Author: Christian Salabert | Banner: Jackson Morris

The gluttonous beast known as Baragon was causing quite a stir in the Japanese countryside. He had pillaged several farms and settlements, devouring humans and livestock alike. News of the monster’s attacks soon reached the Self Defense Force, who immediately began to plan their assault. But there was one being who was not content to sit idly by and let them handle the beast. Someone who knew that Baragon had to be stopped, and now, before anyone else died at the monster’s hands.

Knowing what he had to do, Jet Jaguar took to the skies.

It didn’t take long for the humanoid machine to locate the beast. Subtlety was hardly the burrowing beast’s strong point. He was currently giving chase to a squealing wild boar. Jet Jaguar took aim and landed on his feet, not too far away from the ravenous creature. Baragon jumped up onto his hind legs and took a step back, startled by the sudden appearance of this new arrival. With his predator distracted, the boar ran off and disappeared into the forest. His pursuer noticed this and roared angrily. This new creature had made him lose his meal! But the starving saurian soon got over the loss. This new being was far larger. He would make a much more appropriate feast.

Roaring wildly, Baragon sprang into the air!

Jet Jaguar rolled onto the ground, avoiding the airborne reptile. The underground king landed and quickly turned around, snarling at the machine. He leapt at his foe again, and this time collided with him, tackling the sentient mecha to the ground, sparks erupting from his armor as it was hit by his foe’s horn. The creature’s tooth-lined jaws snapped at his grinning face, forcing the robot to bring his hands up to defend himself. Jet Jaguar grabbed the slavering jaws, struggling to keep them away from him. As the dinosaur kept trying in vain to sink his fangs into metallic skin, the humanoid brought his legs up and planted his feet into a scaled stomach. With a mighty push, Jet Jaguar sent Baragon flying off of him, crashing to the ground. Though dazed by the blow, the horned monster was quickly back on his feet and turned to face his already standing foe. The electronic hero took a step forward, but Baragon released a stream of flames from his mouth. Jet Jaguar’s entire body flashed for a moment as the orange ray struck him in the chest. The robot took a step back, giving his organic enemy an opening to attack, or so he thought. Just as he charged, a blinding flash of light burst from crafted eyes, blinding the dinosaur and sending him toppling onto his back.

Jet Jaguar advanced on his downed foe, but the subterranean beast shot out another blast of his heat ray, striking the robot in the shoulder. Baragon leapt forward again, but Ibuki’s creation sidestepped the attack. As soon as the monster landed, the machine turned around and stomped on his tail, holding the reptile in place. Jet Jaguar immediately began to chop his hands down on Baragon’s back, eliciting a cry of pain with each strike. The ravenous reptile rose up onto his hind legs and reached out at his foe, clawing at him. The two grappled each other for a moment before Jet Jaguar managed to throw the monster to the ground. Baragon was back on his feet in an instant, but instead of attacking again, he pulled back, disappearing around a mountain. The warrior of justice gave chase, but when he reached the other side, he found that his foe nowhere to be found, instead greeted by a gaping hole in the side of the mountain. Activating his flood lights, he peered into the hole and managed to see the end of a long maroon tail disappearing into a long, dark tunnel. After a moment, Jet Jaguar stood up and scanned the area. The monster had retreated. The area and its inhabitants were safe. Victorious, the silver savior braced his legs and prepared to leap into the sky.

Suddenly, the ground underneath him collapsed, and he fell into a waist-high ditch. As he tried to lift himself out of it, Baragon suddenly erupted from the ground, roaring wildly. He pounced onto the partially-buried machine, clawing and biting at him. Jet Jaguar couldn’t free himself as he attempted to defend from the sudden onslaught, swatting at the dinosaur’s head but unable to fully fend him off. He tried to blind the underground dweller with his eye lights again, but the reptile unleashed another blast of his heat ray, striking him in the face. Jet Jaguar cried out as the flames washed over his face, hitting his eyes and shorting their lights out in a shower of sparks. The robot could still see, but his flood lights were too damaged to use anymore. As his foe dealt with the loss of his one real weapon, Baragon spun around and slammed his tail into the side of his head, more sparks burst from his neck as the tail smashed into his head.

With a snarl, the insatiable dinosaur turned and prepared to jump onto his foe again, but Jet Jaguar lunged his metallic head forward, headbutting him in the face with his shark fin-shaped crest. With the creature distracted, the sentient machine quickly lifted his arms into the air and took to the sky. Baragon was knocked away by passing legs as Jet lifted into the air, then landed nearby, getting ready for the reptile’s next move. The subterranean saurian roared angrily and leapt at him once again, but the multicolored robot managed to dodge the attack, then rushed forward and wrapped his left arm around a thick neck in a choke hold. The underground king struggled to free his head from a mechanically precise grasp, but the robot refused to let go. Forming a fist with his right hand, Jet Jaguar slammed it against the horned head, eliciting a cry of pain. Again and again, the steel superhero punched Baragon in the head as the monster tried in vain to free himself, firing bursts of his heat beam but striking nothing but dirt. With lightning fast reflexes, he brought his knee up into the digging dragon’s face, causing the beast to shriek in pain. Jet Jaguar released him, and he bent over and clutched his snout in pain. The humanoid machine lashed out with a kick to his face, knocking the reptile over onto his back. The multicolored warrior advanced, but Baragon rolled over onto his stomach and got to his feet, swinging his tail around to slam it into Jet Jaguar’s legs, knocking his foe off his feet. Before the android could recover, the primeval savage was on him once again, trying to pierce his armor with his teeth. The righteous robot managed to get his legs under his prehistoric foe and kicked him away once more, but this time, he went tumbling down a mountainside, rolling head over tail. With a thunderous crash, he impacted with the ground below.

Dizzied and sore, Baragon struggled to stand just as Jet Jaguar landed not too far from him. The reptile unleashed a blast of his heat ray, but due to his dizziness, the beam didn’t come close to hitting its target. The android paragon leapt forward, grabbing him and tossing him back to the ground, then, as he attempted to get back to his feet, bending down and grabbed hold of his tail. Lifting the struggling reptile into the air and swinging him around, faster and faster, the machine spun, spinning on his heel, until he finally released the shrieking beast and sent him hurling through the air. Seconds later, Baragon crashed head-first into a mountain, knocking the creature out cold.

Jet Jaguar walked over to his prone form, nudging him with his foot. Despite the prodding, Baragon didn’t budge. Deciding that he couldn’t just leave the reptile laying here, where he could still possibly pose a threat to any nearby inhabitants, the steel hero reached down and gently took the prehistoric monster in his arms, then flew up into the sky. Locating the ditch he had dug earlier, Jet Jaguar lifted the beast over his head and tossed him down into it. As soon as the scaled body impacted in the ditch, the ground underneath him cracked and split, creating an even larger crevasse in the dirt.

As Jet Jaguar watched from high above, the subterranean monster Baragon disappeared into the void, swallowed by the depths of the earth.

Winner: Jet Jaguar (Showa)