Godzilla (2004) vs Ultraman
Life has been known to be plagued by ironic occurrences every so often. This is something that is not unheard of in the world of Kaiju. Not when an attack has come to Osaka, with destruction coming from two sides of the city. One coming from Mankind's most feared enemy and another coming from, strangely, their greatest savior. Understandably, these reports are confusing news to the defense forces and some take it with a grain of salt. Little did anyone know that Osaka was about to become an arena of the century. The battle between gods and a decisive conflict between the King of the Monsters and the hero of the galaxy.
The wake of Godzilla's rampage is not one to be easily ignored. Flames have been ignited and grown just as far to the sky as the buildings. As if Godzilla himself had taken effort into growing them like a gardener with his plants. This showcase is only a showcase of Godzilla's power that comes with a metallic shrill that booms over the roaring flames. A new reddish-orange atomic ray punches through the wall of smoke, obliterating the pavement and traffic of a road. Chunks of apartment buildings and a few vehicles are sent flying from the resulting catastrophe. As flames grow brighter, they reveal a silhouette of the demon stepping from Hell, itself.
Godzilla, after years of forming peace with humanity, has decided to return to waging war with them. Fiery fury burns within his dark eyes, filled with promise of death with every step that shakes the city. Motivated by a drive more fierce than he had before, nothing was to stand in his way. With an enraged turns towards a skyscraper, his maw open wide to unleash a new atomic ray. The hellish-orange lance carves right through the wall of glass and stone, easily having the entire building cave in and collapse before his feet. The monster rears his head, letting out a cry of scratching metal as he ventures closer towards the Osaka Castle.
As he steps further down his road of destruction, his tail smashing into the ruins as he passes by, his eyes catch a glimpse of a bright light. Normally, he would dismiss this as a spark from a disconnected powerline or a destroyed generator, but this is much bigger than that. It easily convinces him to halt and look down at the light as it continues to grow. His eyes follow the ever-changing size of the glow until it reaches to the height of his sternum. A glow forming some shape of a humanoid being; with one fist resting on his hip and the other raised as if it's making a superhero pose.
The glowing fades to reveal the recognizable appearance of Ultraman! The sunlight shines off of the warrior's crimson-red and titanium-like silver. At first glance, this would be enough to convince the panicking people that Ultraman has come to save them from Godzilla. Although, something about him seems...different. Rather than having a pair of glowing-white orbs for eyes, Ultraman somehow has sharp, slim, devilish-orange eyes. The ears, chin, and the fin on top of the head are villainous, as well. No matter; most Ultras in the past come in different shapes and looks. Like Ultraseven or Ultra Mebius. The only matter to be addressed is that an Ultra has come.
Over the roaring flames and crumbling buildings, Godzilla and Ultraman share a stare down. The warrior lowers his arms before he flexes them as if trying to use his form alone to intimidate the Kaiju. Clearly, he had never met the likes of Godzilla. Godzilla snarls through his teeth and gets right into the charge to battle. Ultraman steps back, taken by surprise but makes a last-second decision to use force. The Ultra lets out a mighty "Scwatts!" before he takes a full sprint, all too eager to finally settle this history-aged contest between the galaxy-hero and the King of the Monsters!
Godzilla shrieks as they close the gap quickly and he looks up when Ultraman makes a jump over him. With gravity doing the work, Ultraman straightens a leg and delivers a hard foot-plant into Godzilla's cranium. The connection is rewarded with a loud bang between skull and foot, sending Godzilla backpedaling with a pain-made screech. Ultraman is filled with utmost confidence to be delivering such a devastating blow...until he places his foot on the ground. Blinding pain fills his mind once something within his ankle cracks and pops, apparently spraining it. He groans from the agony and he holds onto his foot.
He only has so much time to recover as Godzilla is quick to charge at him, again. The city around him violently shakes with every step of the Kaiju King, which has him feeling a moment of fear. He does shake it off, but he does so too late in order to stop Godzilla from slam a shoulder against him. A harsh blow which has him backpedaling, but he quickly recovers and charges in retaliate. Godzilla turns and flexes his claws, only for Ultraman to jump at him and traps his neck in a rather sloppily-made headlock. He puts his effort in slamming his elbow into the back of Godzilla's head, whereas Godzilla is no more than bothered by this.
The Kaiju King's dorsal plates flash orange, catching Ultraman's attention and he quickly lets go. At least he had the sense to in order to barely avoid Godzilla's hellish Atomic Breath, which causes the battlefield to be set ablaze. The loud laser-like screech of the projectile causes ringing in Ultraman's ears, but he simply ignores in order to keep his focus on his foe. Rolling back to his feet, the Ultra warrior decides to fight fire with fire as he forms his arms into the recognizable "L". Godzilla, shaking off the dust from his hide, swiftly turns towards his opponent and snarls...
"Specium Ray!" He announces.
Upon hearing this, Godzilla straightens to his full height and plants his feet into the ground, bracing himself for the utmost power of Ultraman's devastating beam. Though, to his surprise, nothing comes out from the Ultra Warrior's arms. This has Ultraman surprised as well and he looks down at his own arms in confusion. Why didn't that work? Maybe he's doing it wrong? As he tries hitting his wrists together, as if he's a caveman beating rocks to make fire, Godzilla was not the type to ignore an opening. Too focused on trying to rectify his technique, Ultraman has completely forgotten that he was facing Godzilla before the Kaiju King charges at him. By the time he realizes this, he turns his head to have a tail swinging right at his face. With enough brute force to knock away a spinning Anguirus, Ultraman is sent flying back into the asphalt.
The blow had left Ultraman clenching onto his face, writhing in pain before he manages to recover. Honestly, to the view of bystanders who were able to witness, this is looking pretty pathetic. Since when can't Ultraman be able to use a Specium Ray? A loud stomp booms from Godzilla and the mighty beast is now eager to have his turn in beating down his foe. However, Ultraman rolls back to one knee and sets one hand into a flat, straight form. When it would seem that he is preparing to perform a chop, an orange ring of energy materializes from his palm. As Godzilla charges at him, he gives off a deceptive chuckle as at the precise moment of the Kaiju raising a clawed hand, he makes a mighty jump of his opponent.
Sparks rain from Godzilla's shoulder, evidence of Ultraman's Ultra-Slash landing a hit into his flesh. Though, despite a devastating strike, Godzilla lets out no sound of pain. He merely turns around to face Ultraman landing on his two feet. Ultraman let out a scoff before he turns to his fearsome foe, but he is taken back by the lack of damage he had landed on him. At least, there wasn't any indication of it if he DID. It is when he realizes a shining reflection coming from Godzilla's shoulder. Where he had struck before, a large portion of his skin had been flayed off, revealing a steel-like shell underneath. What the hell!? Was that supposed to happen? Maybe there was some kind of exoskeleton underneath that skin, which probably makes Godzilla so durable to other monsters? It doesn't make any sense.
As Ultraman tries to make sense of this, he now notices Godzilla raising his arms towards him. Stiffening and forming in some strange robotic manner, the Kaiju King forms into a two-handed martial art stance. Still bearing that same hateful glare, it looks like Godzilla is now getting serious. This gives Ultraman a sense of anxiety rushing over him, but he act merely on instinct to at least retaliate. Both combatants charge at one another, with Godzilla raising a fist to bash at Ultraman, but Ultraman avoids it. As he does so, he lands a spinning kick into Godzilla's groin, sending him back a step. Already enraged by the damage taken, Godzilla grabs onto Ultraman's leg, shocking the warrior, and raises him high above his head.
The city shakes and crumbles underneath Ultraman as he is slammed into the ground. Again and again, left and right, and then he was swung into a ramen shop at least twice. At that second time, Godzilla lets him go, allowing him to bounce across a row of buildings like a stone across water. The almighty warrior groans when his face scrapes down the city, with his rear high in the air. This was not how he expected this fight to go down. Not too far behind, Godzilla stands to scowl at this waste of space. His nostrils flare and he brushes off dust of earth and rubble off of him in a manner of disrespect; Puny Ultra. His tail slams into the piles of rubble before he pushes on to pursue his foe.
Whereas Ultraman struggles to recover and he does so. Slowly and grudgingly, as if he was no longer interested in fighting. As many humans continue to watch the fight...no one would blame him. Still, he pushes on and rises to his feet, only to be aware of Godzilla close to upon him. The relentless king swings a hand to swipe at him, but in a sudden case of courage, Ultraman raises an arm to catch his strike. At the moment of Godzilla looking at what had just happened, the warrior thrusts his other hand forward. In the form of a dagger, it makes a harsh plunge into Godzilla's throat. Like spraying blood, a huge geyser of sparks begins to spew from underneath the skin, causing Godzilla to stagger away in shock.
Although the strike looked impressive, it seems to come at a physical cost as Ultraman waves his hand in agony. The trauma between his hand and Godzilla's thick hide has him backing away and holding onto it. Despite the damage he had given himself, he gains the endurance enough to ignore the injury and look back to Godzilla. At the same time, Godzilla turns to stare daggers back at him, but the "wound" in his throat shows more shiny metal within the tear. This confuses Ultraman even more; no wonder it hurt his hand so much. Before Godzilla would retaliate, the Ultra warrior summons an Ultra-Slash and intends to finish him off. Godzilla's dorsal fins flash orange and Ultraman throws his energized disc, attempting to be quicker to the draw.
Explosions erupt at the moment that Godzilla fires his atomic breath. The lava-colored energy lance was too quick for Ultraman to avoid and it hits him square in the chest. At the same time, the Ultra's Ultra-Slash cuts into Godzilla's face, creating a blossom of sparks and forcing the great beast to recoil. This is enough for him to shut off his atomic breath, but the damage was already done. Ultraman was drilled through a side of a building just as tall as him, hiding him in a shroud of dust and debris. A long moment of silence fell onto the battlefield. Flames roar and crackle around Godzilla, whose face is still hidden in smoke, but the injury doesn't seem to faze him too much. He only has his back turned to his seemingly-fallen foe until he turns towards loud crumbling.
The Ultra giant emerges from the building that had caught his fall. When witnesses would expect to see grave injuries on their grand hero, they are fallen in shock when something completely different steps out to reveal itself. What was once Ultraman standing to fight Godzilla is now a gargantuan alien with a large, silver head. Its body seems to belong to a humanoid lizard with brown skin and boot-shaped feet. The head, however, was a complete contrast to the body, looking more like a biological hazard suit's helm. Complete with two blue, bioluminescent areas underneath diamond-shaped eyes and a small circular mouth. An alien that most humans would not be able to recognize as Alien Zarab.
It was no wonder why Ultraman was doing so terribly at fighting Godzilla. Because there WAS no Ultraman! Born to be skilled with expert trickery and deceit, Zarab was aiming to use his illusion of Ultraman as a ploy to bring Planet Earth to ruin. By destroying these cities as Ultraman, it would the puny humans to fight amongst themselves while also putting Ultraman in blame by his own peers. It was a brilliant plan formed from the beginning and it would have worked...until Godzilla came around. Why would the Kaiju King even come to rampage across Osaka without being provoked is beyond him.
It is by then that Godzilla turns towards Alien Zarab fully, reveal half of his face removed. As the smoke clears, there is no eye or parts of his skull shown to the world, but half of his face being a robotic head. One glaring red eye of a machine under his skin-like suit. "Godzilla" raises his other hand to reach for what remains of his face, only to harshly clench into it and tear it off. At the exact moment, a bright white flame rises to consume the beast and lowers back to the ground. Godzilla is quickly replaced by his mechanical doubleganger, Mechagodzilla! The sunlight reflects off of the steel titan of mechanical glory as it rotates its hands, moves its jaw, and forces steam out of its nostrils in a last-minute calibration exercise.
Like Alien Zarab's plan to imitate Ultraman, Mechagodzilla was sent to imitate Godzilla. The plan, forged by its Simian masters, was to cause enough destruction and chaos for human defenses to notice. Any Kaiju resistance or confusion would be met with eradication; the adequate evidence of betrayal would cause the other monsters to turn on Godzilla and vice-versa. After an encounter with a Kaiju on this planet, Rodan, Mechagodzilla was sure to put the message that the winged terror and the Kaiju King would inevitably clash. As they would be fighting, it would leave Mechagodzilla to destroy more at its leisure. The job was going perfectly. Flawless. That is until this nuisance came along and ruin its disguise. Now removed from its restricted smoke and mirrors, Mechagodzilla was programmed not to hold back!
The war machine thrusts forward an arm, unleashing a volley of missiles at the extraterrestrial trickster. Alien Zarab saw this obvious attack coming from a mile away and summons a crystal-like energy shield. While it succeeds in blocking a couple of explosions in the salvo, it couldn't protect him from the last two that detonated on his legs. The sudden crash of pain in his legs causes him to fall flat on his face; those missiles apparently hit pretty hard! As Mechagodzilla advances angrily, Zarab gains a second wind and quickly rolls back to his feet. He barely jumps out of the crosshairs of Mechagodzilla's next salvo, allowing a row of buildings to be reduced to chunks from the robot's destructive power. As plumes of smoke rise above the city, Mechagodzilla has lost sight of Zarab and scans the environment.
Its search is not a long one. Now that he was removed from his own imitation, Zarab forms a plan with his own familiar abilities. Underneath the shroud of ruin, he waits for Mechagodzilla to step past an alleyway before he emerges to take the robot by surprise. By the time Mechagodzilla realized what is happening, the deceitful alien thrusts his arms forward and unleashes a bright purple stream of his Deceive Beam. Not exactly true to its name, but it could barely match the power of Ultraman Mebius' Mebium Beam. Zarab was counting on this one shot as the beam strikes the mechanical Kaiju in the neck. Sparks blossom and rain down on the streets as the robot stands there, seeming to be completely flabbergasted. It stays on that dead-shocked pose as it tilts back and falls like a domino.
Standing tall, Zarab confidently cracks his hands with a nonchalant chuckle. He was born to destroy worlds! Why would a race of apes think that this robot could compete against him? He couldn't have a full minute of feeding his own ego when Mechagodzilla springs right back to its feet, missile-armed hands raised like a boxer. While that blast had caught it by surprised, this machine was built to withstand Godzilla's atomic breath, which is arguably just as powerful if not more. Taken back, Zarab takes a step back, thinking of a different plan. His attention snaps back towards his mechanical foe when the Space-Titanium titan starts turning its head slowly. It begins to pick up speed until it reaches to a blinding rate, surprising Zarab by somehow summoning a blue shield. This shield is somehow larger than his - protecting its entire body in a transparent cylinder.
It baffles the alien more as Mechagodzilla starts advancing towards him, his shield burning away any piece of rubble that makes contact. The Simians had somehow gave their weapon the ability to use its best defense as a weapon. Acting quickly, Zarab launches an energy beam from his eyes, but the beams merely stops in its tracks with Mechagodzilla stomping forward, unfazed. Mechagodzilla lets out a mechanical shriek, acknowledging that it has gained the upper hand. Taking a jump far from his foe, maintaining distance, he crosses his arms to charge a new Deceive Beam. As the dark energy grows and intensifies on power, he thrusts his arms to unleash the beam at its full power. To his dismay, the beam doesn't even come CLOSE to penetrating Mechagodzilla's shield. To add insult to injury, Mechagodzilla raises an arm and moves it up and down, taunting him to try again.
Alien Zarab growls and clenches his fists, infuriated by this robot's very existence. The muscles in his legs clench as he squats low to the ground and his feet create a shallow crater when he jumps high in the air. With Mechagodzilla looking up at him, he raises a leg as he falls back down to Earth. With all his might, he delivers a hard kick against the robot's shield. Of course, he is instantly punished as his ankle burns against the energy, but at the same time rewarded when the shield vanishes. Nevertheless, he falls onto his back and cries out, holding onto his foot. That pain quickly vanishes when he notices Mechagodzilla shrieking in rage and he rolls back to barely avoid its Space Beam. Chunks of asphalt rain over the retreating Zarab before the alien stops at one knee. He looks up to see Mechagodzilla raising its left arm, ready to fire another salvo.
Fortunately for him, he had one last trick up his sleeve. A recent upgrade, but one that he would find somewhat useful. He thrusts an arm towards the machine, as if launching some for of shuriken at it. It would be if not for a long, white strip of material trapping Mechagodzilla's arms! Mechagodzilla shrieks in distress once the strip constricts around it upon contact, forcing it to miss horribly and fire at its own foot. Zarab succeeds in trapping the arms, but he was not done as he swings his arms left and right, throwing more of his Binding strips at the supposedly-unstoppable war machine. They slap against the metal armor and constrict tightly around the robot's body - from arms down to its ankles. Due to being applied so strongly and tightly, it leaves any secret weapons Mechagodzilla may have useless.
In a state of annoyance, Mechagodzilla leans to all directions, trying to use its mechanical physical power to break free. When this is proven useless, it spins its head once again, summoning its shield in an attempt to burn away the bindings. Zarab watches cockily, crossing his arms and letting out a hearty laugh at the robot's futile attempts. Those bindings were made to only be broken by salt water. He tried it on a human he tried to imitate, but the only reason she broke free was because she was crying. Tears count, apparently...Regardless, he has won this fight and with Mechagodzilla now practically useless, he prepares to destroy it once and for all. He had forgotten, though, that Mechagodzilla was not built with such absolutes. Even trapped in this defenseless state, it has had enough!
Zarab is caught by surprise when Mechagodzilla's nostrils blows out an immense amount of smoke before a massive stream of scorching flame bursts into the air. The flames quickly scorch onto Zarab's face, forcing him to recoil and trip back onto the ground. He pats his hands against his own face as he tries to get away from the impressively-devastating flamethrower that was installed in Mechagodzilla's very nose. What ruins were left behind were reduced into ashes before the robot ceases its weapon, looking down at the damage. To its artificial amusement, it sees Zarab removing his hands to show a large scorch mark covering his entire face. The alien lets out an enraged groan; this just got personal.
He rolls right back to his feet and charges his Deceive Beam. Quickly acknowledging this and taking a split-second-calculation, Mechagodzilla fires his Space Beam to meet the alien's own. The beams collide in a bright mixture of colors between them, putting as much energy as possible to best one-another. Little did Zarab know, as he is not one to fight fairly, neither is Mechagodzilla. It opens its jaws and out comes two Mouth Missiles that launch themselves at Zarab, detonating against his stomach and groin. As the alien cries out and loses his focus, the two beams between them inplode and cause an aftershock, sending Zarab back further. Mechagodzilla takes the less of the aftershock as it stands its ground; its tail helping most of its body to stay in place.
Proven to be FAR from helpless, Mechagodzilla shrieks at Zarab trying to pick himself up. As if insulting him behind his back that HE is the one who is useless. Zarab gets the energy boost and the nerve to stand right back up, wanting so badly to shut the robot up. That is when he realizes a new bright flash growing right in front of him. That was usually not a good sign. For before long, he is standing face-to-face with the familiar form of Ultraman, himself! The more his head follows the growing height of the hero, the more he shrinks by the sight of Ultraman standing with his fists on his hips. Like a disappointed father scowling down at a disobedient child.
Mechagodzilla has been having half a mind to shoot down the newly-arrived threat when it senses a harsh vibration in the ground. It rotates its head to look back at a pissed off Godzilla standing above the dust. Beside the Kaiju King, Rodan stands onto a ruined building to sneer at the robot. The two monsters seem to have seen better days; a few scratches and bruises from their recent brawl until they catch up to the truth. Ultraman, from his end, had heard of attacks caused by, supposedly, HIM. When he was on a mission to stop another alien threat in America. At that moment, the hero knew exactly what was happening. Now that they both know that they were being caught in some kind of fraud, both Godzilla and Ultraman came to restore their reputation.
Godzilla rears his head back to let out an enraged bellow, one fully-recognized by the world, before he charges to tear the machine limb-from-limb. Caught in panic, Mechagodzilla knew that in these bindings, it will be more vulnerable to the powerful Kaiju than it was to Zarab. Even with all of the weapons in its head, it will not be enough. So, it comes to one plausible solution and takes off to barely avoid the king's wrath. Godzilla's gaze follows the machine's retreat to the sky and roars again. Rodan's horns flash reddish-violet before he lets out his Uranium Ray, striking a direct hit into Mechagodzilla's chest, but the robot merely ignores it in its panicked bee-line.
With one nuisance gone, it leaves Ultraman to deal with Zarab. He had focused on Mechagodzilla leaving and turns his gaze back to the alien, only to realize that he vanished. It would have been without a trace if Ultraman hasn't noticed him slowly hovering off the ground. Zarab, as he runs off to lick his wounds, flies further into the air with his legs moving like he was on a bicycle. It was another failed invasion and he has that confounded robot to blame. He shall remember this the next time he runs into those cigar-smoking apes! As he ascends further away, he cries out when he feels a crunching strain in his back. Loud enough to have Ultraman cringing from hearing that, but the hero shakes his head, regardless.
Osaka has been fully evacuated prior to "Godzilla's" rampage. So, there were no casualties within the battle between these two impostors. He would have the mind to let Zarab go if not for the immense damage made. Godzilla turns back to the hero, as if asking if he was going to chase him. Ultraman merely shrugs; why rush? It's not like he's going to get very far, anyway...
Draw: Godzilla (2004), Ultraman, Mechagodzilla (Showa), and Alien Zarab