Fishermen and tourists alike looked to the skies as the sound of jet engines firing sounded from above. In the Land of the Rising Sun, it was not uncommon to hear fighter jets flying above as they set off to engage whatever giant monster was attacking Japan that week. But as a large shape cast its shadow over the waters outside Tokyo Bay, those present were quick to recognize the source of the sound not artificial in nature, but biological. A kaiju was above them. Screams of panic and terror filled the air as people hurried to get away from the airborne terror. Had they stopped to identify the creature, their reaction would have been the complete opposite, for the being currently on a direct course for Tokyo was not some harbinger of imminent doom, but the champion of justice known as Gamera, Guardian of the Universe!

Gamera soared over Tokyo Bay, propelled by twin blue jets of flames from his leg sockets. His arms, morphed into the shape of giant flippers, served as rudders to help steer the titanic terrapin towards his destination. As Gamera approached Tokyo, his mind filled with dread. Dragging himself away from his war against the Gyaos was not a decision he was content with, but the reasoning behind it was sound in his opinion. Gamera’s link with Asagi had notified him of an attack on Tokyo by some vile creature, one that was now threatening to kill the girl whom he shared a spiritual link with. Although Gamera’s sole purpose in life was to see to the extermination of the Gyaos, the guardian considered his connection with Asagi, and to an extent mankind as well, irreplaceable. Whatever monstrosity this creature attacking the capital of Japan was, Gamera would see to its end.

A trail of destruction littered the streets below Gamera, which the airborne turtle decided to use in order to identify the nature and powers of his opponent. The carnage started at the seafront, so the creature was aquatic in nature. It was large in girth, judging by the buildings whose sides the creature had caved in as it had walked past. No signs of any fires or destruction outside the trail removed the possibility of the creature possessing any ranged weaponry. It was little to go on, but knowing the capabilities of his opponent would help Gamera in his upcoming fight. Up ahead, Gamera could hear the faint, terrified cries of people beyond a set of skyscrapers. Of all the voices crying out in terror, only one stood out to Gamera the most. Asagi was just ahead – and so was the monster.

Flying around the skyscraper blockade, Gamera’s eyes scanned the area, taking in the hideous and terrifying form of-

What on Earth?

Standing just a few blocks away was what Gamera could only describe as a giant cuttlefish. The beast’s eyes were filled with a hungry gaze as it probed a tentacle into a subway entrance, trying to get to the trapped people inside. Gamera cocked his head sideways. Surely this wasn’t the source of all the destruction he had witnessed. It looked too… silly to be an actual threat. Nevertheless, it was planning on making a meal out of the humans Gamera sought to defend, and that was enough for the guardian to seal the cuttlefish’s fate.

Gezora let out an unhappy noise as his tentacle probed the entrance to the Tokyo underground. The colossal cuttlefish had been gorging himself on humans for the good part of the afternoon as he’d made his way inland with only the futile attempts of the military to bother him. But now he couldn’t get to his food, which made Gezora very upset. The sound of jets firing caught his attention. Retracting his tentacle from the underground entrance, the giant cuttlefish turned to face the descending form of Gamera. The turtle ceased firing his jets, falling from the sky like a rock. At the last second, Gamera’s legs swiftly emerged from his shell and broke his fall. The flaps of skin coating Gamera’s arms retracted, transforming the terrapin’s limbs from rudders to regular arms. The Guardian of the Universe threw his head back in a mighty roar, challenging his cephalopod foe.

Gezora just stared at Gamera, too stupid to recognise the threat in front of it. Instead of attacking, the giant cuttlefish raised one of his tentacles, waving it at Gamera in an almost friendly manner. Gamera blinked in confusion, not expecting this kind of reaction from the cuttlefish monster. Gingerly, he waved his own arm back, returning Gezora’s greeting. The squid replied with a happy shriek before returning to his previous task. Gamera snapped out of his confusion and watched as Gezora turned to retry extracting the humans of the subway. What was it doing? Did it not recognize the threat he posed? Burning hot plasma formed in the chelonian champion’s maw, signaling the advent of Gamera’s signature weapon. Gezora paid no attention to this phenomenon, too focused on his stomach to notice the danger - until an orb of plasma struck the building to his side. Gezora shrieked, his skin burning, and spun around to face Gamera. His eyes narrowing angrily, the giant cuttlefish let out another shriek, this time filled with rage, and charged the guardian, waving his tentacles menacingly. Gamera returned Gezora’s war cry with his own, and marched forward to meet the squid in combat.

Before the two could meet, Gezora lashed out with his two main tentacles, slapping them across Gamera’s face. The ancient turtle, stunned by the attack, stopped his advance, allowing Gezora to leap forward and slam his bulk into the Guardian of the Universe. Gamera stumbled back, taken by surprise by the squid monster’s ferocity. Gezora took advantage of his opponent’s dazed state, battering Gamera’s sides with his tentacles, but his limbs uselessly slid off the chelonian’s jagged shell. The giant cuttlefish continued his futile assault, not noticing Gamera return to his senses. Unimpressed by Gezora’s attacks, Gamera swung his fists into the cuttlefish’s head. Gamera’s powerful blows rained down upon Gezora, earning cries of agony with each strike. Realizing he was no match for the turtle, Gezora backed off, but Gamera grabbed his left tentacle, denying the cephalopod’s retreat. With all his strength, Gamera spun around, dragging Gezora across the ground and slamming him into the side of a building. Before Gamera could decide his next actions, immense pain shot through his hands. Gamera released the giant cuttlefish’s tentacle with a wail of pain. He looked over his hands, discovering ugly black blisters covering his palms and fingers. Although never suffering from such injuries before, Gamera instantly recognized them as symptoms of frostbite. Gezora’s body temperature must have been incredibly low if he had gotten frostbite just from holding him.

Speaking of the tentacle beast, Gamera looked up from his hands, expecting to see Gezora about to attack, but instead saw the cuttlefish fleeing down the street. Gamera would have let him leave right there and then, but Gezora was going the wrong way, retreating deeper into Tokyo. A trio of fireballs exited Gamera’s mouth in quick succession, firing through the air after the fleeing cephalopod. Feeling their heat on his back, Gezora turned mid-spirit to see the flaming projectiles approach and dived down a side street to avoid them. The three spheres of plasma soared past where Gezora had been a second before, striking and obliterating a group of residential buildings. It was with great regret and anger that Gamera realized those buildings hadn’t been empty. Smoke coated Gamera’s legs as he pulled them into his shell, replacing them with azure jets of flame. Morphing his arms into flippers once more, Gamera took to the skies.

Soaring overhead, Gamera scoured the streets for Gezora. The cephalopod wasn’t hard to spot. Neither was Gamera, though, as the giant cuttlefish heard the guardian approach long before he saw him, and ducked behind a skyscraper to avoid another shot of plasma. In response, Gamera circled around to the other side of the structure, only for Gezora to duck behind the other side in response, using the building as cover. Gamera scowled: whatever game the squid was trying to play, he wasn’t having any part in it. The guardian angled himself upwards, ascending higher to gain a better vantage point over Gezora. Circling around the area, Gamera flew over the structure his foe was using as cover, but the cuttlefish was gone! Gamera reared his head back in confusion, searching the streets for the amphibious cephalopod. Where had he gone?

Gezora answered that question himself, throwing his main pair of tentacles out from behind another skyscraper and wrapping them around Gamera’s flippers. The chelonian had only a second to register the attack before Gezora pulled him from the air and smashed him headfirst into the ground. The giant cuttlefish shrieked gleefully from atop his rooftop perch before leaping down and advancing on the fallen turtle. Groggily, Gamera rose, extending his legs and re-morphing his arms as he lifted himself from his crater, his skull ringing. Through blurred vision he saw Gezora approaching, but was too slow to stop the cephalopod. Gezora’s tentacles lashed out, wrapping around his throat and squeezing. Gamera instinctively tried forming a fireball, but Gezora’s constricting grip prevented the plasma from reaching his mouth. Gamera’s suspicions about Gezora’s low body temperatures were proven correct as he felt the cephalopod’s icy touch rob his neck of all feeling and cause his skin to break out into blood-filled blisters. Gezora drew closer, ready to finish off the guardian, when Gamera lunged out with his right arm, slashing the giant cuttlefish across his head with his elbow spike. Crying out in pain, Gezora released him, backing away as blue blood dripped down from the diagonal cut in his forehead.

Wheezing badly, Gamera stared down the squid monster. He hadn’t thought Gezora would have been that much of a challenge, but the blistering and peeling skin on his hands and neck said otherwise. Roaring fiercely at the cuttlefish, Gamera charged, only for Gezora to swing one of his tentacles, something in its grip, and land a blow on the side of the guardian’s skull. Whatever it was Gezora had grabbed, it was hard enough to knock the already dazed turtle silly. Gamera stumbled drunkenly for a few moments before topping over, flattening a commercial building. Dropping the large pile of mangled steel girders, Gezora hurriedly crawled over, this time determined not to let the Guardian of the Universe rise again. Struggling to even lift his head, Gamera tried to rise, but in his dazed state his limbs failed to respond properly to his commands. Still he continued to try, refusing to acknowledge defeat. Defeat was not something he would allow himself to experience. He would fight to the bitter end, no matter the cost.

In the end, it was Gezora who provided a helping hand, clamping his beak around the chelonian’s leg. Gamera screamed as immense pain flooded his body, snapping him from his stupor as Gezora shook the limb violently, trying to tear it from its socket. Gamera’s leg was suddenly wretched from the squid’s grip, disappearing into the turtle’s shell along with his other leg. Gezora, now more determined than ever to make a meal out of Gamera, crawled on top of the chelonian. He reached out to grab his arms, but they withdrew into the shell as well. Gamera’s head and tail followed suit. Frustrated and confused, Gezora pound his tentacles against the back of Gamera’s shell. He wrapped his limbs around the turtle and squeezed, trying to crack his biological bunker open like a nut. But try as he might, the giant cuttlefish couldn’t break through Gamera’s defense.

Blue flames shot out of the shell’s arm and leg sockets. Gamera began to rise. Gezora looked around in confusion, trying to determine what was going on. When he did realize the guardian’s plan, his eyes widened in fear. Gamera shot off into the air, rotating rapidly with Gezora clinging on for dear life. The cuttlefish cried out in terror. He didn’t like this at all. He wanted to get off! The limbs that weren’t secured to the shell swung around wildly in the wind as Gamera spun through the air, trying to dislodge his passenger. From inside his shell, Gamera could hear Gezora’s shrieks becoming more and more nauseous. He grimaced as he heard the squid empty the contents of his stomach all over the back of his shell. Still Gezora held on.

Suddenly, Gamera found he couldn’t fire his jets. He tried firing them again to no avail. Something was lodged in his sockets. Gezora had rammed his tentacles into them! With nothing keeping them airborne, Gamera and Gezora began to fall. Gamera attempted to fire his jets again, hoping to force Gezora’s tentacles out of his sockets. Flames briefly ignited inside them, enough to scorch the cephalopod’s limbs. Gezora pulled his tentacles out with a pained cry, nursing his burnt tentacles with the cooling touch of his unharmed ones. Unfortunately for him, doing so meant releasing his grip on Gamera, which he didn’t realize until after he’d already retracted some of his tentacles. The velocity that they were descending at was enough to peel Gezora off of Gamera, and the squid landed in the bay, creating a massive wave on impact. Feeling the weight of the squid leave his back, Gamera immediately fired up his jets, diverting his course. He desperately fought for control, aiming to slow his descent, but he was unable to prevent the crash landing.

Wearily, Gamera opened his eyes. How long had he been unconscious? Minutes? Hours? Muffled sounds reached his ears, undeterminable to the chelonian. Struggling to his feet, Gamera looked around. He had landed on the seafront, just a few meters away from the ocean. Or was it a few feet? It was hard to tell through his blurred vision. The sounds became clearer as he fully regained his senses. Something - no, someone was calling to him. He turned around, looking for whoever was trying to communicate with him. He failed to notice the huge bow wave making its way across the bay towards him. His hearing and vision were finally restored, allowing him to recognize who it was that was talking to him.

Asagi, covered in black blisters, was standing in the middle of the street, urging him to turn around.

Gamera realized two things:

One: He’d forgotten that if he was wounded, those wounds would pass on to Asagi as well. The wounds he’d received from Gezora were minor compared to him, but Asagi could have died from them.

Two: He’d forgotten about Gezora.

Realizing what Asagi was saying, he spun around to time for Gezora to burst from the waves and send out his two main tentacles. One coiled around his right wrist, the other grabbing him by his left ankle. Gamera dug his feet into the tarmac as Gezora pulled, trying to drag him into the water. Gamera swatted at the tentacle wrapped around his wrist, trying to remove the limb as it froze his skin. He knew every second the giant cuttlefish clung on was more pain for Asagi. He quickly discharged a fireball onto the tentacle around his ankle, severing half of the limb in a small explosion. Ignoring the cry of agony from Gezora, he grabbed the remaining tentacle with his free hand and threw the cuttlefish over his head in an amazing feat of strength, slamming him into the street behind him with enough force that chunks of tarmac and concrete were sent flying. Gezora flailed around in pain and fear, begging for mercy. Mercy that Gamera did not have for him.

A fireball generated in his throat, but before the terrapin could fire, Gezora shot a thick black substance into his face, blinding him. The sudden attack forced Gamera to look down just as he fired, bathing the street in flames. He moaned in pain and backed off, clawing at his face to get the ink out of his eyes. It was no good. His vision was obscured, tinted heavily with black, but he could still just make out Gezora making his way towards him. Gamera knew he could make the shot if he wanted to, but refused. This was the same street Asagi had been on a moment before. He couldn’t tell if she was out of the way or not. What if she was trapped? Or unconscious? If he fired, there was the chance that Gezora might be able to dodge and the fireball incinerated her, or the blast would cause Gezora to topple over on top of her. Gamera couldn’t take that risk. Enough people had died today. He wouldn’t allow Asagi to join the list of casualties. For now he kept his distance from the giant cephalopod until he was able to see again. He reached the edge of the seafront, almost slipping as his foot planted itself on the edge of the pier. Behind him was the ocean. In front of him was Gezora. Gamera could swim, but going into the water would give Gezora an advantage.

Gamera was running out of options. Gezora crept ever closer, waving his damaged and intact tentacles before him. Gamera’s vision was still clearing, there wasn’t enough time to get a clean shot off. He rubbed his eyes, trying to get the ink out faster. His hands started to turn coal black as each wipe stained them with ink.

His hands…

An idea suddenly struck Gamera. Perhaps there was still a way of turning this situation to his advantage. Gezora lashed out with his remaining tentacle, only for it to be easily caught by Gamera. He pulled the struggling squid closer and grasped the sides of his head, then tossed the cuttlefish into the air. Whilst he was airborne, Gezora saw Gamera discharge another fireball.

But it wasn’t aimed at him.

The sphere of plasma struck Gamera’s hand, initially exploding on contact. Gamera, whose power was deprived from heat, was unaffected. Focusing his power, he willed the inferno to surround his fist, coating it in a layer of condensed plasma. Seeing this phenomenon, Gezora knew he had lost, and accepted his fate as the turtle’s fiery fist swung upwards to meet him. Gamera’s vision returned in time to witness a look of defeat cross Gezora’s gaze moments before his fist pierced the squid’s right eye. The giant cuttlefish shrieked in intense agony at the loss of his eye, but the pain only grew worse as his insides began to cook. He lay there, impaled on Gamera’s fist, until the guardian willed the plasma inside him to expand. Both chelonian and cephalopod disappeared in a massive inferno.

The blaze seemed to last for an eternity, but eventually it died down, revealing the unharmed and rejuvenated form of Gamera. Absorbing the fire around him, he used the energy to heal his injuries, while massive flaming chunks of calamari fell from the sky around him. The move had taken up a lot of Gamera’s power, but it was nothing compared to what he’d gone up against before. It had still taken a lot out of him. Whatever that Gezora creature was, it had proven just as difficult to deal with as the Gyaos. It shouldn’t have taken that much effort to deal with it, yet it had. Gamera was just glad it was over.

Before he could leave, though, he had one last thing to do. Turning back to the city, he called out softly, hoping to gain a response from Asagi. It took a moment, but eventually he spotted her being led away by medical crews towards an ambulance. She turned around, and for a moment she and Gamera locked eyes, before she turned away and continued walking towards the ambulance. Gamera let out a low, content sound, happy that Asagi was safe, before he too turned and walked away, slipping into the bay and disappearing under the waves.

Back on the seafront, the pieces of Gezora had ceased burning. But while the beast may have been dead, its master was not. Shimmering blue forms emerged from the chunks of the mutated cuttlefish, forming into one mass before slivering across the ground and into the water, descending to the murky depths of Tokyo Bay. Gezora had been a prototype to test Earth’s defenders, and although it had been destroyed, the data from the battle would prove useful in Yog’s conquest of the planet. For now though, it required a new host to mutate and control. A cuttlefish proved to be unsuitable for the space amoeba’s goals. More suitable hosts were required…