Godzilla vs. King Kong
By C. L. Werner
VII
Sho-down in Big Tokyo
King Kong dipped his paw into the ruptured grain silo again and pulled a mass of wheat from the broken silo. As the enormous ape made to put the food into his mouth, he froze. In the distance, Kong could see the city of Kyoto. Lumbering away from the city and into the sea was a familiar shape, a form which caused Kong's lip to curl in anger. Kong dropped the contents of the granary on the ground and beat his chest with his powerful fists, roaring his fury. The huge ape dropped to all fours and charged across the fields back toward the city.
Godzilla could hear Kong's mighty roar. The giant reptile stopped and began to turn back towards the still-distant Kong. Godzilla looked skyward, seeing the small helicopter that hovered nearby. He could feel the subtle psychic waves emanating from the craft, from Miki Saegusa. Reluctantly, the monster continued his walk to the sea. The gentle, comforting voice in his mind was urging him away, leading him to another place and another enemy. The crafty King Kong would have to wait.
Kong was still distant when Godzilla entered the water. The ape roared his frustration when he saw Godzilla begin to swim away. Kong rushed onwards, entering the water in pursuit of his revived foe. As the monstrous ape's body made contact with the sea, tendrils of electricity snaked away, slithering through the water with a life of their own. Kong could feel the power seeping from him and at once leapt back onto the shore. The ape roared again, bellowing his fury at the half-submerged reptile. Shaking his fist at Godzilla, King Kong loped away. The enormous ape removed himself some distance from the shore. He could still see Godzilla from his position. With great loping strides, Kong began to follow the aquatic reptile along the coastline, trying to keep pace with Godzilla, knowing that sooner or later, Godzilla would again make landfall and when he did, Kong would be waiting.
Gigan's metallic shriek resounded across the city of Tokyo. The giant cyborg made short work of the horde of fast-attack helicopters that had been sent to intercept Gigan after the Red Bamboo had announced its intentions. Now, the towering monstrosity of metal and beast slipped from the sky, its clawed feet crushing a section of warehouses. Gigan beat its adamantium claws together, shrieking again. The cyborg's blood-red visor peered at the mass of vehicles of every size and description choked the expressways leading out of Tokyo. Ever since General Yamoto's telecast, the roads out of the capital of Japan had looked like this, a chaotic mess with most of Tokyo's population trying to escape the doomed city. A thousand sets of fear-widened eyes turned toward Gigan as the cyborg shrieked again. The gem-like device above its visor glowed for a moment before a beam of ruby-hued energy left it, to burn across the choked expressway, incinerating all in its path. Gigan surveyed the charred wreckage as the few survivors' struggles to escape the holocaust. The cyborg shrieked its malevolent mirth and rose into the air once more. Expressway Number Two was but one of many that led out of the city, and all would be similarly choked with those who thought to escape Gigan's rampage. On its own, perhaps the cyborg would not have bothered with the refugees, but it had received its orders and it would obey its programming. Gigan rose into the air once again and slowly flew towards the harbor and its ships with their human cargoes.
Gigan's solar cannon blazed across the waterfront, striking a whaling ship as it left the docks, people filling every square inch of deck. The ship exploded under the ray of destruction, burning figures leaping from the wreckage into the water. Again and again, Gigan's solar cannon blasted the fleeing ships, spilling their pathetic cargoes into a sea of burning oil. Nor did the cyborg spare the docks, with those who had not yet embarked. The wooden structures soon became funeral pyres for thousands. Above the screams and explosions, Gigan's shriek announced the advent of doom. Like an angry god of death, the cyborg landed on the waterfront and began to slash at the warehouses and fisheries with his claws, seeking to entomb those who thought to find refuge within.
Far off, near the Diet, Colonel Nomura and General Yamoto watched the massacre. The Red Bamboo commander's mouth hung open with shock, the full horror of what he had unleashed dawning upon him. At his side, Colonel Nomura laughed a touch of madness in the sound.
"I meant for Gigan to destroy the city, I never intended for it to do this!" the terrorist said to himself.
"They are without honor!" spat Nomura. "They have suffered a corrupt regime to control them! They would make peace with Godzilla! The scum that did this!" Nomura let his prosthetic claw clank noisily against the wall. "All who are without honor must die!"
General Yamoto grabbed the ex-GCC officer. "You must stop this! Gigan will kill everyone!"
"Yes," admitted Nomura, a maniac's smile twisting his face even more. "Gigan will kill everyone! None shall escape!"
"You have to stop him!" demanded General Yamoto, flinging the madman away from him, in the direction of Gigan's controls. Nomura stared at General Yamoto and laughed again.
"Did you really think I cared about your cause?" Nomura mocked. "As though one set of corrupt, scheming cowards is better than another? Idiot, I used you, you did not use me! You gave Gigan back to me! You gave me the instrument of my revenge!"
General Yamoto pulled the pistol from his holster and pointed it at the lunatic. "Give the order for him to stop!'' By way of answer, Nomura just laughed at the man. "I warn you, Colonel, I will shoot you."
"Go ahead and shoot!" Nomura taunted. The mocking look remained on his face even as General Yamoto sent three bullets into the madman's belly. Nomura sank to the ground, blood burbling from his mouth. General Yamoto leaned over the dying traitor.
"We will stop him," he said to the dying man. "My men will regain control of Gigan." Nomura smiled up at the Red Bamboo commander.
"There isn't time," Nomura laughed. "When Gigan finishes with the docks, he will come here. You are all already dead!" Nomura laughed again as General Yamoto recoiled in horror. "I have given him his orders. Gigan will destroy everything! Not just Tokyo, but everything! When he is finished, there will not be a single living thing left in Japan!" Nomura smiled as his last breath left his mouth, "All shall pass with me."
* * * * *
Gigan turned away from the waterfront, the cyborg's ray sizzling through an overladen ocean liner that was just picking up steam. The cyborg shriek-laughed again, but the sound was cut short when a nimbus of fire erupted against its left shoulder. The incendiary bathed the cyborg in flames. Gigan rolled across the ground, trying to smother the clinging flames. When the cyborg arose, it was just in time to intercept a second plasma grenade with its solar cannon. More of the bombs streamed toward the murdering monster. Gigan warbled in alarm and engaged its jets not to ascend but to quickly slip away from the firestorm that claimed its previous position. In the sky overhead, the shining form of the Mechani-Kong descended toward the cyborg.
"Almost got that butchering bastard!" cursed Captain Cabot when he saw Gigan escape the fusillade of plasma grenades.
"Let's see how spry he is when he is trying to avoid the Tesla Ray," Colonel Armstrong commented as he maneuvered the Mechani-Kong closer.
Gigan had managed to remove most of the plasma that had clung to its shoulder and was just beginning to lift back into the sky when the Tesla Ray licked across the smoldering streets of Tokyo and struck the cyborg. The malevolent construct was hurled backwards by the ray's impact, crashing into a string of shops and homes. As the cyborg started to rise, a salvo of heat-seeking missiles thundered into its body. Gigan's shriek was broken and distorted as the cyborg again rose from the debris.
"Better stick to the Tesla Ray," Captain Wray reported to her commander. "The heat-seekers aren't having much effect on him."
Following the Captain's advice, the Tesla Ray lashed out at Gigan again. The nimble cyborg avoided most of the blast and fired it own solar cannon at the robot. The solar energy impacted against the robot's armor. The Mechani-Kong staggered away from the blow.
"If that is the best he's got, we're in business!" exclaimed Col. Armstrong. "That didn't even lower the thermal shields ten percent." A grim look came across the officer's features. "Time to introduce this monster to pain."
The Tesla Ray struck one of Gigan's wings, shredding the syth-flesh. Gigan was staggered by the blast, his own solar cannon attack being knocked far off target, striking the Mechani-Kong's head instead of its body. The accidental blow had devastating consequences. The Mechani-Kong's electrical systems flickered for a moment.
"That shot damaged the Tesla Ray," Capt. Wray announced.
"Doesn't matter, he's not going to wait for us to fix it!" Col. Armstrong snapped back. Gigan was scrambling towards the Mechani-Kong, clacking its claws together in anticipation of closing with the robot.
A barrage of heat-seeker missiles impacted harmlessly against the cyborg's chest. The Mechani-Kong's hand closed around one of the plasma-grenades fixed to its midsection and made to hurl the incendiary at the cyborg. Gigan's solar cannon flashed and the ruby-ray ignited the plasma grenade in the robot's hand. The jellied plasma blazed harmlessly on the metal surface. The adamantium claws which followed did not. Gigan's lethal appendages battered the Mecahni-Kong's hull in a brutal frenzy of blows. The robot tried to fight the cyborg off with its own mechanical strength. Gigan's cutter saw began to whir. The cyborg gripped one of the robot's arms with its claws and pulled it down towards the whirring blade. Metal met metal and the Mechani-Kong's forearm went spinning into Tokyo Bay.
"He did some serious damage with that one!" Capt. Cabot shouted. "I don't need Ann to tell me that!"
"I'm getting us out of here," Col. Armstrong snarled. "If we stay here that thing is just going to slice us up!"
The Mechani-Kong began to pull away from Gigan. The cyborg struck its body several times with its claws, denting the armor further and dealing still more damage to its internal systems. As the robot lifted into the air, the cyborg's solar cannon tracked it, scouring the robot with its thermal energy. One of the beams hit the exposed area of the robot's severed arm. There was a tremendous explosion and the crippled robot fell from the sky, devastating an area of manufacturing plants with its impact. Gigan waited for its metal enemy to rise. When it did not, Gigan's shriek of triumph warbled across the desolation. The cyborg began to march toward the Diet.
"It's heading for the Diet!" Miki Saegusa shouted with sudden horror. The UNGCC helicopter hovered over the blazing debris of Tokyo's waterfront.
"It also appears that the Americans were unsuccessful in stopping it," Director Segawa said grimly as he spotted the Mechani-Kong lying in a pile of rubble.
"Then Godzilla is Tokyo's only hope!" the young psychic said.
Godzilla emerged from the burning waters of Tokyo Bay. The monster could dimly remember being here before. It seemed long ago that he had come here and fought against the hideous mutation called Destoroyah. It was then that the only other of his species he had ever known had perished. Godzilla despised this place because of that. The urge to lash out upon the landscape swelled within his titanic form. Even the calming voice inside his head did little to calm his sudden rage. Abruptly, Godzilla could feel that rage being redirected. Perhaps the soft voice was responsible. The image of a grotesque gargoyle-like beast filled his mind. Godzilla roared angrily and entered the burning city to seek out and destroy the monster he saw in his mind.
Godzilla followed the path of destruction through the maze-like streets of Tokyo. He could hear the sounds of the other monster's metallic shrieks as the cyborg continued its rampage towards the Diet. Godzilla could see Gigan's claws shining in the sunlight as the cyborg swiped at the buildings to either side of it, reducing the earthquake-proof towers to piles of debris. Godzilla watched the carnage for a moment, his lip curling with rage. Silver light crackled about the reptile's dorsal plates. Godzilla sent a blast of burning atomic flame into Gigan, pitching the cyborg into the ground. Godzilla stalked forward, pressing the attack. Taken by surprise, the cyborg retreated from the fiery assault.
Suddenly, a massive, black form leapt from the rows of burning structures, barreling into Godzilla, casting the mutant dinosaur into a line of brick structures. King Kong roared at the toppled giant, beating the reptile's head with his powerful fists. Godzilla shrieked and blasted the giant ape off of his body with gout of fiery breath. Kong jumped away from the reptile, fur and flesh smoking from Godzilla's flame. Kong beat his fists against his chest and roared his challenge back at Godzilla.
Unnoticed by both, Gigan slowly regained its feet. The cyborg's optics targeted the two battling monsters, wavering from one to the other as it tried to decide which to target with its solar cannon. Gigan shrieked with mirth. It would wait; it would let the two monsters fight. Whichever was victorious would be severely weakened and easy prey for Gigan.
* * * * *
General O'Brien read the hastily scrawled suicide note of Lt. Delgado. It was a confession of sorts, a confession which made the general's face grow pale.
"Get me communications with the Mechani-Kong at once!" General O'Brien bellowed. "That robot is a walking time bomb!"
An equally pale-faced comms-officer looked up from his station. "Sir, we can't raise Colonel Armstrong!"
General O'Brien cursed under his breath. He gave the order to keep trying to raise the Mechani-Kong's crew before he left the GARD command center. He had other things to take care of. Lt. Delgado had been very specific in his statement and General O'Brien was determined that the ones who had thought to sabotage the robot and kill his men would be brought to justice.
The Mechani-Kong rose from the ruins, its movements shaky and jerking. The robot 's jets soon came on-line and lifted the battered machine into the air.
"How are we doing?" Col. Armstrong asked his crew.
"The Tesla Ray is out, but we still have a half-dozen plasma grenades and the short-range masers," captain Cabot reported.
"Shields are holding at about seventy-percent, but fluctuating as low as forty," Capt. Wray added. "Communications are out as well."
"When they get this bucket of bolts patched together again, we owe that monster an extreme ass-kicking!" Col. Armstrong declared.
"Sir, the Japanese press transmissions report that Godzilla is being used to fight Gigan," Capt. Wray reported.
"Good, let him take a few of the hits for once," Capt. Cabot remarked. The other captain's grim expression killed his good humor.
"They say that Kong has just arrived and is fighting Godzilla!" she announced.
"What is the cyborg doing?" Col. Armstrong asked sharply.
"Nothing, just standing back and watching the battle."
"Wonderful," Col. Armstrong declared. "He'll sit back and let Kong and Godzilla beat each other half to death and then finish the job!" Col. Armstrong looked at each of his subordinates. "Like it or not, we have to see that doesn't happen. Jack, get the masers ready and see if you can coax anything more out of the Tesla Ray. Ann, forget about comms, keep those shields working. Spit and luck may be all that is holding this crate together, but it'll have to be enough."
More slowly than before, the shining robot ape turned in midair and began to fly towards the Diet and the monstrous creatures battling there. And somewhere inside the giant machine's innards, a countdown slowly approached the zero hour.