Author: Joshua Reynolds | Banner: Stephanie Hughes

In the middle of the Nevada desert, sirens blasted in what is known as Area 51. Inside one of the underground hangers, a gigantic robot built by the United Nations stood tall, but tiny soldiers were surrounding its feet, pointing their weapons upward. Over its metallic cranium, a circle-shaped dome began to close as the sirens continued to blast.

“They’re over here!” A soldier shouted from behind the machine and began to fire his automatic weapon. The rounds dinged off its NT-20 Diamond Armor, but a dead body of a terrorist began to fall, bouncing off several of the mech’s plates before thumping on the floor.

More shots came from in front of the robot, but the rounds bounced harmlessly off its chest. On the shoulder of the mighty Anti-Kaiju weapon, a lone terrorist stood up and pointed his RPG down at the ground and pulled the trigger. A single flash was followed by an explosion on the ground, hurtling three soldiers into the air and smashing them on the hard wall. Another terrorist poked his head out from one of the mech’s back plates and spat “DEATH TO AMERICA!”

Inside the hanger, General Aso patted his forehead and wiped away beads of sweat. “God damn you.” The older man cursed.

From the wall, gigantic clamps began to lower. Mechagodzilla’s head suddenly began to move and its yellow eyes surged with unholy light. The terrorists on the outside lifted their arms in cheer, but suddenly the machine moved again, shaking the men off like a dog would fleas. The soldiers on the ground backed away and began shooting upward, but if Godzilla’s atomic ray couldn’t stop this machine, their tiny weapons had no chance.

“What about the others!?” A dusty, bearded man said as he took a seat in the cockpit. The main pilot didn’t answer.

The G-Force General cursed himself and quickly turned around, walking out of the room as fires began to grow in the hangar. As the sliding doors opened, the gray-haired man took hold of the first person that rushed past. “Get Major Yuki! We’re going to need Moguera!”

With the Garuda battleship on its back, Mechagodzilla effortlessly escaped Area 51 and took to the skies, its rocket boosters blasting brighter than the sun. The terrorists inside had taken years to master the advanced controls of the machine that had been foolishly released to the public. In their journey, some jet fighters tried to oppose it, but brilliant beams of energy brought them down in gigantic explosions.

“We shall test our might in the city of Las Vegas!” The main terrorist demanded, “AMERICA SHALL DIE!”

Mechagodzilla flew over the mountains around Vegas within a half hour. The city was in a total panic as people tried to escape the unavoidable attack from their own guardian. With a loud roar, Mechagodzilla’s boosters kicked offline and it crashed down in the middle of the Las Vegas strip. Its mouth opened up and a multi-colored beam of searing energy leaped forth, crushing casinos and hotels into mounds of dust and ruin.

With a metallic roar of death, the man-made monster raised hell in the streets. Within minutes the brilliant city was a blistering sea of burning fire rising higher than even the robot stood tall. But suddenly, in one of the command chairs, one of the terrorists raised his head in alarm. “INCOMING!” The radicalist announced in horror.

It was too late. Far too late.

Twin streams of golden energy, a series of laser blasts, burst forth from the smoke and struck Mechagodzilla in the chest! The machine backed up, its feet pounding on the ground like drums as sparks and bolts of energy ripped away from the impact area. “What was it!?” The terrorist leader demanded.

“M…M…Moguera!?”

The G-Force’s Moguera had, indeed, arrived!

The high-tech kaiju killer landed several hundred yards away, its blocky form glistening in the churning fire. With thick plumes of smoke lifting from its engines, the robot lifted its cone-shaped hands. Inside Moguera’s cockpit, three skilled pilots sneered.

“Okay.” Yuki grinned, “Let ‘em have it!”

The cone-shaped hands exploded to life, popping open. No sooner than they did, a titanic boom echoed as the twin Spiral Grenade Missiles launched. Mechagodzilla roared in defiance and turned its body around and lifted its arm. The two SGMs exploded on his forearm! A massive explosion followed, showering the streets with car-sized chunks of NT-20 Diamond Armor. As the smoke and dust cleared, Mechagodzilla stepped forward, what remained of its arm being nothing more than a twisted, spark-spewing stump at the elbow.

Mechagodzilla was far from finished. As Moguera’s hands clamped shut, Mechagodzilla’s robotic jaws opened and the Mega-Buster was unleashed again. The beam washed over Moguera’s armored hull, sending a burning, spiraling cloud of red and orange color upward. Moguera activated its treads, moving backward as the Mega-Buster continued to smash hard into its chest.

“AUTO-LASERS!” Yuki issued to his two-man crew.

Through the carnage, twin beams of purple brilliance fired. Mechagodzilla was caught off guard as both beams struck its chest plate, sending a cloud of gray smoke and sparks upward. The weapon shuddered, but it quickly regained its balance as one of the terrorists measured the amount of energy absorbed.

“A few more direct hits and Plasma Grenade is a go!”

“Good.”

Mechagodzilla stepped forward, its demolished arm hanging uselessly at its side. The machine lifted its other and suddenly a harpoon-tipped cable fired forth. The weapon smashed into Moguera’s neck, the point stabbing straight through the armor and into the vital circuitry inside.

“Shock it!”

Through the G-Crusher anchor, volts of electricity began to surge. Power systems inside Moguera began to fail. Inside the cockpit, computer screens exploded into sparks as Mechagodzilla pumped countless amounts of energy into the last hope of the United States.

“We can’t take much more of this!” Koji announced, blocking his eyes as his computer burst into shards.

Yuki gritted his teeth as Moguera began to fall back. “Plasma Lasers!”

Again, twin streams of yellow light launched from Moguera’s optics. The beams focused on the cable, specifically the point where it emerged from Mechagodzilla’s arm. After several hits, the cable ripped apart, whipping against the ground before dying. Smoke and fire coated Mechagodzilla’s arm, but suddenly the original mech released a bellowing, robotic cry.

“PLAAAAASMMMAAAAA GRENADE!”

Mechagodzilla’s arm fell to its side as a cannon in its belly emerged. Energy concentrated in the launcher, forming bolts of ripping energy that swirled into a single blast. Yuki and the other two watched on in horror before Mechagodzilla fired the Plasma Grenade at the fallen Moguera! The beam smashed full-force into Moguera, actually picking it up off the ground and pounding it back down several dozen meters away. The machine shuddered and smoked, a large crater formed in the armor of its side.

“We can’t separate!” Kiyoshi announced before another blast of the mighty Plasma Grenade ripped into Moguera’s side, this time rolling the machine into the remains of the famous Stratosphere Tower, sending the structure crashing down like an oversized domino.

The terrorists inside Mechagodzilla all cheered. Mechagodzilla let out another loud, ear-splitting roar as smoke and fire emerged from where Moguera crashed into the Stratosphere Tower.

Inside the cockpit of Moguera, Yuki snarled. “STATUS!”

Koji and Kiyoshi checked the systems. “Right arm is paralyzed!” Koji panicked.

“Treads!?”

“Are fine.” Kiyoshi quickly answered.

A few minutes passed as Mechagodzilla and its wicked, extremist pilots watched the flames. The minutes seemed like hours for Moguera’s pilots until the machine stood up, its body wracked with cracks and dents with a huge crater-like impact between its right arm and leg. Moguera emerged from the flames, treads kicking up a storm of dust and debris.

“DRILL HIM!” Yuki shouted at the top of his lungs.

Moguera stayed put for all but a second as its drill nose began to spin. Mechagodzilla’s eyes flashed with unnatural light as streams of yellow plasma leaped forth and its Garuda cannons fired, washing against Moguera’s body and spilling sparks. The machine treaded forward, its pilots fighting through the tremors inside the cockpit.

Mechagodzilla tried to back away, but it was too slow. Moguera was on it and its nose came down, drilling right into its neck! A plume of smoke and fire rose up as Mechagodzilla tried to release a roar, but could only muster a shriek. Pulling back ever so slightly from the mechanical behemoth, Moguera lifted its one good, usable arm. The cone opened up and the pilots thrust it up, pointing it less than a few meters away from the robotic snout of the mechanized doppelganger.

“NO!” The bearded terrorist leader begged.

The Spiral Grenade Missile launched point blank into Mechagodzilla’s head! Everything went silent for the terrorist as the world’s most powerful missile exploded into its skull, shattering the armor like an egg shell. A mushroom cloud of smoke and fire lifted into the sky as what remained of Mechagodzilla’s head fell from its shoulders, bouncing on the ground. The pilots inside of its head instantly killed by the tremendous blast, Mechagodzilla began to fall backward.

The multi-trillion dollar machine, the mighty Mechagodzilla, was destroyed by its own makers!

Moguera stood tall among the ruins of Las Vegas. Inside its cockpit, Yuki, Kiyoshi, and Koji breathed a sigh of relief. Moguera was damaged. It was unable to separate. Its right arm was useless from the Plasma Grenade attack, and dozens of its systems were fried by the G-Crusher… But it won…

On this day, Moguera won…

But more importantly, on this day, America won…

The terrorists lost…

They always will…

Winner: Moguera (Heisei)