
Author: Kristian Zatkoff | Banner: Stephanie Hughes
Zone Fighter jumped out of the way just in time as a huge boulder nearly collided with him. Godzilla roared, then snorted before lowering his head and charging forward like a crazed bull ready to stamp the life out of his foe. There was no time to dodge. The silver superhero stood his ground as the massive mutant slammed his bulk into him, sending him flying. As soon as the giant got back to his feet, he saw the blue energy of death leaking out of Godzilla’s mouth. Hikaru brought up his arms and made a cross to block the beam just as the byproduct of nuclear testing parted the monster’s maw and let loose with a powerful blast more deadly than several atomic weapons!
The blast stabbed into his arms but he managed to still stand, digging his feet in the ground as he was pushed back. The pain was too intense to describe, so when the blast ceased, raining trees and dust everywhere, it was a relief. The Hero of Justice’s belt buckle had gone from light blue to yellow. He had to end this fight soon. He looked down at his hands which were burned even darker than the blackest coal. The glass of his belt buckle timer had actually cracked and melted in some places. He charged at the irradiated dinosaur before the smoke could clear and traded blows with him, dodging Godzilla’s the best he could. He may not be as powerful as the Monster King, but he was faster. Claws slashed his chest, sparks flying.
The saurian then bit down on his shoulder, the alien hero crying out before he slammed his fists into the back of Godzilla’s neck and head, forcing him to let go. Once free from the jaws of death, he delivered an uppercut to his foe’s scaly face. A loud crack could be heard for miles as some of the nuclear leviathan’s teeth were knocked out. Bone white spines flashed and the monster monarch’s mouth was just about to open when Zone Fighter wrapped his elbow around his neck, holding him in a choke hold as he held his head down and punched him several times in the head with his free hand. The trapped royal slashed at him with his claws but the giant hero refused to submit to his will.
Godzilla felt like his body was going to blow up. But it wouldn’t, for his body had mutated a fail safe just in case he could not release the atomic energy that was now trapped in his body. A bright flash freed the dinosaur from the choke hold, as a nuclear pulse struck the area, as he took in a much needed gasp for air. The Meteor Man got up, having been thrown at least a mile away, and with horror, realized his belt buckle was flashing red. His energy was running low and he only had one hundred and ten seconds left. He had to finish this fight and fast!
The dreaded god charged at full speed and collided once more with the alien, only this time the mighty warrior grabbed his shoulders, fell on his back, and used Godzilla’s momentum to do a back roll and throw him away. The thick body of the mutant slammed into the ground like a small comet, chunks of earth sent everywhere, birds flying out of their trees to escape the danger. With speed that defied his size, the towering titan got back back on his feet, his face bleeding and charged once again. But this time he skidded to a stop as soon as he was near and spun, lifting his tail in an attempt to whack the alien with the limb. Zone braced for the impact and caught the tail, sliding on his feet in a nearly complete circle before he finally slid to a stop.
With a yelp of surprised horror, the monster king was lifted off his feet as the Peaceland born demigod spun around in circles faster and faster and faster until he let go. Godzilla crashed head-first into the ground as Zone Fighter took to the sky, ready to finish this fight. The spined saurian got up but was too disoriented to know where his foe had gone, giving Hikaru plenty of time to build up his speed. The monster of monsters finally got his equilibrium back and looked up just in time to see the human comet nose diving at ungodly speeds. It was too late to react as the henshin hero crashed into him head-first and sent him falling back with a thud that echoed like thunder.
The silver and blue idol landed. Godzilla was struggling to get back to his feet when his foe offered a helping hand and pulled him back to a standing position, patting him on the shoulder. The radioactive reptile nodded his head and Zone Fighter took to the sky and flew off. He had won another one of their fights. The two had been sparring partners for a long time – years, in fact – practicing fighting often to better themselves. They had to stay in shape. There was no telling when another monster would threaten the world.
At least, that was half the reason…
Most people saw all monsters as nothing more than evil and foul creatures that would cause the apocalypse. Others said that you reap what you sow and that’s what the kaiju were. War, atomic weapons, genetic weapons, chemical weapons, sin, insanity and Man’s destructive ways in general have been given flesh in their ranks. The monsters, living incarnations of our mistakes, sent to punish us like a plague.
To some extent, they were all right. But there were some that protect the world, like Mothra, or even humans themselves, like King Caesar. Even monsters who originally started off as a menace, like Rodan, have helped save the world from the likes of things much worse than themselves, like King Ghidorah. Monsters like Godzilla still caused the deaths of many, many lives but even he has saved the world as much as he had threatened it. Naturally, because of this, views of Godzilla and his fellow mutants were mixed at best.
Zone couldn’t blame them. He tried to picture a beast like Gigan turning into a hero and just couldn’t do it. But in times when all seemed lost, it was the same monsters that man had tried countless times to destroy that ironically saved them after years of causing so much suffering and death. Hikaru knew that as much as the world hated to admit it, Godzilla and his fellow mutants were the lesser of two evils and were needed to fight off far worse monsters if the world was to live and see another day. If the likes of Godzilla were brought into this world by the fates to punish the human race, then the likes of Destoroyah were brought into this world to kill us all. Indeed, it seemed Earth’s monsters were trying to give the world a second chance. That was the other reason he had been training with Earth’s monsters.
Godzilla seemed to enjoy these friendly matches with his strange ally, just as much as the ones he held with Rodan, Anguirus or any other monster on the island. Zone Fighter had also practiced with the other kaiju of Monster Island, as well as other defenders, such as Gamera, King Kong and even – in his opinion – his greatest rival, Ultraman. Lately he had been giving himself handicaps such as in his fight with the terrifying pterosaur, in which he would only use his projectiles. Or a few days ago, he had to capture Baragon several times before he could dig underground. Today, he used only his melee and flight skills against Godzilla.
Just like his sparring partners, he felt himself getting stronger and faster. His aim improved, as well as his agility in flight. His fighting skills improved greatly, even inventing new fighting techniques and making far fewer mistakes. Sometimes he would win a match in mere seconds while his belt buckle was still blue. He felt great, like he could take on the whole world and come back for seconds.
He would need all this experience for his next encounter. For the next fight would not be practice…
* * * * *
Hikari Sakamori was walking calmly down the rainy streets of Moscow while its panicked citizens ran past him, trying to flee the evil that had already leveled most of the city. He had originally planned on meeting Shin Hayata, secretly Ultraman, two days ago on one of Japan’s many islands for a friendly match. After losing the last fight, he was looking forward to a rematch. Being that they had so much in common, both being alien protectors having disguised themselves among the natives of earth and fought off countless invading monsters, it only made sense they would become close friends once they knew who each other really were. However, those plans were now canceled.
Monsters started popping up all over the world and seemed to have declared war on mankind. Kiryu was fighting Gigan in London, Ultraman had engaged King Ghidorah in Washington D.C., Rodan was dealing with an army of Gyaos in Paris, Gamera was battling Iris in Hong Kong and Mechagodzilla was sent to stop Desghidorah near San Francisco.
Everyone was already in a fight, leaving no one to smite the evil in Moscow but him. For some reason, Japan was not attacked yet. It might have been a trap to lure him – the last defense of Japan – away, but he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing while people needed him. The beast was spotted heading towards the city days ago, so he had hoped to get there before it did, but it seemed he arrived too late. He would end this beast before it could destroy another city. He stopped and looked up at the beast who stared back at him, its body a mixture of bones on both the inside and out.
Monster X saw the man who dared stand before him and reached for him, ready to crush him into dust.
“Zone Double Fight!”
Monster X reeled back in shock. Where had the human gone? And where did this giant come from? It reminded him much of the two who beat him back in Tokyo, the silver and red ones who could change their size, briefly making him seethe behind his armor. But he knew this couldn’t be one of them. This one was highlighted in blue. Nonetheless, he would find Ultraman and Jet Jaguar and have his revenge on them. Until then, he would kill this foolish being that dared get in his way of leveling this city.
The Meteor Man jumped up and delivered a kick to the space demon’s face. The emaciated evil staggered back as Zone Fighter then delivered several punches at a blinding speed to his stomach. Monster X slashed back at him with his claws, but the last protector of Peaceland jumped back before the space monster could hit him and responded in kind by striking a pose and aiming one of his arms at the skull like face of his foe. Suddenly, several arrow-shaped energy projectiles flew out of the silver sentinel’s hand and stabbed into the beast’s face before exploding. As the smoke cleared, Zone was disturbed to see that the beam had little effect,as the Keizer demon straightened up.
Not only had the beam bursts failed to cut through the creature’s bony armor, but had the premature Ghidorah not seen the beams with his own eyes, he probably wouldn’t have even known he had been shot. Zone charged forward, but the deep space devil suddenly jumped up and spun around, his tail and hand whacking the fighter of justice in the face. On his way down, Monster X grabbed him by the shoulders and swung his body so that both feet shot forward and slammed the giant hero in the stomach. The blow was so intense it sent the hero crashing face-first into the ground before he could regain his balance, all as the gravity god landed into a crouch with a snarl.
The Garogan Empire’s eternal foe got up first and grabbed his sinister foe by his legs and pulled. He started to spin faster and faster and faster before letting go. The vanguard of Planet X went flying head-first into some skyscrapers and was buried under tons of concrete and steel. Hikaru watched as Monster X exploded out of the rubble and fired several Gravity Bolts from his eyes. The blue comet hero screamed in pain as he was barraged by the golden beams, each time sliding back as he was hit. The hero of Japan struck several quick poses, summoning the power needed for his next attack.
“Meteor Proton Beam!”
His body glowed brightly before a thin blue beam fired from the gem on the tip of the crest sticking out of his head. The cadaver-esque terror howled as the beam hit him, vanishing in a cloud of fire as he slid back, claws gouging into the Earth. So it could be hurt, Zone realized. He just needed to weaken it in hand-to-hand combat before finishing it off. But the monster was too far away now, slinking like a cat, he needed to force it to fight him up close. Zone’s hands glowed as he moved them and formed a square in the air in front of him.
With the conflagration no longer blocking his vision, Monster X spotted his foe. A chunk of bone armor was missing from around his eye and blood was leaking out the corner to his mouth. He fired Gravity Bolts from his demonic red eyes, but they stopped and vanished mere meters away from hitting Hikaru directly in the face. What was going on? Six eyes blinked, then noticed that there was a square-shaped object made of colored light in front of Zone. The asteroid demon bared his teeth once he realized that his beams were being blocked by the Zone-Barrier. As the space monster rushed him, Zone Fighter fired another barrage of arrow-shaped energy blasts as soon as his shield vanished.
Monster X jumped over the beams, both feet landing on the superhero’s head before he kicked off, using it as a springboard. The blue meteor hero turned around and lashed out with his fists, but met only empty air. Zone looked everywhere but couldn’t spot the skeleton kaiju. Where was he? It was almost as if he never landed at all. That made no sense, but he didn’t recall hearing him land, but even still he should have felt the ground shake. A low rumbling growl that sounded like a mocking laugh reached his ears. The Meteor Man looked up to see The Strongest Monster In The Universe hovering in the sky with his arms crossed, slowly floating down as if gravity had less effect on him, as if he was on the moon. The ultimate monster fired a barrage of Gravity Bolts from his eyes as he used his levitation powers.
Zone’s cries filled the city with unholy dread as the Peacelander fell to his knees, his belt buckle timer turning from a light blue to yellow. The Ghidorah creature turned off whatever power source in his body allowed him to float slowly down and fell like a rock, kicking out with his feet, but Zone rolled out of the way as the space beast flew past him, grabbing his tail and pulling. Monster X staggered back and turned around only to have the kyodai hero elbowed him in the face, sending him face-first into the ground. The invincible hero pulled the forked tail with all his might and slammed the deadly demon into the ground over and over. The Xillien bioweapon lashed out with a kick from one of his legs, landing the blow right in a silver stomach, forcing his foe to let go and grab his gut in pain. The living extinction ran to Hikaru as soon as he was standing and slammed into him. Snarling, the terror of the galaxy lifted him up by the shoulder and midsection, holding him high in the air before getting one one knee and slamming Zone Fighter’s back on his sharp bony knee.
Hikaru screamed out in horrid pain as he felt bones crack. The bone demon let the blue giant fall off his knees and slam into the earth with a dull thud. Zone struggled to get up. Every time he moved he felt a burning, stabbing pain that felt like it would last forever. Monster X was ready to deliver the finishing blow when several rockets and lasers struck the beast. The alien beast looked up to see several F-15J jets fire their Sidewinder missiles and ASTOL-MB93’s fire their masers as they did a fly-by. He fired a quick burst of his Gravity Bolts, coming close but missing as the aircraft made a swift turn, the beams melting the paint off several of the aircraft and the pilots feeling their cockpits heat up. Several more rockets and masers hit the demon, causing him to lower his head in pain, looking down to see several tanks and maser tanks. He fired his beams. They were not as lucky as the jets and ASTOL’s as several were destroyed. Zone looked up and saw one lone tank was cornered on a street that was a dead end. That one was about to be crushed and suddenly the pain didn’t matter anymore as he ran forward, pushing the foul beast away with one hand and grabbing the maser tank with the other, setting it down gently on the road where it drove away.
Zone Fighter turned around and the two giants stared each other down, neither one willing to back down. They charged each other, the blinking timer acting as a signal for the two to fight to the death. The two traded punches and kicks, blocking each other’s attacks as best as they could. It felt like they had been at it for hours when in reality it had only been half a minute.
The Hero of Justice had to recharge before he ran out of energy. And fast!
Monster X grabbed his foe by the crested head and ran in circles before throwing him forward, crashing into a building. He got back to his feet and ran at the snarling monochrome horror. The beast raised his hands as if ready for anything…but he wasn’t for this. Zone Fighter jumped up and elbowed the monster in the jaw at an angle, putting all of his weight into the blow, breaking his bony fanged lower jaw with a crunch. The space terror howled in pain but Zone wasn’t done. He grabbed the evil extraterrestrial by his arms and pulled him forward while slamming one of his legs into the creature’s knee, the action causing this leg to be broken, bent in the opposite direction.
The Xillien beast lashed out with his right arm, but the Meteor Man grabbed it with one hand and punched the elbow with the other, bending it in the other direction before jumping back and firing several more arrow-shaped beams. His armor was much weaker now from the Meteor Proton Beam and beatdown earlier. The beams now stabbed into thick black sinew, causing blood to fly everywhere with each shot. Monster X tried to snap his arm back into place but the moment he did one of the stabbing rays hit him on the unarmored part of his arm and cut it clean in two at the elbow! The lower arm shook the earth as it hit the ground with a loud thud that could be heard for miles. Zone Fighter ran forward and spun the beast around, grabbing him by the forked tail before flying upward, higher into the clouds that have been dropping heavy rain on the city all night, lightning flashing in the sky before they slammed back into the earth, Hikaru forcing him into the ground after flying at his max speed, crushing the Keizer kaiju between the planet and his 55,000 ton mass.
Zone Fighter ripped his foe’s tail off with a scream before jumping some distance away, writing the shape of a shield with his glowing hands. Monster X turned around and fired his Gravity Beams. They crashed into the glowing energy barrier known as the Hyper-Barrier. Just like the Zone-Barrier he had used before, they blocked energy attacks. But unlike the Zone-Barrier, the Hyper-Barrier also sent them back. The creature borne of Gorath learned this the hard way as a split second after the Gravity Bolts hit the shield-shaped energy, they were fired back at him. The Super Space Monster bellowed as his own energy tore his already deep wounds, while the Peaceland protector struck some quick poses as he summoned the energy to his second strongest attack.
“Meteor Missile Might!”
Bracelets filled with giant, super-powered missiles appeared on his wrists in a bright flash. Unlike most missiles made on Earth, these could rip into kaiju like giant bullets. He fired a barrage of missiles which tore into Monster X’s body. The space demon screamed out as explosion after explosion rocked his body, blood and sinew spraying out of him. The heat was so intense that some of his wounds could not bleed for they were instantly cauterized. Zone Fighter made sure every shot counted, and once he used up all his ammo, he fired his strongest attack once again. The last time it had hurt the space monster badly, but didn’t kill him. This time it was so weak from the fight that it HAD to. He struck several short posses again, summoning energy for one more attack.
“Meteor Proton Beam!”
Once again a thin, dark blue beam fired from his crest and slammed into the demon beast who vanished in a huge explosion. When the fire and smoke cleared away, the somehow even more skeletal form of Monster X limped out towards him. Zone Fighter just stood there aghast as he stared at his foe. The warrior who slayed worlds was confused. Why wasn’t he fighting back? He limped even closer, charging up his energy, his eyes glowing yellow but quickly fading back to red. His vision began to blur. The ultimate Xillien monster was in shock as everything grew more and more dark. He just wanted to get away now. He limped past the blue giant and after what felt like forever, he toppled onto his side. His glowing red eyes went dim, then dark. He let one last breath of steam escape his mouth before bloody foam spilled out. Then he exploded with the force of a miniature nuclear device, shaking the city.
Monster X was gone. Zone Fighter had won.
Suddenly, twin red jagged beams hit the Hero of Justice in the back. He turned around to see Hedorah, the Smog Monster, staring back at him! Zone Fighter knew there was no way he could beat this creature. It was more than a monster, it was a super monster! Even Godzilla could not kill this thing on his own. He knew he would die, but he refused to leave. Godzilla, Gamera, Biollante, Mothra, Rodan and all his other monster brothers were too busy fighting other evil menaces in other parts of the world. Zone Fighter was the only one capable of defending Russia in its time of need. He just hoped Japan was still safe from any attacks and that one of the others got to it before something vile like a swarm of Gyaos or Legion did.
Suddenly, a series of tanks, helicopters, jets and maser tanks came out to join him in this fight. He had helped save their motherland when no one else could. He answered a cry of help that others couldn’t. They would do everything in their power to help this hero. Hikaru had thought about retreating, but decided not to. When Bagan had attacked, he was unable to join the fight. He had been in a car crash in his human form which left him in a hospital bed and cast for weeks. He could only sit and watch as the war with Bagan, King Ghidorah and all the other evil kaiju was broadcasted on every TV all over the world. He felt so useless. He never wanted to feel like that again.
He would stay and fight with these brave men and women in this suicide mission. His only regret was that he would never have that rematch with Ultraman.
His belt buckle turned from yellow to a flashing red. He had only one hundred and ten seconds left, but he would make sure to give Hedorah hell for every second. He fired his arrow beams before charging head-first into battle as the Russian army unleashed their payload of rockets, missiles and masers on the giant monster of pollution.
Zone Fighter was going to fight until he died.
And they would join him to the bitter end.
Winner: Zone Fighter