Disclaimers: Gojira and all related characters TM and ©2001 Toho Productions, LTD. Some characters ©1998 Sony Pictures Studios. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations and story are the property of the author.
Godzilla: LAST MONSTER STANDING!
(Part 2)
by Darrin A. Colbourne
Colonel Koza was heading for the airplane door before the C-130 came to a full stop, with Dr. Takashima in tow. The plane crew got the side door open in record time while the loadmaster prepared to offload the command vehicles. When the Japanese Self-Defense Force officer got out on the tarmac he was surprised by the misting rain that was soaking it. There was another surprise as well. An American Army sergeant was waiting for him. The soldier saluted and asked, "Are you Colonel Koza?"
"Yes I am." The colonel said.
"Sergeant O'Neill, Sir." The sergeant said. "I have a helo waiting. Colonel Hicks wanted me to bring you to the command center ASAP."
Koza nodded, then turned back to the plane. He shouted some orders in Japanese to the plane crew, then turned back to O'Neill. "They will be along presently with my command vehicles."
"We've saved some space for them, and we're cleared to give any assistance we can." O'Neill said.
"As are we. It looks like we're in this together, Sergeant. Shall we go?"
"Is she with you?" O'Neill asked, indicating Takashima.
"She's our leading expert on Gojira." Koza said.
"We'll need her." O'Neill said as he led the way to the waiting Army Blackhawk. "From what I hear this new monster looks like Godzilla's really pissed-off big brother."
"What do you make of that thing, Elsie?" Hicks said. They had a live video feed of the area of the Queensboro Bridge being broadcast by a National Guard Kiowa scout helicopter. They all recognized Godzilla, but the other thing climbing out of the water to confront him was like nothing they'd ever seen before.
"I don't know what to make of it." The paleontologist said. "It's not a dinosaur, it's more like...I dunno, like somebody tried to make a dinosaur and lost the plans. Its arms are Tyrannosaur-like, but it's feet are elephantine, with practically no articulation in the toes. Its skin is loose, like it has a lot of blubber between it and the muscles. It even has a pot belly! There are back spines like Godzilla's, but they're moving almost independently, as if there's no connection between them and the rest of the skeleton. I can't explain it. It makes me think of what Barney might look like if he were caught in a forest fire...that's it! It looks like a really big guy in an ill-fitting rubber suit!"
Both Hicks and Tatopolous looked at her as if she were nuts, then looked back at the screen. "Didn't O'Neill say Koza was bringing an expert with him?" Tatopolous asked.
"Well, it does!" Chapman said.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHRRRRRAAARRRNNNGH!!" Godzilla roared at the giant stranger advancing on him. It was rare when the giant lizard had to look up at anything, or feel the ground shake beneath his feet, but the stranger was a third taller and a lot heavier than Godzilla, so for him it was a day for new experiences. That didn't mean he would give up his birthplace without a fight. He faced the other monster in a crouched stance, foreclaws extended, teeth bared. His neck snapped forward every now and then, ending with the snapping shut of his jaws, just to show the big thing what it was letting itself in for.
Gojira, as usual, wasn't worried. As he lumbered onto dry land he allowed his senses to take in this new foe and the new city they were contending in, and decided he wanted to stay for a while. He would stomp this small creature, then show the little things that infested every city he'd ever seen that this place, like all the others, now belonged to him."YAAAAHHHRRRNGH!" He roared back as he trudged down 59th Street, shrugging aside pieces of buildings along the way.
Twelve Harriers and ten Apaches hovered around the two monsters, ready to strike with Hellfires and Mavericks in case the two monsters decided to team up after all and rampage through the city. The troops on the ground had to constantly move their infantry fighting vehicles to keep a safe distance and still maintain a close watch. They were in awe at how much destruction was caused just from the creatures walking. Godzilla left footprint pits and tail slashes in buildings along his path, but Gojira's steps crushed the street to dust!
Godzilla got tired of waiting. With a shrill hiss he raced at Gojira, ready to snap his jaws around the giant's neck, but Gojira backhanded the lizard, sending him flying through two blocks of buildings. Godzilla rolled to his feet as Gojira followed him through the rubble. "YYAAAAAAAAGH!" Godzilla screeched as he launched himself at his adversary with a bounding leap.
"YAAAHH!" Gojira barked as he caught Godzilla in mid-air and swung him down through more rubble. Godzilla hit paydirt with the force of a falling jumbo jet. Gojira didn't let go. Using both hands he flung Godzilla through more buildings, then slammed him into the street again. He let go just long enough to raise his foot to crush Godzilla's skull.
It was also just long enough for Godzilla to recover. He rolled away, then stretched out and caught the raised foot in his fangs. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRNGH!" Gojira screeched from the pain, and shook and stomped the foot to shake Godzilla off of it, but the lizard's jaws had a firm grip and wouldn't let go. Gojira pounded Godzilla with his fists, making his opponent wail with his mouth full, but still he held on. Finally, Gojira fell over and rolled, using the moment to wrench himself free. He got back on his feet just a second before Godzilla, which was just enough time to slam the smaller monster back down with his tail.
Hicks's attention was riveted to the monitors when Koza and Takashima came in, but Tatopolous turned to see the Japanese Colonel and his attractive civilian companion. He got Hicks and Chapman's attention, and introductions were made all around. Hicks sent O'Neill back to his regular duties, then talked with Koza. "The fight's on. It's been a hell of an opening round."
"How's it going?" Koza asked.
"Bad news. It looks like your guy is winning."
Godzilla backed off a little after he managed to get up, avoiding a second blow from Gojira's tail. "YAAAAAHHH!" He screeched as he lunged in again. Gojira took in a deep breath as his back spines glowed.
Godzilla never saw the blast of fire coming, and he wailed as it scorched him all over. He rolled the flames out and reared up in a rage. Gojira, smelling blood, prepared to let loose again. This time, the blast exploded the pavement as Godzilla leaped onto a nearby building and then into another street. Gojira let loose a long blast then, scything through buildings in an attempt to cut Godzilla down, but the lizard had broken into a run, barely outrunning the blast until Gojira stopped. Godzilla crossed more buildings and climbed a tall one overlooking the street Gojira was still on. With a deep breath he unleashed his own flame. Propelled by the heavy winds of his exhale, the jet of heat created a wall of fire that upended abandoned cars and detonated their fuel tanks as it traveled down the road.
Gojira marched on down the road, undaunted, right into the wall of flame. "EEEEEEEEEEUNGH!" He roared as the flames seared him, but he pressed on through the blast, emerging on the other side singed and smoking, but still in fighting shape. "YYAAAAAHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRNNGH!" He roared, now absolutely pissed. He inhaled again, then sent a long range blast at the building Godzilla was perched on. Godzilla leaped off just before the top of the building was blown off, then sped off downtown, looking for another route to attack. Gojira turned off the street and pursued Godzilla at an angle, mowing down structures big and small in an attempt to cut off his foe.
As the monsters moved, the ground forces in the area scrambled to get out of their way. They hadn't done any fighting at all and were still losing men and machines to collateral damage. The Harriers and Apaches had to keep reacquiring their targets as they moved to new observation positions, and the Japanese F-15s, now just arriving at nearby airfields, were planning to crisscross the area from high above, waiting for the opportunity to strike.
"Why does his back light up when he's about to shoot that heat ray of his?" Chapman asked.
"We're not sure, but we think he collects nucleons through his spine to power his flame blast." Takashima said.
"Well, however it works, it's impressive." Tatopolous said. "If Godzilla hadn't ducked that second time, he'd have been smoked lizard."
"Are you sure there's nothing we can do?" Hicks asked. "There's gotta be some way to slow him down to give the little guy a breather!"
"There have been tactics that worked to slow him down," Koza said, "but Gojira is more a force of nature than a living creature. Nothing man can do will slow him for very long, and many of the tactics might distract Godzilla as well, defeating the purpose. I'm afraid that Godzilla is on his own."
"You really believe that? Well, I think he's just an animal, not some living hurricane! And any animal can be trapped or killed! So maybe tactics against Gojira will work against Godzilla, too. Well if that's the case, maybe the reverse is true!" Hicks got on the radio. "Command to all units! Assault Target Two! Execute Plan Quicksand, Now Now Now!"
Several contingency plans had been worked up in case a second Godzilla or some other mutation reached American shores. The Army and Marines now set up to execute the one codenamed "Quicksand". The scout helicopters immediately relayed fast target information to the available ground units, and soon the Multiple Launch Rocket System Vehicles were firing dozens of intermediate range missiles with high-explosive and cluster munition warheads.
Gojira noticed the missiles coming as he advanced. So, the little things thought they could hurt him again, eh? When would they learn? He would take the impacts, then deal with the launchers as he pleased.
Had he been human, he might have laughed when he noticed that the missiles were falling just a few meters short of hitting him...and he would have been just as unprepared when he realized that they were doing what they were supposed to do.
The missiles detonated with an earth-shattering multiple explosion, blasting a hole in the pavement and building foundations just ahead of Gojira's feet. The rest of the infrastructure collapsed around the impact point, causing Gojira to lose his footing. "EEEEEEEEEEEEGHH!" He screamed as fell into the man-made pit. He landed hard in the pit, lost his balance and toppled forward, crushing buildings and leveling more streets in the process. Before he could right himself the Apaches and Harriers swooped in, loosing their Mavericks and Hellfires. Gojira was pelted with anti-armor weapons, and just to add insult to injury some Apaches aimed 30mm rockets at his eyes.
In his command center, Hicks smiled at the pictures they were receiving. The others just looked on in awe, especially Koza, who thought: Why the hell didn't we ever think of that?? We could have trapped him and just let the Super-X pound him into the ground!
Takashima threw a damper on the occasion. "You're not killing him."
"I didn't intend to." Hicks said. "All I needed was to stop his advance, and for however long we keep him in that ditch, Godzilla has some breathing room."
"This was one of your anti-Godzilla tactics?" Koza said.
"That's right. One of the first things we realized after we reviewed our action against the first Godzilla was that most of the weapons we used weren't suited to the target we were chasing around, and those that were could only be brought to bear under extraordinary circumstances. MLRS rockets, for example, were wasted when we used them like bullets, so we created a tactic to use them the way they were meant to be used, as an area assault weapon."
Tatopolous thought about that for a minute, then said: "But, Colonel, this wouldn't have worked against Godzilla. I mean, as soon as he recovered from the shock..."
"He wouldn't have had time." Hicks said, a little peeved. "Remember, he's a lot more susceptible to missiles than the big guy here."
But now Takashima was curious. "What could he have done, Nick?"
"YYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRAAARRRRNNGH!" Gojira roared. He was done pissing around. He let loose with a fire blast and scythed it through the sky, blowing up any aircraft stupid enough to still be in the way. He blinked his eyes to clear away the flame and smoke and rolled over, pulling his legs out of the pit. He gained purchase on some semi-solid pavement and stood upright, then backhanded some nearby buildings into pebbles in a fury. First, he'd find the little things and punish them, then he'd find that little lizard thing and finish this once and for all. He rampaged on until he reached a street where there were some Army vehicles. He started down the street to crush them under his heels.
Unfortunately, he didn't notice that the street behind him was cracking, and the end of the crack was headed right for him.
He was about to plant his foot on the tanks and Humvees when he heard pavement breaking and a muffled "HHHHRRRRAAAAAAHHHNGH!". Then he was hit with searing pain as something slashed into his back and what felt like a thousand needles clamped onto the base of his tail!
Godzilla had him! The smaller creature clamped down on that tail and pulled, determined to drag his foe out of his home. His claws dug deep into the giant's flesh, drawing blood for the first time in the contest.
Strong as he was, Gojira couldn't walk normally dragging all that weight. He whipped his tail up as hard as he could, lacerating it all over but freeing it from his enemy's jaws. That didn't stop Godzilla, who used his two handholds to draw himself up on Gojira's back. Soon he was climbing, hand over hand over foot, until he was piggybacked on the rampaging beast. He raised his head up and opened his jaws, and with a piercing "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRNGH!" he sank his teeth into Gojira's neck!
"YAAAAAAAAAHHHRRRNGH!" Gojira wailed as he twisted his neck, slashed at his back, and even shot a fire blast aimlessly as he tried to get the lizard off of him, but Godzilla stayed on, digging his claws and teeth deeper and deeper into Gojira's skin. Finally the giant fell on his back, trying to scrape the lizard off, but Godzilla held on still, letting his stronger back spines take the brunt of the impact.
"He's gonna rip fat boy to shreds!" Chapman said, elated. "I guess the only thing left to say about your 'force of nature' is Boo-yah!!"
Takashima was less sure. "You're forgetting Gojira's regenerative abilities. Gojira Cells are highly adaptive to adverse conditions. That's why he has survived so many battles. Those wounds are not permanent. They'll heal once Gojira shakes off Godzilla, doubly quick if he gets a power boost."
"From what?" Chapman said. "What, is he rechargeable or something?"
"Something like that."
Finally Gojira got a good grip on Godzilla. He doubled over as he pulled, flipping the lizard off his back and tossing him down the street. Godzilla landed in a heap a hundred meters away, bringing down two buildings as he skidded to a stop.
Gojira breathed heavily, recovering from his ordeal and letting his rage build. He was done with this city, the little things in it, but especially the ugly, gangly, annoying little upstart that kept trying to kill him over it. The anger rose to a crescendo, ready to explode at any time.
At that moment, a massive peal of thunder sounded, drawing the monsters' attention. Suddenly Gojira was struck with a devastating lightning bolt. The electricity coursed through his system, giving him a second wind. Godzilla watched from afar as the wounds he inflicted started to close up. Blood stopped flowing, sinews healed, scales reformed, and Godzilla knew, right then and there, that he'd no longer be fighting for territory. He'd be fighting for his very survival.
"YYAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRAAAAARRRRRNGH!" Gojira roared, screaming his declaration of victory to the heavens. He felt renewed, invigorated, ready to conquer the world! Here he would attack the upstart and kill him, sending him to Hell for good.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRNGHH!" Godzilla answered, surprising his adversary. He wasn't beaten yet, and he had no intention of losing his life to this outsider. Now that he knew he simply had to survive, his course was clear. He simply needed to attack until he no longer could. With that decided, he sped toward his adversary.
Gojira reared back and let loose his most powerful blast yet. It hit where Godzilla was. The smaller monster had taken a huge leap forward. Gojira tried to track him with the flame, but the lizard fell and rolled, sprang up and leaped again, using buildings and rubble as springboards.
Finally, one more bound carried him to Gojira. He rolled his body so that his back spines pointed right at the giant. When Gojira tried to knock him away, he slashed his arm on the bony protrusions, cutting himself deeper than any other monster before. He wailed at the pain, then tried to strike with his other arm, but Godzilla had moved quickly on landing, and a twist of his back sank the spines deep into the other arm.
Godzilla maneuvered and moved in, slashing his claws into Gojira's belly. The attack was desperate, frantic, but for the first time Godzilla was driving his quarry back. He knew he had to act faster. He could see and sense the wounds healing. He leaped up and flipped forward, slashing the spines down Gojira's torso. Gojira squealed with pain and rage and tried to grab the lizard and throttle him, but his cuts weren't healing fast this time, and the wounds were making him too slow.
Godzilla backed off and leaped again, the exact same way, then rose up and made the spine cuts deeper with his claws. He was slicing through as much flesh as possible, pouring on the damage. One more leap and he was scaling Gojira's front, digging in with his hands and feet. Gojira finally got a grip and tossed the lizard down to the road, but before he could deliver a crushing blow, Godzilla recovered and dodged, then threw himself spines-first at the giant again. When he landed this time, he stayed on his back, whipped his tail around Gojira's foot and yanked with all his might.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGGGHHH!" Gojira screamed as he fell back, landing with the force of an earthquake on the pavement. He almost made it up, but Godzilla rushed forward, walking on top of the massive creature until he could reach Gojira's chest with his claws. Godzilla shot his neck forward with his jaw unhinged. Gojira had no idea what was happening until Godzilla's jaw slammed shut...around his snout!
He wanted to breath fire but Godzilla beat him to it, and the blast of fire directly to the face elicited a muffled scream of agony. It was just a distraction. While he breathed, Godzilla found Gojira's chest with his claws and began to burrow. Gojira howled and flailed as the lizard stripped away flesh, muscle, fat, bone, going through the chest of the creature the way he would dig through solid rock. Soon Gojira's ribcage was completely exposed, and when Godzilla felt pure bone, he got a grip and pulled away pieces with brute force.
He finally released Gojira's snout, and the monster howled piteously. He was mad with pain, but had no time to do anything about it, because Godzilla's mouth moved only a little farther down.
Gojira moaned as the mouth sank into the opening, then choked when it sunk into a vital organ. Godzilla pulled out Gojira's heart, relishing the taste, as he tossed back his head and let it go down his throat. He went back in for more, making Gojira twitch as he chewed through lungs, stomach and organs no one could figure out. He ate until the part he exposed was nearly hollowed out, lifting his head only to see his enemy's death throes.
Never, never in his history had Gojira been so thoroughly beaten, so wounded, so unable to recover. His body whipped around uncontrollably, his mouth opened and closed with no noise, no fire, no action at all. His eyes had already rolled back in his head, and with one final jerk, the rest of him went limp.
Godzilla held his position, watching over the body, making sure it wasn't playing dead. It could heal itself, after all. He looked up into the rainy sky, waiting for another bolt to come down and help the giant, but none were forthcoming.
In the Command Center, Chapman and Takashima watched the ugly scene with their hands over their mouths. Tatopolous was in the latrine, throwing up. Koza turned away, not knowing what to feel. Only Hicks managed to maintain his composure. He'd already seen the corpse of the first Godzilla up close after twelve missiles had gutted it, so the devastation was not something that shocked him. Besides, they'd gotten what they wanted.
With a final sniff, Godzilla was sure Gojira was dead. He continued forward until he was over the corpse's head and on the ruined street. He raised up to his full height and got his bearings, then bent down and finished what he'd started. He hooked his claws into the giant's shoulders and, with step after tortuous step, he walked, dragging the body with him.
The trip was long, especially backward, and more buildings were destroyed along the way, since Godzilla was taking a direct route, but at long last he brought the heavy body to the Eastern Shore of the island. The East River was waiting, and Godzilla made a path through the FDR to reach it. Then he grabbed the body again, pulled backward to the edge, then fell in backwards, taking Gojira with him. He let the body sink into the water, leaving it to decompose in peace. He then swam under the Williamsburg Bridge and climbed up one of the supports.
He left the water and went all the way to the top, looking out over the island that he had proven belonged to him and him alone. He looked out over the river, giving one last thought to the one being he'd ever had to worry about taking it from him.
Big, dumb, seafood. "EEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHRRRRRRARRRRNNGH!!"
Godzilla was triumphant!
Hicks was about to make sure the victory celebration was short-lived. "Command to all units. Prepare to Assault Target One on my mark. Execute Plan 'Lights Out', Now Now--"
"Wait!!" The three scientists yelled in unison.
"Excuse me?" Hicks said. "Wasn't this the whole point of this title match?"
"Colonel," Tatopolous said, "just look at him."
Hicks looked. "He's just sitting there. So?"
"That's the point, Colonel." Chapman said. "He's defended his territory. He's not rampaging through it. He's not trying to lay eggs or kill your soldiers. He wanted to protect his home. He's done that. Let's not antagonize him anymore and see what he does."
"But we can't let him go!" Koza said. He was ready to call in the F-15s to assist.
"Yes we can," Takashima said, "and I think we must. You know as well as I do, Colonel, that even when we've thought Gojira dead and gone he's managed to reincarnate himself as a new terror. Wouldn't it be better to let live the one monster that might stop be able to stop him the next time he shows up, especially if that monster seems to mean no harm to anything else?"
The three of them looked at Hicks and Koza, pleading with their eyes. The two officers looked back, then at each other, each man reading the other's thoughts:
Scientists!
"Command to all units," Hicks radioed, "Stand by..."
Godzilla found a nice, quiet cove in the East River to call his own and made a nest there. He would feed off the nearby corpse of Gojira for a while before needing to hunt for food in the ocean. The City of New York set aside buildings in the Warehouse District to form a Mutation Watch Center, to be headed by Nick Tatopolous and Elsie Chapman and staffed by people of their choosing. Kimiko Takashima was the first to accept an invitation to work with them, and their first task was to figure out how to monitor Godzilla's movements at all times. Chances were that he would lead them to any other monsters that might show their heads. Colonel Ichiburo Koza returned to Japan with copies of Hicks's plans and some modifications he made of his own. He was already coming up with unique ideas to combat many of Japan's other famous unwanted guests.
Hicks and the scientists made one last trip to the island Godzilla had been raised on so that Tatopolous and Chapman could gather their equipment and move it to the new research facility. Takashima looked around while the others packed.
"There is an island similar to this near the Home Islands." She said to them. "We've managed to keep it secret. Its called Monster Island. You two would love it there. All manner of mutations to poke and prod."
"Like what?" Chapman said.
"Oh, like a Pteranodon the size of a passenger liner." Takashima chuckled.
"No way. A pteranodon that big could never fly."
"Yes, way, and he could carry off your Godzilla like a hawk grabbing a mouse."
"Really? Would you care to make a friendly wager on that, Doctor Takashima?"
As he listened, Nick Tatopolous realized that his fiancee Audrey had been right. He never thought his life could be this exciting.
Final Author's Note: I know a lot of you are disappointed by the ending, but I stick by what I wrote.
Here's how I see it. Take a sumo wrestler, put him in protective gear and give him a flamethrower, and he's a bad mamma-jamma...until you put him in a ring with a rabid pit bull that knows instinctively: "Fire Bad, Get out of way". The first time the sumo wrestler misses a shot with the flame thrower, he's f***ed.
New Godzilla is the pit bull, Old Godzilla is the sumo wrestler. Yes, OG has a bad flamethrower, but a lot of his opponents don't go down the first time they get hit by it, and NG has lots of ways to dodge lots of stuff.
New Godzilla beats Old Godzilla. End of story.