Chapter Six

From a position high above the operating floor, a man could see the medical crew tending Frankenstein. It was a huge room, the size of several aircraft hangers. Computer banks that monitored the monster's vital sign were in constant operation and surrounded their charge. The creature himself was in the center of the room on a raised platform often used in holding ships or aircraft. Tubes the size of fire-hoses were inserted all through Frankenstein's veins to insure the giant a deep sleep while the surgeons performed their life giving operation.

Life was needed considering the condition that the monster was in. Third degree burns were suffered across the whole of the body, nearly every bone in his body was broken, half an arm was missing and so was a foot. Frankenstein's rapid healing could only delay the inevitable. It could not save him as before because these wounds were too many and too great. The doctors were uncertain if even their additional expertise would be enough.

As for the medical doctors themselves, they were like liliputians crawling about a freakish Gulliver as they swarmed about the monster's gigantic frame in order to save him. The only comparable situation had been shortly after Kong had fallen from the Empire State Building and the US government had tried to save him. (It was ironic considering that it had tried to kill him days earlier.) But that had been over sixty years ago and the ape had not had not been brought to death's door by ultimate evil.

Those were Dr. Bowen's thoughts as he turned away from the sight. He returned his vision to the empty conference room he was in and what had happened. A protector to the very end, Frankenstein had made a last stand against the Prince of Skyllans for the sake of the humans evacuating G-Force Europe's primary base. King Ghidorah had almost killed the undead creation and would have succeeded if not for the dedicated medical staff. Now, he was hanging to life by the faintest thread and could die at any moment, but that wouldn't happen if Dr. Bowen's staff had anything to say about it.

James Bowen had been the world's chief Frankenstein researcher for many years. He had learned all he could from Dr. Reisendorf, the man who had sent the heart of the original monster out of Germany in World War II, and from what few reliable records were left concerning the original Doctor Frankenstein. Bowen had sought to do this because of the friendship both he and his human colleagues he had cultivated with the giant Frankenstein monster. They had been there when the creature first made itself known in Japan and when the creature found a home in the forests of Germany. Now Bowen was an old man and had ceded much of his responsibilities to the kaijuologists that he had taught.

Yet with his old charge's life in danger, he wanted to be personally involved. Interesting, although Frankenstein was a kaiju, he was human enough to require both human physicians and kaijuologists to tend his wounds. They had with them a secret weapon: Red Bamboo growth serum. It had been confiscated by the DFE after the Letchi Island incident and had then been in the possession of UNGCC kaijuolgists since the organization's founding. The serum could cause mutations resulting in giant growth as seen in the ookundrus and the Ebirahs and with the strength it could give Frankenstein, it might give the giant an edge. Not only was the radioactive growth serum being administered intravenously, but so was a concentrated supply of animal protein which Frankenstein's metabolism required

Frankenstein. That would soon change. Along with the kaijuologists, there were there were various men and woman from G-Force Alpha's R&D. Among them was their chief, Dr. Yoshizawa who was determined to give the giant a cybernetic advantage. Dr. Bowen didn't like it, but the world needed everything it could against King Ghidorah and if Frankenstein couldn't win, then perhaps Mechenstein could.

"And so that's what's going to happen."

Ramon looked anxiously at Lora. He glanced down at his feet before looking back up. "The monster is coming and the fight will be…?"

"Within the hour," finished Lora. "But it won't be against King Ghidorah. Godzilla is coming and he will be the one for us to fight. Or Tuol."

"Good." Ramon looked over his shoulder at the Kenyan savanna and at Mt. Kilimanjaro. "I've heard about Godzilla and it's about time we fight him; he's no different than King Ghidorah."

Lora shifted uncomfortably atop her seat on Fairy and cast a worried look at the boy. "I wouldn't be so sure about that young one. Godzilla and King Ghidorah might look like they 're on the same side, but they 're not the same. If those foolish humans would just listen and know that Godzilla might be their ally instead of their enemy!"

Ramon grinned at that. "Be careful Lora or you might wind up like your sister!"

A fearful grin spread across Lora's face. "Me? Like Belvera?" A sour look came across the youngest Elias' face. She was about to make a retort when she saw that the sky was growing increasingly dark. She didn't know what to make of it; she could tell that the black clouds and the darkening skies weren't natural but beyond that she wasn't sure. Could it have something to do with the earthquake that shook the earth but a hours earlier?

Worried, Ramon asked, "Lora, are you OK?"

With that, the fairy snapped to attention and nodded. Yet that was when she sensed something, some new monster. Was it friend it foe? She looked at Ramon. "Please, get to shelter immediately. Something is coming."

"Is it Godzilla?"

The tiny priestess shook her head slowly. "No, I've seen his mind many times and that which is coming is not he. I must go see what it is. Until then go to safety and tell the men what I have told you."

The two parted ways and went to do what had to be done. However Ramon for some unknown reason knew that he shouldn't be afraid. He somehow knew that what was coming was a friend. He knew it not, but it was because of the blood shared between him and Tuol. The stone giant had sensed the coming thing from a distance and felt no fear. In fact, if the ugly stone Incan idol could smile, it would have done so. From a distance, it seemed like a speck in the sky but, on closer examination of his stone eyes, it was seen to be something else entirely. It was long and twisted; it coiled sinuously in the air.

It was a beautiful sight unseen by the eyes of men in three millennia; it was the winged serpent. His body and face were those of the serpent lord of Mu, yet in some ways utterly different. Did Manda 's scales glisten like fresh spring waters? Did they shine more sweetly than any jewel? Did Manda have fine feathers that were red and blue and yellow and purple? Was Manda painted with the colors or have the scent of all the flowers of the rain forest? Did Manda have feathered wings? No.

As if he were the largest rain forest bird in the world, the winged serpent streaked towards the ground. It seemed to be headed to the side of the stone giant and it indeed flew in a circular pattern around the giant for a brief time. With that the new monster flew slower & slower in the circle & lower and lower towards the ground. He circled slower and slower until he stopped and was on the savanna 's grasses. His short legs propped up his serpentine body and he reared back his feathered head towards Tuol.

From a distance, both Ramon and Lora saw this. The boy knew nothing except that the new monster could be trusted; this was partly from what he felt and from how the two giants looked at each other. The Elias knew this because she heard their very thoughts. She smiled and turned back in her seat above Fairy as she flew towards the command station. She knew that the men of G-Force would be most pleased at what was happening; a new ally had come to aid in the Monster Wars. As for Tuol himself, he now knew that nothing was impossible because after all those centuries it was his old friend, Quetzalcoatl.

Meanwhile, back in the Watchikas' underground city, the birth of a champion was underway. In the cavern, Kyle was hunched over a computer screen and was typing away. Hayashida was glad that Kyle had relieved him of that duty; he had been getting tired. Correction, he had been tired for hours as he reviewed data stream after data stream. This bizarre atmosphere didn't help, but Miki's smile certainly did.

"Professor," she asked, "are you alright? Is there anything I can get you?"

"No Miki. I'm fine. Did the trip go well for you and Kyle?"

"Yes it did. But Professor, now that we're here, what will happen? What will happen to Tenzin?"

"It's a strange fate to befall a politician but a noble one considering that he's accepting it for his people. For thousands of years, the Watchika have lived in these mountains and have explored all the secrets held herein. Over the course of centuries they uncovered this chamber and the effects that the water here has. It is similar to the red healing water found on Sollgel Island. Nobody knows how it began but it has become a holy rite for one to be chosen. The finest yeti is chosen from those he would try and he is bought here. The priests with their 'magic' watch as he goes into the red water and it makes him a giant.

"However, I have been working for months on a way for science to accelerate the rate of change caused by the water so that Yetrigar can fight King Ghidorah that much sooner. I have found a way for the transformation to occur in weeks instead of years. It is not without its risks, though. Yetrigar has been told his chances of surviving and the constant pain he will be I even if does but he's determined to go ahead anyway. But with all the energy that will be used here means that no yeti heroes will be born here for centuries, if ever again. However, the watchikas say they'll do it anyway."

Miki Seguesa nodded at Hayashida's words and looked past the computer banks at the yetis standing together some space away. There were the robed Watchika priests gripping their staffs and offering Tenzin Yetrigar what spiritual solace they could. The yeti's family was there to bid their simian son a teary eyed final farewell. That was because once he would be made… a monster, there would be no return. He would be as good as dead. They had gone through a ritualized form of mourning meant for those whose children would leave to become monsters.

The chief priest looked away from his fellow yetis and a ways away towards Hayashida who nodded that conditions were optimal. The Priest then walked turned towards Tenzin Yetrigar and placed his hand on his shoulder. "It is time."

Yetrigar nodded his ape like head and began walking towards the red pool. He began thinking that after all his efforts to make a life for himself, after all his trials to become a name for himself, he would throw it all away. The yeti waded into the red pool. He felt the water soak through his fur and knew that it would all be worth it if he could help save the world. By now, he was swimming towards the center and knew he was ready. He reached the center and called out the very last words he would ever speak. "Do it."

The Watchika priests lifted their staffs and began to chant their hymns. It was slow and soft at first. Bit by bit, however it grew in intensity. The chants grew louder and louder and light shot out from their staffs. A wind began to blow through the cavern and it stirred the red pool into a churning froth. Gritting his teeth through the scalding pain, Yetrigar thrust his ape head from the now boiling water and gasped for air. With the cavern illuminated by the staffs of the watchika priests, the yeti holy men surrounding the pool pointed their staffs at the center where Yetrigar was and blasted it with mystical energy.

On seeing that, the two eldest Elias sisters turned from their seat on Garu-Garu towards the humans. They nodded and were ready for their part. Hayashida knew that that was his signal and activated the machines via his computer station. It was increasingly difficult to work with the chaos all about him, but he stood ready. Both he and Kyle, masters of monstrous knowledge, were at their computers. The machines shot tendrils of electricity through the red pool and across the cavern was finally heard the scream of the yeti, Tenzin Yetrigar.

Both magic and science were at work there but for such polar opposites to be melded into one function was nearly impossible. Nearly, but not absolutely. In the time before history began, magic and science were equals and they served the Ancients well in their struggle against King Ghidorah. Both had served to defeat that spawn of the damned and would do so again, God willing. For that, only the eldest daughters of the Dragon Queen could meld the two and they were ready.

The cavern seemed to grow silent around them as they ignored all things to sing the song of the Sacred Springs by the music of the spheres. The two sisters closed their eyes and, atop Garu-Garu, readied their magicks.

Na intidihan… mo ba…

They placed their hands together and moved in perfect synchronization and as their sweet melody filled the room, Yetrigar's pain went all away.

Mairoun doan maganda baron

Each sister, called on the Prehistoric Mothra, moth of their mother and mother to their own moths. First one...

Punta ka lang dito

then the other.

Harika at marupo

They shone like the sun and the moon and sang their song to bind magic and science to so that combined they might give life. It was for this that they sang their song of love.

Na intidihan mo ba

Mairou doan maganda baron

Punta ka lang dito

Harija at marupo

Harik at marupo

rururururu

The sacred song continued and a feeling of overwhelming love filled all that heard it and that love was translated into their hero.

Before the stone form of Tuol and the winged serpent that was Quetzalcoatl, Lora was standing atop Fairy. She had sensed what had happened far away and was glad. She smiled but that smile began to fade on knowing what was happening. She knew that Godzilla was coming and readied for it. All others, especially the monsters, were prepared for battle. Lora had persuaded Commander Aso to stand aside and let the monsters fight. Godzilla was believed by them to be just as dangerous as King Ghidorah and the humans weren't willing to let a loose cannon go running about. Aso had fewer reservations against this than with the King Ghidorah's battle with Apophis because there was no risk of civilian casualties or destruction of property. Now Tuol and Quetzalcoatl waited.

Then the two giants felt it. The ground beneath them trembled. The stone head of one and the scaled head of the other turned and saw it. It was Godzilla and he was in no mood to be detained. He looked at one and then at the other and roared his defiance at them across the savanna.

Tuol saw this and lurched his stone body forward towards the King of the Monsters. Tuol's enemy had caused much suffering to many humans. Once he was defeated, all Earth's strength could be used to destroy King Ghidorah. The saurian roared his fury against winged serpent and the stone giant; he would not be denied! Tuol crashed his rocky fists together in anger as Godzilla braced his mighty frame for battle. That was when Quetzalcoatl sensed that Tuol's enemy was the King of the Monsters he had sensed in Alexandria days before. The winged serpent hissed this to Tuol; that Godzilla was not their enemy, they should join with him. It was too late; Tuol had no interest in his friend's philosophizing. The statue would deal with the problem the only way he knew how: smashing it!

The stone giant smashed his rocky fists against Godzilla's chest and the dinosaur reeled at the blow. He counterattacked with a claw slash but he pulled back his hand in pain as claws broke on the granite surface. A stone uppercut sent Godzilla falling down but a Blue Ray blasted the same fist apart. Tuol crashed the other fist into his fallen foe's face even as he absorbed stone from the soil to reform his lost limb. With both fists reformed, Tuol savagely beat them against the prostate Godzilla, despite Quetzalcoatl's pleas to stop. As for the King of the Monsters, he writhed underneath his stone foe's body and was forced to look at the idol's ugly leering face, his ugly mocking face! Godzilla fired an Atomic Ray point blank at his foe's head to obliterate it; it sent Tuol flying back. Godzilla got up; let's see Tuol smile now!

A hideous wail came from the stone giant's maw and he clasped his hands over the molten slag of his face. Drunk with pain, the stone giant staggered and fell backwards. On seeing his friend wounded, Quetzalcoatl was at first frozen with shock and grief. Yet when he looked at Tuol's enemy, now his enemy, he was enraged. If there would be war, the peacemaker thought, then so be it!

Godzilla had already begun to walk away when he was attacked from behind. He roared and thrashed as he felt himself being choked. Who dared defy him so! Quetzalcoatl dared and proved it by stabbing his poisonous fangs into his foe's throat straight to the gums. Godzilla arched his back in pain and thrashed about as toxins, stronger even than those of his brother Apophis, made its way through his body. Yet that was not the end for Quetzalcoatl raked his claws across his foe's body and each gash drew saurian blood. Infuriated, Godzilla reached from behind his neck and threw the winged serpent forward in order to blast him. Yet that was not so because the son of Manda was a flying creature as agile in the air as his father was in the water. Quezalcoatl dodged every beam shot fired on him as he streaked through the sky and seemingly dared Godzilla for more.

Godzilla was already growing dizzy from his foe's toxin. It was a gruesome cocktail of poisons that would have already killed a lesser creature but the King if Monsters would not yield. He ran towards his flying foe to meet him head on; the unyielding rock of his iron will would not break. But neither would Quetzalcoatl for he surged forward to attack and attack he did. Strangle holds, poison bites, raking claws, all were used against his foe. Already dazed from the assault, Godzilla was unprepared when Tuol, recovered from his wounds, surged forward to attack. With Quetzalcoatl choking him from in front, the stone giant beat his mammoth fists of rock against their foe's back as if determined to break him in two.

Godzilla tried to fire his beam but that was when Tuol wrapped in arm about his neck in headlock to keep that from happening. The idol's other arm had begun smashing its fist into the King of the Monster's head. Pain lashed about Godzilla and he felt his bleeding eyes swell shut. The winged serpent, with coils pinning his foe's arms to his sides and drooling blood, began piercing his fangs into his foe's chest, between the ribs. It was as if he wanted to poison the very heart.

Godzilla thrashed and raged at this and the red rage burned inside him until it finally exploded outwards in an Atomic Shockwave. Both Tuol and Quetzalcoatl were thrown back and injured by the blast of blue-white energy. Groggy and sick from the radiation they both looked upwards and saw that though injured Godzilla was also fighting mad. Immune to harm, Tuol got up and resumed the assault; however, the tide had turned in Godzilla's favor.

The stone giant lurched towards his foe but the saurian knelt and did a tail sweep that tripped the idol. Remembering that he'd melted Tuol's face earlier, Godzilla loosed his Atomic Ray in a wide spray all over his foe's body, superheating every square inch and seemingly fusing the joints. With that, he tore of a limb from the idol's stone body and used it like a club to pulverize Tuol, into rubble. On seeing his friend in pain, Quetzalcoatl thrust himself into the air to help. Yet Godzilla knew this and even as he let the limb drop from one hand, he reached out with the other to grab the winged serpent as it happened. Too late to dodge, the son of Manda felt his tail grabbed by the saurian's hands and felt himself snapped through the air like a whip. That was not enough and Godzilla grabbing Quetzalcoatl's tail by both hands brought him smashing against Tuol's burning stony frame like an overseer scourging a slave.

When it was done, Godzilla cast the son of Manda aside like so much rubbish and left the battlefield. Burned and bruised and broken, Quetzalcoatl could not move; he knew he was lucky to be alive. As for Tuol, he tried to move but with his joints fused into slag it was no use. He struggled still more and more until his remaining limbs snapped making him look like a quadruple amputee. How long would it take for him to heal, he did not now but it would not be soon enough. For now, all he and Quetzalcoatl could do was watch their foe walk away.

As for Quetzalcoatl, he felt a tremendous anger, not at the beast that had done this to him but at himself for not having been able to prevent the senseless violence. The son of Manda knew that Godzilla was enemy to King Ghidorah just as he was. He should; though a wrymling when King Ghidorah attacked the Ancients, Quetzalcoatl remembered how the Elias had used their magic to show his father, Manda, and himself that Godzilla had been the only one of the saurian champions to fight 'till the end 65,000,000 years ago. If only there had been some way to make Godzilla see that both he and Quetzalcoatl were children of the Great Dragon, one his great grandson and the other his champion, and that they shared a common mission against the enemy of his children. Those were the only thoughts that went through Quetzalcoatl's throbbing head and even those were drowned out by pain. He let his swollen eyes close shut and let himself breathe labored breaths.

As for Godzilla, he too was in pain. He was bruised, poisoned, lacerated, and with who knows how many broken bones from Tuol's fists. By nightfall, he was already many miles away from the battle scene and the prostate forms therein. Yet, as he hobbled southwards through Africa on the trail of King Ghidorah, he thought of the two that had opposed him. Godzilla could sense that the serpent had sought to help him, that it had meant him no harm and was even of the blood of the Great Tyrannosaur.

Yet both the snake and the stone creature had attacked him first, what could Godzilla have done except defend himself? Yet when he thought of the brutality of his attack, he remembered what he had seen of the human city destroyed by King Ghidorah. But whatever Godzilla did, it was nothing compared to the chaos the space demon wrought, both on Godzilla's world and his family. That he would have to destroy that which stood between him and his final battle against the Price of Skyllans was regrettable, but he had no choice. King Ghidorah had to die, as would all those who stood between him and Godzilla.

Commander Aso had been there to witness the entire battle. He has seen it from Tuol's first blow to Godzilla final departure as he had promised Commander Ahmed. Aso had hoped that Tuol would be able to defeat Godzilla. God knew that G-Force had enough to deal with in King Ghidorah without having to deal with Godzilla at the same time. Time and again, through all this, Miki had asked him why not ally with Godzilla against King Ghidorah? This was why. Miki's "friend" was no better than the freaks he fought but she was too blind to see that.

Not Aso. He did not fight for hate as so many thought; rather it was for love of those that Godzilla would harm that he fought as fiercely as he did. When the battle was done and night fell, Aso walked past the burnt grass and savaged, upturned earth of the battlefield. Aso knew that it would be long time before the land recovered, perhaps as long as it would for those valiant guardians that fell in the defense of it. They had fought for the inhabitants of the world, human and monster alike and it was unsure if they would live to tell the tale.

Alone beneath the starry African sky, Aso walked between the bleeding injured forms of Tuol and Quetzalcoatl. He was dwarfed by their enormous size but he did not escape their attention. Bathed in the moonlight, the son of Manda looked though blackened swollen eyes on the human who had come to comfort him. Though caked with blood and welts burning their pain across his ravaged form, Quetzalcoatl let his telepathy tell him that the human felt pity for him and gratitude for what he had done. Indeed, the human had sent word to Mu that the finest doctors be sent. Though in agony, the son of Manda took comfort that the humans he guarded were truly worth saving.

Aso took one last look at Quetzalcoatl and the rubble that was Tuol before hanging his head. Miki felt pity for Godzilla. Aso felt pity for his victims.