Author: Joshua Strittmatter | Banner: Landon Soto & Matthew Williams

A devilish, synthesized bellow groaned through the streets of Scotland, sending crowds of hundreds fleeing for their lives. As they ran, a massive dinosaurian foot slammed down onto the village, flattening buildings, cars, and innocents alike. Cyber Godzilla roared once more before unleashing a plethora of plasma rockets from his dorsal scutes, detonating more random buildings in their wake. His glowing green eyes staring mindlessly at the carnage, the cybernetic reptile snorted before trudging along, with no orders from his masters other than to destroy as much of this island’s architecture as possible.

Tanks rolled into place, men and women armed with all sorts of weapons following suit. At once, they unloaded their firepower on the reanimated reptile, who simply stood staring at them as if questioning why they bothered. When the onslaught grew boring, Cyber Godzilla reared back his head and unleashed a river of cerulean flames from his maw. A select few soldiers were lucky to dive away–the others were vaporized on the spot, while the tanks simply melted. With his opposition out of the way, Cyber Godzilla lumbered along, trampling through the village as he followed his masters’ given orders.

*****

From within the Leviathan command center of Site Omega, the lime-green pupil-less eyes of the Leviathan Warlord stared at the screen above with cold indifference. “Hmmm… such a shame,” he droned, “they’ll never learn when to quit. Even when it’s so obvious they’re outmatched.” He turned his skeletal limbs towards the controls.

“But some of their monuments are rather impressive to behold. Perhaps we will show them mercy.” He began transferring new orders to his cyborg puppet when an alarm sounded through the chamber. Beside him, the commander spoke up. “A new object is approaching the cyborg’s vicinity!”

The warlord’s head snapped up to the screen in surprise. “Identification!” he ordered.

*****

A heavenly light had begun to shine through the rainclouds, catching Cyber Godzilla’s attention. The reanimated cyborg hissed as he turned to stare at the strange phenomenon… and grew silent when a strange new noise began to emanate from the changing sky. An eerie, song-like series of chirps rang through the mountains of Scotland like the voice of a benevolent deity, and all those who had been fleeing from the destruction wrought by Cyber Godzilla had stopped in their tracks to await whatever would come out of the skies.

The rays of light shone brighter with each passing second, the clouds slowly beginning to dispel–until all of a sudden, they blew away as a powerful shockwave snapped across the heavens, and what followed looked nothing so much as an angel from Heaven itself coming to visit them. Two beautiful, glowing wings shone with an intensity to rival the sun itself, attached to a massive moth-like creature who stared down at the civilians with benevolent eyes. Reassuring chirps left the insect’s mandibles, and the citizens all felt their hearts flutter with hope. Then, the moth turned her eyes towards Cyber Godzilla.

The cybernetic iguana stood still as a statue, his tail swaying like an angry crocodile. It was the Giver of Life, the Defender of Light, the Queen of the Monsters, The Goddess of Infant Island…

Mothra.

The insect chirped a warning towards the reptilian puppet, demanding he leave this place at once.

Cyber Godzilla stood still, as if he hadn’t even heard her.

*****

The Leviathan warlord waved his hand, his eyes flashing from green to red in an instant. “You are to show no mercy to that damned moth, for standing so foolishly in our way,” he ordered his cybernetic pawn. “She is no use to us. Kill her immediately.”

*****

Cyber Godzilla suddenly threw his arms wide and released a hideous, mechanical roar that chilled Mothra to her core. Never had the goddess heard such a warped, unnatural and mindless cry. It was only then that she noticed the cyborg’s eyes, noting their glowing green color and lack of pupils. It was as if this creature were possessed by a higher power, something she didn’t know about. With this knowledge in mind, she flapped her wings and chirped back at the revived lizard, accepting the clear challenge.

Mothra dove towards her enemy, eyes focused on her target like a hunting mantis. Cyber Godzilla waited until she was within reach, then lashed out with his tail, only to be caught completely off guard when the goddess shot a spray of webbed silk that instantly welded the mechanical iguana to the ground like a steel net. Struggling against the incomprehensibly strong mesh, Cyber Godzilla roared in anguish as Mothra circled back around and landed on his body, preparing her primary melee weapon.

But Cyber Godzilla wasn’t out of options just yet.

The cyborg lizard lashed out with his tail, whacking the prehistoric goddess with a force that temporarily knocked the wind out of her. Landing on a small section of houses, the Queen of the Monsters took a moment to regain her breath, all the while Cyber Godzilla struggled harder, his bindings beginning to snap away. Regaining her posture, Mothra stalked towards the still-struggling iguana, but his constantly thrashing tail and kicking legs made it difficult for her to pinpoint a place to attack.

So, she switched tactics.

Flapping her wings, Mothra took to the skies once again, just as Cyber Godzilla snapped free with a bellow of triumph. The lepidopteran goddess was faster, though, and before Cyber Godzilla was aware of what was happening, Mothra landed on his head. The moth wasted no time and began slashing away at her foe’s half-metallic skull with her scythed forearms, eliciting sparks and roars of anguish as the cybernetic iguana thrashed around. Mothra took it a step further and jabbed her stinger into the base of Cyber Godzilla’s neck, eliciting a howl of pain from the dinosaurian behemoth. At first, the mechanical reptile continued to struggle and thrash, while his insectoid opponent continued to cling on for dear life. But it was when the monster queen ripped her stinger free that his thrashing began to slow, and bellows of fatigue began to gasp from his toothed jaws.

As the pawn of the Leviathan aliens began to stagger and sway from his wound, Mothra slammed her forearms on his forehead with all her strength, sending him slamming to the ground on his stomach. The insect goddess chirped into Cyber Godzilla’s face, trying to open a dialogue with him. To communicate clearly to him, but his cloudy green eyes continued to stare blankly as ever at her. Mothra slashed across his metallic face with her claws, attempting to snap him to his senses, but once more no response.

The possessed lizard remained perfectly still, seeming all but crippled by the moth deity’s fearsome finisher, so Mothra kept trying to bring the creature back to the land of the sane. With his seeming inability to move, the goddess would take full advantage of this lack of conflict to try and find a peaceful resolution to this problem. At this point, she understood that this creature had not caused such destruction and terror on its own free will–someone was manipulating it like a puppet, and she needed to find a way to pull him free of the strings.

Sadly, for both Kaiju, it was not to be.

In a surprising display, the ports on Cyber Godzilla’s scutes glowed with a malevolent light, seizing Mothra’s attention. Before the insect could react, a volley of plasma rockets fired forth and struck the goddess near point-blank, detonating her furry flesh and sending her reeling back in agony. More plasma missiles fired forth, some striking the Goddess of Infant Island while others struck the pavement around her. The cybernetic Kaiju hissed menacingly as he struggled against the pain, his legs shaking as he began to pull himself together and push up to his feet.

Mothra shrieked when yet another sphere of plasma collided with her small form, but she would not let such an occasion happen again. As Cyber Godzilla fired again, Mothra flapped her wings and jolted away just as the missiles struck where she had been standing moments ago. Standing shakily to his feet, the cyborg Zilla roared his return to the combat, shattering all glass in the vicinity.

Mothra shrieked in reply and channeled her inner bioluminescence to her wings. Spreading them wide, they shone once again with a powerful brightness that made Cyber Godzilla take a step back in surprise. Mothra shone her God Rays’ full intensity on the half-mechanical reptile, a mix of both a blinding attempt and an intimidation display. It seemed to be working–if only partially. She didn’t know whether or not this creature was naturally resistant to such a bright display, or whether this had something to do with its current mind control. Nevertheless, she kept shining, every now and then fluttering closer to the giant reptile to brighten it in his eyes.

That’s when Mothra struck.

Another spray of silk shot forth from her body–but this time, her opponent had a counter. His spines flashing, Cyber Godzilla unleashed a mighty atomic ray from his jaws that incinerated the silk before it could entrap him, before surging forth and striking Mothra head-on. The horrible flames burning her flesh to cinders and tattering her wings, the goddess screeched in agony as she fell from the heavens, the ground quaking from her impact.

Cyber Godzilla wasted no time, and instantly ran forward to pounce upon the injured moth like a big cat. Slashing and biting away at the insect deity, Cyber Godzilla snarled vengefully as his alien masters applauded him with delight within his clouded mind. Claws slashed with ease through exoskeletal armor, toothed jaws grabbed a leg and snapped it off with ease, and green blood spilled upon the pavement as Mothra cried out in agony. Cyber Godzilla hissed and lunged in to take another bite, but the insect slashed him across the face with her forelimbs.

It was a brave, but futile effort.

Wanting to ensure that the goddess would pull no further surprise attacks, Cyber Godzilla lunged and snapped his jaws around Mothra’s stinger, and with a hard and loud SNAP! tore it clean off in a spray of gore. The benevolent deity howled in torture as the clear canopy of molten pain descended over her broken form, so terrible that her body lost all sense of self. Spitting the appendage out like a wasted cigarette, Cyber Godzilla set to digging his taloned feet through the moth’s wings, shredding them and torturing her further. Much as the aliens controlling his mind enjoyed such a prospect, they knew that it would benefit them more if they ended the fight here and now.

Cyber Godzilla hissed mercilessly and bent down to point his spines at the wounded deity. Mothra cried out in defiance, her eyes meeting the blank orbs of the possessed cyborg. Even staring her death in the face, she cried out one last time, one last attempt to bring this poor creature out of his mental manipulation.

A notion that the Leviathan aliens found laughable as they gave the order.

Another volley of plasma rockets fired forth to detonate on the crippled goddess’s wounded flesh. At such close range, her chest was blown open and her limbs blown off with no resistance. As the dying deity groaned her last, Cyber Godzilla reared back and unleashed another atomic ray, keeping it up until he had no energy left in his body.

When he finished, Mothra’s charred corpse continued to burn under a cerulean bonfire.

Pawing the ground with his talons, Cyber Godzilla unleashed an ear-splitting roar of triumph that shook the rivers and mountains alike… then, as suddenly as he started, he stopped. And he mechanically stood back up to his regular stance and remained still once more, blankly awaiting his next order from his masters.

*****

“Excellent,” hummed the Leviathan warlord as he stared at the results of the battle, pleased with the progress their reanimated cyborg had made. His green eyes shone bright, vile intentions brewing behind them.

“Continue ravaging this village,” he ordered, “but harm as little civilians as you can. They can be of… use, to us.”

*****

China

The temple thrummed with a steady pulse, like the pounding of a heartbeat. Light began to radiate from the massive object, creating dancing shadows across the ancient walls and lighting up the interior of the Temple of the Moth in a gorgeous display of color. Monarch personnel jumped from surprise at the sudden occurrence, some pointing their shock rifles at the giant egg in caution.

“No! Hold all fire!” a voice called through the cavern, causing the soldiers to do as they were told. Doctors Ling and Chen stood together as they watched the egg continue to pulse and glow, the top of its exterior beginning to quiver as something massive began the process of pushing its way out. Whatever it was seemed to be doing so with urgency, as if it knew something was wrong–or remembered. The twin sisters looked at one another, nodding without a word. They both knew what had happened, and what now would occur in its place. Hand in hand, they turned back to the pulsing ovoid, patiently awaiting their goddess’ return to the land of the living, however long it would take.

They closed their eyes and took a breath, letting the warmth of the growing light enshroud them, as a dull crack echoed through the temple, followed by a lively chirp.

And hope was reborn in its wake.

Winner: Cyber Godzilla