Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Christian Salabert

At last, mankind had made a breakthrough.

For years, the scientific minds at the Shiragami Memorial Research Institute – so named after the brilliant man that had created one of the two truly effective weapons against Godzilla – had been trying to come up with a definitive way to subdue, if not kill the King of the Monsters, or any similar threat to humanity, similar to Shiragami’s own Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria. Unfortunately, while a lot of people had come close, no one had been able to create a truly worthy successor.

No one, that is, until Noriko Yoshiwara.

A brilliant geneticist, biochemist, and bioengineer, Professor Yoshiwara was a well-known name in the scientific community for decades before she began to work at the Shiragami Institute. If anyone was going to come up with a viable weapon, it would be her.

Yoshiwara lived up to everyone’s expectations. Within a year, she had designed and synthesized an ungodly lethal bio-toxin, comprised of some of the most acidic, toxic, and venomous substances known to mankind.

“I doubt even Bagan himself could survive this stuff,” she said with a chuckle during the press conference in which she and the Institute revealed the toxin to Japan and the world at large.

As expected, the news took the world by storm. Everyone was talking about it, from the everyman on the street to the highest of government officials. Soon, there wasn’t a soul alive that didn’t know about Professor Yoshiwara’s miraculous creation.

Of course, this had an unfortunate, if not unexpected downside. Nefarious groups and individuals had heard the wide spread news of the toxin’s creation and wanted to steal it for their own use, or destroy it before Japan could use it. Terrorist organizations like Bio-Major and the Red Bamboo, and enemy nations such as Mu and Seatopia, were already coming up with plans to do just that.

However, not all the scheming individuals hailed from Earth. Some originated from far beyond, among the stars themselves. These undercover agents had been sent under the radar to live among humanity from the tenth planet in the solar system:

Planet X.

* * * * *

It wasn’t long before news of Professor Yoshiwara’s toxin made its way to the planet’s Controller. He soon called forth a meeting with his highest council members. They all agreed: the bio-toxin had to be destroyed. Even if the Xiliens stole it for their own, there was a chance that the humans would be able to steal it back. Best to eradicate it completely. And now was their best chance, before it left the Shiragami Institute and became mass produced.

But how?

“What is the status of Monster Zero?” the Controller asked, staring at the large view screen behind his desk, currently showing the planet’s rocky, barren landscape.

“King Ghidorah is still dealing with the resistance fighters in the southern hemisphere,” the Colonial Commander informed him.

The Controller nodded. Pausing for a moment, he asked “And Monster Zero-1?”

“Monster X is currently helping with… negotiations in Star Hunter Universe M.”

Again, the Controller sat there, thinking. While Ghidorah and Monster X were the main two weapons he preferred to rely on for his missions, he did have a third option at his disposal. It wasn’t utilized nearly as often, but it was just as capable as the other two.

“Send in Monster Zero-2.”

* * * * *

Night had fallen on the Shiragami Memorial Research Institute.

Most of the scientists had gone home by now, leaving only a night crew running the facility. Some, however, had stayed behind for the night, still needing to work on their various projects. One of them was Professor Yoshiwara. Though her bio-toxin itself was complete, she still needed to take care of various finishing touches, calculating just how long it would take to mass produce, how much of it would be needed to affect a kaiju of any given size, and so on.

Professor Yoshiwara sighed, needing to look away from the statistics running across her computer screen. She took her glasses from her face, rubbing her eyes.

“Professor?”

She turned to see one of her interns standing there. “Ah, Mayumi,” she greeted the younger woman with a tired smile. “What are you still doing here? Why haven’t you gone home?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing,” the intern said, bowing as she approached the scientist. “It’s very late.”

“Yes, I guess it is, isn’t it?” Yoshiwara said, glancing at the clock. “I suppose it wouldn’t be a bad idea to turn in for the night and pick this up in the morning with rested eyes.”

“Sounds like a plan, Professor,” Mayumi agreed, nodding.

Just then, the ground shook, throwing both women off balance. The sound of an explosion was heard in the distance.

“What on Earth…?” Yoshiwara wondered as she stabilized her footing. Hearing the commotion going on out in the halls, she and Mayumi quickly ran outside to see what was going on.

* * * * *

Mere moments before, an Xilien Saucer had flown down, its suspended animation bubble cradling their weapon of choice in their latest incursion on Earth:

Monster Zero-2. Otherwise known as Gororin.

Once it was close enough to the ground, the saucer cut off its electrical rays, causing the bubble to burst upon hitting the ground. Using the momentum from the toss to continue onward, Gororin rolled like a bowling ball towards the Shiragami Institute, crashing through and destroying several vehicles and smaller structures on the outskirts of the Institute’s grounds.

As the monster made his way towards the heart of the facility, the scientists within panicked. Not only were they concerned with the obvious – escaping with their lives – they also couldn’t just let all their years of hard work be destroyed. They had to save as much as they could.

Unfortunately, as one might expect, this left them open to destruction at the spines of Gororin. The spiky orb crushed everything in his path as he made his way towards the main cluster of buildings at the Institute’s center. Several scientists were shredded underneath his round, spiny body.

* * * * *

“Professor, we have to go! Now!” Mayumi cried. “Gororin will kill us instantly if we don’t hurry!”

“The Bio-Toxin!” Yoshiwara realized, looking at her intern. “We have to save it! At least a vial!”

The two women hurried back to their office to secure the lethal substance.

* * * * *

High above the Institute, another being was about to make its presence known. But this was no alien force like the Xiliens. Instead, what descended down from the heavens was what could be described as a golden cloud. But this was no ordinary cloud made of water vapor, rather a cluster of billions upon trillions of spores, ones that belonged to an enormous creature, one very similar to Godzilla in a biological sense. The spores fell into the earth, seeding the soil as they disappeared within.

Gororin, meanwhile, was leaving a trail of destruction in his path, making sure to eradicate all the outer buildings, leaving very few survivors as he cut off nearly all escape routes. But with that part of his mission complete, it was time to take care of the main building. Rolling towards it, the evil cactus prepared to smash the Institute to pieces.

But fate had other plans for Gororin.

The ground shook violently, cracking and splitting open. Before Gororin could halt his movement, his momentum took him directly over the edge, plummeting deep into the earth. For a moment, it seemed as if that might be the end of the cactus beast right then and there. That was not to be his end, however, as Gororin immediately burst up out of the crevasse, high into the air! …but not of his own volition. Gororin was being held high above the ground, ensnared by a large, dripping green vine. The alien plant was so dazed by the sudden fall and rise that he didn’t even try to break free at first.

A much larger pair of eyes stared directly into Gororin’s. The diminutive cactus found himself face to face with the final form of Biollante.

Snarling in disgust, Biollante whipped her vine away, hurling Gororin like a baseball through the air. The evil plant could do nothing but soar through the sky like a missile until his flight was suddenly cut short by the ground, knocking the creature momentarily unconscious.

Looking out into the distance where her foe had crashed for a moment, Biollante eventually turned and looked over the Institute behind her. The damage was noticeable, but had thankfully been stopped before the facility was completely demolished. Biollante wasn’t quite sure why she had decided to save the Institute from destruction. Something within had urged her to do so, to take action against the small, evil–

The Godzilla-plant hybrid howled in pain as a flurry of cactus needles flew through the air and embedded themselves into her leafy flesh. Snarling in fury, Biollante swung her head around, already knowing that the small creature was to blame. Sure enough, Gororin was rolling straight for her, his evil eyes narrowed as he rapidly approached his much larger foe. With a low, thundering growl, the cactus beast leapt into the air, heading towards Biollante’s face. The larger creature was fast to react, though, smacking Gororin away with one of her tendrils. As Gororin crashed to the ground once more, Biollante cried out in pain, several needles lodged into the striking vine. She shook the tendril hard, shaking the needles free as Gororin made another attack, rolling directly for his opponent.

Biollante narrowed her eyes in anger at the little monster. Yellow energy surged from the core in her torso, up her throat and into her mouth. Before Gororin realized what was happening, Biollante lunged forward and opened her massive jaws, spewing forth a bubbling stream of radioactive sap towards her foe. At first the cactus creature ignored the sight, but he quickly realized his mistake as the sap began to hit and drench his skin. Gororin let out a pained cry as smoke began to rise from his sizzling flesh, immediately stopping him in his tracks.

Gororin let out a pained cry as the sap cooked and ate away at his skin, but he had no time to focus on his pain. Her many vines waving threateningly in the air, Biollante charged forward, ready to attack her foe with a vengeance. Gororin rolled out of the way, but the monstrous hybrid was quick to react, erecting a wall of tendrils in front of him, blocking his path. As Biollante advanced behind him, Gororin pressed himself up against the tendrils and began to spin vertically, his needles shredding through the limbs until they were torn away completely. The severed vines fell to the ground as Gororin rolled out of harm’s way, narrowly avoiding an ear-splitting crunch from Biollante’s crocodilian jaws. Biollante sent more of her vines to attack Gororin, but the attempts failed, as each time they struck the cactus beast they burst apart against his spines.

* * * * *

“Biollante’s here, too?!” Mayumi gasped in shock as they stepped outside.

“Mayumi, focus!” Yoshiwara cried, snapping her out of it. “We need to get these onto the chopper immediately!” She and Mayumi each had a steel drum full of the bio-toxin and were transporting them on hand trucks to the Institute’s helipad, where a series of military helicopters had landed, soldiers helping to evacuate the facility’s crew as well as their projects.

“I’m sorry, Professor, of course!” the intern replied, nodding as she hurried along.

* * * * *

A pained wail escaped from Gororin as Biollante’s numerous teeth sank into his corroded flesh. Rearing her head back, Biollante lifted Gororin into the air and began to shake her head back and forth, sinking her teeth even deeper and tearing into the cactus like an angry dog. Even feeling Gororin’s spines scrape against the insides of her mouth wasn’t even to deter Biollante, who was determined to tear her foe apart.

Gororin was face first in her mouth and thus could do nothing but watch himself approach the black hole that was Biollante’s throat. Desperate to escape her toothy grip, Gororin began to fire a stream of needles directly down her throat. Her eyes widening, Biollante gagged as she opened her jaws, trying to dislodge the cactus creature. Gororin kept his spines firing until they finally burst out the back of Biollante’s neck. Wailing in agony, the larger beast jerked her head to the side, tossing Gororin through the air and sending him crashing to the ground. Even though her leafy flesh had already begun to regenerate and repair the damage, the pain remained, and she narrowed her eyes at the tiny devil, her anger growing rapidly. A series of tendrils rising from the ground, she lunged towards her foe. Despite his injuries, Gororin was still the faster of the two, easily evading Biollante’s attacks. But even with his speed, Gororin knew he couldn’t avoid her forever. At the same time, Biollante knew that having her flesh torn over and over again by Gororin’s needles was beginning to wear her down.

With Biollante briefly pausing in her assault, Gororin glanced at his opponent and took the opportunity to attack. Charging forward, Gororin rolled as fast as he could and leapt into the air, smashing himself into Biollante’s snout. Reeling back, Biollante screamed not only from the harsh blow, but also from the countless needles that were now lodged in her face.

* * * * *

Yoshiwara and Mayumi were on the helicopter, waiting for takeoff. As she waited, the intern looked back at the fight and frowned at what she saw. “Professor,” she said. “Biollante’s in trouble.”

Looking out the window at the warring titans, Yoshiwara nodded somberly. One couldn’t deny that if Biollante hadn’t shown up when she had, no one would have been able to survive Gororin’s attack long enough for the evacuation choppers to arrive. She thought for a moment, looking over the contents of the craft. There were no other scientists on this helicopter, as it had mainly been filled with projects and experiments that weren’t able to fit on the others.

Quickly, Yoshiwara made a decision, turning her head to address one of the soldiers. “Hey!” she called out to him. When he looked at her, she asked “I take it this chopper has missiles?”

* * * * *

Biollante howled as Gororin rolled past, once again shredding her flesh with his blood-stained spines. The cactus creature tore large chunks from the Godzilla hybrid each time he rolled past, tearing through most of the tendrils that attacked him as well. Biollante spewed out another stream of her acidic sap, but this time Gororin was able to avoid the attack, the sap staining and burning the ground instead.

Suddenly, Gororin swerved around and headed directly for Biollante. The larger beast wasn’t expecting the tactic and reacted chaotically, lashing out wildly with her tentacle-like limbs. Gororin had been aiming for Biollante’s glowing energy sac, but a vine lashing down towards him caused him to dart to the side. Nevertheless, he was still able to reach her. Pressing up against her side, he began to rev himself up as he did with the wall of tendrils from before, spinning in place and shredding Biollante’s leafy flesh like a wood chipper. Biollante reared her head back and let out a hellacious scream of pain. She tried to reach for Gororin with several mouthed tendrils, but their heads were shredded to pieces by the cactus beast’s buzzsaw-like spinning. Soon, a large portion of Biollante’s lower torso had been torn away as Gororin forced his way further against her wound.

At long last, one of Biollante’s desperately flailing vines managed to smack Gororin aside, sending him rolling away and allowing the genetic hybrid a moment to recuperate. But Gororin wasn’t about to let up and began firing a volley of needles into Biollante’s torn flesh, eliciting another pained cry.

* * * * *

Letting out a stressed huff, Yoshiwara closed the casing of one of the helicopter’s missiles.

“This is crazy!” the soldier said. He turned and glanced at the pilot, who gave him a ‘hurry up’ signal, then looked back at the professor. “There’s no way this is going to work!”

“This is the fastest way we have to drive those creatures away from the Institute!” Yoshiwara told him, though to be fair, her head was filled with similar thoughts. The missile was quickly loaded back into the helicopter’s cannon and everyone boarded the craft, which immediately lifted into the air.

“Professor, we don’t even know if it’ll work!” Mayumi cried, growing increasingly nervous. “It’s never been field tested!”

“What other choice have we?” Yoshiwara asked her.

Mayumi hesitated, then went silent and nodded.

* * * * *

Biollante’s regeneration was good. Possibly even better than Godzilla’s. But even it could not stand up to the constant barrage of Gororin’s needles as they tore through her flesh over and over, eating her body away. Out of energy and missing a sizeable chunk of her body, Biollante collapsed, laying out across the soil. The mighty plant tried to lift herself back up, but lacked the strength to do so.

Gororin let out a small growl of victory, narrowing his eyes in glee. His foe was beaten. All he had to do now was finish her off and he could resume his mission of destroying the human’s facility. Rolling towards Biollante, the cactus monster prepared to roll through her and shear her in half.

Gororin heard a small buzzing sound approaching from behind. Before he could turn and face the source of the noise, he suddenly felt a small prick in the back of his body. Turning around quicker now, he saw a tiny human aircraft not too far from him. Obviously, the craft had just attacked him. Gororin’s eyes became angry slits and he opened fire on the humans.

…Or, at least, he meant to. The instant the needles left his body, instead of soaring through the air, they fell harmlessly to the ground. Gororin stared for a moment, confused. What was wrong with his spines? Again he fired at the aircraft and again his needles fell uselessly. The cactus was about to charge the humans’ craft, when he was suddenly aware of a strange, sickly feeling within him. The prick he felt moments before… The humans… They must have…

Every single spine suddenly fell from Gororin’s body, leaving him nothing more than a living ball.

Even though he was feeling increasingly ill, pure rage began to surge through Gororin’s body. Revving himself up, the spineless cactus prepared to roll towards the humans’ aircraft and plow through them with his round body.

Gororin’s plans were cut short as one of Biollante’s spear-tipped tendrils plunged deep into his back and burst out between his eyes, the light within them immediately dimming.

Biollante, still laying down along the ground, lifted Gororin’s corpse up off the soil with her tendril and brought it close to her face, tilting her head to the side and opening her eye so she could inspect her foe. After watching closely for a moment, she was satisfied that the small beast was dead and flicked her tendril hard, sending Gororin’s body hurtling miles away. Again Biollante tried to pull herself up, and though she had healed a fair amount of the damage Gororin had inflicted, she was still beyond exhausted from the energy she’d spent. Before even she realized it, her body began to smoke and dissolve. The last thought that passed through Biollante’s mind before she dispersed into a cloud of golden spores was, even though she still wasn’t quite sure why she had appeared here and tried protecting the human’s structure… She was glad she had succeeded.

* * * * *

Professor Yoshiwara, Mayumi, and the soldiers aboard the helicopter watched as Biollante’s spores lifted into the sky, then blasted off into the atmosphere. Almost as one, everyone let out a huge sigh of relief.

“Well,” Yoshiwara laughed slightly, leaning against the one remaining container of her bio-toxin. “At least we know it works.”

Winner: Biollante