This tale that you will soon read is but one of many. And there are, indeed, many. These tales are written to chronicle an age that began in 1954, an age that began with the death of the previous. For it was in 1954 that a man named Steven Martin saw a great beast and said, "And thus the Age of Men has ended, for the Age of Monsters… has begun."

King Kong vs. Godzilla: First Blood

A tale of the Age of Monsters

By Juan Garcia

Skull Island's barbaric god bared his broken teeth at his enemies and roared across the chasm at the humans who wound trespass on his lands. They all screamed when the enormous silverback gorilla, nearly thirty feet tall, reared his gargantuan sooty bulk up on his hind legs and beat his breast with his giant hands... yet while the ape saw that the humans men who yet clung to the gorge spanning tree were terrified, he saw that they had not retreated. They were here to steal Anne... he knew it! Kong had been content to let them leave with their lives but if they would not flee he would destroy them all!

Kong slammed his fists to the mossy ground and moved to the rotten log that strange humans were on. For said humans, they were filled with a sick realization of what was about to happen. Some disobeyed the eternal advice and looked down, much to their chagrin as they saw that the canyon below them was filled with just as many giant spider-like… things! That and the monster lizards and those octopus looking insects! As one man vomited, it wasn't from the rank decay of the bone-yard below.

Then, as if to snap them from his grim reverie, they felt their already queasy stomachs lurch as they were heaved upwards. King Kong had rallied all his gigantic power and might to heave the mossy, vine laden log from side to side! The monster increased this swinging to a fever pitch and already one more man lost his grip and fell to his death. Another almost lost his balance though he clung to a vine, tearing open another man's cheek with bloody gashes as he desperately tried to hold on. The King of Skull Island shaking the log from side to side, the slipping sailor lost his grip and after a jarring thud managed to hold on only by a strong vine.

It was then that another man cast like a fallen angel unto the hellish depths. Was it Jimmy or was it Hayes? Jack Driscoll didn't know. He'd been the only one to get to safety in time; he was hiding in a ledge sticking from the cliff wall and ten or fifteen feet below the edge. He was safe and that was all the worse as he saw his friends were not. He was unable to look and turned away in horror before looking ten feet straight up to impotently shake his fist at the monster that had done this. He saw another man shaken from the log and fall to the bottom of the gorge… where he was eaten alive by the monsters of the hell spawn island. Driscoll then saw that one of the men still clinging to the log; it was to no avail as the men were cast off like flies. He saw this and slammed his fist to the ground. How long he was like that, he did not know but soon he saw every last man save one had been hurled to his death.

He looked as much as his eyes could but couldn't see who it was. Driscoll felt a wellspring of hope in that that man might be able to escape with his life… and Kong roared and beat his chest in anger at the fact that the man would not fall! The beast in his great anger gripped the log in all his tremendous strength, heaving it up and up before he lifted it all up and threw it all down! As for the one sailor stuck on the log, he screamed all the way down, wishing that he hadn't stuck on the log. Driscoll swore. If that hideous brute did that to those men, heaven knew what it had done to his Anne. His Anne…

Jack couldn't believe any of this, a gigantic monster ape and a lost civilization that worshiped it? Had the world gone crazy? Not even the Lost World had things like this. O how Driscoll wished that this goddamn hell island would just burn to cinders! The man fought to regain control of himself and forced himself to look upwards to where the monster ape stood and saw that it was gone.

Then a giant hairy paw appeared out of nowhere to grab him! Jack slammed himself against the edge of the cave wall in shock. He quickly whipped out a knife and began stabbing at the fingers groping towards him…

/o0o\

As to where Anne was at that moment she was sweaty, filthy, covered in insect bites, scraped, bruised, and clinging for dear life atop a tree branch. As for how she was feeling, she was scared as hell. She was going to kill Carl Denham for bringing her to this Godforsaken place... she was going to kill him then bring him back to life so she could kill him again! She looked at herself and burst into tears on seeing she was nearly down to bra and panties thanks to that... that thing's groping. How could this even be happening? She began to shake uncontrollably even as tears carved streaks through the thick grime on her face. Things like this they didn't happen in real life, not today in 1933!

Anne kept telling herself that she'd just wake up and find out that all this was just a dream. She shook her head and hoped that she would just wake up and find she was back in Manhattan, looking for a job or something to eat. Why did she have to take that stupid apple?! She should taken the job as a stripper for a burlesque show! She tried to get down from the tree that giant gorilla monster had placed her, the natives had called it Kong or something? Oh for the love of Mike… that animal was coming to eat her, going to-

She blotted it out of her mind. She didn't even dare think it.

Though sick and shaking, the filthy, rag clad Anne took a few wobbly steps towards the edge of the tree branches. She didn't know what she was going to do, she just knew she had to get away. Yet it was as she was grasping the branches to get down that she heard a sinister reptilian growl. She whipped her head around and saw an enormous killer dinosaur! With that Anne screamed, she screamed for her life!

/o0o\

At the gorge, the roaring Kong ceased his bellowing when he heard that; he shot upwards and turned his head. He listened as best he could and heard her scream and the rasping hiss of... him! Anne was in danger, he had to go help her! With that, Kong looked down over the gorge on whose edge he was on his hands and knees and roared at the human hiding just past his grasp. He roared, bared his teeth, and pounded the ground and he swiped his hand as if to say, "And STAY there human!"

With that, the giant ape wheeled around to drop on his hands and knuckles and charged as fast he could towards the clearing where he had left Anne. He vaulted a log and soon enough the clearing was in view.

/o0o\

A dinosaur some might think a Tyrannosaurus Rex locked its ravenous eyes on the pasty faced shaved ape and felt curious. Hailed as a king by the V-Rexes, three fingered descendants of the tyrannosaurs, and worshiped as a god by the Venatosaur raptors, this thirty foot carnosaur was the pinnacle of theropod evolution, dwarfing any Spinosaur and especially any Allosaur on the island. Its species was called Godzillasaurus and it was the ultimate tyrant king.

The flesh eater had been following the hated Kong for days, sending his pack mates to exhaust it, taunt it, so that now he could come and kill him. Skull Island was the last bastion of saurian rule and its king could not be some deformed rodent spawn whose ancestors should have stayed in their burrows, no. Kong had killed Gaw, the rightful Queen of Skull Island whose foremothers had destroyed the cities the shaved apes had dared to build on the interior the island and had sent them running behind their wall. The saurian goddess herself had killed Kong's parents and had almost killed Kong himself. Godzillasaurus bared his fangs at the thought of it. She would have been his mate...

Was it not enough that the apes had the entire world? Would they taken even Skull Island? No, they had no place there! As Gaw had been Queen of the Raptors, so he had become their King, protecting them from Kong and uniting them against the dirty warm bloods. Once Kong was dead, his fellow apes would be helpless... that made the shaved ape atop the tree all the more interesting.

Trees brushed against Godzillasaurus's sides as he left the sweltering jungle and walked into the cool of the clearing. He cradled his small, three fingered arms against his spine backed self and closed in, circling the tree on his colossal, pillar like legs. The leaf litter on the rain forest floor did little to lessen the thunder of his steps. The she-ape's hideous crying grew even louder and he thundered near her.

Curled atop the bough, the whimpering she-ape saw this and curled into a little ball. Godzillasaurus was puzzled by this and he ignored her as he ran his ten foot long skull over her tiny body and took in her scent. Th then snorted and blasted his rank carrion breath in anger over her trembling form; Kong stink was all over her! The small apes on the island must have given her to the king ape as some kind of sacrifice. He was going to have to get Kong's attention and what better way than to eat his precious little toy?!

He threw back his head and roared. SKREEEOONK!

/o0o\

Baring his double row of railroad spike fangs, Godzillasaurus lunged forwards to devour Anne Darrow when the air was shattered by the ape's snarl as it leapt into the clearing, slamming his gargantuan fists on the ground to make it tremble. Yes... the Tyrant King knew it was time and began circling, roaring defiance to the only enemy on Earth strong enough to challenge him: King Kong.

Kong moved slowly and threw a colossal hairy fist in anger even as the other made a mock lunge, each to see of the other would back down. Neither would, neither could, for both were kings and were too proud to surrender. It was then that Godzillasaurus lunged to bite his foe and that foe dodged to the side and thus the saurian left his side open. Then the gargantuan Kong, filled with righteous wrath, circled around Godzillasaurus like lightning and leapt on his back! He threw his long gorilla arms around his foe's neck, as if were some wrestler grabbing a foe in a headlock. The Tyrant King shook and twisted as much as he could and tried to move his rending tearing jaws in order to slaughter his enemy but was unable to; the gorilla's grip kept him from turning his head.

Godzillasaurus, however, managed to throw his simian foe from his back and the giant gorilla fell to the ground. Kong was sore all over having been rubbed raw from the spines on the dinosaur's back. On seeing the saurian charge him with the utmost velocity, he hurriedly propped himself up but he saw it was not fast enough as the dinosaur clamped a double row of septic dagger fangs straight through the hairy flesh of his forearm. Kong roared at the pain, the burning, red hot pain!

At that he slammed a foot on his foe's chest and tore at one arm with serrated teeth even as the other arm of the roaring beast pushed against his head. Even so, though sprawled on his back, Kong summoned reserves of inconceivable strength to tear his arm free from Godzillasaurus's jaws. He rolled away on the rain forest leaf litter and spared a glance at his lacerated arm. Oddly though, it wasn't bleeding. The fur had been completely singed off and the wound was cauterized. It was as if it had been burned with fire... Kong looked up and wondered at the monster he was dealing with.

The saurian had drawn first blood but the mammal was far from beaten. The three story tall land shark was determined to finish what he'd started and lunged with gaping jaws again and again but Kong had seen this and ducked and dodged the hideous maw. He returned the attack with a tremendous, jaw breaking left hook that sent Godzillasaurus reeling back; the follow up right hook only hit air though. The two beasts then charged each other and crashed like two tanks slamming into each other, Kong holding his foe in a head block and that foe edging his razor blade jaws, ripping open the ape's back and snarling all the while.

Barely able to keep from fainting, Anne saw all this and saw the two beasts disengage, Kong taking a few steps back. With bruised and bleeding jaws, Godzillasaurus lunged to bite but the mammal pulled back, raising an arm to protect himself. It was then that the saurian rushed him but his enemy raised his tree trunk arms to seemingly strike the foe. But it was not so for the beast god ducked down and grabbed his enemy by a raised leg, summoning his power to pull out his scaly legs from under him. Godzillasaurus fell like a ten ton stone and was on his back and before he could react, the spawn of the rodent gods crashed his mammoth iron fists against his body again and again.

Godzillasaurus roared and twisted on the dank, muddy ground as blow after blow was rained on him. He felt his ribs being broken by the insane, roaring, gorilla god. Flailing on his back, the tyrannosaurian savage shot a taloned, impossibly muscled leg underneath the simian and cast him aside like a rag doll. Kong was temporarily stunned by the blow and unable to move. As for the muddied, bloodied Godzillasaurus, he was at a quandary for he knew he could escape and get to safety. Indeed, logic decreed that he do so with the injuries he had sustained; welts, broken ribs, and more bruises than could be counted. If he did, he knew Kong would not stop him for he was also injured and would welcome the chance to recover his strength.

But if he did, where would be his honor? The carnosaurs had already fought and bled for him against the mammal. They called him king and what kind of a king cowered behind his minions? With that, he turned around to face the ape and saw him. They had fought many a-time before. This wasn't the first time they had fought and but it would surely be the last. SKREEEOONK!

That was when Kong finally forced himself up, at last taking the chance to remove the serrated teeth that the lizard had embedded in his arms at the start of the fight. He saw his torn gouged arms and the blood soaked fur that covered them both. He touched his torn and bloodied belly; it was scraped and torn apart in three ugly rows. He also saw at that, that Godzillasaurus was still there, fangs bared, twitching his tail, and still waiting to finish the fight. The Skull Islander's god looked at the reptile and saw an abortion, a freak that should never have existed and should have died a million years ago. He saw every Rex, every Allosaur, every Raptor, every Spinosaur who had spilled a kong's blood, spilled the blood of his troop, of his family leaving him the last. No Kong would not back down, he would not back down for anything! Filled with rage, Kong threw his head back and beat his chest with both fists. They would fight and now it would be to the death.

Before anyone could realize it it, the two had charged each other and were tearing into each other like rabid raptors. But Godzillasaurus broke away and lowered his skull to deliver a charging ram head blow that sent Kong reeling back. But that also sent him crashing back towards the tree where Anne clung, sending it crashing down. Enraged, her erstwhile protector picked up a nearby boulder and hurled it at his enemy. He took the precious seconds he had purchased and scrambled to the tree, tearing aside branches to see if his tiny bride was alright. To his relief, she was alive, staggered but alive.

He looked at her and saw for the fist time something other than fear in her eyes. She looked at him in silence before screaming and pointing behind him. Kong spun around and saw that the groggy carnosaur was struggling back up. Anne looked at one monster and then the other before slowly walking backwards towards Kong. He saw her move behind her and then looked back towards his enemy. If Anne was safe, let it end then.

Kong rushed forwards and grabbed his foe in a headlock. He held the reptile's neck with simian arm, his jaws shut with another, all the while biting the reptile's cheek and forcing him down to the ground with his weight. Wrestling on the ground, Godzillasaurus' nevertheless managed to throw off the beast but before he even got up, Kong had already mounted his spiny back one more! Weakened by the fierce fight, the saurian wobbled underneath all the weight; he bucked and threw his body as wildly as he could but to no avail.

It was uncertain what Kong had in mind but it became grisly clear when he thrust his massive paws into the Godzillasaurus' maw and pulled apart with all his might! Hearing his very bones crack, the Tyrant King threw himself down to dislodge Kong but it was only temporary because as quick as lightning the ape was up on his feet trying to tear apart the jaws of the prostrate reptile. Though on his back, the Godzillasaurus could not, would not, give up! He summoned all his strength to clamp his jaws his jaws shut and bite off the filthy ape's paws! He tore his head loose but that was when his foe dealt an eye blackening uppercut. It was a contest to see who was the one true king, who would rule!

Kong choked back a scream as his hands were shredded by the meat grinder but he would not yield an inch and bit by bit as blood spurted out from the writhing saurian's jaws, they were pulled apart. Each fought to the bitter end but in one final push, the King of Skull Island tore open Godzillasaurus' jaws in a sickening, bloody crunch that made the saurian spasm and scream… before going limp. The exhausted Kong collapsed on his knuckles, barely able to keep from falling. His chest was heaving and for that he would brook no chances; his enemy seemed dead but he had to be sure. The simian colossus moved the hated reptile's jaws; no reaction. He picked up its head and let it fall to the ground; no reaction. It was dead. Had to be...

He grunted. He grunted and then threw himself up growled. He threw his head back and roared for all his might, beating his chest all the while so that all would that Kong and Kong alone was king! The roar echoed across the whole of Skull Island making the pterosaurs fly away in frightened flocks. The V-Rexes and the Venatosaurs stopped whatever it was they were doing in fear and stupefaction. It could not be... not their king...

/o0o\

At the gorge where Kong had cast so many to their deaths, two were still alive. The injured Jack Driscoll climbed up the edge where he was greeted by Carl Denham from across the other side. Though each was glad that the other was still alive, there was still the issue of finding Anne Darrow. Jack said he would continue and try to find her while Denham tried to dissuade him. It was to no avail as Driscoll ran after Kong.

He went through the boot sucking mud and the dense ferns and vines and mosses, all the while sweltering under the dank and humid heat. In short order he came to a large clearing and was shocked at the utter destruction across it. It looked like the battlefields, like the trench scarred No-Man's Lands from the World War. Driscoll looked away and in the distance saw Kong through the trees, carrying Anne in his hand like a doll to his mountain. He kept walking and was shocked by what he saw.

What he saw was the dying Godzillasaurus. He saw the dinosaur's broken chest heaving and copious blood pouring from a shattered jaw to a form an obscene crimson halo. The carrion birds were already circling but human scared them away. Godzillasaurus was to weak to even growl at this. As if it was not enough that a hairy ape had to do this, a shaved ape had to see it...

Though nearly broken and mind muddled by all this, the Tyrant King was as yet not dead. His trembling chest still moved and fire of his rage still burned. More than anything else, it was self loathing with how he had failed to defeat Kong and in doing so had failed to protect the dinosaurs who had come to look to him as their champion. All Godzillasaurus had left now was revenge and he knew that no matter what it took, not if it took a million years, he would have his revenge on Kong.

No, it was not over. This wasn't defeat at the "hands" of King Ghidorah because he would rise again and take his revenge. No matter what it took, not if it took another 65,000,000 years, he would have his revenge on Kong and all the other apes. He would live and reclaim all his power. He would breath fire on them and destroy their shining towers... He would trample their cities to dust... No ape deserved to live.

Yes, he and Kong had fought before and they would fight again... and again and again. It would never end! King Kong vs. Godzilla… it would not end, not until there came the battle from which only one would walk away alive.