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)