Author: Kristian Zatkoff | Banner: Jackson Morris

Dark times had fallen on Monster Island.

On mainland Japan, there was an accident which resulted in a nuclear reactor exploding, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Reports indicated that the fallout leaked out to sea… where Godzilla was resting. Now, the beast had once again gained the deadly form of Burning Godzilla. Fearing that he would go into meltdown, the military sent out special weapons that would freeze the Monster King. Their efforts were in vain as the other kaiju on the island mistook this as an attack on them. Anguirus, Baragon, Gorosaurus, and Varan had crushed the DAG-MB96s while Rodan swatted the Super-X3 and ASTOL-MB93s out of the sky like flies. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the resulting fight had caused the Monster King to fall into one of the island’s active volcanoes, raising his temperature even further. With the Super-X3 out of commission, it would be impossible to freeze Godzilla with their normal artillery.

While new freezing weapons were being sent in, charges were set on the volcano to free Godzilla in the hopes that he would return to the sea, as scientists had speculated the cold water would help slow down his rising body temperature. Night time had fallen as a storm began to brew over the island as the charges were set off. The island was rocked by a mighty blast that could be felt for miles.

Unknown to the rest of the island and the military detail, an unwelcome guest had landed nearby.

Enshrouded in darkness, only the red eyes of Hedorah could be seen in the gloom. Lava poured out of the volcano as the dying Monster King walked out, large patches of red skin pulsing, his spikes and eyes glowing with uncontrolled power. Steam issued from him as dead, burning flesh flaked off of his body, his regeneration working endlessly to replace the dying cells. His spikes randomly flashed with energy once in a while, a testament to his runaway radiation.

Hedorah called out, getting Godzilla’s attention, before she fired a jagged beam at the Monster King. The dinosaur devil was angered by such an act. How dare this thing attack him in his own home, his very kingdom? The Smog Monster body slammed into the meltdown monarch, planning to dissolve the dinosaur with her own acidic body. The pollution tyrant was pleased to hear her prisoner scream in agony until she felt her body burn. She let go as she backpedaled away from Godzilla in pain.

The sizzling blob just had enough time to look up to see the radioactive monster slam his hand right into one of her eyes. Both monsters cried out in unimaginable pain. Godzilla refused to let go despite his intense agony, swallowing the pain so he could watch the Smog Monster burn to death. After a few moments, the King of Monsters was puzzled as the pain went away. With a goopy hiss, he pulled his hand out to see that his right arm had been reduced to nothing but bone up to his elbow. Screeching, he pushed Hedorah away in a panic as he fired a powerful red atomic blast.

The gluttonous alien screamed out as she was sent flying back and slammed into the side of the volcano with a sickening splat, dried chunks sent flying everywhere. Hedorah got up and realized with horror that her body was flaking away from the heat. Thinking quickly, she transformed into her flying form and attempted to fly away. It was a short flight, however, as she collided face first into a powerful tail. Spiraling out of the air, the oily villain sent a dark mist out of the underside of her body, the cloud making Godzilla cough. Crashing to Earth, the Ninja Monster formed back into her final form, scrambled up and tried to keep her distance. Once the god incarnate could breathe again, he charged at his foe, snatching heaps of smog in his claw and flinging her into the lava that was still pouring out of the side of the volcano.

The ever evolving kaiju panicked in her effort to get out of the molten rock, Godzilla taking advantage of this, as his body surged with red hot power. Lifting up his head, the invincible king opened his toothy maw and spewed out deadly energy on par with a miniature nuclear blast. The sludge beast was sent flying through the air by the blast and landed a few miles away. On the ground, Hedorah flailed about on the ground, thrashing her arms, his eyes popping and sizzling. The strongest monster on Earth charged and fired another blast of his atomic ray, unloading at the plain.

Godzilla stopped pouring the nuclear energy and stared. Hedorah laid in a crater, dried out and dead. He let out a victorious roar as lightning flashed across the night sky, before turning to leave. The champion of Japan had won, it should have ended there.

Fate had other plans.

It finally began to rain, the charcoal corpse absorbing the much-needed water, her body quickly having life flow through it again as Hedoraium replenished. In a blink, her eyes slowly returned, changed from ashy black back to ruby red. After a good five minutes, Hedorah blinked and sat up and let out a gurgle. Godzilla was just a few steps away when the noise got his attention. He paused mid-step, not sure if he had really heard it. He listened for a few minutes but other than the hiss of rain evaporating on his burning hot flesh, he heard nothing.

Then there was a pop. Godzilla turned around only to get a face full of acidic sludge. The monster king howled in bloody rage as Hedorah fired jagged beams at his feet. The mutated Godzilasaurus danced around as his feet burned, causing him to fall into a large pit made by Baragon earlier that day. The Smog Monster rushed over, not wanting to give her foe a chance to fight back. Godzilla’s eyes still burned too much to open, so he was unable to notice the approaching alien until he felt something cold and wet cover him like a slimy blanket.

His grunt of disgust soon turned into an enraged roar as burning, stinging pain ran all over his body. The sludge soon burned away as Godzilla forced his own body to burn hotter, but the sludge soon turned into toxic smoke which filled the monster king’s lungs and burned. The saurian coughed and choked on the toxic fumes, while Hedorah couldn’t help but laugh. The Earth’s defender had caused her much trouble in the past. They only wanted to feed, but he and several others had always attacked him. That’s why she was on this island; to fight off all the other monsters, so she could go wherever she pleased and feed off the world’s pollution.

The irradiated emperor now knew where the pollution tyrant was, thanks to her mocking laughter, but he was coughing too much to fire his atomic breath. Suddenly,, his body gave off a bright red and white glow, and the next thing Hedorah knew, she had slid and fell a good distance away as burning hot energy blasted her. Godzilla could finally breathe as the nuclear pulse pushed away the toxic fumes. Sighing, he opened his eyes and let the rain wash away the filth. Now able to see again, the living nuclear bomb climbed out of the pit and looked back to see Hedorah staring at him.

Godzilla let energy surge through him, but this time his spikes were not the only thing glowing as his entire body was glowing a bright reddish-orange, making it nearly impossible to look at him. His body was giving off even more steam, with even more burning embers flaking off his body. His footprints were on fire, some of them even melting the ground into molten rock. It was raining the burning embers like a rain of fire, nearby trees caught on fire from just being too close to the burning god.

Hedorah saw this and knew she had to act quickly. The rain helped keep her alive and made it harder to dry her out, but she wasn’t as big as she was before. The last beam attack and nuclear pulse had vaporized huge chunks of their body. At this rate, all the water in the world would not help them if she ended up completely vaporized. The sludge mutant fired a glob of itself right into her foe’s eyes. Caught off-guard by this, Godzilla had stumbled back and fell at the worst time as his beam flew harmlessly over the toxic monster and hit a distant mountain with the force of a nuke.

Godzilla got up in time to see a huge mushroom cloud just as Hedorah flew at him and latched on, heading right for the sea. The two beasts fell into the cold sea which quickly boiled and steamed from the sheer body heat of the dying monster king. Both monsters were completely submerged, giving the sea borne pollutant the much-needed advantage. The ultimate monster fired another beam at point-blank range. While some of the ever growing mass was atomized into nothing, the water had lessened the effects enough to shield the sludge from most of the beam’s power. Hedorah grabbed his head and shoved it deep into their own body. The strongest monster on Earth thrashed around with all of his might, even now refusing to give in, firing a powerful beam.

The Smog Monster endured the pain until it finally stopped.

Hedorah rose out of the water and walked onto the shore. A flash of lightning showed several monsters staring at Hedorah. Another flash and they were gone. No one wanted to fight the new King of the Monsters and suffer a painful death as a result. The dominant destroyer gurgled a sickening laugh as she went back to the sea to finish the job.

The next day, the world was gripped with fear as the skeleton of the former Monster King, Godzilla, washed up on the shores of Japan. Now only the brave or foolish would dare to fight Hedorah, for death would take them before the day was over.

Winner: Hedorah (Universal)