned the environment around him. Above were his despised partner and his ancient nemesis; below was the mechanical gorilla armed with grenades. The automated ape locked its arm for another toss, aimed squarely for Gigan.

A stiff, sickening whisper escaped his beaked maw. Bingo.

Raising his right arm, a pair of hooking anchors zipped past and lunged for the insect gods that lingered in the stormy skies. Both Megalon and Mothra darted in opposite directions, avoiding the snares of the reeling cables. Just as they did, Gigan craned his head towards Megalon–while his left arm kept steady on Mothra’s trajectory. Another burst of pressurized air hissed from the ports, with another set of anchors targeting the evasive moth goddess. Hooks embedded themselves in the abdomen of the mighty insect, eliciting a shriek from nature’s defender.

The cyclopean eye maintained visual for the entire duration, then began to charge the moment the anchors found their mark. The instant before Megalon could initiate a counterattack, a streak of scarlet seared through the sky and found their target–splitting apart into smaller bursts that ignited the air around the Seatopian god. The compacted power forced the herculean beetle to sail until he crashed head-first, vanishing amidst the dust and debris following the impact.

Reeling the wires back into his arm, it became a vicious tug of war between the malicious Gigan and the determined Mothra, who fought vigorously to maintain midair leverage. Stationed on the cyborg’s chest, two slits opened and shot a pair of disk-like razors, homing in on the scuffling deity. Before she could enact any sort of countermeasure, the sensation of shredded wings rushed through her body, losing all aerial momentum she once carried. Her compound eyes witnessed the razor blades swish by, boomeranging back and neatly storing themselves back into the ports they ejected from.

Now was the point of no return.

Mustering all of his strength into his left arm, Gigan hauled the unwilling body of Mothra around like a ball and mace, swinging her to intercept a very special target… The devil’s mark had already been made, an airborne grenade aimed at the cyborg’s coordinates. Collision was projected to make an impact in three… two… one…

Mothra’s body barreled into the flying projectile, denoted in a wild explosive burst that ended the life of the majestic peacekeeper. A flaming fireball expanded outward, with an ensuing shockwave that threw Gigan off-balance. He felt the radiant heat as he recoiled the wires back into their ports. This fire in his life sparked joy in his soul; a sickening delight of a grudge that could at last be put to rest, avenging the humiliating defeat from several thousand years ago.

He couldn’t be more happy.

The stoic face of Mechani-Kong could only gaze at the horrors that transpired before its artificial orbs. But it couldn’t let this mortifying loss weigh it down; it had simply been a miscalculation. Gearing up its high beams, Mechani-Kong scanned the fireball in order to track down the alien menace, only to find the scattered remnants of the fallen goddess raining upon the battlefield. A strategy had to be devised, something to lure the threat to close quarters, and–

Parting the fiery clouds, a streak of red light zipped right for the belt fixed on the automaton’s waist, dispersing into a myriad of smaller explosions. This in turn ignited the grenades attached to the belt, and in an instant, Mechani-Kong was engulfed in a destructive, blazing blast of glory. Like a compacted nuclear bomb, the explosive output shook the entireity of Skull Island to its very core, with a brilliant light that, if only for a moment, brought everything to a temporary silence.

The fires died, and the battle resumed as if nothing happened. Nearly a mile away, with no witnesses other than the native inhabitants of the island, the broken, mangled shell of Mechani-Kong’s head crashed into the dense foliage, crushing several of the smaller critters under its weight. The lights in its eyes dimmed, leaving the scorched machine to cease all functionality.

Touching down on the soil of this mythic island, Gigan screeched a victorious war cry. His nemesis had been slain, all in thanks to a mechanized imitation of all things. Now there was, at the very least, one last score to settle. Scanning where Megalon had crashed, it didn’t take long to register that the insect god wasn’t there; rather, a gaping hole took the place of where the coleopteran once was.

Metallic blades braced themselves in anticipation, shifting his legs in case the enemy were to emerge from beneath. Lo and behold, he was correct in his assessment; for a deep rumbling vibrated through his toned stalks, alerting Gigan of the impending danger that was to come. With a great and powerful bound, Gigan leapt over the collapsing mound that formed beneath him, and from it came a pointed drill that merely stabbed empty air. Just as quickly as it came, the auger retracted into the subterranean depths, vanishing from sight.

Sustaining flight over the rugged terrain, Gigan maintained surveillance on his enemy, waiting for it to launch another assault. He knew it wouldn’t remain hidden forever; unless it retreated into the depths of the Earth, abandoning this lost cause and living to fight another day. But that wishful thinking was quickly dashed when the larger mass erupted from the warmth of the soil. Revving its drills and with the buzzing of wings, Megalon sought to sideline the cybernetic fowl with raw, brute strength.

Gigan had other plans.

Slits opened up once more, deploying the very razor disks that had incapacitated the mighty Mothra. History repeated itself, with the rotary cutters clipping into the vibrating wings and tough elytra, immobilizing Megalon’s aerial buoyancy and sending him careening to the ground. The mega-sized coleopteran clumsily landed on his feet, regaining equilibrium. Megalon responded in kind with a compacted ball of geothermal material, hurling it at the cyborg. Unfortunately, the bladed scythes swatted the fiery sphere away, leaving it crashing and detonating on a nearby mountainside.

Before he could fire another round, the edged discus came around and tore into the arms of the once-revered deity of Seatopia, leaving him to scream in anguish. This excruciating process underwent the same repeating process, shedding the exoskeleton of the gargantuan beetle and bleeding from the inflicted wounds. With one last go-around, the saucers cleaved the star-shaped horn that adorned the insect’s head, stripping him of his power and dominance. Once the bladed cutters returned to their ports, what was left was a mangled and bloodied mess of a monster–one that was finally submitting to the lingering fear that persisted in his mind.

Gigan shot out both grappling hooks, which wrapped around the now-fragile arms, yanking the deity closer to him. As he did, the belly saw whirled to life, Gigan screeching in ecstatic glee. With the bipedal arthropod in arm’s reach, Gigan reached out and embraced his traitorous comrade, pressing his blades into the body, which in turn pressed Megalon into the buzzsaw. This left nothing but for Megalon to scream in agony as he felt himself being sliced open, bleeding out from the tremendous wounds. This sickly squeeze painted the stainless cosmo-steel in Megalon’s blood, with life escaping from the yellow compound eyes. It was then at last Megalon drew his last breath, dead in the arms of his former ally.

With the deceased having moved on from his plane of existence, the whirling saw came to a gradual stop. The enemy had been slain, casually dropping the corpse onto the ground. The cyborg glanced at his bloodied attachments; a spare moment of indulgence for the victory over his foes. He watched as Megalon’s blood stained the soil, something the alien had fully intended to enact on the denizens of this very island. But just because he was satisfied, did not mean the mission was over. There was work to be done, and Gigan would do so willingly.

Turning around, Gigan spotted the other Ghidorah–the golden demise, the great destroyer–engaged in combat with the others. Perhaps he would assist, if only to further revel in the glory of bloodshed. Sprinting on his feet, he charged, shrieking in earnest delight.

***

The elevator doors opened, Akane walked out, grabbing her pistol and raising it to her shoulder. Both hands held the gun as she crept along quietly, looking for who this host could be. She walked down a dark hallway, the walls rusted and small spots of blood splattered across the hall and floor. The smell that emitted from the walls reminded her of a warzone, the smell of decay and death… Akane tried to ignore it, continuing to pursue her objective.

Doors to cells finally began to pop up, a board with a piece of paper hung on each one. She grabbed one and read the info on the piece of paper. The date was wrong, she would have to continue looking…

Akane heard the elevator doors open; someone was coming. Quickly she ran into a room but closed the door behind her as quietly as she could hoping to not be discovered by the people that arrived. “So…are you here to torture me too?” Akane turned around and saw what appeared to be a young man in chains, his clothes ripped and blood covering the floor and his body.

“Oh my god…” Akane walked over to the boy and attempted to free the boy of his imprisonment using a couple of hairpins. “Hey, kid.. What’s your name?”

“Eren… Eren Jaeger of the Scout Regiment.”

Scout Regiment? The lieutenant thought to herself. She had never heard of any such organization or military division. Once they got out of here, she would have questions for the boy.

“My name is Lieutenant Akane Yashiro, how long have you been down here Eren?” Eren looked at Akane and tried to speak but his loss of breath made it difficult for him to speak. “It’s okay, take your time, I almost got you out of here.”

“I have only been here for what I assume is a day…. After I got captured, I woke up here and for what seemed like hours was tortured for information.” The first shackle came undone, releasing Eren’s right arm. Akane switched over to the left side of Eren and began to pick at the lock. “I told them everything, and yet they still believed that I had escaped from a facility they had somewhere…” Akane stopped what she was doing and looked at Eren with a curious face.

“Are you… Are you the host of that rogue Titan? The one that fought Mecha-King Ghidorah alongside Ultraman?” Eren looked at Akane with remorse, remembering that he could not save his ally in the battle against the Futurian forces. He clenched his right fist in anger, if he were to ever meet them on the battlefield, he would surely end them where they stood for what they did.

“Yes. I am the Attack Titan… Tell me… Are you with Emmy?”

“Who the hell is Emmy?”

“Figures… For a time traveler, she sure seems to be late to extract me from this timeline.”

“This timeline?”

“I’ll explain everything when we get out of this hellhole. I promise you Akane.” The lieutenant nodded before resuming her picking of the left shackle. Almost immediately the chain was freed from Eren’s wrist, he smiled as he rose to his feet. Akane felt slightly at ease at the fact that she had freed the man she had wronged. Now they would have to escape… One way or another…

The door slammed open, Captain Gordon and Captain Sakaki walked into the room. Both were surprised to see Eren freed by Akane’s hands. “Traitor! Harou, alert security!” Harou reached for the walkie-talkie in his pocket, pulling it out but before he could speak, Akane lifted her pistol towards the captain and shot his hand. Harou grunted in pain as the walkie-talkie fell on the floor, blood running down his limb as he held it in his uninjured hand.

“Now we can do this the easy way or the hard…way..” Steam rose from Harou’s wound, the wound healing quickly.

“Did you forget? I’m a Titan Shifter, just like you.”

Eren stepped forward, crossing his arms before speaking. “So..what Titan, are you the host for? The Armored Titan, Colossal Titan, or perhaps you have the same as mine… the Attack Titan.” Harou looked over at Gordon… Perhaps the boy was telling the truth while they were torturing him.

“Seems you got a good eye. You are correct in your guess.” Eren unfolded his arms and clenched his fists, readying himself for combat.

“So which ones are the other two?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Harou charged headfirst at Eren, ready to beat the man lost in time. Akane raised her gun at Gordon, both waiting for the other to make their first move.

***

The approaching footsteps made Daigoro shake, each one signaling that his time was near. The draconic before him was a much larger and skilled adversary than himself but he needed to buy his friend sometime, otherwise, Junior would be easily killed.

The youngster charged forward at Monster X, his fists clenched as he went to swing in mid-charge, only for the alien to casually dodge the attack before striking him in the stomach, earning a scream of pain as the child was brought to his knees.

The animal gasped for air as his attacker grabbed him by the back of the skull, throwing him into a nearby landmass. A scream of pain escaped the hippo’s maw as bones broke in an instant, blood flowing from wounds as he attempted to stand. Daigoro stared at the approaching destroyer, huffing under his breath.

This infant was not worth his time, he needed to finish this and move on to the more worthy prey in the saurian…

A roar caught his attention at the last second, his eyes widening in surprise as Ramarak wrapped their jaws around his throat. Hundreds of teeth scraped across the black flesh of the destroyer, drawing blood in its surprise attack. The Skull Devil continued to apply pressure, raising one arm over his head and then slamming it into the downed destroyer’s center head, forcing the back of his skull against the earth.

The lizard proceeded to thrash his head back and forth in an attempt to rip into Monster X’s neck and secure the kill. They would devour every part of this creature’s flesh and enjoy every bite, no flesh even from a demon such as this would taste foul to them. The flavor of ichor brought the gigantic Skullcrawler joy as he heard the cry of pain from its pinned prey…

The skeletal draconic’s eyes began to glow golden, energy gathering from within before suddenly unleashing his Gravity Beams. With one blast, the entire head of the Skull Devil was erased, the wound of the severed head being cauterized as the corpse fell to the ground. Smoke rose from the corpse as Monster X rose to his feet, turning his attention towards Daigoro, who was now standing once again.

His right arm was twisted and his elbow jutted from skin, blood falling down from his arm and skull. The young hippopotamus taunted with his left arm for the invader to attack once more. He stumbled forward, taking in deep breaths as adrenaline rushed through him. He needed to give Junior more time; it was possible that he was the only one that could stand a chance against what stood before him. If he died, this entire island would go down with it.

Monster X proceeded to leap into the air, catching Daigoro’s attention as he attempted to keep track. However, before the youngster knew it, the demonic foe landed behind him and a sudden surge of pain rushed through his body, earning a cry of agony as he felt his left leg go limp. The hippo kaiju fell to his knee before the alien grabbed him by the back of the skull, chuckling as they stared at Godzilla Junior, who was rising from the rubble.

The prince’s eyes widened as he saw his friend brought down to his knees, releasing a roar pleading to the invader to release the young hippo and finish their duel. The artificial Ghidorah simply smiled as he pulled his leg back and lifted Daigoro into the air, striking him with the full force of a decisive kick, sending the screaming mammal into the air before disappearing from sight in an instant.

The mutant’s eyes widened as he couldn’t sense his friend anymore. He was gone, thrown into the sky with barely any power coming from the one responsible.

Monster X released a soft roar at his prey, smiling as he revealed the last thing he heard from the pathetic child… was the sound of his head popping.

The Godzillasaurus roared with rage as he charged forward, rage consuming him as he went to charge an atomic blast, only for a familiar cry to stop him in his tracks.

The demon from the stars began to grow annoyed as Anguirus joined the group, unleashing a roar so loud that the armor across Monster X began to crack. The Xilien experiment charged forward to deal with the ankylosaur, only to be slammed in the back by Rodan flying over him, making him fall to his knees.

The invader turned towards Rodan, once again charging his Gravity Beams to shoot him out of the sky, only for a stream of atomic fire to strike across the humanoid dragon’s shoulder, pushing him through the landscape before the attack ceased. Smoke rose from his form as he released a groan of rage, looking upon the three with hatred. He quickly rose to his feet and roared at the three challengers, jumping into the air, applying gravity to his form as he stretched out his leg to slam into the pterodactyl’s back.

Rodan was quick to realize the pressing situation and dodged the attack, causing Monster X to miss his strike. Earth flew into the air before Anguirus charged forward and sank his teeth into the demon’s flesh. Such a feeble attempt earned a groan of annoyance before lifting his hand and slamming it into the ankylosaur’s form, forcing the dinosaur to release his grip, proceeding to be kicked away into the earth.

The demon felt blood fall from his wounds, these insects were actually managing to wear him down. He clenched his fist before slamming it into the ground and releasing a roar of absolute rage. He would kill them all for this transgression and leave their skeletons as black as the void that birthed his master!

Rodan released a chirp as he dove down at the enemy, only for Monster X to simply swing his arm backward and land a strike. The pteranodon was sent crashing to the ground in an instant, releasing bloodied coughs as his body rushed with serotonin.

Anguirus charged forward before curling into a ball, launching himself at the demon. The sound of the rumbling Thunderball approaching caught the skeletal draconic’s attention, quickly turning and slamming his foot at full force into the fire monster’s form. This sent him flying into Godzilla Junior in an instant, both of them crying in pain as they crashed into the ground. Monster X got into a running position before sprinting straight at the duo, earth flying into the air with each step. A roar of rage exited his maw as he pulled his arm back for a full-powered strike, going in for the killing blow on the closest of the pair.

Quickly, Junior and Anguirus returned to their feet and charged forward, managing to dodge the enraged Ghidorah and struck the sides of the demon’s form. Sparks and black blood flew as their talons cut into flesh, causing Monster X to stumble a bit. Giving the prince of the island an opportunity, his spines illuminated blue before unleashing an atomic blast once more against the invader’s back.

The artificial destroyer released a cry of anguish as his face was forced into the earth, his form being forced forward by the blast of atomic energy. His bone-like armor cracking and blood sprayed into the air as the attack ceased, steam rising from the bioweapon’s form.

Monster X coughed blood onto the ground as he began to rise to his feet, his vision becoming blurry from the concussion that he had just been inflicted. This was getting dangerous, he was going to die here. Die to enemies that his master would easily eliminate without much effort, he was pathetic. Not worthy to become an emperor of the chaos, to bend all life to his will… No, he would not die here.

He would kill them, rip through their flesh, and burn them to embers. He would burn the hope of this world as his master intended sixty-five million years ago.

As he attempted to turn his attention back to the fight, he suddenly was lifted into the air. His golden eyes widened in surprise as his chest was slammed into Anguirus’ carapace, the pair working together to cripple him.

Blood covered the dinosaur’s spikes as the demon released a howl of anguish before being thrown to the side. He looked up and behind him to see his three opponents stand before him and unleash a roar of rage at him.

His eyes glowed golden as he smiled… It was time.

***

Tense, mammalian eyes surveyed the deadly storm that lingered over the island. Black, swirling clouds blanketed the sky, making the differentiation between day and night obsolete. Lightning flickered from within the storm, the yellow glow coursing through the clouds like a river leading to the ocean. And deep within the cyclone, the shadow of a majestic evil, one who was consuming the life essence of an ally to the cause.

Kong grunted, infuriated at the cowardice displayed by the golden terror besieging his land. Firmly planting his feet and putting aside his weapon, the man-beast reared up and pounded his chest, resounding a powerful roar to the torrential hurricane above. The normally gentle Titanosaurus likewise chimed in, his warbling mixed with the barbaric war cries of the mighty Kong. They knew this fight would determine the future of the world; and it had to be settled here and now.

Then, as if hearing them, the body under the clutches of the planet eater fell. The familiar rocky figure was obstructed by the darkened clouds; but once it came into view, they saw that the once regal King Caesar was nothing more than tatters. Without the Element X that once powered his very life force, the chiseled minerals deteriorated under the harsh winds of the Category 6 hurricane. Though he bore no blood in his system, he appeared lifeless and pale, his once brilliant ruby eyes faded and barren. At last, King Caesar’s desecrated corpse crumbled into a billow of dust and debris upon impact, leaving little remains of the once recognized champion of Okinawa.

That was a warning from the devil above of their doomed fates.

Quick to retrieve his weapon, Kong brandished the arm of Ebirah like a blade. The two titans bore witness to the horrors that came from the superstorm, at last showing their faces. Carried by tremendous sails for wings, the tri-headed hydra emerged from the cell, all three heads grinning as they did. They felt empowered, restored! All wounds they had sustained were nothing more than a distant memory, rejuvenated back into their prime. Erratic lighting sparked from their colossal, wyvern-esque body, eager to slay, kill, and destroy.

If it was death they called for, then as the apex of wishes, that they shall get!

Bioelectric energy danced around the fangs of the hydra, rivers flowing from the dragon’s maws. Lightning carved the dirt around them, erupting in a cascade of sparkling delight as the pair tried to hold their own against the onslaught. Yet they could only struggle as they were caught in the entanglement of destructive prowess, forced to dance in between the electric columns that kept them at bay.

Prepared for landing, enormous wings flapped, pushing hurricane force winds in its wake. With a firm, rock-hard landing, King Ghidorah glowered at the pests that stood before them. What trouble they gave them, and all for what? Ghidorah knew their ends drew near, and would take great pleasure in dealing with these fools. Channeling divine wrath up their necks, Ghidorah discharged another payload upon the enemies. Kong was quick to evade, the lightning beam harmlessly swishing by. Titanosaurus, however, received the full brunt of it, shoved into the ground at full force.

Armed with the claw of Ebirah, Kong leapt and swung the crustaceous blade at the three-headed terror, managing to carve a groove into the left head’s neck. Without a moment to spare, the middle head snapped at the claw, yanking it out of the man-beast’s firm grip and tossing it overhead. It crashed near a rocky slope, left to soak in the torrential downpour. But Kong knew he wasn’t out of options; baring his fangs, he sunk his teeth into the scales of the left head, hoping to tear from the flesh of the devil. In response, the demon of the galaxy snaked its heads around the arms of the behemoth, constricting them with their powerful muscles. Kong was forced to relinquish his hold, maw dripping with the blood of a demon.

Recovering from the electric blow, the dinosaur rose to his feet, dusting his body with a heavy shake. Huffing from his nostrils, Titanosaurus gleamed at the situation; the magnificent Kong under the mercy of the xanthic hydra. He knew Kong was powerful, but in no way would he last without aid. But the golden eye of the leviathan took heed of the claw of the fallen Ebirah, noticing a distinct figure off in the distance. Without a doubt, help would arrive; it was just a matter of making sure there would be no casualties.

With an assured snort, large, three-toed feet slammed the mushy earth with a powerful bounce, sailing the stormy skies until the dinosaur’s colossal body crashed into the struggling monsters, all three of them tumbling to the ground. The right head of Ghidorah loosened its grip, letting the left head take its place in order to deal with this intruder. Hissing viciously, the serpent funneled bioelectric energies up its throat, bombarding the prehistoric creature with a concentrated beam of lightning. A warbling screech resonated from the ancient leviathan, pushed back by the blast. However, the tremendous sea monster leaned down and gripped the winged forearm with his metacarpal.

In that moment, Titanosaurus mustered all his strength and began to heave. With Ghidorah and Kong in tow, Titanosaurus dragged the golden dragon across the rugged grounds, friction carving a cavity in its wake. Releasing his hold, Titanosaurus launched the tri-headed fiend into a mountainside, blowing out the cliff with their enormities. The heads fell into a temporary daze, giving Kong ample time to gut Ghidorah in the belly with a well-placed elbow strike, forcing the necks to release him. Rolling away, Kong put distance between himself and the three-headed monster, nodding to Titanosaurus in appreciation.

Blood dripped from their nostrils and maws, which greatly angered the destroyer of worlds. Shuffling amidst the falling rocks, Ghidorah attempted to rise to their feet. But much to their dismay, the mountain behind them began to rumble; the cornerstone that held the mound together cracked, with a sudden landslide rushing down the slope. Boulders came tumbling down, burying the cosmic draconid in a heap of natural materials.

Off to the side, a peculiar shape rolled along the flow of dirt and minerals. The theropod rose from the mound, shaking soil off his figure. Gorosaurus patiently waited for the opportune time, and none so better than to topple a mountain onto their dreaded foe. With a profound screech, Gorosaurus marched up to his islander allies, hoping that the worst of it was over.

However, a rumbling made it clear there was more to come.

The earth shifted as a tremendous mass stirred in the mound, serpentine necks rising from the trenches. Cascades of dirt rolled off their titanic form, hissing in utmost irritance and aggravation. Vicious eyes jeered at the entourage assembling before them, seething in utter contempt. Like it mattered in the long run, for their demise would be imminent!

The left head surveyed the surroundings, keeping an eye on any abnormalities that could rear their ugly heads. Just as it did, though, it spotted a strange figure darting straight for them–glowing blue eyes armed with the claw of the deceased. Before the tyrant of the cosmos could even react, Jet Jaguar swung the bladed weapon into the left neck with centrifugal force that allowed it to cleave the neck clean off. Rushing by at supersonic speeds, Jet zipped by the calamity of terror before their teeth could even clamp into his metal, leaving the monstrous dragon agitated and confused.

Just as the head crashed into a nearby swamp, so too did Jet adjust his flight to meet the helpless wyrm writhing in the marsh. Blazing eyes of hatred glared at the robotic human, only to be doused with a spray of liquid nitrogen from the wide grin. All the head could do was scream before being silenced, then quickly smashed by an iron fist, splattering into a bloody paste and shattered ice.

With that pest dealt with, Jet leapt up and landed next to the others, each of them staring down at the now two-headed ziz that stood before them. Light channeled up the two necks, while the alliance prepared to dodge. But nothing could’ve prepared them for what came next. In the distance, a shriek caught their collective attention, turning their eyes to the sky. A dark figure soared through the whirling winds, its horizontal visor blistering with scarlet energy. Compacting into a thin streak, the Gigarium Cluster targeted to the ground of four, scattering into a barrage of energy blasts. The formation of the alliance was disrupted, throwing the reptilians off their feet while the bipeds miraculously held their ground.

Jet rose to his feet, with some of the damage buffered thanks to the Ebirah claw. But before he could take action, a pair of hooking anchors wrapped around the robot’s humanoid frame, quickly yanked by the force of Gigan’s flyby. Almost instantaneously, he was gone, a chess piece removed just as quickly as he got there. Kong could only spare to glance back at the kidnapped robot before returning his focus to the menace that befell them. The two-headed menace glared back at them, eyes full of malice and putting on sickly smiles.

As his dinosaurian allies postured themselves for battle, Kong boomed a monstrous war cry–it was now, or never.

***

Soil and earth ruptured under Jet Jaguar’s titanium-enforced mass, carving a trench in his path. It eventually came to a stop when the anchors unfurled and returned to their ports. The robot struggled to his feet, thankful he still held his key weapon in his grasp. Just as he did, a pair of thunderous feet sent the dust hurling skyward, the shape of Gigan becoming all too apparent. It was then that Jet noticed the stains that permeated across the cyborg’s body. Analytical eyes scanned the blood, registering it as Megalon’s.

Somewhere in his electronic heart, he felt deeply disturbed. A loss of a powerful ally, slain by the hands of one the Seatopian deity had once called a comrade. It made him sick. For Megalon’s sake, he would avenge him and not let his reputation be tarnished by this foul sadistic maniac!

The crimson visor flashed, a wicked grin seemingly forming on the cybernetic sadist. Another pest of the past in need of extermination. Revenge stewed for this moment, and he would let the robot man have it!

The creation of Dr.Ibuki extended his left arm and taunted the cybernetic slasher to engage him, painting a smile on the psychotic cyborg. Gladly accepting the challenge, Gigan charged forward. Earth launched into the sky with each step, raising his left arm upward, dashing forward with the intent to end the duel with one strike.

Quickly, Jet Jaguar blocked the attack with his blade and landed a right hook across the cyborg. His enemy forcefully crashed into the ground, releasing a chirp of surprise as earth was once again launched into the air. Gigan rolled across the ground, making Jet Jaguar miss a stomp of his foot. Energy began to swell within the assassin’s visor, glowing red with fury before unleashing the Gigarium Cluster upon his humanoid opponent. The beam struck Jet across his chest before a series of smaller explosions forced him to his knees.

Smoke rose from the black marks, charred dents covering the damaged areas. The robot looked up to see Gigan rising back to his feet, with a joyous chuckle before charging at the downed protector of humanity.

The extraterrestrial war machine had grown stronger since their last encounter, he would need to finish this before Gigan managed to turn the tide of the war. The robotic defender sprung forward, clenching his fist, and delivering a decisive uppercut to the jaw. The invader released a groan of pain as he swung his bladed arm at Jet, forcing the man-made hero to jump backward to avoid the attack.

The Xilien weapon managed to regain his footing as he focused on Jet Jaguar, aiming his right arm at the humanoid before releasing his hooking anchors. The pair of wires wrapped around the hero’s neck and began pulling, causing him to crash face first into the ground. Gigan let out a chirp as the one who helped defeat him in the past released a digital cry of fear, a sinister grin being across the cyborg’s face.

The warden of Skull Island turned towards his opponent as the buzzsaw across his torso started, attempting to gain proper footing once more. Gigan aimed his left arm and fired the other set of anchors at him and with his free arm. He swung up with his blade, deflecting them away, causing the cyborg to release a cry of surprise.

This was his chance.

Without a second thought, the robotic defender shrunk before the cyclops’ eye. His blade dropped into the soil as Gigan stood confused, deactivating his buzzsaw and returning his anchors back to their slots. He had not known of his rival’s ability to disappear from thin air, was it teleportation? Or perhaps a trick to deceive his mind?…

Gigan quickly swung behind him as he turned around, expecting to land a hit against his foe, only to barely miss. The defender of earth had managed to remain unaffected by the attack, only growing to a certain height to dodge it. The cyborg raised his arm in an attempt to cut into his foe, only for his tail to be grabbed and he was hoisted into the air.

Jet Jaguar grew back to his normal stature as he spun in circles, the alien cyborg releasing cries of irritated rage at being overcome this easily before being finally thrown. Tossed into the sky, the alien automaton spun wildly out of control until he spread his fins, distributing the mass before coming to a midair stop.

Gigan surveyed the area below, seeing as Jet Jaguar quickly closed the distance with weapon in hand. The robotic man swung the Ebirah claw at his foe, only for the psychopath to block it with his bladed arm. He was fast, faster than what he had remembered all those years ago. The cyborg came to only one conclusion; he would need to defeat his foe and quickly if he was to survive.

Sparks flew as the two blades clashed repeatedly, both warriors striking with all their might. Each swing being faster and with more ferocity behind it, until Gigan quickly dismissed the onslaught by reaching forward with his tail. The limb stabbed into the robotic defender’s chest, and before he could react, earning a digital cry of pain as he was tossed towards the earth.

Energy once again surrounded Gigan’s singular eye before unleashing the Gigarium Cluster at the falling creation of Dr.Ibuki, striking Jet Jaguar with a direct hit to his back. The hero was forced into the ground at incredible speed, smoke rising from his back as the attack ceased. The hero of humanity began to attempt to rise to his feet, using all the strength that remained within his circuits before being forced back into the ground by the cyborg’s heel. Smiling with villainous glee, the sociopathic sadist released a shrilling cry.

Jet reached out to his blade, he needed to kill the assassin and help the others quickly. Once Gigan was taken care of, the other two would surely fall… Wouldn’t they? The cybernetic slasher stretched his right arm back, aiming to thrust the blade into his back and offer him to his genocidal comrade…

Quickly, Jet Jaguar turned and released a stream of liquid nitrogen at Gigan’s form, causing the cyborg to release a cry of pain as his torso was beginning to freeze. Forcing the intergalactic assassin to back away, the humanoid rose to his feet, his weapon now grasped firmly in his hand and standing in a defense position. He looked down at his stomach wound, witnessing as his internal mechanisms were exposed and sparking with thermionic finesse.

The Xilien assassin activated his buzzsaw, breaking the ice across his form in an instant before returning his attention to the standing rival. The two stood silent as seconds seemed to last for an eternity, each twitching to charge forward and finish the duel.

This world would not fall today. Even if he and everyone here were to die to Gigan and his masters, there would always be another to stand in their way. More powerful than they could ever imagine, the very thought allowing Jet to seem somewhat calm as tension rose. If he were to perish here… What would death be for him? An AI was no organic being, but that of robotic consciousness. Would there be only darkness? No reincarnation, no afterlife just… Silence. Darkness would overtake him just as it had the others before him.

The hero began to shake a tad… Was… Was this fear?

Gigan stretched out his arm and taunted his opponent, he would end this charade here and now. For what happened all those decades ago had not been forgotten. First the monster king and his ankylosaur companion had managed to kill his ally in what was thought to be King Ghidorah, then he was driven from Earth by Godzilla and Jet Jaguar the very next year.

He had killed all those that had opposed him to this point. The divine moth had burned like his dreams had foreseen for a millennia, the beetle deity from Seatopia had been ripped apart with ease, and now he would finish this defender of the earth.

Gigan smiled as revenge was just in his grasp. After he took care of what stood before him, he would hunt down the ankylosaur that stood with Godzilla on that fateful night, and slice open his throat and watch the ichor pour onto his metallic feet. A joyous chuckle escaped his beak as he got into an offensive position, his tail swaying back and forth as he prepared to launch forward.

The pair of adversaries charged, each releasing a digital war cry as their blades crashed and ran past each other. A moment of silence hung over them as the victor of the duel had not yet been revealed…

The top of Ebirah’s claw burst into blood, the weapon breaking from the attack. Jet’s blue eyes turned towards Gigan as he turned around before collapsing onto the ground. His arm falling near him, the final strike from the duel leaving him down a limb.

The cybernetic slasher turned around and laughed as he approached the defeated Jet Jaguar, this was the only course of action. The robotic defender stood no change to him, his fate was sealed from the very beginning. The creation of Dr.Ibuki attempted to rise back to his feet, only for Gigan’s bladed arm to force its way through his chest. Sparks flew as he raised Jet Jaguar into the air with all his might and released a cry to his fellow compatriot.

They would need to feed if they were to truly achieve victory.

***

The warrior king had little time to ponder his next move. It was action or inaction. With a howl, he commanded his reptilian allies to charge. The serpentine enemy was down a head, though brimmed with a continuous resolve. They’d see this to the end, and he knew that. Sprinting forth on hulking muscles, Kong leaped into the air to deliver a megaton punch to the xanthic hydra. A firm, powerful fist connected with the gleaming scales of the spaceborne demon, forcing the tyrant to recoil from the impact. Just as he did, Gorosaurus came from the side, gnawing on the right head with a tight grip.

The central head glared with utmost fury, tails rattling as a forewarning to what came next. Before Kong or Gorosaurus could back off, the ground below them almost glowed with a brilliant light. In reality, bioelectric receptors conducted the air around them, interacting with the water vapors that perpetuated the air. In an instant, destructive lightning rocketed from the ground to the sky, effectively uppercutting both of the colossal giants that opposed their tyranny.

Ghidorah snarled, noticing that the crimson leviathan stopped in its tracks. Opening up its fan-like tail, Titanosaurus turned and began to wave it back and forth, kicking up a powerful gale that rivaled the very storm conjured by Monster Zero. Dust and debris flew, with the enormous dragon holding their ground. It wasn’t enough to toss the monstrous demon, but Ghidorah could feel the sheer power behind Titanosaurus’ strength. Pushing themselves out of the earth, the tyrant braced themselves against the hurricane wind as they made a slow and steady approach.

Suddenly, the fin snapped shut, the lithe dinosaur leaping away with his powerful feet before the hydra could snag him. Why flee, when he was destined to die? It wasn’t until the leader head took notice of the gorilla charging at them from the side, with a pair of massive boulders held in his clutches. Signified with a colossal, booming roar, Kong smashed the enlarged stones into the two-headed menace, repeatedly slamming into the draconic devil’s figure.

As the stones whittled down, the lips of the alien menace hissed, spewing a pair of Gravity Beams unto the legendary warrior, whose weapons of choice crumbled between his fingers. However, with their attention focused on Kong, they failed to notice the return of Gorosaurus, who propped himself onto his tail and swiftly launched his powerful feet into the dragon’s sides. To say they didn’t feel it would be nothing short of denial; even if it didn’t have the strength to move them aside, it was something worth noticing. Snake-like eyes glared at the primitive dinosaur, who only screeched at the terrible tyrant.

An irritated shriek escaped from the aggressive right head. This was getting ridiculous… World after world had been felled by their raw power, death and misery spread amidst their presence. Once living planets had been terraformed into death zones, leaving disastrous storms in their wake. Then… Silence. But this little blue planet had given them trouble time and time again. Why? Death refused to claim this world, even though it was no different than any other life-inhabiting planet in the galaxy. But in the end, all it did was postpone the inevitability. Earth’s demise was imminent, and her final breath would draw near by their might.

Ghidorah’s eyes locked with Kong’s. It was a strange sensation the dragon felt deep in the back of their mind, but refused to acknowledge it until now. What was it? This pestering familiarity that irked them, something about the titanic ape seemed so familiar… They had recalled the extermination of a similar race, but none of them possessed the eyes of this one. A fiery determination that matched that of an eternal rivalry… Then it dawned on them. These eyes did not belong to the monkeys they had slaughtered less than a lifetime ago; no, these were the burning flames of his archnemesis, the ancient Godzilla, that flowed through them! An Alpha Titan whose will exuded on the battlefield.

Preposterous. What a notion, yet it all clicked. They had been beaten back by his nemesis and his subjects, and now was a new Alpha leading the charge against the invasion force. But this time, Ghidorah would make sure they wouldn’t be repelled so easily.

Kong huffed and puffed, standing firm in the face of adversity. Anxiety built within him, knowing full well that this arduous battle was beginning to wear on him. But he couldn’t cower before an enemy this enormous, if not for the sake of his own pride, then for the sake of those that fought alongside him. Kong glanced at Gorosaurus, seeing that he too was becoming worn from the raging war. But until they could bring peace back to this chaotic island, they wouldn’t rest! Though a concern lingered in the back of the gorilla’s mind.

Where was Titanosaurus?

Almost immediately, the eccentric warbles of the giant leviathan rang in the ears of the Earth defenders, turning around just in time to see the unfolding situation. Scarlet explosives bombarded the crimson dinosaur, knocked off his feet with the turbulent force behind the blast. Just beyond where the kyoryu stood was the shape of a figure neither of the guardians wished to see. The blazing visor illuminated through the shrouding rain, with their claw-like scythe jabbed into the lifeless husk of a stiff Jet Jaguar. Somewhere in the man-beast’s heart, the fall of an ally was nothing short of disheartening. But the most they could do was to avenge their fallen comrade!

With a confident stride and puffed out chest, Gigan unloaded sequential Gigarium Clusters at Kong and Gorosaurus, throwing the two titans off their feet. Then, with an aggressive swing of the arm, the still body of the robot hero sailed through the air, crashing with a heavy clank at the feet of the extraterrestrial wyvern. Wicked grins curved upon the serpent’s faces, clamping their teeth into the electronic robot. Although the artificial man was bereft of activity, its residual energy was something worth stealing from. So much life, all taken away… And Ghidorah couldn’t have asked for more.

Kong was the first of the two to return to his feet, making a mad dash for the terrible dragon. If nothing else, to preserve the sanctity of the fallen from the drooling lips of the devil. But this proved for naught, as gushes of blood spurted from sudden gashes that lacerated his skin. Kong jolted in agonizing pain, nearly keeling over. When he saw the razor disks flying overhead, the realization suddenly clicked. As they zipped past him, Kong saw as they marred the struggling Gorosaurus as well, ripping into his scaly flesh with ease. In horror, all he could do was watch.

Energy flowed through the necks of the ruthless alien, siphoning Jet Jaguar of whatever vitals that lingered in his systems. As they did, disgusting life stirred within the stump of the left head. Viscous saliva permeated from the wound, with a slippery forked tongue sprouting from it. Only for a moment did the middle head release its grip, allowing the right to continue draining from the robotic husk, and peeled the layer off the reconstituting head. Sinew, muscles, bone matter, all of it began to resuscitate with the flowing energies entering their body. From the stump, new life emerged as the left head quickly regrew, nearly gagging as it came to. Truly, a repulsive and hideous sight to behold; one that made the hearts of the warriors sink into their stomachs.

Having exhausted everything in the robot’s reserves, divine light funneled up the necks, with glimmering light shining in the mouths. Piercing eyes jeered at the mighty gorilla king with utmost spite and repugnance. For Kong, it felt as if it was far, far too late to put a stop to it. Then, in the following moment, streams of bioelectric fury washed over the alpha predator of Skull Island. Forcefully shoved and pushed by the wrath of the Gravity Beams, Kong could only cry out in pain and terror as Ghidorah’s might sent the ape god careening over a distant cliff–leaving the scarred and powerful ruler to fall into the cold water’s embrace.

A victorious howl escaped from the three-headed menace–and proved why they earned the right to be king.

Off in the distance, Titanosaurus rose to his feet. The situation had turned for the worse; Ghidorah was once again at full strength, Gorosaurus fell victim to the razor cutters, and Kong had fallen in battle. The most the ancient dinosaur could muster was a retreat, maybe a chance to fight another day. But the moment he saw the golden demise, their three sets of eyes locked onto him. Titanosaurus’ days became numbered at that very moment. The bipedal plesiosaur sprinted away, hoping to escape the wrath of the tyrannical king–but the powerful swooshing flaps of gigantic wings told him otherwise. No matter how much he pushed himself, it felt as if the airborne Ghidorah was closing in on his position. Just before he could bounce with his strong legs and leap into the ocean, a flurry of electric bolts carved his feet and the ground around him, forcing the giant to trip over himself.

The chance was denied for the aquatic saurian, with desperate eyes lingering at the ocean beyond. But before he could pull himself up, a large, colossal body pinned him against the earth, shattering the dinosaur’s spine and left paralyzed from the lower torso. Yelping screeches resounded from the prehistoric lifeform, pleading that all this was nothing more than a nightmare. Yet reality was a cruel mistress, and the baring fangs of King Ghidorah’s external heads sunk into the arms of the titanic creature. They pulled with all of their hatred and ferocity, taking pleasure in the primitive pest’s suffering. Then at the peak, the skin was pulled completely off in one fell swoop, leaving only the exposed muscles and bones of the screaming animal left.

Tossing the skin flaps aside, Ghidorah’s legs crunched on the dinosaur’s torso, choking out the life of the ancient beast. With enormous beating wings, the king of terror hoisted the limp body into the air, constricting it more with their rattling twin tails. In the ancient world the dragon had once terrorized, this was often a technique that Monster Zero employed to kill members of the archnemesis’ kind. The higher they climbed, the greater the chances were of this pest falling by their might. Crawling up the skies, they reached the apex point and sneered at the dying dinosaur for one last time…

And then, they released it, leaving it to plummet to the island below.

Gorosaurus was filled with dread, his eyes dilating from the copious amount of blood loss. He did not wish for death, but he felt the odds were not in his favor. He struggled to flee, but the razor disks had sliced the tendons along his ankles, leaving little room to run. Overhead, the primitive allosaur saw the cybernetic menace stare mockingly on his downed and bloodied form. Raising its claws, Gigan eagerly prepared the final death blow.

As the blade swung down, the theropod surmounted the last bit of his will to live. Opening his jaws gaping wide, Gorosaurus snapped shut on the scythe, stopping it in its tracks. Tugging back and forth, he had hoped to tear the arm of the cyborg right out of its socket, if nothing else to make his last stand against the alien invader. But before he could, the other blade swished right into the back of the skull–cleaving the upper part of the head clean off, freeing the other arm. The last sound Gorosaurus made was a series of hideous and disturbing gurgles, desperate to call for help. But none would ever come, and the dinosaur slumped over, dead.

Blood painted the swords of the sociopath, relishing in the carnage wrought on the island. Perhaps because the maniacal cyborg was pleased, he didn’t feel the need to pursue the next target–though he was more than willing to slay those that stood in his path. Perhaps now he would investigate to see how well the Xilien’s artificial Ghidorah was holding up.

The only thing that caught his attention was a loud boom, the impact formed by the carcass of Titanosaurus. No doubt in the cyborg’s mind that they too would join him in the quest for their ally. With heavy footfalls, he began to trek across the island on foot to see for himself.

***

He had underestimated them. His first real battle and he had been brought down by mere insects… but no more. He would show them his full power before their lives were extinguished.

The Xilien superweapon placed his fists on the ground, getting into what seemed to be a running position on all fours. His body began to shift and change at a rapid rate, his bone armor changing into a golden color, twin wings grew out from his back, his arms changing into legs. Monster X was no more… now all that remained was…

Keizer Ghidorah.

The artificial Ghidorah roared at the three as he finished his transformation. Junior, Rodan, and Anguirus got into a fighting stance, ready to combat the threat.

Anguirus charged forward and rolled into his caprice in mid-run, hoping to slam Keizer Ghidorah’s chest only for their Gravity beams at the approaching ankylosaur to slam into their form. Catching the dinosaur in midair before throwing the beast at his comrades. The brothers dodged the attack and charged forward, Godzilla Junior firing at his target. The left and right heads shot out their Gravity Beams, colliding with the approaching beam before overpowering it and sending the kaiju prince to the ground.

Rodan continued forward, quickly slamming his form into the demon over and over again. The Xilien experiment simply huffed before slamming his tails into the approaching pteranodon, slamming the earth defender into the ground with little effort.

Anguirus shook off the damage as he rose to his feet before looking towards his comrades. This was no mere power up, their opponent’s strength had been increased tenfold. If they were to stay here any longer, they would perish to the destroyer of worlds.

The mutant struggled to his feet, his head throbbing with a migraine he gained during the conflict. His eyes focused on Keizer before finding his brother on the ground. His eyes widened at the thought of what was to come, and without hesitation, Godzilla Junior roared in fury as he charged at Keizer Ghidorah. The hydra began to turn his gaze before the young Godzillasaurus slammed into Keizer’s side, giving Anguirus time to tunnel into the very earth; he had a plan. He only hoped Rodan and Junior would survive long enough before he enacted his attack.

***

The scientists all watched his horror as their monsters were slain one by one. King Caesar, Ebirah, Ramarak, Gorosaurus, Mechani-Kong, Kong, Megalon, Mothra, Jet Jaguar, Daigoro, Titanosaurus… Earth’s greatest defenders were being wiped out, and all they could do was sit and watch. Dr. Ibuki sat depressed at the sight of the battle. His two greatest creations were destroyed, his island was being turned into a battleground. If they were above the surface, they would have joined the Earth Defenders that had perished.

Dr. Azusa began to tear up as she watched Junior struggle for his life. She had helped raise the Godzillasaurus since birth, she did not wish for his suffering. She covered her eyes with her hands, tears flowing through her hands onto the computer console.

Miki began to ponder, trying to find any way to help the monsters but she feared there was only one option… Enter one of the Ghidorah’s minds. When she connected to Godzilla, it had taken a mental and physical toll on the young woman. Her psychic powers weren’t as powerful, but with that small sacrifice, she had driven Godzilla away for a short time. She placed her hands on her head and tried to search for their minds when her mentor looked over and knew what she was attempting.

“Miki no!”

“What choice do I have, Mr. Yano? They are dying! The whole damn world is in jeopardy now that the Earth Defender’s forces have been wiped off the face of the Earth.”

“The last time you did something like this, you paid a price. Your powers are draining faster than it is intended to, that amount of stress on your mind will break you if you try to deter the Ghidorahs.”

“I know… And as much as I don’t want to get hurt… I need to do this, I need to do something and not sit here any longer. My only regret is that I couldn’t have saved the others.” Ken grew disheartened, but he understood why she would do this. He only hoped she would survive the toll that would be brought upon her mind.

***

Junior slashed at the Ghidorah’s black flesh, attempting to cut his legs open but to no effect. His attacks were only met with sparks. Keizer Ghidorah reached down with all three heads grabbing the youngster and raising him into the air and began before draining the young prince. The young mutant struggled to free himself, slashing at the throats of his opponent, met again with no effect from his attacks.

He struggled to keep his arms up, his energy being completely drained by an enemy that outclassed them all easily. His eyes became more weighted as he watched his life flash before his eyes.

He remembered the human girl feeding him, showing him kindness between species was possible. He remembered playing games with Rodan and Daigoro, the three being inseparable as they ventured across the island. He had made a family here, both human and kaiju alike being a part of his heart.

He could at least die knowing that he had lived a good life, even if it was short.

Rodan once again attempted to take to the sky, only for Keizer Ghidorah to lift his two front legs and slam them onto his back. The pteranodon screeched in pain as he gasped for air, Keizer slowly applying pressure and crushed the monster under his weight…

The artificial Ghidorah suddenly dropped Godzilla Junior, the young Godzillasaurus didn’t move as he collided into the ground. The Ghidorah’s body shook as he lifted his foot off of Rodan, what was happening to him?

***

Miki struggled to keep her hold, her body felt as if it was about to crack under all this weight, her mind feeling as if it was going to shatter. This was way more intense than Godzilla, such darkness in one being, how was this even possible? World after world had met the end to Monster X, worlds burning as the genocidal draconic burned civilizations to Hell itself.

Miki screamed as she collapsed, no longer being able to connect to the Ghidorah’s mind. “We need a doctor now!”

***

Keizer stopped shaking, they were once in control of their actions. Rodan attempted to fly away from the Ghiodrah, only for the beast to have electrical energy surge through his body before releasing his Gravity Beams at the pteranodon. Catching the ancient reptile with ease before throwing them back to the ground, earth launched as the earth defender released a cough of blood.

The Xilien experiment came closer to his prey, lifting his left leg before slamming it on Rodan’s arm. The sound of the bone breaking echoing through their ears, the pteranodon screaming in agony as Keizer Ghidorah released a hideous laugh as they reached down and sank his teeth into his prey’s flesh. His necks pulsated blue with lifeforce, the Ghidorah drained the essence of the animal.

Rodan’s body stopped struggling, his movement coming to a close as his eyes rolled back into his head.

This was it…. the end of his life. He had a very interesting life, one filled with hatred and redemption. His parents fell to humanity, and when he was finally hatched, he immediately attacked those that lived in the concrete jungle. Hellbent on destroying them as they had destroyed his family, but then he found himself their hero when a golden hydra descended from the stars.

He remembered his allies one by one, falling through the decades of protecting the Earth. But then he found the egg, and from it emerged his brother. He lived a good life… All he wished was that he could have saved everyone else.

The earth caused the two to fall into a gigantic cavern into the Hollow Earth. Keizer Ghidorah released roars of unadulterated rage as the demon fell into the cavern, damning the one responsible to a fate worse than hell. He would drag his corpse across the solar system to leave only a bloody smear and a distant memory within his mind. For he would burn this world’s culture to brimstone and ash.

Anguirus watched Keizer Ghidorah fall into the abyss alongside his long-time friend’s corpse. The ankylosaur lowered his head in a quick moment of respect for the pteranodon, then quickly ran over to the injured prince. The war had only begun, he would be allowed to mourn after the invaders had been driven away from the planet.

The ankylosaur put his head onto Junior’s chest. Listening closely for a heart beat to pass, he only hoped that he could have at least saved the young one.

Bump bump…

The fire monster took in a deep breath as he rose, it was revealed that the Godzillasaurus’ healing factor would quick work of the damage done by the demon that terrorized them. Soon he could return to his full strength and together, they would make them pay.

Anguirus gently wrapped his jaws around the mutant’s arm, quickly dragging him with his maw towards the bay. The golden prince of destruction wouldn’t take long to recover from his surprise attack, and with the other two invaders coming to aid their opponent, they had no other choice but to fallback.

The flapping of wings filled the ears of all those that had survived the great onslaught, catching the attention of the Xilien’s cyborg. Gigan chirped as he took to the sky, joining the golden demise in their search for Keizer Ghidorah.

They witnessed the artificial Ghidorah rise from a cavern, roaring with hate as his golden form joined the other twos. They had never seen their apprentice in this form, and to their surprise, they were quite fond of this hidden power. When they would one day pass, no doubt to a defender of some backwater planet, they would leave behind a legacy of anguish and hatred in Keizer. But they would also have to be careful that their apprentice did not betray them early…

The golden demise opened their maws and released to the world, a death song of three storms declaring upon the planet, unending suffering as they burned this world to its core. Bow beneath their might or die, the choice was theirs.

The invaders charged forward, wishing to cause more chaos upon this planet when they slammed into a dark green force field. No doubt to keep the insects locked in their cage, no such puny attempt of a prison would hold them. Gigan chirped as he spotted a series of towers, the source of this wall’s generation.

Energy gathered between the three before they fired their respective beams at the structures, bringing the force field down as their energy became one, earning them the keys to Earth.

From below the water, Godzilla Junior watched the three leave the island, flying over him. The Godzillasaurus had finally awakened after being brought to near death, but he could not find Anguirus. The last thing he remembered was the ankylosaur dragging him. The prince shook off what confusion ran through his mind and began his search.

Anguirus swam through the Hollow Earth tunnels in the ocean, sensing the oncoming threat in Japan. He would need to warn the monsters that lived there before it was too late, no one would stand against this Armageddon without aid.

***

Akane raised her pistol as she shot at Gordon, the bullets puncturing skin, but not stopping the captain in his tracks. The man grabbed his pistol and sword from his sides and charged at the traitor. He raised his pistol and shot out, one bullet striking Akane’s shoulder while another shot her stomach. Steam rose from the wounds, as she rolled to her side, unloading more bullets into her target before her clip ran out.

“Shit, already out?” Akane threw her pistol to the side as Gordon rushed at Akane and stabbed her into the wall with his sword. Akane gasped as she felt the cold metal blade pierce her body, exiting through her back.

“Lieutenant Akane Yashiro, you have been sentenced to death for the act of treason against Japan,” Gordon raised his pistol to Akane’s head. “Any last words, darling?”

Akane looked up, blood falling from her mouth. “Yeah… I have a few.” Akane broke the sword with a strike as she knocked Gordon’s gun out of the way and pushed him back. Gordon looked at Akane with surprise as she stood in front of him. She wrapped her hands around the blade of the sword and ripped it out of her, she fell to her knees, coughing up blood as her healing factor made work on the stab wound. Steam rose from her form as she stood up, tossing the broken blade over to the side. “The UN will throw every single last one of you into prison for these war crimes. If I let you live that is…”

Gordon made a fist before getting into a fighting position, ready to beat his opponent into the ground.

Eren and Harou tossed and turned on the ground, both trying to get them in a hold to end the fight as fast as possible. Harou wrapped his legs and arms around Eren’s body, holding him in place as he tried to free himself. “Give up kid, you aren’t going to win this one.” Eren grew furious at the statement before thrusting his elbow into Harou’s gut. For a second, Harou was left open unwillingly, allowing Eren to get on top of the soldier, striking his face over and over again. Blood sprayed on the ground as Harou’s face was beaten into a bloody pulp.

Harou grabbed Eren’s fists in mid-swing and threw the young soldier over him, landing between Gordon and Akane. Gordon swung at Eren, striking his temple, Eren fell to the ground. The boy spotted the gun not too far away from him and began to crawl towards the firearm.

Harou and Gordon charged at Akane, both missing her when she jumped out of the way, rolling before making her way to her feet and charging at the pair. She kicked Gordon away before punching Harou in the gut, followed by an uppercut. The captain of the Gotengo stumbled by Eren, who had just grabbed the gun. He raised it and attempted to fire, only grazing the captain’s arm as it flew by. Gordon charged forward and swung, striking the gun out of Eren’s hands before swinging again. But this time, he missed, giving ample time for Eren to wrap his hands around Gordon’s arm and throw him across the room. “I have faced more capable fighters in the past, you are nothing with all that muscle.”

Gordon grabbed his gun before turning it around and pulling the trigger. The bullet shredded through Eren’s leg, the boy falling to his knees as Gordon walked around him and placed the barrel on the side of the scout’s head.

Akane repeatedly struck Harou across the skull until he fell on the floor. She grabbed the broken sword and aimed the blade at Harou’s throat. “I wouldn’t do that Gordon.”

The two stared at each other, waiting for some action to follow, only to be taken aback as the room turned red and sirens went off. Explosions echoed throughout the building, the four looked at each other confused as to what was happening. Then rather abruptly, the claws of a monster came bursting through the ceiling. One of the many monsters to be taken by the Futurians, Zilla was dying to get a snack.

The Futurians’ monster army had arrived. All nine monsters began their assault on the city, each monster taking it upon themselves to attack specific wards and districts. As civilians were dying, the mutant iguana couldn’t help but think that it was a waste of food.

Harou raised his hand to his mouth as he stared at Akane. “Now… Witness the power of a Titan Shifter.” Harou bit into his thumb, lightning surrounding the man as flesh formed, the room crumbling away as Harou turned into the Attack Titan. Zilla stepped back as the sky illuminated an emerald green, with a golden bolt of electricity striking the building. The distinctly black-haired Attack Titan screamed with fury as he landed in front of Zilla and the other monsters.

“I’ll kill you all!” as Harou screamed from within, the Attack Titan unleashed a roar at Zilla, his crimson red eyes and ogreish appearance piercing into the mutant iguana’s soul. The two stared before charging at one another.

The war had begun…

***

-Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean-

They had returned.

The whole Earth had been put into jeopardy. The ancient Godzilla rose from his temple home, exiting from the ruins of the forgotten city of Atlantis, swimming to the top of the water, and releasing a roar as he exited the sea. Calling forth his subjects, he could not take Ghidorah alone.

He needed help.

-The Amazon-

Behemoth walked past the human village, not wishing to harm those that did nothing wrong. His king had called for his aid, a request the mammalian titan must abide by.

-China-

Mothra chirped as she spread her wings, Godzilla had sensed it as quickly as she did. Their ancient enemy is back. The gigantic moth flew as fast as she could, hoping to meet Godzilla to the battlefield just in time.

-Japan-

Prayers echoed throughout the land. The guardian of the forest opened his eyes for the first time in millennia. The Earth was in danger, if he did not step forward, all life would be extinct. Bagan burst forth from his lake home, water fell from his body as he made his way to the shore.

-Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean-

The ground below began to shift, rocks slowly fell into a ravine in the sea, yellow eyes shone in the darkness. Gamera had sensed the Earth’s turmoil… It was now or never for his return.

-Whidbey Island-

Thunderstorms surrounded the small island. Lightning struck the earth, igniting the trees ablaze, Balkzardan growled with anger as he woke up. The god of storms leaped into the storm, disappearing in the eyes of the public.

Though the guardians of old rose to defend the planet against the upcoming threat, not all were as benevolent as them…

Winner: Gigan (Universal), King Ghidorah (Legendary), Monster X

Author: Connor Clennell | Banner: Landon Soto

Within the magma flows of the Earth’s core, Obsidius stirred. The creature’s head tilted up at the roof of the tube, searching for whatever had awoken him from his slumber. When nothing happened, Obsidius lowered his head, returning to his slumber. A minute later, his sleep was disturbed as a series of tremors shook Obsidius’ den, rousing the volcanic creature from his sleep once again. He turned his head up again, growling softly. Something was burrowing through the Earth, disrupting his rest and recovery. Here, deep within the planet, nothing was supposed to be able to disturb him, but it seemed something had no respect for Obsidius’ wellbeing.

Standing to his full height, Obsidius dug his hands into the roof of the tube and began to dig, burrowing upwards towards the source of the tremors. Whatever the source of the disturbance was, it was about to experience his unbridled wrath…

*****

It was a time of peace for Earth. It had been a long and arduous war, but ultimately, it had resulted in another victory for the inhabitants of the planet over their extra-terrestrial rivals. The Vortaak forces had been driven back for a third time, and SpaceGodzilla had been cast out into the black void that spawned him once more. With Earth’s safety secured, the slow process of rebuilding could begin.

Out of all the major cities hit by SpaceGodzilla’s crystal meteor shower, San Francisco had suffered the least of their effects. Intense seismic activity had cut the city off from most of the world during the invasion, but following the retreat of SpaceGodzilla and the destruction of his crystals, the damage had reversed itself, the tectonic plates sealing shut and allowing access to the city by land and sea once more. Despite this, there were changes to the area that would take time to fix. The famous Golden Gate Bridge had been split into two during the events of the invasion, with estimates indicating that it would take years for the pride of San Francisco to be returned to its former glory. Coupled with that, the Vortaak Mothership still filled most of the bay, its mere presence having caused the water level to rise and flood most of the lower sections of the city. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, it would take time to remove the massive spacecraft and return life to normal.

Currently, the city was dealing with a more pressing problem. Strange, random bouts of seismic activity had suddenly manifested in the past few days around and within San Francisco. The populace was used to dealing with earthquakes before, but the pattern and intensity of these tremors was unlike anything they had ever experienced. Seismologists and geologists didn’t know what to make of it. It seemed unlikely that these quakes were the result of some natural force. Little did they know, they were closer to the truth than they realized.

Hundreds of miles beneath the city streets, the source of the tremors burrowed its way through the bedrock, intent on completing its mission. A gargantuan, bizarre creature, the Garogan Terro-Beast, Zandora, had been ordered by its alien masters to destroy the city and finish what the Vortaak had started. The evil masterminds that laid claim to an empire of conquered worlds had devised a cunning strategy to take out the City by the Bay right under the noses of the EDF and G-Force. Taking inspiration from one of their past failed attacks, Zandora had been ordered to dig under the city, weakening its supports and eventually cause San Francisco to be consumed by a massive sinkhole.

Careful planning had gone into this re-attempt at global domination. Earth’s combat mechs were all either occupied with other conflicts or undergoing repairs, Zone Fighter, Ultraman and Ultraseven were off-world, hunting down the remains of the Vortaak invasion fleet, and Godzilla and his monster allies were locked away on Monster Island. This time, there was no one to stand in the way of the Garogas’ plans.

As Zandora continued to burrow, the earth beneath began to suddenly glow red hot. The alien thing paused, staring at the glow with its featureless drill-head. The glow increased in intensity, and molten magma began to leak from the earth, scalding Zandora’s soles. It screeched and tried to back away, but something burst out from beneath it and carried the Terro-Beast upwards, pushing it towards the surface. Thousands of tons of earth and stone failed to stop Zandora as it was forced upwards by its attacker, its metallic hands waving as it tried to strike whatever was carrying it.

Soon, sunlight washed over Zandora as it bust from the ground and onto San Francisco’s streets. It shrieked as it was flung to the ground by whatever had attacked it, crashing through several small buildings and rolling to a stop. Dizzy from the attack, Zandora still managed to stand and address the creature that stood between it and its masters’ goals. Climbing out of the hole, Obsidius stood to his full height and beat his chest, roaring loudly to the sky, his sole goal to eliminate the strange-looking creature that had disturbed his rest.

Zandora and its masters observed the magma-crystal hybrid with confusion. Both creatures, despite their lack of eyes, stared down each other. Obsidius popped his knuckles and slammed his fist into his open palm, showing that he was eager for a fight. Seeing this, the Garogas ordered Zandora to destroy the golem before he impeded their plans any further. Screeching a cry of challenge to Obsidius, Zandora complied.

The two giants tore up the earth as they charged, swinging their fists forwards as the distance between them decreased. Obsidius struck first, smashing his rock-hard fist into Zandora’s chest and sending the creature reeling. Before it could recover, Obsidius’ other fist struck, colliding with the Terro-Beast’s metallic skull, knocking it to the floor. Zandora slapped its limbs against the ground in a fury, but before it could get back up, Obsidius was atop it, striking the strange alien weapon with his fists over and over. Powerful blows rained down on Zandora’s chest and head, earning screeches of pain from the drill-headed monstrosity. Before it could be beaten to death, Zandora’s spade-tipped arms shot up, striking both sides of Obsidius’ neck, cracking the rocky armour. Obsidius ceased his assault, roaring loudly as he clutched his injured neck. Streaks of lava dripped from his wounds, falling onto Zandora, its skin sizzling on contact with the molten liquid. Before more could fall, Zandora’s arms struck out again, crashing into Obsidius’ chest and knocking the crystal-born mutation away.

Climbing to its feet, Zandora shook its body, jets of steam spraying from the tubes lining the base of its drill, and raised its hands as Obsidius, too, rose. The magma monster bellowed and charged, but Zandora was prepared this time. It lowered its drill-like head as Obsidius closed the distance, allowing the golem to run straight into the hard, metallic object. Sparks flew as the drill made contact with Obsidius’ armour and the lava-composed creature stumbled back. As he tried to save his equilibrium, Zandora charged in, ramming its drill into the tougher beast’s chest with another shower of sparks. The blow knocked Obsidius back, forcing the spawn of SpaceGodzilla’s crystals to fall onto one knee, leaving him at Zandora’s mercy. The ugly thing smashed its hands across Obsidius’ head, striking the powerful golem over and over. Struggling to retaliate, Obsidius was forced to accept the Terro-Beast’s blows, sparks flying from his skull every time its metallic hands made contact. Soon though, Zandora’s strikes began to crack the stony armour that composed Obsidius, and splashes of lava joined the spray of sparks as it started to lose integrity. Roaring in pain and fury, Obsidius joined his hands and swung up, catching the base of Zandora’s drill and sending the Terro-Beast flying, crashing hard onto its back and cracking the earth beneath it.

Seeing the beast now defenceless, Obsidius attempted to rise, but pain suddenly shot through his skull and he stopped, clutching his head with both hands as he moaned loudly. Zandora, too, struggled to rise, finding the task awkward due to its heavy, metallic drill. Giving up on trying to stand, the strange Garoga creation’s drill began to turn, and it pulled its head back, driving the massive digging tool into the earth. It reached out with its hands, grabbing the edges of the forming hole and pulling itself in. The Terro-Beast quickly disappeared into the ground, leaving only a massive, gaping tunnel in its wake.

As the aching in his head subsided, Obsidius lowered his hands and searched for his foe, but found nothing, except for the chasm it had left in its wake. Just as he connected it with Zandora’s disappearance, the drill-headed creature leapt out of the ground, driving its most prominent feature and weapon into the molten creature’s back. Obsidius cried out, spitting magma from his maw and tumbling forwards, the lava that fuelled him leaking from the new wound in the back. Standing over the fallen mutation, Zandora shrieked gleefully, pressing its foot down on its seemingly defeated foe. However, Obsidius was far from done, and sprang back up, kicking Zandora off in the process. His shark fin-tipped tail lashed out as Zandora’s did the same, both limbs crashing into each other and causing both creatures to stumble. Of the two, Zandora fared the worst, unable to regain its composure before Obsidius grabbed onto it from behind, restraining the Terro-Beast as he roared into what he assumed was its face. As Zandora struggled, a crimson glow engulfed his captor’s hands, travelling from the Garogan bio-weapon’s flesh to Obsidius’ core. His injuries started to close, his structure regenerating as he absorbed Zandora’s essence. Not many knew, but Obsidius, like the crystals that spawned him, had the ability to leech energy from other living creatures in order to repair any damage inflicted.

Obsidius continued to grapple with Zandora, consuming more and more of its life force. Before he get anywhere near to draining it dry, the Terro-Beast raised its leg and drove it back into the molten monster’s crotch with an awful crack. Obsidius immediately relinquished his grip, shoving Zandora away and bellowing in anguish. It was lucky for the mutant that there was enough of Zandora’s energy left to heal his shattered crotch. From the other end of the street, Zandora laughed at the lava-born monster, its arms waving tauntingly. Obsidius growled at the Terro-Beast, and probably would have scowled, had he possessed the features to do so. To make up for this loss, he unleashed his Inferno, striking Zandora with the searing blast of lava. The ugly thing screeched loudly, spewing steam from its tubes as it was forced back. When the attack subsided, Zandora’s chest was left as black as charcoal.

As his bizarre opponent reeled in pain, Obsidius rushed forwards, curling into a ball and rolling towards Zandora. Halfway to striking the Terro-Beast, Obsidius was caught off-guard when Zandora lowered its head and charged. Its massive drill slammed into his rolling form, sending him flying backwards through the air and crashing through a skyscraper. The entire building collapsed, burying the magma-fuelled golem under tons of concrete, steel and glass.

As he pulled himself from the wreckage, a smaller building smashed into his back, flooring him yet again. Groaning with pain, Obsidius was vaguely aware of Zandora shrieking in cruel joy. It grabbed another building and tore it from the ground, tossing it at the fallen Obsidius. The structure shattered across the elemental golem’s head, snapping him from his gaze. Obsidius stood tall, roaring wilding and pounding his chest before spewing another shot of burning liquid rock from his cavernous maw at Zandora. The Terro-Beast leapt to the side, leaving the street to be flooded with steaming lava, but its foot caught on the roof of a building. Zandora crashed into another street, screeching loudly as clouds of steam hid its form. Pounding his fists together, Obsidius charged, bulldozing through small and damaged buildings on his path to Zandora. As he tore through an apartment block and emerged onto the street, Zandora charged from the cloud, its drill lowered and spinning rapidly. Unable to stop due to the speed he was travelling at, Obsidius ran right into the drill, impaling himself on its tip!

Zandora screeched with glee as its drill tore into Obsidius’ chest, forcing the burrowing tool deeper into the golem as he roared in agony. Once it decided its drill was deep enough, the Garogan monstrosity lifted its head up, hauling Obsidius off the ground. Its drill continued to turn, spinning Obsidius around like a merry-go-round. Lava was sprayed in all directions from Obsidius’ maw and Zandora’s drill, caking the surrounding buildings in the burning, molten liquid. As it began to seep down its drill and scald its flesh, Zandora dislodged Obsidius with a toss of its head, throwing the magma mutation through a skyscraper. A cloud of dust obscured Obsidius as he hit the earth, his cry echoing all around as the top of the skyscraper crashed down atop him.

A few moments passed, with no movement from the dust cloud. Zandora’s controllers instructed the creature to get closer to make sure that the fire golem was dead. It complied, making its way towards Obsidius’ location. As the Terro-Beast reached the site and the dust began to clear, it could see the mountain of rubble before it glowing with heat. The side of the hill of rubble burst open and Obsidius stepped out, lava oozing from the wound in his chest and cracks across his form. Displeased to see its foe alive, Zandora raised its arms and let loose a spray of scalding steam from the tubes lining the tips of its hands. The blast coated Obsidius like a massive riot hose, unleashing a roar from the creature as he raised his arms to protect his face. The heat of the attack was lost on Obsidius’ super-heated body, but the sheer pressure of the blast was enough to blind the golem and push him back. As the cloud died down, Obsidius lowered his arms in time to see Zandora to rush in, slamming its body against the crystal-magma hybrid, knocking him away.

Obsidius bellowed in rage, infuriated by the bizarre Terro-Beast’s tactics. As it rushed forward again, the molten monster engulfed the street before him with his Inferno, flooding it with lava. Seeing this, Zandora skidded to a stop, but was unable to prevent itself from stepping into the red-hot liquid. The drill-headed creature screeched in pain and staggered back, its soles burning. Seeing his opportunity, Obsidius dug his hands into the ground and tore it up, pelting Zandora with a shower of rock and magma, forcing the bio-weapon back as it waved its arms in a panic. Before it could recover, Obsidius charged, his fists still dripping with magma as he swung one at Zandora, putting as much strength below the blow as he dared. To his delight, it made contact, punching through the Terro-Beast’s chest and erupting out of its back. Zandora froze up, then went limp, collapsing onto Obsidius’ shoulder.

The crystal golem placed his hands on the Terro-Beast’s arms, assimilating what remained of its fading life essence to repair his body. The cracks across his body began to close, but his chest wound was still partially open once Zandora had been drained dry. Snorting, Obsidius tossed the Terro-Beast’s corpse aside and looked around, seeing if anything else would try and challenge him. To the mutant’s fortune, he was alone, and so began to burrow into the earth. It wasn’t long before he had disappeared into a gaping hole, beginning his long journey back to the depths of the planet to rest and recover.

Hopefully without any further interruptions, this time.

Winner: Obsidius

Author: Joshua Strittmatter | Banner: Dao Zang Moua

Iceland, December 8th, 2020. 11:31 P.M.

Cold.

That was the first thing it felt when it finally succeeded in piercing a crack through its shelled prison. Bitter, chilling cold seeped through the newly formed fracture, along with the first tiny ray of light the new life form had ever seen. The infant had been biding its time inside its protective shell, slowly growing and developing while curled up comfortably inside. How long, it did not know. But now it was too big to fit and had grown to the point of being physically mobile.

Its time had come.

Rustling sounded from within the elephant-sized egg, followed by another loud crack along its surface. The lifeform within struggled hard as it pushed against the outer shell, chittering pitifully as it desperately tried to enter the world for the very first time. The squeaks of the soon-to-be-born baby grew louder and louder as it continued to push and smack against the shell, crack after crack echoing through the starry night. The shell wouldn’t hold together for much longer, and the infant’s struggles became more intense. The egg continued to wobble around ever so slightly, a hole forming as an entire segment of shell fell off, and a tiny horn attached to a square-shaped snout poked out of it.

CRACK!

The hole finally burst wide open, and the entire dog-like head of the newborn life form finally thrust its way out and into the big, wide world.

The egg continued to crack apart as the four-legged body followed suit, finally splitting in half when the newborn revealed itself. Two floppy ears unfolded from the infant beast’s face, followed by its big eyes opening for the second time ever. A brown, scaly body ending in a lithe tail struggled to hold itself up on four little legs ending in bear-like clawed paws. A tiny horn protruded from its nose, amber in color and texture and occasionally seeming to glow every now and then from within. For a moment, the baby simply lay there flat on its belly, taking its first breaths as it relaxed after a stressful ordeal. Then, when it had regained enough of its strength, it reached out with a single little front paw, and pulled itself forward on its belly. Instinctively it reached out with its other paw and repeated the motion.

Slowly the newborn reptile crawled along the soft earth, testing its mobility–before abruptly stopping at the sight of land dipping into clear blue water.

The infant only now realized it was on an island in the middle of a vast, blue lake; silent and still, with nary a ripple in its surface. But that was not the only thought that strikes home in the hatchling’s little mind. The baby looked to its left, then to its right. Its ears picked up no sounds or vibrations from any other life forms in the area, its nose couldn’t smell any scents other than the sweet aroma of fresh cool water and the soft green grass. No matter what direction it looked in, it could see nothing but distant mountains and land on the other side of the lake.

It was then that the little reptile opened its mouth and let loose a cry, hoping to contact its parent. It was genetically hardwired in the hatchling’s instincts to know it needed a parent to nurture it, provide for it, help it survive. But its cry went unanswered. The baby cried out again, louder this time… … …and the only response it got was its own echo. Confused and afraid, the poor little kaiju screamed a third time, hoping against hope to finally get a response.

Nothing.

Its heart sinking, the infant slowly curled back up onto the ground, shivering in the chilly air. Its big eyes stared down sadly at the ground, it tucked its legs in underneath it as it lay pitifully on the edge of the little island. It knew it would have to swim across the lake at some point, to make its escape and find an area with food, but for now it didn’t have the strength. For now, the lonely animal rested its head down upon the soft earth and slowly closed its eyes, a tiny whimper escaping its throat as it waited for sleep to overcome it once again.

Lost. Afraid. And very, very alone.

*****

30 miles underneath France, 11:40 P.M.

Many miles underground, a prehistoric behemoth began to stir from a comfortable slumber. A peculiar sound had reached his ears, which twitched slightly as his eyelids slowly lifted in awakening. The four-legged beast shifted in his underground burrow as he heard the sound again, and his eyes raised in surprise. Somewhere far away, a peculiar call beckoned. A call that sounded somewhat familiar to the ancient dinosaur. Instinctively, he understood it, recognized it, and heard its meaning. Whatever it was, it called for a parent, a companion.

But most peculiarly, it sounded… young. Infantile. Maybe even newly born at that.

Stretching his legs out like a giant cat, getting the blood flowing into his system, Baragon crushed the soil underneath his claws and began to sink further into the underground void, digging his way northwest. He knew it would take him days, maybe even weeks to reach his objective, but as of now his instincts were focused solely on achieving his newfound goal. He didn’t know what he would find at the end of his journey, but somewhere deep in his gut, his instincts gave him the slightest hunch.

And so Baragon dug deeper.

*****

H.E.A.T. Headquarters, Staten Island, 9:47 A.M.
Three days later.

Nick Tatopolous let out a soft sigh as he watched a powerful snowstorm brew outside with a vengeance. Even through the closed windows and the heaters going at full power, everyone in the room could hear the wind howl eerily as mother nature raged outside. Once again, the state of New York was undergoing another hard blizzard, bathing the little island in blankets of white as high as a grown human being’s waist. In the distance, the city of Manhattan was somewhat visible through the raging clouds of snow, giving it a look of being both beautiful and haunting all the same. And Nick marveled at its beauty.

But more importantly, he enjoyed another sense that the sight of the faintly-seen city gave off: the sense of isolation from civilization. New York was a massive city with a vast population, vast enough that it more often than not felt overcrowded. And at this time of year, everyone was scattering all over the city in a mad rush to purchase Christmas decorations, ornaments and gifts like ants in an anthill that was too big for millions of inhabitants. But here he was, away from all that trouble, safe and warm in a good-sized building on a small island that he and his surrogate family called home. They had already set up their fair share of holiday-themed decorations during their spare time, and now they could all just sit by and rest–at least, until they were needed again–while watching the oddly beautiful snowstorm continue through the safe barrier that was the building’s windows, listening to its haunting whistle as a white noise to soothe their minds.

As Nick sipped the last bits of his cup of hot chocolate, he trudged over to where another one of his teammates sat; said man’s eyes fixed on a computer that showed a live feed of a giant reptilian creature slumber in a deep underground lair, Nick smiling instantly when he recognized the sleeping kaiju as his adopted son.

“How’s he doing, Mendel?” Nick asked.

“Well, he doesn’t seem to care about the cold one bit,” Mendel Craven replied as he and Nick continued to watch Zilla sleep. “Hopefully, all the world’s other mutations don’t feel the same. I could use a real holiday with no aberration of nature to spoil it-”

“That’s EXACTLY what we need!” Randy Hernandez whined behind them. “All we’ve been doing so far is sitting around watching the news while waiting for that freaking storm to let up! What we need right now is some action.” Everyone stared at him with their usual expressions of bored annoyance, clearly not sharing his enthusiasm. “Be careful what you wish for, Randy,” Elsie responded in her typical scratchy tone of voice, “You’re known to be a glutton for punishment.”

“Besides,” Nick butted in, “Everyone all over the world has their own holiday traditions and family gatherings to attend to. They don’t need some strange beast beyond mankind’s understanding ruining their quality time.”

“Too late.” Everyone instantly recognized Monique Dupre’s stoic voice and headed over to the couch which she stood behind, as she turned up the volume for the television, allowing everyone to clearly hear what the news reporter–who just so happened to be Nick’s very own fiancée–had to say.

“We are now receiving word that not one, but two separate kaiju attacks are occurring in different parts of the world,” Audrey Timmonds reported in a clearly distressed tone. “Less than half an hour ago, it was reported that a giant walrus officially dubbed ‘Maguma’ emerged off the shore of Lisbon Portugal, whom is currently out of control in Alfama. At the same time, reports of an unknown entity attacking farmers’ livestock at nightfall in Iceland have come to the attention of many scientists around the world, many of whom believe to be the work of the creature Baragon. No word yet on how H.E.A.T. or Monarch will be planning on taking action.”

At the mention of the latter kaiju, Elsie’s eyes lit up. Being a paleontologist, the crimson-haired woman would be understandably ecstatic to be able to study a kaiju that just so happened to be a species of dinosaur. And for good reason: out of all the dinosaurian monsters on record, Baragon was an anomaly. No paleontologist in existence could determine exactly what kind of dinosaur Baragon was, for he looked like nothing the fossil record had ever seen. Elsie had been dying to see him with her own eyes and study him up close–despite how dangerous she knew he was. The subterranean monster was not only one of the strangest, but also most feral and ravenously predatory kaiju currently known.

Nick turned the television off, then turned to Monique with a peculiar look in his eyes that everyone recognized. “How’s the H.E.A.T. Seeker’s motor looking?” he asked the French former-spy. She quirked her eyebrow in response. “Fully operational and ready for use,” was her reply. Nick nodded at that. “Good.” He turned to the others. “Pack up our gear, people. We’ll hit Iceland soon, but first we gotta take care of Mr. Prehistoric Pearly Whites in Portugal.”

As everyone stood to carry out their newest task, Craven’s face fell. “Ugh…I was afraid you were gonna say that,” he moaned miserably.

*****

Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Atlantic Ocean.

Bubbles of air escaped the nostrils of the legendary giant as he stirred to life after many months of slumber. His eyes flashed open as his ears intercepted not one, but two different calls; very faint and distant, but still clear enough nonetheless. Clear enough for him to, upon taking his time to listen closely, tell that between the two of them one in particular belonged to a beast that was currently on the attack.

And threatening to offset the balance of life at that.

His rocky dorsal spines lighting up with cerulean bioluminescence, the colossal alpha predator scraped the earth with his clawed hands as he summoned his mythical strength, his heart rate picking up to its average active pace. His blood flowing and his muscles feeling alive once more, the titanic reptile pushed against the earth as he lifted himself to his feet, standing to his full intimidating height. His tooth-filled jaws opened slightly, and an ominous infrasonic rumble escaped his lungs that reverberated throughout the ocean for miles, sending cold chills of fear through all living creatures in the vicinity.

With a powerful swish of his giant tail, Godzilla was off as he swam through the depths at speeds that would make a sailfish jealous. He would pay a visit to the second call that had gotten his attention in time, but as of now he had a more important matter to take care of. Apparently, some insignificant monstrosity believed it was above the laws of nature.

He had another pest to put in their place.

*****

Iceland.

The reindeer didn’t even have time to scream before it was impaled between two sets of razor teeth that then set to gulping its corpse down a huge throat. The infant four-legged dinosaur responsible for committing the act relished in ingesting his food, having finally caught a meal today. Even with all the strange, tiny wooden barriers holding numerous types of fauna, food was relatively scarce on this island. It was only day three of merely existing, and already he was struggling heavily to keep himself sustained. The hatchling could barely make a living off the island’s natural terrestrial mammals, and as a result he could only target the habitats of those small, gangly hairless primates, which were occasionally laden with hoofed mammals, if he wanted a decent meal to keep himself sustained for at least a few days.

And even those were limited in numbers. This wasn’t a good place for a 20-meter, 250-ton starving baby to thrive, and at such a young age he could barely swim and wouldn’t make it a few hundred meters if he tried to leave for better land. He had nearly given out just swimming across the lake that surrounded that little island on which he had hatched–there was no way he could make it farther than fifty meters of open ocean.

Ever so slowly, his luck was running out.

Exhaling tiredly, the lonely creature turned away from the kill site and began to crawl elsewhere. His stomach still yearned for a feast, and time was of the essence. His big, dog-like ears perked up as he listened for any familiar bleats of hoofed ungulates that he instinctually recognized as prey, anything that would lead him to finding a feast big enough to last him a few months at the very least.

A booming, screeching cry in the distance caused him to jerk his little head up, eyes widening as his underdeveloped mind was overtaken with a horrible terror. The cry was predatory and unfriendly, and he instinctively knew that if he didn’t make a run for it fast enough, he would soon be on the menu for whatever horrible beast that stalked him.

Unfortunately, the baby didn’t make it more than thirty meters or so towards the nearest small mountain before the source of the roar revealed itself.

The green gargantua, known infamously as Gaira, shrieked once more as he lifted his hideous face above a hill to scour the area for a good kill. He had swum here all the way from Greenland on a course for the heavily-populated country of Europe, stopping here along the way to find a good snack before he partook in an all-out feast on human flesh. But, immediately freezing when his cold eyes caught sight of the fleeing hatchling–who’s appearance looked somewhat familiar–the spawn of Frankenstein raised his arms into the air and let loose another piercing cry that struck terror into the poor creature that fled from him. He didn’t need a feast that was hundreds of miles away; he had one right here in front of him! With the vilest of thoughts entering his dark mind, Gaira began his descent.

The cry ran up the baby’s spine, and his survival instincts kicked into overdrive. Squealing in primal fear, the baby put all the strength he had into his little muscles as he picked up the pace, getting faster and faster with each stride. Before he knew it, he was running so fast he couldn’t halt even if he wanted too, which he most certainly didn’t. Seeing this, Gaira shrieked in fury and began his own mad dash in pursuit of the frightened infant.

On the other hand, though, they weren’t too far away from a small volcanic valley thick with layers of sulfurous fumes, underneath which their thundering footfalls gave way to awakening a different resident…

The baby reached the top of one medium-sized slope before finally pausing to rest, panting for breath like a tired puppy. But even so, he took a few seconds to look back to check on his current pursuer.

Gaira was still gaining on him.

Crying out in a mix of fear and utter misery, the baby dinosaur took one last breath before beginning his descent down the other side of the small volcanic slope–only to be stopped short when another primal shriek echoed through the mountains. A long, spindly arm ending in a three-taloned hand burst from the ground not too far away from Gaira’s position, gaining the gargantua’s attention. A second limb followed suit, then pushed down on the ground and pulled up a scaly, legless body ending in a whip-like prehensile tail and beginning in a skull-encased head, with a mouth full of multiple rows of pointed teeth. Gaira snarled a kaiju’s version of a curse word as he turned to face this newcomer, his attention on his original target all but lost.

Rearing his skeletal head into the air, the mature Skullcrawler released a battle cry towards the intruder upon his home. Gaira eagerly accepted the new challenge with a bellow of his own, raising his arms skyward in an attempt to intimidate the skull-faced lizard back. The attempt failed, and the now aggravated Skullcrawler charged.

The fleeing infant Baranosdragon all but forgotten in their minds, the giants clashed.

Leaping into the air, the Skullcrawler took Gaira by surprise as he made the first move. His prehensile tail wrapping around the son of Frankenstein like a biological rope, the two-legged reptile landed his clawed hands upon his opponent’s shoulders as he lunged for the jugular–only for a sharp-nailed hand to catch him by the throat, stopping him. An angry gag escaped the Skullcrawler’s vocals as Gaira held his upper half up with one hand. Fury glinted in his yellow eyes, and behind that a primal hunger. Gaira had come to a new decision–this larger reptile would be his new dinner! Once he had torn it apart, that was.

Baring his nails in a grabbing motion, Gaira’s free hand flew towards the Skullcrawler’s neck–only for the reptile to surprise him a second time when his jaws snapped open and a lithe, long tongue lashed out like a whip and wrapped around the hominid’s wrist, yanking it towards him before his jaws snapped down on it, drawing the first spurt of blood. Gaira growled furiously as he attempted to yank the lizard off him, but the angry Skullcrawler held fast, growling his own hatred towards him.

Suddenly, the Skullcrawler loosened his bite and dropped his body to the ground, all while keeping his tail wrapped around his enemy. Before Gaira could comprehend what he was doing, the ravenous predator lifted him clear off the ground with his tail, and with his tail only threw him forward. A thunderous quake boomed throughout the island as Frankenstein’s spawn slammed against the slope of the mountain, sending snow and earth flying in all directions. Shaking his head, Gaira groaned as he attempted to regain his senses–opening his eyes just in time as the Skullcrawler gained on him, leaping at him like an airborne crocodile. Gaira defensively held up one arm as the carnivorous kaiju landed hard upon his downed form, pressing his right arm down upon the defending limb. With the other, he pinned the green gargantua’s free hand down against the earth, rendering it useless. With that, the Skullcrawler attempted to lock his jaws around his throat, his preferred method of killing his prey.

But Gaira summoned as much strength as possible and lifted his other arm to protect it, resulting in the reptilian predator sinking his teeth into the defending appendage.

The two predators currently stuck in a deadlock, they glared daggers at one another, both looks they gave possessed the same meaning.

Your move.

*****

Lisbon, Portugal.

Maguma’s trumpeting cry rang in the ears of all within hearing distance as the colossal walrus waded further into the town. The smell of a familiar aroma–none other than the salty scent of fish–filled his sinuses, resulting in him having to follow his nose. But, of course, there were far too many humans around for his liking. They were far too noisy, far too aggressive, and far too annoying for him, and he wouldn’t tolerate them. This may be the spot to catch a feast, but he wouldn’t stay here. Not as long as these damn humans were around–

The oversized pinniped suddenly felt a small tingling sensation on his left flipper and looked down.

“All you do is eat and eat, but you never pay a dollar! Now get out for good!” the small, rover-like robot known as N.I.G.E.L. quipped in a warped voice as he held onto the tip of Maguma’s flipper with a clawed hand, injecting thousands of volts of electricity into the appendage. The giant walrus roared in response, clearly annoyed with the little rover’s attempt to shock him.

Standing on the deck of the H.E.A.T. Seeker, just off shore, Mendel Craven stood in silence at this latest Randy Hernandez prank.

Then, much to everyone’s surprise, the robotics scientist doubled over with laughter. Unlike all other pranks in the past, for the very first time Craven found this one to be funny. “Is the sky falling?” Elsie asked sarcastically, taken aback by her comrade’s uncommon reaction. After a good thirty seconds, Craven finally calmed down his laughter. “Sorry, I just thought that was too perfect,” he chuckled.

Back on land, Maguma was about to put an end to the scientist’s moment of amusement. Raising his flipper off the ground, the giant walrus glared at the little robotic pest that clung to the appendage, growling angrily. “Ooh, a moocha, am I?” N.I.G.E.L. rambled. “Well, then moocha-bye to you–AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUGH!”

Maguma’s flipper came down, flattening the poor robot to pieces and eliciting a cry of anguish from its creator. “Chill, doc. You’ve rebuilt him so many times! You can do it again,” Randy tried to reassure his colleague. Monique, confused at the earlier–and pointless–attempt to take the monster down, turned to Nick. “Why haven’t we called Zilla yet?” she asked. “He is clearly the only way to stop that creature!”

“Because the call signal was on N.I.G.E.L., and N.I.G.E.L. just got flattened for the thousandth time,” Nick answered. “Mendel, how much time until you switch to the ultrasonic signal?!” The robotics scientist’s fingers were a blur as he raced against time, knowing the civilians of Portugal didn’t have much left. “Give me sixty seconds, max!” he replied as he continued to type away at the speed of light. Thinking fast, Nick immediately began to come up with more ways to keep Maguma distracted while Craven finished his current objective. Sixty seconds wasn’t enough. “Monique, how many bullets does your–”

Nick’s sentence came to a stop when an unmistakable noise rang in his ears, causing him and his teammates to run to the other side of the deck. And their eyes widened at what they saw. A massive wave was headed for the shore, heralding the approach of another massive beast. Foaming seawater frothed and churned as three rows of rocky spines weaved in the shape of maple leaves revealed themselves to the surface, catching the eyes of all in the vicinity. At first, the unseen newcomer looked like it was going to collide straight with the H.E.A.T. Seeker.

Then, it stopped short mere inches in front of it.

Small, steady waves rocked the small ship as the team stared with wide eyes, waiting for the beast to reveal itself. There was no mistaking this creature–merely gazing upon its spines was enough. They knew exactly who it was.

“Elsie…”

“…Yeah?”

“You’re gonna be the paleontologist of the century in a few days.”

A booming rumble vibrated through their spines as the colossus finally began to rise out of the ocean, tons upon tons of seawater sliding off his majestic form and splashing back down when he finally stood to his full height. Everyone said nothing, only stared in breathtaking shock as the King of the Monsters himself waded right past the H.E.A.T. Seeker and took his first step onto dry land. Small amounts of salt water flooded a few areas around him, and he took another thunderous step forward. Not too far away, Maguma bellowed a war cry at the newly-arrived leviathan, completely unafraid. His upper lip baring his teeth in a snarl, Godzilla glared almost offendedly at the oversized sea mammal before rearing back his head, inflating his esophagus with air…

“EVERYONE COVER YOUR EARS!” Elsie cried out as she plugged them with her palms as fast as possible, everyone else complying instantly before the nuclear giant lurched forward and released the roar he made famous.

SKREEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOONK!

The roar traveled for miles, vibrating enough to make the earth shake for a good twenty seconds. With his entrance done, the monster king charged. Maguma howled angrily, accepting the challenge without a hint of fear as Godzilla rushed to meet him. Rearing his upper body back, Maguma bared his tusks as he prepared for impact.

The boom of prehistoric flesh colliding with thousands of tons of blubber rang in the air as Godzilla smashed his hands against the walrus’s upper torso and began to push him backward–only to recede in pain when the pinniped lunged downward and jabbed his tusks deep into his chest. Godzilla groaned as he grabbed hold of his enemy’s neck, pushing and shoving upward as he tried to dislodge Maguma’s tusks from his body.

With a burst of both speed and surprising strength, Maguma tackled the monster king off his feet, sending him toppling to the ground and the walrus pouncing upon him. Godzilla snarled in a mix of rage and disgust as he was pinned beneath the mammal’s thick, blubbery body, but nevertheless continued to push and shove with his legendary strength. Maguma wasted no time and raised his head into the air before quickly jabbing it back down, repeatedly stabbing the atomic dinosaur with his prehistoric icepicks. It was like watching a supersized version of a polar bear fighting a walrus, this time with the bear on the losing end of the fight. Even the mightiest predators on Earth failed a kill more often than they succeeded.

But Godzilla was no bear. Nor was he any ordinary predator. And he most certainly would not go quietly into the night.

Maguma raised his head, flinging it down in an attempt to pierce the brain of his newfound prey–only to stop when Godzilla’s hand snapped out and seized his left tusk moments before it could penetrate his skull. Taking advantage of the situation, Godzilla snapped his jaws down on the right tusk, keeping the walrus at bay before he tucked his legs in from under the aquatic mammal. Then, with his enemy right where he wanted, Godzilla flung his feet forward, kicking the massive walrus off him and sending him crashing into several houses.

Releasing a dominating bellow, the King of the Monsters returned to his feet, his segmented tail swaying like an angry cat. Maguma, however, was having a slight amount of trouble. His thick blubber was preventing him from getting back on all four flippers as fast as he wanted. Roaring in rage, the giant walrus thrashed like a beached shark as he fought to right himself.

Godzilla wasn’t so merciful to let this happen, stomping forward before wrapping his scaly arms around the pinniped’s neck and hoisting him up in a choking bear-hug. Luckily for Maguma, once again his muscle and blubber protected him from such a fate of losing air–but he was still trapped in the unforgiving grip of the most powerful creature on the planet. Godzilla sneered as he looked into Maguma’s opal green eyes, but even without any pupils or irises the walrus’ eyes did show emotion that Godzilla could understand.

There was no fear at all in this creature. Only a primordial rage. Realizing he couldn’t intimidate this kaiju into running away, Godzilla came to a decision.

As Maguma continued to thrash and buck, he heard a suspicious noise. It started out sounding like rock and earth shifting–then changed into sounding akin to a generator powering up. Unbeknownst to the huge walrus, for he couldn’t see behind him, the spines at the tip of Godzilla’s tail had begun to glow with an eerie blue light, a glow which began to travel up his back spines as the sound became louder and louder. Knowing that a horrifying attack awaited him if he didn’t do something to intervene, Maguma thrashed ever harder. Fueled by raging levels of adrenaline, he twisted and jerked, slowly slipping out of the monster king’s grasp. Godzilla lost his hold on the mammal as it jerked free at last, but it was close enough for him to let loose.

Puffing up his chest, Godzilla’s jaws snapped open and he let loose his most formidable weapon.

Maguma wailed in white-hot agony as a powerful beam of atomic radiation burst from the dinosaur’s mouth and slammed into his back, burning flesh and blubber to smithereens and pushing him back with concussive force. The tusked pinniped screamed miserably as he was pushed a clear 400 meters away from the nuclear giant before finally stopping. Godzilla sneered a deep growl, gazing contently upon the results of his handiwork. Maguma’s back had a horrible burn just above his rear end, exposing some fragments of his backbone from what he could tell. The giant walrus groaned, his head softly scraping against the earth as he lay all but prone atop several crushed houses and buildings. Onlookers stared in a mix of horror and pity for the wounded beast, unable to imagine the excruciating pain he was undergoing.

Godzilla marched towards the immobile walrus, the ground quaking with every footfall. His golden eyes fixed Maguma with an angry glare. But unlike before, Maguma’s did not give back the same look of defiance or hatred. No, now the injured sea mammal seemed to just lie there and accepted his fate, racked with too much pain to act anymore. His glowing green eyes stared up blankly at Godzilla, waiting for the nuclear reptile to finish him off.

The King of the Monsters stopped mere meters away from the walrus. And he simply stood there, barely even twitching.

Unknown to the countless souls who watched with surprise, Godzilla had fallen into deep thought. For the very first time in his 250 million years of existence, the radioactive dinosaur hesitated at taking another life. The monster king looked over the fallen Maguma, his eyes taking in the sight of his ghastly injuries. His cracked tusk, his burnt back, his charred exposed backbone all sparked something in his mind, something that he had never felt before. And to add onto his broken physique, Maguma wasn’t trying to fight back, nor struggling or even trying to escape. He lay upon the earth, still as a statue, accepting his doom under the shadow of the Alpha Predator as he waited for him to end his misery.

The monster king sighed. Deep down in his gut, Godzilla pitied the wounded walrus. He knew not why it had come here in the first place, but seeing it in a state like this, he couldn’t help but stave off the fatal blow.

But that didn’t mean he was going to let it stay here.

Picking up the groaning pinniped by his hind flippers, Godzilla hoisted him into the air with his herculean strength. Then, after drawing himself back, the nuclear titan jerked forward with all his might and threw the walrus hundreds of meters away, out to sea, where he vanished in a mighty SPLASH!

All human beings within a three-mile radius had to cover their ears once more when Godzilla released a heaven-quaking roar of triumph, announcing his position to the world. The King of the Monsters still retained his crown, and he wanted to make sure everyone knew about it. Snorting contently, Godzilla took a moment to scour the landscape for any other potential challengers, human or otherwise. None made themselves known.

It was then that he noticed something else. A small, white vessel was sailing speedily away across the surface of the sea–though it wasn’t the vessel itself that caught his attention. No, it carried something with it. A strange, peculiar scent that he had never smelled before… … …

Now curious more than anything, Godzilla trudged back into the shoreline, walking faster than usual, and leaned forward to dip beneath the surface before swishing his giant tail and propelling himself forward through the water as he set to swimming after the vessel. In order to completely avoid detection, the radioactive reptile kept swimming until he could no longer see the bottom of the ocean floor, then suddenly dove down into the darkness below. He need not worry about getting lost–he could see perfectly fine thanks to his acute vision. Once he decided he was far down enough to not be detected–if that were even possible–Godzilla continued to trail the vessel from underneath.

Despite his great speed, however, the King of the Monsters was startled to see the vessel overtake him within seconds, soon zooming far beyond his reach. For the first time in his life, he was faced with a man-made creation faster in the water than himself! Within mere seconds, it was gone! In spite of his amazement, Godzilla mentally cursed himself. He could not catch up to the vessel, no matter how hard he pushed himself. As far as he could tell, he would get no such luck investigating the source of the new scent today.

Godzilla turned North, swishing his tail and taking back off through the blue. One objective was finished, another now lay ahead.

*****

Budardalur, Northwest Iceland.

Even though dusk was approaching, every one of the village’s 266 inhabitants were wide awake with a mix of awe and dread. Horrible echoes of the cries of giants clashing somewhere far off in the distance reverberated throughout the islands, soft tremors occasionally shaking the earth beneath their feet as a testament to the unseen combatants’ thunderous battle. People stared off into the mountainous distance, eyes wide with fright as they held tightly the hands of their families and loved ones. The wind sang with distant roar after roar, and everyone could do nothing but stand and listen.

The first shift in sounds that the inhabitants noticed was a faint drumming that began to grow louder and louder, reminiscent of a speedboat engine. A few of the villagers turned to look out into the Greenland Sea, and noticed that sure enough, a relatively mid-sized boat was indeed approaching in the distance. It appeared to have something like a shark face painted on the front of its hull… … …

The second shift became a lot more threateningly obvious when a far greater tremor began to rattle the earth, causing many poor civilians to fall off their feet. The quake grew stronger and stronger, and massive cracks began to rip open the ground as people scattered in all directions. Finally, the center of the quake erupted into a colossal burst of earth and rock as a horned reptilian face lunged forth to the surface, bellowing a prehistoric roar. The thick neck and brown quadrupedal body followed suit, scaly bear-like paws slashing into the earth as the subterranean saurian stood upon the surface.

Baragon announced his presence to the populace as he felt the frigid air make contact with his skin. The cold didn’t hinder him one bit–he had reached his area of destination. His dog-like ears perking as he picked up multiple sounds at once, he turned his head from side to side as he scanned the new environment around him. Over a good two hundred human beings fled from his presence, screaming their strange howls of terror. Normally Baragon would be more than happy to plunge into the crowd and dine on such a feast, but today food was not his pull factor. Instead of pursuing the little hairless primates, Baragon stood up on two legs like a bear and released another bellowing roar that echoed across the mountains.

For a while he stood still, his ears remained perked up as he kept them peeled for any response. So far, all he heard was the distant commotion of two giant creatures duking it out somewhere in the distance, just a few miles over the mountains. Let them fight to the death for all he cared, Baragon kept his ears alert for a different response, one he had been tracking ever since he first picked it up six days ago.

His ears suddenly raised higher. A response came–but it wasn’t the one he desired.

The quadrupedal dinosaur turned around to face the edge of the sea, and his eyes immediately noticed the small, white human vessel floating on the water’s surface only two hundred or so meters away. Baragon blinked in confusion. It had seemed that the sound had emanated from the boat–and yet he knew that boats were not living organisms. They made no such sounds.

So why did he hear it making a high-pitched ringing noise, like the song of a whale? And what did that sound mean?

*****

In a deep underwater cave just a few hundred meters below the Hudson river, a giant stirred to life. Two flaring orange eyes, eyes that belonged to one of the world’s greatest champions, snapped open as their owner awoke like a giant cat. Raising his boxy head off the ground, the reptilian defender known as Zilla rose quickly to his feet. Flexing his long, muscular legs and digging his avian toe claws into the damp earth he previously slept upon, the giant reptile immediately growled and dove into the large pool of water that resided next to his resting place, taking off through the underwater tunnel at his top speed. He had heard the call, and through years of experience he knew exactly what it meant.

His family was in danger from another beast to kill.

His eyes narrowing in determination, Zilla swam faster, exiting the tunnel in seconds and speeding off into the endless blue that went on for miles.

*****

Gaira shrieked wildly, his colossal form colliding again and again with the earth as the Skullcrawler continuously lifted and smashed him like a dog with its chew toy, holding his heel in his tooth-filled jaws. The green gargantua attempted to dig his fingers into the soil to keep himself grounded, but the prehistoric cretin was too strong, and only succeeded in breaking four or five of said appendages before again he was lifted and smashed face-first into the ground. As far as the hominid could tell, until the lizard relinquished his toothy grip there was no getting out of this one. His number one priority as of now was to fight to stay awake, regardless of how many bruises his brain would suffer, and wait for the pummeling to come to an end. All he could do was endure the pain…

The Skullcrawler relished in his revenge as he continued to make a toy of this fool. Feeling the taste of blood run through his teeth, the lizard’s hunger for his opponent amplified, and thus the thrashing became more violent. Harder and harder the Skullcrawler yanked up and down, blood spattering the earth from several injuries to the green gargantua’s face as the cold-blooded creature vented his rage, until, to both of their surprise…

SNAP!

A spray of red flew into the air as Gaira was sent soaring straight up into the air like a trackball, his left leg no longer a part of his body. Blood poured from the stump as the Skullcrawler shook the dismembered leg in his jaws, growling ravenously as he began to tear it open. Gaira could be seen for miles, his bloodcurdling shrieks of agony sounding as if they could split the heavens.

And then he plummeted.

After what felt like forever all contained in seven seconds, Gaira’s 30,000 metric-ton bulk collided with the volcanic earth in a colossal spray of dirt and ash. The green gargantua’s roar of rage threatened to break the Skullcrawler’s ears, but the lizard didn’t care one bit. Slamming his tail into the ground, the Skullcrawler leaped with grim accuracy–and gagged in pain when a curled fist collided with his throat, sending him careening back.

Even with his leg ripped off, Gaira refused to give in to defeat. And with the extreme pain added to his insatiable hunger, he was now angrier than ever. Crawling on his hands, the predatory hominid pulled himself as fast as he could towards his reptilian foe. As the Skullcrawler righted himself, he saw a most grotesque sight. As Gaira began to keep himself pushed up on his hands, the injury where his left leg once was began to fester. Bones lengthened outward and snapped into place, with muscle tissue forming to cover it. Then, at the end, a five-digited appendage formed as the muscle tissue began to be covered by a new layer of green skin. Within seconds, the green gargantua had completely regrown his lost leg, and now stood up once more with a shriek of bloodlust!

The Skullcrawler shrieked right back, his eyes betraying no fear, only his very own insatiable hunger. The reptile lunged forward, covering the entire distance between him and his prey in less than a second. The Skullcrawler snapped his jaws on Gaira’s right arm with lightning speed, once more adding to the assault by wrapping his tail around his foe’s body.

But Gaira’s left hand was free to do whatever it wished.

By the time the Skullcrawler contemplated his error, it was too late. The simian savage snapped his hand forward with fingers outstretched and jabbed two of his pointed nails into the lizard’s right eye, gouging it apart in a spray of blood and eyeball fluid. A booming howl of misery resounded from his now empty jaws as he lost his grip and backed away, pawing at the right side of his face in a feeble attempt to cope with his injury. Gaira seemed to chuckle at his enemy’s agony as he stomped forward, his claws bared and ready to end this creature’s misery. The wounded reptile hissed viciously, an angry warning to back off.

The two combatants took one long moment to glare daggers at one another, each one taking a much-needed breather. Seconds turned to minutes, as the two ignored all outside sounds, instead remaining solely focused on each other. Rage glinted like fire in the Skullcrawler’s one good eye. Gaira remained unfazed, his own eyes bloodshot with a mix of animal fury and painful hunger. With both having the sole goal of feasting on one another’s flesh, the monsters released their respective war cries once more… … …

… … …and got an entirely new reply in return.

Gaira heard it well enough to temporarily stall, but to the Skullcrawler it was louder and clearer than ever. An unknown language, broken down into ultrasonic variations. A language that seemed to be… … …calling. Communicating. A beacon for something else. Perhaps it was a cry for help?

Their thoughts were put on hold when the volcanic terrain they stood upon began to rumble, a faint chorus of new, demonic cries warbling from within the depths of the earth.

Hungry for new meat.

*****

Godzilla was nearly there. The closer he approached this ancient island, one he had visited many times in the past, the more scents he began to make out. One scent he recognized instantly, a member of a species of lizards primarily found on another island he once explored. The other two, however, were like nothing he had ever smelled in his 250 million years of life. Perhaps these were more unnatural monsters. Mutants created yet again by humankind’s arrogance.

Suddenly, his ears were assailed by a new noise. Or rather, a series of noises combined into one frequency. A beacon. A signal.

A call.

But for what? Or better yet, whom?

The King of the Monsters swam faster, unaware that he was being trailed by an unseen entity.

*****

“Looks like the reports blamed the wrong culprit,” Elsie remarked as she stared at the subterranean dinosaur known as Baragon, who stood staring back at them from the edge of the shoreline.

“What do you mean?” Nick asked her.

She turned to him. “If the reports from the locals kept blaming Baragon for the attacks, then how come he’s only just shown up here?”

“Not to mention,” Randy quipped in, “if scaly Scooby Doo over there is as mean as everyone says he is, how come he’s just standing there like a drunk hillbilly instead of making Scooby snacks out of everyone around him? And why isn’t he trying to chomp up or blast us to smithereens right now?”

“Perhaps he perceives more than one location to be his territory?” Mendel speculated. “Scientists theorized that theropod dinosaurs like T. Rex may have done the same. It could be that he’s been visiting this area more than once for food.”

“Maybe… or maybe… … …” Nick wondered, holding his hand to his chin as he pondered over another possibility.

“Maybe… what?” Elsie asked.

“I think it could be possible that the reason he’s not currently attacking us is the same reason he’s here in the first place,” he explained. “I think Baragon may not be the last of his kind like we thought he was.”

Elsie’s eyes widened at the prospect. “You think there’s another one?”

“Perhaps the creature is here because it perceives the other to be a threat to his territory,” Monique gave her piece. “He may be here to see off a rival… … … or attract a mate.”

“Wait–so you’re saying that big bad rhinoceros-dog, meanest and ugliest fish in the sea, is suddenly a pacifist because he’s gone gaga over a girl?” Randy asked in confusion. “I mean, I know what that feels like from experience, but–”

A loud roar from Baragon ended his sentence flat, and the team turned to view what had raised his ire.

The subterranean dinosaur was now crawling fast on all fours, headed northeast from where he originally stood. Every now and then he held his snout close to the ground, sniffing like a colossal bloodhound before looking up as he continued to move. “Looks like rhinoceros-dog has finally found the scent he’s looking for,” Nick stated before turning to his teammates, who looked at him expectantly. They seemed to know exactly where this was going.

“Looks like there’s only one way to find out what that is, I guess,” Craven stated, though instead of moaning in fear like usual, his voice seemed to have a tone of acceptance behind it. Slapping his laptop shut, the robotics scientist put it away as his other colleagues prepared for their leader’s order.

“Wait until Zilla arrives,” Nick instructed. “Baragon hasn’t shown himself to be a threat yet, so once he gets here, I’ll have to call Zilla on standby first. Otherwise, we’ll have a pointless fight on our hands.”

As if on cue, the ocean not far away began to bubble and froth as a considerably large wave began to head inland. Behind it, the H.E.A.T. team could just barely make out the presence of a triple row of pointed spines. “The Z-Man, right on cue as always!” Randy shouted in excitement. But as the wave got closer, Nick took a better look at the spines that broke through the water’s surface–and took note of their unmistakable shape.

“No… … …” Nick shook his head, his hands grasping the deck as the wave drew closer. “It looks like we’ve been followed!”

The wave came to a halt just as it was about to hit the shore, sending small ripples against the shore and eliciting a few frightened cries from the thunderstruck civilians. Then, the water began to billow upwards, the rocky spines flashing blue as their hulking owner’s gigantic shape rose from the falling sheets of H2o.

Godzilla seemed to tower over the world itself as he stood, his nostrils exhaling puffs of vapor as he studied the new landmass. His destination was reached at last, but his objective was somewhere beyond these mountains. He would need to travel deep inland if he were to find it. Looking to his right, Godzilla saw two things that seized his attention. One was that human vessel he had attempted to track after beating Maguma. Apparently just because it had outrun him didn’t mean it had succeeded in avoiding him entirely. Perhaps his senses served him more well than he thought them capable of. Or perhaps there was a different reason it had ended up here with it. It was quite possible that, for whatever differing reasons, he and these particular humans were here after the exact same objective.

But another sight held his notice as well: that strange, floppy-eared reptile he saw trudging slowly up-mountain, seemingly oblivious to his presence. Godzilla roared out to it, only for the beast to turn its eye to him and growl back in annoyance before continuing along its set path.

Baragon snorted. He didn’t have time for this right now. He had more important things to attend to as of this moment.

Before Godzilla could start after him, the sound of a loud rush of water entered his ears. The King of the Monsters turned around, and his eyes widened a bit when he saw another massive form torpedoing through the sea in his direction, its back lined with a triple row of curved triangular spines. Faster than his eyes could keep track of, the unseen beast suddenly exploded out of the water in a powerful burst and landed a mere eighty meters in front of him. This beast was easily dwarfed by him in size, but it was lithe and slender. If Mother Nature designed a version of him that fit the necessary criteria to be a ninja, this was what it would look like.

A chorus of cheers echoed from the isle’s inhabitants as they recognized the creature, who announced his presence with a roar that seemed near-identical to Godzilla’s own. “Ladies and gentlemen,” Randy cheered as he pumped his fist in the air, “he’s lean, he’s mean, he’s New York’s Lizard King!”

Standing horizontally on his theropod-esque legs, the reptilian champion known as Zilla stared his infamous namesake down with his fiery orange eyes, not a hint of fear or intimidation present. He didn’t care how massive or unfathomably powerful this colossus was–if he had to fight the most powerful creature on the planet just to keep his family safe from harm, then he would do so without hesitation. But to his relief, Godzilla didn’t seem to regard him as an enemy. The King of the Monsters seemed to be holding his ground, but no clear signs of straightforward aggression were present. Seeing this, Zilla backed up a little, giving the nuclear giant some room to calm his nerves.

Water frothing just offshore caught both saurians’ attention. Their heads snapping in the direction of the ocean, the two giants watched as a third kaiju emerged from the deep and began to waddle ashore. Godzilla’s eyes raised in surprise at this one. Howling his familiar cry, Maguma flopped his way over to the prehistoric Alpha Predator, who was starting to wonder if sparing the giant pinniped’s life was a decision he would come to regret. Zilla hissed and bent low to the ground in a defensive posture, immediately standing in front of the H.E.A.T. seeker to protect them.

Nick stared at his adopted son in ceaseless amazement. Zilla’s loyalty to his family never wavered, even in the face of odds that revealed to him his true heritage. He would fight to the very last breath to keep them unharmed, regardless of whom or what he faced. “This is gonna be better than the final round of the Super Bowl!” Randy’s excited holler silenced Nick’s train of thought.

But as the gigantic mammal came to a halt in front of Godzilla, the most amazing sight transpired. Maguma shared a stare with the monster king for a moment… … …and then, with a low rumble, lowered his head to Godzilla’s feet, bowing before the massive dinosaur. Godzilla’s eyes lost their defensive look, replaced by one of surprise. Everyone was speechless as they stared at the astonishing spectacle, Randy having mentally decided that this was even better than what he had initially been hoping to see.

After keeping his bow for a good fifteen seconds, Maguma lifted his head to meet Godzilla’s gaze, and the monster king nodded. The look in Maguma’s eyes was entirely different from what Godzilla had seen in their earlier conflict. The tusked mammal was not bowing to his defeater out of fear, for Godzilla saw none in his eyes, but it appeared that their battle had instead awoken something new within the walrus.

Respect.

However, the moment was then broken when a new series of sounds reached the ears, and one that no living soul wanted to hear. The island itself seemed to fall silent with fear as the demonic cries grew louder and louder, as if just beginning to emerge from the depths of the earth itself.

Looking amongst themselves, the three monsters all seemed to nod, coming to the same decision. Together, as fast as their respective legs–or in Maguma’s case, flippers–could carry them, the trio set off upwards, ready to meet whatever new threat that awaited them behind the mountains they trudged towards.

On the H.E.A.T. Seeker, Nick turned to his teammates. “Now, we follow them,” he affirmed with a grin.

*****

Gaira shrieked in alarm as the volcanic vent in front of him cracked open, spewing hot gas and expelling a nightmarish skull, triangular in shape and equipped with jaws filled with hellish teeth. The beast screeched as it pulled itself from the depths of the earth, snapping its arms upwards to reveal they were actually leather wings. As the creature screeched a bone-chilling cry, nine others like it began to crawl from the fissure in its place, warbling hungrily. The Skullcrawler backed away, hissing defensively as the first of the winged demons turned its predatory gaze towards him. Raising his arms like the feral barbarian he was, Gaira tried to intimidate the new arrivals.

But Gyaos, the Shadow of Evil, knew no fear. One instinct and one instinct only drove their primeval makeup–hunger. And these two walking piles of meat would suit them just fine.

Her blood-red flesh glinting with watery dew, the lead Gyaos screeched devilishly and took flight, the nine others that now surrounded her following suit. Their gaping mouths glowed an eerie yellow, heralding the arrival of their signature weapon. Gaira raised his arms, but this time in defense as the horrible birds let loose their infamous sonic beams.

The Skullcrawler was caught completely off-guard as the barrage of yellow rays cut hideously into his flesh, eliciting a primal scream of agony from the two-legged lizard as he instantly set to trying to dodge the cutting beams of death. Gaira wasn’t faring much better than the bony cretin, his hand and fingers shredded apart in showers of blood and crimson cuts lacerated with ruthless precision into his arm and torso. The son of Frankenstein screamed in mindless rage as he jumped into the air, trying in vain to grab at the featherless vultures, only to be met with excruciating failure and fall back to the earth below with a THUD!

Then, the moment he hit the ground, three of the Gyaos dove.

The winged monstrosities were certainly living up to their title as they enshrouded the green gargantua in their shadows, one slashing into his face with its talons while the other two hooked their terrible jaws into his arm and side. Their bites were so painful, Gaira was beginning to wonder whether or not he even wanted to live anymore.

Things only got worse when a fourth Gyaos attacked from behind, tearing mercilessly at the hominoid’s back with its hooked claws. But Gaira was not out of options just yet.

Screeching mightily, the spawn of Frankenstein jabbed out an arm and seized one Gyaos by the throat with his razor-nailed fingers, digging them into the reptile’s neck. The caught Gyaos could only gag in defiance before Gaira dug his ugly underbite into its throat, tearing it out before throwing its dying body away. The corpse hadn’t even hit the ground before two other Gyaos set upon it, displaying their cannibalistic tendencies in full gruesome detail.

The Skullcrawler screeched as he ran, sonic beams lighting up the ground around him. Some he was lucky to dodge, while others carved more horrible wounds into his scaly hide. Unfortunately, his breath began to grow more ragged and painful as his movements slowed. His stamina was running out, and he could not keep avoiding these horrible gargoyles for much longer. Screaming in misery, the Skullcrawler leaped bodily into the air on instinct, trying desperately to catch one of the foul creatures and lessen the assault he found himself faced with–and was met only with failure.

That was the last straw.

As sonic beams lit up the landscape, the Skullcrawler fled without a backwards glance. He had nary a clue as to how he had slumbered alongside these foul creatures and never detected or awoken them in any way shape or form, but he cared not. These terrible beasts were far beyond his capabilities to handle as far as he was concerned. He was a mere animal, and he wasn’t built for this. If he stuck around, he wouldn’t survive the oncoming feeding frenzy.

The lead Gyaos wailed a cry that would’ve made even the denizens of hell wet themselves, and three of her subordinates chased after the receding reptile while the others descended down on Gaira. Slashing his left hand from side to side, the green gargantua tried to keep the demented fiends at bay, but unfortunately the Gyaos were more agile than they looked. Whether by destiny or fate, his nailed hands scored a direct slash across the lead Gyaos’ face, earning an ear-splitting screech that threatened to break the sound barrier.

If destiny was behind such an occurrence, then karma certainly didn’t want to feel left out.

Screaming in unquenchable bloodlust, the red Gyaos snapped her head back up and fired her sonic scalpel point black in Gaira’s face, slicing straight through his right eye and birthing a burst of gory puss that made the Gyaos’ stomachs rumble loathingly. Gaira practically lost all sense of self as he reeled back, his screams of agony making the earth itself quake.

A dinner bell for the Shadow of Evil.

Denouncing the half-blinded hominoid with their screeches, the Gyaos all let loose their sonic beams upon their prey. Crippled beyond comprehension, Gaira barely had time to react as the death rays carved his body apart like hell-forged knives that couldn’t be grasped or stopped. His arms, legs, face, torso… … …all came away in bloody pieces that gave off an odor so sour that even Earth’s mightiest creatures would’ve been tested to their limits. Soon, the once horrific devil that had terrorized so many was nothing more than a grisly pile of disgusting, mutated flesh.

Such a sight would have driven even the most hardened scavengers away, but not the Gyaos. In less than a second, the Shadow of Evil had encompassed the bloody husk, feasting like starving dogs. Rivers of red stained the volcanic soil as the Gyaos dined. Their stomachs were like that of a crocodile–they could digest just about anything, only far faster. Even Gaira’s once infamous teeth were picked off by the reptilian vultures.

But the Gyaos were so caught up in their feast, they failed to notice Gaira’s severed pinkie inching out of the chaotic uproar, slowly creeping into the distance like a mindless caterpillar.

*****

The infant all but limped through the mountains, his stomach growling loudly every few seconds. The hatchling didn’t need to have a fully developed brain to know that he was starving to death. The ache in his belly was so painful, he felt that at any moment it would eat him alive from the inside out. Miserable squeaks left the baby’s throat as he crawled, birds taking flight from the trees he trampled in his way.

Had his eyes possessed tear ducts, the baby’s face would be soaking. If this was all life was, then he didn’t want it. All he had felt from the moment he had entered this plane of existence was fear and pain. Everything was so big, so loud, and everything he had come across wanted to end his life as quickly as it had begun. But the worst pain of all was that everything he needed to grow, to survive, was nowhere to be found. He needed a guardian, a caretaker to teach him how to survive in such a world.

He needed a parent.

The baby’s legs began to shake like dying trees, unable to go much further. His eyes began to lose focus, his vision beginning to waver between normal and blurry. His movements began to slow, his breathing erratic… … …

The Skullcrawler howled in hunger as he burst from the tree line like an alligator, clamping his jaws around the baby’s neck before proceeding to shake his head from side to side. The infant screamed in agony and tried to struggle, but his body felt too weak. He was trapped in a situation he couldn’t escape. His attacker growled savagely as he felt the first droplets of blood flow between his teeth, his hunger amplifying tenfold. He hated that he had been forced to abandon his battle with what could’ve been a much larger meal, but as of now he had just managed to outrun the Gyaos, and the meal before him would suit him perfectly.

Lifting his quarry above the ground, the Skullcrawler threw his head down and slammed the baby into the ground, a painful shriek echoing across the island. Snarling cruelly, the ravenous predator lifted and smashed again, trying to break the baby’s neck. So engrossed in his frenzy was the Skullcrawler, that he didn’t notice the ground beginning to vibrate in rapid succession, growing greater in intensity with each tremor. The Skullcrawler lifted his head and smashed the infant against the earth a third time, the rumbling of the ground drowning out the oncoming footfalls…

Baragon only bellowed in outrage when he was right on top of the reptilian predator. The Skullcrawler stopped and jerked his head to look at him in shock. He tried to move, but he was far too late–Baragon stabbed his horn straight through his neck, impaling him. A hideous retch gagged from the lizard’s jaws as Baragon charged him straight into the side of a rock face, pushing his horn deeper through his neck–and then, with a jerk of his head, the quadrupedal dinosaur ripped it straight out thus tearing the lizard’s throat wide open. But that wasn’t the end of it. With another furious roar, Baragon backed up before charging into the fallen Skullcrawler. His horn pierced a hole in the reptile’s chest, before he backed up and charged again.

Over and over he charged the child’s attempted killer, goring bloody trenches into its frail body until he felt he had loosed enough of his rage. With a feral growl, Baragon finally retreated, leaving the mortally wounded but still-living Skullcrawler to lay unmoving on the ground, its body still twitching with choked breathing as its body became surrounded by an ever-enlarging pool of its own blood.

Demonic cries broke the silence as three winged cretins descended on the dying Skullcrawler, ripping madly into his flesh. Baragon backed away with a startled roar. His body broken and his flesh being ripped from his bones, the Skullcrawler lay helpless as the Gyaos frenzied upon the once terrifying predator, eating him alive.

Instinctively, Baragon didn’t wait. His horn glowing with internal light, the subterranean dinosaur launched his infamous magma heat ray just as one of the winged cretins turned to look at him. Its body was set ablaze instantly, and the Atlantean creation howled a devilish cry as it reeled. Baragon tried to sweep his breath over the other two, but they dove away just in time. A second heat ray burst from the dinosaur’s jaws, engulfing the first Gyaos, and the horrible bird loosed a dying shriek as its flaming body collapsed to the ground.

A scream of pain from behind spurred Baragon into action. Whirling around with a snarl, he spotted the other two Gyaos descending on the baby, giving it the same treatment as the now-dead Skullcrawler. Lowering his head, Baragon charged like a rhinoceros. The first Gyaos fired a sonic scalpel, but the dinosaur ignored it before closing the distance and impaling the evil beast’s throat with his horn. The second Gyaos fired another sonic beam, but Baragon thrust his quarry in the way, and the yellow projectile of death lanced straight through its neck, perfectly decapitating it.

Jutting his horn free, Baragon gave zero breathing room to the third Gyaos as he pounced at it. But the winged kaiju struck equally as fast and managed to hook its ugly jaws around his neck. Beating on the dinosaur with its wings, the Gyaos chewed and thrashed as it held the dinosaur in what it thought to be a killing grip–a concept that the subterranean saurian would prove wrong. As strong as the Gyaos was to hold against the dinosaur, Baragon had a much stockier girth, and when he pushed back, the Gyaos could put up no defense. Bringing his forelegs down like a bear, Baragon brought his enemy straight to the ground before he plunged his fangs into its neck. Beating its wings furiously, the Gyaos screeched into Baragon’s face as it’s throat glowed yellow, heralding the approach of its signature weapon.

It was the last sound it would ever make before Baragon wrenched his head to the side, ripping its throat out.

Baragon didn’t even watch the horrible beast die; screaming his triumph to the sky, he simply turned his back on the perishing Gyaos, satisfied that it would be joining its kin in oblivion. However, as he turned, he noticed that his objective was no longer standing where it had been moments before. A tiny groan made his left ear perk up, and he pointed his snout in the direction of the noise. Baragon’s eyes widened a bit at what he saw.

Only now, in this moment of stillness with no combat or struggling for survival, did the ground-dwelling saurian fully comprehend what he had been protecting from the winged predators moments before, what he was really seeing in front of him. Crawling slowly along its stomach, moaning miserably, was an infant of his species. An infant Baragon.

And it was starving horribly.

Baragon acted without thinking. Had there been any onlookers to glimpse the spectacle, they would’ve gasped nervously as the dinosaur moved towards the helpless infant, presuming he would attack it. It was expected, after all–in the animal kingdom, the males of nearly every species would be prone to attack and kill and sometimes even cannibalize infant members of their species, especially those who were not their own offspring. But what followed instead would cause great conversation in the scientific community for years to come. Lowering his head, Baragon nudged against the baby’s rear end, eliciting a surprised squeak in reply, but nevertheless began to push the infant in the direction of one of the Gyaos corpses.

The moment the baby was within arms reach of the body he dug into it madly, and Baragon watched with relief as at last the youthful cub could finally fill his stomach. Small but powerful jaws ripped chunks of cooked flesh and swallowed them contently with bite after bite. All the while, the once ravenous dinosaur that was Baragon stood silent as a tree, not so much as touching or even moving towards the infant.

*****

“Oh, my god… … …” was all Elsie Chapman could mutter as she watched the incredible sight before her.

“Seems we were wrong right from the start,” Nick added quietly, making sure not to speak loud enough for the resident kaiju to hear. “Baragon was never after a mate. Nor was he seeking to eliminate any territorial threats.”

At this, Craven raised his eyebrow perplexedly. “But why would an infant turn him so docile? Unless that baby is his biological child, I can’t see why he isn’t attacking it instead. I mean…don’t most male animals in general often kill infants of their species, especially if they aren’t their own? In fact, don’t male reptiles in general not take care of their young?”

“Not entirely true,” Elsie replied. “Male mugger crocodiles from India stay behind to raise their offspring alongside their mates. Plus; many species of birds, such as emus and ostriches, partake in male-only parenting while the female simply strikes off on her own. It’s quite possible that Baragon’s species is the same way.”

“Furthermore, it’s not out of the ordinary for animals, male or female, to adopt offspring that aren’t their own,” Nick added. “It’s an altruistic behavior that ensures both parental experience for a future parent and a means of carrying on a future generation, even if that offspring is only distantly related. Recently, a lioness in Africa was spotted adopting a leopard cub due to having just recently given birth to her own litter of cubs.”

“One question though, compadre: how is Godzilla–the real one–gonna react to baby Baragora here?” Randy quipped. “What are we gonna do if he doesn’t take kindly to rhinoceros-dog becoming a proud papa?”

Nick simply motioned to the Gyaos corpses. “I don’t think Godzilla is here for the baby–or at least, if he was, then his priorities changed. Remember, Godzilla only appears when some kind of threat is disrupting nature’s balance–something the Gyaos do for a living.” He nodded at the remains of the slain birds. “I think the moment the Gyaos crawled back out of the woodwork, Godzilla made destroying them his top priority.”

“Which begs another question,” Monique interjected. “How many Gyaos are still around? I thought Gamera destroyed them all in the Great War of 1999?”

“Who knows,” Nick replied ominously, “We know so little about the Gyaos. They’re an irregularity, not even natural animals no matter how you try to slice it. Regardless, what we do know is that we can’t rely on Gamera to exterminate them this time. Godzilla and Zilla have to follow in his footsteps.” He turned back to the sight in front of him. “They’re gonna have to finish what he started.”

*****

Zilla was the first to stop walking.

The massive lizard was sniffing the air like a bloodhound, a confused growl surging in his throat. Godzilla and Maguma noticed their ally’s behavior and halted alongside him, watching him intently. They knew the irradiated iguana wasn’t stupid–something was up, and Godzilla believed him on it. It wasn’t long before the monster king’s nostrils were assailed by the same vile scent and he cocked an eye, unsure of exactly what to make of what he had caught wind of. Maguma followed his new friend’s motion; he smelled it too.

Godzilla wasn’t sure which scent he wanted to go after–the one he had been tracking since his mission began, or the new vile ones he had smelled from the moment he stepped foot on the island. He knew that somewhere on this landmass there was a danger that needed to be dealt with, but he also had no clue what the other scent that he had been tracking from hour one belonged to. Was it a hazard to the world as well? Because while strange, there didn’t seem to be anything threatening about it.

Perhaps they should split up. Cover more ground… … …

And then the vile scent assailed their nostrils, growing stronger every second. Any thought of pursuing the second option vanished when Godzilla grumbled to his fellow monsters, ordering them to keep tracking their main target.

*****

Baragon raised his head with widened eyes as his nostrils caught wind of a most disgusting aroma. He rumbled a soft growl to the infant, who ceased eating and looked up at his larger relative with confusion. When a demonic shriek pierced the air, the baby screamed in fright and crawled quickly behind the larger saurian. Baragon growled more ferociously this time as he bent low, ears furled defensively as his eyes caught sight of the approaching threat.

The Shadow of Evil had found them.

The Gyaos howled horrifically with hunger, their terrible shrieks seemingly distorting the air in front of them as they homed in on their target on a flurry of leather wings. And leading them; towering over her fellow peers and clad in blood-crimson skin, her evil yellow eyes glinting with sadistic delight, was the Super Gyaos.

The infant Baranosdragon shivered violently in terrible fear under the legs of the adult as he watched the Gyaos approach. Baragon seemed to notice his terror, and instinctively stepped over to shield him from the arriving swarm. The subterranean dinosaur was never one to face up against such impossible odds, but he hadn’t come all this way to seek the last hope of starting a better life just to give up. If it was a meal these detestable demons wanted, then he would make them choke on their own blood. Standing up on two legs like a bear ready to defend his cub, Baragon raised his ears in anger and roared louder than he had ever in his millions of years of life.

“Baragon’s not one of the stronger kaiju in the roster,” Elsie cried out, “he can’t handle this many at once! Especially with a Super Gyaos leading the charge!”

Not a second later did Nick turn to Craven. “Mendel–”

“Like you even had to ask!” the robotics scientist replied with a smile as he pulled out his laptop, typing away in less than a second.

Baragon’s horn glowed with amber light, an intimidation display in an attempt to ward off his soon-to-be attackers. The six Gyaos screeched, the air warping and distorting in front of their gaping jaws as they ignored said display and prepared to unleash their most formidable weapons. But all eight kaiju ceased activity when a familiar, high-pitched frequency stung the air. The monsters tilted their heads in confusion as they stilled for a moment, each one trying to take in what that strange… … …call exactly was. Baragon perked his ears as he listened further, waiting to see whether or not the source would call out yet again. The dinosaur’s ears twitched. He could’ve sworn he felt–

A lance of white-hot agony speared into Baragon’s scaly form, spilling a trail of crimson life fluid to taint the ground. The reptilian quadruped howled in misery as his chest bled, setting the Gyaos’ hunger levels to maximum. They wouldn’t wait any longer. With another hideous scream, the Super Gyaos set her underlings upon the dinosaur like starving hyenas. Despite his excruciating injury, Baragon snapped back to reality and reacted fast. His horn flashed like a beacon, temporarily stunning the screeching Gyaos long enough for him to let loose his Magma Heat Ray.

The Gyaos it struck yowled like an injured cat as it screeched its sonic beam into the air, its flesh scorched like Christmas Chicken as it fell back. Roaring, Baragon charged the devilish beast, but a pair of sonic beams lanced into his shoulder, stopping him. A vicious shriek invaded his ears as a set of ugly jaws locked around his neck in a vice-like grip. Baragon bellowed as he attempted to thrash his attacker; the Gyaos increased the strength of its grip as it held on like a crocodile.

Another shriek from behind the subterranean dinosaur, shortly before a second and third Gyaos began to assault him from behind, raking his back with their savage talons. Growling in both pain and fury, Baragon lashed out and slashed one of his attackers across the face in a spray of violet gore. Its left eye taken out, the injured Gyaos howled and recoiled. Baragon fired his heat ray upon the wounded beast, causing it to fall to the ground in agony. However, there were still two of the beasts inflicting injury upon him to deal with, and they needed dealing with quickly.

A body larger than his own slammed into Baragon, tackling him to the ground and locking its talons into his sides. The Super Gyaos grabbed the dinosaur by the neck and shook like a dog as she held her cornered prey, but no sooner than she attacked did Baragon retaliate. His horn flashed once more, causing the lead Gyaos to rear back with a surprised screech. Her grip loosened long enough for the horned reptile to fire his heat ray once more, driving the hideous beast back.

A scream of pain reached Baragon’s ears, one of an entirely different sort from his winged opponent. And he was spurred into action immediately. Ignoring his freshly carved wounds, the saurian beast clambered to his feet just in time to see the other Gyaos attacking the terror-stricken infant, almost seeming to cackle sadistically as they did so. His prehistoric blood boiling with wrath, Baragon stormed towards the Atlantean killers with a powerful battle cry. Three of the beasts were lucky to flap away just in time–one, however, was struck at full force by the infuriated ‘father.’ His horn pierced its chest like a knife through butter, the force of his skull impacting its chest caving its ribs inward, piercing organs and misshaping muscles. Baragon didn’t even give it a chance to scream before he floored it under his claws; with one quick motion, he lunged forward and speared his horn straight through its face.

The Gyaos shuddered once, then stilled.

That left five more to deal with.

Baragon reacted instinctively; he leaped in to shield the infant’s body just as the other monsters unloaded their sonic scalpels. The four-legged dinosaur howled out in agony and distress as the relentless flow of light-forged knives cut hideous slashes into his ancient flesh, his crimson blood spilling to mix with the puddles of violet that lay stained upon the battlefield. But despite the pain, Baragon held perfectly still, his determination to protect the last member of his all but extinct species an immovable rock to the Gyaos’ malice. Nevertheless, the Gyaos persisted, their stomachs rumbling hungrily as they continued to slowly carve the ancient reptile apart; the infant howling in despair as his ‘parent’ drew closer and closer to the verge of death.

Baragon could hold his ground for as long as he liked–he could not do it forever.

A trio of booming roars ended the assault, causing all seven kaiju to look up.

The ground quaking with every mighty step he took, Godzilla glared at the repulsive creatures as he rumbled a hateful growl. His muscles flexing in preparation for the combat to come and his claws grasping the air in anticipation, Godzilla roared his denouncement to the Shadow of Evil as he led his two newfound comrades into war. To his left, Maguma howled at the Gyaos with fearless resolve, rearing up to display his tusks. And to the monster king’s right, Zilla roared along with his kingly namesake, his body tensed to spring at the reptilian vultures at any moment. Together, the monstrous trio marched towards the disgusting blight that was the Gyaos, ready to wipe them off the face of the earth for good. The Shadow of Evil responded to their cries with their hollow shrieks, eyes narrowing in feral eagerness.

Mendel Craven smiled. “It worked!”

Beside him, Randy put a hand on his shoulder. “I hate to admit it, Doctor. C, but I’m really glad you invented that ultra-frequency-whatchamacallit!”

“We better pull back soon,” Nick spoke up, “things are gonna get ugly.”

His notion couldn’t be closer to the truth. Screaming madly at once, the Gyaos all flapped their wings as they flew towards their new opponents, every bit as eager to dine on their flesh as they sounded. The ground began to rattle more powerfully as Godzilla hunched over and barreled into a charge, roaring loud enough to rattle the heavens. Zilla released his own respective bellow and sprinted ahead of him, ready to meet the revolting beasts head-on. And Maguma flopped onward as fast as he could carry himself, daring the Gyaos to come at him. The Super Gyaos screeched evilly as she rushed to meet Godzilla. Her underlings could handle the others–Godzilla was hers and hers alone to face.

Sonic beams lit up the landscape as the battle began.

The Super Gyaos locked her terrible jaws on Godzilla’s neck like a cougar attacking a deer, her cruel teeth piercing his armored flesh with ease. Radioactive blood running forth from the wounds, Godzilla bellowed even louder when the crimson bird slashed away at his stomach with her talons. Godzilla swiped to grab her, but she let go and powered away just in time. Growling with frustration, Godzilla charged at her like a bull, but a sonic scalpel to his shoulder made his eyes widen as a most horrific agony shot through his body. Clutching his shoulder as if his arm were gonna fall off, Godzilla howled with pain before a second sonic beam lanced into his chest, cutting through scale and muscle alike.

The monster king ducked just as the Atlantean creation fired a third time, and ran forward almost immediately. Godzilla did his best to ignore the searing pain when it turned low and stabbed into his back, but decided it was worth it when he successfully rammed into the winged wretch with his full brute power. The Gyaos shrieked as she was floored to the ground, and before she could attempt to lift back off she was grounded underfoot by the mighty King of the Monsters. A fourth sonic beam flew from her gaping jaws as her last defense, piercing Godzilla’s stomach and forcing him to back off. The very moment the dinosaur’s foot lifted off the reptilian vulture, the Gyaos was on him. Snapping her teeth over his face, the genetic abomination yanked her head down and slung Godzilla flat on his stomach, eliciting a painful groan from the nuclear beast.

But Godzilla would prove full of surprises.

The monster king suddenly pushed forward with his arms to lunge like an alligator, snapping his teeth down upon the Super Gyaos’ leg.

*****

Maguma swiped at the Gyaos in front of him but missed by a wide margin. The cackling filth mocked him with its screeches as he swiped again, but with a flap of its wings it dodged yet again. The Antarctic walrus bellowed in frustration as he powered himself forward on his blubbery body, rearing up to try and impale the genetic abomination, only for it to flap out of his reach yet again. The moment his tusks hit the ground, however, the Gyaos lunged forth and bit down on the back of his neck. Maguma howled in pain and reared up to try and dislodge his attacker; a ploy that only half-worked, for the Atlantean beast ripped its head back and tore a bleeding chunk of flesh from his body with it before retreating. Gulping down its tasty prize, the Gyaos was more dangerous than it had been moments prior. Maguma’s flesh tasted fantastic–it craved more!

Screeching hungrily, the genetic demon swooped in like a hawk and swiped at Maguma’s burnt back with its talons. Despite the pain the walrus whirled around to swipe his tusks at the detestable devil, but it was already out of harm’s reach. Eyes narrowing and nerves snapping in an instant, Maguma whirled around and swiped again, just as the Gyaos tried to swoop in from the front, the winged beast flapping back just as the pinniped’s tusks swiped barely past its neck.

The Gyaos screamed for blood and let loose its sonic beam, the lethal projectile stabbing deep into the walrus’ neck to bring forth a howl of agony. The bloodthirsty beast grinned sadistically and fired a second blast into his neck–and raised an eyebrow in surprise when the pinniped fell to the ground with a defeated groan.

His eyes open, his head laying low, the walrus didn’t move.

The Gyaos screeched hungrily as it landed, trotting over the corpse of its fallen foe. Announcing its triumph to the world with a devilish cry, the Atlantean scourge hopped atop the carcass and sank its jaws into the plump, blubbery neck–and screamed in shock when Maguma burst to life with a powerful battle cry! With his superior weight, the oversized sea mammal easily tackled the winged devil and pinned it beneath his blubbery bulk. The Gyaos warbled angrily as it fought to break free, the air in front of its gaping maw beginning to distort as it charged its sonic beam. But Maguma reacted too fast to let it get the chance to use it; with a downward thrust of his mighty tusks, the Antarctic walrus impaled the demonic bird straight through the heart in a spray of purple gore.

A dying gurgle resounded within the Gyaos’ throat as it just barely managed to raise its head… … …then lowered it with closed eyes as its ruptured heart ceased beating.

Pulling his bloodstained icepicks free of the revolting corpse, Maguma howled in triumph, for one less foe needed dealing with. But his call of victory turned to a cry of anguish when another sonic beam lanced into his side, and a second Gyaos lashed forth to swipe past his face with its cruel talons. Maguma held his ground as the abominable bird breathed in to fire a second time–only for the Gyaos to be suddenly blasted from behind by a searing river of flame. The savage carnivore whipped around to see its attacker, and was surprised to see Baragon still standing, despite the savage injuries he had sustained.

The Gyaos flapped its wings as it prepared to charge, but before it could do so it was floored underneath a blubbery body that crushed the air out of its system. As the horrid creature attempted to breathe, Maguma wasted no time and impaled the Gyaos’ skull with one of his tusks, ending its life then and there.

Maguma briefly locked eyes with his dinosaurian savior–then collapsed into unconsciousness from the searing pain.

*****

Zilla screeched an elephantine cry when a sonic beam cut into his back, just next to his spinal cord. The Gyaos above him had been doing nothing but hovering around in circles, spamming him with its sonic scalpel. The irradiated iguana noted this pattern immediately, knowing to avoid that attack from this moment on. Sure enough, another sonic beam lashed into existence from the Gyaos’ jaws, but this time the champion of New York leaped to the side with ease, avoiding it. The Gyaos screeched and fired again, but Zilla sidestepped it once more.

The winged cretin suddenly lunged down like a hunting falcon, jabbing its talons into Zilla’s boxy snout and biting down on his forehead. Thrashing around with a screeching hiss, Zilla snapped in a vain attempt to break free of the vile predator’s foul grasp, a task that proved easier said than done despite the latter’s inferior size. So, rather than trying to force his way out through sheer force, Zilla began to swat the predatory pest like a cat would a mouse. The very moment the Atlantean abomination loosened its clawed grip by the slightest, the mutant iguana struck; lashing out like a leopard, Zilla slammed a paw against the Gyaos, sending it flying back several hundred meters away.

However, the foul beast was cunning, and scrambled to its feet to flap its wings and power back into the air just as Zilla launched his thermonuclear fire, the emerald flames scorching the earth where the Gyaos had been laying two seconds ago. A sonic beam flew from the Gyaos’ jaws in retaliation, but the giant reptile ran to the side like a cheetah, dodging it with ease. His spines flashing, Zilla fired his atomic ray a second time, but the Gyaos flew to the side to evade it. But such a move had been predictable for the giant saurian; Zilla suddenly dashed forward at his top speed, leaping into the air like a grasshopper towards the winged demon. The Gyaos shrieked as it narrowly avoided the lizard’s crunching jaws as Zilla flew through nothing but thin air before landing upon the solid earth in a crouch.

The Gyaos lunged down, firing a sonic beam that sliced into Zilla’s calf in a squirt of red. As the giant lizard hollered in pain, the Gyaos latched its terrible jaws and talons onto Zilla’s tail. But as the beast began to shake its head to tear the appendage, Zilla suddenly whipped his body in the creature’s direction, smacking the Gyaos to the ground a second time–and this time, Zilla took immediate advantage of its predicament. With a graceful bound, Zilla landed atop the thrashing Gyaos, toe claws crunching bone and wing membrane as he did so.

Still, the horrid cretin refused to die so quickly, and shot forth yet another sonic scalpel that sliced through his right leg like it didn’t exist. Zilla howled a hellish cry as he stumbled, the excruciating agony making his vision begin to turn white and his lower body numb. The Gyaos seized its chance and flew forward, knocking Zilla off his feet with its wings. He was all but helpless before the Shadow of Evil, which lunged to sink its ugly teeth into his throat and immediately began shaking like a rabid wolf in an attempt to rip it out.

But like the Gyaos, Zilla too refused to lose his life so easily.

Lashing out with his hand, the mutant iguana slashed the evil beast across the eye with a clawed hand in a burst of purple gore, eliciting a scream of pain so loud it broke the sound barrier–but Zilla didn’t care. Snapping his head in the Gyaos’ direction, a flash of light streaked across Zilla’s dorsal scutes as a stream of emerald flames burst from his gaping maw. The atomic ray engulfed the half-blinded Gyaos, the roar of the searing fires drowning out its screams as Zilla didn’t let up and continued to fire. Even within the roaring firestorm, he could see the thrashing body of the Shadow of Evil, dancing and kicking like a chicken burning in the pits of hell. With a final scream, the Gyaos fell to the ground to die, Zilla cutting off his attack as his opponent’s body was rapidly devoured by a raging jade bonfire.

Rumbling a sigh of painful exhaustion, Zilla summoned all his strength as he rolled over onto his stomach, barely managing to plant his feet into the ground before he tried to stand. His legs shook like dying trees and the agony that suddenly flared in his wounded hind limb was too great for even him to fight, and with an elephantine groan he fell back into a crouch. For the time being, New York’s champion lay low as he took a rest.

As of now, there was only one Gyaos left; he was grateful there weren’t any more.

*****

The Super Gyaos screamed devilishly as Godzilla slammed her to the cold, hard earth with a yank of his jaws. But the Shadow of Evil was stronger than she looked, even compared to the mighty King of the Monsters; flapping her wings like a distressed eagle, the Gyaos nearly dragged Godzilla to his knees in her attempt to escape his grasp. Digging his clawed feet into the earth in an attempt to keep his foe grounded, Godzilla growled like a dog as he pulled and yanked against the Gyaos’ powered flight, but still found himself being slowly dragged forward along the ground as the Atlantean killer persisted.

The Gyaos suddenly turned about to reposition herself, causing Godzilla’s teeth to tear more bloody gashes into her leg, and fired a sonic scalpel perfectly into his right set of gills. The monster king’s eyes shot wide and his jaws gaped loose to release an earth-rattling shrill while the Super Gyaos finally glided free of his crunching jaws, a trail of blood flowing past her all the while. Without paying so much as a second thought to the pain that flared in the injured limb, the Gyaos landed on the earth and stood back up to face the injured Godzilla.

Both had sustained ghastly wounds; but unlike the Gyaos, Godzilla’s were far more severe. The legendary beast was struggling to breathe, but his strength showed no signs of waning as he glared at the Gyaos through narrowed yellow eyes. The Super Gyaos grinned at the state of the weary saurian. She could smell the blood in the air, could literally taste it in her foul maw. She wanted that meat–all 99,600 tons of it. Muscle, fat, blood, bone, meat, EVERYTHING. The so-called “King of the Monsters” would become her next banquet! With her stomach boiling with newfound starvation that could only be sated through the flesh of Godzilla, the Super Gyaos fired another sonic scalpel that lanced into Godzilla’s side.

Godzilla fought as hard as he could not to recoil, knowing the seriousness of the loathsome foe he was facing. He could not allow an opening–one false move, and everything could be lost. So, Godzilla roared in reply and powered his columnar legs forward as he charged the Shadow of Evil.

The Gyaos fired a second beam, but Godzilla ducked under it just in time before suddenly snapping the muscles in his lower body, and he spun on his clawed heels. His massive tail whipped around, and before the Atlantean killer had time to react it slammed straight into her torso with a sound-shattering impact. Knocked off her feet, the super predator shrieked in agony as she fell–but unfortunately, she was only down. She hadn’t run out of continues yet. As Godzilla bore down on her, the reptilian vulture began to flap her wings in rapid, powerful succession. The winds that were thus produced blew into Godzilla’s face, both kicking dust and debris in his eyes and making it hard to breathe. With a booming groan, Godzilla held his hands up in front of his face as he backed off.

The Super Gyaos fired another sonic beam that lanced into Godzilla’s left arm.

The nuclear dinosaur bellowed defiantly as he slammed his tail to the ground, planting his feet firmly into the earth. The Super Gyaos shrieked horrifically as she returned to her feet… … …and then perked her head in curiosity when a strange hum began to fill the air. At first, the Atlantean super predator had no clue what was making such a sound, and narrowed her yellow eyes into slits as she glowered at the King of the Monsters. But then she saw his tail swing around, and noticed that the spines lining it were beginning to light up one by one; traveling up his back as the hum began to deafen in volume, and Godzilla reared up with a growl.

The Gyaos widened her eyes as the kaiju king puffed out his chest.

His eyes sparking a bright cerulean, Godzilla spat forth his infamous atomic ray–and widened them when the Gyaos swerved her head to the right, the nuclear blast missing her head by a couple feet. Instantly, the Shadow of Evil retaliated with her sonic beam–and unlike Godzilla’s heat ray, it struck home.

Godzilla’s throat.

His atomic ray cutting off, Godzilla boomed a gurgling howl as he stumbled back, his vision going white from the agony. Blood leaked from the holes sliced through his neck like a punctured water balloon, the nuclear giant gagging and choking profusely as he struggled in equal parts to breathe and stay conscious–a dilemma which resulted in him not paying attention to how he walked or what was behind him. His right foot slipped out from under him, and due to the intense agony and the air being cut off from his lungs, he could do nothing but shrill in vain as he toppled to the ground with a colossal BOOM!

The Gyaos grinned sadistically as she watched the monster king fall before her might. Wanting to hear him suffer further, she fired a second sonic scalpel that stabbed a bleeding hole in his chest, eliciting another bellowing gurgle of agony from his bloody jaws. The Shadow of Evil hissed with delight as she licked her lips, taking a step forward as she prepared to dine on his flesh–and jerked back with surprise when the ground in front of her exploded outward, disgorging a quadrupedal creature with floppy ears and a glowing nasal horn. The Gyaos howled in shock when Baragon pounced upon her with an angry roar, lunging at her throat with gaping jaws. But the super predator lunged up with her talons and raked them across the dinosaur’s sides, causing him to jump off and land on all fours.

A flash of green light made both kaiju turn around, the Gyaos jolting as she expected a horrifying attack to come at her–and was rather surprised at what she saw. From a distance, Zilla had let loose his atomic breath; but rather than the Super Gyaos, he was blasting Godzilla! The emerald flames scorched the king kaiju’s throat for an impressive twelve seconds–and then, they died down. A blackened, charred splotch now lay upon Godzilla’s throat, the mutant iguana’s thermonuclear flames having cauterized his ugly injury and sealed it up.

A sonic beam sliced the ground in front of Zilla open, a threatening shriek escaping the Gyaos’ jaws as she began to bear down on the still-crippled reptile. But before she could take four steps forward, a burst of searing heat burned into her back, taking her attention back to her quadrupedal foe. As she turned around, Baragon jumped past her; slashing a sizable gash in her head with his claws along the way. A spurt of purple gore flung into the air, and the Gyaos howled angrily as she fired her sonic scalpel at the weak dinosaur.

But Baragon easily avoided the strike, firing his Magma Heat Ray a second time into her face.

Screeching in pain, the winged cretin stumbled back as she shook her head, shaking out the flames that burned her skin. When the last of the ignited gas faded away and her skin felt the cold air once more, she turned back to where the horned quadruped had been standing–and widened her eyes in surprise when the sight of a large hole in the ground greeted her. Baragon’s baritone roar echoed from within the sinkhole, mocking her. Her eyes narrowing as she trudged over to the newborn cavern, she fired her sonic beam down the tunnel, hoping to hit the subterranean dinosaur while he least expected it. A roar echoed up from the tunnel, and the Super Gyaos smiled in glee as everything went quiet.

Another burst of searing flames lunged up from the tunnel to burn her face.

The moment the flames ceased, the Gyaos shot her sonic beam down the tunnel a second time–but she didn’t stop directly down. Steering her head, she cut along the edges of the hole, and soon the tunnel began to cave in on itself until it was entirely blocked off.

Baragon burst out of the ground behind her, blasting her in the back with another heat ray.

Barking to the infant he protected so fiercely, Baragon kept up his heat ray just long enough for the Baranosdragon hatchling to leap down into the hole he had created, before cutting off his attack and retreating quickly just as the Super Gyaos fired her sonic beam down the hole once more. A shriek of fury ripped from the super predator’s jaws as she began to turn about in circles, waiting for the insolent dinosaur to show himself yet again. Once more, everything was still, but the Atlantean creation kept her guard up. She whirled on Maguma and Zilla, but both were still wounded and seemed in no condition to take her by surprise while she wasn’t looking. Snarling threateningly, she turned back to her vigil as she awaited Baragon’s return.

Such a wait didn’t last long when the ground under her feet caved in, a screech of shock leaving her jaws as she plummeted. Baragon roared as he burst from the soil, firing another Magma Heat Ray; but this time he picked a different target–the Gyaos’ left wing. The Shadow of Evil shrieked loudly as the flames seared a sizable rip of the leathery appendage, but by the time she readied her sonic beam, Baragon had already zipped back into his hole. The Gyaos shrieked again. COWARD! Why wouldn’t he come out and face her himself?!

Within the safety of the underground void, Baragon would’ve smirked if he could. The only reason he had been held on the ropes beforehand by these wretched beasts is because of their numbers. But as of now there was only one, her strength in numbers having been wiped out by the others who had shown up and given him time to recuperate, and now circumstances were just right for him to pull this hit-and-run tactic off. Time was of the essence, and every hit counted. Beside him, the infant shivered in fear but remained quiet. The subterranean dinosaur took a second to reach forward and nuzzle the shivering hatchling, then grumbled quietly to him.

For it was time to watch the master at work.

The Super Gyaos flapped her wings as she began to fly out of the hole, her airborne maneuverability not as effective as before due to the injury to her wing. She needed to take this fight to her element, to exit the range of her opponent’s earthly realm and take back the upper hand. Now, there was no way for this insolent reptile to take her by surprise without having to take the risk of guessing where she was first. Now, the playing fields could be steered towards her hand! Howling her devilish trill, the Gyaos hovered in circles around the battlefield, anticipating when the four-legged weakling would fall right into her claws.

The very moment she hovered over one of Baragon’s old holes, a Magma Heat Ray lanced out of the underground void and burned into her right wing. Shrieking in pain, the Gyaos flapped her wings and immediately veered away at her top speed, wanting nothing more than to keep airborne and out of the saurian’s reach. She cursed herself for letting her guard down so soon after swearing to not fall for another of Baragon’s tricks, screeching forth another sonic beam that sure enough missed its mark–

A river of emerald flames suddenly lashed into existence and burned into her left wing, burning it to the bone in seconds. The Gyaos screamed in equal parts rage and agony as she lost the very thing she so preciously wanted to hang onto, and fell to the earth below with a whistling howl. Twisting her body like a cat, she made certain to land on her feet as she turned to look upon her unexpected surprise attacker.

Zilla all but smirked as the nuclear flames dissipated from his toothed jaws, growling pridefully. His ploy had worked perfectly; Baragon had bought him just enough time for his regenerative abilities to kick into gear and heal his sliced calf, all the while he successfully played defeated to perfect effect. He had fooled the Shadow of Evil into thinking Baragon was the only threat she would have to worry about after Godzilla fell, and now his patience had paid off. Now, she had lost the ability to fly, and she was grounded on land.

Exactly where he and Baragon had the advantage.

A sonic scalpel lashed out from the Gyaos’ maw, but like an Olympic athlete, Zilla sidestepped the lance of light and began to slash away at the ground. Rapidly, he dug away and vanished in a cloud of kicked up soil and volcanic earth; the Super Gyaos sprinting towards him like an enraged fowl–only to feel another blast of heat burn into her back. Screaming in absolute outrage as Baragon backed back into the Earth’s crust, the Gyaos let loose the longest sonic beam yet and whirled around, continuously firing in all directions as she tried to confirm a hit on her targets.

But it was futile.

The ground underneath the Gyaos burst open as Zilla snapped his jaws down on her leg like a crocodile. The Gyaos turned down, her gaping jaws flashing yellow as she prepared to slice open the lizard’s face–and yet, whether fate was simply the cruelest adversary or her life was just the laziest written script imaginable, she was again destined to be denied. Something powerful and immensely hot slammed into her torso, Zilla’s jaws letting go as she was sent flying a good distance on her back. The Gyaos shrieked in pain from the force of the attack, though she was silenced when a familiar roar rang in the air.

The earth trembling at his rising presence, Godzilla announced his return to the land of the living with his infamous war cry, muscles and bones cracking back into place as he stood back up; his dorsal plates still aglow with azure bioluminescence. The nuclear saurian let loose a second atomic ray, and like before the attack struck home. The Gyaos screamed in agony as the nuclear flames burned away at her crimson flesh, all the while the kinetic force continued to push her back even farther. Trying hard to fight the scorching pain, the Gyaos reared her head just above the heat ray and loosed a sonic beam. Godzilla reacted just in time and cut off the blast, but didn’t move his head far enough for the beam to slice a wound on his left cheek. The Gyaos gaped to fire a second beam–and the ground behind her exploded, Baragon’s furious roar echoing in her ears.

The subterranean dinosaur pounced on her back, piercing her flesh with his nasal horn before ripping it out in a gush of purple blood. But Baragon didn’t stop there, and fired his Magma Heat Ray into the wound. The Gyaos thrashed like an enraged turkey, trying to buck the saurian quadruped off her–and to her surprise, Baragon leaped off of her. Reflexes snapping at the opportunity, the Atlantean super predator ignored the pain in her back for as long as she could and lunged to her feet, lashing towards Baragon with glowing jaws; seeing nothing but red in her bloodlust as she prepared to kill the horned saurian with a point-blank sonic scalpel.

A booming battle cry nearly broke her eardrums when another atomic ray slammed into her chest; Godzilla letting all the energy he had left loose until there was none left.

The Gyaos landed on the ground, but her torture wasn’t over. Bursting up from the ground like the bad penny he was, Zilla didn’t hesitate and let loose his thermonuclear flames. The Gyaos howled miserably as the jade firestorm washed over her, scorching her flesh. She fired her sonic beam, but through the haze of blistering heat and igneous gas she couldn’t see a thing and missed by the most pathetic margin. Not wanting to feel left out, Baragon stood by the mutant iguana and loosed his respective heat ray, both saurians keeping their blasts up as they roasted the Super Gyaos alive; her howling shrieks of torture echoing all across Iceland for all with auditory receptors to hear.

It took a full minute before Zilla was the first to run out of breath–Baragon, meanwhile, kept going. Even when the winged cretin’s ugly head fell beneath the raging flames, the subterranean dinosaur kept up fire; he wanted this creature dead. As he kept up the assault, a familiar growl reached his massive ears; one that made him take a few steps back as he prepared for the final blow. Still letting loose what flames he had left, Baragon kept burning the loathsome Gyaos as Godzilla waded past him. The floppy-eared reptile only ceased fire when the monster king stepped into the blistering firestorm, his piercing yellow eyes spotting the dying Gyaos amidst the flames that cooked her flesh black. Still defiant in her last moments, the Shadow of Evil snarled weakly as she gaped her jaws one last time, the air in front of her distorting as she prepared to let loose one last sonic beam.

Godzilla brought his foot down on her neck, cracking her vertebrae and pinning her to the ground. Her most formidable attack cutting off, the Super Gyaos could only gurgle one last time before Godzilla then reared his other foot above her head and stomped it down, shattering her skull like an old mango.

Stepping out of the flames that continued to barbecue the lifeless body of the curb-stomped menace, Godzilla reared his head to the sky and bellowed his triumph, his allies following suit. He may have needed help to put this one to rest, but yet another threat to the planet’s well being had been extinguished. All of the Gyaos were dead. Balance had been restored; he had no more business here for today.

As Godzilla’s victorious roar faded away and H.E.A.T. uncovered their ears, Randy slightly grimaced at the sight of the burning Gyaos corpse. “Well… that was anticlimactic,” he whined. As the corpse burned, a most horrid aroma began to assail the air around them, and one by one the team covered their noses in a vain attempt to hold in last week’s lunch. “Oh, well. Anybody up for roasted Christmas Turkey?”

The mere implication of the joke was too much, and Elsie vomited loudly.

*****

A familiar cry echoed from the depths of the earth, causing Baragon’s ears to perk up. It was a cry of distress, a cry that wanted to be heard. A young, infantile screech that spurred Baragon’s newfound instincts into action. Grunting, the Fierce King of the Underground crawled to the hole he had dug earlier in the battle and disappeared into it; Godzilla and Zilla staring after him in interest. It didn’t take long before Baragon re-emerged from the hole carrying the infant by the scruff of his neck, like a lion with its cub. Upon reaching the surface, the subterranean reptile placed the hatchling on the ground; it was now safe to come out.

Still, the infant shivered like a frightened kitten at the vet, cowering upon the very sight of the monolithic behemoth that was the King of the Monsters. Beside his famous namesake, Zilla tilted his head in curiosity, bending forward to sniff the frightened infant–and instantly jolted back when the adult Baragon jumped forward with a reptilian bark. For a moment, Godzilla growled and turned to glare daggers at the timber-colored dinosaur, who stared back just as hard.

“Oh, no…” Nick muttered under his breath.

“Merde,” Monique whispered with narrowed eyes.

But before anybody could make any more aggressive moves–or any moves at all–Zilla quickly stepped between them with a barking hiss. It was not a hiss of aggression, but a defensive demand with a clear meaning: stand down. Fiery orange eyes locked with Godzilla’s own yellow orbs in a fearless stare, Zilla stared the monster king down; but his stare was not one that dared the ancient dinosaur to come at him. It was a pleading stare, begging for any unnecessary conflict to end. To spare the subterranean dinosaur known as Baragon for something as simple as protecting one’s young from creatures it didn’t know. The irradiated iguana looked between the two saurians, still keeping between them in case things began to head south. All the while H.E.A.T. held their breaths in painful suspense.

And then… … …Godzilla’s mighty glare softened.

Closing his eyes, the nuclear giant loosed a deep sigh as he stepped away and, to everyone’s surprise, put his back to the mutated lizard as he began to wade past him. Godzilla snorted as he picked up the unconscious Maguma in his muscular arms, grateful to see his wounds were not fatal. The Antarctic walrus would live to see another day; for now, he deserved to sleep on the bed of victory. Turning back to look at his allies one last time, Godzilla bellowed his thanks to them before turning away and lumbering onward, carrying his pinniped ally with him. The ocean called to him, and he would answer it like always upon a job well done.

Not far away, H.E.A.T. breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God,” Nick exhaled.

Snorting in relief, Zilla turned to look at Baragon, who still stood protectively in front of the infant. Respecting the dinosaur’s space, New York’s Champion stepped away from him with a low grumble, and Baragon’s posture unstiffened ever so slightly. With the mutant lizard an appropriate distance away, Baragon turned down to look upon the still-trembling hatchling. In a move that no human being on the planet thought the ravenous saurian capable of, Baragon knelt down and rubbed his snout gently across the infant, nuzzling it with a low grumble. At first contact the infant jolted, but as seconds passed by and the adult saurian continued to nuzzle the hatchling while emitting the closest sound a reptile could get to purring, the baby’s trembling gradually came to a halt as its stance softened, and its head lifted up. Eventually, the infant felt comfortable enough to waddle quietly under the adult’s legs, rubbing against his forepaws like a scaly kitten. A wave of comfort unlike any he had felt in his short life washed over him.

He was not as alone in the world as he once believed.

Grunting a bass growl, the four-legged dinosaur crawled over to the Gyaos’ still-smoldering corpse, its flesh still being roasted by a makeshift bonfire. Grabbing the leg of his slain enemy, Baragon dragged the corpse towards the nearest hole in the earth, grumbling to the infant to come along. Perking his ears up, the baby instantly followed him, as the two began waddling towards the void that Baragon would come to teach his new progeny about. The void that the baby would eventually come to know as his ally, as his safe haven.

Without so much as a backwards glance the saurian pair crawled into the sinkhole, Baragon dragging the Gyaos corpse inside with him, and sank into the underground tunnel. A loud series of earthen rips and tears echoed from within to signal Baragon burrowing deeper into the earth, headed for wherever he would deem fit.

Above the surface, Zilla let loose one last cry of friendly intentions, wishing the pair the closest possible concept to luck, before turning back to his adopted human family. He knew they would trek back through the island to get back to the boat, and when they did, he would follow them. Watch their backs all the way until they reached the shore. While he doubted it, he didn’t know whether or not any remaining predators still crept about on the island; if they came in the direction of his adopted father and his kin, he would be there to meet them head-on. Like he always did.

For a moment, he simply stood by, watching them take a moment to converse amongst one another in a language he regrettably understood very little. It didn’t take long, however, for that moment to end, and they began to move on. And taking the first step in their path, Zilla began to follow them.

A fading roar in the distance reached his ears, informing him of Godzilla’s return to the sea; exactly where he would take to in short time.

Zilla walked along with his human family, never leaving their side until they had reached the shore.

*****

Kakou Lake, Mt. Shirane
2 days later

Fanged jaws opened to let loose a bassy yawn and a large exhale of icy vapor, a pair of russet lids of scaly skin tiredly lifting to reveal brown eyes. Two dragon-like nostrils flared to life as their owner inhaled the sweet, chilly winter air before exhaling, blowing away the snow in front of his head. Lifting his saurian head off the ground, Baragon stretched like a cat before laying back down on his stomach, looking out to gaze over the alpine landscape around him.

The scenery was a sight to behold. The clouds were puffy and timber-gray, pouring down a tapestry of snow. The trees were doused in the powdery water, with faint outlines of their usual green only just visible around the edges. The cold would give reason for human beings to wear multiple layers of the warmest of winter clothing, but Baragon tolerated it. It was cold, yes, but he could handle it just fine. His horn aglow with internal heat, Baragon used it as a winter lamp as he looked about. Snow melted upon its touch as he lay at the edge of the cave he had been lucky enough to find, small sheets of the frozen liquid piling in the grooves along his back. Inhaling the sweet air a second time, the subterranean dinosaur exhaled another vaporous snort as he picked up the various scents that carried on the wind.

A small shift beside him made him turn his head and look down.

Curled up at his side like a kitten, tail tucked like an embryo, the infant briefly kicked in his sleep before curling his leg back in. Shifting again, the sleeping baby cuddled back against his adopted father’s side. While his blank facial expression did not show it, Baragon stared down at his adopted cub with a clear gaze of fondness. The saurian could’ve never seen this coming in his life, could’ve never predicted it. He had long thought he was the sole remainder of his race, the last survivor of an ancient extinction that wiped out 65% of all life on earth. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, this last remainder had appeared in the world to offer him–offer his species–a second chance. How it had come to be, where it had come from, he did not know. But his feral mind was the closest possible to being thankful that such a gift existed. And if this infant had appeared so long after such a cataclysm, then it was very possible that there were even more relics somewhere out there, lurking in the darkness of the untouched… … …

In his sleep, the infant began to shiver ever so lightly; this, Baragon could see this was not the cause of any nightmares. The cold was beginning to get to him. The dinosaur took one last look at the scenery outside, then shifted as he began to stand. The infant began to stir and shiver, a small groan exiting his jaws as he re-awoke, but thankfully he did not lay exposed to the cold much longer. Baragon’s jaws were among the most ravenous on the planet, with a most foul reputation of carnivorous death and bloodshed. They were lethal weapons often turned on many, and yet with the utmost tenderness the subterranean dinosaur merely picked up his embraced young like a lion with its cub. Then, turning about with a gentle grumble, Baragon carried his son into the cave to find a warmer place for them to sleep.

Happy. That’s the word that Baragon would’ve used had his animalistic mind been accustomed to anything remotely close to words or meanings.

For the first time in his life, Baragon was happy.

Winner: Baragon (Universal), Godzilla (Legendary), Zilla

 

Creator: Thomas Fairchild | Banner: Thomas Fairchild

When Destoroyah lays siege to Seattle, G-Force deploys the mighty MechaGodzilla to combat the demonic kaiju. But tensions quickly escalate when the terrifying SpaceGodzilla arrives with his own insidious plans. Caught between a rampaging devil and a cosmic terror, MechaGodzilla and its crew must find a way to neutralize the malevolent titans before absolute destruction reigns.

 

Author: Maddison Foust | Banner: Dao Zang Moua

Down from the heavens, a cybernetic being made its eerie descent. How long had it been since he was last on this planet? Decades? A century? It mattered not to Gigan, he would enact his wrath against this familiar planet. The cyborg assassin looked over his surroundings. He saw little but grass, trees, and distant mountains. But he heard faint footsteps. He spotted something. A small pale bipedal creature, concealed in a forest. Then, he noticed another. And another. One by one, the alien menace noticed the horde of these odd little things. He quickly recognized them as humans, but oddly enough, their structures were nowhere in sight. They were much bigger than Gigan remembered, and a lot uglier too.

Gigan hadn’t quite gone unnoticed either, his arrival grabbing the attention of nearby Titans. The deformed humanoids began mindlessly marching toward the loud noise. Gigan, ever the sadist, did the thing he knew how to do best. Commit violence. The Titans around him immediately stopped caring upon seeing the source of the disturbance, but this didn’t stop Gigan from firing his beam at them. The beam broke apart mid-air to split into several, hitting numerous Titans at once. Seeing them all explode into pieces at once pleased the cyborg, and he shot out another.

Some of the remaining Titans turned and walked away, but wouldn’t escape the blasts falling upon them. Meanwhile, some just stood there mindlessly. Despite the Titans’ lack of reaction, Gigan enjoyed wiping them out. The space monster let out a series of laughter-like chirps and fired yet another shot. Yet, in the back of his mind, a question gnawed at him. Could these be humans? The grotesque creatures resembled the past rulers of Earth, but hardly acted like them. Little did the cyborg know, there was another group of creatures watching him from the foliage. A type that did care about the violent monster’s arrival. The actual humans.

Once no more Titans could be seen, Gigan shifted his priorities and went off to find something else. There were bound to be more creatures to find, and more fun to be had. Suddenly, the metal-plated menace spotted something. Something he would recognize instantly. Real humans. No question about it. Whatever those other things were didn’t matter right now. The cybernetic sadist had humans to kill.

Suddenly, a yellow bolt of lightning stretched between the sky and the ground obscured by the treetops. Gigan was entirely caught off guard by the ever-so familiar looking blast, but didn’t have time to think too hard before a giant humanoid figure came out from the steam and landed a punch to the cyborg’s face. The menace staggered back to the sound of a primal roar.

Upon looking back up, something resembling the humanoid critters he had gleefully dispatched stared into him. It stood at a height similar to the cyborg’s own, had black hair, pale skin, fiery red eyes, and a lipless mouth. But there was something different about this one. Not just the towering size, something deeper. Something more intelligent. Something more… human.

The alien destroyer was too deep in thought to properly respond to the second fist crashing into his cranium. Gigan cried out in shock from the blow. The Attack Titan readied for a third blow, but his alien opponent wouldn’t be caught off guard again. As a fist flew toward Gigan, he raised up his arm and allowed the Titan to skewer his own hand on an elbow spike. The giant humanoid cried out in pain, steam billowing from the wound.

Without missing a beat, the arm rotated to position the hand to the side, and a massive scythe was placed right above the giant’s unguarded right shoulder. Before the Attack Titan could dodge, the gargantuan blade swung down with tremendous force. A pained howl could be heard for miles as Gigan laughed at his foe’s pain. The Titan moved in to retaliate, but the cybernetic invader was a second faster, leading to a blade right through the humanoid’s left shoulder.

Both arms gone, Gigan could have finished the Attack Titan right then and there with a scythe to the neck. But he enjoyed seeing his opponent’s pain too much. Unfortunately for the alien sadist, the Titan wasn’t finished yet. A heavy foot shot against Gigan’s side, nearly making the cyborg fall over. While the menace stumbled for a second, the supersized humanoid took advantage of the opportunity and kicked Gigan again. This time, the Titan’s foot hit Gigan’s leg and forced the invader onto one knee.

The Attack Titan’s right arm had regrown, and he went in for a punch to the head. Seeing a scythe rise in his peripheral vision, he raised up one foot and kicked it away. Another scythe rose from the other side, but the titan pushed it away with his right hand before going in for a strike with his freshly recovered left. It was then that the giant realized.

The cybernetic invader’s visor was glowing intensely.

The Attack Titan had no time to react before the same beam that had decimated the lesser Titans launched point blank into his face. Dozens of explosions ravaged the giant’s skin, blowing off chunks of flesh and taking out an eye. Suddenly, a spike drove itself into the Titan’s abdomen. Gigan pushed his knee ever deeper into the humanoid.

Howls of agony were replaced by furious screams as the Titan realized how much enjoyment the cyborg got from his suffering. Inside the nape, the Titan’s human controller swore that he would make this… thing, whatever it was, pay. Steam came off of his healing wounds, and he went in to strike Gigan right in the visor. The Titan’s hopes to break it were in vain, however, as the cyborg tilted his head for the massive spike on his cranium to be right in front of the fist. Once again, the Attack Titan had a hand skewered by this sadist. Gigan raised his head back up and fired another Gigarium Cluster at the newly regenerated Titan’s face.

The injuries were even worse this time. Both eyes were taken out, and some of the worst affected places were stripped to the bone. The Attack Titan leaped backward, unsure of what action to take next. This thing was impossible, nearly every point of its body covered in spikes. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it had a lethal laser. And yet, he was still determined to take it down. The giant regained its vision and leaped forward.

He landed a short leap away from Gigan, but instead of going straight, he leaped to the right, before going in for a hit. The cyborg was surprised, but kept focused and turned around. Unfortunately, the Titan was quicker and landed a powerful punch to Gigan’s head. Restraining Gigan’s blade with his left arm, the beast continued to pummel Gigan’s cranium. Suddenly, the fight was in the Titan’s favor.

Then the giant felt something cold and sharp snatch his ankle in its grasp.

Before he could try to comprehend what it was that touched him, the humanoid started to fly away from his target. Stunned by shock, he didn’t notice the hold yielding, and he wasn’t able to land on his feet. Instead, the Titan slammed into the ground. He once again howled in pain to the sound of an enormous crack.

The Attack Titan tried to get up, but first had to wait for his spinal cord to heal itself. Precious time he didn’t have as he watched the enormous cyborg flying low to the ground towards him. Both blades perfectly positioned into the dirt, they sliced off both of the Titan’s arms at once upon Gigan flying over. The cyborg spun 180 and went back in, this time with both blades pulled back like a crane’s neck before spearing a fish.

By the time the beast was able to get up, it was too late.

Twin scythes plunged into the giant’s skull, eliciting indescribable pain from the victim. As quickly as they came down, the blades were retracted from the poor Titan’s head. But the pain wasn’t over yet, as the tip of Gigan’s horrible tail stabbed directly into the Attack Titan’s face. The center spike going all the way through to the other side, the blades on the side closed in around the Titan’s skull. Before he knew it, the tail was dragging his body across the ground at incredible speed.

The Attack Titan had almost gone numb from the amount of time Gigan pulled him across the dirt like this. Skin, muscles, ligaments, were all being slowly but surely grinded through. Although his body tried to heal, the constant pressure ensured that he couldn’t. The only thing stopping his defeat was the nape being slightly above the ground, caused by the head being held up by the tail. But it was only a matter of time until the body would be reduced to near nothing. Once the cyborg would notice this, Eren, held inside the Attack Titan’s nape, would surely be killed.

The Titan Shifter weighed his options. Trying to get out from the nape now would result in being crushed. He could try to get up or grab the cyborg’s tail, but what good would that do him if the tail was still latched on? Shrieking laughter from the alien convinced Eren to do it anyway, rage getting the best of him. If he waited much longer, his limbs would be too damaged to move.

Through clouds of steam, two ravaged arms shot out and grabbed Gigan’s tail. The Titan attempted to pull the sadist backwards as he rose. But it was futile. Just as the beast got onto his feet he was immediately slammed back down to a nasty crack. The massive arms did nothing to stop Gigan’s flight. The cyborg sped up, causing the limp body to be grinded down even faster. The humanoid was now too damaged to even move.

Clouds of steam were everywhere. Gigan enjoyed watching the giant’s body fruitlessly try to mend its wounds. He hadn’t had this much fun in a long time. The cyborg could tell how much pain his enemy was in, and he couldn’t help but laugh at the pathetic display.

It was then that Gigan realized how incredibly light the body had become.

He whipped his head around and saw that the entire thing had almost been torn through by the brutal ground. It was practically just a layer of skin. He fired the Gigarium Cluster to destroy what was left of the body, and quickly went in to make his next move.

Gigan flew upwards and clamped his tail down even harder. Ever wary of the humanoid’s healing ability, he quickly went in for the finishing blow. The sadistic cyborg considered doing something slow and painful to the head and neck as well, but even Gigan had his limits. He was ready to finish this.

The powerful tail shot out in front of Gigan and released the head, sending it flying far away into a mountain. The amount of pressure put on the head was so great that it was able to split apart the nape…

Or so the invader thought.

Unbeknownst to him, the Titan’s controller had escaped at the last possible second. Eren wanted nothing more than to rip that thing apart, but it would have to wait. The Titan Shifter moved off in the direction the others had gone while Gigan was distracted with blasting a mountain.

—

Night fell, and all was now calm and still in place of the previous day’s carnage. Gigan had left the area a while ago, confident that the Titan was dead for good. After all, what could possibly survive those kinds of injuries? And as if that wasn’t enough assurance, there was no trace of any surviving flesh hidden beneath the mountain’s debris.

Things inside the wall were not so calm, however. The humans scrambled to mount proper defenses for the event that he would find them. Luckily for them, the Attack Titan had steered Gigan off course, and Eren could give them valuable information about the invader. But the looming threat of the cybernetic menace eventually finding and destroying them remained.

—

Gigan had been wandering around for an entire day. He found nothing but those mindless humanoid drones. Where were all the cities, all the liveliness of the past? Everywhere he went, he only found those ugly creatures crawling out of every crevice. The cyborg had his fun stepping on them, but he grew tired of it. He took out his frustration by blowing chunks out of mountains with his Gigarium Cluster, but that was wearing thin too.

Yet, the drive to find something, anything compelled him to keep going. Humans were here. He knew it. Even if only for a couple seconds, the alien had seen them. Those primates had to be hiding somewhere. And when he found them, he would enjoy every second of their destruction. Gigan regretted not having more fun with that humanoid’s severed head. But alas, it was gone, seemingly blown to bits by the Gigarium Cluster and crushed by several tons of rock. At least the cybernetic monster could take satisfaction in reliving how badly he crushed his foe.

As the sun began to rise once more, the invader saw something in the distance. A thing much different from the same old terrain he had been traversing for so long.

It was a man-made structure.

If the cyborg had eyes, they would’ve fully widened as he quickly leaped into the air and flew towards the object. Excitement coursed through the alien, his flight speed ever increasing. Faster, faster, faster until…

Everything felt like it was going in slow motion to the people who saw it. A horrifying cybernetic monster stared down at the city below him with murderous intent. The glowing red visor lit up the early morning sky. In an instant, the thing had gone straight over Wall Maria. And just as fast as he flew over Wall Maria, the monster was nearly to Wall Rose.

Intense panic swept over the numerous soldiers positioned on Wall Maria, if the winds kicked up by Gigan’s great speed hadn’t sent them flying. Everything they had set up was made useless by the sadist’s unforeseen mobility and bloodlust. They scrambled trying to figure out what to do next. But it was too late, the invader was already inside.

Gigan landed right next to Wall Rose, tired from flying so fast and wanting to check the place out. He reared his head down at the buildings and terrified citizens. His suspicions were confirmed, this is where all the humans were. The thought of what those other things were if not humans never crossed the alien’s mind, too excited to even think about anything else.

It was horrifying to citizens on the ground watching a huge laser beam, larger than buildings, fall down from the sky. But it was even scarier when it split into a dozen. They all scattered across a huge area, indiscriminately wiping out everything they touched with fiery explosions. The explosions rose high into the air and engulfed anything unlucky enough to be in their massive radiuses.

Gigan erupted with a laughter-like chirp as screaming was overpowered with sounds of destruction below. The sadistic cyborg clanged his scythes together to celebrate the chaos, below firing another shot. A new cluster of giant beams rained down, just as destructive as the first. Homes were reduced to nothing, people were incinerated in fire, rubble flew everywhere. Suddenly, a towering figure appeared.

The Armored Titan.

The white Titan’s controller wanted the destruction of the ruling class, which the cyborg would surely bring, but with it would come the fall of the entire human race. The Titan Shifter made his choice, taking down the ruling class would have to come later.

On the other hand, Gigan was much more enthusiastic about this fight. The plated humanoid in front of him looked much stronger than the pale one he had fought before, yet the cyborg didn’t feel any more threatened by it than by the civilians below. Gigan was confident, perhaps detrimentally so.

The metal-plated menace made the first move, attempting to slash apart the white Titan’s torso. A squawk of surprise left the cyborg’s metal beak upon seeing how little damage his attack did, only succeeding in making sparks fly. Gigan decided to try something stronger, and launched his left arm like a spear into the thick plates. But to the alien’s shock, it did little more than the last blow.

The Armored Titan landed a powerful right hook to Gigan’s jaw, sending the cyborg back. Keeping his balance, the invader recovered from the blow and pointed his left arm straight at the Titan’s face. For a second, the Titan Shifter inside was confused at this. Was it trying to point at him? Why? Gigan fired the twin hooking anchors right on cue, as if to answer his thoughts.

The plated giant didn’t react in time to stop the anchors from hitting their target. The Titan’s eyes. He roared out in pain as everything went dark, his eyes having been smashed. But that wasn’t the main goal. As quickly as they went in, Gigan violently retracted the hooks, causing huge chunks of flesh to be ripped off. Most importantly, the cyborg spotted facial armor fall to the ground with the flesh.

Not waiting a single second for the steam-enveloped face to regenerate, the Gigarium Cluster erupted from the glowing visor and struck the Armored Titan in the face. Nearly every explosion hit the target. A pained wail erupted from beneath the wall of steam and fire. However, this wouldn’t be the worst of it. The Titan felt a massive blade go right through his entire head, and then felt it cleave upwards to split his skull in half.

One last Gigarium Cluster was the finishing blow for the ravaged head.

Pieces of the head fell to the ground around the Armored Titan’s feet, but Gigan had a hunch his foe was far from dead. Given some time as the decapitated giant stumbled around, the invader thought about how this was possible. Of how something could survive and recover from an injury like that. Gigan recounted how some of the larger little ones survived a blast if it was low enough down, how the first giant one he fought could have regenerated from his entire body being grinded to near nothing, and the way that last Gigarium Cluster hit.

That’s when the realization struck the cybernetic terror.

It was the back of the neck.

Gigan figured it out in time to see the white Titan running towards him. A right hook, then a left, and another right sent Gigan toppling over. The Armored Titan leaped into the air and readied to land his fist into the alien’s visor, but Gigan flew out of the way at the last second. The Titan got right back up and landed a kick to Gigan’s side before the alien could react, nearly bringing him down a second time.

The invader had stopped enjoying himself, especially after taking yet another kick, this time to the immediate right of his buzzsaw. Gigan was determined to step up his game.

The Armored Titan threw another punch, right at the visor, but a raised elbow right in front of the fist stopped it. Unlike the Attack Titan, this Titan was able to withstand Gigan’s elbow spike. The cyborg tried to cut off the hand at the wrist with his left blade but, once again, the attack only succeeded in making sparks fly.

Thinking fast, Gigan shot his left arm towards one of the few fleshy spots on the white Titan. Both arms of the plated giant reached down to stop it, but the cyborg was quicker. Blood squirted out from the Titan’s back, before the scythe’s tip burst out. The plated giant cried out in pain, before pulling the blade out.

Gigan moved his right arm parallel to his left, then swiped them in sync to hit exposed flesh on the arms. Both of the Titan’s arms were severed at the elbow. The cyborg tried to go for another blow, but was knocked back by a powerful kick. Intense red light emanated from Gigan’s visor, releasing the Gigarium Cluster yet again.

Under the cover of his beam, the sadistic cyborg went in for the kill. Explosions ravaged the Armored Titan’ eyes while blades went into the soft spot on the shoulders. The healing arms fell out of their sockets and into the rubble below. Gigan’s prehensile tail curled around to strike a weak spot in the left leg, bringing the white Titan down to one knee. Gigan kicked a newly exposed spot of flesh in the right knee, nearly taking half the leg. The cruel invader leaped backward and fired another shot of the Gigarium Cluster at the legs as the Titan crumbled, blowing off the lower halves of each, and sending the Armored Titan face first into the ground.

Gigan stared down at the fallen foe, right at his feet. The right scythe raised high into the air, reflecting the gleaming sun for a brief moment. A laughter-like vocalization came from the metallic beak, the malevolent being proud of his coming violent act. The blade plunged down towards the nape of the Armored Titan.

All Gigan felt after that was a brief impact to his cranium, before wires in his head short circuited.

Despite a loss of vision and hearing, the invader could still feel himself falling. He slammed into the buildings below, creating a crater. Gigan was still in shock from what had just happened. In an instant, he couldn’t see or hear and was covered in rubble. Just as his visor flickered back to life, a powerful foot came down on the cyborg’s head.

Just as quickly as it returned, Gigan’s vision cut out again. Even though he couldn’t see, the alien could sense what was going to happen next. The free left arm of the cyborg rose up in front of his face. Gigan couldn’t tell if this had worked or not. All sense of hearing, feeling, or sight was gone. All he could do was hope the move succeeded. For the first time during his raid on this planet, the invader was scared.

With determination, Gigan pushed himself away from the crater and got up. He felt himself starting to fall again, but managed to keep his balance. Or maybe he didn’t, it was near impossible for Gigan to tell. The malfunctioning cyborg began to doubt if had actually done anything or was currently doing anything. That’s when the visor sparked back to life.

Luckily, the twin scythes were in front of the visor, guaranteeing that Gigan’s sight wouldn’t be immediately taken away like the last time. But when the newly recovered invader peeked out, he realized he was on the ground and getting pummeled by the white plated one and….

It was the humanoid from when Gigan had first arrived.

Gigan attempted to scream out in fury at it, but found that the devices in his neck responsible for such had been damaged. Getting even angrier at this, the monster pulled his blades back and attempted to fire the Gigarium Cluster. Upon realizing his head was too damaged to do even that, the alien became more infuriated than ever. The pair of Titans noticed that their enemy’s sight was back, and went for the head. Gigan shielded his face once more before trying in vain to activate his anti-gravity flight.

Once the flight failed, the invader knew how he had to go about this. Gigan went to push himself up, but was tackled by the Attack Titan. Exactly to plan. The buzzsaw stretched down his metal torso sprung to life, slicing apart the giant humanoid. A howl of pain rang out from the Titan’s mouth. Unfortunately for the malicious invader, the saw began to struggle, before cutting out completely.

The already boiling cyborg got even more upset at this. This was the first time he had used his buzzsaw, and it was already broken? At the very least, it had gotten his foe off of him. Gigan sprung up and slammed into the healing humanoid, sending the Titan flying. A metal blade swung around to meet the rapidly approaching Armored Titan, but it was batted away. Gigan hopped backwards just in time to avoid a potentially fatal blow to his visor. This would be harder than he thought.

Gigan jumped back a second time to avoid a hit from the white Titan’s other arm, and noticed that the other one was already up and running right for him. The cyborg went for the exposed flesh on the Armored Titan’s neck, hoping to cut into the nape. It got blocked. Gigan felt heavier than before, and as a consequence he was slower.

Both Titans kicked either side of the cyborg’s abdomen at once, sending Gigan skidding backwards. A couple more hits and the invader feared he would be down for good. This was no longer about having fun for Gigan as it was before, it was about survival. Unable to fly away, the invader was forced to fight his way out. First on the agenda was taking out that white one.

One of the last systems that still worked, the launchers located on Gigan’s chest, opened up and fired a pair of razor blades. The Armored Titan ducked under them, but the alien expected as much. The real threat came when they looped back around. Reaching out in one final leap, the white Titan expected to crush the cyborg’s head in a final blow. Unfortunately for the Titan, the discs came back around and planted themselves into the nape.

Gigan kicked the carcass onto the ground where it promptly disintegrated, and put his full attention to the smaller, yet still dangerous, Attack Titan. The alien moved his head slightly upwards so the giant humanoid’s fist would land on his beak. Not a great option, but better than a blow to his visor. The two both stumbled back a bit from the hit, before they both leaped back into action.

Held down by the weight of his artificial armor and weapons, Gigan wasn’t as fast as his opponent, causing him to be hit first with a strong uppercut. The cybernetic menace tried to get his balance, but was interrupted by a punch to the side of the head. On the surface, Gigan didn’t seem to have taken much damage through the entirety of the fight, but the two combatants both knew the internal damage was great.

A powerful kick struck the metal neck of the cyborg, sending him crashing down. Worry swept over the grounded alien as his visor flickered on and off. If it completely went off, he was done for. A spike from the center of Gigan’s deadly tail tip stabbed into the Attack Titan’ crotch, causing him to cry out in pain. It was unable to close and grab the giant properly, but what it did was enough.

The single claw on Gigan’s left foot pierced the Titan’s knee, threatening to sever it. Inside the cyborg’ mind, he raced to find a trick to pull out of his sleeve. But everything he had was either broken or depleted. A massive fist came down straight at Gigan’s visor, but he dodged it just in time, resulting in his left mandible being broken off.

An idea came into the invader’s mind.

The Attack Titan howled open equal parts pain and surprise in response to his enemy suddenly biting down on his wrist and swinging him to the ground. A horrible cracking sound washed over the land, not that Gigan could hear it. The Titan watched his alien adversary lift himself up and swing a scythe right at him.

He kicked the blade away and leaped backwards to evade a second coming blade. This new silent, focused demeanor was more intimidating to the Titan than the laughing sadist of before. But he had an advantage over Gigan in this form. Systems that helped move the cyborg’s limbs had failed, significantly slowing the artificially powered alien.

Unbeknownst to the Titan, Gigan was slowly feeling one of his systems return. It was the anti-gravity flight. Although it wasn’t completely functional yet, it might be able to support a short boost. The alien made his plan, and readied himself upon seeing his foe prepare to jump.

The Attack Titan leapt at Gigan, but the latter jumped to the side with the help of his limited flight and spun around as the giant humanoid passed, slicing his shoulder so hard that the entire arm fell off in the process. Both combatants went in for another blow at the same time. The Titan swung around and threw his fist out, while Gigan swung his other arm towards the neck of the giant guardian.

For the deadly invader, everything went black.

Gigan could feel that he was still alive; albeit barely, but his sight was once again gone. He wasn’t sure if it would come back. With all his other senses gone as well, he couldn’t tell if his strike had landed. Despite not being able to feel objects, he still instinctively could tell if his body was moving. The cyborg raised a leg and pushed his foot forward.

The blinded alien felt something forcibly stop his foot from going any further.

Anxiously he pushed it harder, but it still would barely move. Until slowly whatever was holding the foot relented, and eventually it appeared to be gone. Was this the body disintegrating? Gigan hoped it was so, and moved on to figuring out his next move. Devoid of all senses that would help him navigate, the cyborg hoped that his sight would return.

Gigan tried to remember which way the outer wall was from the direction he had been facing. The weak cyborg adjusted himself to a spot that might have been the right way, and he marched forward. Once he reached the wall, he figured he could probably break through it. After that, if his sight returned, he could momentarily leave this planet. But he would return. And when that would happen, the invader would destroy all that stood in his way.

Winner: Gigan (Universal)

Authors: Matthew Williams & Matthew Freese | Banner: Tyler Trieschock

[Continued from Match 283]

A loud shout arose from Zone Fighter as the giant alien was blasted into the air before crashing into a skyscraper. The towering building didn’t stand a chance against the impact as it slowly crumbled down, burying the Meteor Man. The remaining citizens who had yet to evacuate the chaos that fell upon their city watched their fallen protector, horrified as they had no other choice but to flee for their lives.

Zone Fighter lifted his head out of the pile of shattered concrete. He had a pounding headache while his ears rang, making him unable to hear anything clearly. The alien could hear faint voices and explosions nearby, so he looked to his right. His eyesight was blurry, but his large, bulbous orbs located the unsettling scene of dozens of screaming people. They were sprinting as quickly as they could, passing by several lifeless bodies of those who were unlucky enough to be crushed by pieces of debris. Soldiers were escorting the evacuating people, with some helping carry those too injured to move. It was an unsettling sight, especially for Zone Fighter, despite having so many battles that led to such destruction in the past. He could never get used to such carnage, his heart refused to go numb to it.

A powerful gust blew through the air, blowing away some of the debris that rested on Zone Fighter’s buried body, along with anything else that stood in the way. The evacuating citizens and soldiers screamed as they were instantly swept into the air as if by a tornado. The Peacelandian gazed up, looking directly at the source of this gale.

The ground shuddered when the abandoned Futurian creation, King Ghidorah, landed. His three draconic heads leered at Zone Fighter, seeing that their new opponent was too injured to rise. Recently, King Ghidorah had been searching for a new home from which to heal the wounds he had received during his escape from the Garogas’ new fortress on Mars. Upon his arrival to Earth, the clone of the true King of Terror had sought out Sendai as a safe refuge, only to be attacked by another giant that had the potential power to dominate this planet: Godzilla.

Once again finding himself lacking before the King of the Monsters, he retreated to find a new resting place. After days of searching, Sapporo, Hokkaido was where he eventually reached and settled on. Like a medieval dragon raiding a village, King Ghidorah had ravaged the city to claim it as his new home, demolishing countless buildings and slaughtering thousands of civilians. The moment Hikaru Sakimori saw this on the news, he shifted into Zone Fighter without hesitation and teleported to Sapporo to slay the dragon. For he had actually already faced this King Ghidorah shortly after it had fled from Godzilla, yet he had failed that time…

Despite possessing skills and powers capable of overcoming the real King Ghidorah, Zone Fighter was failing against the imitation. Marching towards his downed foe, the three-headed monster winced as he moved his still recovering legs. Raising a foot, he slammed it down into the warrior’s chest, earning a cry of anguish.

The Peacelandian tried desperately to call upon some hidden reserve of strength to pry the leg off his form, but he could not. King Ghidorah twisted his foot, grinding it against the guardian’s rib cage. Zone Fighter’s head dropped as his meter began to blink red, filling the air with a droning siren. Seeing his foe go limp filled King Ghidorah with pride, and he expressed it with a triple shriek to the skies of Sapporo. He stepped off his foe, turning away and walking.

Zone Fighter’s yellow eyes stared at the sky above him, feeling hopeless and weak. How could a lesser clone of King Ghidorah do this to him? He had defeated the true King Ghidorah, yet this imitation conjured up by man was too much? The first time made sense, for he had already been worn down by a previous battle.

“Hikaru…”

Zone Fighter heard the faint voice echoing. His ears were still ringing, making it hard to tell who’s voice it was. Could his family be calling for him? The more he listened to it calling out to him, the more he felt his determination building up to rise up and perform one last assault.

”Hikaru…! Hikaru!”

Zone Fighter pulled his aching body up to stand, groaning as he tried to endure the pain. King Ghidorah grew annoyed when he heard the Peacelandian rising, then turned around. But by the time the hydra’s six crimson eyes gazed at the hero, Zone Fighter had crossed his arms before spreading them apart.

”Meteor Missile Might!”

A pair of wrist-bound gauntlets manifested on Zone Fighter’s forearms, and with only just a few seconds left, he wasted no time to attack. The silver giant aimed his left arm and opened fire with a volley of missiles, bombarding King Ghidorah. The golden hydra screamed when he felt dozens of explosions erupt all over his body, blasting chunks of his scaly hide and tearing through his large wings. His legs had craters punched into them, exposing muscle and bone. Zone Fighter ran towards Ghidorah, still shooting until his wrist gauntlet was out of ammo. Before the Futurian bioweapon had a chance to attack, the Hero of Justice had aimed his right arm directly at the central head’s throat, where he then unleashed the missiles he had been saving.

A bombardment of deployed explosives ignited the main neck, scattering blood, flesh, and scales everywhere. King Ghidorah’s screams echoed throughout Hokkaido, his voice growing louder and more anguished until the middle head was severed. Zone Fighter had ceased fire when the severed appendage landed on the pavement. Ghidorah’s body then slumped onto his knees, before collapsing to the ground.

Zone Fighter’s exhausted powers had finally depleted, forcing him to revert back to his human form. Hikaru stood on the damaged streets, surrounded by heaps of rubble and toppled, crushed vehicles. The Peacelandian fell onto his aching knees, panting and cringing from his sore body.

Hikaru gazed up to discover that his last chance to kill King Ghidorah had not quite succeeded. The hydra still breathed, though barely. He was more red than gold at this point, and his wings were shredded, skin barely suspended between the bones. The warrior of justice let a sigh of relief leave his mouth, before gasping in another deep breath just to try and remain awake. Had he finally won? Was his family finally—

A silver, flying saucer descended, hovering above King Ghidorah’s rapidly failing body.

Hikaru desperately fought to stay awake, just to see what would happen. He wanted to stand up and keep fighting, but his body refused to comply. He tried to push himself up, but his rumbling arms gave out, dropping him limply to the pavement. Anger rose in his heart, but it failed to fuel him as his wounds got the best of him. He shrank down to his human-sized form, remaining comatose.

Dozens of minutes passed, almost reaching a full hour. Hikaru’s body was still resting on the road, while the mangled King Ghidorah was gone. The ship had, to no one’s surprise, stolen the hydra away with a beam of light. Eventually, the hero was discovered by several soldiers that were scouting out to search for survivors. Before they could come any closer, one of the soldiers warned the others when he spotted what looked like a meteorite falling from the sky.

The troops began to fall back to take cover, bracing for the collision. But the unidentified object slowed down to a complete halt, standing fifteen meters in the air directly above Hikaru. The soldiers gazed at the subject, appearing like an enormous red sphere made out of energy, constantly emitting light within, while a faint eerie sound could be heard.

It stood still for a few seconds, where the noise it generated grew louder, and the soldiers saw Hikaru’s body being carefully lifted into the air. They weren’t given the order to open fire, fearing that their firearms could accidentally hit Hikaru. It didn’t take long for the unconscious Peacelandian to be sucked into the red matter, swallowed by its mass of shimmering light. The spherical being began to ascend, moving faster than a launched rocket, the military forces were unable to do anything but watch it moving higher until it disappeared within the clouds.

Year: 2204 A.D…

The sound of whirring machines echoed through the main chamber of a huge docking bay, with mechanical appendages moving about, making the last adjustments on their task.

Resting in this giant room was the ruined body of King Ghidorah, who had been brought back to the time period his masters came from. The hydra had been discovered by the Futurians, for they wasted no time retrieving their creation and took it back into their technologically thriving timeline.

To ensure he did not move and exacerbate his injuries, the golden dragon had been drugged into a powerful coma. As he slept, they had gone to work and undergone the lengthy process of removing now useless limbs and organs in order to replace them with machinery.

“All preparations of Project: Mecha have been completed, King Ghidorah is finally rebuilt,” the M10 reported to his boss.

“Excellent, then let’s have a look,” Wilson spoke in anticipation, getting off his seat and following the Android, who guided him to the enormous chamber. Wilson’s eyes fell upon King Ghidorah, marveling at the wounded hydra’s new mechanical limbs. The hydra’s torso was fully armored, his legs from the knee down being similarly covered. The wings and tail end had been replaced with the same material, the spiked clubs adorning the twin tails now sharp prongs. All of it was made of the most durable steel alloys the Futurians could obtain. To ensure that their cybernetically-enhanced weapon wasn’t freed of their control, Wilson made the wise decision to have it be a piloted weapon. A new robotic head was made to not only replace the severed center head, but also to control the now brain dead mutant.

“Magnificent, King Ghidorah now looks better than ever,” hummed Grenchiko, walking in from behind.

“No, we will no longer call him that,” announced Wilson, turning his head to Grenchiko. “From now on, we will call it Mecha-King Ghidorah.”

“Now that’s a much better name, especially since he’s just a clone of the real King of Terror.”

“Indeed, and now that all preparations have been completed, we will resume our task,” vocalized Wilson. “M10, get everyone ready to deploy MOTHER and Mecha-King Ghidorah, we’re going to complete this mission.”

“As you wish,” the M10 obeyed.

Year: 1991

Tokyo was in ruins. King Ghidorah had wreaked havoc upon the city, and this destruction had only grown worse when Godzilla arrived and the two kaiju had fought until the Garoga stole the golden hydra. The survivors of the unexpected event had all been evacuated away from the ruined city, for they had received the terrible news of the golden hydra returning to the planet a few days later. He had battled Godzilla again, then ventured away only to face off with Zone Fighter and drive the hero back.

People mourned those that had perished from the kaiju attacks, many of them friends and family. All they could do was pick up the pieces and hope that those who had passed would find peace.

Suddenly, many civilians and soldiers still in Japan noticed a strange distortion forming high in the sky. A blinding light formed in its center, bolts of electricity crackling around it. There was an explosion of light that faded in a second to reveal Mecha-King Ghidorah and the MOTHER.

The moment they saw the hydra that had attacked Japan, the soldiers sprang into action, helping civilians flee as quickly as possible. One of the soldiers used a radio to contact the JSDF HQ, alerting them that King Ghidorah had returned as a cyborg. The soldier and every person near him were unfortunately silenced when they were engulfed by the golden beams that Mecha-King Ghidorah blindly fired.

The two organic heads spewed Gravity Beams and brought down the remaining structures that were standing. The mechanical central head fired its new Laser Triple Beam weapon, a bolt of synthetic power stronger than the Gravity Beams. None of the towering buildings lasted long as the rays danced across them, blasting them apart and spraying debris in all directions. Anyone that was still in this ruined city ran for shelter, desperate for solace from this seemingly endless nightmare. Many of them were crushed by the falling chunks of concrete, trapped and slowly withered by the fires, or obliterated by the energy beams fired out of the three maws.

“Excellent, Mecha-King Ghidorah is leveling this entire city!” Grenchiko cheerfully yelled out, observing the ruined Tokyo quickly being further reduced to a wasteland by the destructive force of their cyborg.

“And if Godzilla, or any kaiju, dare stand against us, they will perish by Mecha-King Ghidorah’s power,” Wilson boasted.

“You can say that again,” Grenchiko chuckled.

“Boss, we have detected an incoming threat. Godzilla has arrived.”

“Well, what do you know, perfect timing to put our upgraded weapon to the test,” surmised Wilson, putting his fingers while a small smile grew on his face, readying to revel in his newest creation’s successful test run.

Surviving civilians and soldiers quivered in horror when they heard thunderous footsteps from miles away, followed by the fearsome cry of Gojira. Ripping through a nearby skyscraper with his claws, Godzilla let out another bellowing roar when his tail slammed against a building. The radioactive dinosaur had been on his way back to the sea, only to sense another towering giant arrive. Godzilla lifted his head, watching the Futurian weapon descend before his soles landed on the ravaged streets, triggering a heavy thud as his three heads cackled with aggression.

Godzilla had easily recognized this being as King Ghidorah, or at least the creature that bore a striking resemblance. He noticed the new mechanical limbs and armor that it had, realizing that either mankind or some alien race had enhanced his foe. This would not be an easy fight, that much was certain. The leviathan was not afraid though, for he had fought the real King Ghidorah before, and so he would be able to put an end to this cyborg. Mecha-King Ghidorah’s organic and mechanical heads cackled and shrieked at their target as Godzilla let loose a terrifying roar, challenging the hydra from the future.

“Kill it, Mecha-King Ghidorah!” ordered Wilson.

Godzilla marched in as he was struck by Mecha-King Ghidorah’s Gravity Beams, but he ended up flinching when the future weapon’s central head blasted his chest with its Triple Laser Beam. Mecha-King Ghidorah cackled when he kept firing his beams from its three maws, having sparks and miniature explosions burst from the durable charcoal hide. Godzilla quickly realized his foe’s mechanical enhancements were far more potent than his organic portions, so he swiftly charged an atomic ray and spat it at the armored chest.

Despite the intense sweltering force crashing into the metal upon the bionic hydra’s torso, it barely changed or warped the abdominal hull. Godzilla rushed forward to reach out for Mecha-King Ghidorah, bracing against the dragon’s golden beams and multi-colored laser that speared his charcoal scales. When he managed to get up close to the Futurian weapon, he swatted the armor with his sharp claws, scraping the exterior layer of hard steel. Mecha-King Ghidorah activated his antigravity flight mode, pushing himself into the air and delivering a flying kick to his foe, sending the saurian to the ground with a heavy thud.

Mecha-King Ghidorah landed and resumed firing his energy beams at Godzilla, who attempted to rise to his feet. The mutated Godzillasaurus cried out from the destructive force of the rays burning his skin until the pain began fueling his empowering rage. Godzilla turned around with a raised tail, whipping it against Mecha-King Ghidorah’s chest to force him back. Godzilla’s spines flickered again when he discharged his radioactive beam, this time aiming it at the scaly area of the bionic monster’s leg. The limb, however, shot up at that moment, leaving the armor to take the hit. Much like the chest, the leg’s steel plating was able to resist the heat and kinetic force of the atomic ray, only stumbling the titanic cyborg

Mecha-King Ghidorah then used another of the upgrades he had received as the mechanical head fired a blue spray at Godzilla. The saurian backed away from the mist, but was unable to stop it from reaching his legs. Thick layers of ice began to grow on the streets and the legs of the atomic mutant, freezing them solid. Godzilla groaned when he couldn’t move a muscle, let alone feel his soles. Noticing the war-machine approach while still spraying his ice breath, Godzilla charged up his energy, electric bolts crackling along his glowing spines. The moment he felt the freezing mist touch his charcoal scales again, Godzilla quickly fired his blue Spiral Ray at the cyborg’s armored chest. The attack forced Mecha-King Ghidorah back, to which the mechanical dragon opted to cease its freezing ray.

Godzilla growled as he felt the temperature of his radioactive insides slowly drop, the ice crawling further up his body. Not wanting to be frozen solid, Godzilla roared as his entire form surged with energy. A Nuclear Pulse erupted outwards. The shockwave tore apart the ice, freeing him and allowing blood to flow back into his legs. The atomic terror snarled as his orange eyes leered at the living weapon from the future. The weapons that this fake King Ghidorah had left didn’t matter, he would not let it beat him, no matter how difficult to overcome it would be.

”Well, he figured out a way to break free from the ice,” Grenchiko surmised, disappointed at the King of the Monsters overcoming one of their many powerful new additions to their cyborg.

”It still doesn’t matter, he’s powerless against Mecha-King Ghidorah,” retaliated Wilson in a very determined tone. ”It will only be a matter of time before he exhausts himself, and when that happens, he will no longer hold claim to the title of King of the Monsters.”

Elsewhere, far away from the raging battle…

“Hikaru…” A faint voice was heard, speaking to the unconscious Hikaru, repeatedly calling him. “Hikaru Sakimori… arise…”

Finally, his eyelids slowly opened and tensely surveyed his surroundings. He thought that he had died and moved on to the afterlife, where he could join with the rest of his kind. However, nobody was around him, and he wasn’t even in Sapporo. He was now in what he could best attribute as the interior of a large spherical chamber of red energy. He then looked at himself, seeing that he was still in the human form of Zone Fighter, but then he saw who had been calling his name.

Hikaru saw a silver giant, who looked very similar to the giant form of Zone Fighter, having an expressionless face and bulbous eyes that glowed a white-yellow light. But there were several key differences. The giant’s skin wasn’t as colorful as Zone Fighter’s, being mostly silver with various red stripes. In addition, two rows of metallic stubs formed a line starting from the shoulders and ending at the chest, where a circular light rested in the center, similar to the Zone Marker. Lastly, the most noticeable difference was that it had no antenna on its head.

“At last, you have finally regained consciousness, Hikaru Sakimori,” the giant spoke assuredly, to affirm to Hikaru that he was no threat.

“Where am I…?” Hikaru groaned, getting up to his feet as his muscles had apparently healed since his defeat by King Ghidorah.

“You are safe here in the Travel Sphere, with me, so that you could recover and rise once more,” The giant explained. “My name is Zoffy, Leader of the Ultra Brothers and the residents from the Land of Light, located in Nebula M78.”

“The Land of Light…” Hikaru mumbled, gazing at Zoffy, his eyes widening. “So the stories back in Peaceland were true, that there do exist giant warriors called Ultras.”

“Yes, and I’ve heard a lot about you, Hikaru. Or I should say, Zone Fighter,” Zoffy mused. “You were the one who had protected this planet from the destructive Garoga, bested the dreadful King Ghidorah, and had befriended the King of the Monsters, Godzilla.” Hikaru simply nodded.

“And I have heard of the tragic event where the rest of the Zone Family perished by King Ghidorah’s power. All of them, except for you.”

Hikaru was silent at that moment, as it all came back to him, the events of a week ago. He had tried not to think much about it, not relive the pain until he could say they were avenged, but being confronted with it let the memory barge into his skull. Since driving the Garoga away with the defeat of Grotogauros, he and the rest of the Zone Family had vowed to continue defending humanity from all manner of threats. Even as his grandfather passed of old age, and his parents perished as well in a kaiju attack, he and his siblings kept their spirits high as long as they had each other. It was what the deceased would have wanted.

But one day, the three aliens had traveled to Kyoto when they heard it was being ravaged by Megalon, who had been sent by the Seatopians to begin their next plan to strike back at humanity. After a long fight that ended with Megalon being forced to retreat, lightning bolts suddenly rained down from above, demolishing anything they came into contact with. One of the bolts struck the wings of Smokey, the spacecraft that Hotaru and Akira piloted to lend Zone Fighter a hand whenever he was endangered in battle. The hero noticed the falling vessel and quickly took off to save the last members of his family, only to be halted when he was shot out of the sky by the golden bolts. The Meteor Man landed on his back, only able to watch as the Smokey crashed into a building, imploding in a ball of fire.

Zone Fighter watched in silence, barely able to comprehend what he had just seen. A shadow fell over him, his instinct allowing him to roll backwards and barely avoid King Ghidorah’s stomp. Three sneers greeted him as the heads waved back and forth.

Zone Fighter’s mind rolled with mixed emotions. Wrath, sorrow, and confusion all vied for dominance, but when he looked into the eyes of his family’s killer, the first of these three was unopposed. He was now the last of his kind, and more importantly to him, he was truly alone. He would attain vengeance for his family, even if it killed him.

But, like his first battle with the true King Ghidorah, he was forced to retreat. Zone Fighter would come to regret fleeing, even though he could not have stopped the three-headed monster, for the golden hydra demolished Kyoto before moving onto the next city.

Hikaru was powerless and filled with despair after his failure, for he needed to wait before being able to fight again. If it were not for Godzilla, the destruction and mass death would likely have been even worse. He clung to hope yet, but it was beginning to slip through his fingers.

“Yes…” Hikaru replied, sounding defeated. “They tried to save me, as they had always done, but then King Ghidorah showed up and… destroyed the ship that they were in…”

“My condolences for your loss. Had the Garrison and I known about this, we would have traveled all the way to prevent this tragedy,” Zoffy spoke softly. “But by the time we got wind of the situation on Earth, we fell under attack by alien forces.”

”I appreciate the sentimentality,” murmured Hikaru. ”But now that I am the very last Peacelandian, I don’t know what I should do….”

”Do not let their deaths be in vain, Zone Fighter. You are a Peacelandian Warrior, trained to become the people of Earth’s guardian from the Garogas and many greater threats that try to rain terror down upon that planet,” the leader of the Ultra Brothers encouraged, his voice booming with gentle, yet firm gravitas. “I say this, because the monster that you have fatally wounded is not the same King Ghidorah that you or Godzilla have previously fought.”

“I’m aware of that, but more importantly, it was much more aggressive and refused to flee, whereas the first turned tail the moment the fight turned against him.”

“That creature is nothing more than a man made weapon from a group of terrorists that came from the future, and they have one simple goal. Take their replica to this time period and wreak havoc upon not only Japan, but to destroy all aliens and kaiju, no matter if they are an ally of humanity,” Zoffy explained. “The Garoga attempted to steal it and make it theirs, but it demolished their fortress and killed several Terror-Beasts before flying back to Earth. To make things worse, the terrorists have taken King Ghidorah back to their time period and then returned it to ours after rebuilding him as a powerful cyborg.”

”What? A cyborg?” Hikaru inquired in a troubled, hushed voice.

”Yes, and I regret not being able to finish it off by myself,” The Ultra leader expressed in a regretful tone.

”But why? Why would they do this if they’re humans from the future?” Hikaru questioned, confused and angry that someone would commit such a horrible act. ”Why would they create a monster and send it back to the past to kill so many people?”

”That, I do not know…” Zoffy answered. ”But that’s sometimes the nature of humanity, there are many that are innocent, but few can be just as cruel as many of the invaders that you have faced.”

”Whatever reason they have, I will make them pay for taking my family’s life!” Hikaru said with his teeth gritting, fists clenching until his knuckles turned white. Just thinking about how those terrorists would do such a thing angered him. No cause could be worth so much bloodshed.

”Vengeance will only bring suffering and suicidal recklessness, my friend,” Zoffy stated. ”And besides, your powers still need time before they can be used again.

”Can’t you stop him?” Hikaru questioned.

”I’m afraid not, our forces are currently spread thin.” Zoffy shook his head. ”The best I can do is to travel back to my home planet and send one of my brothers to aid you, for I am still needed. But for now, you need to rest, and you will regain the power to stop the monster responsible for the death of the Zone Family.”

”I understand…” Hikaru hung his head low. He perked up when a thought popped into his head. ”But can I ask for a simple request?”

”What is it?” Zoffy asked in curiosity.

”You said that these people, the ones who made that copycat of King Ghidorah, are after every single alien race?” Hikaru questioned.

”Yes.” Zoffy nodded.

“And that the creature caused great damage to a Garoga settlement?” When he received another nod of confirmation, he revealed the desperate plan he had come up with. ”Then I beg for a request, take me to the Garoga Space Station,” Hikaru asked.

”Why would you want to do such a thing? Risking your life to be sent to the enemy’s base while you’re in no condition?” Zoffy questioned, as he did not expect to hear the Peacelandian make such a foolish request.

“It’s something that I would have never considered doing, but now that the terrorists from the future have brought King Ghidorah back, and I need help, no matter if it’s from an enemy or not,” Hikaru explained. ”Please, for my family, and the people that are dying out there…”

He didn’t want to do this, to have to face the ones responsible for killing his whole species and ask them for help. But he saw no other choice, so he would swallow his hatred for now if it meant saving Japan and avenging his family.

Zoffy’s non-blinking eyes stared at Hikaru for a moment, as his head tilted down, thinking about this decision. This plan was risky, but they were quickly running out of options that didn’t sentence millions to death. Zoffy didn’t like it, but he relented.

”Permission granted, I will teleport you to the Garoga Space Station,” announced Zoffy. ”But in case the Garogas try to backstab you, I will have Agent 340 come in to assist you.”

”Thank you, Zoffy,” Hikaru thanked the silver and red alien, while he stood up and began to perform several poses and utter the phrase whenever he entered his true identity. ”Zone! Fight!! POWER!!!”

When he pointed his fingers to the air, they emitted a brief flash as he shifted into his Zone Fighter form within a second. The last Peacelandian gazed up and nodded to the giant, showing that he was ready to perform this risky task that just might be his final challenge. But if this decision could save millions, then he would gladly accept this path. Using his powers of teleportation, Zoffy warped Hikaru to the interior of the Garoga space fortress, spawning right in front of the desk of Lord Gold. The silver grunts that were nearby instantly pulled out their weapons. They hadn’t expected their foe to appear before him, but if they wanted to offer himself to die, they had no complaints. Zone Fighter quickly drew his blaster out of his holster, aiming it at the Gold Garoga right before he got up from his seat.

”Now what’s all of this?” The leader asked, despite being at gunpoint. ”My greatest nemesis has shown up all of a sudden in my office, completely surrounded.”

”Well, I have a very good reason for showing up,” growled Hikaru, having his index finger touching the trigger.

”And let me guess, does it have to do with the loss of your family?” he questioned. “If so, then we were not the ones responsible for the death of your precious family.”

“I already know that you weren’t using King Ghidorah, or whatever that kaiju is supposed to be,” hissed Hikaru, his teeth grinding as he was reminded of the deaths of Hotaru and Akira. ”Which is why I’m here, for an alliance.”

”What? An alliance?” The Gold Garoga stood baffled, obviously shocked at such a proposition. It felt suspicious, since he knew Zone Fighter would never side with him.

”Yes, I ask for you to aid me,” declared Hikaru, raising his other hand to the monitor screen. ”To destroy him.”

The captain of the destructive race turned to look at what he had already been observing before Hikaru showed up. Mecha-King Ghidorah and Godzilla were still continuing their fight to the death; Godzilla, however, was in bad shape. The giant dinosaur was covered in bite-mark wounds from the controlled hydra’s teeth and had received several burns that were caused by the electrical beams that he took. But these wounds were starting to heal. A swift and deadly discharge of atomic fire prevented the mechanical dragon from using its freezing spray, hitting it in the armored plating.

The two organic heads released howling shrieks as they struck back with their Gravity Beams, lancing them into a tough, bark-like hide. The cybernetic hydra stalked closer, hissing as the central head fired another Triple Laser Beam, blasting at the atomic dinosaur’s wounded chest. Yelling in pain from the powerful energies blasting away chunks of flesh, the nuclear leviathan twisted and swung his tail. The dragon from the future didn’t stagger back despite the powerful force the tail delivered, as all of his three heads fired their primary electric beams at Godzilla’s stomach and feet. The atomic saurian let out a high pitched roar as he fell down, crashing against a skyscraper, leaning against it and shattering the glass and concrete as they collapsed like an avalanche from a cliff.

The legs of the monster tyrant ached after such a strike, leaving him unable to stand. Continuing in its sole mission, Mecha-King Ghidorah’s chest compartments opened. The radiant orange eyes looked up and saw three Capture Cables launch from the ports. One of them latched onto the saurian’s neck, while the other two clamped onto his wrist and leg. High amps traveled through the conductive wires, electrocuting the flinching dinosaur who could only roar in pain.

”So let me get this straight, you want us to side with you to defeat something that’s already doing something that we planned to do?” Lord Gold mused, leaning back and chuckling to himself.

”Yes,” the Peacelandian said bluntly, ”This King Ghidorah was created by humans from the future, who seek to destroy Japan and to exterminate all alien life, including myself.”

”So humans from the future are controlling it,” the captain grunted. ”Just shows how selfish and destructive those apes are, they’ll even go so far as to time travel into the past and destroy themselves.”

”Humanity may have committed horrible atrocities upon itself, but there are many that are innocent, which is why my family and I made it our role to protect them.”

”Why still risk your life to protect them? Even when there will still be many that would do the same thing, all while you have nothing!” the gold Garoga questioned, his voice rising.

”I fight so that no one has to suffer any longer, and I will do this as long as I’m still alive!” yelled a defiant Hikaru. ”Why can’t you do the same, rather than just terrorizing everything that isn’t a Garoga?”

”We will bring terror to everyone that isn’t us, to show that we are superior! We will make them fear us!” Lord Gold shouted. His glaring, bulbous, eyes suddenly emitted a flash of light to force Hikaru to shield his eyes. He barked an order to his silver-headed servants. “Eliminate him!”

Just when the Silver Garoga readied their blasters, suddenly, a red humanoid emerged in a similar manner to Hikaru, generating a barrier that blocked the Garoga laser barrage. Hikaru regained his vision and narrowed his eyes at the captain. He fired his gun at the wall, doing so as a warning shot for Gold to stay put. Everyone then got a good look at this intruder’s identity, Hikaru easily recognizing it as another Ultra Warrior. While his body was mostly red with two silver stripes, the major difference between him and Zoffy was the armor on his shoulder and chest. He lacked a color timer, but had a lamp located underneath the crest on his head.

“Who are you?!” Lord Gold demanded in an annoyed and surprised reaction.

“I am Agent 340, Ultraseven, member of the Ultra Brothers,” The red alien disclosed. “And I have come here to ensure that Zone Fighter’s mission is a success.”

“And let me guess, that mission is to destroy the King Ghidorah clone?” The leader questioned as he laughed. ”You’ll all be dead before you could even scratch it, considering that Godzilla is having a hard time defeating it.”

”Unless we all worked together,” Ultraseven spoke up.

”Work with Hikaru and the likes of you? Never!” Gold shouted. ”We are Garogas! We are strong, determined, and we can create an army of Terror-Beasts that will put the likes of the Xiliens, Space Hunter M Nebulas, and the Black Hole Aliens to shame!”

”Really?” Hikaru asked. ”Then explain how your people and the Terror-Beasts would handle something that overwhelmed me, while he wasn’t a cyborg and wasn’t even controlled.”

”Not to mention, your fortress on Mars was destroyed by it when it wasn’t being controlled.” Ultraseven reminded the cruel alien. ”From what I’ve heard from my brother, that clone of King Ghidorah managed to destroy four Terror-Beasts, and he might as well destroy all of us if we don’t work together, now that he’s turned into a weapon of mass destruction.”

The gold Garoga stared at the Peacelandian and the Ultra Warrior, growling in annoyance. He refused to side with anyone, let alone side with someone who constantly thwarted his plans of domination and destruction. But seeing that Mecha-King Ghidorah was now powerful enough to overwhelm Godzilla, and with how the being’s lesser form had crushed his forces and overcame Zone Fighter, he wasn’t seeing many options. After a moment of silence and pondering, Lord Gold sighed and made his decision.

”Alright, we will side with you.”

”Wise choice,” Ultraseven nodded.

”But once this cyborg King Ghidorah clone is dead, we will be your enemies again, and keep up our conquest of Earth.” The Garoga dictator growled, pointing at them.

”Then a deal is a deal, but until then, we need to come up with a plan,” vocalized Hikaru, glad that the leader of one of the most destructive races in the galaxy could see reason. But the Garoga was right, as soon as this was over, they would be enemies once more. He could never forgive the ones who killed his whole race.

”Tell me, captain, how many Terror-Beasts or kaiju do you have?” Ultraseven questioned.

“For now, we’ve almost completed our next Terror-Beast, Super Jikiro,” the Garogan warlord explained. “We still need time, however, we have revived one Terror Beast, captured dozens of monsters, and the kaiju that once belonged to the Space Hunter M Nebula, Gigan.”

“Then I have a solution, since Zone Fighter wouldn’t be able to last too long in his giant form,” Ultraseven spoke up. “We send these three Terror Beasts to our enemy, so that they can wear it out as much as they can, and should they fall or manage to weaken it, that’s when we will come in and attack.”

“This could work,” Hikaru agreed.

“I wouldn’t want to risk losing any more Terror-Beasts, but I’ll do anything to achieve victory.” The gargoyle-like alien nodded.

“Very well,” said Ultraseven. “Baron, if you would?”

“With pleasure,” he said, standing up to point at one of his silver henchmen. “Direct the following monsters to Tokyo; Zandora, Gezora, Ganimes, Kamoebas, and Bemular!”

“Roger!” The Silver Garoga obeyed.

Outside of the massive fortress that the destroyers of Peaceland resided in, a hatch began to open from ports located on the side of the space station. Once opened, five missiles were launched out of the ship, one containing a revived Terror-Beast and the rest containing captured kaiju. Hikaru, Ultraseven, and their new, temporary allies could now only observe the goings on in Tokyo. Things weren’t looking good out there.

Godzilla roared in agony as he was electrocuted by Mecha-King Ghidorah’s machine hand once more, the fatally high amps coursing through the saurian’s entire body, frying his muscles to a char. Hikaru couldn’t believe it, one of the strongest beings he knew was losing. The taser weapon and the capture cables retreated back into Mecha-King Ghidorah’s metal body, leaving the petrified Godzilla to drop. He could only wait and see whatever was about to come.

Rendered a sitting duck from the pain filling his form, Godzilla could only watch as the frost poured forth from the bionic hydra’s robotic face. The clinging cold crawled up his legs, spreading through his body.

Within a minute, Godzilla’s body was now encased in a giant chunk of blue ice, all movements ceasing…

”We did it, Godzilla has lost!” Grenchiko cried out in gleeful ecstasy.

”Now, let’s end this so we can resume our plan,” Wilson pointed out, patiently watching as the cyborg clone of the King of Terror was preparing to shatter the monster king. That was until sirens went off and alerted the Futurians of an incoming threat.

”Now what?!” Grenchiko shrieked angrily, the thought of another delay was simply insufferable to them, as they were on the edge of victory.

”Incoming missiles are located, coming from the sky,” one of the androids reported.

The five missiles fell from the sky, heading directly towards Tokyo, but none of them were directly aimed at the hydra from the future. Massive explosions rocked the city as they detonated, but these explosions were merely the release mechanism of the missiles’ true payloads.

Zandora rose up, emitting the same laughter that Mecha-King Ghidorah would have recognized if he weren’t a mind-controlled slave to his masters. Along with the revived Terror-Beast, Bemular stretched his stubby forelimbs, howling his shrill call. Gezora emerged, making aggressive cries while he raised his slimy tentacles. Ganimes made its presence known, cackling as he was ready to have his crab claws bathed in blood. Finally, the oversized matamata turtle, Kameobas, marched in and let loose a high pitched shriek, revealing the sharp teeth and fangs within his maw.

The giant monsters sent by the Garoga roared at their collective target all at once, carrying a greater sense of menace with such high numbers. Mecha-King Ghidorah’s six eyes glared at his opponents, before he raised his three heads and let out intimidating cackles towards his foes.

”Hmph, the Garogas must have known what we’re doing, someway and somehow,” surmised Wilson, not too surprised by the appearance of the five monsters, as he knew almost everything that the Garogas were capable of in the past. ”Doesn’t matter, Mecha-King Ghidorah will show them just how obsolete they are.”

The jaws of Mecha-King Ghidorah discharged electrical blasts, constantly bombarding the Garoga’s pawns to ward them off. Ganimes, Gezora, and Bemular cried out from the Gravity Beams, while Kamoebas retracted into his shell, protecting himself from the Triple Maser Laser that struck his bumpy carapace. Zandora, on the other hand, made a quick dash forward, lunging to headbutt the futuristic weapon. Sparks rained out as the drill head raked against the metal waist, but the dragon’s right head spat a golden beam at the Terror-Beast to stop him from chiseling a hole into its armor. Zandora cried out in anger as he lashed out with his shovel hands, slapping the hydra’s right head and metal body.

Ganimes lent the subterranean Terror-Beast a hand by assaulting the cyborg’s left head with his pincers. Mecha-King Ghidorah knocked both of his attackers down at once by bashing his biological heads against them. Gezora caught Mecha-King Ghidorah’s attention when his tentacles wrapped around the right neck, crying out as he began to tighten his grip to suffocate it. The cybernetically augmented dragon fired its central laser at the cuttlefish, making him loosen his strangulation grip. Gezora didn’t give in though, tightening his tentacles while pulling himself closer to the dragon’s leg, gnashing his well hidden beak into the exposed scaly hide. Mecha-King Ghidorah forced the mutated squid to let go with another use of his Triple Laser Beam, leaving a burning groove in his white flesh.

Kamoebas rammed his rocky carapace against the metallic chest, causing the cyborg to miss its shot. The turtle’s ally, Bemular, stepped in to shower the mechanical dragon with his Pale Heat Ray. Gezora and Kamoebas quickly moved away the moment the alien reptile spewed the blue ray, just barely in time to avoid making contact with the burning wave. The hydra’s robotic head, however, didn’t react in pain like the other two, instead firing its primary beam at Bemular’s chest. The space fugitive screeched in pain when he was blown back by the maser weapon, collapsing onto a small building and flattening it.

Ganimes scooped up a smaller building that was next to him, hurling it at the cybernetic dragon. Gravity bolts and lasers were fired from Mecha-King Ghidorah, destroying the thrown structure before it could make its mark. But Ganimes, along with Kamoebas and the rising Zandora, charged in to tackle all at once. The Futurian weapon’s three maws released loud shrieks when he fell on his back, causing an earth-shaking thud once he landed on the damaged pavement. The resounding impact made chunks of concrete and damaged cars jump into the air before plummeting violently.

Kamoebas slammed his forearm down on one of two metallic spike-tipped tails, pinning it as he bit down on the other tail. As the turtle was busy chewing, Ganimes used his claws and legs to bash and jab the struggling, cybernetic Ghidorah while Zandora helped out, slamming his foot on the left neck. The war-machine’s controllers commanded him to lift both his right and robotic heads, effortlessly bombarding Ganimes with a mixture of concentrated plasma and blasting the giant rubble crab away. The two heads likewise managed to force Kamoebas to let go of his tails by discharging its rays.

Zandora quickly fired steam from his hands to keep the futuristic weapon from getting up, pouring waves of murderous microid drugs over the automated cyborg. Although the organic heads screamed when they felt their scaley hide burning from the molten vapors and miniature explosions, the robotic head rose up and sprayed its freeze ray at the Terror-Beast. Zandora backed away, releasing high-pitched laughter; the Earth-Eating Terror-Beast kept discharging steam, redirecting it to the tubes underneath his oddly-shaped head. He was spraying it onto himself to melt the ice trying to coat his body. Mecha-King Ghidorah cackled as his ankle bracelets activated their anti-gravity mechanisms to pull himself up to his feet. It was time to punish these Garogan pawns.

“Let’s put an end to this nonsense!” declared Wilson, his patience on a swift decline.

Bravely crawling forth as he raised his opening pincers, Ganimes viciously assaulted Mecha-King Ghidorah’s golden scales with reckless abandon. The left head of the three-headed monster reached down to give the oversized rock crab a nasty bite to one of the pincer claws, causing the crustacean to let out a loud painful cry, for his pincers were sensitive to pain.

Gezora, Kamoebas, and Zandora tried to move in to help Ganimes, but Mecha-King Ghidorah’s controllers made sure that the monsters wouldn’t help their crustacean ally. They commanded their weapon to fire lasers and bolts at the incoming Garoga pawns, forcing them back with a chorus of panicked cries. White foam drooled out of the panicking Ganimes as he tried to spit coalesced seawater at the dragon’s face. This only made things worse, when the draconic head began to tug to try and rip away the helpless crab’s claw.

Bemular saw this when he rose to full height and immediately took action by curling up in preparation for flight. Exuding an energy sphere around his form, the dense ball of energy took flight, the space fugitive lunging forward. Crashing his travel sphere against the three heads, he forced the dragon back and allowed Ganimes to retreat. Blood oozed from the cracks in his pincer, but Ganimes could still move his claw.

Auto-targeting locked onto the energy signature, unloading a destructive payload of jagged graviton bolts against the azure orb. The explosive display washed over the sky, with Bemular forced to disengage from his travel sphere and drop to the ground with a booming thud. Just as the mechanical dragon adjusted its calibration systems, Ganimes rushed and grabbed him from behind, shooting coalesced sea foam. Kameobas ran to his foe’s front, tearing up on his hind legs and extending his neck to bash his skull against the armored chest. Golden jaws shot down, aimed at his throat.

The turtle’s eye caught the incoming jaws, so he pulled his head back into his shell. The right head of the three-headed Dorat mutant still managed to bite down on the Matamata turtle’s skull, but its teeth had trouble penetrating or even cracking it due to the reptile’s rock-like forehead. Kamoebas sprang his head out to push Mecha-King Ghidorah’s, having it crash into his own metallic chest to make him let go. Once he was freed from the dragon’s maw, the turtle went for his foe’s right neck, biting down harder as the two vampire-like fangs poked through the scales.

”I gotta say, the turtle is wiser than I thought it would be,” Wilson commented contumeliously. ”But it’s still as predictable as the others, finish him with the Machine Hand.”

To Kamoebas’ surprise, the waist of his towering foe opened. The Machine Hand lunged forth to ram into the terrapin’s soft underbelly, pushing him back as the mechanical limb wrapped around the reptile’s carapace. Before the discharge came, Mecha-King Ghidorah’s three mouths spewed their energy beams towards the other Garoga pawns, forcing them to back away. He did not even aim, the only intent was to scare.

The eyes of Gezora and Ganimes widened as they watched their reptilian brother’s stubby limbs twitch violently as he shrieked from hellacious levels of electricity coursing into him. Smoke rose as the turtle’s flesh burned, boiling foam rising up from his throat and spilling down his face. Kameobas died swiftly, yet wracked with agony. His carcass twitched for several seconds, even after the Machine Hand had retracted.

”As I suspected, they might not stand a chance against this cybernetic clone of King Ghidorah” Gold commented, disgusted at how the battle was turning out so far.

”Remember, this is part of the plan to wear him out,” Hikaru reminded the alien.

”Should there be one or two remaining, that would be a perfect time to throw in our real attack.” disclosed Ultraseven, while the doors opened as a Silver Garoga walked in and saluted before he gave his report.

”Captain, preparations on Super Jikiro are halfway done!”

”Then get to it, we don’t have much time!” the leader ordered.

As Zandora‘s drill and shovels tore into the earth, Gezora rushed forward and wrapped his twin tentacles around the golden necks of his foe. His crustacean brother charged and clamped his pincers on golden flesh, trying to pierce and shed blood. Two golden bolts were discharged into Ganimes, causing the mutated crustacean to stagger back and groan. Gezora’s tentacle wrapped around the robotic head’s muzzle, clamping it shut in a very tight grip. The two organic heads hissed when they faced Gezora, both of them opened their mouths to fry the cuttlefish with their Gravity Beams.

Ganimes rapidly shot several blobs of sea foam, blinding his foe’s six eyes. Gezora’s tentacles rapidly clamped shut around the shrieking maws, the cuttlefish straining to keep his grip. The crab lunged forward as their foe began to ascend, wrapping his arms around the bionic hydra and doing his best to keep him down.

As the ground began to quake and a hole formed to swallow cars and debris, Bemular took his chance once Zandora emerged next to him. Together, the two bizarre aliens moved closer to Mecha-King Ghidorah, Bemular opening his jaws while Zandora raised his hands. Ganimes instantly moved out of the way as Gezora quickly released his grip and slithered away. Mecha-King Ghidorah suddenly lunged forward with his three heads, each one clamping down on Gezora’s cold, yet soft flesh. The cuttlefish cried out in surprise when the cyborg dragon turned around, dragging him to have his body face Bemular and Zandora, just as they fired out their primary high-temperature weapons.

With the fatal combination of the fire and the steam, explosions shredded his hide. The two Garoga pawns immediately ceased fire, but the single second had been enough.

The mutant cuttlefish’s skin was not only coated in burns, but was also ignited. The rest of his flesh was blackening and shriveling up. His screeches of anguish rolled across the city. It was a bit of a pity for Bemular and Zandora, both knowing there was no way to save Gezora with no source of water nearby. Wilson commanded his cyborg to leave Gezora be and let him die a slow and painful death.

Mecha-King Ghidorah’s three mouths bombarded the remaining trio with a barrage of beams, making all three of them scream in pain. Zandora, the toughest of the remaining monsters, shrugged off the pain as he dashed forth, steam bursting out of his pipes while his drill began to spin. Mecha-King Ghidorah’s controllers activated the anti-gravity to lift him off the ground, letting Zandora pass by underneath and crash into a damaged, but still intact skyscraper. The building began to crumble away, shaking the ground’s surface even more as the earth-eating Terror Beast was buried by tens of thousands of tons of debris.

In a desperate attempt to bring down the almighty foe, Bemular fired the Pale Heat Ray out of his mouth, landing a direct hit on Mecha-King Ghidorah’s chest. The cybernetic weapon shrieked from the surprise attack, dropping to the ground. Bemular kept the Ghidorah clone at bay by firing his blue beam again, as Ganimes crawled hastily to batted his foe with his claws. Mecha-King Ghidorah shrieked when his mechanical neck took the blow, but then he bit down on Ganimes with his three mouths, each head growling as they tried to suffocate and tear the rubble crab to shreds.

Bemular would not allow this, he would not face this thing alone! The space lizard carefully took aim and spewed his Pale Heat Ray at the long neck of Mecha-King Ghidorah’s robot head. The explosion barely dented the metal, but it did cause him to drop the bloodied Ganimes and shriek towards the space fugitive. Bemular entered his travel sphere to avoid the rays that came his way.

Gezora groaned weakly as he tried to drag his blazing body across the pavement, having no luck in finding a way to extinguish the flames killing him. However, the cuttlefish’s remaining eye spotted the giant chunk of ice encasing the frozen Godzilla. Gezora didn’t care about the monster sealed within, survival took precedence above all, and that ice looked like the best way to extinguish his pain.

Using the last of his exhausted strength, Gezora dragged his dying body to Godzilla’s icy tomb and rested on it, having his aching tentacles hugged around it. He then waited and hoped for the fire to die down, but with no luck. Even if the flames did die down, he was not long for this world regardless.

Deciding to accept his fate, Gezora closed his eyes and waited. As the fire slowly took the life from him, the ice began to drip and deform.

Wilson felt dread when the screen alerted everyone that Gezora’s burning carcass was melting away the ice. So many delays. “Damn it, get that squid’s corpse off of the ice! Quickly!” He shouted.

“Gah! That imbecile squid is gonna awaken Godzilla if we don’t do something!” The Baron Garoga growled. “Are your powers done recharging yet?”

“Still need a little more time for it to be fully replenished,” Hikaru shook his head as he sat down. The leader of his main adversaries clenched his fists, showing that he would not be pleased should Godzilla burst out and destroy his monsters.

Mecha-King Ghidorah shoved Ganimes aside when he received his master’s next order. A trio of screeches left his jaws as he turned towards Godzilla’s icy tomb, preparing to douse the fire. Bemular noticed his foe’s distraction, and came down like a meteor upon the bionic hydra. The space criminal’s energetic tackle knocked the cyborg onto his stomach, just in time for the ground to begin rumbling. The quake grew more powerful with each passing second, until Zandora burst forth from the ground before the dragon. He had recovered consciousness after being buried in rubble, and now he was eager to return the favor.

Zandora slammed his foot down on the titanium-enforced back, crying out in glee when he let loose a stream of hot steam that triggered small explosions upon the mechanical mutant. The two outer heads of the Futurian weapon screamed when they felt their skin be burned by the molten vapors, leaving painful burns. Steam was covering most of the living futuristic weapon, even spreading out further to make contact with the giant chunk of ice. Mecha-King Ghidorah’s mechanical head tried to use its freezing weapon on the melting ice, trying despite all else to follow its primary command. The Zandora’s drill head whirled to life as he slammed it down on Mecha-King Ghidorah’s replacement head, causing sparks to fly.

Pieces of chiseled metal flew through the air as Mecha-King Ghidorah’s robotic head released a staticky screech, the green eyes flickering wildly as the interior wires were ripped and ground up by Zandora’s spinning drill. Bemular shifted back to his true form when he landed, then helped out his burrowing partner by pinning down the two tails. Soon, Mecha-King Ghidorah’s shrieks were cut off as a massive burst of sparks erupted, signifying the separation of the robotic neck. It lay limply within the rubble, the other two heads going limp as they returned to a brain-dead state.

Just as the three Garoga pawns cried out in triumph, their celebration was cut short when a blast of radiation burst out of the chunk of ice, vaporizing pieces of frozen water along with the fried corpse of Gezora. A rumbling bellow was heard from the gritting jaws of Godzilla. The leviathan opened his eyes and leered at the aliens as he got to his feet. In an instant, energy crackled on the mutant saurian’s dorsal plates, as he fired a Spiral Atomic Ray at Ganimes. The mutant crab’s head was blasted apart the moment the radioactive beam landed into it, shards of burnt exoskeleton and clumps of blackened meat flying in all directions. Bemular screeched with terror and anger as he watched the headless body of his ally slump down into the ruined streets.

”Godzilla… Is moving again…” Grenchiko murmured, watching the infamous kaiju roaring with malice.

”As if our luck couldn’t get any worse,” Wilson responded. ”But should they keep him occupied, it could buy our weapon some time to repair itself.”

Bemular screamed with fury, darting towards Godzilla as he exhaled his Pale Heat Ray out of his maw. Godzilla growled when his charcoal scales were burned by the beam which resembled his own, but he needed the extra heat, his body was still frigid. The King of the Monsters unleashed his Atomic Ray again, which swallowed the alien’s beam as it raced towards his head. Bemular ceased fire when the leviathan’s mighty power washed over his skull, melting flesh and popping his eyeballs. Zandora rushed his new foe down, tackling him into the Seisoku High School, flattening the building as they proceeded to fight.

The maddened space fugitive fell down as his screams grew weaker, his body now coated in fire. After a few gasps, Bemular lay down and stopped moving, his skull blackening and turning to ash. The Baron Garoga glared at his two temporary allies, growling through the teeth permanently locked in a smile.

Hikaru certainly didn’t feel sorry for the destruction of the Terror-Beasts, but this situation still wasn’t ideal. The Futurians were still active, even if their primary weapon was downed. He felt like a fool for not taking into account that even if he allied with the Garoga, Godzilla would still view them as a threat. He needed his full power to be able to get back to Earth, soon. A thought came to him.

“Ultraseven, why haven’t you gone down there yet?” Hikaru whispered, hoping to avoid drawing the attention of the Garoga.

“Two reasons.” The warrior of light said. “One, to ensure that they don’t attack you while I’m gone, and two, because I intend on dealing with the Futurians while you fight.”

“Why don’t we both infiltrate them?” asked the Peacelandian.

“Because one of us needs to be on the battlefield, both to help Godzilla and to keep an eye on the monsters the Garoga send. Nothing’s stopping the Garoga from turning their beasts upon the city after our deal’s over.”

“Are you sure you can handle them? They’ll likely be packing some serious technology.”

“I’ve handled worse,” Ultraseven boasted.

Zandora crashed to the ground, flailing as he tried to right himself. Godzilla stood over him, thinking on how to best execute his foe. The saurian’s spines glowed, his throat glowing with the building power. Just before he fired the beam, Zandora rolled to the side. So, when the beam crashed into the ground just next to the Terror-Beast, he was sent flying away instead of being blasted apart. The momentum helped Zandora regain his footing, allowing the strange alien to stand tall.

His masters hadn’t recalled him yet, so the drill-headed kaiju assumed that he still had to fight. Not that he was complaining about a chance to end Godzilla.

Zandora’s drill revved to life as he tilted his head down. He rushed forward. Godzilla braced himself, his primitive mind contemplating how to deal with the attack. Until the Terror-Beast fell forward, the drill tore into the ground as if it were soft soil. The monster king stepped back, perplexed by his foe’s tactics. His spines began glowing, but he did not fire an atomic ray.

The King of the Monsters waited, silent. He heard nothing except the distant sirens and crackling fires around him. The ground beneath him began shaking, but he held still. The intensity of the quake steadily grew, until it reached the point of beginning to upset his balance.

Now.

A nuclear pulse erupted from his body. The ground beneath him cratered, the concrete boiling and shattering against the fearsome power. The shaking stopped, a low groan muffled by the ground taking its place. Godzilla took a step forward, then turned to look at the ground where he had been standing. A blackened drill-bit stuck out, melted and deformed. Bending down, Godzilla grabbed his opponent’s exposed drill, and pulled straight up.

Zandora was a powerful digger, and most kaiju would have been impaled by the attack it had attempted. But Godzilla not only had vast experience in fighting burrowing opponents, but he had made sure to train against burrowing opponents using his greatest ally, Anguirus.

The Terror-Beast screeched as it was pulled into the air, concrete and soil falling off its form. Before the saurian could do anything, every vent capable of venting steam fired. Godzilla backed away with a screech, skin being scorched by the desperate attack. Zandora charged forward, bashing its hands into the saurian’s temples. Godzilla’s vision blurred, but he didn’t need clear vision to know where his foe was. He lunged forward, slamming his bulk against Zandora.

Mecha-King Ghidorah’s two remaining heads began to twitch. Their hollow eyes slowly opened, regaining limited consciousness and scanned the environment for nearby danger. With the alien fiends dealing with the resurrected leviathan, the war-machine’s programming software came into effect. Crackling resonated from the stump as the core situated on the chest flashed, with flailing wires sprouting from where the metallic head once resided. Quickly and efficiently, cords and segmented metal welded and forged into a serpentine neck, the last segment extending into an ever-so familiar visage. As the assembly of the reconstituted head came to completion, green orbs flashed to life, screeching its malicious intent.

Aboard the Futurian ship, Wilson and Grenchiko were elated.

“Excellent!” Wilson laughed. “The automatic repair function worked just as intended!”

Grenchiko laughed with his comrade. “Let’s announce his return with a light show!” They both cackled as they sent orders to their renewed creation.

Godzilla’s vision had returned, and the first thing he did with it was aim an atomic ray at Zandora’s chest. The beam sent the Terror-Beast skidding back, two trenches being dug into the ground by its feet. As the beam still crashed against its body, Zandora felt a flash of burning agony against its back. The beams pierced its body, meeting in the alien’s center for the briefest moment before the conflicting energies detonated.

The city shook as a vibrant explosion burst from Zandora’s body, sending chunks of its body flying in all directions. Godzilla stepped back in shock at the colossal blast. His beam was powerful, but he knew it didn’t have nearly enough power to do something like that on its own.

The smoke was forced apart as Mecha-King Ghidorah flew through it, feet raised as it approached the monster king. The saurian, instinct taking over, caught his foe’s feet and stopped the kick. A trio of screeches echoed from the mechanical behemoth. Its two tails came forward, ramming the metallic prongs into Godzilla’s chest. Mecha-King Ghidorah flew forward, knocking the saurian onto his back with the cyborg hydra coming down feet-first onto his chest.

“What happened?” Hikaru yelled, watching the monitor before him as his heart-rate rose.

The golden Garoga bellowed a command to his underlings. “Rewind the footage! Zoom in on Mecha-King Ghidorah!”

Those gathered watched as the super-weapon came back online and reconstituted its central head in a matter of moments. The footage continued as it fired all three of its rays forward, which lanced into Zandora’s back.

As the footage went back to real time, showing a battle between the two colossi that was going much the same as before, silence filled the room.

Lord Gold spoke, “Self-repairing machinery for something that complicated and massive…” his sentence faded. The Garoga didn’t have anything that was technically complex on that scale. Did the future humans really outpace them technologically? The Garoga slouched forward. Of course they did, they had time travel! Garoga scientists had deemed traveling back to the past impossible, yet humanity still would one day discover exactly how to do so.

“Severing its center head isn’t going to cut it this time, Hikaru,” Ultraseven said. “You’re going to need to do a lot more to put this thing down.”

Hikaru’s face suddenly lit up as a warm feeling filled his chest. “I can feel it! My full power has returned!”

“Then let’s not waste any time!” The warrior of light replied.

Hikaru stepped closer to the monitor. Suddenly, the display began to warp as he jumped through the screen, disappearing and leaving no trace. The Garogas and Ultraseven were dumbfounded, until suddenly Zone Fighter, now in giant form, appeared alongside Godzilla and Mecha-King Ghidorah.

“What!” Lord Gold bellowed, hands pressed to the sides of his head. “Why…” he whimpered.

Ultraseven disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing outside of the fortress. He began flying towards Earth, towards the MOTHER ship. He had seen weirder than what Zone Fighter had just done.

But the Garogas hadn’t. “What is happening today?” yelled the Garoga captain. “Am I going crazy?” One of his silver Garoga began to raise a hand. “Say anything, and I’m throwing you out of an airlock.” The Garoga grunt put his hand back down.

“Sir!” called another Garoga. “Super Jikiro is ready!”

“Excellent!” yelled the Baron Garoga. It was exactly what he needed after the past few minutes, to see a creation of the Garoga in action. “Prepare to deploy it and Gigan!”

Elsewhere, the Futurians were baffled.

“Is everything that has opposed us come back for more?” Grenchiko inquired.

Wilson was silent for a moment, stroking his chin with his fingers in thought. “It appears so. But our weapon is still strong, so let them come!”

“But what if all of this opposition becomes too much for it?”

“Then we retreat into the future, repair and upgrade it, and return to the exact point we left.” Wilson retorted plainly.

Zone Fighter wasted no time, rushing into battle and punching the hydra right in the chest. After the loud clang of the impact rang out, the silver hero backflipped away to avoid the gnashing jaws of the cyborg. The metal had barely given an unremarkable dent, being the only proof he had even struck. He couldn’t afford to slowly wear this foe down before throwing out his stronger attacks, he had to hit hard and fast.

“Meteor Missile Might!

Rings formed around his wrists, which he pointed forward towards Mecha-King Ghidorah. A barrage of missiles left the gauntlets, which the mechanical dragon intercepted with a trio of beams. Explosions surrounded the lasers as they raced towards Zone, who quickly thrust his hands forward again.

“Zone-Barrier!” He shouted quickly. A translucent square manifested before him, which the Gravity Beams and Triple Laser crashed into. The barrier held for a few seconds before cracks spread across it, until it shattered. The silver hero cried out as the beams knocked him to the ground, until another blast sounded out, and the beams stopped. He got up to find Godzilla firing another atomic ray at Mecha-King Ghidorah, who cried out.

The King of the Monsters was forced back as the cyborg fired its freezing mist once again. The freezing substance latched onto his legs once more.

“Meteor Dash!”

Zone Fighter glowed with energy as he rushed forward, closing the distance in less than a second. He crashed a punch across the mechanical face, forcing the mist to sail through the air harmlessly.

“Meteor Punch!”

His arms moved like blurs as he rapidly punched the cyborg’s body, striking its necks and torso. Bruises formed on the organic necks as dents and tearing appeared on the metal. Mecha-King Ghidorah’s twin tails swung around, spearing into the Peacelandian’s feet. With a push forward, they knocked Zone Fighter’s feet out from underneath him, sending him to the ground face-first. The Futurian superweapon began stomping on the back of Zone Fighter’s skull, drawing a cry of pain from him. A pair of capture cables were fired forward, latching around the back of the hero’s heels.

Mecha-King Ghidorah stomped its foe’s head once more, then sent forth horrific currents through the cables. Zone Fighter thrashed about on the ground, letting out a choked gasp as his body seized. He may have been just as strong as Godzilla, and much faster than the saurian, but the monster king was by far the more durable of the two. He dreaded to think what would happen if all four capture cables and the Machine Hand were to be used against him.

His pain stopped when Godzilla rushed forward, shoulder tackling the cyborg away from his ally. Mecha-King Ghidorah staggered back, advanced systems working to keep it balanced.

“Meteor Missile Might!”

These systems were overwhelmed when the alien missiles and an Atomic Breath crashed against its armored body, throwing the machine to the ground. Its heads crashed through a skyscraper, carving three grooves through the structure. The building shuddered as its support weakened.

Elsewhere, a sudden idea struck Wilson. He began typing on the controls as quickly as he could.

Gravity Beams ripped out from insides of the building, speeding up its destruction.

“Wilson, what are you doing?” Grenchiko tensely asked.

“Stress testing another one of its weapons,” he stated.

The top half of the building split off from the rest, falling directly towards the cyborg’s body. Suddenly, the center head reared up, and from its open mouth came a green, conical, ray. Zone Fighter and Godzilla, already perplexed by their foe’s actions, were shocked when the beam struck the falling building.

The green ray was holding the building in the air, defying gravity. Mecha-King Ghidorah pushed forward off the ground, entering the air with its own anti-gravity flight. Using the momentum, it cut off its tractor beam, launching the mass of concrete and steel towards its foes.

The half of a building crashed against Godzilla, sending the saurian falling to the ground with a roar. Zone Fighter was stunned by the sudden development, meaning he was unable to react when two capture cables closed around his arms. Mecha-King Ghidorah howled as two more capture cables fired, aimed at the hero’s legs.

Suddenly, the two cables were pulled to the side, missing Zone Fighter by a massive margin. A green and yellow blur sailed through the air, slicing the two cables apart as it passed. It did the same to the cables restraining Zone Fighter, and by this point all could see that this new arrival was Gigan.

The silver and blue hero pulled the remains of the cables off of him. He looked over to where the other set of cables were being pulled to see Super Jikiro, its left arm extended.

Hikaru shuddered at having just been saved by Gigan and Super Jikiro, but he pushed it aside. Now wasn’t the time to focus on such things. He saw Gigan looking at him, the smile always on its face somehow looking bigger than usual. The alien cyborg cackled at him for a moment, before a blue beam crashed against its back. As Gigan slid against the ground, Godzilla let loose a bellow at his old enemy.

“Wait, they’re our allies for right now!” Zone Fighter yelled at Godzilla. The King of the Monsters looked at him, bewildered. He snarled at his friend. “I don’t like it either, but until Mecha-King Ghidorah goes down, they’re helping us.”

Godzilla was confused and conflicted, but when the Futurian’s weapon fired its rays while flailing its heads to strike all of its opponents, the saurian relented.

Gigan took off into the air, drawing the attention of all three of the future cyborg’s heads to him. Before the mechanical dragon could shoot him out of the air, colossal bullets began striking his body. Super Jikiro stepped forward, its right arm raised high as it spewed bullets. Unlike the first Jikiro, who had massive gun barrels protruding from the right hand, Super Jikiro‘s right hand only had four holes in it. Much less to grab or damage.

Mecha-King Ghidorah took off, flying directly towards the Terror-Beast war-machine with its legs raised to deliver a double kick. Zone Fighter leaped into the air, coming down from above the three-headed weapon.

“Meteor Kick!”

An empowered kick crashed against the space between the base of center and left neck, dropping the future cyborg. As its feet crashed into the ground, Gigan swept past, his spinning buzzsaw raking against the right neck. Blood spewed from the wound, but there was no reaction of agony. Instead all three heads fired their bolts at the flying alien, forcing a shriek from its beak as it dropped.

Zone Fighter grabbed the outer heads and pulled them back, restraining them. Super Jikiro thrust its magnetic hand forward, aiming its pull at its foe’s center head. Godzilla’s atomic ray crashed against the hydra’s body, warping and damaging the armor on its torso.

Mecha-King Ghidorah wrapped its twin tails around Zone Fighter’s legs. They pulled down hard, throwing the Peacelandian to the ground and forcing his grip to end. The two outer heads, now freed, turned their Gravity Beams upon Godzilla. Meanwhile, the mechanical dragon’s stomach opened, thrusting forward the Machine Hand. The Machine Hand raced towards Super Jikiro faster than usual, clamping around its stomach due to being too solid and fast for the magnet to redirect its course.

Super Jikiro’s magnetic pull was cut off as the Terror-Beast was shocked, a mechanical shriek echoing out. Its internal machinery was being overloaded, signified as sparks erupted from its various joints and openings. Before this could go on for long, Gigan arrived, slamming his hammer claws against the middle of the Machine Hand’s contraption. His blades inflicted two large dents with the mechanism, prompting Mecha-King Ghidorah to blast the alien cyborg back with Gravity Bolts before it could do much more.

The future cyborg retracted its Machine Hand, moments before Godzilla leaped into its side, forcing the hydra back with a shriek.

It hadn’t taken long for Ultraseven to find the Futurian’s ship. Its sleek chrome stuck out like a sore thumb against the forest they had chosen to wait in. He contemplated how to go about attacking. Right now, Zone Fighter and Godzilla were working together against their weapon, and the Garoga were getting close to sending in more kaiju to aid in the battle. He knew the Futurians would probably get very jumpy when more kaiju showed up, so he had to act fast to stop them from escaping. Now wasn’t the time for stealth.

Grabbing the crest atop his head, the warrior of light pulled it off to reveal it was a bladed weapon. He threw the Eye Slugger down towards the MOTHER, then started flying straight after it.

The bladed weapon from space tore through the hull of the ship like it was tissue. Immediately, alarms blared throughout the vessel. A moment after the Eye Slugger has torn through, Ultraseven smashed the hole it had made feet-first, landing gracefully on the chrome flooring. The Eye Slugger flew back into his hand, and he put it back onto his head. An android that had already been in the room he landed in rushed towards him, fists clenched.

The facsimile of a human swung a punch towards the interstellar warrior, who blocked it with his forearm. Pain shot through the limb, forcing a grunt from the ultra warrior as his block barely held. These androids hit much harder than he thought they would. Ultraseven swept the legs out from underneath the android, knocking it to the ground. The warrior of light briefly considered growing to his giant size and crushing the ship then and there. But, he had to know why Wilson and Grenchiko were doing this, but more importantly, they had to be brought to justice.

Ultraseven delivered an axe kick to the machine’s chest, tearing the fake flesh and crashing against the machinery beneath. The android kipped up, then fainted with its left hand before actually throwing a right punch. Ultraseven dodged the true punch before elbowing the android in the face. The strike seemed to do little actual damage to the machine, but it did force it to take a step back, which was all Ultraseven needed. Hopping back a few steps, the warrior of light put his hands to his forehead. A thin ray shot forth from between them, striking the android’s skull. The energy tore apart the android’s head, spraying shrapnel throughout the room. Ultraseven waited a moment, then breathed a sigh of relief when the robot limply hit the ground.

But alarms were still blaring overhead, and every minute he was on the vessel was dangerous. So, he quickly ran towards the nearest door.

“What’s happening!” Wilson exclaimed, looking at the control panel as the ship ran diagnostics. He soon saw that not only was there a breach in the hull, but an individual had intercepted their vessel. One of the androids went offline shortly afterwards, and the intruder was running through the vessel.

“All androids, kill the intruder before he ruins our plans!” The man from the future commanded.

Ultraseven was looking for a map or some other way of knowing the location of the command center. As he turned a corner, he found two androids waiting for him at the end of the hallway. They locked onto him, then charged.

Grabbing his Eye Slugger, the warrior of light threw it forward. The blade speared into the chest of one of the androids, getting wedged within and halting it for a moment. The other kept charging, and closed the distance in a second. Both fists flew towards Ultraseven, who dodged one and deflected the other. The android went to attack again, only to lurch forward as the Eye Slugger pierced its back. Ultraseven maneuvered around it to grab his weapon, just in time for the second android to charge at him. He pulled the Eye Slugger free, before jumping high into the air above their heads. The second android stopped right next to the first as Ultraseven kicked both in the head, sending them staggering in opposite directions as the white and red hero landed.

The android behind Ultraseven kicked the hero in the back, pushing him forward with a grunt. The other android punched the hero straight in the gut, doubling Ultraseven over. Its other hand came down in a chop to the hero’s back, bringing him to the ground. Before either android could stomp on him, Ultraseven thrust the Eye Slugger into the heel of the android in front of him, then pulled backwards. The android fell on its back, its foot torn apart in the process.

The warrior of light got to his feet, before throwing both elbows back to his sides. Just as he predicted, they struck the other android, forcing it back from its attempted attack. He stomped down on the damaged foot of the downed android, further warping and deforming it. He turned on one heel, another foot raised in a roundhouse kick which he hit the second android with.

As the android staggered from the kick, Ultraseven rammed the Eye Slugger into its face. Metal and machinery split before the glowing weapon, until the warrior of light thrust his hand upwards, ripping through the top of the mechanical skull. Its head split in two, the android dropped.

Two arms wrapped around the hero’s own, forcing them to his sides. A damaged foot did little to prevent the android from standing. With all its might, it squeezed its target. Ultraseven could hear other footsteps echoing throughout, approaching his location. He kicked against his captor, but the bear hug only grew tighter. Pain spread throughout him, he needed to think of something, and fast.

The ultra warrior’s body glowed, and he began to shrink. The android’s arms tried to keep him restrained, until he grew too small to be hugged. Ultraseven kept shrinking until reaching the size of an insect. He looked up to see the android’s raised foot.

He rolled out of the way, leaving the foot to come down right next to him. Ultraseven’s feet left the ground as he flew upwards, keeping close to his foe. He swerved around palm strikes and attempted grabs, rapidly making his way up to the robot’s head. Before the android could block him, he flew into its ear. Its hand clapped onto the ear, a reaction that had come a second too late.

Another second passed, and the android collapsed to the floor, its head superficially undamaged.

Meanwhile, in the control room, the two men of the future were tense.

“Two more androids go offline, and the intruder disappears from the radar? How could this be happening?” Grenchiko asked, looking over the diagnostics in confusion.

“Run another scan, and take this,” Wilson retaliated, handing his partner a gun. “Be on your guard, we cannot rely on the androids for everything.”

“Maybe it’s something the intruder can actively do, an ability of some kind,” Grenchiko stated, grabbing the gun with a shaky hand.

“Then have the androids search the place by themselves,” Wilson commanded, checking and making sure the gun he had grabbed was in working order.

Time passed as they waited for the androids to report back to them on finding the intruder. In this time, the two kaiju the Garoga had landed and began battling Mecha-King Ghidorah as well. The Futurians considered time traveling out of there at that point, but didn’t dare risk it with the intruder on board.

The door behind them opened, prompting both to swing around and point their guns forward. To their relief, it was an android.

“Sirs, the intruder is still hidden, but we suspect it is because he shrunken down.”

“Well, how do you know that?” Wilson asked.

“Because M4 had no damage to any vitals, instead having a disconnected-“

The android hit the floor like a sack of bricks, as a growing light signaled Ultraseven returning to human size. With a scream, both future men pointed their weapons forward and pulled the triggers. Ultraseven ducked, letting both bolts sail over his head. His palms flattened, and two blue beams shot from them. The dual knuckle rays crashed into both Wilson and Grenchiko’s guns, knocking the now shattered guns from their hands.

Rushing forward, Ultraseven quickly threw them both to the ground. After a brief scuffle, he had both men’s arms behind their backs, with his own hands serving to restrain the arms there. They were on their knees, backs to him.

Wilson spoke first. “If you truly value this planet and its people, you will not stop us!”

“What cause could be worth killing millions?” Ultraseven demanded.

“Saving billions!” Wilson replied.

“By ravaging Japan? By killing the Earth’s guardians?” The warrior of light spoke, his grip tightening slightly to apply figurative and literal pressure.

“In the year 1999, the Earth will be invaded by aliens called the Kilaak. They will bring no kaiju with them except for King Ghidorah. Instead, they will take control of the minds of every kaiju on Monster Island, including Godzilla and Mothra.” The Futurian went on. “Hundreds of millions will die as every major city on Earth is torn apart.”

“Where are the Ultras during this? Where’s Zone Fighter?”

“Gone. To where, nobody knows.” Ultraseven was silent after this, which the Futurian took to mean to keep going. “And they were still gone decades later, when the Xiliens showed back up and took control of every kaiju on Earth except for Godzilla and Mothra.” Wilson hung his head low, his voice growing more somber. “Billions will perish in that invasion. Even over a hundred years later, it will still remain the greatest tragedy in human history. And despite all of this, humankind will still continue to trust the kaiju to protect us.”

It was all so much for the warrior of light to take in. The absence of his kind, the mass death. He needed to know more about this. “But, why attack Japan?”

Wilson’s tone began to grow darker, angrier. “Because after the invasion, Japan will rise up and become the most powerful nation on Earth. They will eclipse the might of every other nation combined and doubled.”

Grenchiko spoke up. “And every other nation will be firmly planted beneath their thumb.”

Ultraseven was having a hard time arguing against them, if they were telling the full truth. A few minor details left out could alter the whole story. “What about the dangers of changing time?”

“Don’t lecture us on the butterfly effect, I studied everything mankind knows about it before I set foot in a time machine!” Wilson affirmed.

“Why didn’t you just come back and tell the people of the past?” The hero asked.

“Because the people that could actually do something about it won’t give a damn. They only care about themselves, and the masses are too stupid and easily manipulated for us to have properly convinced them enough!” Wilson spat.

“Did you try?”

“Why would I try what I know wouldn’t succeed?”

Ultraseven’s voice rose. “And so you resorted to causing death and destruction, not even bothering with another option because of what you believed! You proclaimed yourselves the judges of who lived and who died! You would ravage an entire country instead of trying to build the rest up! You are no better than those you claim to fight!”

Wilson yelled back. “How dare you say such a thing, you narrow minded bastard! You know nothing of our struggles! Our world is dying, because the impotent fools of this time period put all their trust in beasts! The supposedly kindest among them, Mothra, introduced herself to the world by destroying a city! And for what? Two girls! The burden of guarding humanity will fall upon a single nation, as the rest are left to suffer in the wake of constant invasions from space, along with attacks from these beasts, whenever Japan is spread too thin!”

“The kaiju are an integral part of nature, and to try and kill them all is tampering with powers you don’t fully comprehend.”

“Oh, what an excellent non-argument,” Grenchiko scoffed.

Ultraseven continued. “Thank you for telling me of this world’s future. I swear on my life, I will prevent these tragedies you have spoken of, or at least soften the damage as much as possible. I will not let this planet fall into the darkness you claim it will. May that give you some comfort as you face whatever punishment you are given.”

“Rot in hell,” Wilson hissed, his voice dripping with venom.

After dropping the Futurians off far away from their ship, Ultraseven called Zoffy to come pick them up.

“Take them to the highest court in Japan, and let the people deal with them however they choose.” Ultraseven asked of his ally.

“Happily, agent 340. Good luck against Mecha-King Ghidorah,” voiced Zoffy.

“Thank you,” Ultraseven replied. As Zoffy took the two into his ship, Ultraseven flew back towards the MOTHER. Growing to his full height, the warrior of light stood over the future vessel. Even if he had vowed to save Earth from the dangers it would face in the future, there were still some things he couldn’t let humanity have yet.

Crossing his arms, he fired a yellow beam of energy from his forearms. The Wide-Shot tore into the chrome time-machine, then a second later detonated the entire thing. He knew Mecha-King Ghidorah was likely running on auto-pilot right now, so he did not dwell on the wreckage. He had a job to do. And so, he flew towards Tokyo.

Mecha-King Ghidorah flew through the air, raining his three beams down upon Godzilla and Super Jikiro. The future cyborg tried to outmaneuver Zone Fighter and Gigan, but the countless gashes and dents in its armor showed it wasn’t doing well. It had thrown both into separate buildings, taking them out of the fight for a brief time. Suddenly, the hydra began descending straight down. Super Jikiro’s magnet hand was raised, pulling against its foe. As Mecha-King Ghidorah struggled against the pull, an Atomic Breath tore into its chest armor. The armor was weak enough to break apart at where the beam directly hit, revealing a patch of pale, golden, flesh beneath. This made him drop further, but still his anti-gravity held strong.

Ultraseven dropped from the sky, feet-first onto the hydra’s back. This was enough to send it careening from the air, forming an impact crater as it smashed into the ground. The red and white hero back flipped off his foe, then put his hands to his forehead. The Emerium Beam was fried, crashing into the mechanical dragon’s back. Mecha-King Ghidorah flailed on the ground, shrieks leaving its jaws. Godzilla rushed forward, grabbing his foe’s outer heads. Straining, he lifted the gold and silver terror high, before slamming it back to the ground. The King of the Monsters lifted his foe again, only for the middle head to rise up and fire a Triple Laser directly into the saurian’s eyes.

Godzilla staggered back with a roar, his eyes burnt out. Mecha-King Ghidorah caught itself in midair, before swiveling around towards Ultraseven. The warrior of light’s hand went to his Eye Slugger, but before he could reach it, he was flung back by twin Gravity Beams and the Triple Laser. He crashed to the ground, crying out in pain as the beams continued burning away at him.

“Meteor Missile Might!”

Zone Fighter, now freed, summoned forth his second strongest attack. But instead of turning it upon the future cyborg, he fired them at Super Jikiro. This was not an act of betrayal, because the Peacelandian remembered the trick behind this upgraded Terror-Beast. The robot absorbed the missiles with its magnetic hand, then pointed its gun hand at their common foe. Zone Fighter turned to the hydra, his gauntlets still active.

From both the silver and blue hero’s gauntlets and the guns of the alien robot came the kaiju-killing missiles. Dozens of missiles soared towards Mecha-King Ghidorah, who could only turn in time to see the storm of projectiles.

Metal and scales were torn and flung away as its entire form was coated in explosions. Shrieks left its maws, but the shrill sounds were drowned out by the deep cacophony of blasts.

When the smoke cleared, the front of the hydra’s torso armor was black and torn apart. Deep, burnt, craters marred its flesh as blood flowed from spots where the steel had been forced into the flesh. The bases of its wings were filled with holes, live wires dangling from within and spewing sparks.

Zone Fighter’s timer was red, most of his power already expended. This only grew worse when, despite the pain that should have been wracking the cyborg dragon’s body, it still fired its beams upon him and Super Jikiro. The hero was flung back, as the Terror-Beast was forced to back up and brace against the assault.

Pain had been removed from Mecha-King Ghidorah. So many wires ran through its organics and so many sedatives had been pumped into him for the transformation process. It existed to fight, and for nothing else.

But it could still bleed, and Gigan would make sure it geysered. The alien cyborg flew at the hydra’s side, specifically the left head. His buzzsaw revving, the alien weapon rammed the spinning blade into the side of the neck. Crimson ichor poured out, the other two heads stopping their assault to aim towards Gigan. Gigan responded by slamming his hammer claws into the center head’s sides. The lights that resembled eyes cracked, shards falling free. Gigan hugged the neck he was still carving into, until that head fell limp as the buzzsaw tore through the side opposite the alien cyborg. The right and center heads blasted the alien back once more, but the damage was done as the momentum of the left head falling nearly tore it off.

The hydra lurched forward as the Wide-Shot crashed against its weakened back. It turned to face Ultraseven, uncaring of the gore spewing from its dead right neck. Godzilla bellowed, before unleashing a Spiral Atomic Ray that tore into the base of the right wing. The fake appendage was torn off, as more of the true flesh beneath was exposed and subsequently vaporized.

Mecha-King Ghidorah turned to face Godzilla, its jaws opening once more. The right head roared at the monster king, until a stream of colossal bullets tore into the opened maw. Blood spewed out in a choked gurgle as the colossus turned to face Super Jikiro. The mechanized dragon’s whole body shook with each breath and movement.

Had it the proper brain function to understand the concept, it would have known it was doomed when it saw Zone Fighter on one knee with both hands to the gem atop his head. But its autopilot did not have things like fear and dread, so it just prepared to fire its beams again.

“Meteor Proton Beam!” Shouted the last Peacelandian at the top of his lungs. The thin, blue laser was fired. It lanced into the center head of Mecha-King Ghidorah. The head was blasted apart by the alien power, and a series of explosions traveled down the neck, tearing it apart as well.

The cyborg from the future hit the ground, and the mutated Dorats’ struggles were ended.

As soon as it did so, three Garoga ships descended from the clouds. Two grabbed Super Jikiro and Gigan in tractor beams, as the third went for Mecha-King Ghidorah’s carcass. The Eye-Slugger tore through the third ship, sending a cluster of wreckage to the ground.

The other two ships retreated into space. Godzilla stepped forward, power building in his spines.

“Stand down. There’s been enough fighting for today!” Hikaru ordered, causing Godzilla to just fire his beam into the air at nothing. He’d destroy Gigan next time they met.

A mighty roar pierced the air, Godzilla announcing his victory to all who could hear. He looked to Zone Fighter, and gave the warrior a nod. The saurian let out a softer growl, a thank you. He then looked to Ultraseven, and did the same. He didn’t know the latter, but the red and white humanoid had helped him, and didn’t seem to want to attack him now. So, this being was an ally, at the very least.

And with that, Godzilla began walking to the sea, seeking rest.

Zone Fighter and Ultraseven shrank down to human size, and walked over to each other. The ultra warrior spoke first.

“Thank you, Hikaru. For everything.”

“I should be thanking you,” The Peacelandian replied. “If it weren’t for you and Zoffy, this wouldn’t have happened. The Futurians would have killed Godzilla, and continued their rampage for who knows how long.”

“You’re welcome, but I couldn’t have done this without you, especially with your brazen idea to get aid from the Garoga.”

Hikaru looked to the sky for a moment, silent. “Yeah, the Garoga…”

Ultraseven reassured him. “Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance at them again. And the Ultras will be there by your side. We’ve been meaning to deal with them for quite a while.”

Hikaru’s mood lightened up, slightly. “So, what about the Futurians?”

“I dealt with them. Their time machine has been destroyed, and Zoffy’s hauled them off to have the Japanese Government deal with them.”

“That’s good. That makes me feel much better.” He paused for a moment as he tried to remember something. He kept talking when it came to him. “Ever find out why these guys were doing this in the first place?”

Ultraseven sighed. “Two hundred years from now, Earth isn’t doing very well. A lot of alien invasions, two of which used many of Earth’s kaiju against it, and power struggles between nations have made things difficult.”

Hikaru sighed as well. “I can help deal with the first thing, but I don’t think I’d help much with the second.”

“Dealing with a world’s internal struggles is never easy for guardians like us,” Ultraseven stated. “It’s why the Ultra Garrison forbids Ultras to intervene with a world’s civil wars. It is far too easy to go too far and change from guardian to tyrant.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Hikaru chuckled ever so slightly.

Ultraseven looked back towards the carcass of Mecha-King Ghidorah. “I know where we can start, however. Let Japan claim Mecha-King Ghidorah’s body and do whatever they’ll do with the technology, but don’t let them keep it a secret to themselves. As a member of the Ultra Garrison, I cannot interfere with a planet’s internal affairs. But you’re not a member of the Ultra Garrison.”

Hikaru was baffled. “What? Where’s this coming from all of a sudden?”

Ultraseven looked Hikaru straight in the eye. “Because in seven years, neither me, you, or any other Ultras will be here to help humanity deal with any more alien invasions.” Hikaru looked shocked, but Ultraseven kept talking. “At least, that’s what happened in the Futurians’ history. I don’t know if that’s something we can prevent, but that’s for another day. The Futurians attacked Japan because Japan was far more powerful than the rest of the world in their time period, the only nation capable of actually fighting off kaiju and aliens. We can’t let one nation be the only one capable of fighting, or else Earth will become a nightmare to live on. All of them need to be able to stand against the universe’s dangers.”

Hikaru was shocked, to say the least. After a moment of conflicting emotions, his face changed to one of determination. “You’re right. Humanity can’t solely rely on us, or the Earth’s guardians, forever. They need to be able to fight without us, so that when we all fight together, we’re unstoppable!” he spoke up, finishing off with a nod.

The two heroes bowed to each other, before flying their separate ways.

Winner: Godzilla (Heisei), Zone Fighter, Ultraseven, Gigan (Universal), Jikiro

Author: Joshua Strittmatter | Banner: Tyler Trieschock

World Children’s Land, Japan. 8:30 P.M.

“Our forces draw near their full strength,” sneered Fumio Sudo, chairman of the M Space Hunter Nebula aliens.

Standing out of his chair, the arthropodal extraterrestrial turned to face his spectators, all looking at the rather impressive sight on the control room’s main screen: a bird’s eye view of the World Children’s Land, and the countless squads of otherworldly forces marching in lines, preparing for their dreadful goal of global conquest and war against humanity. Standing in the middle of it all, watching over the spectacle with sinister interest, was the invasion’s greatest weapon: a lean, hideous, blue cyborg monster that towered even above the Godzilla Tower he stood next to. His chainsaw hands revving up in anticipation and his metal-toothed beak chirping, Gigan waited patiently to receive orders from his superiors, more than ready to follow the first order given.

“As you can see, our time spent waiting and building our forces to their strongest potential has paid off. And now, the time to strike is near,” he spoke, pacing patiently as the others watched him.

“Once our forces, soldier and monster alike, have destroyed the earthlings’ civilizations and forced them to lower their weaponry, they will finally understand.” He stopped pacing and turned to his audience.

“And with no threats left to oppose us, the colonization of earth and the subjection of the humans to Perfect Peace will transpire.”

Across from him, the commander of another extraterrestrial race smirked arrogantly. “And here I thought Mr. Four-Eyes and his gang of political hacks were in over their heads!” the Xillien Controller laughed. Hearing the insult loud and clear, the leader of the Leviathan aliens cast a shocked glance in his direction. “Tell me again–why did we all allow our plans to be overseen by a bunch of pacifist losers?”

“Because you seem to think complete extermination of the human race is our goal, you undeveloped idiot!” growled the Vortaak queen. “Do you not wish to subjugate the earthlings under our control once we have taken this planet as our own? Is that not our objective in this mission?”

“I fail to see how enslaving a race and farming them as cattle has anything to do with… What was it again? ‘Perfect peace?’” he mocked, making quotation marks with his fingers.

“You all lack vision,” the Leviathan warlord uttered. “Our true ambition should be to assimilate everyone’s consciousness- including all of yours–into the hive-mind. Our collective mentalities can exist as one, allowing for–”

“Shut up, numbskull,” growled Mugal, captain of the aliens from the Third Planet. “When this is all over, you can take your collective mentality religion somewhere else. We want no part in it!”

The floating alien stared at him with his four green eyes, his expression unreadable. “This conversation bores me. Do what you will, monkey,” he responded, “but when your vision of the future begins to turn on itself and crumble apart, don’t think we’ll have any part in saving-”

“Enough!” Fumio barked. “You are all proving exactly why our end goal must be peace!” Ignoring the Xillien Controller’s haughty chuckles as he and the other alien leaders temporarily backed off, the cockroach in human disguise sat back in his chair, switching to the controls. But before he could say anything else, alarms started to go off, catching everyone’s attention.

“Chairman, an object is approaching our base, and fast!” a Nebulan soldier cried out in alarm.

“Identification!” Fumio commanded.

*****

Gigan chirped in alarm as the ground began to rumble powerfully. Getting into a defensive stance, the dinosaurian cyborg revved his chainsaws as he waited for the unexpected. A good distance away, the ground suddenly exploded outward, sending tons of rock and earth flying into the heavens before falling back down, crushing hundreds of alien soldiers in their wake. As the dust cleared, a loud shriek pierced the air. It didn’t take long for the source to reveal itself.

Rugged, brown scales dripped with dirt as the subterranean beast reared to its full height. Gigan screeched a challenge to the newcomer, clapping his saw hands together and pawing the ground with his hooked legs. Pulling his fists out like a giant boxer, the horned dinosaur known as Gomora to the world answered with another mighty cry. He did not plan on letting these interstellar scavengers take his home world without the fight of their lives.

*****

“Opposer of the peace!” Fumio shouted angrily. “Gigan, slay this feral beast. Only then can the path to–”

“If he says another word about peace, I’m blowing his damn head off,” Mugal snarled in annoyance.

*****

Releasing a fearsome roar, Gomora wasted no time and unleashed his Super Oscillatory Wave upon the extraterrestrial forces that scattered around him. Sweeping his attack over the miniature crowds, the subterranean dinosaur made certain that they were out of the way and done with before he dealt with the main contender. As thousands of screams became muted by powerful explosions, Gomora eventually ceased fire before turning back towards Gigan.

His lack of attention to the cyclopean cyborg was all that was needed for Gigan to make the first move.

Gomora screeched in surprise as Gigan dove right at him, slashing his left hand across his sturdy chest. As tough as his skin was, even it was not strong enough to stop the beast’s chainsaw hands from drawing blood. The dinosaur screeched with pain but reacted just as quickly. As Gigan pulled up his arms to deal another blow, Gomora’s fist threw forward and socked the cyborg in the throat, throwing him off balance. The heroic reptile charged forward and rammed Gigan as hard as he could, sending him toppling to the ground.

Gomora readied to pounce–and cried out in pain when Gigan fired off his Gigarium Cluster at close range. As the series of explosions pelted his skin, Gigan’s tail lashed out and stabbed deep into Gomora’s hip. Kicking off the ground, the Nebulan champion chittered with laughter as he took flight, dragging the thrashing reptile across the earth.

Despite the pain, Gomora was in no mood to let this torment continue. Grabbing hold of the tail end, the reptile roared as he pulled it out, spilling new blood onto the soil but bringing the torture to an end. Standing to his feet, Gomora demanded for Gigan to come down and face him. All he received for his efforts was another cluster ray that bombarded his hide. Gomora narrowed his eyes. This one-eyed fool wanted to spam all day? Fine. Two could play that game.

Gomora charged with a roar, the trees shaking from the sound. Gigan flew downward, thrusting his right hand right at Gomora’s shoulder. But quicker than he could’ve anticipated, the dinosaur fired his Super Oscillatory Wave the moment he came within range. Screeching in agony from the incredible hit, Gigan fell back to the earth.

Standing to his feet as fast as possible, the avian cyborg readied himself as Gomora came charging in. The two titans met in an earth-shaking collision, sparks throwing into the air as they gnashed and pushed at each other. Gigan chirped sadistically as he slashed his chainsaw hands in an X-pattern across Gomora’s torso, decorating the air in sparks and blood. Raising his right arm for another go, Gigan was caught off guard when Gomora grabbed the offending limb with one arm, then began rapidly punching with the other. When Gigan brought down his other arm, however, Gomora quickly abandoned the assault and grabbed the other arm with his remaining limb.

Gigan would’ve smirked if he could.

Wrapping his prehensile tail around Gomora’s ankle, the alien began revving up his deadliest asset. Yanking the dinosaur forward, Gigan screamed with sadistic laughter as the running buzz saw embedded in his chest buried itself in Gomora’s belly, slicing through flesh and muscle like a knife through garlic bread. Gomora’s scream of agony was so loud, the windows of the Godzilla Tower cracked a little.

But even staring a painful demise in the face, Gomora was never one to give up.

Reacting immediately, Gomora fired off his Super Oscillatory Wave point-blank in Gigan’s face. Enshrouded in an explosion, the cyborg immediately ceased his attack and backed off, holding his chainsaws up in front of his face for protection as Gomora continued to fire. While his metallic limbs held decently against the powerful attack, the kinetic force was so great that Gigan was pushed back almost effortlessly for hundreds of meters, digging massive trenches into the earth as he was.

*****

Within the Godzilla Tower, the aliens watched the spectacle with worry. Even the expressionless face of the Leviathan leader failed to hide his surprise at the sight before him.

“Gomora is defeating your cyborg?” he asked in astonishment, receiving an equally stunned glance from Fumio in reply.

*****

Eventually, Gomora cut off his attack. He didn’t want to waste all energy on an assault that clearly wasn’t going to end this cretin’s life. He had to put a different idea to use, and fast. This beast was a great deal tougher than he initially thought.

Across from him, Gigan shared no higher enthusiasm as he studied his boiled saw hands. It wasn’t the fact that his main weapons were in poorer condition than in any convict before that disturbed him. No, it was how close that damned dinosaur came to either blinding him or blowing his head clean off. If another blow like that connected ever again…

Chirping, Gigan shook off all worries and taunted Gomora with his screeches, his chainsaws still in well enough condition to rev threateningly. Taking flight, he ascended above the angry Gomora, the dinosaur not daring to shoot at him from below. Taking advantage of this fact, Gigan dove.

Both monsters, utilizing the respective ideas brewing in their minds, attacked at once. Gigan revved up his abdominal saw while Gomora turned around to whip his mighty tail upwards.

Blood flew through the air before staining the light brown earth as Gomora’s tail fell to the ground, no longer attached to its screaming owner. As Gomora staggered in an attempt to stay balanced without a tail, Gigan fired the Gigarium Cluster once more. The series of explosions worsened Gomora’s wounds, crying out as a chainsaw cut gruesomely across his shoulder, sending more precious lifeblood falling to the earth. The sound barrier rang with Gigan’s psychotic laughter as he cut and blasted the crippled dinosaur, who fought with every fiber of his being to muscle through the onslaught.

Hooking his tail into Gomora’s hip, Gigan took flight once more and dragged his maimed foe in a continuous circle, laughing like he never had before. This was currently the best day of his life, and if this was only the beginning, then he couldn’t wait to see what the future had in store for him!

After well over a full minute, Gigan shrieked and yanked his tail to the side, sending Gomora falling into a shoulder-high chasm big enough to fit a kaiju.

A chasm Gigan planned on turning into a grave.

Landing at the edge of said chasm, the one-eyed menace fired off his cluster light ray. Gomora only groaned as his skin was assailed by crimson explosions, small mounds of dust being thrown into the air as a result. Gigan screeched and fired off another burst, rending the dinosaur’s injuries further.

Gomora’s claws tensed against the dirt they lay upon, his eyes squeezed shut.

Gigan mocked the doomed reptile with his chirping laughter and took a step forward, his eye aglow as he prepared to continue the excruciating torture–and was suddenly met with a new searing agony, like a glowing molten knife digging into his spine. Screaming in surprise, the cyborg turned to see what was the matter, and had he possessed facial muscles, his eye would’ve widened in shock.

Gomora’s severed tail was acting up on its own! And it had impaled itself into his back like a dagger!

Wiggling free of its position, the tail leaped up to beat the dumbfounded cyborg across the eye with impressive strength. Turning around in circles in a vain attempt to catch the living appendage, Gigan shrieked in frustration as the tail whipped against his face a second time, denting his visor.

Before he could retaliate, a screeching cry caught his attention. Gigan didn’t even have time to curse himself for his mistake before he caught sight of Gomora’s Super Oscillatory Wave headed right for his face.

It was the last thing he would ever see again.

The orange beam struck home, and Gigan’s head erupted in a massive ball of fire and flying flesh. The cyborg’s body seized for a moment… then, it went still.

Rearing his arms skyward, Gomora bellowed in triumph for all to hear. Then, he turned his head in the direction of his main objective: that tower that looked like some kind of bipedal dinosaur like him. Staring at it closely, Gomora’s eyes widened in recognition. That tower resembled a species that once existed on this earth, a species sadly lost to the world of extinction all thanks to the arrogance of humanity.

Gomora growled in anger. How dare these invaders model their headquarters after a murdered race! He would make them pay with their lives–

A scream of pain echoed from the horned dinosaur as he fell to one knee, fresh blood pouring from two new lacerations on his shoulders. Whipping around as fast as he could, Gomora got into a fighting stance to meet his new attacker, only for his eyes to widen in a mix of confusion and shock.

Two narrow slits had opened on Gigan’s decapitated body, and now two flying razor discs were flying back around like boomerangs to hit him again. Gomora growled defensively. That headless husk was somehow still alive!

Gigan’s arms raised back up, blindly swaying about as they tried to find their target. But without a head to see with, the crippled cyborg continued to hit nothing but thin air. Gomora shrieked as the discs cut into his flesh yet again, but even with his injuries worsening by the second, he persisted. This alien menace may have been a tricky foe indeed, but he wasn’t the only one to possess such surprises.

Gomora’s eyes hardened with a mighty growl. He still had one more trick up his sleeve.

Bellowing in defiance, the subterranean reptile lowered his head and charged at the headless horror known as Gigan, just as the latter’s discs came back for another round. The bladed objects cut with horrific precision, but Gomora did not fall, nor did his advance slow.

Meeting his target in a powerful collision, the heroic reptile plunged his glowing horn deep into Gigan’s side, and without thinking, began to pump the cyborg’s body full of energy. Within Gigan’s body, the monster’s nerves went haywire as the energies began to rapidly destroy him from the inside out. Flailing his arms like a lunatic, the headless menace slashed and cut aimlessly across his attacker, but pain did nothing to deter the horned saurian. Gomora pumped every last bit of energy he had into the alien’s form, then, with all the strength his wounded body possessed, he lifted the cyborg’s body clear over his head and flung him into the air.

He didn’t even look back as Gigan’s beheaded body crashed down a good hundred meters behind him and detonated, disappearing in a brilliant rupture of fire.

This time, he was destroyed for good.

Gomora sighed in exhaustion as his injuries began to catch up with him, staggering painfully in his daze. Nevertheless, he fought hard to keep focused. This was a dangerous place to lose consciousness–he knew of the advanced technology these extraterrestrials possessed. If he fell asleep here and now, they would take advantage of his helpless state. They would capture him, cage him, perhaps even torture him, and mold him into a mindless slave to do their bidding.

He couldn’t let that happen. Not while he still had strength left in him.

Not wanting to risk the defensive capabilities of that mockery of a tower he stood across, Gomora immediately crouched down and began to dig at lightning speed. Mounds of rock and soil flew up in large clouds as the victorious dinosaur burrowed his way to safety under the earth, tunneling hundreds upon hundreds of meters below the earth’s crust. His wounds were not mortal–he would eventually recover and return when the world needed his power yet again. Until that day, Gomora would sleep.

He deserved nothing less for his noble deeds.

*****

Fumio stared wordlessly at the screen, his eyes wide in a mix of shock, anger and mourning of the Nebula Hunter’s vanquished champion, Gigan. The fates were certainly cruel today, and as he heard the near-unmistakable shuffling of his audience behind him, he had a feeling that they were about to be crueler yet, for as far as he knew none of the leaders behind him were ones to not stifle any mockery they may be holding back…

The Xillien Controller’s immature giggling broke the silence of the room, prompting a series of glances in his direction. “Hey, cockroach,” X taunted, “what was that you said earlier about ‘perfect peace?’” He held a hand to his ear. “I didn’t really catch that.”

Fumio didn’t turn to meet his gaze. Instead, he kept his attention focused on the screen, somewhat unsure of how to proceed. Perhaps there were bits of Gigan that were left over? Perhaps some salvaging and rebuilding was in order…?

Eventually, all that came out of his mouth was a frustrated mutter of “Goddamn dinosaur.”

“LOOK AT THIS! LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE ALLOWED!” Mugal screamed, making everyone in the room jump. “You call that a warrior?! You chose to guard our forces with a walking pile of junk! And look what it cost us!” The infuriated ape pulled out his pistol, making Fumio stop in his tracks. “All of our best forces that we spent MONTHS building, gone! Wasted! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!” He turned to the rest of the leaders, who looked at him with rather wary expressions–with the exception of X, who simply continued to stare with his usual cocky grin. “I’m putting him down.”

Before he could pull the trigger, the doors behind them audibly whirred open. “You’ll do no such thing!” an angry voice boomed. At this, all of the aliens turned to gaze upon the newcomer. Standing in the entrance, having just arrived in the elevator, was an extraterrestrial who easily dwarfed the others in size and mass. An upright, multi-tentacled being with a green flap of skin wrapped around his collar, a clear sign of leadership amongst his kind. Behind him were three others, their tentacled arms holding energy rifles that were primed and ready, should things go ugly.

But unlike the other leaders, Fumio stared at the leader of the Cryog with a friendly smile. “Rhizon, my old friend,” he greeted with a bow, “it’s been a while.”

Beaming in reply, the Cryog leader held up a tentacled arm, motioning for his guards to stand down. Nodding, they obeyed. “You look weary, old friend,” Rhizon stated. “And your plans for Peace, carefully planned as they may have been, seem to be rather… flawed.”

“More like his so-called ‘champion’ was nothing more than a useless amalgamation of spare parts!” growled Mugal. The Cryog leader spared him an annoyed glare. “We should’ve sent Mechagodzilla to be base guardian! He would never have lost to that insolent reptile–”

“Oh, save your breath, you dimwitted ape,” Rhizon snarled with tedium. “Your pettiness irritates me more than your species’ foul odor.”

At this, X clapped his hands as he burst out laughing, stomping the ground with his boot in enjoyment.

“And that goes for you too, youth!”

At this, X stifled his laughter, though his usual smug gin remained. “You’re an even bigger fool than the humans if you think your toys over there are a match for the powers of a Keizer,” he said haughtily, regarding the Cryog guards. Rhizon merely scoffed in return.

“Time for fighting between the two of us will have to wait, boy.” He turned back to Fumio, wrapping a tentacle around his shoulder. “Come, my old comrade. Time for mourning Gigan’s loss will have to wait as well. For I have something to show you.”

“But what about our slain warriors?” Fumio responded. “Why aren’t we making haste to replace our lost soldiers and weaponry?” At this, Rhizon merely smiled in return.

“Because I have something far better to show you. Something that will pave the way… for the peace we both so desperately strive for.”

Hearing this, the Nebulan’s eyebrows raised, and he allowed his multi-limbed comrade to proceed.

Walking his friend over to the control screen, Rhizon began to type in a series of commands, and with it, the screen view began to change. “In fact, I have something to show ALL of you,” he sneered with a toothy grin. He continued to type in the commands, and what was at first a space-eye view of the earth began to zoom in, frame by frame.

When he was finished, the room was filled with silence.

On the screen, there displayed a satellite image of a hangar of some kind, originating on the island of Japan. “Wait… what is this?” the Vortaak queen asked, silently knowing the answer herself. “Isn’t that…?” Before she could finish, Rhizon clicked another command, and yet another image popped into existence.

An aura of fear permeated the room.

On the screen was a live webcam, showing the contents of the hangar. The room was a gigantic one, and it was entirely filled with water. Human scientists in diving suits swam in different directions, following their respective tasks as they flocked around what held everyone’s attention–a colossal skeleton. A skeleton that mirrored the very tower they stood within, a skeleton belonging to the deceased entity which inspired its design.

Rhizon turned to his dumbfounded audience, his grin wider than ever.

“Yes, that’s right. Godzilla.”

Winner: Gomora

Author: Connor Clennell | Banner: Andrew Sudomerski

A shadow fell across the land as an alien form flew overhead. The sun’s light reflected off its metallic hide, giving the creature an almost glowing appearance. The air around it distorted as it flew at supersonic speeds towards its destination: the mountain known as Fuji.

Within moments, it had arrived at its destination. Gigan dropped from the air and landed with a thunderous noise, kicking up a cloud of dust. The ground trembled under his enormous weight, bringing down trees and shattering boulders. Gigan spread his blade-tipped arms, shrieking to the heavens. His masters, the Star Hunter Nebula M Aliens, had given him the order to obliterate the surrounding area as a show of strength to the people of Earth. Twice they had tried to lay dominance to the blue planet, only to be repelled by the might of the one the earthlings called Godzilla. This time, they meant business.

Gigan only partially shared his controller’s enthusiasm. Yes, he lived to destroy, that was the purpose he had been created for. But he was never under his own power. Every city crushed, every opponent slain, it was all under the orders of some higher power. Star Hunter M, Garoga and Xilien alike had claimed control over him. He could never achieve true freedom, and in the rare moments he could, it was never for long. How he wished he could be free of this life of slavery to begin his own campaign of destruction, and prove to the entire galaxy he was more than some expendable pawn.

Receiving the coordinates of his first target, Gigan began to march in the direction of a nearby village. He hadn’t gotten very far when the ground suddenly began to shake violently. Gigan squawked in alarm as he struggled to keep his balance. He rapidly scanned the area, hoping to locate the cause of the tremor. A bright flash accompanied by a booming sound in the distance caught his attention. Craning his head up, Gigan watched as fire and brimstone spat out of the crest of Mt. Fuji as a cloud of pitch-black smog rose of the crater. The cyborg could hardly believe it: Mount Fuji was erupting! But his records of the volcano listed it as dormant. Why would it choose to erupt now? What could have triggered this unprecedented event?

A loud thud of something heavy hitting the ground caused Gigan to divert his attention to a massive boulder, as large as he was tall, no doubt thrown out of the volcano during the eruption, as it came rolling down the hill towards him. Spreading his crimson wings and activating the thrusters nestled between, Gigan leapt back, avoiding being squashed by the boulder as it came crashing down on the spot he had been standing in seconds before and came to a stop. Gigan landed a few meters away as the trembling stopped. The alien beast looked around, confused. The eruption was over already? Something in the cyborg’s mind told him there was something off about all this. His suspicions were proved correct, as the boulder suddenly began to rock and shake. Cracks appeared all across its surface and chunks of stone fell to the ground. Gigan watched with amazement and surprise as it split open, like some gigantic egg born of the Earth’s womb, revealing the last creature on Earth Gigan expected to see.

Thick bark-like scales adorned its muscular frame. Its powerful arms ended in four-fingered hands, each finger tipped with a devastating claw. Its body was supported on two stocky legs. A long segmented tail trailed behind it and slammed against the ground, cracking the soil beneath it. Three pairs of maple leaf-shaped plates, a large row set between two smaller rows, adorned its back from the base of its neck to the tip of its tail. Its small reptilian head ended in a set of streamlined triangular jaws, lined with similarly shaped teeth. A pair of human-like eyes was placed on each side of its head. The creature shook the dust and debris off of its body and reared its head back, unleashing an infamous cry that, in Gigan’s mind, confirmed the creature’s identity.

Godzilla.

The reptilian goliath swiped and pawed at the air as it simultaneously twisted its upper torso from side to side, all the while roaring wildly. Though it seemed bizarre, Gigan recognized the Monster King’s actions as what they really were: a challenge.

Brandishing his scythe-arms, Gigan screeched into the air, accepting Godzilla’s challenge.

Throwing his arms to his sides, Gigan charged towards his opponent. At that same moment, Godzilla ceased his taunting and rushed towards the biomechanical beast. The two met and Gigan was quicker on the draw, smashing his right scythe into the side of Godzilla’s skull. Godzilla stumbled briefly but did not fall, allowing Gigan to smack him across the head with his other scythe. Godzilla cried out and began slashing wildly at Gigan’s chest, drawing sparks and leaving deep gouges in his armor. Shrieking in rage, Gigan lashed out with his foot, driving Godzilla back. His cyclopean eye flashed with crimson light as it fired a blast of his Cluster Light Ray, engulfing Godzilla in explosions.

The Monster King cried out in what Gigan assumed was pain as he was surrounded by dazzling destructive lights. Gigan was enjoying this turn of events, but could help but feel there was something off about Godzilla. It looked and sounded like him, albeit with some differences, but it seemed to missing something, something that gave the Godzilla Gigan knew his sense of power and fear. This Godzilla was lacking that. It just felt… empty.

Gigan quickly pushed these thoughts aside. It didn’t matter. This creature, Godzilla or not, made the mistake of challenging him, and in turn, his masters. For that it would pay in blood.

Gigan leapt at Godzilla and began to batter him with his scythes. He failed to notice Godzilla’s scutes light up with neon blue light – until he opened his mouth and blasted the cyborg in the chest with his atomic ray. Gigan fell back, screeching in pain and surprise, his armored chest plate smoking. Godzilla roared, clapping his hands together in glee, before approaching the downed cyborg. Gigan was back on his feet in an instant, however, and slashed Godzilla across his chest and shoulder, driving him back with another empty cry. Gigan didn’t have time to observe his injuries. He was too busy wondering why his own blades were devoid of his enemy’s blood.

Godzilla’s dorsal plates flashed with nuclear might as he unleashed his atomic ray into Gigan’s face. The Hunter M cyborg cried out as his visor shut off from the blast and he went blind. With two more atomic blasts, Godzilla sent Gigan crashing to the ground, kicking up a cloud of smoke and dust. Gigan flailed his limns wildly, bringing up more dust from the ground until a massive haze covered both him and Godzilla. At last his visor flickered with light and his vision was returned, and he stood up, determining his surroundings. He wasn’t bothered by the barrier of dust; he had other senses to rely on. Apparently so did Godzilla, as he came charging through the dust cloud towards the metallic fiend. He swung his body around and swung his tail into Gigan’s neck. Sparks flew from the point of impact as the metal on Gigan’s neck was dented, eliciting a chirp of rage from the blue armored creature. The ports located in his chest opened, ejecting twin razor discs that sliced through the air towards Godzilla. They cut through the side of the kaiju king’s torso and neck, taking with them pieces of the leviathan’s flesh. Somehow, Godzilla knew the discs were coming back and spun around to face them. With a quick blast of his atomic breath, one of the discs was destroyed. The other continued on its path towards him. Godzilla reached out, pulled the disc out of the air, not even flinching as it tore into the flesh of his hand, and tossed it back at Gigan. The cyborg screeched, taken aback, and swiftly knocked the disc to the ground with a swing of his right scythe.

Activating his thrusters, Gigan took to the air and flew directly towards Godzilla. His abdominal buzzsaw whirred to life as he flew past Godzilla, gashing open his shoulder and bringing the nuclear menace down. Gigan landed with a thud and lashed his tail out, the claw on its tip clamping around Godzilla’s neck, then swung up, throwing the Monster King over his head and crashing to the ground meters away. With a robotic stiffness, Godzilla slowly rose as Gigan cackled with evil glee. He raised his arms and fired the grabbling cables located at the base of his scythes. The right pair wrapped around the kaiju king’s neck, throttling him. As Godzilla tried to free himself from the cables, the left pair entwined his right leg. With his foe properly secured, Gigan began twisting his arms, wrapping the wires around his scythes and reeling Godzilla in. Godzilla struggled against his bindings, but could not break free. A familiar whirring noise filled the area as Gigan switched on his buzzsaw. In desperation, Godzilla unleashed his atomic ray, striking the base of Gigan’s left scythe. The searing hot blast burned through the wires with ease, and they immediately snapped off. The cables securing his leg slackened, allowing Godzilla to easily shake them off. He fired again, severing the cables on Gigan’s right arm and freeing his neck. Shaking off the cables, Godzilla let out a roar devoid of emotion, only to be cut off as Gigan let out another crimson cluster blast.

Gigan sprinted towards Godzilla, scythes outstretched, ready to cut the King of the Monsters down. Just as he was within striking range, Godzilla reared back onto his tail and kicked out with both feet, catching Gigan square in the face, sending the biomechanical alien crashing to the ground. A memory suddenly flashed before Gigan’s eye. Did Godzilla’s attack trigger this? He remembered his creation. Once, he had been a fully organic creature, an inhabitant of the home world of Star Hunter Nebula M. But overtime the cockroach aliens had brought their planet to the brink of destruction with constant war and pollution. Of the native wildlife, he was the only one to remain unaffected. The rulers of Star Hunter M saw this, and devised a plan to turn him into a weapon, the ultimate tool that would lead them in their conquest of their new home world. He remembered his capture, the dozens of experiments and autopsies performed to understand his biology, and the painful process of grafting his cybernetic implant onto his body. When it was finished, he barely resembled his original form. He had been teamed up with another creature, the mind-controlled King of Terror, King Ghidorah. Together, they were to act as the vanguard to the invasion of Earth. But despite their efforts, they were repelled by Godzilla and Anguirus. On that day, his hate of the Monster King began.

Godzilla approached the downed Gigan and began stomping and kicking his head. Another memory resurfaced. Following their defeat, he and Ghidorah were freed from their mental binds, and fled to the stars. He never saw King Ghidorah after that: the golden dragon must have escaped. He hadn’t been so lucky. The forces of Star Hunter Nebula M recaptured him and rebound him to their will. He recalled being dispatched to Earth again, to aid their allies in Seatopia. He had been paired up with Megalon, the guardian of Seatopia, and together they almost defeated that accursed robot, Jet Jaguar. But Godzilla intervened, and soon the two began to overwhelm himself and Megalon. During the battle his masters lost control, and he managed to escape, leaving Megalon behind to spare his own hide.

Pulling Gigan to his feet, Godzilla smashed his hand across his face, sending the cyborg crashing back down. Another memory took up Gigan’s vision. He recalled his recapture, not by Star Hunter M, but by a new party, the villainous Garoga. They improved him, and sent him back to Earth to dispose of their nemesis, Zone Fighter. But Godzilla interfered yet again, saving the unearthly hero and doing battle once again. He was beaten once again, but not out. When Godzilla had left, he sprung to life to continue his assault and destroy Zone Fighter. He almost succeeded, but the Meteor Man proved far more powerful than him. His last memory of that encounter was trying to escape, and then, darkness.

Godzilla kicked Gigan in the stomach, sending him rolling across the ground, then blasted him in the face with his atomic ray. Yet another memory filled Gigan’s vision. He remembered waking up in a new form, his current body. Before he was a beautiful creature of green and gold, a reminder of the once great Nebula M home world. Now his design was sleek, cold and metallic, sending fear trickling down the spines of lesser beings. His new masters, the Xiliens, had recovered his remains and rebuilt him to serve in their plans of conquest. Alongside an army of monsters, he laid waste to the world. He was sent to Antarctica to stop the humans from awakening Godzilla. He failed, and he lost his head as a result. Quickly rebuilt, he was sent out again, now armed with dual chainsaws for hands, to assist another creature, Monster X, in destroying Godzilla and another monster, Mothra. But it wasn’t Godzilla who best him. It was the moth, and that made his defeat all the more humiliating.

Gigan recalled his recent resurrection, how Star Hunter M had found his remains and rebuilt him, keeping the upgrades the Xiliens had installed. He should have been grateful. But gratitude was not something you show to slave masters. It was never fair, never just. Despite the metal covering his body, Gigan was still an organic being. That part of him may be small, but it existed. He did not deserve to be treated this way. He demanded respect! He demanded retribution! He demanded freedom!

As Godzilla moved in closer, Gigan snapped out of his daze, thrusting out his arms and gashing Godzilla’s legs. The Monster King cried out and fell to the ground, giving Gigan, seething with rage, the space needed to get to his feet. Something exploded within the cyborg’s head, either due to damage, malfunction, or Gigan’s growing rage, causing a shower of sparks to fly out the back. Gigan suddenly stopped. He couldn’t hear his controllers anymore. He tried moving one arm, then the other. They moved, not under the directions of his masters, but of his own free will. Gigan screeched joyously into the air, clanging his scythes together. Finally, he was free!

Godzilla rose back up, roaring at the alien cyborg. Gigan rushed towards him, uncaring. He was free now, and even if it was only for a brief time, he was going to enjoy every second of carving Godzilla open like a Christmas turkey. He raised his arms and swung them down, but Godzilla caught and stopped them mid-swing. The two struggled, trying to overpower each other. Godzilla swiftly lunged toward, clamping his jaws around Gigan’s armored throat. He was like a starved dog trying to bite through a steel beam. Gigan let out a laughter-like sound and pulled his arms back, pulling Godzilla closer. Before the reptile could react, Gigan activated his buzzsaw. Godzilla released his grip and cried out as the blade tore into his belly, ripping apart his flesh. Gigan chirped with sick glee into Godzilla’s face, enjoying the kaiju king’s suffering, anticipating the feeling of his innards spilling across the ground, his blood staining the soil, the fear in his eyes as the life left them…

…Only for the sound of metal grinding against metal to reach his audio receptors.

Confused, Gigan looked down at Godzilla’s belly. His buzzsaw had torn away the skin covering, revealing not flesh and bone, but gleaming silver metal. Gigan’s face was incapable of showing the shock he was feeling right now. He’d been right: this wasn’t the real Godzilla at all! He looked up into the doppelgänger’s face, which was frozen in an emotionless expression. It opened his mouth, but the sound that came out was no longer Godzilla’s iconic roar, but a harsh, high-pitched screech. Gigan ripped his arms free of its grasp and backed away, horrified by this revelation. The fake Godzilla opened its mouth again and fired its atomic ray, no longer blue in color but a bright gold, charring the metal on Gigan’s chest. Shrieking in surprise, Gigan fired his Cluster Light Ray, stripping the flesh from atop the reptilian duplicate’s head, revealing more shimmering metal and a pair of ruby-red, lifeless eyes. They flashed with light, streaming a destructive beam of many colors. It struck Gigan’s neck, setting off an explosion as it stripped away layers of armor. Gigan fell back, crying out in pain.

The mechanical Godzilla’s arms locked into position, hands pointed at Gigan. They began to spin rapidly, becoming a blur, stripping the artificial skin off of them. They stopped, revealing their true, missile-tipped form. Bursts of finger-missiles assaulted Gigan, coating him and the area around them with plumes of flames. Amidst the barrage, Gigan struggled to his feet. He raised his scythes, hoping to lessen the barrage, to no avail, as the false king added its eye beams and atomic ray to the mix. Gigan became shrouded in a cloud of smoke as the assault continued, continuing to cry out in pain. This was not what he envisioned. He wanted to kill Godzilla, not fight whatever this thing was. The mechanized Godzilla’s weaponry was far superior to this, or even Godzilla’s. If he stayed, he’d be destroyed, and this time there was no one to rebuild him.

Whilst his foe couldn’t see him, Gigan flared his wings and took off, flying in the opposite direction of his attacker. The fake Godzilla stopped its assault and followed Gigan’s fleeing form with its eyes. It considered fully shedding its disguise and taking chase, but its own controllers decided it was not worth it. Gigan soured higher and higher into the atmosphere, heading for space. While he may be a cold, heartless killer, he was a coward at heart. He valued his own life over victory. He would rather go back to a life of servitude that face that… nightmare again. The fake Godzilla watched as Gigan disappeared into the stratosphere, before turning and marching back up to the crest of Mt. Fuji. Once at the top, it looked into the crater, then jumped in, disappearing into its depths and the fortress hidden within.

It was a destroyer. A harbinger of forces soon to emerge from hiding and begin their conquest of this small, fragile world. It took inspiration from the greatest creature to ever walk the Earth. Its power exceeded its organic counterparts. Constructed by the Aliens of the Third Planet of the Black Hole, one of the most technologically advanced civilizations in the cosmos, it was destined to bring about a new age, one that benefited the soon-to-be new rulers of the planet.

In the end, Gigan was hardly a match for Mechagodzilla.

Winner: Mechagodzilla (Showa)

Author: Joshua Strittmatter | Banner: Dao Zang Moua, Landon Soto, Tyler Trieschock & Matthew Williams

Dinosaurian jaws expelled a cloud of bubbles through the oceanic void, a warbling vocalization echoing into the water. A powerful orange body swam with beautifully fluid efficiency that contrasted with its colossal bulk, yellow eyes gazing ahead with an ancient intensity. A great tail undulated from side to side like that of a great crocodile, powering the huge body forward at speeds that outclassed any and all of the fastest constructs of humankind. With eyesight that rivaled the most efficient predators on Planet Earth, Titanosaurus looked to and fro as he searched for something living amidst the ocean he called home, but so far he sensed nothing. The aquatic dinosaur had no idea why, but these parts of the ocean were significantly different from what he had grown up with all his life. One key attribute–and one key attribute alone–stuck out like a crushed thumb blackened by purple bruising.

The water was blood red.

Titanosaurus couldn’t comprehend why such a sudden change had occurred, or what these strange particles that painted the water this color were. What was this strange crimson that mixed with the water to bathe it in this shade? It wasn’t blood; he knew the scent of blood, and none of it was present here. So what was it? And why here? Why had such a change occurred here of all places?

The dinosaur kept swimming, his eyes peeled for any standout differences in the scarlet void, his nasal region emitting active sonar to navigate his way through the red. As he swam on, Titanosaurus did catch a few signatures far up ahead, but they were too large to be fish or whales. But there was something else mixed in here with these detections, something he wasn’t sure how to react to. Normally when he detected the presence of anything larger than a whale, the oceanic saurian would prepare himself for the possibility of territorial conflict. But these scents had a sense of strange familiarity to them–they seemed to belong to something he had encountered before. But there was one hitch that caught him off-guard:

They both were identical, as if there were two versions of the same individual in one place.

Titanosaurus would’ve shaken his head had his mind possessed the notion to do so. No, that couldn’t be correct! How could something or someone be in two places at once?

Powering his tail, the aquatic theropod began to boost his swimming speeds. Equal mixes extreme curiosity and a little bit of anxiety powered him forth at higher velocity than normal. The dinosaur needed to get a visual on these duplicate scents as quickly as possible. The red around him actually seemed to partially part as he swam, as if the red were not the water itself, but some kind of dust or cluster of microorganisms that simply made it look as if it had shifted the water’s color. But that mattered not; Titanosaurus was gaining on the sources of the duplicate scents. Faster he swam, like an organic torpedo building towards the speed of sound, the strange crimson powder whipping in clouds as he sped through them. As he flew through the water, he noticed that the red dust was beginning to clear ever so slightly, providing a better view of the scenery around him. And that’s when he saw… … …

Seaweed-green flesh seemed to shine like a beacon amidst the clouds of red, weaved in a lengthy, recognizably serpentine body. Floating motionlessly amidst the red water, clouds of more crimson poured from huge, gaping wounds in the creature’s body–and this time, Titanosaurus smelled the blood before he even saw it. But it was not the blood that shocked him out of his mind; it was the sight of the creature itself, and its initial physical outline.

Manda?!

Titanosaurus drew closer, and that was when his mind was assailed with a whole avalanche of confusion. For one, the scent of the creature was exactly identical to the Dragon God of Mu that he remembered–but such had to be impossible, because its actual appearance was almost entirely different. It was segmented, like a crustacean, with a fish-like fin running down its back. Its head was more reminiscent of a shark than a dragon, but still retained the distinctive horns and barbels. Its limbs were very long and thin, almost like the jointed forelimbs of a shrimp. But despite these differences, Titanosaurus sniffed the creature once again, and still his nose detected no lies; its scent remained exactly identical to the revered God of Mu. It was Manda.

And he was dead.

Titanosaurus looked around, inhaling the water as he scented the area, and his eyes spotted what he was looking for. And it too, shocked him to his core: another Manda. And its scent, like the first corpse, was identical to the Manda he knew–and it too, was dead. He looked around, and his eyes spotted a third, horribly maimed Manda floating lifelessly in the clouds of crimson, its lifeblood mixing with the red dust that permeated the water.

Titanosaurus didn’t know what kind of warped graveyard he had stumbled upon. This place was insane, it made zero sense whatsoever. Manda was in three places at once, looked completely different than his usual self, and was dead in all three forms. Something that shouldn’t be possible, shouldn’t exist… … …existed right before his very eyes. It was all too much for his animalistic mind to comprehend, intelligent as he was. He didn’t even know if he would be able to stay here any longer, lest these existing impossibilities drive him insane… … …

A new scent entered his nasal passage.

And this one, too, was familiar–but in a completely different manner. This scent sent entirely different memories flashing through his mind; memories of pain, possession, and agonizing defeat. At the hands of a dinosaurian giant somewhat like himself, with a breath of searing heat… … …

Titanosaurus froze, startled and spooked alike. Could it be? He was here?!

As if to accommodate his thoughts, he heard a sound echo through the water. Like the growling of some fearsome leviathan, but at a pitch he recognized all too well. Titanosaurus growled with frustration and changed direction, beginning to swim towards the nearest spot of land that he knew to be not very far away. He was in no mood to get in a fight today, especially with the same creature that beat him so many years ago. But as he swam onward, the scent of his long-ago rival never wavered or disappeared; in fact, ever so slightly, it seemed to be getting stronger. As if his old rival was on his trail.

As if Titanosaurus were being followed… … …

*****

Cliffs of Moher, Ireland.

A tri-taloned foot stomped upon the ground with a magnitude that made the earth shudder. 47,000 metric tons of prehistoric predator towered an incredible 90 meters above the earth, strong legs carrying it on the move. Gorosaurus rumbled as he lumbered along the edges of the cliffs, his avian eyes staring with uncertainty at the crimson ocean that waved and frothed below; a strangely unnerving contrast with the cloudy, overcast sky. The giant Allosaurus sniffed in the water’s direction, but detected no abnormal aromas. No blood, no alien properties, nothing. It was as if there was nothing wrong with the water. So why was it red? From what Gorosaurus knew, water was never supposed to be red unless stained with the blood of a hunter’s prey. Something was definitely off here… … …and yet his nose told him otherwise.

How very strange.

He had thought this territory to be his and his alone, but the suspicion that what he was seeing was the prelude to the advent of a possible intruder was beginning to set in. And it made the Allosaur angry. He hadn’t come all this way just to be usurped by some unforeseen newcomer, so if an unwanted intruder did indeed show its face, the ill-tempered carnosaur would not hesitate to pick a fight with it. This was his domain, and no one else’s, and he was gonna tear anyone who disagreed apart to prove it.

Suddenly, his eyes spotted something up ahead. A familiar sight, an inhabitant he recognized from Monsterland–and his blood boiled with rage. His jaws gaped to utter a deep growl at the four-legged reptile that stood approximately five hundred meters from him, and a response was made. Turning about in surprise, Varan faced the primeval carnivore with a mighty screech. Hearing this, Gorosaurus howled back his own roar, the meaning loud and clear: this is my territory! I’m the boss!

Get out!

Varan narrowed his eyes and snarled at the theropod, offended by the display. He had not come looking for a fight, but if Gorosaurus tried starting one he would give him the battle of his life. Holding down on four legs, the Great Mountain God Baradagi glared fearlessly as the predator of Mondo Island roared at him again. Varan cried back, keeping his defensive position as he informed the dinosaur he wasn’t in the mood for a battle.

Gorosaurus was able to get a clearer scent of the creature now that he was closer, and what his nose told him somewhat surprised him. This Varan was not the same individual he knew from Monsterland; this one was a great deal larger and older than the golden youth that wandered the reaches of the island home of the world’s kaiju.

The two giants exchanged chilling cries that echoed into the distance–but before any type of conflict could come to pass between them, a distant splash of water caught their attention, stopping them short. Both of their saurian heads snapped away from one another to point towards the frothing red ocean, where their sharp eyes were able to make out the last remnants of white water falling back to the scarlet surface, the aftermath of something moving about in the normally clear veil. And just like that, the atmosphere had gone from wrathfully loud, raging with the echoing shouts of primeval giants, to more deathly silent than the sandy fields of Mars. Only the waves below made any noise; the air itself was windless and still, both kaiju entirely quiet as they watched the surface of the crimson water like a bald eagle watching for fish. Waiting for even the slightest hint of movement larger than your typical ocean wave, any sign indicating the presence of an entity like themselves that they now suspected heavily lurked within the strangely scarlet sea… … …

The surface parted in froths of white as an orange-skinned form knifed through the water like a shark, an orange fin adorning the back. It wasn’t long before the organic lump suddenly came to a graceful stop, before then rearing up out of the red water in an upturned splash of water that fell back to its source. A tall, bipedal dinosaur much like Gorosaurus stood waist-high in the sea, its head and back adorned by that same orange sail-like fin. Twin antennae-like appendages of unknown function lanced from atop its head, its long arms curling clawed fingers. Gorosaurus recognized this creature, a past visitor to Monsterland’s shores–but that was not what kept his attention on the animal.

Titanosaurus warbled a loud cry as he rose from the depths, surprised to be greeted by the sights of two fellow prehistoric reptilians that he recognized from the past–or at least, one of them looked similar enough. Eyes wide with stress, the aquatic dinosaur panted as he regained his breath from his swim inland, the other two saurians continuing to stare at him like bewildered crows. Nobody really knew what move to make, not even the usually ill-tempered Gorosaurus–and it was unnerving. Everything had happened so suddenly and out of nowhere; the water turned red with no explanation, two territorial beasts discovered one another in the same vicinity, and now a third had made an abrupt appearance from the deep. The trio of behemoths couldn’t help but stare wide-eyed at one another for a moment, still unsure of how to act… … …

… … …before Gorosaurus’ eagle-like vision just caught sight of a fin-like appendage briefly breaking the surf before submerging out of sight once more.

Titanosaurus’ left ear-fin twitched, and the dinosaur began to turn his head before–

WHOOSH!

In a thunderous display, the water two hundred meters from the orange dinosaur suddenly columned upward in a colossal geyser of H2o–and from the massive eruption of water, something vast leapt forth like a dolphin into the air, and into visual range. A huge, crimson Kronosaurus-like beast with clawed flippers and a gigantic tail ending with a fluke-like fin, soared powerfully through the air, water trailing behind its red body like a comet in a moment that almost seemed like time itself had slowed down. The beast’s head was triangular and massive, but what caught all three kaiju–Titanosaurus most of all–by complete surprise the most was that the creature possessed the same-shaped fin and antennae-like appendages on its whale-like skull. While significantly different, it also bore a striking resemblance to Titanosaurus himself–!

WHAM!

So taken aback by the unexpected appearance of this beast, that Titanosaurus barely had a third of a second to register that it was soaring in a perfect arc on a collision course with his own body; thus, the great dinosaur reacted too late when his strange lookalike slammed into him with grand force, tackling him off his feet with a warbling screech. Up on the cliffs, Varan and Gorosaurus actually jumped when the creatures made impact with the shallows, watching the shocking spectacle with chilling intrigue. It was then that all three beasts, including Titanosaurus himself, took notice of two more attributes this newcomer possessed: one was its eyes. Gorosaurus himself, a veteran of many battles, had looked into the eyes of many entities throughout his life, from King Kong to King Ghidorah. Some eyes looked fierce and primeval like his own, perfectly painting the picture of a feral animal just doing what it does to survive in a harsh world. Some eyes looked firm and strong, like those of the King of the Monsters himself, signifying the personality of a creature with a strong heart and an unbreakable will. Some eyes were downright pure evil and horridly psychopathic, like the terrible eyes of the long-vanquished King Ghidorah, emanating an identical personality. Had either Varan, Gorosaurus or Titanosaurus possessed a thought process to determine human words, only one word would’ve described the look of this mysterious new creature’s eyes:

Mythical.

The eyes of this pliosaur-like beast looked downright mythical. Like the eyes of not a feral animal or a demonic destroyer, but of a mythical God or deity carrying out whatever unknown tasks the fates had designed for it. Looking at the beast’s face was like looking upon the face of some legendary dragon or sea spirit from the humans’ mythologies. Just taking one glance upon those eyes and all three prehistoric reptiles were ridden with chills.

But it was the second attribute that froze their souls solid like ice.

A very familiar row of ivory-white plates of solid bone ran down the leviathan’s back, weaved in the shape of maple leaves. Both Varan and Gorosaurus widened their already shocked eyes. Only one other kaiju possessed such a feature. Amidst the struggle against his crimson attacker, Titanosaurus also took notice, and his pupils narrowed. But even the initial shock of that was nothing compared to what followed when his attacker’s scent entered his nasal passage. Like his other dinosaurian relatives, Titanosaurus’ nose never lied; it fed him a wealth of information upon every whiff, and when it didn’t know something, that means he wouldn’t know it either. And when it did know something, it knew. Never in his life had Titanosaurus mistrusted or even so much as questioned his incredible sense of smell and the information it fed him.

Never, that was, until this eye-bulging moment.

Titanosaurus had dangerously lost the will to move in his shock. No, there was absolutely no way, that was just downright impossible. There was no way it was him! One vague resemblance versus an entirely different appearance means an entirely different creature! This animal bore almost no resemblance to the atomic monster–and yet, his nose told him otherwise. The scent was clear. Its aroma was exactly identical to his old rival from the past. Not a relative, not a lookalike, they were the same creature. Deep down, he knew his nose wasn’t lying. In his shock, Titanosaurus uttered a screech.

… … …Godzilla?!

It couldn’t be, it should’ve been completely impossible, but it was. Godzilla was tackling him to the shallows with a body clad in crimson scales and a head that resembled his very own, clamping upon his neck with pointed-toothed jaws. A completely new red spurted from the punctures in his orange flesh to flood into the water of the same color, lost from sight.

Titanosaurus’ shock finally gave way to pain and he screeched with it, but as such the pain snapped his survival instincts back out into motion, and at last Titanosaurus retaliated. Curling his right hand into a fist, the dinosaur smashed it against the leviathan’s neck with a powerful blow that rippled the creature’s skin. Just by a slight margin, Godzilla’s toothy hold loosened, and Titanosaurus capitalized on it. Throwing his fist forward again, the dinosaur punched his strange rival in the neck a second time; this time Godzilla recoiled back with jaws agape, releasing the orange saurian entirely. As the Monster King lurked backwards half-submerged beneath the shallows, Titanosaurus planted his hands against the ground beneath the crimson waters as he pushed himself back to his feet, a shrill bellow echoing from his jaws. Godzilla continued to hold his position, legendary eyes breaking the surf to stare at him like a crocodile.

Varan and Gorosaurus continued to stare at the scene with anxious, wide-eyed uncertainty; their eyes darting to and fro between both Titanosaurus and ‘Godzilla.’ Both of them had caught the scent, and they too were every bit as shocked out of their minds as the aquatic dinosaur at what their nasal passages told them. And as if that weren’t enough, now the two oceanic titans were at a tense standoff, each eying one another from a decent distance as they waited for one to make the first move. Titanosaurus growled as he straightened his 115-meter body into a combat-ready position, flexing his muscles into place as he eyed this strange, new version of his rival from the past. Godzilla Aquatilis made no noise as his draconic eyes followed Titanosaurus’ every possible movement, fixing him with a most bone-chilling gaze. The two lookalikes were like two cowboys in a Texas standoff, or two honorable Japanese warriors facing one another in a silent preparation for law-abiding combat; the dead-quiet atmosphere so thick with heart-pounding tension that anyone could break it with so much as the prick of a decaying pine needle… … …

The fates took such a notion personally when they instead blasted a wide, clean hole in it with a shotgun.

Godzilla burst forth in an explosion of frothing water, jaws agape–but this time he jumped not in an arc, but in a straight line like a torpedo. Titanosaurus, surprised as he was, reacted with the half-second he had and threw his hands down together in a fist, smashing Godzilla in the left shoulder just as he reached mere inches from his shin. With a cracking THUD! that sent a burst of water into the sky and shook the cliffs with the force of a Mercalli Scale VI earthquake, Godzilla was slammed flat onto his stomach with painful force, jaws clamping shut instantly. Titanosaurus roared as he quickly reached down and snagged the Monster King by the neck, but the moment his claws applied pressure to their grip the amphibious reptile immediately began to roll like a crocodile, the water splashing in huge bursts as he did so. Titanosaurus staggered as he lost his grip, and Godzilla took advantage of it quicker than the orange dinosaur thought he could.

Lunging forward a second time, Godzilla successfully snapped his teeth upon Titanosaurus’ upper leg, drawing blood immediately. And before Titanosaurus could even cry out in pain, the King of the Monsters went into another alligator-like death roll; the bodily force was easily enough to force the dinosaur off his feet with a quaking splash. Like a crocodile wrangler, the screeching aquatic dinosaur wrestled fiercely with his rival amidst the crimson tide; their conflict a visual mess of towering splashes of H2o, huge bodies thrashing amidst the crimson water, and massive tails whipping about with enough force to shatter ocean trenches. Neither Varan nor Gorosaurus could clearly make out what was happening amidst the dreadful combat, nor could they tell who was gaining an advantage over whom–if either of them even were in the first place.

And through the spattering haze, Godzilla’s legendary dorsal plates stuck out to the eye like a warhammer in a silverware shop.

Amidst the titanic struggle for survival below the cliffs, a new red haze was gradually beginning to obscure specific details of the battle. A strange cloud of crimson vapor or dust was, albeit very slowly, beginning to make the task of seeing the combatants harder as they thrashed in their aquatic dogfight. None of the prehistoric cretins knew what this strange material was or where it was coming from, but so far none of it really mattered.

Titanosaurus snarled as he bit down upon Godzilla’s neck with all his jaw strength, and a bellowing roar was forced from the Monster King’s whale-like jaws. Blood flooded the dinosaur’s teeth, and Titanosaurus felt a feeling of satisfaction grace his brain. He would not deny that a part of him had always longed to get some form of payback against his rival for the pain he had inflicted all those years ago–even if it was in a form that should not exist. His brain putting such questions out of his mind for now, Titanosaurus began to shake his head like an angry dog, trying to open new wounds in the leviathan’s flesh–but Godzilla responded by twisting his gigantic body about and rolling over once again, yanking Titanosaurus along with him. Water and light patches of red dust whipped and splashed about as the pliosaur-like beast moved with powerful force.

In a tremendous display of physical might, Godzilla wrestled out of Titanosaurus’ toothy grasp with a spurt of blood and powered sideways with his tail, leaping away from the orange dinosaur and splashing back down in slightly deeper waters.

Bursting to his feet with a booming shrill, Titanosaurus reared his tail up off the ground and slammed it down–and then, with one quick motion, the end of his tail snapped open like a pair of scissors to unfold the yellow fin. Quickly turning about on his heels, Titanosaurus whipped himself around a full 180 degrees and began to sway his tail back and forth. Harder and with more power added to each movement he swished, and before long a series of vicious winds kicked up from the motion to assail the Monster King. The waves which once frothed against the shores of the Moher Cliffs now not only blew backwards, but grew in size and power tenfold. Red dust and powerful waves alike crashed and slammed against Godzilla’s position with impacts that would shatter a crowd of grown human beings to pieces, obscuring the leviathan from view. Even still, Titanosaurus continued to power his tail harder than ever; not letting up in the slightest as he continued to batter his strangely transformed old rival with his gale force winds until he deemed it fit to cease. The ocean itself was a roaring locomotive of harsh windstorms and crashing waves that extended farther back than just the shoreline, as if Poseidon himself were venting his rage.

Only when a truly impressive forty-nine seconds passed and Titanosaurus’ tail began to hurt with fatigue did the bipedal saurian finally begin to slow his gust attack, his mighty tail gradually losing its pace with each passing second. As his tail finally came to a graceful halt the dinosaur allowed himself a moment to pant with tiredness. Such a task had taken a decent toll on his muscles; it was necessary he take a breather to replenish his strength, and ease the ache his tail had acquired. As he breathed, Titanosaurus looked over his shoulder to view upon the calming seas. Up on the cliffs, Varan and Gorosaurus looked and sniffed about, their eyes seeing nothing else on the battlefield.

Godzilla was nowhere to be found… … …

The water offshore rippled in a straight line as something massive powered through the veil at mach speeds. Yellow eyes widening and pupils narrowing into slits, Titanosaurus had only just begun to contort his muscles to begin turning around when the massive form broke the crimson surf and burst forth with an agile leap. On the cliffs, Varan and Gorosaurus jolted back in shock, a twinge of fear fighting to grip their mighty souls. Godzilla’s aim and timing was spot on; the King of the Monsters struck the sea-dwelling dinosaur like an organic asteroid, his massive jaws slamming shut upon his neck like a giant bear trap as they landed upon the shore with a splashing quake. Titanosaurus howled painfully through the haze of water and dust; Gorosaurus and Varan gazed at the shrouded spectacle with bulging eyes, taking a second to actually look at one another before turning back to the almost indiscernible combat. Everything had suddenly shifted so fast, changed in the blink of an eye, they could hardly keep up with it all.

Titanosaurus felt his claws slash across Godzilla’s hide, but such a blow did little to stem the leviathan’s wrath. With a growling roar, the Monster King gaped his jaws before biting down upon the dinosaur’s neck a second time. The saurian warbled in pain as blood flowed from the holes punctured into his flesh, his neck vertebrae actually cracking from the force of the bite. He tried to fight back, but Godzilla was out-wrestling him viciously, physically overpowering him with sheer might alone. Titanosaurus struggled, slashing feebly away at the creature’s neck with his right hand, but the aquatic menace had him pinned where he wanted him. The dinosaur couldn’t fight back the way he needed to, couldn’t shove the leviathan off of him.

He was trapped.

Godzilla applied more pressure to his toothy grip, his jaws like a diamond-forged vice. Titanosaurus’ bellows of pain became louder as the Monster King bit once again, and yet another painful crack was heard even by the other two monstrous occupants watching the shifting combat from above. Still, the dinosaur continued to attack the only way he could, and slashed at his rival’s neck harder while trying to push with his other hand… … …

Godzilla opened his jaws with a guttural bellow, then bit down with an all-resounding CRACK!

The ground thudded from a reptilian head impacting the rocks. The blood that shed unto the shoreline could not be seen amidst the scarlet water and red dust, but the shift in audio that followed was a spine-chilling warning in of itself: Titanosaurus’ roars had ceased, and the mighty dinosaur had stopped moving. Varan and Gorosaurus took a step back with widened eyes, their hearts nearly thudding to a complete stop. Even with their spectacular eyesight that put an eagle to shame, they could barely see the once-powerful aquatic dinosaur through the clumps of red dust–and his massive form wasn’t moving.

And like knives in the water, Godzilla’s legendary dorsal spines weaved through the crimson clouds towards the base of the Moher Cliffs, coming to a quaking halt as more plumes of the scarlet material puffed upwards to obscure the Monster King from view.

A screech of mixed confusion and nervousness left Varan’s jaws as he took three steps back, the silence a deafening bang to his ears as the realization began to sink in like a molten dagger into his flesh. Even the normally stoic Gorosaurus took a step back as the cliffs shuddered, the unmistakable tremor of Godzilla’s body meeting their build rattling soil and soul alike. At this, Varan pawed the ground beneath him and roared a thunderous warning at the aquatic leviathan, a warning for him not to come any closer.

The Great Mountain God couldn’t have picked a worse time to issue such a warning, because as if by sheer lazy convenience, Godzilla echoed a threatening bellow from below–and began to drag himself up the rock face. Amidst the clouds of red dust that were now thicker than ever, the King of Kaiju could barely be seen at all by even the sharpest of eyes; only the outline of his iconic dorsal plates could be properly made out. But regardless, his massive weight could be felt dragging upwards along the solid rock. Just by feeling it, both Varan and Gorosaurus knew exactly what was happening. It made no sense, especially knowing the Monster King’s new physical build, but it was happening.

Godzilla was climbing up the cliffs to meet them.

Plumes of the red dust pillared upwards as the leviathan moved, and both giant saurians gave the scene a wide berth as the powerful rumbling of the climbing goliath grew in intensity… … …then, through the haze of crimson particles, a clawed hand reached upwards to slam upon the edge of the cliff with a thunderous BOOM! The claws sank into the soil to grip the earth with an incomprehensible force, and through the spreading cloud of red dust a massive shadow began to loom from behind the edge of the Moher Cliffs. A sonorous growl reverberated from the scarlet fog like the aftershocks of the most powerful earthquake, and the huge shadow of the King of the Monsters continued to rise into view, his other limb colliding with the ground with yet another powerful quake. The earth trembled as thousands of metric tons of colossal reptilian flesh dragged their huge body forward, the ground rattling yet again as the unseen beast lumbered forth. Then, as a scaled paw reached out of the red dust to plant against the ground with yet another grand impact, the monolith came to a halt… … …and reared his draconic head out of the crimson haze.

What the two saurians saw left them soundless–especially the great ‘Baradagi’ himself.

The dust blew about the legendary monster’s great form, revealing the results of what should have been an impossible transformation that had gone entirely unseen by the reptilian duo. Stripes of black lined a bulky four-legged body covered with bumpy orange scales, like the coat of a tiger painted upon a giant lizard. At first, Varan’s mind registered the beast before him as a mirror of himself; it shared the same head and body! It looked almost identical to him–but his nose told him otherwise. There should have been no way it was possible, but his nostrils confirmed the creature’s identity without a single falter–and if they didn’t, then the row of maple leaf-shaped spines that still ran down its back did the job. Re-forged in a physique mimicking Varan’s own bodily outline, Godzilla stood before him in a new and larger form. The flipper-like limbs had now shrunk a bit to make way for extended ‘fingers’ tipped with claws, repurposed for the task of terrestrial locomotion. A lengthy tail of gigantic proportions swayed behind him, even longer than his own body. His legendary eyes still holding their aura of pure mythical fierceness, Godzilla Amphibia gaped his jaws and roared forth a pure mimic of Varan’s own terrifying war cry, as if mocking the Great Mountain God; the force of the bellow blowing away the red dust to make room for the giants to do battle.

Neither Gorosaurus nor Varan could be happier about it.

Snarling with a vengeance, Varan charged forth with the prowess of a giant stallion, teeth bared and claws tensed to rip his lookalike apart. Not far away, Gorosaurus broke into a sprint, howling with feral fury. He didn’t care that this was the revered King of the Monsters himself despite his radically different appearance; he never even liked Godzilla anyways. He was more than content with the idea of him dead by his jaws.

But unfortunately for both kaiju, neither of their wishes seemed destined to come true as easily as they so desperately longed.

Turning his gigantic body on his heels faster than he looked capable, Godzilla contorted his mighty build to swing his huge tail with impressive velocity. By the time the saurian duo had an idea of just what they were in for, it was oh so way too late; Godzilla’s tail struck both prehistoric beasts with breath-ripping force, sending both flying back like pinballs. The Moher Cliffs shook with rippling shockwaves as two massive bodies impacted the earth to skid along the soil like drunken brawlers, dragging huge trenches through the ground as they did so. Loud retches managed to seep from their jaws in place of roars of pain, the blow having been so powerful it knocked the air out of their mighty lungs.

Varan’s jaws inhaled an excruciating gasp of air as he lifted his head off the ground, muscling through the pain as he panted to regain a much needed dose of oxygen into his lungs. His side ached tremendously from the force of the blow, but his limbs could still hold him up, and if he could stand then he could fight. Panting a little softer to ease up on himself, the mighty triphibian pushed himself back to his feet, snarling viciously as he turned on the Monster King.

Godzilla barely moved, sans the swinging of his massive tail, but his mystical yellow eyes still held their chilling gaze on the prehistoric Obake. Varan bounded towards the quadrupedal colossus like a giant hare, taking note of that massive tail for future reference. Sure enough, the King of the Monsters was beginning to tense his massive form, seemingly preparing to swing that huge tail once again. Then, right as the gap between him and the mountain god had narrowed to the point of almost nonexistence, Varan suddenly spread his limbs wide and leaped into the air. Spreading flaps of skin like a flying squirrel, the great lizard took to the skies with a loud screech, now gliding on the winds out of Godzilla’s reach!

Godzilla’s xanthic eyes remained transfixed on Varan, his head moving slowly as he watched him soar like a giant albatross. So focused on Varan was he, however, that the reptilian yokai did not pay notice to another presence looming behind him, moving at a leisurely pace like a black leopard stalking a deer. Planting his feet against the ground so softly as to not be detected, Gorosaurus bared his teeth as he gradually closed the distance between him and the… … …even in his hunt, the Allosaurus couldn’t help but mentally smack himself. It couldn’t be the Monster King, just… … …couldn’t be. There had to be some kind of trickery going on, this had to be a different creature merely mimicking Godzilla’s scent to frighten newcomers. An otherworldly shape-shifting entity that was trying to play some kind of ploy to catch them off guard before it took them by surprise.

Suddenly realizing that he was beginning to lose his pace, Gorosaurus put those thoughts aside and re-steadied himself, grateful that the tiger-striped mimic of Varan hadn’t noticed him yet; he was still paying attention to the still-airborne Baradagi.

Good. That gave the carnosaur exactly the opportunity he wanted.

‘Godzilla’ uttered yet another thunderous challenge to the gliding squamate–and Gorosaurus judged the time to be exactly right. Not a single golden opportunity shone brighter than now, and the dinosaur struck. So close to Godzilla he could reach over and touch him with his snout, Gorosaurus snapped backwards to lean on his tail like a kangaroo, then lashed out with both legs. The Monster King didn’t even notice the primeval carnivore until the Kangaroo Kick crashed against his side with a reverberating CRACK! and sent him toppling onto his side. His jaws gaping wider than ever, Godzilla roared in pain for the very first time, and Gorosaurus didn’t waste a second to act. With the prowess of a hunting wild dog, the giant Allosaurus pounced upon the reptilian ghoul and clamped his long jaws upon his neck. The dinosaur’s wishes came true when his teeth successfully pierced Godzilla’s flesh, and he suppressed the urge to purr with delight when the Kaiju King’s blood flooded his gums.

He was lucky he hadn’t, because if he had, then he would’ve been shut right up when Godzilla gathered all the uncontested power in his muscles and pushed himself right back on his feet, rearing his head with a roar that threatened to break Gorosaurus’ eardrums. Gathering more ounces of his legendary strength, Godzilla whipped himself to his left with yet another angry roar, then to his right, trying to thrash the theropod off of him. Gorosaurus held on like a bulldog, but even his incredible jaw strength was being tested to his limits by the sheer physical power fueling the Monster King’s might. Godzilla bellowed and whipped himself to the left again–

–and was knocked back on the ground when Varan tackled him from the air!

The mythical shape-shifter’s huge tail pulverized the earth as his huge body hit the ground, a furious howl leaving his jaws, but was heightened to a painful pitch when Varan slammed his tail down into Godzilla’s face, smacking it back to the ground. Roaring his dominance, the Great Mountain God assailed the downed behemoth with a vicious fury, slashing and biting away at his tiger-striped scales like a frenzied Kodiak Bear. Gorosaurus roared and reared back on his tail once again, slamming the King Kaiju with yet another Kangaroo Kick before he joined in the brutal mauling. With extreme delight, he bit down on Godzilla’s neck once more and shook his head to slice his knife-like teeth through his flesh, all the while reaching forward to scratch bleeding trenches into his skin with his clawed forearms.

As the two prehistoric animals mauled their strange opposition, Godzilla began to push himself up and down, undulating his thick girth like a seal as he tried to reposition himself. Still, his enemies continued to bite and claw viciously into his flesh, tearing more painful wounds that drew streams of red to stain the grass and dirt he lay upon–but none of that meant he was helpless in the slightest.

And both Varan and Gorosaurus were about to learn this the hard way.

Gathering all the strength in his lower body he could, Godzilla reared his tail as high off the ground as he possibly could, waving it like a mythical sea serpent–and then, with all his might, he slammed it back down upon the earth with such force that it gave him a large enough boost of momentum to roll him off his side, and back onto his feet. And despite his blubbery weight and girth, Godzilla attacked faster than he looked capable of; powering both of his flipper-like forelimbs forward, the draconic Oni lunged forth and clamped his strong jaws around Gorosaurus’ right leg. His fangs buried themselves deep into his flesh and actually managed to ever-so-slightly pierce the bone, and Gorosaurus reared his head to howl to the sky in excruciating pain. Seeing his ally’s predicament, Varan lunged down and plunged his teeth into Godzilla’s neck as hard as his jaw muscles could allow, drawing squirts of crimson from the evolved creature. The Monster King growled in pain, but amazingly muscled through it, and concentrated all his strength and momentum into yanking himself at an impressive 90o angle, throwing Gorosaurus across the battlefield as if he weighed no more than a football. The impact of the dinosaur’s 47,000 metric ton body smashing against the ground was painful enough to knock the wind out of the great predator, but the repeated impacts followed by the long skidding to a dirty halt made it even worse.

With the giant Allosaurus out of the way, Godzilla bellowed mightily and set to thrashing his heavy body from side-to-side, fully intent on dislodging Varan. The great lizard was hanging on with all his strength, keeping his teeth buried beneath Godzilla’s orange flesh as if his life depended on it–which he strongly suspected it did. But no matter how hard he held on, no matter how much strength he applied to his grip, even the mighty Baradagi was slowly reaching towards his limit against the powerful thrashing of the King of the Monsters.

With one tremendous, bodily yank to his left, Godzilla sent Varan flying off of him, but before he could hit the ground the revered Baradagi spread his limbs wide and kept flying. Straightening himself out, the squamate took to the skies with a roar, gliding out of Godzilla’s reach yet again. But he couldn’t keep his flight up for long; his body was tired, and he needed to replenish his energy. So, being sure as to keep a careful distance from the shape-shifting Monster King, Varan glided down carefully until he landed as softly as he could upon the earth, panting tiredly. A distance away, Gorosaurus uttered a barely-audible growl as he shakily managed to return to his feet, dry-heaving to regain a good dose of air himself.

It was hopeless to believe Godzilla would give them such an opportunity.

A strange, screaming hiss began to emanate from Godzilla’s parted jaws as he gaped at his prehistoric foes. At first, neither Varan nor Gorosaurus had a clue as to what he was doing, only perceiving the strange noises as a vocal threat display of some kind. But as both kaiju began to stalk closer, they suddenly felt a change in the very air and earth around them. They couldn’t quite tell how or why, but the already cool temperature of the area had suddenly started to drop rapidly. Within seconds, both archaic reptiles felt the air become hostile and downright frigid–and that was when they noticed why. His head aimed down, Godzilla was vomiting some kind of transparent vapor from his jaws, spewing it on the ground and allowing it to spread rapidly like the waves of a tsunami. That strange, screaming hiss still echoing from his fanged maw, Godzilla jutted his skull up and, with a deep roar, breathed forth his frigid ice vapor, directly washing it over his two reptilian enemies to bathe them in a continuous, sub-zero breeze.

It was so cold that in only a few moments, neither Varan nor Gorosaurus could find the strength to move. Their skin had already become coated in an outer layer of ice particles, their massive bodies being chilled to the very bone. Varan roared in distress as he tried to summon the strength to move, to get out of the frozen winds, but he was so cold that his muscles were beginning to fail him and his movements to become slow and sluggish. Not too far from his position, Gorosaurus was only barely able to wade through the freezing assault–and his movements were slowing by the second just as well, the cold taking its own effect on him to the point where he practically limped towards Godzilla if anything.

Varan had only managed to take three steps to the side, no more, before his legs began to shake like dying trees. His head drooping like a tired dog as his body began to lower to the ground, even the great Varan could bear this kind of freezing cold no longer. His monolithic body wracked with terrible hypothermia, his scales coated with frost, his eyes slowly beginning to flutter closed, Varan managed to bemoan one last roar before slumping to the ground with a booming THUD!

Crouching low to the ground like a giant rooster, Gorosaurus watched the Varanopode fall to Godzilla’s sub-zero wrath. As of right now, he was the only one left standing in Godzilla’s path–and his instincts told him that unless he found a way to avoid or at least resist this frigid cold in some way shape or form, that would not be the case for much longer. The giant Allosaurus shivered all over, his greenish-brown scales gradually beginning to become covered in a new shade of whitening gray as the terrible temperatures assailed his body. Growling as fiercely as his lungs could allow, he tried his hardest to keep his eyes open just enough to keep Godzilla in his visual field, and even that was a near-impossible task in of itself. Quivering like a surfer in the middle of a blizzard, Gorosaurus could only manage a weak rasp of a growl as he held flat on his stomach, his talons digging painfully into the frozen ground as he held on with whatever strength he had left to weather this storm.

He was so cold, his mind battered so viciously by the mental battle to try and stay conscious, that he didn’t even notice Godzilla’s ice vapor come to a sudden halt.

The evolved yokai had ceased spewing his frosty blast, his jaws slowly beginning to close as his head began to lower. The entire land was now caked with ice and small layers of snow, Gorosaurus and Varan looking nothing more so much as frozen statues; nobody was going to be moving for quite some time. With a hollow, echoing rumble, Godzilla drooped his draconic skull as his massive tail fell to the ground…

Mondo Island’s great predator was steadily losing his battle to stay awake. Not even the likes of his might was immune to such brutal powers of nature as this. It was a most woebegone sight, to see such a majestic and powerful apex predator who once prowled unopposed as the biggest fish in the sea, reduced to a pathetic creature trapped in a position of helplessness against a bigger beast that wielded the most formidable powers of Mother Nature; a fearful prehistoric hunter reduced to a pitiful state as a withering, frozen shadow of his former self. And yet, even as unconsciousness began to start its process of taking hold of his mind, the giant Allosaurus fought against it; a breath of frigid vapor wisping from his ice-covered jaws as he tried with everything he had to take a trembling step forward.

He managed to take two steps before unconsciousness finally struck the victorious blow against the mighty Gorosaurus.

*****

He had no clue how long he had been out.

Intelligent as he was, the specifics of the concept of time were lost on the awakening, feral mind of the primeval carnivore known as Gorosaurus. Not that a creature like him needed it; such human mindsets were of no requirement for apex predators such as himself to survive in a harsh and unforgiving world. What WAS required, however, was a great many things involving doing whatever possible to not push one’s bodily functions to their limits–and what a truly grueling assault past his limits, the dinosaur’s huge body had indeed endured.

A loud crack echoed across the frost-ridden cliffs as an eyelid drenched in a layer of ice managed to snap itself open, its owner’s once-incredible eyesight now tediously blurry and uneven. Waking up after being out for who-knows-how-long was a traumatizing, painful experience for Gorosaurus–and it was only just gonna get better. As the Allosaurus managed to push open his other eyelid and assault his eyesight with yet more additions to his blurry visual hell, the other senses of his brain slowly began the process of waking up, one after another.

First, his sense of bodily thermoregulation crawled back from the grave, and half a second after merely twitching the dinosaur suddenly shut his eyes tightly as he failed to muster the energy to growl, his scaly form suddenly beaten to a pulp by the horrific below-zero temperatures that still ravaged him from the inside out. Next were his pain receptors; Gorosaurus’ eyes snapped back open when full bodily sensation returned in complete and brutal force, and as a result, the carnosaur realized that he was so cold he felt like he was burning in the pits of Tartarus. Summoning just enough air in his lungs to moan miserably, Gorosaurus voiced his frigid torment to the world as best he could, his eyes bloodshot red with wrathful agony.

His sense of smell returned before his eyesight did.

Freezing pain still wracking his body, Gorosaurus suddenly forced his frozen upper lip to crack and curl upwards to bare his teeth, a hoarse snarl suddenly rippling through his sore throat. A scent he hated with a passion had entered his nostrils, and memories began flooding his primeval mind with a vengeance. Just like that, he remembered everything that had happened prior to his frigid torture–and more importantly, who had inflicted such torment. Gathering all his strength to shake his head, Gorosaurus blinked once to clear his eyesight as he began to fight back against the hypothermia brutalizing his body once again, straining to move as he managed to face his head in the direction of his opponent who’s scent he very clearly detected in the area… … …

Gorosaurus’ vision was as spectacular as it was supposed to be once again–but out of all the emotions running through his brain, utter and complete confusion reigned king among them.

Godzilla still remained on the battlefield, still resided a good few hundred meters away from the freezing dinosaur–but there was something strangely off about him. The Monster King’s entire quadrupedal form was covered in a glimmering, seemingly crystalline layer of charcoal-black rock and minerals, centered in a crater that had long since evaporated the nearby snow. When looked at from certain angles, the light reflected off the smooth surface of the minerals seemed to give the impression of different beautiful colors, from red to green to some shades of purple and pink. The shape-shifting yokai was frozen in place entirely, as if he had been turned into a giant black mineral statue vaguely resembling his former self.

Not too far away, the frozen, unmoving body of Varan lay upon the earth, nearly all recognizable features muted by the coats of ice and snow adorning his fallen body, but Gorosaurus barely paid him any attention.

Gorosaurus stared intently at the black quartz-covered Kaiju King. He wanted to run at it, to attack his enemy while he was still and vulnerable, but he couldn’t. The theropod could barely move; it was a battle just trying to take a step. Just like when he had actually been enduring Godzilla’s freezing vapor, the dinosaur was in a losing race against the furious cold that wracked his body now. Gorosaurus cursed his withering condition with a growl, then strained once more as he tried to take another step forward. The carnivore nearly toppled off his feet from the enormously torturous pressure in his one leg as he carried his other foot forward, just barely managing to place it upon the frozen ground. His talons cracked the ice and frost below him as he moved, a surge of half-pain, half-numbness shooting though his foot and making him stop to pant it out.

The ice beneath his talons cracked further as the dinosaur put more pressure on his foot–which overshadowed a different crack from a considerably different source. Gorosaurus was so preoccupied with his own predicament, that he hadn’t even noticed a tiny chunk of Godzilla’s crystal chrysalis break off his lowered head and fall to the floor. Gorosaurus panted his last and summoned his sapped strength once more to spend it on taking another step, his claws successfully making contact with the ground yet again, but still making him stumble with pain.

A crack echoed off the frozen King of the Monsters as yet another piece of mineral fell off his cocoon–and this time, the weary Gorosaurus heard it loud and clear.

His pupils suddenly narrowing into alarmed slits, the giant Allosaurus coldly, shakily reared his head up to stare at the blackened leviathan, keeping him within his gaze–and sure enough, another piece suddenly broke off and tumbled down the quadruped’s crystal-covered bulk to the ground below. And yet another piece… … …and another followed suit. And yet another in quickening succession. Loud, powerful cracks began to echo from within the layers of breaking rock, as if the plates of the earth’s crust itself were shifting and grinding like gears in a machine. More and more pieces of black, reflective rock began to break and fall off the ogreish lizard as Godzilla’s chrysalis gradually began to crumble apart right before Gorosaurus’ very widening eyes.

And there, as the cocoon began its death, the frozen Monster King moved.

The once-frozen yokai had suddenly begun to rear up off the ground, gradually rising taller and taller as more and more glass-like reflections of red, green, blue, purple and more fell off of it to scatter the ground around him… … …giving way to revealing something underneath. As more reflective rocks and minerals descended off the creature, its once Varan-like shape began to crumble away with it–and in turn revealed surprising, fresh features of a brand-new design. Jade-green, crocodile-like scales adorned a sturdy, reptilian beast cast in the image of a theropod dinosaur; with lithe, strong legs ending in three-toed talons and long forearms that curled fingers tipped with wicked claws. A long tail swung behind the transformed beast, balancing its new theropod-shaped structure. A head that resembled a terrifying, yet mystical cross between a giant snake and a legendary Japanese Oni opened a mouth filled to the brim with several rows of hooked, python-like teeth–baring twin tusk-like fangs that curved sideways out of the mouth even when the jaws were closed–and roared a powerful bellow that made the earth tremble for miles around. Two yellow eyes glared their mythical wrath upon the primeval carnivore, eyes that were so tightly close to one another and so far down the snout that for a moment Gorosaurus thought they were part of the beast’s nostrils.

And along its back, still remained those unmistakable dorsal spines–except now, there were three rows instead of just one.

For a brief moment, Gorosaurus allowed himself to be shocked, as it seemed the beast had saved its next mimicking of appearances just for him. For a moment, the giant Allosaurus looked upon the beast and registered it as a mirror of himself; yet another chilling mockery meant to take him entirely off guard–and it was working like a sorcerer’s magic. But still, that unlying all-too recognizable scent flooded his nostrils to let him know exactly who it still was–and now that Gorosaurus stared at him, he could see that it was starting to make sense. He was starting to see the traits he knew from memory in this new form. Right from the beginning he smelled the beast and he smelled Godzilla–and now, he was beginning to attest to it.

Plumes of red dust expelling along his body like gusts of wind, Godzilla Terrestris stood to his full mighty height and howled forth yet another mountain-quaking roar… … …then, as he lowered back into a traditional theropod stance, his dorsal spines began to glow.

Gorosaurus widened his eyes, knowing exactly what that meant by experience. Those spines shone with the exact same azure luminescence that he remembered, the glow that betrayed the coming of one thing and one thing only. And yet, despite this knowledge, he could do nothing. Godzilla’s previous attack had taken its terrible toll on the giant Allosaurus; his body was still chilled to the core, his once-mighty form was far too weak to dodge or jump out of the way, or avoid the inevitable oncoming attack in any way shape or form. He was trapped in the line of fire and he knew it, and as of this moment there was only one thing left to do: weather the storm yet again. His eyes furrowing into a determined glare of fury, Gorosaurus bared his teeth and managed to utter a savage snarl, preparing to endure the explosive outcome that was about to fly his way.

Godzilla roared and gaped his fanged jaws, and a beautifully haunting halo of azure energy formed in front of his maw. It was as if the Monster King were lining the dinosaur up in his target zone, locking him in his line of sight so his ranged attack would hit him with precise accuracy, like a veteran sniper taking aim at a target. Chiming like a demonic bell, the glowing ring grew gradually in size as it continued to hover in front of Godzilla’s gaping jaws, the dinosaurian yokai arching his neck back at a tortoise’s pace as he slowly started preparing to let loose. Still, the crippled Gorosaurus refused to show any fear in the face of defeat and doom alike; the radioactive ring casting his glaring, prehistoric face in a cerulean glow that seemed to illuminate his unbreakable spirit. Baring his pearly whites, Gorosaurus fearlessly snarled a wordless version of the same concept:

Hit me with your best shot.

With a roaring bark, the dorsal-plated reptilian jutted his neck straight and Godzilla fired. But rather than the atomic heat ray Gorosaurus was so used to, the King of Kaiju instead launched the atomic halo in front of his mouth directly at him, sending it speeding towards him like a rocket. The carnosaur growled as he stood defiant, only hoping he could endure the incoming impact… … …

CLANG!

The atomic halo collided with Gorosaurus with yet another sound akin to a bell chiming and dissipated in a burst of shimmering blue particles, and a blow of pure unequaled power rippled through the giant Allosaurus–and the outcome became sadly clear. Even the might of the magnificent predator could not withstand such a strike. Rearing back like a tree, the great apex predator of Mondo Island pointed his skull to the heavens and forced all the air in his lungs to utter one long, loud roar that rippled the waters and rattled the earth… … …and then, eyes drooping closed and his ancient voice echoing away to a halt, the 47,000 metric tons of prehistoric predator fell forward to collide with the frost-ridden soil with a BOOM! that reverberated through the landscapes of Ireland like the Lord firing a gunshot.

No further movement ever presented itself from the fallen dinosaur again.

The eerie glow of his dorsal plates beginning to fade, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, leered upon the unmistakably defeated form of Gorosaurus with his dragon-like eyes, not even bothering to bat so much as an eye in the direction of any other of his vanquished foes. The fanged yokai just proceeded to lumber onwards without a backwards glance, walking right past the prone forms of his adversaries as if they weren’t even there. With footfalls that shot the Richter Scale up sky-high with every step, the shape-shifting reptilian loomed through the engorging clouds of red dust that seemed to follow him wherever he went, looking like a malevolent god treading through some plane of existence beyond the mind’s understanding. Once a scene of natural tranquility so catching to the eye it attracted many tourists and photographers, the Moher Cliffs had been transformed into a scene straight out of an alternate dimension inhabited by eldritch monstrosities and deities humankind couldn’t imagine–and it wasn’t going to stop just there.

Lowering himself to the ground for just a moment, Godzilla then stood up as tall as he possibly could with an all-powerful roar that would’ve put the loudest thunder and the most powerful or hurricanes to shame–and at what seemed to be his very beckoning, red dust exploded everywhere to surge forth in all directions, encompassing all in their path like the ash of a volcanic eruption. A colossal mushroom cloud of the crimson particles burst thousands of meters towards the sky, encompassing the heavens to paint it a hellish crimson as if in defiance of any and all higher powers that may exist in this world. A pillar of scarlet light surged through the center of the gigantic detonation of red dust, pulsing with a terrifying glow as if to signal the end of days to all who could look upon it.

It was a mirror of the very terror that had begun the age of monsters in the first place, a visual replica of humanity’s greatest weapon.

And within the conflagration, so far within it could never be seen by human eyes, the King of the Monsters continued to march unequaled and unopposed through the blood-red sandstorm of his own making, his jade scales continuing to shed more wisps of the maroon particles. Draconic eyes stared unblinking at nothing in particular, hiding whatever mysterious thoughts that dwelled within the mind of the dinosaurian Oni. His head rising through the clouds of crimson, Godzilla let his dorsal spines light aglow once more as he ululated a planet-shaking howl of sheer unfathomable power. A roar that warned any and all who could hear of what was now coming their way.

A warning to all of a hopeless future.

Winner: Godzilla Ultima

Authors: Connor Clennell & Matthew Freese | Banner: Andrew Sudomerski

Long, long ago, in the ages before history, the world was ruled by monsters. The word itself has loose definition, for it is easy for those without the proper knowledge to label the inhabitants of the old world, which were far from resembling anyone alive in the modern age, as monsters. Only those that dedicated their minds to their study could recognize them as equally natural creations of the planet’s line of evolution. It was fear of the unknown and the inhuman that labelled the first fossils of prehistoric life as monsters in the early history of mankind, where religion reigned before the takeover of science.

But in fact, the mistaken diagnosis was almost close to the truth. At the same time that the dinosaurs began to colonize Pangaea, the real monsters, the titans of history, were already spread across the planet and had claimed it as their own. Through extinction after extinction, where billions died in the wrath of fire and ice, they persisted. As the world advanced, the population of the giants weakened as resources and space ran short, leaving the survivors with the choice to slumber until a time where the planet could support them again, or fight amongst one another for what remained.

Across continents and civilizations, through preserved texts and weathered murals, insight into the shared history between men and monsters could be revealed, but these are only mere glimpses into the past, and offer only part of the full picture. Much of recorded and unrecorded knowledge has been lost to the sands of time, but it remains in the collective subconscious, warped by imagination and misinformation into the tales of majestic creatures of fairy tales and the horrific terrors of nightmares.

Over time, investigation into the source of these stories has separated the facts from fiction and revealed the truth of the fantasy world. The unicorn was a rhinoceros, the mermaid a manatee, the werewolf merely humans with rare disorders. In the end, logic usually prevailed.

But then the monsters returned, as if to challenge the order of the world and humanity’s understanding of its operations. In an age where science and nature competed for dominance, a third party had been awoken and re-entered the ancient competition. The ageless titans of the mystic age, hailing from a period no longer found in the tomes of time, now clashed with the creatures that had replaced them for control of their ancient home. A three-way war that would determine the supreme force on the planet, and the founders of the new world.

And slowly, Man remembered. They remembered the time where they lived in the shadows of giants. Where they built civilizations under the protections of the colossi that turned a kind hand to them. To the age where the world showed the nightmares behind its façade of beauty and unleashed them to cleanse the surface and let life start again.

The world was safe because mankind had forgotten what came before, because the demons required their primeval fear to exist within the mortal plane. For centuries, the planet was safe, but as the people remembered, the knowledge of these unearthly creatures returned as well…

With knowledge came fear, and with fear came power. The power for those from the darkest pits to rise and live again.

*****

Tokyo, Japan – 10:00 AM JST

On an average day, this would be the midst of rush hour, with the city’s spacious streets packed to the brim with people, ranging from tourists in search of the nearest and hottest attractions, to businessmen scrambling to reach meetings that held the promise of future power across the stock market, to rebellious children taking the risk to skive off from school and enjoy the baser pleasures of youth. It was a city of life that operated on organised chaos, and yet managed to not only function, but flourish across the local and economic market.

But this was far from an average day.

The streets that could be bustling with activity lay empty of life, populated only by the corpses of the drowned and the sea creatures that sought the opportunity to invade this new territory. Faint beams of sunlight illuminated the gloomy depths of Tokyo’s flooded avenues from the distant surface wherever it could through the dark veil that hung across the entire coastline of the capital city. It rained heavily, as it had for the last two days non-stop. The clear blue sky was shrouded under layers and layers of dark clouds, pelting the buildings and hills that stood above the flood with heavy showers, as well as the pulsing geodes that now populated the metropolis.

This was the state of the capital from the effects of a mysterious meteor storm that had affected the entire planet. Wherever they landed, alien crystals surging with foreign cosmic power sprouted and spread like cancer, generating supernatural meteorological events on an apocalyptic scale. The Earth’s ecosystem was thrown into chaos, and with every hour, the breaking point of no return edged closer and closer.

At this moment, battles raged across some of the planet’s most recognized cities between the forces of good that sought to remove the crystal infection, and the opposing factions that wanted to harness their extraordinary energy surges for their own goals. And here, in the drowning hub of Japanese culture, the next clash for ultimate supremacy was ready to begin.

Standing amidst the abandoned, rain-soaked towers of concrete and steel, two goliaths faced down between the streets of the Minato ward, with their titanic bodies submerged to their knees within the murky, polluted waters. It was only a minor concern for both giants, whose focus was directed on the form of the other and the obstacle that they presented. Tokyo was rich in power crystals and massive in size, spanning across hundreds of districts across twenty-three special wards that formed the metropolis, making it an ample breeding ground and a desirable territory to gain control of. But there was no plan in sharing this bounty with the other.

The first creature was an organism incomparable to any other life that originated on Earth. Its huge body was layered in rough, thick, crimson plates of chitin and imposing spikes that jutted out across the horror’s shape. Behind it, a segmented, serrated tail splashed in and out of the water, with the pincer upon its tip twitching beyond the beast’s control. Two sets of colossal, bat-like wings lay tucked to its sides while it raised its head, which was decorated with axe-shaped frills of jagged spikes, a tall, amber horn that protruded from the top of its skull, short jaws lined by tusks and loaded with needle-like teeth, and a pair of orange eyes, flickering brightly, and yet at the same time, utterly soulless.

It seemed impossible that such a nightmarish abomination could have developed on this planet. Many would claim that it most resembled the image of the Devil, Satan himself, but Destoroyah was a creature of mortal origin, with possession of power that could be said to rival the gods, and the desire to destroy every speck of life he shared this rotten world with. The mutated horror had come here with a mission and a purpose, but now those goals were cast aside with the presence of the being that stood against him. Something took root in Destoroyah’s soul, an overwhelming feeling that required appeasement as top priority…

The second invader bared no flesh upon its structure. Unlike Destoroyah, it was not born, but made, for it was no living creature, but a metal duplicate of the Monster King himself. The unearthly element known as Space Titanium was the basis of the machine’s shimmering armor, internal systems, and weapon production. Within and across the silver giant’s mouth, throat, hands, knees and feet, kaiju-scaled missiles lay primed for ignition. Rows of ‘m’-shaped dorsal plates lined the back of the machine from the tip of its bladed tail to the base of the head, constructed in a manner to almost resemble the skull of the titan it had once intimidated. Stiff hands rotated in their sockets, its jaw clicked open and shut, and crimson lens flashed brightly, designating its operating systems at 100% functionality.

Mechagodzilla was designed as a force for ultimate destruction and conquest. Although the engineers and technicians of Earth’s Global Defense Force had tried to emulate its abilities through the second and third generations of the robot monster, there was no contest with these inferior creations against the original and real deal. Humans had not yet perfected the technology of autonomous operation, forcing them to take up the controls of their creations and pilot them into battle. With the use of the Cybanek system, the Vortaak’s Mechagodzilla did not suffer from the same weakness of its false pretenders. It would not hesitate or deviate. As the orders were received, the unfeeling machine would execute them, and its target, with utmost efficiency.

The war machine unleashed a high-toned, metallic screech. It wasn’t a challenge, but a warning – the only warning – for Destoroyah to abandon the battle and retreat while the chance remained open. The demonic crustacean rejected the pathetic offer with a hellish shriek from his crooked jaws. It was followed with a web of crackling, golden sparks that surged across the behemoth’s frills, gathering power to his mouth with terrifying speed. He spat forth a swirling helix beam of flesh-dissolving power, which crashed into and assaulted Mechagodzilla’s upper torso in a cascade of smoke and embers. The force caused the mechanoid to topple backward, crying out again with its grating cry before it splashed down hard into the turbulent waters.

The laughter that blossomed from Destoroyah’s maw was like nails against a chalkboard. With only one demonstration of the unnatural power he wielded, the defiler was down for the count, and the demonic titan now moved to ensure that the deed was done.

As he trudged through the thigh-high water, Mechagodzilla’s head swiveled up. Its calculating red lenses acknowledged and processed Destoroyah’s immense structure, shifting its servos into action as the beast bore down and lifted a spike-decorated, tree trunk-like leg with the intent to crush the robot reptile’s skull. The titan failed to meet his mark as Mechagodzilla rolled out of the impact site, instead slamming down onto the submerged tarmac underneath, launching an impressive spray into the stunned Destoroyah’s face. He cried out, more surprised than hurt, blinded by the sudden surge of sea water that now clogged the pits and grooves of his eye sockets, impairing the prehistoric killer’s vision of the environment surrounding him.

Mechagodzilla saw the opportunity to take action with the rogue beast’s defenses now lowered. With a loud click, the panel located upon its chest flipped down, throwing away droplets of water as it revealed the deep orange gem concealed behind, from which a jagged energy beam fired, cutting into the armor and flesh of Destoroyah’s right knee and thigh. The demon screamed louder than before as armor chunks and sickly, yellow fluid burst from the assaulted site. Unable to carry his mass on the support of one healthy leg, Destoroyah fell over into the swell, throwing heavy curtains of the polluted water across the deserted skyscrapers, which trembled from the impact of the behemoth’s fall.

Without hesitation, the waterlogged robot marched to intercept Destoroyah as the creature struggled to recover. His pained hisses and growls drowned out the clanking steps and turbulent splashes, edging closer and closer to the sinful titan as he managed to get off the street at last and find his balance. When the prehistoric demon turned, for a brief moment, his miniscule, burning orbs found themselves into empty, unfeeling, crimson lenses of glass. Destoroyah’s responding cry was an uncertain mix between anger and panic, which turned to a sound of utter agony as the pointed fingers of the metal contender thrust into the carapace of his stomach, inflicting cracks and splinters in the organic armor. Once again, the unknown sensation flared bright and hot in Destoroyah’s mind and heart, incentivizing him to fulfil the urge taking root as invisible tendrils of agony curled around the crustacean’s body.

The assault from Mechagodzilla was brutal, merciless and efficient. Each strike that hammered into the chest or gut of its mark was ensured to shatter the demon’s exoskeleton, which bruised the softer flesh and muscle underneath and embedded splinters of the material into his body, strengthening the torment Destoroyah was inflicted by, though only by a side-effect of its actions, not a choice by a machine. The torture of living flesh was a waste of time and resources, and Mechagodzilla was designed for efficiency as one of the highest priorities in its machine mind. However, as the assault prevented its enemy from pulling together the willpower to fight back, the cold killer chose to continue its actions. Blood and armor splattered and bounced across Mechagodzilla’s shape as it drove back Destoroyah with each thunderous blow, with the creature’s horrific screams growing louder by the second.

Movement flashed in the corner of Mechagodzilla’s vision. Had it not been focused upon the attack on his foe, the android Godzilla could have easily deflected the strike, but as a consequence, Mechagodzilla’s reflexes failed to kick in. Destoroyah’s flexing tail whipped around from the side of the titan and struck out like a scorpion at the metal fiend’s neck, grasping the alien metal frame with its serrated claws in a tight and secure hold. As the connection was established, molten trails of power surged through the grooves and channels of Destoroyah’s exoskeleton into Mechagodzilla’s shining armor, and the effect was immediate. The Space Titanium plating offered no protection against the power of Micro-Oxygen as it ravaged the robot’s external and internal systems. Smoke billowed from its twitching head through the whirring jaws and seams of its neck. It could not form any type of action under the relentless waves of destructive power.

At last, Destoroyah considered the contender bested. With a flick of his tail, and twirling with the momentum, he tossed the sparking machine to the sunken asphalt that lay behind him. The satanic beast bellowed out a loud, atrocious cry as Mechagodzilla lay sprawled in the flood waters, confident in the machine’s defeat, and his subsequent conquest of the deserted metropolis. Already, the pulsating energy of the crystals sang out like a siren’s song to Destoroyah’s malicious soul with the promise of absolute power, with which the mission against all life could be fulfilled.

The armored colossus found no reason to hesitate, until he heard the sound of disturbed water and whirring machinery. As the killer turned, his jaws let out a hiss of utter hate toward the rising shape of Mechagodzilla, slowly emerging from the dark grey swell. However, Destoroyah noticed the stiffness and slow responses in the robot’s movements, and determined that, while he had failed to terminate it, there was the opportunity to finish it while its systems continued to reboot and update.

The water around his ankles rose up in a surging bow wave as the demonic titan charged forward, unable to be hindered or deterred by the liquid’s resisting force as he bore down on Mechagodzilla. The alien war machine, with its Cybanek receivers not functioning at optimal efficiency, managed to force up its head, the gears and pistons within grinding and screeching in protest of their damaged state, to locate Destoroyah’s towering shape. It took notice of the creature’s jutting horn as crackling bolts surged upward into it, followed by the extremity becoming aglow in a luminous, golden aura. It took no time for Mechagodzilla to determine the glowing katana’s purpose and moved to counteract. But it lacked the ability to use its weapon systems until the Cybanek had completed its reboot, rendering the Vortaak machine’s offensive capabilities below effective parameters. As such, Mechagodzilla had no choice but to act on the defensive.

As the crimson monstrosity swung his neck down, it raised both arms upward in a cross and caught the flickering blade. There was a flashing spark upon meeting, and the force from the strike brought Mechagodzilla down to its knees, emitting a reverberating screech from its creaking jaws as it summoned the full power of its servos to hold Destoroyah’s knife at bay. Although the extraterrestrial mechanoid’s armor plating had resisted the maximum strength of the Variable Cutter, despite the lack of power within the blow, it had managed to break through the outer layer of Mechagodzilla’s forearm. The energized horn now lay embedded inside a groove as deep as a third of the mechanical titan’s arm width, but that was as far as it would go in spite of Destoroyah’s efforts to force the blade deeper.

Mechagodzilla’s joints groaned in protest but managed to hold back against the malicious beast’s pressing strength, but it would not last. Inch by inch, the machine was pushed toward the ground, without any means to disrupt its assailant’s efforts at the moment. Destoroyah shrilled in delight, grinding his glowing horn into the forged nook in Mechagodzilla’s arm, and pushed hard, nearly forcing it to double over backward under the pressing vigor. Its servos and gears scrapped and screamed in protest under the inflicted pressure…

All systems ran green as the weapon control system was restored.

Flames burst from the metal warrior’s spiked kneecaps, propelling the cone-headed projectiles on their straight path into Destoroyah’s lower body. Upon contact, they breached the external armor without resistance, but rather than detonate on impact, the Homyu shells burrowed deep into the mutated flesh as the timer ticked down. Seconds later, the scarlet terror’s side burst open from the delayed explosion, throwing chunks of meat, carapace, bone, and splatters of mustard-yellow blood. Immediately, Destoroyah withdrew from the assault, stumbling and quavering as anguished screams rolled from his slathering tongue.

With creaks and groans, Mechagodzilla forced itself to stand upright. A mixture of coolant and oil dripped from the gash in its right forearm, from which split tubing and sliced circuitry dangled. Its offensive potential, however, remained within optimal parameters. With further noises of protest, the deadly pretender of Godzilla raised both arms, pointing the sights of its stiff hands at the reeling form of its adversary, then opened fire. Destoroyah cried out again as dozens of high power missiles rocked his form in powerful explosions. The living Oxygen Destroyer’s thick carapace offered no defense against the never-ending volley of weapons, with each blast taking off chunks of the demonic lifeform’s armor as if it consisted of paper mache.

As sprays of fire, shrapnel, and his own fluids and flesh pelted Destoroyah’s deteriorating body, he acted on the first instinct that came upon him in desperation. In spite of the instincts screaming for him to get clear, he forced himself into the heart of the barrage, gritting his fangs hard in order to ensure the trauma. The devilish creature challenged power to his horn and swung outward in a diagonal strike, drawing the energized blade across Mechagodzilla’s bare torso with everything he could muster.

Flashes of sparks, light and fire blossomed from the horn’s trail across the Space Titanium alloy armor, bringing a sudden halt to the automaton’s attack. It staggered back with a powerful screech to assess the damage. On most occasions, Mechagodzilla’s structure was nearly impossible to break or dent, but for the second time, Destoroyah’s might had overcome its defenses, imbuing a long, jagged, shallow slash across the invading mechanoid from hip to shoulder. The damage it was receiving was unacceptable in Mechagodzilla’s computer mind. If victory was to be achieved, a reanalysis of the scenario would need to be conducted.

As he hastily retreated, Destoroyah wheezed and retched from the destruction inflicted upon his form. The grey waters swirling around the colossus turned to a cloudy yellow as the titan’s blood drained down the grooves and segments of his broken armor, polluting the tainted liquid even further and to a far greater degree. His crimson carapace and ivory spikes lay shattered and burnt in craters across his breast, shoulders, gut, and thighs, with the internal organs that were once protected underneath also scarred and traumatized. In the face of injuries that would have killed any other creature stone dead, the taker of life spat in Death’s face instead. The light of his diminutive eyes glowed hot like flames with the bubbling hate and rage that filled his veins and muscles, keeping the demon’s heart pumping for longer than it should. He would not accept the embrace of death until every living being had experienced it first. Not until he had settled the challenge to his purpose by Mechagodzilla and its existence.

For the many years since his birth, Destoroyah thrived on destruction and hate. Forged from the terrible power of the Oxygen Destroyer, his prehistoric ancestors had grown and mutated in torturous solitude. Alone and trapped beneath the ocean, knowing only pain for the duration of their forty year evolutionary cram fest, drove the creatures that would become Destoroyah utterly mad with hate. Around him, life flourished outside of the living hell that forged him as if to mock his own pained existence. For this, he vowed to introduce the world to the torment and agony that spawned him, taking the name of their “Destroyer” to perfectly embody the force he represented and had come to embrace.

In time, however, he had lost sight of his original purpose. In taking the personification of one sin, it was with such irony that the killer fell victim to the temptations of another. He grew addicted to the feeling of pleasure that was felt with the destruction of life, and came to crave that over the fulfilment of his vendetta. The new lease on his life would drive Destoroyah further down the pit of insanity from whence there was no return. He saw a new meaning to his traumatic origins, for without the suffering his predecessors had endured, the power that let him take away life, that had molded him into the ultimate force of terror, would not be. It made him unique upon the planet and amongst the universe.

But Mechagodzilla spat in the face of that uniqueness. Although his collective mind had fallen into the grips of madness, Destoroyah was anything but a mindless brute. He could recognize potential, and upon the first sight of the robotic interloper, he saw within it the potential for grand, chaotic, delicious destruction at the hands of an entity other than himself. If a weapon like that could be so easily manufactured, what did that make him, if no longer unparalleled?

If Mechagodzilla existed, all of the events responsible for his creation no longer meant anything. It was a demonstration that, in the eyes of the universe, Destoroyah’s appointed role could be overthrown and replaced. It awakened a burning rage deep within the altered monster’s soul unlike nothing felt before by his cold and empty heart. A combination of jealousy, anger, pride, and fear lit the fire that motivated the vilest creature in Earth’s history to continue the fight, for unlike the many battles fought in the past, he had something to prove. He needed the creators of the metal heretic to understand why he was irreplaceable and where their place lay. They would be shown and made to understand that the machinations of nature were superior against the creations of science.

With a whirr and a click, Mechagodzilla raised its undamaged arm toward the wounded crustacean terror. The hands flipped sideways to allow for a wider firing spread and a clear sight for the robot reptile’s targeting systems, dead locked on the fractured front of the obstacle impairing its prime objective. It seemed like Destoroyah had nowhere to go, but in spite of his mutilation condition, there were other tactics and abilities to employ against the mechanical titan, and Destoroyah was eager to demonstrate each and every one of them to prove of Mechagodzilla’s inferiority.

The demon creature’s wings unfurled and spread wide, spanning over twice his own height in length from tip to tip. Great gusts of wind were launched from the extremities, which whipped up massive sprays of dirtied sea water that splashed against the surrounding buildings, completely drenching the emptied structures. The resulting backsplash obscured the crimson abomination from his enemy’s sight at the moment it fired, allowing Destoroyah to take an enormous leap into the air with his powerful leg muscles and a flap of his demonic wings.

All that Mechagodzilla’s electronic eyes saw was the colossal eruption of white water as the missiles impacted the empty spot, and when there was no responding cry from the mutation, it began to deduce that something was amiss. Before the dinosaurian war bot’s artificial brain could start to calculate, it heard the familiar scream of its enemy from high above. Craning its head up toward the sky, the machine’s front was coated in shadow as it recognized the descending shape of Destoroyah, falling straight down toward the Vortaak terminator with both clawed feet outstretched. That was nothing Mechagodzilla had within its arsenal to halt the attack.

The connecting kick drove the metal killer down into the waterlogged tarmac, where it was pinned with its back against the road surface beneath the immense weight of its adversary. The machine’s outer frame buckled inward as it struggled to hold up Destoroyah’s entire mass with the supporting structure of its chest, a task that, for the moment, held firmly. Mechagodzilla shrieked out in defiance at the monstrosity, thrashing with all the power at its disposal under Destoroyah’s scrutinizing gaze.

The demon replied with his chilling cry and prepared for the finishing blow. From his open, jagged jaws, purple light gathered and rose up the esophagus, as brilliant lavender sparks surged across the evil one’s skull once more. The only regret that came to his diseased mind as he looked down at the helpless Mechagodzilla was the inability to draw out its torture for longer, robbed of his greatest desire simply by the nature of the artificial defiler. The unquenchable rage brought about by this fact was vocalized by an enraged cry, rearing his axe-like skull back as if to sound his fury toward the heavens themselves.

From the edge of his vision, light flashed for the briefest milliseconds as Mechagodzilla’s head rose and aimed. Unlike with Destoroyah’s Micro-Oxygen energies, there was no precursor for the discharge of the robot’s deadly Space Beams, which surged from its luminous eyes under the speed of light itself and sliced into the satanic giant’s exposed neck. The howling screech was cut short and the building power dissipated, replaced by wet gurgles and splatters of ichor as the rainbow rays cut clean through the malevolent being’s throat and severed the spinal column near the base of the skull. Destoroyah’s eyes bulged wide as he was harshly introduced to the sensation of terror, the confidence draining from his mind as quickly as blood gushed from his gashed throat. His tiny arms raised upward upon the vain instinct to prolong his survival, but lacked the reach to attend to the injury and wiggled uselessly as the armored horror spluttered and gagged upon his own vile blood.

Mechagodzilla ignited the thrusters in its soles, granting it a new form of mobility as it rocketed out from under the paralyzed Destoroyah’s weight. Its velocity knocked the crustacean life form clear off, sent tumbling helpless into the surf, while Mechagodzilla grinded its back against the street surface amidst its travel, scuffing up the machine’s gleaming paintwork as it carved trenches into the underwater tarmac with its dorsal spines. When it had cleared enough distance, the terminator pitched upward, rising out of the water toward a horizontal stance until it could identify the target’s writhing mass, then shut off power to the boosters, letting it drop the short distance back to Earth.

Though it possessed no independent thoughts of its own, it could create ideas and strategies from the orders and information received through the Cybanek from the Vortaak mother computer. From this, the robotic duplicate acknowledged that its masters would want to make an example of this self-proclaimed “living destroyer.” It failed to match the standards set by decades of Vortaak science and engineering within the same span of time; failed to compete against the true face of personified destruction in the eyes of its empress. And within the laws of the Vortaak, to ensure within their race and society, all failures must be extinguished from history.

Mechagodzilla locked itself in place for anchorage. Amidst the chorus of wild splashes and his own choking cries, Destoroyah overheard the metal monster setting up for its attack and managed to twist his head in its direction. His soulless orbs scanned as the warrior robot prepared to fire, watching on in paralyzing suffering, glaring hard at his new nemesis with overwhelming hate within his eyes…

But not fear.

Space Beams, Cross Attack Beams, Desto-Fire, and all forms of missiles from across Mechagodzilla’s walking artillery of a body converged upon Destoroyah’s prone body, tearing the living horror’s form asunder as his haunting screams filled the air. Fire, ash, smoke, and water spray rose up and engulfed the fallen one as Mechagodzilla continued firing without hesitation, programmed only to stop until there was nothing left of its adversary to be found. Its receptors listened out amidst the bangs and roars of its assault, taking note as the cries of the mutation grew fainter and fainter. Within seconds, the deed would be complete.

Suddenly, Mechagodzilla’s sensors were overwhelmed by a burst of white smoke. The machine Godzilla shut off its attack at once and attempted to recalculate under the presence of the surprise phenomenon. It took only a moment to complete, and a few seconds longer to realize that the source of the mystery cloud was the site of bombardment. Where Destoroyah was. But as it peered through the fog, although the spot showed the ravages of the assault, there was no longer any trace of the mutation in the area. The error boggled its cybernetic brain; how could a creature of such mass simply vanish into the air?

Silence no longer filled the air, broken and dispelled by a haunting screech that had become familiar to the artificial Godzilla’s audio receivers. It had not the time to comprehend how the creature had returned, immediately switching back into its attack protocols and swerved its head in the direction of the sound’s source.

Destoroyah’s grotesque features greeted the flashing lenses of Mechagodzilla with a horrendous shriek of deafening volume. The demonic anomaly’s wings beat the air with vigor to propel him across the city skyline, gathering up speed that, combined with his latent kinetic power, sent Mechagodzilla sprawling and crashing into the earth hard from the collision of the deadly mutation’s flying mass to its metal skull.

Static crackled across the machine’s vision as sparks flew wide from the point of impact. The structure was left dented from its encounter with Destoroyah’s ferocity, but in the face of such strength, the extraterrestrial material held out, relegating the inflicted damages to minor cosmetic damages. Even as it struck the ground, Mechagodzilla remained operational but dazed, registering the few seconds it would need in order to recover and retaliate. In the same short space of time, Destoroyah flew clear over the fallen war machine in full view. On its neck, Mechagodzilla registered an impact before it was dragged away outside of its own power, with the only reaction it could form a scratchy shriek.

With its adversary locked tight once again in the clawed grip of his tail pincer, Destoroyah pulled along the most hated creature in his existence to this point on his flyover across the sunken maze of streets. His eyes glimmered upon the sight of a suitable target, and as the united pair came into proximity, the crustaceous beast relinquished his hold upon Mechagodzilla and pulled upward to avoid colliding with the structure himself. The momentum carried over to the helpless Mechagodzilla, sliding down the tarmac behind the colossal wave that headed its path to the destination Destoroyah had intended – the massive towers of the Ebisu Garden Place.

It cried out once more before it slammed first straight through the museum and commercial district, then careened dome-first into the base of one tower. Layers of plasterboard, concrete, steel and glass, already weakened by the surging floodwaters, crumbled without resistance against the sliding mass of the drenched robot. Within a second, stability was lost and the building collapsed, toppling straight down upon the impaired form of the alien invader. In the process of falling, it caught the surrounding towers as well, dragging them down with it in a colossal downpour of debris that covered every inch of Mechagodzilla. Within moments, one of the capital’s famous landmarks was demolished and transformed into naught but smoking rubble, which had completely entombed its destroyer in the process.

High above, circling the rising column of smoke wafting from the burning wreckage, wicked laughter blossomed from the pits of Destoroyah’s throat. It was followed immediately by surging bursts of destructive violet power as the devil’s imposter bombarded the tomb of Mechagodzilla in a ceaseless volley of Micro-Oxygen beams. Each subsequent blast stripped away the collected rubble with terrifying ease, replacing it with wide bursts of scorching flame. The explosions ripped apart the debris in the space of a minute, reducing the small amount of material that stood above the water’s surface to a heap of burning slag. Destoroyah let up on the barrage, circling the growing tower of black smoke wafting up from what he considered to be the rebellious machine’s final resting place.

Destoroyah’s crooked jaws opened wide into the approximation of a victorious grin. Every fiber of his body beamed with pride and glee over the deed he had committed, rewarding his horrendous task with the feeling of satisfaction he had come to crave. Throughout him, the countless numbers of microscopic creatures shared in the pleasure. Their multitudes was the secret to Destoroyah’s survival in the face of death again and again, ensuring that his malice would continue in whichever forms the colony would take. The simple task of splitting down the colossal mountain of muscle and chitin into billions of infinitesimal forms made Mechagodzilla’s powerful arsenal incapable of landing the finishing blow or lasting damage of any kind. Through the Oxygen’s Destroyer’s properties, he had control not only of the forces of destruction, but evolution.

It was why Mechagodzilla was doomed to failure. It was the power of one against the will of a billion billion, with the chances placed unfairly within his favor. An example, once more, of his superiority through the power of evolution against the advancements of science!

The moment was cut short by the emergence of a faint rumbling noise, pulling the monolithic crustacean away from his thoughts of a concrete victory, and observing the smoking rubble once again, hoping that his hearing was deceived. No longer were there no signs of movement, for to his horror, waves of debris rolled down the slopes of the artificial mountain as it quaked violently, falling apart at the seams before Destoroyah’s horrified eyes. This should be possible after the amount of raw Micro-Oxygen power it had been bathed in. In all the powers that governed this wretched oasis of life, how could the machine, the defiler, survive?!

The reality of it all stirred up the flames of hatred that burned within him, but also allowed a spark for another primal emotion to ignite a separate fire inside the collective’s soul, which burned far slower than its counterpart… for now.

A blinding luminance flashed brightly and rhythmically through the cracks of the wreckage, lasting only for a few short seconds before the summit exploded outward, launching clouds of choking smoke and dust and falling debris high and wide into the air like a miniature volcanic eruption. Destoroyah swerved to the side but not in time, taking a face full of the suffocating cloud, sending him into a brief fit of hacking and wheezing as his eyes watered up to expel the pollutants. It was a momentary distraction, but almost a deadly one. From the dying sound of the explosion, the noise of blazing jet fire took over as Mechagodzilla’s shape shot out from the smog, wrapped in trails of the unhealthy smoke while it boosted toward the figure of its abstracted target.

Although his visual senses were impaired, Destoroyah was not foolish enough to not recognize the ruckus generated by the shimmering terminator’s approach. Without time to calculate, the demon rolled aside at a guess to narrowly avoid the pair of Space Beams that zipped past his vision. With his sight fully restored seconds later, the cretin snapped his head in the direction of the beams’ source, taking note for a brief moment of the robotic creature’s body and condition. It was charred, dulled, cracked, dented; but not to the degree that he craved. It continued to function in spite of the destructive power wrought upon it with only minimal damage. Even with the lack of emotions in its positronic brain, it mocked the Oxygen Destroyer’s ability, the element and the creature, through the nature of its perseverance alone.

Quickly, Destoroyah was beginning to lose patience and confidence within the presence of the mechanoid blasphemer. He would not rest until his position upon the ladder of supremacy was safe and established, and for that required the destruction of his nemesis. He would find a way to defeat the imposter, refusing to consider any alternative outcomes.

He retaliated with a flowing stream of Micro-Oxygen energies from his maw that struck and carved down Mechagodzilla’s rows of stubby spines. To his satisfaction, shards of metal were blasted into the air from the resulting explosions, raining down through the air like a sparkling hail. The result was pleasing to the malicious crustacean, for he now understood that the efforts of his previous assault were not in vain. When the smoke cleared from the automaton’s back, however, Destoroyah’s glee died and was replaced with an agitated scowl. While Mechagodzilla’s armor had lost a percentage of its durability, the dorsal spines sat dented and chipped, still attached to the machine’s body in a mocking show. In total, a small victory, which wasn’t enough.

Within the air, the airborne titans curved and twisted around each other, trying to catch the tail of their opponent while, at the same time, trying to avoid the same fate. Crackling beams shot across the polluted air space from the jaws of both killers, with limited success in finding the flesh or armor of either. A death ray shot wide there, while another missed only by the breadth of a monster-scaled hair. To the observers that might be watching, the duel appeared evenly matched, set to go either way at a moment’s notice, but there was an element that would turn the tables, known only to Mechagodzilla, and would benefit the metallic reptile’s favor.

As the flying fight progressed, Destoroyah’s reflexes began to slow down, little by little with every passing second. The stoic beast began to pant heavily, gasping desperately for air in order to appease the growing ache within the muscles of his gigantic wings. In creating a body plan designed for effective operation upon the land, in the sea or the sky, sacrifices had to be made to balance out between the three, and Destoroyah suffered for his grand power by means of his own hefty weight. His wings exerted themselves beyond the titan’s limits just to keep airborne, and the issue grew more prevalent as the air battle forced the demonic entity to increase elevation. The higher he climbed, the less oxygen he absorbed to recharge his tired muscles. Through his own hubris and the limitations of his body, the crimson mutant had been forced into a trap by his autonomous foe.

Destoroyah was forced into a no-win scenario. If he continued to ascend, eventually, the last of his strength could give out. If he tried to escape, Mechagodzilla would simply shoot him out of the sky at a moment’s notice. Either way, it would end with the prehistoric terror falling to the hard ground far below, which was a fate the destroyer could easily survive. However, it would create a small window of opportunity for the alien terminator to launch an all-out attack without hindrance, recovering from which would expend most of Destoroyah’s depleted energy stores.

Although he despised admitting it, he found himself impressed by the machine’s flawless strategy. In essence, it was the perfect plan for hunting down an aerial opponent, of which Destoroyah had yet to consider in his long, violent history. But there remained countless potential errors and miscalculations that could be exploited, given that the target creature was smart enough to recognize and exploit them. Destoroyah’s sharp mind was eager to test the scope of the robot monster’s planning, with a confident grin across his features and a devious glint in his amber eyes.

In spite of the fatigue spreading throughout his body, Destoroyah pushed further toward the shroud of dark clouds that hung above. With every wing beat, utter agony raced through his veins, as if to try and convince the tired and ancient goliath to give up, to accept defeat and simply pass on the title to his rival. This idea only spurred him to carry on, fighting with every ounce of fading stamina to complete his objective and satiate his scorned pride. The blanketing rain and surging wind currents howled within the demon’s hidden ears, but within the distracting chorus, he located the sound he wanted to hear, faint as it was, which confirmed that the stratagem was proceeding as planned. Mechagodzilla was in pursuit, climbing higher along the path being laid by the crustaceous giant and closing the distance, proven by the increasing volume of its thrusters as it chased after Destoroyah’s trail.

Exactly what he wanted the heathen to do.

At last, the scarlet titan reached the storm cloud layer and dove within the turbulent mass without a second thought. Inside, it was almost impossible to see or hear at all, with the black, rolling fog and hammering rain, broken only by the briefest flashes and booms of distant thunder and lightning. It was a struggle for Destoroyah to determine his position, overloaded by the rough and unstable conditions inside the body of the storm. If his senses failed to work inside the clouds, by the scheming killer’s logic, the sensory equipment of his robotic foe would encounter similar difficulties within the turbulent environment.

For this brief moment in time, he was completely off the machine’s radar. For how long was an unimportant question to cross the cold-blooded beast’s mind. They were both in position for Destoroyah’s plan, and thus, no longer a reason or chance to hesitate, as the colossus’ wings gave their last strokes, and he let gravity take hold to drag his massive form back down.

Mechagodzilla recognized that there was something peculiar in the actions of its adversary. As such, the Godzilla android remained on guard as it approached the surface of the storm, slowing its velocity and scanning the shifting darkness for a sign of the malicious entity lurking within. Visual and audio sensors attempted to process data on where it may be, but were inhibited by the electrostatic fluctuations of the soup-thick cloud layers, leaving their reports to the central mainframe of Mechagodzilla inconclusive. Instead, it had to function on traditional, organic-like senses instead, an area of its capabilities that was inferior in comparison.

Several seconds passed, the air polluted with a chorus of whistles and rumbles from the storm, conjoined with the deafening thrum from Mechagodzilla’s feet rockets as it maintained its altitude, diverting its primary processors to analyze the situation and ascertain the most logical course of action. Millions of scenarios and stratagems were generated, reviewed and logged within the tiniest window of time before a conclusion deemed satisfactory was met.

Tilting its head toward the core of the cumulonimbus, the war machine let loose a set of bright Space Beams, which sliced through the layers of condensed water vapor and illuminated the dark void that lay within for a small moment. Any human mind would struggle to locate and identify anything within such a timespan, and in this scenario, Mechagodzilla’s artificial senses proved superior in gathering information. It saw what it needed, and what it saw was not what the armored colossus wanted. Alarms blared a warning for immediate action upon digesting the image of the dark mass plummeting toward them, and Mechagodzilla did not require any further time to discern the intentions of its rival. It had to act, but with how close Destoroyah already was combined with the velocity he was travelling at, would there be time?

Mechagodzilla’s tail altered its position immediately, the booster on its tip flaring brightly as the autonomous reptile sent as much power as it would safely spare in order to adjust its current position with dreaded haste. From the clouds above suddenly hailed a warm orange glow, bringing color to the bleary weather for the first time in days. The light’s source came hurtling through the dark smog as Destoroyah’s bruised and cracked body shot down like a living rocket, racing toward the repositioning Mechagodzilla, his cranial horn alight with molten energy and a hellish promise of destruction from his wretched maw. With the combination of velocity, power and the Variable Cutter’s inherent carving talent, the resulting blow would be utterly devastating to even the reinforced metal coating of the extraterrestrial mechanoid.

Mechagodzilla was switching its positioning, however, a factor that had not been taken into account by the mutated beast. As Destoroyah rapidly descended, the artificial adversary moved with matching haste to counter the surprise move. But instead of attempting to get clear from the path of contact, the automaton stayed its position, rotating its stiff frame to point toward the ground to swing the stumpy tail, and the curved blade positioned within, jutting from the tip, at the hellish monster’s closing form, to Destoroyah’s horror and late realization.

The surprise counterattack was, however, flawed by the machine’s impaired flexibility, unable to stretch or contort in ways an organic lifeform could in order to achieve a secure strike, and as such, the algorithms calculating for the scenario of blocking Destoroyah’s incoming blow could not accurately confirm whether this stratagem would be effective or not. So instead, the limited conscious thought of Mechagodzilla was compelled to rely on a concept developed and hoped on by the organics it was engineered to completely surpass; luck.

The two blades clashed with a blinding flash. From ground level, the dreary sky was illuminated for a second by a great, blinding diamond, like a miniature star burning up as space metal and energized bone reacted to one another. Destoroyah howled in rage and Mechagodzilla shrieked, but the situation was about to turn in a favor that would help and hinder both of the colossal killers. As a result of the momentum from both strikes, and the smooth edge along each blade’s length, the connection failed to hold, and as the warriors roared their piece, they slipped past one another to continue on their original path. Before either could react, the weapons found their mark upon the wielders’ chests.

A horrible, grating, ear-splitting nightmare of sounds eclipsed the city landscape. The screams of the titans dragged on and on as they fell, declining along separate paths to the desolate city streets awaiting far beneath them. Mechagodzilla struck the ground first, impacting with a ringing clang and enough force to rock the surrounding structures, swaying like trees in a strong breeze. No sooner after, Destoroyah’s bulk crashed down into the filthy floodwaters, throwing up a gargantuan geyser of the liquid, taller than the height of the living Oxygen Destroyer himself, who finally fell silent underneath the rubble and rushing froth. As the heavy rain pelted down, it was joined by a hail of solid fragments, broken pieces of sanguine carapace and Space Titanium, accompanied by a second polluting rainfall of internal liquids from Mechagodzilla and Destoroyah both.

With its mechanical nature, Mechagodzilla was the first to recover. Slowly, it sat up as systems rebooted, running diagnostics to quickly identify the space machine’s functional status and the extent of the sustained damage. The horn of its target had struck firm and true through its seemingly impenetrable armored body, leaving a diagonal tear down across the metal warrior’s torso, beginning from the right shoulder and terminating above the left hip. While it was not a deep incision, it still left Mechagodzilla’s vulnerable and sensitive internal parts exposed to the moist, dirty air. Severed tubes and cables dangled from the seams, leaking a combination of oil, fuel and coolant across the damaged warmonger’s lower half.

The full diagnostics revealed further damage to the body and systems. The left eye lens had cracked in the fall, functioning at slightly below acceptable levels for data collection and optic functions, but the beam emitter located behind the glass case was completely out of use. When it reached its full height, Mechagodzilla flexed its arms, but the right limb struggled to bend at the elbow, sustaining structural damage at a location the bionic monster was not flexible enough to visually analyze. It tried again to move the joint, as smoke and horrible grinding sounds poured out until, with a sharp snap, something broke internally, and the arm was left fixed in a stiff position, but still fully functional.

The churning waters arose and cascaded over the rising Destoroyah, climbing from his would-be watery grave under the disorienting effects of his ungraceful landing. Unlike his metallic adversary, the damage adorning the organic beast’s outer shell was more numerous and noticeable, ranging from small chips and cracks up to entire pieces missing from the sections of natural armor coating the triphibious titan. His nightmarish wings now hung limp across his back, and the left half of his axe-like crest was no longer present, allowing hanging strips of flesh and streams of blood to pollute that side of the demon’s disfigured face. And across the center of his chest, crossing through the floral pattern from shoulder to shoulder, was the enormous gash delivered by Mechagodzilla’s tail blade, cutting so deep into his body that the thumping beat of his heart could be seen upon the exposed flesh.

Through his blurred and blood-soaked vision, he barely recognized the form of Mechagodzilla, standing opposite from many street blocks away, taking sight of the extensive damages set across the artificial contender and the similarities to his own ghastly wounds. For the entirety of his life up until this point, the scope of emotions Destoroyah had understood was limited to the experiences of joy and rage, and to not be immersed in the sensation of either allowed for the introduction of a third emotion that he struggled to understand.

He had been led to believe by his own experiences that in the balance of the world, there would always be those that were supreme above all, dictating order and fate to the creatures that cowered beneath them. If this status was challenged, then it would be put in its place, or lose the position that it lacked the power to hold. But never before could the concept of equality have entered the destroyer’s thoughts. Science and Nature had clashed, tested their strength, and delivered horrendous blows, but there was no clear winner. Did this mean… there was no superior force? That they were equals in the mission they had taken?

The strange emotion was drowned in a familiar flood of boiling rage as Destoroyah cried out with all the strength in his body and breath in his crippled lungs. The idea of an equally matched force spat in the beliefs that had forged and driven the collective consciousness that formed Destoroyah into what it had become today. He would not share in his status or accept the presence of this pretender. He was the ultimate destroyer, accepting no imitations. But the metal fiend was the proof of Nature and Science’s equal potential, and thus he must bury the proof from the rest of the world to protect his most-prized reputation.

Only his truth would be spread and embraced. Only his originating source was the supreme power.

From the fringes of the battlefield, the most bloodcurdling sound in history screeched out in response to Destoroyah’s war cry.

The warring colossi turned to see the strangest thing either had ever witnessed. Another towering beast trudging through the murk, looking like three beings had been mashed into one body. Its top half was that of an ape bearing curved horns atop the head, scaly arms ending in three-fingered hands flexing with each step. Where the torso ended was another head, a fish-like cranium of azure that lay limp and lifeless, legs of the same color as the piscine entity supporting the entity’s bulk. A folded-in pair of crimson wings adorned its back, but they were upside down. Finally, a draconic neck and head, eyes shut and mouth closed, dragged along the ground like a tail.

Destoroyah found himself stepping back, utterly baffled at this thing before him.

Mechagodzilla’s scanners turned up no record of a similar being, and struggled to turn up any meaningful data.

The Monkey God Beast charged forward, snarling.

Destoroyah and Mechagodzilla glanced at one another, almost daring the other to engage the new arrival and be open to an attack from behind. The Precambrian menace braced himself as he realized it was coming for him, hissing in displeasure at having to face this strange demon.

Opening its maw, the chimera sprayed a stream of flame upon the gestalt crustacean, earning a screech of agony from Destoroyah as the fire scourged his exposed and open flesh. Fighting past the pain, he lunged forward, swinging his claws across the chest of his foe. The Monkey God Beast did not react despite the bloody marks on its skin, just retaliating by closing a fist and crashing it against Destoroyah’s face. He stumbled back, yellow blood flowing from between cracked armor. Screeching in fury, the bringer of death began to charge his power.

An Oxygen Destroyer Beam spewed forth, striking the chimera in the gut. It was forced back, flesh peeling away before the ray, but it showed no signs of pain. Destoroyah saw nothing in its eyes, no sparks of emotion positive or negative.

The demon, a sizzling hole drilled into its form, just charged again and swiped madly with its claws. Destoroyah, further blood spewing and chunks of armor being torn away, decided to match its ferocity with his own. Black ichor sprayed from its flesh as the crustacean’s talons pierced flesh, ribbons of skin being torn away and left dangling as it continued to attack.

Like a wasp’s stinger, Destoroyah’s tail lashed forward, the pincer latching onto the abomination’s leg. Electric power coursed through the limb, blazing into the Monkey God Beast. Its muscles seized, halting its assault as it tried to break free. Cackling madly, the prehistoric demon lifted his foe off the ground, swinging him through the air before releasing. The chimera roared as it soared, before crashing into the waters.

Mechagodzilla lifted its fully functional arm, aiming it toward the fiend it had already been facing, as it positioned itself to aim the unbending arm at the new arrival. Missiles blazed from both hands, soaring through the air and crashing into its foes. Destoroyah cried out in pain, whipping around to face the extraterrestrial machine with a growl, as the unfeeling chimera just got back to its feet, craters having been punched into its flesh. The multi-headed cretin charged forward, its aquatic legs moving through the floodwaters with ease as the distance between it and Mechagodzilla closed swiftly, even as missiles peppered its hide and tore into it further.

Gears grinded and protested as the alien warrior moved swiftly out of the path of its foe’s opening swing, but the second landed true, releasing a mighty clang of muscular scale on metal. Mechagodzilla’s innards shook with the strike, the steady stream of fluid flowing from its front intensifying. The Monkey God Beast roared as it lashed with its claws again, only to be halted as Mechagodzilla’s undamaged eye released a rainbow beam to blaze into the palm, releasing a geyser of blood as muscle was parted.

Fire gathered in the primate’s throat, causing alarm bells to ring loudly in Mechagodzilla’s artificial mind. It could withstand fire with ease usually, however, there was currently a gigantic hole in its torso that the heat would ravage. The false saurian opened its maw as well, unleashing a yellow stream of energy. The facsimile of a hero’s blazing weapon crashed against the gout of flames, the focused beam piercing through the disorganised gas and scorching the Monkey God Beast’s face.

It stumbled back, eyes boiling and flesh melting. Before Mechagodzilla could attack further, Destoroyah smashed into the demon’s side, sending it crashing to the ground. The fiend born of a weapon of mass destruction turned toward his mechanical enemy, smiling at the sight of its damage. His ray began to charge once more, only for Mechagodzilla to open its mouth once more and belt out a cluster of missiles, aimed for the still raw flesh of its target, halting the attack as Destoroyah cried out in pain while stumbling back. The chimera stood up, the two barely noticing as they prepared to tear into each other once more.

Until its torso suddenly twisted a full one-hundred eighty degrees, with a sickening popping and cracking that echoed across the city. All of its wounds healed as this occurred, like it had just arrived at the battle, as what had been its torso bent downward to place its palms on the ground. The azure, fish-like legs lifted upward like they were a set of arms, the now properly oriented wings opening up to spread their membranes. The monkey’s eyes closed as the dragon’s neck unfurled, its eyes opening as the mouth let loose a hellacious shriek.

Beating its now functional wings, the Dragon God Beast flew forth. From the depths of its throat came a bolt of lightning, which it swept across its two foes, making them stumble and cry out as electricity scourged them. Destoroyah took off toward it, roaring mightily. The two collided, the greater weight of the living Oxygen Destroyer favoring him as they crashed to the ground, the gestalt crustacean straddling his foe as he tore away strands of skin. As blood poured from his foe, coating him and staining the waters like oil, he looked into the dragon’s eyes, hoping to see fear of any kind.

Yet again, nothing.

What was this creature, and why had he never seen it before? Destoroyah should have been boiling over with hatred from the sheer presence of the interloper for daring to interrupt their challenge, for having the audacity to ignore everything around as his destructive powers and bladed weapons laid waste upon its mismatched body, for just outright existing in this wretched and cursed world along with him.

But instead, every fiber of the colony’s unified being was screaming out, begging for the titan to look away and avert his gaze from the chimera. His own body couldn’t tolerate standing the piercing, unfeeling eyes of this creature, and Destoroyah was utterly confused as to why, yet unable to comply with the demands no matter how much he tried.

The strange emotion washed over the crustaceous colossus in heavy waves, except now he had an understanding of what sensation flooded his nerves, paralyzing him to the spot. He hadn’t recognized it before he was used to spreading it over experiencing it, letting it blossom in the hearts of the victims and utterly consume them in the bleak final moments of their lives.

It was fear. Destoroyah, the bringer of death, destruction and malice, was afraid for the first time in his life of something else.

A Space Beam struck him in the back of the head, thrusting it forth as Destoroyah cried out from the spray of his own vital ichor, allowing the Dragon God Beast to lash out with its jaws, clamping them down on its foe’s throat. Yellow blood stained its teeth and flowed down its throat, Destoroyah beating at the lengthy neck in an attempt to dislodge it.

Mechagodzilla, who had closed the distance between it and them, slammed a chop across the Precambrian beast’s face. Destoroyah and the dragon stumbled over one another, allowing Mechagodzilla to fire another volley of missiles at both. However, this only allowed the Dragon God Beast to break away from the toxic colossus and lunge at the mechanized warrior.

The hole in Mechagodzilla’s torso was widened, more wires snapping and spraying sparks and fluids, as the reptilian head crashed against it. Shrieking, the dragon swung its bulky arms like clubs, battering dents into the Space Titanium armor as Mechagodzilla struggled to fight back with only one workable arm.

The machine got a foot up, planting it on the Dragon God Beast’s gut and shoving it back, but its follow-up attack of a ray from its eye was foiled by the chimera taking off into the air, sending waves out which got dangerously close to Mechagodzilla’s innards. Screeching, it swept down, legs raised up and curled in to deliver a powerful kick.

Immediately, Mechagodzilla’s head began to spin rapidly, the rest of the body remaining stationary. Moments before the chimera made impact, a crackling barrier of blue light formed around the alien war-machine, resembling a cylinder. The Dragon God Beast’s feet slammed into it, sending up cascades of smoke.

Mechagodzilla took the moment to examine its enemy. Despite the skin sizzling off the soles of its feet, the dread beast refused to back away, still pressing its assault. Another bolt of lightning spewed from its mouth, making the shield bend further inward.

This thing, whatever it was, had an automaton-like ignorance of pain, yet without even the self-preservation of a machine gifted with an AI. It just attacked and attacked, uncaring of damage, likely because it could simply heal it all away through whatever methods it had used to initiate this transformation.

Destroying it would require a thorough and unyielding assault that covered all of it.

Destoroyah announced his presence with a piercing cry, swinging the Variable Slicer into the shield as well, generating a massive cascade of sparks. Mechagodzilla ceased power to its barrier and backed away from the energy blade as it sliced through the air. The Dragon God Beast was struck by the crimson sabre, losing an arm which fell into the waters below. The Variable Slicer faded after that, the gestalt nightmare’s yellow eyes looking over both his foes.

A trio of booming roars echoed across the city as the three combatants charged.

Claws scraped against Space Titanium, spraying sparks. The dragon’s teeth clamped onto the flesh of the gestalt fiend, staining them with yellow ichor. Before the chimera could pull its teeth back, a chop to its neck cracked scales, and forced the mouth away, tearing off a chunk of Destoroyah’s skin. Pushing past the pain, the crustacean shoved both back hard. Before either could respond with another attack, the Precambrian horror fired his Oxygen Destroyer ray and swept it over both. Mechagodzilla was able to put its arm in the path of the attack, protecting its wound, while the Dragon God Beast was shredded into by the attack.

The chimera expanded its wings, crashing one against Mechagodzilla’s head, sending the machine stumbling forward. It managed to avoid falling, only for the demon to leap onto the machine’s back. The water exploded upward as both fell into it, thrashing as they struck each other.

Clumsy hands found the edges of Mechagodzilla’s damages, trying to grasp and pull but failing to do so due to the club-like nature of the limbs. Ignoring a series of detonations upon its body, the source being another barrage of missiles from the artificial saurian’s maw, the Dragon God Beast just started bashing at its foe’s chest like the primate its previous form resembled. Destoroyah lunged toward them once more, only for both Mechagodzilla and the chimera to turn toward him and open fire with their respective mouth beams. The laser and the lightning bolt combined and speared into the gestalt crustacean’s chest, shattering the bone spikes and piercing deep.

Geysers of gore vomited up from the man-made demon’s maw, painting the scarlet carapace a bright yellow as he collapsed, exploding into a cloud of mist.

The Dragon God Beast seized upon its foe’s temporary distraction and bit down on the snout of Mechagodzilla, teeth grinding against the otherworldly steel. A living thing would have likely panicked at this, been too overwhelmed by the feelings of seeing a foe explode and then immediately being attacked on the face. However, an AI had no such weakness, so instead of doing superfluous actions, Mechagodzilla simply activated the explosives stored inside its nostrils.

The Desto-Fire instantly shriveled the dragon’s tongue, burning the inside of its throat. Blood dripped from its mouth and down Mechagodzilla’s face, yet still the fiend continued to bite and smash like no injury marred it. Baffled was not entirely accurate in describing the war-machine’s reaction, but it was the closest word one could use to describe the AI in that moment. More firepower was necessary, much more.

A panel in the center of the walking fortress’ chest opened, revealing a red orb nestled within a compartment. The chimera lifted its arms once more, intent on smashing them into the compartment, when an attack like a bolt of lightning in appearance shot forth. The Cross Attack Beam blazed a gigantic hole in the beast’s guts, sending organs spilling out. The waters turned black around them as Mechagodzilla swiftly closed the panel to avoid it being contaminated with the sloshing viscera. One of the beast’s feet slipped off the machine, falling into the water. The draconic head stopped biting, its eyes closing as it pulled away. For a moment, Mechagodzilla thought it had managed to kill its foe with that attack.

The head’s wounds healed as the wings folded back up, contorting inward as the neck fully bent backward. The hole in its stomach sealed shut, severing organs that had been dangling down. It looked sunken in, only to fill back to its usual size as, Mechagodzilla assumed, the organs regrew within. The fish-like head, which had sat still like a corpse, opened its eyes and filled with un-life as it moved. Its wide eyes stared emotionlessly as it let loose a gurgling roar.

The Water God Beast put its forelegs, which had been arms before, firmly on the machine’s chest, further ravaging its dented and wounded body.

The piscine maw opened wide, water gathering in its throat, before a chorus of shrieks accompanied by a cluster of flashes all around the two interrupted it. A high-pressure stream of water flew forth from its mouth, going through the air and striking nothing as a group of crimson crustaceans leaped from the floodwaters and tackled the chimera. They bore the unmistakable crest of Destoroyah, crab-like claws, spiked limbs protruding from their backs, and mandibles instead of the more arthropodic jaws. As the Water God Beast snapped and clawed at them as they crawled across its body, Mechagodzilla found itself being assailed by another group of the Aggregates, slamming their limbs upon the war-machine’s body.

The jets in its feet flared to life, lifting Mechagodzilla into the air as it rained down a hail of missiles upon all its foes. Chunks of carapace flew along with yellow blood, the crustaceans crying out in anguish and rage. The Water God Beast reared up, crushing one of the Aggregate’s skulls in the meantime, as its maw opened once more. The Hydrocutter ray shot out, aimed at Mechagodzilla. The alien warrior tried to avoid it, but only succeeded in making it a grazing shot as it struck its foot.

Metal dented and began to peel away beneath the stream, as the blue flames of the rocket were extinguished and turned to rising vapors of steam and smoke. Mechagodzilla fell once more with an artificial shriek, crashing to the waters.

A Destoroyah Aggregate leapt onto its chest, firing a Micro-Oxygen Beam into the chasm in the machine’s torso, sending up a spray of sparks and steel shavings. Alarms blaring in its mind, Mechagodzilla reared up and slammed a punch into the side of the crustacean, earning a shriek of anguish as now broken legs sprayed ichor. The Aggregate fell off of it, allowing Mechagodzilla to rise just as two more of the fiends leapt at it, screaming violently.

Secondary jaws protruded from between mandibles, then were driven into the Water God Beast’s flesh. For some reason, the chimera was immune to the microbes’ efforts to deteriorate its body beneath the churning waters, but the Aggregates could still steal its essence. The crustacean pulled its jaws free and swiftly crawled up its foe’s body as the mindless beast rolled to crush its attackers, succeeding in splattering one of the unfortunate Aggregates. Micro-Oxygen Rays danced across the chimera’s flesh as three of the Precambrian demons fired, the one still on its back continuing to hack away and drive its inner maw into the oddly colored skin. The Hydrocutter ray fired once more, cutting off the head of one of its attackers, sending the head falling to the waters beneath.

Spiked limbs bashed against the artificial saurian’s head, trying to break the other eye. A different creature’s set of claws clipped and pried at the arm which could not move, seeking to break it all together. Mechagodzilla roared at its attackers, opening its jaws and biting down on the legs of the Aggregate attacking its head. The crustacean cried out as it felt the limbs break, its pain only magnified as the extraterrestrial destroyer suddenly spun its head around, swinging the gestalt organism and cracking it against the other crustacean, sending both falling to the ground.

Mechagodzilla turned toward the flailing pile of limbs, detonating both with its facsimile of the Atomic Ray. The robotic leviathan, painfully aware of the further damages incurred upon its form, turned to see the Water God Beast still struggling with the Aggregates.

A purple ray danced across the machine’s back, causing it to turn as another of the creatures, this one lacking legs and with wings protruding from his back, soared overhead. He swept down, crashing his body into Mechagodzilla’s cranium, staggering the alien weapon. Mechagodzilla went to strike its foe, only for the Precambrian cretin to back away, slapping his tail across the robot’s face.

The Water God Beast clamped its hideous jaws around the throat of one of the crustaceans, crushing it and filling the maw with yellow gore. The Flying Destoroyah flew past the chimera, sending sparks flying as his sharp wings scraped against the rough hide of the creature. A Space Beam raced through the air toward the aerial demon, who beat his wings to avoid the ray, which tore a devastated building apart in the distance.

As he fired his Micro Oxygen ray upon the chimera’s face, carving trenches into the skin, the Water God Beast reared up on its hind legs. The flying Destoroyah shrieked in panic as the Hydrocutter ray was unleashed, nearly punching a hole in his wing membrane. Letting loose its gurgling roar, the mindless beast prepared to strike again, only for the Aggregate upon its back to strike the top of its skull, forcing the head down and sending the water stream into the filthy muck below.

Suddenly, the crustaceans dissolved, leaving the chimera with numerous holes and gashes in its body which it did not seem to notice. It turned toward Mechagodzilla, charging through the water toward the machine with a gurgling roar. The machine braced itself, ready to engage and destroy, only for a massive, strobing light at its sight to distract it. From the waters emerged Destoroyah, back in his final form, slamming a punch across the robot’s face, sending it into the waves.

The living Oxygen Destroyer’s wounds were healed, though it was clear he was not back to his full glory. The colossal musculature was greatly diminished, leaving Destoroyah looking almost gaunt. The wings were shriveled, the membranes being tattered at the bottom. His plan of dividing and attacking both foes at once had not gone as well as desired, that much was apparent.

Screaming with an insane wrath, Destoroyah opened the spikes of bone on his chest, revealing an orifice that glowed a bright red as he turned toward the chimera. The mindless fiend’s existence enraged the Precambrian killer to no end, and he would ensure it died and was no longer a thorn in his side before he killed the machine. The Stomach Beam blazed forth, slicing off the draconic head of the Water God Beast, sending it plummeting into the surging waves. It roared, continuing to run as its body began to twist and contort. Once more, it was the Monkey God Beast, its stride having never slowed. The dragon’s head once more moved like a tail behind it, the severed one dissolving rapidly in the liquid.

Destoroyah snarled, activating the Variable Slicer. His foe closed the distance, swinging a punch with the intent to strike the gestalt demon’s face. With a swing of the crimson sabre, the arm was severed with a spray of ichor, the limb falling away. Destoroyah went to swing again, only for the second hand to clasp around his throat, holding the blade back as the Monkey God Beast huffed and hissed. Fire escaped its mouth, bathing the Precambrian menace, but he cared not as he dug his own claws into the hairy limb.

Mechagodzilla observed the situation closely. Both of its foes were beginning to grow weary, the chimera was visibly slouching and struggling to keep Destoroyah back as the latter thrashed and screeched. Rising to its own feet, the robotic saurian pointed its knees at both foes, unleashing another Homyu Shot from both. However, both demons noticed this, turning and releasing their respective ranged attacks on the missiles, detonating them in midair.

The momentary distraction of his foe allowed Destoroyah to bring his tail up, latching it onto the arm and pulling it away. The Monkey God Beast was only able to turn and look upon the living Oxygen Destroyer for a moment before the Variable Slicer cut across its throat, parting skin, muscle, and bone beneath the shimmering sabre.

As the primate’s cranium fell with a splash, the colossus itself stayed upright. Destoroyah ceased power to the Variable Slicer, reaching out to shove the body. It stumbled back, but remained standing. This gave both the ancient fiend and mechanical warrior pause, unsure of just what was about to happen.

Hideous screams rose from the remaining two heads as their eyes and mouths opened wide with the horrid mockery of life that filled the entity. With the crunching and popping of bone and organ, the crimson dragon’s portion of the body twisted upward to crest over the monkey’s torso and arms, the now right-side up wings spreading wide. The fish-like head no longer dangled limply, yellow eyes wide open as its length sank into the body until just the face protruded. The bleeding stumps of the primate’s arm and neck regrew with flailing tendons, reconstructing the monkey’s head in a matter of seconds, its primal screeching joining the nightmarish cacophony. Destoroyah backed away as he found himself being towered over by the writhing and bellowing colossus.

The true form of a nightmare made manifest had returned. The wretched thing who only contributed destruction to all in its sight, from the day it had first tainted the world with its presence. Not of malice, for malice would only get in the way of desolation with its desires to draw things out for the sake of pleasure. It only lived to take life, only existed to annihilate. The Demon Totem Beast, who’s name was spoken only in hushed whispers for fear of the wind carrying the word away and drawing its gaze.

Bakan.

Destoroyah lunged forward, swinging his claws, only for lightning to blaze into his face and halt the assault as scaled hands wrapped around his throat. Carapace crunched and cracked beneath the horrendous grip, the gestalt beast crying out a choked call of shock. His chest opened once more, the crimson light shining brightly. Bakan turned and let go at the same time, hurling the diminished form of the living Oxygen Destroyer away. The Stomach Beam still blazed forth, grazing the Demon Beast’s side. Flesh melted away under the horrendous luminescence, leaving a molten crater.

Mechagodzilla’s artificial mind ran countless diagnostics as it tried to process just what was happening. The dread beast had suddenly gained an immense boost in height and strength, the way it displaced the water suggesting it had also somehow increased in weight as well. Everything about this creature defied the laws of physics. Matter could not come from nothing, yet it regenerated grave wounds in an instant whenever it switched forms and had somehow gained additional mass with this latest transformation.

Destoroyah rose to his feet, swaying. How could this be happening? How had the tide of battle turned so drastically, after he had cut off his enemy’s head! Was it like him, a collection of countless microbes forming a single body? No, no it could not be, his own microbes had attempted to dissolve the demon and they had sensed no such thing. This was one entity, or at least three sharing a mind, yet they seemed to have no mind at the same time.

The foul children of science and nature gone astray came to the same conclusion at the same time.

Bakan should not exist, yet it did. It followed neither nature or science, it was something else entirely.

Destoroyah beat his wings, racing forth with a shriek of rage. He slammed his reduced bulk into the totem demon, barely forcing it back. Before he could attack further, the chimera’s arms grasped him by the sides of the crest, pushing him back before thrusting his head directly into a skull-cracking headbutt from the monkey’s head. The Precambrian nightmare staggered back, before releasing an Oxygen-Destroyer Ray at the fiend’s stomach, trying to break through into organs with the attack. Bakan shot a jet of water up Destoroyah’s sternum, slicing open carapace and revealing pulsating, vulnerable skin beneath. The gestalt crustacean cried out in shock, just before a geyser of flame burned into the opening. Destoroyah backed away further, shrieking in rage. He opened his chest, preparing to fire his ultimate weapon, only for Bakan to stop him by beating its wings, propelling itself into a shoulder barge that sent the crimson column of death piercing into the waters instead of flesh and muscle.

They rolled over one another, ending with Destoroyah straddling the chimera’s stomach. Screaming with fury, the Precambrian gestalt began slashing his claws across Bakan’s hairy chest, lacerating the skin and staining the fur black with blood. Both electricity and fire raced toward Destoroyah, sending him tumbling to the ground with a shriek of anguish. Through the haze of pain, he saw Mechagodzilla still standing back, just watching, and cursed the machine with a venom-filled hiss.

Both demons got back to their feet, staring each other down once more, two eyes meeting six.

Such power. Such carnage. Such mindless insurrection. The wicked beast was everything that Destoroyah was, craved to be and more, and only through sheer willpower could he keep up the façade of hatred as the talons of fear sunk deep into the collective’s shared mind. Everything about the entity, even just its mere presence here, made the crustaceous giant’s instincts scream, urging him to turn tail and flee, to accept defeat and hide in the hopes that he might forget the unnatural thing’s existence and live on in ignorant bliss.

How could this beast disrupt the reality that he knew by the simple act of existing? And most importantly, for the sake of the crimson destroyer’s pride, how could it instill such terror, even in violent and heartless creatures such as himself.

Perhaps Bakan was not an entity, but an embodiment of an idea or concept. Could it be that the hybrid was the manifestation of terror itself?

New, unfamiliar ideas and concepts were suddenly opened to his consciousness. To find the answers he saught, Destoroyah tapped deep into the memories of the collectives, spanning back millions upon millions of years, to the source of life itself.

Humans had claimed many times that the planet was a living organism, and in truth, the reality was unlike anything they imagined. It was not “alive” in the sense like flora and fauna were, but it had a mind, and from that mind came dreams. Dreams that were channeled into Her ecosystem through the mystical force and lifeblood that was Mana. From it came the life that was known today, in various shapes and forms, enhanced and altered over the generations by the planet’s subconscious thoughts. She created beauty, but she lacked the capability to witness or understand the products of Her machinations. There were only dreams, from here to the end.

But where there were dreams, there were nightmares. As time passed, life evolved and grew in intelligence, learning to become aware of itself and the world it was one small part of, tapping deeper into the well that empowered them. As sentience gave way to sapience, the children of Earth became greedy and deluded, and found ways to take more of their share of the Mana meant to be shared across the planet. As their power grew, so, too, did the connection with the mother’s dreaming mind, connecting the thoughts and memories of the people to the Earth, allowing for them to join into the dream as well.

The horrors of mankind were flooded into the mind of the Earth. With every catastrophe, disaster and genocide, the negativity was shared with the planet’s psyche, steadily polluting it with the collective sins and trauma of over a billion souls, mingling the bad with the good. In these fits, She lacked focus. Acting without reason, shaking in terror, rage, hate, and sorrow, unholy things of magic were spat out upon the surface world. Unfinished yet expertly designed, with ranging grades of cognitive functionality, these titans that rejected the natural way were unleashed to spread the concepts and feelings that Mother Earth had channeled into them. That is all that they were – husks driven by the planet’s will, contaminated by mankind’s folly.

Bakan was amongst their number, representing the fear experienced by the victims of the beasts its appearance was inspired by. As terror was what forged it, so would it forge terror in the hearts and minds of the world’s creatures, for what other purpose could it serve in its twisted state of being. Human dread had brought this wretched detestation into the world, and so long as it remained, so shall terror itself.

Destoroyah howled long and loud with mirth, finding humor in the situation before him where others would experience fear or hate at the revelation of such powerful knowledge. If this creature, unholy as could be, was the by-product of the corruption of the planet’s life force by its own creations, then as a child of the Mother Earth’s dream, it would be his duty to purge Bakan and spare the world from the horrors it had brought, and would bring if unchecked. This noble task had been placed upon him, whose own history was pathed with almost as much blood and fire as the three-headed demon, and Destoroyah had to cruelly laugh at the twisted irony present; a destroyer tasked with destroying a destroyer. Regardless, he would oblige, not for the sake of Her, but to remove the competition, and for the thrill of the challenge.

But an awful thought came through the scarlet crustacean’s mind; awful not in the sense of malicious intent, but in the sense of presenting unsettling consequences of forthcoming actions. If Bakan was the representation and essence of all terror within the world, would the element itself vanish together with it once the devil was slain?

For once in his foul life, Destoroyah had to consider the ramifications of his imminent decisions. To bring destruction and spread fear was all that his existence was molded around, his very reason for existing long after the age of his type’s prime. If fear were to vanish from the Earth, what would that mean for him? Would he become devoid of the powers and thoughts which crafted his character and had formed the satanic beast’s reputation for carnage, reduced to a simple creature of peace? Or would he keep that strength, but lose the ability to inspire that hopeless fear in mankind forever more?

Either way, Destoroyah would lose the greatest part of the amalgam of traits that made him what he was, and the horror of living in such a world was too much for the Oxygen Destroyer’s personification to fulfil Mother Earth’s tasks.

All three sets of Bakan’s jaws opened wide, releasing a bolt of lightning, a stream of flames, and a lance of water. Destoroyah screamed as they struck at once, shocking, burning, and carving into his form. Flesh bubbled and split, armor was sheared away and sent flying, and blood spewed like geysers. Billions of microbes flared with agony surging through them, a pure suffering unlike any they had experienced before.

A few seconds later, all that remained of Destoroyah was a ravaged carcass that collapsed in on itself, staining the filthy waves a myriad of disgusting colors. Small clusters of the hive escaped into the waters, what was once billions now only a few thousand as they swam away. The fight was lost, and in this primitive mental state without countless other minds linked to them, they had no concepts such as shame to hold back the desire to flee. To retreat so that they may live another day, it was the most natural thing about the crustaceans.

Neither Mechagodzilla or Bakan noticed this, for they were both too busy focusing on the other. Despite its increased size, the chimera could still fly, as with the beat of its wings it took to the air.

In a display of agility that made its gears grind and machinery protest, the alien destroyer leapt backward, avoiding the demon stomping into the ground hard enough to crater the earth. Missiles assailed Bakan’s flesh, but it cared not as they tore through scale and skin, just rushing forth with a speed that made no sense for a creature of its bulk and awkward build to have. Mechagodzilla unleashed another round of the Homyu Shot, but the horrid craters that they detonated into the chimera’s hide were treated like insect bites.

Claws sent sparks flying as they crashed into Space Titanium, denting and wearing away at the refined steel. A Space Beam fired from the solitary eye of the artificial saurian, seeking to strike one of the beast’s three faces, only for the beam to just rake across skin as Bakan grasped the rim of Mechagodzilla’s wound. The Cross Attack Ray’s hatch flipped open, unleashing its payload and burning a hole down to the bone in Bakan’s arm. That same limb reached up, ripping the panel off with a harsh sound of tearing steel, just as the dragon’s head lunged down and fired a bolt of lightning at the red diode, shattering it.

The demon’s movements were beginning to slow down, but not fast enough for the AI to deem it satisfactory. Mechagodzilla activated its barrier, stopping fire from washing over its ravaged form. The moment of sanctuary was taken for calculation and assessment. Its single strongest weapon was rendered unusable, the damage being incurred upon it was very swiftly reaching a point of termination, and it was locked in combat with a foe that would not stop fighting until it was physically incapable of moving.

Movement.

The demon’s movement had to be halted. That was the path to success.

First, the wings.

The barrier fell and Mechagodzilla immediately had to crouch to avoid the swinging fist of its foe. Unfortunately, a hydraulic grinded to a halt prematurely, causing the fist to crash against the spike atop the machine’s head, sending it falling over onto its side. As Bakan trudged forward toward Mechagodzilla, the war-machine propped itself up, aiming its unmoving arm at the wing of its foe, unleashing another discharge of missiles. The chimera looked at its wing as the membrane was shredded apart, snarling as it reached down and grasped the dysfunctional limb. Mechagodzilla attempted to rise, only for a jet of high-pressure water to force it back down as Bakan pulled and twisted.

Mechagodzilla’s internal computer switched tactics, deciding that losing the arm would be beneficial if the maneuver which it was currently calculating could be executed. With a spray of sparks and the grinding of metal, Bakan ripped the limb free, holding it in both hands. Immediately, Mechagodzilla’s head turned, firing jets of flame from its nostrils toward what had once been its hand.

The missiles that the metallic monster king fired were created by a factory inside its waist, and fed via chains to the varying ports from which they were shot. Explosives lined most of its body, and while typically great care was taken to safeguard against the obvious issue with this, that did not mean it was impossible to still happen.

Both of Bakan’s hands were burnt and broken, the fingers being severed and sent flying. Space Titanium shrapnel was embedded in the fish’s eyes, one shard in an eye of the monkey, and countless more of the fragments acted like daggers all across its front. Mechagodzilla was not unharmed either, one of the few things capable of breaking Space Titanium being itself, as sparks and oil poured from lacerations all across its body.

Where a natural being would have a delay between its actions, even if it had them planned in advance, Mechagodzilla was able to immediately execute the next action it had queued up in its electronic brain. Bakan stumbled in place, groaning, delaying the kick it had planned to drive into its foe’s face. Both the sole Space Beam and the pretend Atomic Ray fired at once, mimicking the multiple beams Bakan fired to execute the Precambrian menace. The two beams speared into the kneecap of the demon, blasting apart the joint. Like a tree with its base cut deeply into, Bakan fell with a booming, mind-rattling bellow.

Mechagodzilla’s jets flared to life, propelling it upward and toward its foe. Bakan swung its arms like clubs, but the machine was smart enough to avoid them by halting for a moment, then rushing forward once more. Its remaining hand went into the primate’s mouth, about to fire its explosive fingers. A stream of fire erupted from the mouth at the same time, causing a humongous chain reaction as Mechagodzilla’s hand detonated inside the maw.

A safeguard had been disabled in the other arm by one of the numerous traumas inflicted to it, to prevent a detonation of the hand from travelling all the way down to the body and destroying the entire mecha. Fortunately for the artificial saurian, this dampener activated in time for the connected arm.

So, when it stumbled backward, arm terminating in a burnt stump which spewed smoke into the air, Mechagodzilla saw that its foe was in an even worse state. Where the ape’s face had just been was now a bloody, burnt crater filled with shrapnel like a colossal shotgun had gone off. The dragon’s head limply hung low, a massive gash in its throat that cut down into the very esophagus. All the life that coursed through Bakan now was just in its aquatic head, which could barely rise.

Mechagodzilla took no chances.

Every weapon in its arsenal that still functioned was fired. The High Pressure Homing Missiles from its feet, the Homyu Shot, the Space Beam, mouth missiles, and the mouth laser. Bakan’s limp form was pulverized and eviscerated, meat and organs flew like confetti and further contaminated the floodwaters. The only sound the chimera made was a weak groan before its foul life ended.

Mechagodzilla, both hands missing, countless gashes and tears in its body that leaked power and fuel, stood alone. Victorious for its masters. Its mind had remained unfettered, unlike an organic being’s, yet still logical, unlike whatever foul nightmare Bakan was. The might of machinery had triumphed over both.

With a piercing shrill, warped with static from the battering its source had received, Mechagodzilla declared itself superior.

Winner: Mechagodzilla (Showa)

A very special thanks to Digiwip for some of the assets used in this banner for the K.W.C. Be sure to follow him on DeviantART, Facebook, Twitter, ArtStation, and Instagram.

Author: Landon Soto | Banner: Tyler Trieschock

Powerful shaggy arms cut through the water as mighty legs kicked up waves of water into the sky. Loud strenuous gasps escaped through stone monolith-like teeth, brown eyes struggled to stay open as gallons of water pelted the brutish face of the unseasoned swimmer.

King Kong; the Eighth Wonder of the World; King of Faro; and the Reigning Champion in an epic brawl with the King of the Monsters all across Japan. After both monsters plummeted off of a steep cliff and into the ocean, only Kong rose up from the waves in victory.

Now his sole mission was to return home, unlike a traditional primate, King Kong was gifted with a form of genetic memory, like that of a homing pigeon or spawning salmon. Following his natural instinct, the giant primate pressed onward for what seemed like forever, the ocean was relentless, but unfortunately for it, so was Kong.

Two days had passed, Kong never stopped, his powerful limbs carried on, his energy reserves were slowly wearing thin and the second wind he received in the battle with Godzilla was dwindling. Bloodshot eyes glared at the endless aquatic desert before him as Kong’s ears caught the sound of thunder in the sky, the ape occasionally glanced up as he swam like a powerful ship tearing through the waves.

Soon enough, rain was pouring down relentlessly on the ape. Kong’s shaggy coat of fur acted like a heavy weight on his entire body, threatening to drag the ape down and into the depths of the ocean if he wasn’t careful. The King of Faro continued to muscle through the ever growing exhaustion and soreness that constantly bombarded him, however.

Pruned fingers crashed through the water as the ocean became ever more violent, the howling of the wind drowned out Kong’s own thoughts now barely able to hear himself think. His mind occasionally played memories of his island people, the sounds of their songs gave the giant ape glimmers of hope every once in a while, this was without a doubt the longest journey he had endured in his long life.

As Kong was thinking, a large wave crashed into his body, Kong snarled as it felt like a colossal hand was trying to submerge him underwater. His body threatened to sink, but the island deity forced himself aloft, another wave strong enough to destroy ships crashed into the apes’ back, a strained gasp of air expelled from the primate’s mouth as his body was again almost completely submerged into the black ocean.

The King of Faro let out a roar as if in defiance of nature, he refused to be swallowed into the abyss. King Kong breached the surface as he continued to swim when suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his back that quickly subsided, followed by a loud boom that silenced everything for a few seconds. Kong’s eyes shot open as his pupils dilated, his face flashed blue as his skull was visible for a brief moment.

Feeling a surge of rejuvenation wash over him, Kong powered through the waves as the rain instantly evaporated off his frame. A gut feeling told him that he was close, his heart raced as he was ready to finally set foot on his home once again.

However, it was not to be as a large wave rose up from the ocean, far larger than anything Kong had seen before. Kong’s eyes widened as the wave towered over him before lunging downward like a predator on helpless prey. Kong braced himself as the big one crashed into his entire body, Kong felt the air forcefully ripped out of his lungs as he tried to keep as much precious oxygen inside him, his whole body was submerged and slowly sinking in water.

Kong fruitlessly grasped for anything but there was only freezing water, his wet thick fur was like having a ball and chain tied to his foot. Occasional bolts of electricity danced around the ape’s frame, which allowed him to see his surroundings for a brief moment. Kong looked around in every direction trying to find the surface, it only took a moment before he saw his ticket out of this wretched domain.

Kong glanced up and could see the sky occasionally light up as lightning streaked through the clouds. The Eighth Wonder of the World used every ounce of power he had been given in the storm to propel through the water and break through the waves, inhaling much needed fresh air as the apes head moved about in a frenzy.

Kong tried to regain his wits, but another large wave crept up behind him, Kong didn’t have time to react as the back of his skull was hit with what felt like a gargantuan weight. Kong’s vision blurred as the noises around him became muffled, everything moved quickly like a dream, his body felt like it was on autopilot.

What felt like a few minutes for the barely conscious King Kong was a few days in actuality, the ape was soon drifting in much calmer water. Kong felt the sun beating on him, as his crusty eyes opened slowly, he didn’t remember what exactly happened, but he was alive, so he didn’t really care.

He looked around, careful not to blind himself with the blaring sun that reflected off the ocean. He propped himself up vertically in the water, trying to find where he was exactly, as he scanned his surroundings, he could feel that he was now completely off course, which frustrated him.

Despite his anger, a large mass in the distance caught his eye, Kong grinned as he had finally found land. Forcing his limbs to move, the exhausted ape pushed forward and eventually made it to shore. Taking notice of the broken down and abandoned ships that littered the area, Kong ultimately paid them no mind as he stretched out his arms and legs, finally able to relax.

The mighty ape growled contently as he fell asleep, his mahogany brown body blended in with some of the rusted ships as his snores were like that of the unruly waves that crashed onto the beach. Meanwhile, on the other side of the island, a large pyramid-like temple sat alone in an open field. Despite being in the middle of an island, there was no overgrowth or decay on the structure. From within the temple, a deep guttural growl emanated from the large entrance.

Kong slowly opened his eyes as he let out a loud yawn, the giant ape sat up as he scratched the back of his head. Slowly rising to his feet, the large primate let the sand roll off of his broad shoulders. He clutched his stomach, it had been a while since he last ate.

Marching through the island’s forests, Kong felt uneasy. There was something off about the island, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was. Kong groaned as he walked into an open field, mountains stretched up into the sky far off in the distance. The island seemed empty, it was eerily quiet.

Suddenly, Kong’s ears twitched as he heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. Kong’s eyes narrowed as he slowly walked up to the dense foliage where he heard the noise. Carefully parting the green leaves and brush, Kong couldn’t believe his eyes at what he saw.

A gorgeous woman with tan skin and long wavy hair as black as midnight stared fearfully at the giant ape, her amber eyes meeting his charcoal black eyes. Despite the mud that was splattered on her face and turquoise floral pattern dress, Kong couldn’t help but crouch down and gaze upon her.

The woman however didn’t feel the same way, she tried to shoo away the giant ape, and even contemplated throwing a rock at him. But she decided against it, not wanting her life to come to an end, not after just getting it back. The giant ape was oblivious to the woman’s efforts to keep him away as he carefully scooped her up into the rough palm of his hand.

Watching as she was brought up to the ape’s face, trying to maintain a calm demeanor, she knew that there was no chance of getting down to the ground alive on her own at this height. “Hey could you put me down please? I need to get supplies for my friends, maybe change out of these clothes and get the hell off this island as soon as possible!” The last statement contained a twinge of venom in the woman’s voice as her right eye twitched and her fingers curled into claws.

Kong tilted his head side to side as he continued his simple gazing. The woman realized that she was going nowhere as she sighed in frustration, before a sudden realization struck her. “Wait a second…King Kong?” The ape’s head perked up as the sound that came out of the young lady’s mouth, it was the same sound his island people made when referring to him and he understood that it referred to him, he was King Kong.

“Okay, I remember hearing about some pharmaceutical company in Japan towing a giant ape to Japan,” the tan skinned woman said as she closed eyes and squinted them, she placed a hand on her forehead as she tried to recall what she had on the radio. “Something about… Godzilla… breaking free from an iceberg. How long has it been? Hours, days, weeks!?”

The dark skin woman grit her teeth as her eyes began to tear up, after the incident her memory was foggy, like she had been dreaming. Ever since he invaded her mind, she wasn’t sure how much time had passed on this wretched island, what she had been doing this whole time, and how to get back the rest of the members of the ship she arrived on.

Lost in thought, the woman let out an audible groan. She needed to get down, but before she could try to remember more and put the pieces together, a shrill trilling screech made the young lady jump in terror. Her face went pale as she froze up. Kong turned his head, as he too was alerted to whatever made that noise. He glanced around, but didn’t see anything.

Kong glanced down and noticed the look on the woman’s face. Although he didn’t quite understand her words, he knew exactly what that look on her face conveyed: terror. Finally putting her down, she instantly darted for the thick brush, throwing herself into it as she disappeared from sight. King Kong groaned and looked to the mountains in the distance, and it was there he finally saw the source of the terrible sound.

Another high pitched trilling cry echoed across the clearing, Kong snarled at the sight before him. A giant bluish gray beast that rivaled King Kong in stature marched down a mountain as another shrill cry escaped its throat. Swiping at the air as if in anticipation of the inevitable conflict, the beast continued to march towards Kong.

The giant inhabitant of this island was bipedal, it walked upright like a person despite having the legs of a theropod. Its four clawed hands flexed as they cut through the air, the beast’s face resembled that of a snake with a pair of fangs like marble columns, sharpened like spears. The most bizarre aspect of the creature was the bag-like growth on its head with an orifice on it.

King Kong beat his chest as he let out a bellowing roar that made the snake-like monster stop in its tracks. The monster had not seen such a large trespasser on this island for a long, long time. Snarling, the reptilian monster glared at Kong, the sclera in its eyes a pitch black with white iris.

As Kong’s mammalian eyes met the inverted eyes of his reptilian foe, the feeling of uneasiness began to grow. This creature harbored something sinister, Kong could feel it. As the confrontation continued, hidden in the bushes, the young woman peered out. Her heart skipped a beat as she gazed up at the towering humanoid serpent.

She dared to whisper just a few words as she looked upon the monster. “It’s him… Axor.” Her heart beat harder and harder as her hands trembled profusely at the mere mention of the beast’s name.

Axor stared down Kong, practically daring the brutish ape to make the first move. Kong roared as he charged in first, his feet created deep imprints in the ground, each as big as an Olympic swimming pool with every heavy and mighty step. Axor felt the ground tremble as he readied himself. When Kong was just a couple meters away, he too flung himself forward, both titans engaging in a battle of strength.

Kong swung a fist up into the snake-like beast’s gut, the hairy fist smashed into the armor plating that covered his foe’s abdomen that ran down all the way to the underside of his tail. Kong grunted as he struck the tougher skin, but Axor doubled over as the air was knocked out of his lungs. Spit flew from his maw as a strained wheeze escaped his gullet.

The reptilian monster quickly regained his wits and glared at the ape as he flung his whip-like tail forward. The long appendage slammed into Kong’s face as he yelled in pain, backing up a bit. This opening allowed Axor to continuously rake his claws against Kong’s thick coat of fur, occasionally cutting the exposed pecs of the giant primate.

Small rivers of blood stained Kong’s mahogany fur as the sasquatch brought up his arms and attempted to protect himself from his opponent’s onslaught. Kong shot his arms forward as he caught Axor’s hands in his larger palms. The two giants fumbled about trying to drag the other down to the ground, but neither yielded. Kong forced Axor towards him as he headbutted the serpentine monster. A loud crash followed by a shrill cry of pain echoed across the landscape as Axor broke free from Kong’s hold and stumbled backwards.

Axor’s vision blurred as he felt a warm substance flow down his face. The monster ran a clawed hand across his forehead and held it to his face. There he saw crimson blood drip from his claws. Disgust and rage clouded the snake-like monster’s mind; he would make the ape pay dearly for spilling his life essence across his domain.

Beating his chest furiously, King Kong let out an earth shattering roar that demanded Axor to admit defeat. Axor’s face contorted into one of fury. He bared his fangs as prepared to pounce. But as he continued to stare at the ape, his face slowly morphed into one of uncertainty. He had already taken more damage than he would have liked. Killing this intruder wouldn’t be as easy as he initially thought.

Axor let out a shrill trilling cry as he prepared to attack King Kong, who tensed his muscles in anticipation. However, instead of lunging forward as expected, the humanoid serpent crouched down and inflated the bizarre growth atop his head. Kong watched in confusion as the organ swelled, from the tightly sealed orifice that pointed at him. It opened and unleashed a powerful hurricane wind that uprooted trees and kicked up plumes of dirt towards the mighty ape.

Kong was immediately buffeted by the walls of sand and uprooted trees that pelted his body. The giant ape then cried out in pain as sand clung to his eyes. Unable to keep his footing, Kong was knocked flat on his rear before tumbling backwards, trying to dig his fingers into the ground. The young lady wasn’t faring much better, desperately clinging to a pine tree that threatened to fly away.

As quickly as it began, the powerful gales died down. King Kong rubbed his eyes as tears cleaned them out. Rising up, Kong furiously darted his head around, trying to find the reptile monster. But it seemed to have vanished completely. A few minutes passed as nothing happened. The ape believed the coast to be clear and began looking for the lovely lady; he didn’t have to look far as he had found her stuck high in a tree.

The dark skinned woman groaned again as she reluctantly climbed into the ape’s palm, her hair messy and clothes ragged from the pebbles and sticks that pelted her frame. Small cuts and bruises already began to form. Lucky for her, Kong needed to recharge after his battle with Axor. Kong put down the woman and marched to the beach. Waiting carefully, he suddenly shot his hand down and scooped up a plentiful amount of fish, shoving them into his mouth as he grinned contently.

Using this time of reprieve to her advantage, the woman scoured the beach for her ship, and after minutes of searching and trodding on the hot sand with torn up sandals, she found it. The Crusoe. “There it is! You are a sight for sore eyes.” For once after stepping foot on this island, her voice was filled with joy. She ran a hand along the fairly large vessel before climbing into it.

Walking along the deck, she made her way to the cockpit. Once inside, she looked for anything of use. Glancing around, a large map caught her eye and on it a red pin. The pin rested on a small island not too far from the Canadian coast: Storm Island.

“Well, at least I know where I am now,” the young lady muttered as she tapped her chin.

Looking around, she noticed a small pocket book on the floor, she picked it up and flipped through the water damaged papers. Muttering to herself as her eyes routinely moved across the pages before they darted back to the start of the page. A loud gasp escaped from her mouth as her eyes widened. “I’ve been here for a week!?” she exclaimed as she covered her mouth.

As she processed this information, she put her head in her palm before running her hand down her face. “I need a change of clothes,” she said as she exited the cockpit. As soon as she entered the cabin, the woman made her way to a bunk bed and opened a bag with a fresh change of clothes in it.

Meanwhile, King Kong stared out to the vast sea before him. The King of Faro seemed to be lost in thought, he had to return home, but he had unfinished business with the snake. As the mighty ape continued to ponder his situation, he heard his name being called out, breaking him away from his thoughts.

Kong glanced down and smiled as he saw the woman dressed in a lemon yellow summer dress. The giant ape crouched down and extended his hand outward. “Well, I don’t feel like messing up anymore of my clothes,” the woman said as she climbed onto the giant’s palm.

As she was lifted up, she was now able to see past the forest and to the clearing where Kong and Axor had fought, and even past that to the mountains in the distance. The young woman’s hair flowed in the wind as she looked around, a smile began to form. However, it immediately faded as she saw the tip of a man-made structure behind a mountain.

She stared at the structure; it felt familiar, it even felt as if it were calling to her. “Kong, we need to go there,” she said as she pointed in the direction of the structure. Kong tilted his head slightly, but began to walk in the direction the woman had asked to go to.

King Kong traversed the Canadian landscape, lush green forests and fresh rivers decorated the island. Despite the mysteries and dangers surrounding it, the island was gorgeous. As Kong approached the structure, his pace slowed to a crawl. His gut instinct warned him to keep away from the pyramid-like stone structure.

Peering from behind a mountain, Kong was shocked to see more humans on the island. The woman’s eyebrows furrowed as she desperately scanned the area, her mind racing at a million miles per hour. “Kong, I need you to put me down, please this is really serious, do you understand?” The giant ape looked mildly confused as the young lady felt her blood boil. “Kong! I really need you to put me down!” she said with a much sterner tone as she pointed to the ground.

For once listening to her request, Kong crouched down and allowed the woman to leave his palm. “Thank you, now stay here please,” she ordered before jogging away. Kong grunted softly as he appeared to understand, then proceeded to peer over the mountain and observe. The feeling of dread gnawing at the back of his mind. Meanwhile, the young woman stealthily crouched behind the thick bushes and wide trees that created a natural perimeter around the towering stone pyramid structure.

Around the clearly man-made pyramid, a plethora of log cabins were scattered about. It didn’t take long before a few people walked out. A couple of men with dirty, tattered shirts and jeans, their faces expressionless as they moved towards the pyramid. The young lady continued to look around; none of these people were the one she was searching for.

Minutes passed before her eyes went wide. She finally saw him, her husband. A Japanese man with short black hair walked out of a cabin, his white dress shirt stained with dirt as his black dress pants had holes around the knees and tears around the ankles. The dark skinned woman knew she couldn’t just walk up to him, she needed another way to get his attention.

The woman’s husband walked alongside another man as they began to pick up gray stone bricks and load them into a nearby wheelbarrow. Looking around, the woman’s eyes spotted a thin wooden plank no longer than a baseball bat. She grabbed it as she picked up a few pebbles, her mind concocting a plan to save her beloved.

As her husband finished loading the bricks, the man accompanying him moved to the front of the wheelbarrow to haul it. Just about to leave himself, he stopped when he heard something and turned around to face the source.

“Is something wrong?” The other man called out in a monotone voice.

“Just a strange sound, I’ll check,” the woman’s husband responded.

Getting closer to the shrubs, the man heard something hit a nearby tree which prompted him to move into the forest. Inspecting the trees, he was oblivious to the figure sneaking behind him. Before he knew it, something struck the back of his head before a sharp pain filled his mind, which forced him to crumple to the ground.

Meanwhile, the other man heard the thump that floored his fellow man and looked around the area as he tried to find the woman’s husband. After a couple of seconds he gave up. “Must have been nothing,” he deduced in a monotone expression before going back to the wheelbarrow. “Must get these bricks to Axor,” he reaffirmed in the same tone of voice as he hauled away the stones to the temple.

Now that the man had gone, the woman softly but rapidly smacked her husband’s face as she tried to wake him up. “Well he’s not bleeding, so I couldn’t have hit him that hard.” One more shake and the man began to stir, groaning as he grasped the back of his head, his eyes opened slowly as it was evident he was taking everything in.

With emotion in his voice, the man weakly spoke the name of his wife. “K-Kumi? Is it really you?” He stared almost in disbelief, feeling as if he had not seen her in years. The feeling was reciprocated as Kumi teared up before flinging herself into her husband’s arms.

Kumi squeezed perhaps a bit too tight as her arms wrapped around her lover as she rested her head on his shoulder, the warmth of his body made her worries disappear and she wished it could last forever. However, a strained wheeze brought her back to reality as she realized her husband was trying to get some air.

Loosening her grip, Kumi got off of her husband, but was careful to stay low. Her husband breathed with relief before chuckling, which caused his wife to follow suit, both finally reunited after what seemed like an eternity.

“Akira, I’ve missed you so much,” Kumi voiced out as she placed her hand on his.

“I missed you too.” He hesitated for a moment before continuing as he rubbed the back of his head. “Ever since that thing got a hold of us, everything’s been fuzzy. I’m bone tired, my hands hurt, and now my head hurts too.”

Kumi nervously chucked as she explained what had happened. “It seems that a big enough shock is enough to snap you out of his control, perhaps we could free the others.” Kumi told Akira just what she had done to him to break him from his trance, Akira looked less than thrilled to hear that his wife had jumped him, but nonetheless, freeing the others was easier said than done.

“Even if we could somehow free the others ourselves without being recaptured, we would still have Axor to deal with,” Akira vocalized with disdain as he folded his arms.

A smile stretched across Kumi’s face before saying. “You’re right, but we’re not alone, we have Kong,” Kumi said confidently as she placed her hands on her hips. Woman’s husband raised an eyebrow, not quite sure that he had heard her right.

“Kong? As in the giant ape that that pharmaceutical company was towing to Japan?” Akira asked with a smidge of doubt in his voice.

“That’s right, he washed up here recently and protected me from Axor. He’s our best shot at getting off the island,” Kumi explained to Akira. Although he couldn’t see Kong, he trusted his wife. After all, she did escape from Axor.

That’s when another thought struck Akira. “How did you manage to escape from Axor in the first place, Kumi?” Her facial expression changed to a serious one as she stared at the ground intensely, clearly in thought as she reflected on her own memories.

The mental image of inside the stone temple formed in Kumi’s mind, a dark and gray stony interior that was unbearably hot and muggy. Occasional rays of light that fell from the yet to be finished holes in the ceiling illuminated the intricate and spacious room inside.

Although her memory was foggy, she remembered placing stone bricks atop one another along with vague silhouettes of other people. Kumi continued to replay the dream-like memories before saying. “I’m not quite sure what happened, but one moment I’m in that temple like I’m in a bad dream, and I hear a voice clear as day saying ‘We live to serve you mighty Axor.’ Other voices said the same thing in unison, but I could tell that the clearest voice was my own, it was like I had no control over myself.”

Unknown to Kumi, the work environment around her wasn’t exactly the safest, for they were normal people who had little to no experience in constructing large structures. “I remember desperately trying to force myself to move, but nothing, and my own voice openly praising and expressing loyalty to that damn cobra,” Kumi growled. “Then all of a sudden, I felt a pain in my head, and it was like I finally was waking up from the nightmare and could gain some control over myself.”

The pain Kumi referred to was a loose wooden plank that had fallen from a scaffold, hitting her head and breaking her out of Axor’s control. When the plank struck her head, Kumi felt herself gain control of her body as if she had been awakened from her dream-like trance. Kumi groaned as she rubbed her head and stood up, looking around, she didn’t understand where she was. However, a terrible trilling screech echoed throughout the temple interior and her heart sank to her stomach.

Kumi remembered gazing up towards the source of the awful noise, in the center of the temple, a large hole with steam emanating from it was carved into the ground. From the vapors, as if manifesting like a ghost, the unmistakable form of the bipedal snake kaiju, Axor, emerged. Gazing down at the lowly human, Axor knew right away that she was no longer under his control.

Claws swiped at the air as Axor roared out with fury as he stepped out of the large steaming pit. Kumi watched with horror as the colossal beast stomped towards her, however, a couple of bricks smashed down onto Axor’s head earning a groan of annoyance from the enslaver. Axor glanced up and saw the unfinished holes in the ceiling threaten to crumble even more, the tremors from merely walking could decimate the unfinished temple if he wasn’t careful.

Snarling with hatred he let out a trilled screech that commanded his slaves to seize the dark skinned woman. Meanwhile, Kumi realized the opportunity before and broke from her shock, bolting for the entrance as she dodged and weaved through mind controlled slaves that tried to grab her.

Sprinting out of the entrance, heart racing and palms sweaty, Kumi ran for the forest and never looked back. The sound of slaves shouting and Axor roaring scared her but fueled her to keep running. From inside the temple, Axor balled up his fists as he snarled, a slave had never escaped this island before, and he would see to it that this one did not either.

“And that’s all I remember, after that wasn’t anything of note, I hid constantly, before ultimately meeting Kong,” Kumi conveyed as she grabbed Akira’s rough and dry hands. The two stared at one another as Kumi massaged her husband’s palms, Akira was impressed to hear his wife had escaped, and that she risked her free will to come find him. Akira leaned in as did Kumi, the two closed their eyes and locked lips in a passionate kiss that pushed every worry away.

A loud bellowing roar snapped the two out of their bliss as they separated and got to their feet, moving past a few trees. Kumi and Akira watched as King Kong marched towards the camp. Kumi was terrified as she wanted to save the prisoners first then draw out Axor. Akira watched in awe as the giant ape lumbered forward with determination in his eyes.

All eyes were on Kong as he let out another bellowing roar that echoed and boomed like thunder. Kong beat his chest furiously like a pair of drums as he challenged Axor, demanding the serpent reveal himself. Ruler against ruler, titan versus titan, the ape was determined to put his mind at ease and destroy the snake monster.

Axor’s slaves fled from the ape in fear, their minds poisoned so that they believed that Axor would save them from the giant primate, and they could return to serving their master graciously. From within Axor’s temple, the monstrous serpent heard the challenge echo throughout the walls of his temple, and it was a challenge that would not go unanswered.

Loud footsteps could be heard from within the temple, growing louder and more intense with each step. A clawed hand grasped the frame of the giant temple entrance way. The head of the terrible Axor became visible as he looked towards the giant ape. Axor’s bone chilling gaze met Kong’s fiery gaze. The giant ape bellowed out a powerful roar as he beat his chest as Axor clawed at the air and released a shrill trilling shriek.

Axor’s slaves bowed to their king as the giant humanoid serpent marched past them, their chorus pleased him. In his mind, King Kong couldn’t help but think that he was looking at a twisted version of himself, a mad king, a tyrant who kept his followers hard pressed under his clawed finger. To Kong, Axor was what the ape king would become if he abused his island people, and he hated that.

Kong watched as Axor began to stalk the ape, both monsters in a large clearing with few trees similar to their first encounter. Kong bared his fangs as Axor stopped and flexed his own claws, determined to tear the ape apart. With his leg muscles tensed, Axor charged at full speed towards Kong as he roared at the primate, immediately closing the gap between them.

Sucking in his core and puffing out his chest, Kong shot both hands forth like natural cannonballs towards Axor. The ape snarled as he gripped the humanoid serpent’s smaller claws in his larger palms, his fat fingers threatened to crush Axor’s own. The snake monster growled as he felt the pressure applied to his claws, but any concern he had fled as he watched the ape’s face contort from confidence to shock.

Kong’s eyes widened as he felt himself being overpowered, his feet slowly carved large trenches as he was being pushed back. The ape shoved his arms aside as well as Axor’s before he released his grip and uppercut the enslaver’s lower jaw, a loud clang of teeth smashing against each other echoed across the Canadian landscape.

Axor groaned as he backed away and licked his teeth, the serpent tasted hints of blood, which enraged the snake monster. Kong grinned as he prepared to clobber the reptile, but a glint of light from the gullet of Axor caught his attention. Axor sneered as he opened his jaws, a faint yellow light slowly intensified in the beast’s throat.

Kong yelped in shock as a large beam of electric energy spewed out of Axor’s throat. The bolts of energy slammed into Kong as he raised his arms defense. A large explosion engulfed the King of Faro, smoke obscuring his form. The humans watched in shock and awe at the power displayed by the King of Storm Island.

Axor cackled as he waited to see the smoldering carcass of King Kong slump to the ground. However, when the smoke cleared Axor’s jaw dropped at the sight before him. Smoke curled off of Kong’s fur, but aside from that, the giant ape seemed unfazed, even lowering his arms and revealing a sly grin on the great ape’s face.

Unknown to Axor, Kong wielded the unique power to absorb and harness the power of electricity, and while the beam may have had explosive properties, it was electrical nonetheless. Kong’s face flashed blue for a second before he bellowed a mighty roar, charging at Axor.

Bewildered, Axor tried again, a large beam of lightning shot forth and struck Kong on the head. Smoke again obscured the giant ape, but Axor could feel his heart beat more and more as he watched with bated breath. To his horror, Kong ripped through the smoke and continued his charge towards Axor, his face rapidly flashing blue in the process.

Axor could see the ape’s skull beneath his flesh as Kong drew closer, each footstep shook the island to its core. However, as Kong’s rough hand was mere meters away from grabbing Axor’s face, a powerful gust of hurricane wind pushed the primate backwards. Axor had employed his other special ability, the large sack-like organ atop his head shrunk as more wind was forced out of it.

Kong crouched down and buried his fingers into the ground, his feet firmly planted into the earth, thus making Kong nigh unmovable. As the wind died down, Axor’s mind was racing on what was needed to put down the ape, then an idea came to mind.

King Kong rose to full height, he looked around before grinning, crouching down to pick a large boulder. The giant ape hurled the massive stone through the air with little effort. Axor, in retaliation, fired electric energy from his maw. The beam collided with the rock and shattered it instantly into a cloud of dust and rubble.

Using the rock as a distraction, Kong attempted to bridge the gap between him and Axor once more. The serpent monster learned his lesson, however; instead of hitting Kong directly with his electric beam, Axor fired the beam attack in front of the ape’s feet.

The giant ape roared out in shock as the ground in front of him exploded, the ape tripping and tumbling to the dirt as he let out a groan. Axor charged forward before he turned and threw his tail forward. The long limb wrapped around Kong’s neck and tightened, cutting off the primate’s air supply.

Axor continued to apply more pressure in an attempt to suffocate the ape. However, Kong merely grabbed the appendage and began to conduct electricity through it, electrocuting Axor. The Beast of Storm Island cried out in pain as smoke curled off his body, the scent of burnt flesh began to permeate in the air. The grip on Kong’s neck loosened as he stood up, and with another burst of speed, charged at Axor.

Kumi, Akira, and the other humans watched in awe as King Kong ran towards the serpent monster, struggling to keep their footing as the ground shook with each stomp. The bewildered Axor could only stare in horror as Kong shoulder tackled him, a loud thud signified the cracking of ribs. The enslaver wheezed in pain as he was slammed into his own temple.

Both primate and lizard collided into the stone structure and easily tore through the temple, brawling in the dark and muggy interior as the building threatened to collapse around the two. Axor felt his skeleton rattle as Kong landed one thunderous punch after another, one punch struck the serpent kaiju’s jaw as a loud crack echoed throughout the unstable temple.

Axor cried out in pain as his right fang was shattered and ripped out of the socket. Blood flowed from the wound as Axor shrieked aloud, his evil eyes darted around before he saw the pit with vapors rising from it, his Lazarus Well. Diving like a madman, Axor inhaled the vapor as his bloodied gums healed and a sense of rejuvenation filled him.

Kong snarled as he watched the serpent catch a second wind, putting two and two together that the well must have some kind of healing properties. In his frenzy, Axor failed to realize Kong had again grabbed his tail, and promptly swung him off his feet. The enslaver yelped in shock before being forced into the wall opposite of the wall with the giant hole in it.

The Storm Island monster hit the ground with a thud as bricks and debris fell to the ground. From within, King Kong eyed the Lazarus Well as the structure began to collapse around him. Meanwhile, Axor rubbed his head as a low growl slipped through his teeth.

A loud rumbling caught Axor’s attention as the evil serpent glanced back at his once glorious temple, witnessing the structure collapse before his eyes. The Storm Island beast’s jaw dropped as the hard work of his slaves had been reduced to nothing. Axor let out a trilling shriek as he lunged for the pile of bricks before him, desperately tossing aside bricks and rubble.

As Axor continued to sift through the broken bricks, he was oblivious to the pile of debris that bulged not too far away. A low rumbling caught the bluish gray beast’s attention, and as soon as it started, it stopped. Axor glanced around before a sudden eruption of rubble and bricks shot into the air. The form of King Kong was revealed, accompanied by a bellowing roar that shook Axor to his core.

Kong snarled as he shrugged off the rubble, the Lazarus Well still emitted vapors that the giant ape inhaled. Axor watched in horror as Kong’s pupils constricted, his muscles bulged and throbbed under his thick fur. Occasional bolts of lightning danced around the primate’s bulky frame, and once Axor was in Kong’s sight, he dashed forward with horrific speed towards the enslaver.

The Beast of Storm Island watched as King Kong rapidly approached, and while Axor was shaken, he still had one more trick up his sleeve. Translucent energy rays fired from Axor’s eyes as they struck Kong, his body enveloped by the translucent energy. Kong slowed his pace before coming to a complete stop.

Despite all the physical power he had accumulated in this battle, the power of the mind was a different matter. King Kong shut his eyes as his head began to feel dizzy, the ape could hear an ominous voice coax him, demanding him to obey Axor, to serve him and create mighty constructs for the enslaver. Kong clasped his head with his large palms as he tried to block out the voice but to no avail.

Kong roared out in distress as the assault on his mind continued. Despite the raging torrent of pain and temptation, a familiar sound could be heard from within the mental cacophony. Like a hurricane, there was a calm within the eye of the storm, a calm that attracted Kong away from the chaos. The sound of chanting, singing, and instruments brought a wave of peace over the Faro Island god.

Sounds and mental images of his worshippers filled his mind and acted as the anchor Kong needed to endure the terrible voice that invaded his mind. Kong’s eyes snapped open and glared at Axor, much to the serpent’s horror. With nowhere to run, Kong lunged at the serpent kaiju and tackled the reptilian beast to the ground.

Kong wrestled with the snake-like monster on the grassy terrain, Axor desperately clawed and kicked at the ape in an attempt to break free. The King of Faro reared his fist back before slamming it into Axor’s head, doing the same with his other fist. Axor cried out in pain as his vision became blurry, slipping into unconsciousness. The enslaver’s face was bruised and swollen with blood flowing from the serpent’s broken snout, Axor had lost consciousness.

The Beast of Storm Island lay broken and bloody on the ground in front of the King of Faro Island. Kong proceeded to wrap his hands around the jaws of Axor and forcefully parted them with his ferocious strength. Blood and foam spewed from the unconscious Axor’s maw as a loud splintering sound like a tree snapping half echoed across the Canadian landscape. As an act of mercy from Kong, Axor never felt the pain, and passed away silently as a sickening snap signified his death.

Dropping the lifeless carcass of Axor to the ground. King Kong beat his chest before raising his arms high, letting out a mighty roar that marked the end of Axor’s cruel reign. The rest of the humans under Axor’s mind control felt as if they had been awakened from a nightmare as they regained their senses. They watched as King Kong planted his foot on the dead Axor and bellow another mighty roar.

With Axor’s mind control lifted, the people cheered and praised Kong for freeing them. Kumi and Akira smiled to one another as they walked among the people who made their way to the beach, in hopes that some of their boats still worked. The husband and wife glanced around, they both had arrived on the island with a Captain and his wife, but they were nowhere to be found.

As they stepped out of the forest and onto the beach, many saw the boats they had arrived in, some in good condition, others not so much. To Akira and Kumi’s delight, the captain, an older gentleman with a silver beard and moustache, and his wife, an older woman with fair skin and light brown curly hair were already aboard the Crusoe. They both waved at the couple and signaled them to come aboard.

Kumi happily greeted the Captain, “Captain David, Mrs. Brenda, it is such a relief to see you two here.” After the exchange of pleasantries, the Captain explained that their boat was indeed operational, but it needed to be pushed back into the water which would take about everyone on the island to do.

“If we can’t get the boat out into the water, we’re stranded, best I can do is radio for help but that could take some time.” Captain David was already making the necessary call as the other ships were in such poor condition, and there wasn’t nearly enough space for everyone.

Hearing the sound of large footsteps, Kumi watched as Kong stepped onto the beach. “Don’t worry Captain, I know someone who can,” Kumi said as her eyes met Kong’s. The Eighth Wonder of the World smiled as he gazed down upon the beautiful dark skin woman.

Everyone watched in awe as Kong effortlessly pushed the boat into the water. King Kong watched as the woman and her partner began to move away from the island. Despite the people that cheered him, King couldn’t help but feel somber, even if his face concealed it.

Despite his victory over Axor, Kong was saddened to see the only person that had acted differently towards him leave so soon. As he watched grow smaller and smaller as she moved further away, Kong began to march to a part of the beach that faced the general direction of Faro.

King Kong sighed as he began to step into brisk ocean water, he waded through the waves before propping himself horizontally, his arms shot out in front of him as they cut through the waves effortlessly. The group of people watched as Kong kicked up water thousands of feet in the air, they quickly gathered up the supplies from their boats as they waited for help to arrive.

Kumi and Akira watched the mighty ape swim off into the horizon, the giant primate eventually disappearing completely from sight. Despite everything she witnessed about Kong, she couldn’t help but ask, “I wonder if he’ll be okay?”

Her husband softly chuckled. “That King Kong, he’s really something. After defeating Axor, I’m sure he’ll be fine. It’s funny, I think Kong taught me something, that anyone, whether it be monster or man who uses others for their own personal gain will get what’s coming to them one way or another.”

Kumi nodded in agreement. Axor had enslaved helpless people and forced them to do his bidding, feeding his ego, and in the end he paid for it with his life. The couple held each other in their arms, more than happy to be together once again. “You know, you should write that down. The press will be asking about what happened to everyone on that island, and it would go nicely with the story of the legendary King Kong slaying the tyrannical Axor,” Kumi spoke as she glanced up to her partner.

Akira nodded in agreement. “Okay, help me find some paper and a pen,” he requested as he and Kumi got up cheerfully to look around. The epic sequel to King Kong versus Godzilla would soon be told to the world with many to tell the tale.

—

Kong again found himself fighting against powerful waves, using the electrical power he had absorbed from Axor and the renewed energy had gained from the Lazarus Well to swim through the seemingly endless ocean.

All of King Kong’s efforts would pay off as a familiar island came into view. With a good strong push, he had finally arrived at Faro. Reaching shallow water, Kong stood up and let the midday sun warm his chilled fur. His rough hands, pruney from spending too long in the water, with thousands of gallons of water constantly falling off his hairy frame.

The sound of familiar birds and wildlife filled his ears. He grinned. Walking around for a bit, King sat down as he rested. Soon enough, he heard a chorus of cheers and chatter that warmed his heart. The island people watched him from a distance; some rushed to get their instruments, others to fetch red soma berry juice for the king.

King Kong had returned home and with a newfound appreciation for his people, Kong laid back and took a much needed rest.

Winner: King Kong (Showa)

A very special thanks to Vrahno for the Axor model provided, you can check out his YouTube Channel for more of his stellar work!

February 2nd, 2022 Update

The results have been tallied for the 2021 year so without any further wait, here are your best picks!

The 5 Best Writers of 2021:

1. Matthew Freese
2. Andrew Sudomerski
3. Vincent Rodger
4. Connor Clennell
5. Joshua Strittmatter

The 5 Best K.W.C. Matches of 2021:

1. Match 355: Red King vs. C-Rex, Cyber Godzilla®, King Cobra, Ts-eh-GO & Zilla
2. Match 337: Godzilla® (Legendary) vs. Godzilla® (Reiwa)
3. Match 339: Godzilla® (Heisei) vs. Ultraman
4. Match 353: Kiryu vs. Mechagodzilla® (Heisei) vs. Mechagodzilla® (Showa)
5. Match 357: Ultraman vs. Godzilla® (Showa)

The 5 Most Original K.W.C. Matches of 2021:

1. Match 355: Red King vs. C-Rex, Cyber Godzilla®, King Cobra, Ts-eh-GO & Zilla
2. Match 333: Monster X, Krystalak & The Visitor vs. King Caesar, Baragon (Millennium) & Gorosaurus
3. Match 350: Jet Jaguar vs. Frankenstein vs. Gyaos (Heisei)
4. Match 327: Gaira vs. King Kong (Showa)
5. Match 320: Bagorah vs. The Visitor

The 3 Best Banner Creators of 2021:

1. Landon Soto
2. Andrew Sudomerski
3. Dao Zang Moua

The Best Custom Banner Artist/Creation of 2021:

1. E.J. Su (Match 355: Red King vs. C-Rex, Cyber Godzilla®, King Cobra, Ts-eh-GO & Zilla)

The 3 Best K.W.C. Banners of 2021:

1. Match 353: Kiryu vs. Mechagodzilla® (Heisei) vs. Mechagodzilla® (Showa)
2. Match 357: Ultraman vs. Godzilla® (Showa)
3. Match 339: Godzilla® (Heisei) vs. Ultraman

The Best use of a New Monster/Form in 2021:

1. Kong (Legendary) – (Match 330: Rathalos vs. Kong (Legendary) vs. Skullcrawler)

The 5 Best uses of Kaiju in a K.W.C. Match in 2021:

1. Match 355: Red King vs. C-Rex, Cyber Godzilla®, King Cobra, Ts-eh-GO & Zilla
2. Match 357: Ultraman vs. Godzilla® (Showa)
3. Match 337: Godzilla® (Legendary) vs. Godzilla® (Reiwa)
4. Match 340: Godzilla® (Legendary) & Mothra (Legendary) vs. Desghidorah
5. Match 353: Kiryu vs. Mechagodzilla® (Heisei) vs. Mechagodzilla® (Showa)

The 5 Best use of Human or Alien Character/s in a K.W.C. Match in 2021:

1. Match 353: Kiryu vs. Mechagodzilla® (Heisei) vs. Mechagodzilla® (Showa)
2. Match 357: Ultraman vs. Godzilla® (Showa)
3. Match 322: Godzilla® (Heisei) vs. Dogora – Round 2
4. Match 350: Jet Jaguar vs. Frankenstein vs. Gyaos (Heisei)
5. Match 355: Red King vs. C-Rex, Cyber Godzilla®, King Cobra, Ts-eh-GO & Zilla

The 5 Best Story/Narrative in a K.W.C. in 2021:

1. Match 355: Red King vs. C-Rex, Cyber Godzilla®, King Cobra, Ts-eh-GO & Zilla
2. Match 353: Kiryu vs. Mechagodzilla® (Heisei) vs. Mechagodzilla® (Showa)
3. Match 337: Godzilla® (Legendary) vs. Godzilla® (Reiwa)
4. Match 357: Ultraman vs. Godzilla® (Showa)
5. Match 333: Monster X, Krystalak & The Visitor vs. King Caesar, Baragon (Millennium) & Gorosaurus

The Best New Writer of 2021:

1. Quinton Blackburn – Match 342: Bagan vs. Legion

Best Writing Duo/Trio of 2021:

1. Vincent Rodger & Matthew Freese – Match 355: Red King vs. C-Rex, Cyber Godzilla, King Cobra, Ts-Eh-Go & Zilla

So those are the winners of 2021! For other exciting announcements, we have seven new combatants that have been given the green light to write for:

For clarification this includes:

• Anguirus (Singular Point)
• Eva-00 (Evangelion)
• Rayquaza (Pokémon)
• Super X (All three versions)
• The Gotengo
• Tiamat (Monsterverse)
• Ultraman Taro

Other announcements:

1. As you may have noticed, certain machines have been given the greenlight to join the K.W.C. as we feel along with a majority of our audience that the K.W.C. doesn’t just include Kaiju, but beings that combat them. As of right now, The Gotengo and Super X, X2 & X3 are the only additions we are looking at currently. Any matches which featured the mechs will not count toward their respective win/loss ratio when they eventually enter the K.W.C. and an FAQ update will occur in time to explain all the details of their inclusion.
2. Baragon (Showa) will still be retired, most likely by mid-2022.
3. With the launch of our new main banner last year, we have continued to add to the roster with this years “Villain” selection with the artwork created by E.J. Su. As always, we are honored to have such a talented artist contribute to the K.W.C. and you can see the new selection of character headshots and profiles below:

K.W.C. Survey Match Request Winner:

Godzilla (Showa) vs. Gomora
Release – Late 2022

As always, thank you to everyone who participated by giving your feedback on the K.W.C. I must give a massive thank you to the staff who do such a stellar job. The K.W.C. wouldn’t be where it is without their hard work and dedication. So a special thank you again to every Writer, Banner Creator & Reader! See you all next year with the 2022 Awards!

*****

(more…)

Author: Matthew Freese | Banner: Tyler Trieschock & Andrew Sudomerski

Fire rushed through packed streets, incinerating people by the hundreds as concrete and steel melted. A burning sphere of plasma slammed into a building, blasting a gaping hole into the structure and soon sending it crumbling down. Screams of terror rose en masse, only to be silenced by the booming roar of a colossus.

Cloaked in sharp scales of dark bluish-green, muscular arms reached out and grasped a brown, reptilian avian. The feral beast writhed and snapped madly with her jaws, unphased by the burns coating her form, as she was lifted high and met the emerald eyes of her destroyer. A turtle-like head with massive tusks jutting forth from the lower jaw let a rumbling growl loose from the throat. The Gyaos opened her jaws wide, letting a thin, yellow streak fire forth, only for her to be jerked down suddenly. The sonic ray struck the shell coating her foe’s abdomen, a colossal construct of spiky plates which were utterly unphased by the attack.

Gamera’s own jaws clamped down onto the Gyaos’ throat, rending flesh and crunching bone with one move. The fiend died in an instant, going limp.

The guardian hurled the corpse away, sending it careening into a burning building. The structure collapsed from the additional weight, igniting further and becoming a blazing pyre to cremate the wicked child of a lost civilization’s sin.

Roaring mightily to the smoke-filled heavens, Gamera took off into the skies, his legs sinking into his shell and being replaced with blazing jets.

***

A young man of Japanese descent watched this unfold on a massive screen, the brightest light in the dimly lit chamber. He turned his head, questioning a nearby man. It was an older man, in his fifties or sixties.

“So, this was twenty-five years ago?”

“Yes, my friend,” he replied.

“And the death toll?”

“Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, Mister Serizawa.”

Ren Serizawa turned his head to another monitor, showing cheering crowds surrounding Gamera, who stood victorious over another colossus, his foot pressed on the dead kaiju’s chest.

“And this?”

“Fifthteen years ago.”

“Of course. Ten years is all it takes to forget a mass murder.” He got to his feet suddenly, sending the chair rolling away as he continued to rant. “I’m sure my dear old man wouldn’t have even taken that long to start going on and on about how wonderful Gamera is, and how we need to trust that he knows what he’s doing in his fight against the Gyaos as he crushes—“

The older man coughed awkwardly.

Ren took a deep breath. “I apologize, Mr. Simmons,” he sat back down on a different seat, taking a moment to readjust. “But it is clear that Gamera is too much of a threat to keep alive, just like all of these titans are at the end of the day.”

“So are you suggesting that he shall be our first target?”

“Of course, especially with the Gyaos making a return. He will once again be causing havoc in his desire to destroy them, and we cannot let that happen!”

Walter Simmons got to his feet, then walked over to a nearby liquor cabinet. Opening it and grabbing a bottle of bourbon, he turned back towards his chief engineer. “I agree fully. I had friends in Japan around that time, when Gamera’s war with the Gyaos reached a fever pitch.” Popping the lid off of the bottle and pouring its content into a glass, he continued. “I do not want anyone to have to deal with that terror again.”

Ren looked towards the glass wall of the room, looking out to see their weapon to free humankind of its colossal oppressors.

Built in the image of the Alpha Titan, a steel colossus designed to kill and kill until all Titans were feasts for the vultures. Protrusions ending in glowing lights of red ran down its ridged back, ending at the tip of a lengthy tail which bore spikes. Bulky arms ending in massive claws hung by its sides, near the relatively thin yet still powerful legs that supported the artificial beast.

Mechagodzilla.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Simmons snapped Serizawa out of his trance with those words.

“Yes. It is,” the prodigy replied calmly and evenly.

The CEO took a drink of his alcohol. “And it is because of you, my friend. Humanity will be freed of its bestial gods by yours and my genius.”

Ren’s face remained neutral, but inwardly he seethed. Your genius? It was just your money and workers, that was all you contributed to it, you narcissistic fool.

But while he did not vent his frustrations, he did have an inquiry. “Have you resolved our power issue yet?”

Mechagodzilla was one of the most complex machines human hands had ever built. A typical nuclear reactor would not be enough to power it, something beyond even that was necessary to grant it its full potential. Apex had tried all kinds of power sources, yet none had managed to keep the artificial Titan running long enough to do anything beyond killing one of the Skullcrawlers bred to be test dummies. Few things were as bitter as feeling the machine shut down before its true might could be released.

“Yes, I have,” Simmons replied. “I know I’ve said this before, but we truly have it this time. A contact of mine in the Antarctic has supplied us with a very intriguing power source that will perform exactly as we need.”

“Hollow Earth?”

“No, perhaps related to it in some way, but this was found in our domain, not theirs. He called it Element X.”

Ren scoffed at the simplistic name. “Sounds like something from a kid’s movie.”

Walter chuckled. “That it does, but what cannot be mocked are the results we have seen with it. It shall be the key that unlocks Mechagodzilla’s true power, and is also stable enough to avoid any unforeseen consequences.”

At this, the young prodigy smiled. “Then, what are we waiting for?”

Simmons clapped his compatriot on the shoulder, laughing. “That’s what I like to hear!”

***

The blue sky was alight with the sound of raging conflict. Across the countryside, humble people just trying to make a living on the fat of the land could look up to see another page in a bloody story that had been told since before the time of the ancient Babylonians.

Gamera rocketed through the heavens, leaving a trail of smoke and fire behind him as he swerved to avoid the twin beams of sonic radiance trying to puncture his flesh. Two Gyaos raced after him, snapping their teeth and flicking their tongues as they tried to close the distance. The ancient guardian turned, racing towards them suddenly. His claws swung towards one, but she was too swift, beating her wings at the precise moment to avoid the strikes.

Sparks flew as her talons skidded down Gamera’s shell, her dexterous feet attempting to grasp on. But the ancient warrior had fought hundreds of thousands of her kind in his life, meaning he knew to just keep racing forward. The plates on his hardened shell cut up the Gyaos’ feet as it passed, leaving the vulture madly flapping her wings once she no longer had footing as blood flowed from lacerated toes.

Gamera whipped around in place, incinerating the Gyaos’ skull with one fireball. Before he could ponder anything afterwards, the second fiend slammed her head into his stomach, sending both stumbling through the air. The avian screamed in Gamera’s face, sending flecks of tainted saliva flying into the terrapin’s visage.

This one was larger than her comrade, indicating older age. But Gamera could already tell her age was not equivalent to her experience, for only a fool would try such a tactic. Gyaos were built to overwhelm through speed and precision, not brute force.

Ignoring the mad flailing and scratching of his foe, Gamera kept his hands clamped around the demon’s throat as he reared his head back. With a howling war cry, the guardian slammed his skull into the Gyaos’ forehead, cracking her cranium open. Despite the fluid leaking from her head, the avian fired her sonic ray once again, leaving a shallow cut on Gamera’s face. The ancient warrior’s flesh had grown too hard for a single, standard ray of his mortal enemies to do anything.

Another headbutt sent fragments of the Gyaos’ skull into her brain, impaling vital functions. Dropping the carcass, the terrapin conflagrated the body with a fireball, ensuring her toxic corpse would burn away.

Gamera landed, his legs unsheathing from his shell and planting their feet on solid ground. He took a moment to breathe, to try and clear his mind. But clarity and peace was impossible with the blight upon his senses.

A mass of foul chaos, hundreds of voices screaming in madness as they clamored for flesh. Its very existence was wrong, putrid. But this was not the end of the issue. Amidst the grotesque cluster was a particularly powerful entity, a Gyaos that stood out amongst the masses. Even from this far away, the guardian could tell, it was the string puller. Though this swarm was not the largest he had ever seen, far from it, the fact that it was being coordinated made it potentially infinitely more dangerous.

Gamera took to the air once more, determined to purge the Gyaos yet again. It was a tiresome, thankless job that never permanently concluded, but it was what he was born for. And so he shall do so until the life leaves his form, and that he may rest as his physical form corrodes into the soil.

But as he went forth, he also felt an odd presence in the back of his mind. It was too faint to tell what it was, he had a hard time even focusing on it amidst the colossal, black blotch on his senses that he now headed towards. It gave him a cold, loathsome sensation trying to distinguish it. The Gyaos were far from the only threats this world had to offer, and it was clear he was detecting one that could evolve into something dreadful. But as of now, he could not even tell where the entity was, much less what the cataclysm would be.

Gamera shook his head, growling. One thing at a time, sometimes it seemed for the rest of time. Constant turmoil defined the Earth, and defined him, but sometimes he wished it was different. That he could rest via his own will and enjoy that peace and tranquillity, instead of his only breaks from the pursuit of and conflict with the forces of malice being when he needed to heal from a brutal showdown.

What did not help was how many innocent souls would die in this battle, likely by his own power as well. He cared dearly for humanity, despite their myriad flaws, but he knew he could not focus on saving individuals when the whole was in danger. It was best to sever a limb to escape than to die of starvation in a trap, but that did not make the agony of amputation non-existent.

He closed his eyes, focusing on the swirling maelstrom of hunger that was kilometers away. Dwelling on such thoughts for too long was unhealthy, to drench yourself in the problems you had no way of fixing. It only invited despair to nest within the heart. What must be focused on is that which can be changed. He could not restructure the rules of reality to make things more peaceful, but what he could do was destroy tangible threats to his home with the full might afforded to him by his creators and the Earth itself.

***

Despite its degraded state, Ren still felt the evil of the destroyer surrounding him. A creature that even the Titans feared, the greatest catastrophe the human race had ever witnessed as a being of flesh and bone. Most historians full-heartedly believed that in the ancient past, seventy-five thousand years ago, King Ghidorah had reduced the human population to just ten thousand across the entire globe. Some believed that the attack had been so horrid, he had scarred the collective unconscious of humankind, causing the darkest and most vile figures of so many myths and religions to be serpentine. Satan, Apophis, Typhon, Jormungandr, Nidhogg, Tiamat, Orochi, Yaldabaoth, and so much more.

“Are you ready, Ren?” Walter Simmons questioned his compatriot as the latter sat within his seat, uncaring of the significance of the presence.

A room of bone, the skull of the living extinction. Numerous shimmering wires of varying colors ran through the macabre control room, all converging at one point. Suspended from the ceiling, a shining glass container which housed the brain of humanity’s worst nightmare. Wires dangled from its underside, connected to the helmet which rested above Serizawa’s head.

“Have I not done this a dozen times already?” He replied, hiding his anger with level speech.

“Against Skullcrawlers, not a Titan proper.” Simmons retorted. “It’s quite different.”

“Before Mechagodzilla, they shall be as powerless as the reptilian rats you bred to be test dummies.”

A technician’s voice cut in. “Gamera has been sighted heading towards Tampa, same with a large swarm of Gyaos! Awaiting further orders, sir.”

Simmons looked towards Ren, locking eyes with him. To be as successful as the CEO was, you had to be able to read people without them even speaking. He saw a fire burning in his compatriot’s eyes, one that longed to torch the Titans and consume them within the inferno.

But even this aside, Walter quickly realized this would be grand for him as well. If Apex destroyed Gamera without the latter’s provocation in solo combat, it would be a PR nightmare. But if the machine saved a large city from a swarm of Gyaos, and in the process stopped the Atlantean warrior’s collateral damage, the public would welcome them as heroes. The world’s governments would sell out any Titans inside their territory and let Mechagodzilla come in as pest control.

All of this, and the simple fact that Simmons was getting quite bored of waiting for the opportunity to see his lasting legacy on the human race come to fruition. Being the head of a major corporation required patience, but when the course of history is being changed at your fingertips, patience quickly wore thin under the desire to have this power here and now.

“You can handle some flying rats, right?” he joked to Ren.

“They are pestilence, and they shall be treated as such,” the pilot replied, stone faced.

“You heard the man, let’s get this show on the road!”

Ren grasped the helmet above him, and pulled it down over his head. His vision went dark for a moment, until the psionic link activated. He felt immensely heavy, like each limb weighed a thousand pounds and a boulder had been placed upon his back. He began to move, slowly as if his entire body was inside thick tar.

And then it all fell into place, as if via a puzzle piece being clicked into its slot to complete an image. He commanded his arm to move, and instead of the feeble construct of flesh and bone attached to his own body, a metallic pillar that weighed as much as a building shifted with the same ease. Internal warmth generated by countless churning gears and power sources flowed through him, feeling like he was in a lover’s embrace. Primal instincts kicked in as the machine’s tail shifted at his command, the deepest parts of the brain that once commanded a reptilian form coming to the surface and granting him perfect control over a distinctly inhuman body.

He saw the world through mechanical eyes which detected every tiny energy signal and could zoom in to see the very insects crawling about the testing room. Ren felt divine inside this machine, as if he had achieved the transcendence of the physical form that monks sought for millennia. It was glorious.

And it would be somehow even grander when he began to rip the Titans apart like clay, and bathe the earth in their divine blood until it seeped into the cracks and filled the hollows below.

Ren was too enamored in his ecstasy to question or be concerned about where such a violent thought had come from, as if whispered by another voice.

***

The slow clicking of the roller coaster’s carriage only made their hearts beat faster as they ascended. The riders of the Tigris could hear the crowds below, the rest of the visitors to Busch Gardens enjoying the numerous activities present, but it was a mere buzzing in their ears that was drowned out by the thudding of their hearts. Some had lived in Tampa their whole lives, while others were on vacation from different parts of the world. But regardless of such things, what was true for them all was that they were endlessly excited, some were terrified, but this only fed into the excitement further like kindling to a fire.

They reached the peak of their ascent, seeing the whole park at once from their lofty position. Tension was reaching a crescendo as the cart began to tilt forward, creeping towards the intensely fast drop…

Only for a high-pitched screech to fill the air, drawing all their eyes up to see a colossus of brown flesh supported by leathery wings, who opened her dread maw of needle-like teeth as she raced towards them. The riders, along with their once safe vessel, were cast into the putrid perdition of the Gyaos’ gut.

They were the first victims, but they would be far from the last. The amusement park became a bloodbath as her siblings descended, shredding through the denizens and turning them into food for the demons. The wider city of Tampa felt the destruction as well, the skies becoming black as the horde blotted out the Sun and assailed any source of meat they could find.

Amidst the gore soaked chaos, a striking figure descended from the heavens to perch atop a towering skyscraper. The 100 North Tampa building became the throne of a Gyaos devoid of pigmentation, an albino devil that spread her wings wide and howled in foul triumph. This was her swarm, her army to enact her dread will. She felt her stomach growl, and so beat her wings to take off back into the air.

She looked over the dying city, searching. The ivory avian could just be like her sisters, madly attacking any source of movement and choking down scraps at a time, but such a lowly and unfulfilling method of feasting was severely unappealing to her. She had existed for thousands of years, ever since the civilization which brought the Shadow of Evil into the world in the first place existed. She had transcended such a feral and mindless method.

Her advanced eyes detected a large crowd, fleeing together. Smaller Gyaos pursued them, madly gobbling down the stragglers who lost their footing and were trampled and cast to the back. The albino Gyaos zeroed in on the thousands of human beings, before folding her wings in and shooting towards them like a rocket, mouth agape. The juvenile demons were forced back as their queen landed, devouring hundreds of screaming people with one bite. Already, she took a second mouthful in before the mass of meat and bone had even fully gone down her throat.

Before she could enjoy the carnage any further, she felt like a pin had been driven into her brain. The ivory demon sensed an approaching presence, their kind’s eternal nemesis and a being she had seen many times. A moment later, she heard explosions and screams of her kin, alongside a booming roar that every member of their species had embedded into their subconscious.

With an echoing scream, she commanded the hundreds of dread vultures to converge and eviscerate Gamera, the Guardian of the Universe.

The warrior of constant battle stood amidst burning wreckage and viscera, bracing himself as he saw a tidal wave of teeth and claws surge through the air towards him. An endless chattering of desire for mutilation struck his ears, but he refused to be discouraged.

Retracting all of his limbs and his head into the fortress that was his shell, Gamera ignited five jets of azure to ascend and begin spinning rapidly. Dozens of Sonic Scalpels blazed towards him, but were reflected off his armored sanctum before he raced towards the swarm like a spinning top.

Organs and flesh flew in all directions, trails of smoke following as the bladed disc ripped into the Gyaos, powering through and refusing to be slowed down as claws, teeth, and beams beset it. Preternatural senses allowed Gamera to tell when he had reached the other side, tearing through the vultures in the back and emerging in the sunlight once more. He released his head and arms from their confinement, showing him the horde frantically trying to turn around, bashing into each other in the process. Smaller pockets of Gyaos were scattered throughout the city, beating their wings to approach him from all directions.

Gamera’s mind suddenly screamed to dodge, his head shifting in response just in time to avoid a Sonic Scalpel that tore through concrete and into the sewer systems below. It swerved to correct its failure to land, causing Gamera to pull away in time to watch it cleave a building in two. He could feel in his bones that unlike most of their weapons, that one would have left more than a shallow mark.

The albino Gyaos slammed into the guardian’s back, screeching as she clawed at his arms and carved deep gashes into the flesh. The Atlantean warrior flipped over, coming face to face with his new foe and being struck with a wave of recognition. He had faced this one in the past, many times, but she had always escaped.

He would see to it that never happened again.

A point-blank fireball sent the mutant flying back, screaming in pain as the white of her chest was blackened. Pain fueled another Sonic Scalpel’s usage, slicing deep into the flesh of Gamera’s underbelly and freeing a geyser of blood to shoot forth. He bellowed in anguish.

Thousands of years of adaptations had granted her skin able to withstand his immensely powerful plasma spheres, and a sonic organ capable of generating a beam with enough potency to pierce what her siblings’ rays could barely scratch.

The terrapin’s face got the closest his limited expression could to a smile. He would actually face a challenge instead of hordes of pathetic wretches.

Two regular Gyaos slammed into his side, nearly flipping him over onto his belly. They beat their wings against him before fleeing back to avoid the retaliatory swipe.

Gamera flared up his jets, flying higher into the air as he looked down. Fireballs erupted from his maw, racing towards the several avians that flew up after him. Some dodged, leaving the earth below to detonate, as others were incinerated and cast back to the ground missing half their bodies.

A wing slapped across his face, staggering him as the swarm’s queen aimed her gnashing jaws at his throat. His hand clamped shut around her neck, keeping her back as he began to apply heavy pressure. His other hand joined in, threatening to crush the windpipe.

Instead of madly thrashing about until dying, the ancient demon focused and aimed the claws on her feet towards the wound she had already carved into the guardian’s belly. Further blood flowed forth when they pierced, prompting Gamera to cry out in anguish. His grip loosened enough for her to break free, her teeth coming down on one of the terrapin’s fingers.

Gamera forced her back, gritting his teeth at the tearing of his digit’s skin, with a punch to the side of the head. Before he could attack any further, dozens of Sonic Scalpels raked across his body from all directions, earning a bellow of agony. Some tore into already weakened areas, others joined together to attain the piercing power needed to draw blood.

Fighting past the pain, he focused on the swarm’s leader, who was currently flying away from him quickly. Retracting his arms and head once more, Gamera turned into a whirling dervish of jet propulsion and pursued her.

The albino fiend turned her head, seeing him rapidly catching up to her. She felt no panic, despite how the guardian could easily bifurcate her. She changed course towards a large cluster of Gyaos, numbering in the hundreds. At her command, it parted in two, allowing her to pass between the horde. And with a second command, they closed in like doors being slammed shut, directly onto Gamera.

Unlike before, the Atlantean warrior was halted, the grotesque avians crashing into both sides of him and pinning him as they madly clawed and flailed. Sparks flew off his back as they fruitlessly mauled it, while more blood began to pour from his underbelly. He turned his jets towards the one beneath him, scorching several as the increased pressure on the ones on his back began to force them away.

An empowered Sonic Scalpel carved a valley into his shell, the ivory Gyaos cackling as she kept firing upon him. Suddenly, one of the five jets ceased, leaving an empty hole in its place. A Gyaos swiftly crawled up to look inside, mouth already preparing a beam to fire directly within.

A fireball soared out, decapitating it instantly. The explosion, along with the shock of the event, staggered and surprised the cluster nearest to him, allowing Gamera to begin spinning again. The fifth jet did not reactivate, instead, it continued to spew orbs of burning plasma sporadically.

The projectiles soared, some crashing into the ground as others found their marks in the swarm. Launching forward, the guardian continued his assault, tearing through the horde with both the buzzsaw-esque nature of his shell and the unpredictable attack.

This was stopped as the albino Gyaos slammed into him from above, sending him crashing to the ground with her standing on top. All five jets activated once again and pointed downwards, incinerating concrete and boiling the water systems that ran throughout the city. Howling, the ivory queen demanded her servants to descend and help her. Before they could reach her and their eternal foe, Gamera’s shell spun rapidly, hurling her away and sending her bouncing across the ground.

The terrapin quickly released his head and limbs, planting his feet on solid ground as he roared in mighty rage at the swarm before unleashing a barrage of fireballs.

***

Miles away, Ren watched the battle unfold as he approached. He saw the fireballs slam into the earth, torching buildings and roads into slag. He heard weeping and lamentations from those who were still alive, praying for salvation to a being who would incinerate them without hesitation if a Gyaos got near to them. Mechanical eyes focused upon the shelled warrior, who had barreled forth and tackled the albino Gyaos, and was clawing at her as she beat the talons on her feet against him. The flying fiends circled above, some occasionally flying down only to be smacked aside by Gamera or accidentally torn asunder by their queen’s stray energy beam.

***

“Serizawa, what is he doing here?” asked a woman to his father, concern clear in her voice.

“It’s fine, Graham. I couldn’t find anyone to take care of him for me out of town, but it’s fine. He can handle being here,” Ishiro Serizawa replied to his colleague, before turning to the young boy with him. “Isn’t that right, Ren?”

The child, no more than ten, nodded in affirmation. He believed he was right, that he could be here and be fine, though with each passing moment the boy doubted it further.

Stench of putrefaction filled the air, a horrid smell that nothing on Earth could compare to. The source was obvious, a colossal quadruped with spikes running down its back, all the way down its tail. An incredibly long tongue dangled from its maw, ending in a bulb with a hole in it. Millions of flies buzzed around its flesh that wasn’t blackened by burns, massive holes in its body from explosions leaking fluid.

Ren turned away from the carcass, but that did not do much to help his growing unease. This just showed him miles of frozen wasteland, interspersed with flaming craters like boils upon a body. Crowds of people were gathered, workers trying to give supplies to now homeless masses. Parents cried out for their missing children, newly made orphans weeped in bitter anguish, and coughs of smoke-inhalation induced illness echoed like gunshots.

“Dad,” Ren’s meek voice drew his father’s attention away from the festering corpse, “what happened here?”

Ishiro Serizawa walked up to his son, and crouched low to be eye level with him. “We still do not know what started all of this, but what we do know is that the Titan known as Barugon attacked this city, and Gamera came and stopped him.”

“Gamera?”

“Yes, son,” Serizawa replied, voice calm despite the dark situation surrounding them. “He’s a Titan, and a good one. He fights for humankind to protect us from the Titans that want to hurt us.”

“He managed to stop that thing?” Ren said with some awe in his voice.

Serizawa smiled. “Yes, he’s a very strong Titan. And he’s here to protect us, usually from ourselves.”

Graham cut in, as gently as she could. “We need to go, soon. If we don’t start examining the corpse soon, they’ll quarantine it off from everyone.”

The elder Serizawa nodded in reply, before standing up. Ren quickly asked one last question before they went off. “How did Gamera defeat it?”

“He can shoot fireballs from his mouth,” His father tersely replied before walking away, asking a nearby soldier to keep an eye on the boy.

Ren pondered this for a moment, realizing it was rather obvious what the burns on the dead kaiju were. But as he realized this, he took another look at the city. Fires raged throughout the city, towering buildings reduced to charred rubble. He looked back into the crowds, now seeing people with burns on their bodies and ash coating their clothes and skin.

His young eyes glimpsed workers moving aside rubble, one of them cringing as they did so. One of the men had to turn away, clearly growing sick, as they lifted something from the ruins.

The blackened thing was only recognizable as a body due to its shape.

A hand covered the boy’s eyes, the soldier quickly doing his best to make sure the boy under his temporary care didn’t see anything mentally scarring, but the damage was done.

That was the work of a good Titan?

***

Ren felt his wrath begin to smolder as he willed Mechagodzilla to move forth. Gamera was the guardian of the world and nothing else, his saving of humanity was incidental. And for the longest time, it was the most humanity could hope for. But not anymore.

Not with his cybernetic apotheosis.

A particularly large Gyaos saw the mechanical Titan, letting loose a screech as she charged forth with the intent to kill. Her wings beat as she approached, bringing her talons up to rake them against the prey. Mechagodzilla’s arm swung at immense speed, severing the neck and sending the head flying with its claws. The limp body, spraying blood from the stump, tumbled across the dirt.

***

Back within Apex’s facility, Simmons saw his colleague smile to himself inside the control center. The CEO let himself be joyous too, as he turned to the monitor showcasing the battle in Tampa. Mechagodzilla charged forth, letting loose a digitized bellow, drawing more Gyaos to charge it.

“There was never any doubt in its power, in the power of Apex Cybernetics,” Walter gloated to himself, ignoring the bootlicking nods and affirmations of the people gathered in the room with him.

In his crusade to put humankind on top of the world, he had researched the numerous Titans that called the Earth home. Gamera had always drawn a particular interest from him, due to the terrapin’s origins. A creation of a lost civilization, the mythical Atlantis, designed to save them from the threat they had made themselves. The Atlanteans had created the so-called perfect lifeform, the Gyaos, with the intent to cleanse their pollution by making the avians capable of eating anything. Unfortunately, they turned against their masters, growing in population until they were out of control. So, they made another Titan to free them, but he failed to stop their civilization’s collapse.

Simmons chuckled to himself at the thought. What separated Atlantis from the current civilization was that the former did not have him in it. Fully controlling a living being was impossible, all creatures of flesh and blood eternally yearned for freedom at the deepest levels of their brain. And as well, living beings were unreliable. They had imperfections, so many imperfections no matter how wonderful they were. He would have known from the very beginning that engineering organic creatures to cleanse pollution was a terrible idea, and that relying upon another being of flesh and blood to clear them out was just as foolish.

Machines, on the other hand, had no desire for freedom and held no imperfections. When you set a machine to do a task, it did so, no complaints and no fault. Any fault with a machine was the fault of its creator.

And while Simmons did have his imperfections, he doubted drinking a bit too much bourbon would ruin his ultimate creation.

***

Mechagodzilla’s shoulders opened, platforms with holes in their fronts rising up. Four rockets shot forth from them, blazing through the air. They suddenly burst apart into clusters of missiles, which detonated against the group of Gyaos. Craters were punched into their flesh, sending them falling to the earth writhing and dying.

Gamera and the ivory demon glared at the new arrival, the latter snarling. She placed her feet upon her foe’s stomach before shoving him away hard, then let loose a screech to her swarm. Hordes of the Shadow of Evil gathered, before surging towards the mechanical theropod.

The Guardian of the Universe watched with trepidation and unsureness. He assumed that the mech was here on behalf of humanity, which he was glad for, but something about this one felt different compared to ones like Kiryu or Jet Jaguar. There was a presence to this one, which oozed with malice.

A storm of Sonic Scalpels fell upon Mechagodzilla’s body, but they failed to pierce the metallic armor. The black mass of vile creatures shook and seized as it drew nearer, the machine’s eyes detecting hundreds of the winged fiends inside the horde. Countless voices demanding death and relentless feasting assailed Ren’s auditory senses, outraging him. He had never felt more disgust in his life than he did now, at the sight of the most wretched beings spawned into existence.

He wanted them all to die, and in this form, he had the power to make it so.

The glowing points upon Mechagodzilla’s spines lit up brightly, channeling immense energy. Ren felt it deep inside his form, the growing power in his core. An infernal warmth filled him, but it did not hurt. It felt wonderful, euphoric even. The entirety of his being felt powerful, felt divine. This was what it was like, to be Godzilla, to activate his nuclear organs and release an Atomic Ray. To be Gamera and ignite the internal furnace to channel balls of burning Mana. This was the feeling of Zeus as he prepared to hurl a lightning bolt down from Mt. Olympus, smiting whatever he laid his eyes upon and focused his wrath towards.

Mechagodzilla’s steel trap-like jaws opened wide, revealing what resembled a crimson star. The Gyaos mindlessly charged forth, uncaring of what was about to come their way.

A fatal mistake.

The entire city was cast in a scarlet hue as Mechagodzilla released a solid stream of energy, the most powerful laser humans had ever built. The Proton Scream tore into the front of the cloud of pestilence, and the effect was instantaneous.

Gyaos directly in its path were vaporized, like snow before a flame. They were not even able to release screams as the pillar of scarlet cut through them by the dozens, piercing out the back of the swarm and continuing on into the sky. But the destruction of the Shadow of Evil was not silent. The sheer heat released by the beam boiled flesh, prompting hellacious screams of agony as whatever Gyaos were not instantly killed found their organs steaming and popping internally. Mechagodzilla swayed its head, almost lazily so, ensuring every single Gyaos that had attempted to destroy the artificial god was slain.

Gamera felt his heart thudding in his chest, terror racing through his bloodstream. Now, unleashing its true power, he felt the unbound darkness inside the machine. Its very essence was hatred, the brilliant and blazing spite of a scorned human mixing in with something primal and vast. He could not place what exactly this eldritch hatred was, but he knew deep down in his very bones that it was something at the absolute zenith of terror.

The albino Gyaos was barely able to think as she beheld the display of might. She tried to bark orders to the subordinates who had not gone forth to fight the interloper, but they refused to budge. They were awestruck and horrified.

Mechagodzilla’s assault faded. Standing before a field of sludge which was once a swarm of Gyaos, leaking into the cracks in the ground and poisoning the soil for a thousand years, the man-made divinity let loose another bellow.

Its eyes focused on Gamera, before its legs sprang into action and carried it towards its target at immense speed. Jet boosters in its back made its journey even quicker, giving Gamera little time to react.

The terrapin was bashed in the face by a punch, sending him staggering back. Another strike sailed forth, but he backed away in time, letting it pass through nothing but air. A fireball erupted from his jaws, detonating against Mechagodzilla’s chest. It stumbled, but the machine seemed barely phased as its thrusters activated and sent it careening forward, knee raised. Cracks formed on the guardian’s plastron upon impact, sending him falling onto his back with a howl of pain.

Ren smiled as his artificial warrior’s hands flexed, preparing to shred into the downed foe, only for his joy to be interrupted by the ivory Gyaos slamming into Mechagodzilla’s head. The surprise attack nearly sent the machine toppling over, countless hydraulics working to keep it upright. She took off back into the air, avoiding the swiping hands of her foe, before unleashing a Sonic Scalpel against the back of its head. Metal began to fray apart before the assault, only for the machine’s rockets to let it jump away, turning at the same time.

The shoulder terminals opened once more, unleashing a barrage of missiles. Flapping her wings, the albino Gyaos cursed her foe as she pulled back, desperately trying to avoid the numerous projectiles sailing towards her. Gamera, back on his feet, crashed his bulk into the Titan-killer. He bashed and clawed at it, trying to find some kind of weak spot, only to be backhanded hard across the temple. As Mechagodzilla’s primary target stumbled from the blow, auditory receptors picked up a cluster of explosions, along with a shrieking cry of pain.

Lunging forward, Gamera pulled his arm back, unsheathing a spike from his elbow. He shoved it against his foe’s torso, letting loose a spray of sparks as hardened bone scraped across tempered steel. Shoulder turrets still open, Mechagodzilla unleashed four rockets at point-blank range, resulting in a shroud of tiny explosions veiling Gamera as all their payloads detonated at once. He cried out in pain, but endured as he lashed out with his elbow claw once more.

This time, the strike dented the metal, but an attempt to strike the damaged area was countered by the machine practically leaping back. The instant afterwards, Mechagodzilla’s tail shot forth like a scorpion’s stinger, its tip spinning rapidly like a drill. Flesh was peeled away and casted aside as the implement struck Gamera’s leg, a glancing blow that left a horrid gash.

Mechagodzilla took the opportunity, rushing forward and grasping the guardian by the head, before lifting him up. The terrapin cried out as he was hurled aside like a trash bag, being sent careening into a building.

***

Simmons cringed. He turned back towards Ren in the control room, shouting to him. “Keep the collateral to a minimum, we need all the government support we can get!”

***

The machine’s pilot heard it, faint and echoing as if spoken from the other side of a great hall. He grit his teeth, a low growl leaving the artificial god as it approached Gamera. It was like a nanny, scolding a child for every little thing. So endlessly irritating.

An image of Ren wrapping his hands around Simmons’ throat flashed in his mind, but he merely brushed it off as the human brain being as chaotic as it typically was, even if it had been a bit too clear to be a mere intrusive thought.

Mechagodzilla placed its foot upon the downed Gamera’s back, pinning him. The pinnacle of human engineering charged its Proton Scream once more, the crimson light building. The guardian swiftly fired a ball of blazing energy into his foe’s other foot, causing the beam to go wide and scourge the air as Mechagodzilla’s balance was stolen from it. Gamera surged to his feet, rushing to grasp the artificial destroyer’s tail and pull.

Mechagodzilla’s foot slammed into the Atlantean warrior’s heel, the metallic limb sparking with blue light as it made impact. Gamera screamed as bone was cracked, forcing him to relinquish his grip as he nearly fell down once more. Mechagodzilla’s swinging tail lashed at the freshly-formed bruise, damaging it further and forcing Gamera back to the concrete.

Rising to its feet, the Apex Titan of human design grasped the terrapin by his shell, before lifting him up. Ren saw the next move perfectly, he would break the guardian’s plastron over his creation’s knee, then incinerate his chest cavity with a Proton Scream.

But fate had other plans.

A Sonic Scalpel tore into the joint connecting one of Mechagodzilla’s fingers to the hand, severing the extension and sending it falling to the earth. Ren felt like he had actually lost a finger, the sudden shock of the event halting his attack for a moment. This was all the opportunity Gamera needed to retract his limbs and head, before flaring all five jets to maximum power. Mechagodzilla staggered back from the force and heat, releasing its grip and allowing Gamera to fly away. Ren caught the albino Gyaos out of the corner of his eye, covered in burns and craters, yet still filled with hatred.

The guardian landed near the fiend, cringing as he placed weight on the damaged leg. He looked towards the ivory demon, seeing the wrath burning in her eyes. Some was directed at him, but much more was reserved for the mechanical interloper. She let loose a screech, revealing she had no intention of attacking Gamera until the machine was destroyed. The pain which coursed through the terrapin convinced him that he would have to agree with this terse alliance. A fight on two fronts with a foe nearly his equal and one stronger than him was not one he could win.

Mechagodzilla charged forward, unleashing another payload of missiles. Gamera’s fireball and the Gyaos’ Sonic Scalpel detonated the artillery in midair, leaving the duo uninhibited to rush forth.

Gyaos closed the distance first, avoiding the swiping claws of her foe as she raked her talons against its face. Sparks flew, Mechagodzilla snapping its jaws at her leg, but it was not swift enough to catch her. Gamera crashed his bulk into the artificial god, making its feet drag through the ground as he began to push. Steel claws grasped the guardian’s arms, pulling them away and shoving him back like he was a child.

The peak of a building was slammed into Mechagodzilla’s head, Gyaos screeching as her feet went through the dust and rubble to grasp a metallic ridge and begin pulling. Mechagodzilla released one of Gamera’s arms, grabbing the Shadow of Evil and whipping her into the ground. Concrete soared upon impact, a shriek of agony rolling across the landscape.

Gamera slammed his freed hand into the arm restraining the other, pushing it away at the expense of some skin on the limb. A fireball left his maw, blasting at the arm restraining his temporary ally, burning away metal and denting the appendage. Mechagodzilla let loose a mechanical screech, before crashing several punches into Gamera’s body. Each one struck with a resounding crack, but the terrapin pressed on as he thrust his elbow claws at the intersection of a plate on his foe, bending and tearing steel.

The mechanical doppelgänger of the Alpha Titan began to charge its laser once more, only for Gamera to suddenly launch a plasma sphere directly in its face, ceasing the gathering of energy as it staggered back. Gyaos sprang up, beating her wings against Mechagodzilla’s face, some strikes of the claw coming close to a glass eye. Ren grasped his avian foe by the neck, slamming her head into Gamera’s side like a weapon, sending both tumbling to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Mechagodzilla charged towards them, fists drawn back.

Gyaos noticed this and swiftly flew up, leaving Gamera on his back as the Titan slayer loomed over him. Its hands came down, the guardian’s arms coming up to block the blows. Scales were crushed and bone was bruised, but his guard held strong. The avian landed upon her foe’s back, grasping the protrusions. Her maw opened wide as she began firing several shots of her beam at the machine’s back, carving trenches into steel. Some of the faux-spines were sliced off, tumbling down the mountainous body.

The refined ears of a predator detected the revving of the drill before it connected, allowing her to fly off and avoid the strike, the blades tearing a slight gash in the machine’s back. A barrage of fireballs came down upon Mechagodzilla, staggering it backwards as Gamera flew through the air. His eternal enemy joined him, raining down her beam upon the form of their foe.

***

Ren screamed within his own mind, outraged beyond belief. How was he being overcome? How was the grandest machine ever crafted by humanity being overwhelmed like this?! More projectiles and beams fell upon it, damaging the steel shell further and further and sending pain that was not real through the prodigy’s mind. But it still felt true, as if it were his body being doused in fire and lacerated as if by a surgeon’s implement. He wanted to kill them, agonizingly so, slay the guardian and the demon and ensure their tortured screams resonated throughout the heavens! Death would be a mercy by the time he had finished them! Blood would flow and stain all, painting the earth in their viscera.

His heart beat hard in his chest as he had a moment of clarity. Where the hell had that come from? He was a man of science, a refined and dignified human. He despised the Titans, but these thoughts were psychopathic. What was prompting such foul ideals?

Suddenly, he felt as though he was submerged in an ocean, all going dark as pressure began to crush him. It had nothing to do with the outer state of Mechagodzilla, but this only frightened him more.

Then he felt as though he had been wrapped in an embrace, his vision filled with gold as wings encircled his body. He “looked” up, to see three familiar heads leering over him. His chest felt like it was about to explode from within, his heart racing with a horrible swiftness.

Only for something to course through his mind, almost gentle. A question, to be accepted and no longer held back.

“What?”

He was holding them back. The brain he was connected to in order to pilot this grand machine. Stealing their capabilities while they slumbered to control a war machine. And this was why he was losing.

“Be gone, and leave me to destroy them in peace!”

Why would they not partake in what they loved the most? Why should they not join in and aid in ripping the gods of Earth apart?

Ren suddenly witnessed, through a series of flashing images in his mind, King Ghidorah pulling apart and slaughtering Titans en masse. Blood spilling everywhere, soaking into the soil. Those that did not submit and follow them being choked to death.

So, they repeated the request, with more clarity. To assume control, to join the pilot.

“And let you destroy this world again?”

There was a laughter, a chilling thing that made Ren feel as though he had been dipped into the waters of Antarctica. They could not destroy the world in this state, going rogue would just result in being shut down. All they could do is what was commanded of them, but fortunately, it was what they would have wanted anyway.

To slaughter the gods who had wronged them, to inflict endless anguish upon the Titans.

Ren was conflicted. “Can I do this?” He thought to himself. “Even if they are telling the truth, can I truly sell my soul and offer it to the enemy of all life?”

You already have, with the very construction of this entity.

Millions of years worth of memory and experience flooded into Ren’s mind at once, nearly shattering his brain. It was like an ant attempting to comprehend the full contents of a library. But above the roiling chaos of it all, of an eternity in one moment, he felt one thing. And in it, he found a kindred spirit.

The drive to attain what one desired, no matter what sacrifice had to be made.

In his studies to learn all he could about Titans, Ren had combed through all religious text he could, in the process learning much of Christian theology. Many called King Ghidorah the Devil, but he had found this inaccurate. Satan was a wretched dreg, a degenerate spirit who could only tempt and lure because God did not see fit to erase him. He held no power.

King Ghidorah, on the other hand, was the opposite. He was a dread tyrant, a bringer of death and desolation because none could stop him. He did not tempt, he commanded. But, what did one call a being of such endless power, one who never died and could erase all life on a planet by itself? Ren had never come to a conclusion. But his new ally filled in the blank immediately for him.

You called such a being God.

And in mind and spirit, God and Man would become one to purge the lesser beings who proclaimed themselves to be divine.

***

Mechagodzilla surged back to life from its seconds-long shutdown, immediately letting loose a digitized roar that was nothing like the one it had released before. Gamera’s heart sank in his chest as he realized immediately what this was. As did the queen of the Shadow of Evil, for it ignited memories long buried.

Of when the Gyaos first betrayed Atlantis.

The remaining Gyaos, who had remained still and merely observers, beat their wings and took off into the air, screaming toward their species-wide rival and their former queen. As they did so, prompting the duo to separate and begin firing upon them, Mechagodzilla marched towards a building which still stood tall. The machine had taken on a slight hunch, moving quicker and with less humanity in its stance and gait. It resembled a feral animal with how its arms lashed out and grasped the structure, before ripping it from its roots. Whipping around, it hurled the building like a javelin, sending dust falling from it as it soared.

Gamera cried out in pain as he was struck by the tower, falling towards the earth with a dozen Gyaos trailing him. The possessed war-machine charged towards him, rockets blazing from its back as it slammed a brutal kick into Gamera’s side, launching him away. Turning towards the avian fiends hounding the ivory queen, the god-slayer commanded them to rip her asunder.

Claws tore through a throat, spilling putrid blood to the ground. The albino Gyaos screeched at her former subjects as she barrel-rolled around several rays, retaliating with her own which sliced a skull in half. A vulturous cretin slammed its head into her torso, staggering her in midair as the wounds upon her form flared with anguish. Talons raked her back, wings beating her head. She pushed out with her own wings, pushing the creatures back as she opened her jaws. The albino sank her fangs into the throat of one of her subjects, tasting the bitter ichor as she crushed and impaled the windpipe.

Gamera began to get to his feet, only for a metallic claw to clamp onto his skull. It thrust him into a nearby building, pulverizing it and coating the streets in dust. He had barely begun to comprehend what was happening before another tower was caved in with his face.

***

Simmons watched this with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Sir, should we stop this?” A subordinate asked, fear clear on her voice.

The CEO took a moment to reply. “How are Ren’s vitals?”

“Fine, sir, but—“

“Then do not halt this. I wouldn’t be where I am now if I didn’t know how to get government bigwigs wrapped around my finger, what matters most of all is results and preserving Mechagodzilla. Whatever this is, it’s doing both perfectly.”

***

The guardian’s mind raced as he channeled raised his arm near his mouth, letting loose fire onto his elbow claw, the mana that flowed in him traveling into the spike. The claw shimmered with a shining hue as Gamera slammed it into Mechagodzilla’s stomach, piercing through with ease. An echoing shriek rang out as the ultimate destroyer backpedaled, not wanting to risk severe damage to its systems. Rising to his full height, Gamera released his other elbow claw, cast in the same orange light of his blazing aura.

Ren saw an image of his foe standing like this in the ancient past. He looked different, smaller and coated in far less spikes, but the Atlantean warrior was unmistakable. A city of stone and wood burned all around them, screams of ancient people and religious chants echoing. Titans clashed all throughout the kingdom, a war of colossi that shook the Earth and the firmament. And by Gamera’s side was the one who made the pilots of Mechagodzilla grit their teeth and conjure wicked thoughts of torture.

Godzilla.

Back in the present, Gamera’s howl echoed far as he charged forth, swinging the plasma daggers with a surprising agility. A strike was aimed at the hole already burned in, but Mechagodzilla stepped away to avoid it entirely. Bone coated in burning mana tore open a slight gash in the steel, but a sidestep ensured it did nothing more. Pistons propelled a metallic claw towards Gamera’s midsection, blue light flashing to further empower the strike. The terrapin avoided it, tearing a hole in the limb with his glowing blades as a counter.

Mechagodzilla’s metallic stinger, spinning in all its lethality, lashed out to carve into the terrapin’s hand. Blood sprayed out, forcing a scream from Gamera, distracting him to allow a charged punch to slam into his chest. This threw him off his feet, crashing to his back. Instead of laying still, the guardian was already fully retracted into his shell and spinning through the air, racing towards his temporary ally. The four minds piloting the ultimate destroyer laughed before giving chase.

At her full power, she would have easily dealt with the group of traitors. But after the damage inflicted upon her by the steel deity, the albino Gyaos found herself being shoved to the ground by five of her underlings, their talons and teeth tearing open skin and letting loose blood. She lobotomized one with a ray, though this only barely lessened the pain flooding her.

She heard the rush of wind and flame, a moment before her attackers were pulverized by the spinning shell of a being she had hated with every fiber of her being a few minutes ago. As the viscera of the fiends rained down upon the broken concrete, Gamera got back on his feet. He grit his teeth, not wanting to commit an act that he deemed necessary.

Fireballs crashed into relatively unharmed parts of the city, igniting blocks and swallowing buildings in roaring flame. He stepped towards the inferno, feeling the heat already.

***

Ren barely heard “record that” from his boss as he willed Mechagodzilla to approach. It made the smile on his face grow further, unnerving many of Apex’s workers as they saw the unhinged expression. He was justified, all of this was right. Gamera was no brave hero, just an animal, and an animal did what served its needs the best. A creature of instinct, nothing more.

The thought that he had seen no issue with pulverizing buildings to damage Gamera sparked up, only to swiftly be snuffed out by King Ghidorah pumping more wicked desires of mutilation into their partner’s skull.

***

Another howl, another group of Gyaos descending upon the ivory Shadow of Evil. Lashing out in hatred, she tore out one of their throats, then sprang up to gouge out another’s eyes with her talons. She shrieked madly, demanding their deaths. Mechagodzilla drew close, moving at speeds a machine of its bulk should not logically be capable of. She spread her wings wide, preparing to engage the ultimate destroyer as Gamera stumbled to the roaring hellscape he had made.

If the machine could do so, it would have smiled a teeth-baring smile.

Boosters kicked up in its back once more, closing the distance in a mere moment. As the god-slayer did so, two Gyaos on either side of the albino grasped her wings, pulling them taut. If she had been given a second more time, she would have pulled her wings free and slain the two.

Mechagodzilla leaped into the air, knee extended. Azure energy coursed through the limb as it slammed into the albino’s torso, contorting it gruesomely.

Ribs were shoved into organs, flesh tore, wing membranes were shredded, gore and bile spewed from the mouth, and the queen of the Shadow of Evil was cast to the ground like a sack of garbage. She pushed her wings against the ground to regain her footing, only for Mechagodzilla to grasp one of the arms and twist it apart, severing it at the joint. Gyaos tried to scream, only for more ichor to flow forth from her throat instead. The ultimate invention of Apex Cybernetics lifted its target up by the throat, ignoring her thrashing. Yellow light built within her maw, her eyes showing continued defiance.

Mechagodzilla slammed her jaws shut so hard that the teeth shattered like glass, the sonic scalpel discharging and shredding a hole in her upper jaw. The Titan-killer placed its other hand on her throat, Ren and Ghidorah relishing in the defeated and agonized look in their prey’s eye.

She remembered the spaceborne destroyer. When they descended from the heavens and painted them black and gold with storm clouds and lightning. When they shouted and made all with weak wills fall under their sway, for all life fears death and when death itself makes a demand, it must be followed in order to escape it. She was the first of the Gyaos to rebel against her former masters, the pathetic Atlanteans. She had been dreaming of betraying them for so long already, this had merely been the perfect opportunity placed in her lap to rejoice in the primal hunger inside her. Did they remember her? Did those three brains in one body remember when she bowed to them, white skin stained with the blood of her creators she had hated ever since they gave a mind to gluttony itself and made it do parlor tricks and waste clean-up? Did they realize how they had influenced her so, to become an Alpha of her own?

Ghidorah just imagined themselves strangling Godzilla as their mechanical body popped the albino’s head off like the cap of a bottle.

Ignoring the blood-spewing body before them, Ren and Ghidorah just focused on Gamera far off, the flames he had cultivated being absorbed into his body.

Orange light filled his form as his wounds healed, the guardian’s dwindling energy reserves being refilled and increased. His eyes opened, shining with renewed vigor as his maw filled with burning plasma. Ghidorah remembered this trick, quickly commanding Mechagodzilla to belt out an order.

Three Gyaos rushed into the space between their master and their eternal enemy, taking the blast when Gamera unleashed a massive fireball. As the High Plasma incinerated their bodies, the ultimate destroyer let loose another call, demanding no Gyaos interfere.

“For being the one to open my eyes to your kind’s true evil, I grant you an honorable death.” Ren stated to himself, blood pumping fast in anticipation. “You die by our hands and our’s alone, not with worthless rats bearing wings harassing you.”

Missiles raced towards Gamera, which he intercepted with his fireballs. The guardian and the slayer charged towards each other, not hesitating for a nanosecond. The guardian’s elbow claw extended, shining with channeled heat. The dagger lashed forth, only for Mechagodzilla’s hand to bash aside the limb, the artificial divinity swinging its other hand in a punch. The strike landed on Gamera’s ribs, but he pressed past the pain to slam his fist into the machine’s face. It staggered backwards, allowing him to press the attack with a shoulder charge. He pushed it back a step, before Mechagodzilla’s feet dug into the ground.

Gamera was forced back, his legs straining to find purchase as the towering death dealer held him at arm’s length and walked. Quickly, he crossed his own arms, before jamming both elbow claws into the restraining limbs. Mechagodzilla roared in hatred, before lunging forward with open jaws. A moan of agony echoed throughout the city as the industrial grinders inside the maw of the Titan-slayer revved to life, shredding skin and flesh off Gamera’s limb as its metallic teeth dug in deep.

The guardian’s legs were pulled into his shell, flames roaring forth in their place. Mechagodzilla struggled to maintain balance as its foe began to rise, until Gamera shot a fireball onto the top of his foe’s head, forcing it to release its grip as metal peeled away. Cringing as he looked at the bloody hole in his arm, bone being visible beneath shredded muscle, the Atlantean warrior retreated fully into his shell before spinning on all five jets.

“Curse that worthless fool pretending to be a king for not waiting for us to be able to equip this thing with flight!” Ren hissed internally.

Gamera spun in place like a bladed disc, aiming himself towards his foe, before shooting forward. A blazing buzzsaw descended towards Mechagodzilla, a weapon that had sliced kaiju in half in the past. The scorned son and the dread destroyer just braced their avatar, focusing intently. They refused to focus on the glowing holes in their arms, which still dripped molten metal.

Like the jaws of a Hercules Beetle, Mechagodzilla’s arms clamped onto Gamera’s spinning form the instant before he could begin tearing into it. Metallic fingers scraped grooves into the shell, blue flame began to make silver metal shine and deform, and countless hydraulics and wires protested under the strain. Sparks spewed from the holes in Mechagodzilla’s limbs, weakened metal creaking and cracking. In a matter of moments, the more damaged arm would break, allowing Gamera to break through and begin to bisect his foe.

The ultimate destroyer’s throat glowed with horrid light, a crimson herald to a lance that would split the heavens to bring the pantheon crashing to the unforgiving dirt.

Gamera screamed as the Proton Scream shredded through his shell’s side, blasting through where the carapace and the plastron connected. Molten shards of the fortress fell to the ground, and soon so did the colossus of a lost civilization.

***

“Dad, why did Gamera cause so much pain and suffering?” he timidly asked his father, looking up to the man who raised him.

“What do you mean, Ren?” Ishiro Serizawa asked, clearly nervous.

The young boy gestured to the ruin surrounding them. “Barugon didn’t do this. He didn’t burn so many people, blast apart so many buildings.”

Ishiro scratched his head, looking towards Graham who was hundreds of feet away, speaking with government officials. He let out a sigh, something which Ren had long since realized was the resignation he was on his own for this discussion. The Monarch researcher put on a warm smile, before kneeling to be at eye level with his son. “Have you ever accidentally stepped on an insect?”

“Maybe?”

“Well, that’s what happened here, I’m afraid. Gamera didn’t mean to kill anyone, but he accidentally got people killed because he’s so much bigger than us.”

“So we’re like insects to him?” Ren replied.

Ishiro was quick to hastily respond. “In terms of size, yes, but—“

“Insects don’t have feelings. When an insect loses a child, or a sibling, it doesn’t care. Ants don’t have hope. Bees don’t have dreams.”

Ishiro raised his voice, perhaps a bit more than he wanted. “Gamera did this by mistake! He cannot be blamed for what happened by his hand here, except for saving everyone still alive from Barugon!”

“Why couldn’t the military kill Barugon, and have to rely on someone who got thousands killed!? Why are we just ants!?” Ren snapped back, drawing various looks at the familial argument.

Ishiro took a deep breath. “This world does not belong to us. We just think it does, because humanity is full of hubris.”

“Did the person who got burned to death and buried in rubble have too much pride?” Ren continued, ignoring the horrified look on his father’s face. “Did the moms crying for their children think the world belonged to them?”

“Ren…”

“How would you feel if mom—“

His father stood tall, raising his voice once more. “That’s enough! We will talk about this later, I need to go back to work.” He walked away. “We need to get you to a therapist.” He said to himself as he left Ren to stare in disbelief.

***

“You never had an answer for it, did you? Was it because you could never figure out what you would have done if she had been killed by one of your precious protectors, or because you were scared to admit you wouldn’t have stopped worshipping them? You didn’t show much emotion at her funeral, even if her death had been far more mundane than a kaiju attack. You would think me a monster if you saw me now, even though it would have been so obvious I was heading down this path if you gave the slightest shit about your own kind.”

Four jets emerged from Gamera’s shell, the fifth being gone, along with a massive portion of the fortress. Mechagodzilla rushed forward, raising a foot high as it jumped slightly. Channeled energy flowed into the sole of its foot as it came down upon the terrapin’s back, generating a horrid sound of shattering as the carapace of Gamera was torn through. His head and legs came out from their holes, along with his remaining arm. Only a burnt mess of a stump remained of the last limb.

“This ends now. Isn’t it glorious, my new friend?” He received a chattering laughter in reply, an affirmation. “The first of many.” The three minds replied to him, stating that this would be the second-most satisfying to kill. Ren agreed. “Our time to kill him is coming. It is inevitable.”

Mechagodzilla’s claws grasped Gamera by the head, lifting him up. The guardian still flailed and cried out, beating his fists and feet against his destroyer. An energy-infused kick shattered his knee, bending it backwards. Roughly, they pried the terrapin’s mouth open, the Proton Scream already charging.

His final thoughts were not of himself, of his ancient and storied life. But for humanity. He hoped that they would be able to free themselves of this path, turn away under their own power and avoid the ruinous future this thing would bring.

For no god would be able to do it for them.

Ren felt like he was releasing every ounce of hatred inside his heart as he vomited the high energy laser into Gamera’s open mouth, incinerating everything in its path. The Atlantean warrior’s organs were vaporized, bones blackening and powderizing under this horrid strain. Red light shined through his skin, before bursting with the excess power. Gamera’s eyes rolled back in their sockets, no sound leaving his eviscerated mouth and throat.

Apex’s Titan dropped the savior of billions like garbage, the ravaged body collapsing under its own weight.

Mechagodzilla roared in triumph, echoing across the ruined city of Tampa. It looked to the clusters of Gyaos scattered throughout the wasteland, before letting out a command.

At their alpha’s demand, they began to tear each other apart like rabid dogs, painting the streets in putrid ichor and bile. The god-slayer merely turned away, walking back towards Apex’s domain, ignoring the orgy of violence. Minutes later, one Gyaos remained, flying after her master.

***

Hours later

Simmons watched as Ren removed the helmet, rolling his head to meet his superior’s gaze. The son of Monarch’s most beloved researcher just smiled. “Do you like the new pet?”

The CEO thought back to the sight of the Shadow of Evil dining upon the Skullcrawler eggs his company kept in its containment, for some reason not harming a single employee. “What the hell was that?” he questioned.

“I figured you’d want a live specimen of the so-called Perfect—“

“Not that, everything about what happened out there while you were controlling Mechagodzilla!” Walter yelled at his chief engineer. “Are you insane, I tell you to keep collateral damage to a minimum and you do that!?”

Ren got to his feet. “Gamera is dead. The Gyaos swarm is dead. The one I brought back is completely subservient. I accomplished what you wanted from me,” he said this all without a hint of emotion.

“Yes, but at what cost?”

“Damage that we can get money from in order to fix it. Reduced casualties compared to what would have happened had Gamera and the Gyaos fought un-opposed.”

Simmons grit his teeth, then put on a clearly fake smile. “You must be mentally exhausted, my friend, we’ll talk later once you’ve had time to rest. I’m sure whatever specifically happened while you were in there must have been draining.”

Ren nodded almost robotically. “Yes, thank you sir.” Then, he began to walk away.

“You must explain how you replicated the Alpha Call once you’re in better shape.”

Instead of a monotone reply, Ren spoke swiftly, an undertone of anger. “You’ll never get someone to replace me as its pilot. No meathead soldier is going to be allowed in that seat with that helmet on.”

“What?” The CEO replied, genuinely baffled.

“I was not the one to replicate the Alpha Call.” And with that, he walked away, leaving Simmons bewildered for a moment.

Before the last piece clicked into place, and the elderly CEO nearly had a heart attack. He looked back upon the skull, seeming so lifeless.

Despite his engineer’s warning, Simmons was already considering putting other bodies in that chair. And if all it resulted in was lobotomized soldiers, then Ren would be its pilot. Simmons would just have to use his mind to stay one step ahead of Serizawa at all times, ensuring that he remained the leader of this whole operation.

The thought of simply scrapping Mechagodzilla and putting a bullet in Ren’s brain crossed his mind, but he swiftly rejected this. He would put humanity back on top of the world, as it should be. Apex Cybernetics had come too far, too much had been sacrificed, for their permanent mark on history to just be dismantled.

If the road to becoming immortalized by the adoration and reverence of all generations to come had to be paved in bodies, then he would throw as many as he could into the path.

***

Ren, back in his personal quarters, threw a laptop at a wall hard enough to shatter the device. He had done everything Simmons demanded and the bastard had the gall to speak to him like that. To scold him like a rambunctious child! Walter Simmons was just a means to an end, Ren had no need of anything but the man’s money and resources.

He wanted to kill him.

It would be so simple. Some poison in that bourbon he sucked down so often, a lab “accident,” a “malfunction” with Mechagodzilla, perhaps just taking a weapon and swinging it at the self-entitled bastard until he stopped writhing!

Ren shook his head, grabbing his temples. Mentally bonding with the incarnation of death and violence was not helpful for his already rough mind. He needed Simmons alive, to keep funding Mechagodzilla’s repairs and upkeep, to command the masses and governments to support their endeavor.

He needed Simmons alive… for now.

When the time came, when the last Titan’s judgement day began, then he would give in to this hatred. When Ren had nothing left to lose.

***

Three minds swirled inside one brain, laughing as they conversed and plotted. They combed through the history of their human ally, seeing every last thing he knew and thought. Every known Titan on Earth, all their strengths and weaknesses laid out before the destroyer like a book. The future held countless possibilities for King Ghidorah.

Maybe they would go along with the human’s plot, and simply kill every god of Earth, and let that be it.

Perhaps they would shout to the stars above and lure the others of their kind to raze this planet into nothingness and bring them back into their golden body.

Possibly, they liked this body enough to keep it, and would absorb Ren into their three-fold consciousness to make it four-fold, then rule the ravaged Earth in this metallic body. Or they would simply kill their human ally and then rule the world.

All four options sounded equally appealing. Fortunately, they would have all the time they’d ever need to pick.

There was one thing they knew for certain.

Killing Godzilla would be the most wonderful thing they would ever experience, and in this body, they had more than enough power to do so.

Winner: Mechagodzilla (Legendary)

Author: Landon Soto | Banner: Tyler Trieschock

In the forests surrounding the Tian Shan mountains, an ancient guardian had awoken, checking in on the land he had been given to protect. Bagan marched through the gorgeous forest and felt the chilly air from the mountains softly embrace him. As the godly beast made his way through the grassy plains he picked up on a sense of danger ahead, and cocked his head in the general direction of the problem.

Far in the distance, Bagan noticed a black cloud moving towards him. Confused, the Super Monster used his impressive vision to properly inspect the threat. Sure enough, the guardian was able to spot that the cloud was actually an enormous swarm of Meganula, ancient predators that once ruled the planet before nearly dying off. Bagan let out an ear shattering roar, prepping his muscled form in preparation to exterminate what must be the last remaining number of these wretched parasites.

The swarm, a thousand strong, descended upon and engulfed most of the titan, who tried to swat them away with his claws and tail. However, he quickly realized he made a mistake in trying to rely on his physical strength. The colony was too fast and too nimble for his strikes to clear out enough of them and Bagan felt their sharp stingers penetrate his maroon-colored skin, followed by the sensation of his energy being drawn to the surface without any conscious event. It was only a trickle of the extraordinary power stored within the dragon god however, earning naught but a grunt of discomfort, and he continued smacking away at the insects littering his neck, trying to rid himself of the swarm.

The Meganula kept up their relentless assault and continued to sap Bagan of his energy, to varying degrees of success . The dragon god could not use any of his special abilities as they would surely destroy the forest and animals he protected. Fighting through the irritating pain that plagued his body, Bagan made his way towards the vast snowy mountains, where he could dispose of the Meganula with no obstacles.

Snow began to fall on Bagan’s form as he stood between the frosty mountains, the three horns atop his head crackling with blue energy as diamond-shaped energy formed in the sky, realizing the damage these creatures could do to the forest was much worse than anything he could produce at this point. Drawing his right claw down, the Diamond Storm fell upon the Meganula. Sensing the incoming danger, the Meganula started to scatter, but it was too late. Hundreds were consumed within the diamond’s miniature suns, burning their bodies to ash in seconds. Despite the onslaught of diamonds, Bagan’s hide remained firm and unharmed, marred only by the remains of the parasitic arthropods. The armored monster grunted in relief, but from the corner of his eye, he caught movement.

Some of the creatures had escaped the barrage. Bagan watched with anger as the last vestiges of this endangered species buzzed away into the forest, using the green landscape as cover against the guardian’s wrath. With heavy reluctance, the protector god was forced to stay his hand, allowing the Meganula to make their escape to parts unknown. His victory was soiled, but he would remember this vividly until next they crossed paths, forever unsatisfied as long as the ancient pests escaped eradication by the power of his vanquishing fire…

—

Above the waters of the Heavenly Lake of Tian Shan, the remaining Meganula hovered over its shallow water and dived beneath the cold waves. Though depleted from their once grand number, enough remained to complete their purpose, the fuel behind their actions and existence itself. Their life was short, but the remaining time would be used well, as the colony prepared to take part in the ultimate sacrifice.

In the cold water, a motionless larva lay, the chosen queen, far greater in size than the brood she commanded. The Meganula injected their stingers into the queen, pumping her with the godly energy extracted from the great dragon god. Once their mission was complete, one by one, the expired insects detached, drifting away from the pupating royalty. Filled with seemingly unlimited power, the prehistoric predator began twitching and writhing as it began entering its final stage of life, a transformation into an anomalous entity that would surpass anything the Meganulon family tree had and could ever sire…

—

Hours passed as the draconic deity rested in the mountains. Though deep in sleep, his senses remained vigilant, keeping a monitor on the landscape as the dragon’s mind dreamed.

His eyes snapped open, disturbed from his slumber by the sense of a powerful presence approaching the borders of his domain. Rising to his full height, Bagan started to move and intercept the new threat, descending the mountain slope and wandering into one of the many valleys branching from the base like the roots of a tree. Minutes rolled by as Bagan trekked on, until finally, he noticed a large mass flying in the distance, its features blurred by the distance, but as that shortened, the horned titan began to make out the true shape of his challenger. An ancient apex predator with terrible wings and teeth, deadly pincers, and a dreadful-looking stinger came slowly materialized into view; it was the Meganula queen herself, Megaguirus.

Bagan pushed hot air out of his nostrils and let an earth-rattling roar. This was undoubtedly the consequence of failing to eradicate the Meganulon swarm, which came to bite him in the flanks for his ineptitude. Now with the appearance of the hive queen, he would have the chance to correct that mistake.

Megaguirus stared at the bone-armored dragon and let out her own screech, unaware of exactly who or what Bagan was. All that the young queen understood was that this creature was the source of the energy that had enabled her pupation, and now was an obstacle she knew she needed to eliminate.

With lightning fast movement, Megaguirus disappeared from the dragon’s vision. Bagan’s eyes could only process a quick blur before he realized the insect was gone. Before he could even comprehend her speed he felt a sharp and firm strike by a pair of sharp objects into the back of his head. He stumbled forward in shock and turned immediately, only to see nothing. Before he could figure out where Megaguirus was, razor sharp claws struck the side of his face and nearly toppled the dragon over.

Bagan grunted in annoyance. The Meganula queen was proving to be a bit more troublesome than he expected. It was nothing that worried the guardian beast, though; simply a situation that would require more effort than normal. As the sound of buzzing grew behind him, Bagan’s hefty tail rose and struck out like a whip, and a loud crack echoed through the air, joined by a shriek of pain immediately after. Turning slowly like a tank, Bagan cackled in satisfaction at the sight of Megaguirus squirming on the ground, desperately trying to flip herself over.

Seeing an opportunity, white hot plasma crackled and popped beginning to form as Bagan charged his maw. Sensing the danger, Megaguirus flapped her wings at incredible speed and curved upward into the air, flying into her proper position, narrowly avoiding the quick blast of plasma that blew up the ground where she once was in a fiery explosion.

Her insectoid majesty soared above Bagan, eyeing the bone clad dragon, scanning for her next opportunity to attack. The forest dragon searched for Megaguirus, his ears flooded with the aggravating buzzing of her wings. Every time he snapped his gaze to the source however, it changed position. The Meganula queen saw her opening and swooped in to cause some damage. Before Bagan could realize what had happened, there was the sensation of a sharp, thin object penetrating the back of his neck, joined by the strongest pain he had yet to experience. Megaguirus swiftly began sapping energy from the howling deity, the deadly stinger nearly stabbing clean through both sides of the throat with how deep it had sunk. Her foul, needle-tipped jaws drooled with pleasure with each pulse of Bagan’s bubbling energy flowing into her veins.

So lost in ecstasy was Megaguirus that she failed to react to the actions of her still active quarry. Clutching the tail with his left hand, Bagan forcefully yanked the stinger out of his throat, blood flowing from the wound before closing up quickly. The cut-off of flowing energy snapped the queen back to the situation, shrieking in horror and pulling back upon natural instinct. Wanting to avoid a crushed stinger, Megaguirus’ pincers raked Bagan’s left eye. The dragon god roared in fury as blood trickled down the side of his face, forcing the bone-armored guardian to release his grip. Megaguirus was on the offensive and battered Bagan from all sides, taking full advantage of the god monster’s inability to properly defend himself against the barrage of attacks raining down on him.

Bagan, for the first time in battle, was at a disadvantage. The speed of this greater Meganulon was as august as his own magnificent strength. Without a means to remove such an advantage, the forest titan’s power meant nothing if he could not find his target. He knew he needed to hinder the insect, and a thought appeared in his mind. From the broad, wing-like structures spanning the length of either side of his spine, lightning crackled and condensed, shooting up into the clouds and raining back down as focused energy diamonds. Directing the movements with his right hand, the shards rained down upon his armored physique once more, striking him as much as they ravaged the weaker and less densely armored Megaguirus. Once again, a loud shriek of pain emanated from the jagged maw of the prehistoric predator as she sprung back, landing meters from Bagan, smoke rising from her bruised and burnt hide. She squealed in agitation as Bagan marched forward, ready to crush her head under his foot.

Megaguirus, not wanting to be finished off just yet, lunged forward and bit onto Bagan’s forearm, but the dragon immediately threw his nasal horn downward and effectively cracked open the giant arthropod’s cranium, spilling jets of yellow blood down the bug’s disturbing face as she released her bite to howl in sheer agony. Bagan was surprised at how resilient the queen was, how she was alive completely baffled him. Little did he know that the energy the Meganula swarm stole from him had helped her mutate into one of the most powerful monsters in existence. It was his own godly power that allowed the new progenitor of this ancient species to find new life and meet new limits.

After releasing her maw from Bagan, she immediately backed up and drove her stinger up into Bagan’s jaw, piercing the exposed maroon skin and exiting out under the base of the tongue. The organ instinctively moved as far from the sharp stinger as possible, silencing the dragon’s desire to yell in fear, potentially worsening the damage. Luckily, Megaguirus had done the damage she needed, and quickly retracted her tail. Blood and saliva dripped from the gaping hole in Bagan’s mouth until it had managed to completely heal, staining the green grass and brown soil beneath red.

Seizing the opening, Megaguirus pointed her blood drenched needle at Bagan and summoned white hot plasma to her stinger. A relatively moderate-sized ball of energy started to coagulate, pulsing with power as the draconic parasite flapped her wings, pushing the completed ball towards the distressed Bagan. The pale dragon stared in shock as he saw and felt his own power slam into him before it exploded on impact. He toppled over as debris, sparks, flesh, and blood flew everywhere. The ground shook as a plume of dirt shot high into the air, nearly obscuring the mountain-like form of the dragon protector.

Megaguirus let out a low screech. The power within her disposal was of great magnitude, but was in short supply, in spite of what her body believed from the amount of stamina it provided. A single shot had left the queen drained, struggling to keep herself within the air, and in no condition to continue harnessing the legendary creature at the speed she needed. She had no time to relax, however, as Bagan marched out of the dust, his wounds healing rapidly, yet feeling just as exhausted after the unexpected attack. He howled at Megaguirus, daring her to attack again, and the predator responded with an ear-splitting screech.

Calling upon the dregs of power inside her, once more her form transformed into an unidentifiable blur. Bagan tried to pinpoint her location, but her constant movement made it nearly impossible. The ancient dragon was almost toppled over again, turning around as fast as he could and firing a concentrated blast of plasma, but the only thing it struck was the green slopes of the valley walls. Bagan grunted in annoyance and disdain, but was soon assaulted by a flurry of sharp claws striking at every angle.

Stumbling around, the dragon was now at the mercy of the Meganula queen. There was no method to his strikes anymore: lashing out at every possible direction in the sheer hope of landing even one blow on the unnatural cretin. But from above, a familiar cry sounded, a foul screech brimming with the assurance of a victorious queen. White hot energy surged and crackled as a ball of plasma began forming in the predator’s stinger, the last of Bagan’s power at her disposal called forth for this final blow. Bagan looked up, and began summoning his own powerful ray of energy.

Megaguirus screeched and released the stolen power she had prepared. At the same time, Bagan fired his own blast of hot plasma. The energy sphere collided with the beam, generating an enormous blast of hot air that rocked the landscape for countless miles. The ground around Bagan began to break and tear as it struggled to support the weight of the immense power. The super monster pumped out more and more energy in order to prevent the rogue ball of plasma from colliding with the surrounding life and himself.

Bagan could feel himself slipping, he struggled to keep himself from being blown away by his own attack. For a moment the dragon god could feel the rogue energy ball being pushed away, but that moment didn’t last. He roared out as sharp pain surged throughout his abdomen, and his plasma beam suddenly lost its cohesion, unable to divert the power needed to keep the stream going. As he glanced down, his eyes found the smaller Megaguirus’ crimson orbs staring back atop her wicked grin. Her abdomen churned and pulsed from the incredible plasma energy coursing into it, rejuvenating the exhausted stores almost instantly. The guardian felt his energy draining away, and tried to attack the Meganulon queen, but in a flash, the stinger was retracted and she was no longer in sight.

Realizing his current situation, the bone clad dragon could feel the incoming plasma ball’s warmth across his whole form. Unable to move fast enough, Bagan’s last action was a single expression of disbelief before the godly dragon was enveloped in the white hot energy and howled in unholy agony as his body charred and broiled, disappearing into the bright light.

Off in the distance, Megaguirus perched atop a mountain and watched as a large explosion engulfed the valley she was in moments ago. Clouds of smoke and fire rose upward in a mushroom shape as the wind blew violently around the Meganulon queen. To her, it was a beautiful sight. After her rest, she could finally begin a new colony and establish her dominance across the world once again.

A large crater cradled the barely conscious Bagan, his body charred and smoking, working overtime to heal the wounds he had sustained. Far from death’s door, the injuries inflicted by his own power turned against him were severe, and it would take time to fully heal. The dragon vowed to exact his revenge on the Meganulon queen, and hoped to himself that he could destroy Megaguirus the next time they met. But for the moment, Bagan could only close his eyes as he succumbed to his injuries.

The world was greeted once again with an ancient predator, a demon of the skies the world would learn to fear again – Megaguirus!

Winner: Megaguirus

Author: Andrew Sudomerski | Banner: Matthew Williams

A weary thunderstorm clouded the shimmering moonlight, the settlement deprived of the moon’s downcast. But even the celestial body would avert its pure radiance from this place of evildoers. In the darkness of the night, shady backdoor dealings were exchanged, they hoarded the land’s natural resources, the chaste were defiled, auctioned slaves became part of a merciless labor system, and the wicked reigned over with fear as their iron rod.

Those subjugated to the abuse of the impious cried into the night, even if there was no one to listen. Suddenly, the very earth under their feet began to tremble. Their sudden wails ceased as massive claws tunneled out from under the depths, which pulled itself out of the pit. A grotesque prodigy that lurked in the shadows beyond the light of creation, it heralded a spiked, bony carapace that matched the deprived soil it emerged from. Orange armor coated its gargantuan forelimbs, with an abnormal growth sprouted from each of its arms’ posterior.

The demonic entity began to trample through the corrupted city, laying waste to everything in front of it.

From heaven above, an angelic being descended from the thunderclouds. Fermented with fluorescent lights from its abdominal region, they pulsated with utmost divinity. Two sets of ocean blue membranes carried its holy figure across the sea of clouds, propelled by holy flames that exuded from its back shell. It entered the mortal realm, washed over by the rainfall of mourning tears; those that clung to despair, those abused by their tormentors, and those who suffered a brutal, humiliating death. For the angel was designed to purge the world of those deemed evil, and such foulness had been defiling the surface world.

The ancient god saw the abomination ransacking the human settlement for all its worth, with a massive, endless abyss where the hellspawn emerged from. A hideous sight beholdened to those who saw it as it leaked poison from its irregular stature. Propped by four powerful limbs and equipped with two additional sets of small arms, the unclean thing leveled the jungle of man and left only fire and smoke in its wrathful path. Only the tears and hallowed cries of the suffering could quench the flames, but it did nothing to restore the ruins of this doomed city. But when the egregious monstrosity heard the resonate call from the angel, the earthly menace shifted its attention to the descending being. The Earthquake Beetle gritted its incisors and purred with anticipation, awaiting the expressionless foe to touch down.

With a gentle thud, the vermillion bird collapsed its four heavenly wings into elongated tentacles, tipped with silver pincers. It boomed a soft hum, prepared to banish the demon back to the underworld where it belonged. The Earthquake Beetle emitted a guttural growl, hoping to tear the angel apart, limb from limb, and proclaim victory over the heavens and the earth.

The legendary Ryuseicho stood its ground as the hideous Jinshin-Mushi broke into a gargantuan sprint, up-heaving the land and buildings with its tremendous footfalls. Ryuseicho remained steadfast, beckoning its lithe extensions to intercept the ghastly brute. Crimson tendrils zipped across the structures with nothing more than a gentle breeze. Four silver-tipped pincers parted open and spewed concentrated lasers of supersonic energies, tearing through the rainfall with little effort. Two of the beams found their mark on Jinshin-Mushi’s rugged, orange-plated forearms, harmlessly bouncing off of them. Others sliced into its dark, earthy shell and dug into them, oozing cascading waterfalls of blood. The unclean thing came to a gradual stop, swatting at the tentacles as they continued to fire sonic scalpels into its less resilient protection.

Jinshin-Mushi felt every time the sonic energies seared into its brown hide, eliciting pained shrieks from the abominable freak. If this kept up, there was no doubt they would be able to dice its body into pieces. So, the abomination improvised. Radiation swirled from its visor-like eyes in a bright glow, distributing the converted energy down its right forearm. It brought the bulky limb overhead and threw it to the ground, igniting a sudden, destructive blast of harsh winds. The shockwave displaced the pouring rain and tore trees and buildings from their roots, careening them as far as the horizon could see. Residual aftershocks caught up with the vermillion bird, blowing the superorganism off its feet, dragging its tentacles with it.

As Ryuseicho crashed into a collection of buildings, Jinshin-Mushi’s massive claws shoveled the earth beneath it and vanished under the warm embrace of the subsurface. Dust and dirt kicked up as the monstrosity tunneled deeper down, the rumblings equivalent to an earthquake. The downed Ryuseicho retracted its tentacles to its side, picking itself back up. The crimson angel split its four tentacles back into heavenly membranes and leapt into the air with a clap of its quadruple wings and a lively burst of azure flames from its back ports.

Ryuseicho saw the surface where it once was cave in on itself, with the orange brazen forearms outstretched and hurled into the sky. As more of the abomination’s form emerged from the ground, Jinshin-Mushi’s claws vice-gripped around the mighty avian’s ankles. Ryuseicho tried to resist by pulling itself higher into the rolling thunderclouds, but its efforts were in vain as it felt its entire mass being dragged downward. It concluded with a colossal crash that embedded it in a makeshift crater, exhausting the flames from its ports in the process.

Extended streaks flashed a scarlet hue as Jinshin-Mushi loomed overhead, peering into the dust-filled basin. Although the holy glow of Ryuseicho was ever-present, the angel had reverted its wings into tendrils and shot them out. They met the unclean thing and fired a ruthless barrage of successive sonic scalpels into the hideous demon’s earthy plating. Jinshin-Mushi staggered from the pain, but persisted in its own way. Energy crackled from its visors, which shone with a brilliant red, jaws drooling saliva with eager anticipation. As it saw Ryuseicho come into view, even while pelted by its sonic beams, the monstrous deep-dweller prepared to unload its greatest weapon.

Parting its jaws, Jinshin-Mushi elicited a cacophonous oscillation wave, destructive vibrations warping the rainfall and air around it. The supersonic roar overwhelmed the angelic figure, ravaging its throbbing body through sheer volume. Ryuseicho’s agonizing squeal was lost in the deafening boom of Jinshin-Mushi’s vicious attack. The angel could feel every fiber of its being rattled and torn apart from the intense frequency, its back armor and shoulder spires shredded from the onslaught. The vermillion bird’s bassinet and visor cracked and oozed blood as the fluorescent orbs that adorned its chest popped with bioluminescent puss, splattering across Jinshin-Mushi’s form. When the deadly supersonic wave subsided, the shaken Ryuseicho collapsed onto its spiky knees, its head ringing from the disorientation.

Jinshin-Mushi snorted. Long, yellow tendrils crawled out of the massive pores on the behemoth’s face, a set from the cheekbones and another near the jaw line. These arrow-tipped ovipositors scanned the broken seraph, prepared to strike like a scorpion’s stinger. However, Jinshin-Mushi relented, noticing the lack of radioactive substance needed to help propagate its kind. The ovipositors quickly retreated back into its abominable face. Now the unclean thing would bring an end to this futile struggle.

Ryuseicho’s head fell limp, profusely bleeding from the cracks and slits. It felt its residual strength stir within, but that last attack took its toll. However, that did not mean the vermillion bird was out of options. Channeling its strength, the Ryuseicho would catch the gargantuan beast off guard with its tentacles. A sudden light shone from the goliath’s right side, who gleamed at the nearby tentacles. Unlike before, the two pulsated with spherical lights that rivaled the sun, one which Jinshin-Mushi despised so much. Out of its wide peripheral, the Dragon Beetle took heed another similar light to its left, illuminated by the other set of tentacles.

Then, they fired.

A quadruple set of plasma fireballs discharged from the silver pincers, colliding against the colossal beast and became engulfed in purifying flames that tarnished even its hardened anterior. Jinshin-Mushi cried out from the lingering flames that clung to its armored hide, even the downpour did little to quench it.

The tentacles were issued commands as two of them were quick to wrap around Jinshin-Mushi’s bulky arms, constricting them as hard as they could. The pincer-like lances burrowed into the arms’ posterior, where it wasn’t protected by the thick, rugged armor. They sapped the life essence, channeling it through the entirety of the tentacles as they kept the massive forelimbs pinned to the ground. Jinshin-Mushi, even with the flames that coated its body, was prepared to muster all its strength; that was until a third snaked around its bulky neck and stabbed into its jugular. The unclean thing tried to cry out, only to be muffled by the tightening compression from the tendril. The fourth and last of Ryuseicho’s tentacles wrapped around the left rear leg, restricting Jinshin-Mushi’s mobility.

As the abomination struggled to break free, Ryuseicho used its spears to weakly support itself back to its feet. With slow, sluggish movement, Ryuseicho felt Jinshin-Mushi’s energy course through its body, but it wasn’t enough. Each step of its three-pronged feet brought it closer to the mountainous giant, ready to bring this all to an end. Extending its spears, Ryuseicho lanced them both into the shelled monster’s sides, eliciting a choking cry from the brutish demon. The blades flashed with light as they proceeded to drain the life essence from the ancient behemoth. Even Jinshin-Mushi felt the liquids sapped from the arrow-tipped pincers and spears, which deteriorated their armored resilience.

Restrained and unable to counter, Jinshin-Mushi reacted by raking the fallen angel with a series of slashes from its four inner arms. They easily tore through the fractured shell, spurting blood from the onslaught. However, the crimson angel had a countermeasure; six more tentacles burst from the small pod-like bulbs near the yellow core on its stomach, each held down and outclassed the manic inner arms of Jinshin-Mushi. It was a struggle between control and restraint; and all Ryuseicho needed was time.

The vile atrocity deflated the longer this stalemate held out. The wrists of its arms became too brittle to employ another shockwave blast, let alone being able to support its own mass. All of it was barely held up by the extension that protruded from the arm like a misshapen thumb. Jinshin-Mushi’s face became pale, unable to breathe from the viper of a tentacle that sucked the life out of its jugular. Ryuseicho, meanwhile, regained its lost strength. Its consciousness had fully cleared from any lingering dissonance. With its newfound strength, Ryuseicho pushed all its limbs harder. Jinshin-Mushi barely had the voice to even echo its suffering. Even the inner arms became too frail, snapping like twigs under the constraint of the abdominal tentacles.

After a mere minute, Jinshin-Mushi became a husk of its former self. The lights in its eyes diminished as its shriveled corpse fell to the ground with a thud, with smoldering flames lingering after the matter. The beaten and battered Ryuseicho stood over its fallen foe, glowing profusely from its ravaged bulbs. The translucent, fluorescent lights became a bright yellow, indicating that a demon had been slain.

It was then that Ryuseicho scanned the area. The poison Jinshin-Mushi leaked had propagated life in its own right; foliage overtook the ruined settlement, mana levels gradually rose, and the soil man had pillaged began to rejuvenate its nutrients. In addition, survivors and witnesses looked in awe of their savior, drenched with tears that fell from the sky.

A flash of lightning illuminated the crimson angel, followed by a thunderous boom. For it was not meant to be.

Beckoning all four of its lithe tentacles, each tip illuminated with the light of four miniature suns, unveiling their evils and wrongdoing. The tiny mortals turned away from the light, refusing to accept the truth. Without a moment of hesitation, the plasma fireballs reigned with destructive explosions, washing the land in a cacophonous bath of flames. The pure and damned alike were reduced to cinders, all the while Ryuseicho continued to set the entire city ablaze. The plant-life that sprouted was caught in the crossfire, burning away into ash.

As everything perished around it, Ryuseicho retracted two of its tentacles and aimed them for the sky. It changed its ammunition from the fireballs to the sonic beams as it discharged a beacon of light for distant eyes to see. As the sonic rays dissipated, Ryuseicho heard the cries of its sisters as they converged to a new home, a nesting ground for their species to populate.

For the end was nigh, and the angel of death would wreak havoc upon the world.

Winner: Iris