Frankenstein Has Risen From the Grave
By C. L. Werner
Chapter I:
It Came From Beneath the Sea
Tension was threatening to tear the world apart. First there had been the build up of Allied forces in the Indian Ocean and Asia Minor in preparation for an all out campaign against terrorists and those who offered them refuge. Then had come the horrendous advent of the super-monster Bagan. Finally, had come the devastating attack of Russia's orbiting doomsday weapon called Perun's Axe. The governments of the world were in uproar. Some applauded Despot Ivan Vladimir Vasalov's decision to employ the solar powered particle beam, for it had apparently destroyed the monster before it could turn its grim attention to more populous regions. Others decried the use and very existence of the weapon as criminal, employing inflammatory words like 'holocaust' and 'genocide' in their descriptions of the terrible device.
With such uncertainty straining relations across the globe, the Navy of the United States was on its highest level of alert. The nuclear-powered submarine Sea Hawk had been recalled from duties elsewhere and sent to the Sea of Japan, within close striking range should things turn ugly with China or North Korea. It was, of course, a secret mission, for the President had no desire to make either the Chinese or the Koreans nervous about an armed presence in their vicinity.
Commander Pete Mathews reviewed his largely unfocused orders. The politicians had yet to clearly define what they thought to accomplish in the region, indeed, every passing hour the attitude in Washington and other capitals seemed to change. Mathews had a bad feeling about this uncertain deployment of his ship and his crew. In the mid-Pacific, he discovered that he had good reason to be concerned.
The submarine was rocked as if by a tidal wave, despite the many fathoms of water between the sub and the surface. Red warning lights replaced the normal illumination within the sub and klaxons began to sound. Commander Mathews barked orders to his crew, ordering them to secure bulkheads against any breeches in the hull. Almost at once a status report was being read back to him by the chief engineer. Mathews did not like what he was reading.
'What the devil happened?' the Commander growled as he mentally calculated the force required to cause such damage to his ship. 'Did we hit an underwater mountain?' It was impossible, but it was the only thing that he could think of.
'No, whatever struck us was not a fixed object,' responded the engineer.
'What then? A whale?' Commander Mathews considered that unlikely possibility. 'Perhaps that creature of Dr. Mafune's that is unaccounted for?' Again, he was forced to concede that either event would have first been heralded by radar contact.
'Sir, it could have been the man in the moon, from what we know,' the engineer replied. 'I think that we will get a better picture of what happened when we examine the outside of the ship.'
'Well, with all of this damage, we certainly won't be doing the US Navy any good in the Sea of Japan,' Commander Mathews sighed. 'Helmsman, change our heading. We're going back to the ship yard in San Francisco.'
In the dark, nighted depths of the sea, the submarine slowly came about, heading off in exactly the opposite direction. Unblinking eyes regarded the submarine as it moved away with the hungry look of a predator. The beast had sensed the warmth emanating from the ship and had at once attacked, greedy for the life-giving energy it sensed within. Its powerful appendages had wrapped about the hull, grasping it in a brief, crushing embrace. But it had not understood the massive propellers whirring behind the ship. The tips of its tendrils had snaked about the props and been instantly severed. The shock and pain had caused the beast to at once release its prey and flee a safe distance.
Now, it would study this strange object, try to understand how it had been able to injury the beast. It was the first thing it had ever encountered that pulsed with the warmth and the sea monster was not about to allow it to escape. No, it would follow the strange fish, study it. Then, when it was certain that it would not be able to harm it again, the beast would strike. And feed.
'Amazing,' gasped Dr. Gildor, his blue eyes focused on the pulsating mass of flesh lying within a large aquarium. 'How can it really live without a body?' Dr. Reisendorf cast an amused look at the younger scientist.
'For one so versed in the atrocities of Heinrich von Frankenstein,' the old scientist mused, 'you don't seem to know too much about what his work could do. I assure you that I saw his accomplish things with the human body that were far more amazing than this.' The old German's eyes clouded over with sudden darkness. 'And far more horrible.'
'Why is it so large?' interrupted the dark-suited Japanese politician standing behind them. Katagiri had taken precious time from his meetings with the Japanese security council to meet the two specialists from Germany. 'I understood that the heart of the Frankenstein monster was essentially a normal human heart. This thing is as large as an entire human body.' Katagiri suspected that he already knew why the heart had become so large. He decided to voice his opinion. 'Has it reacted to the radiation within the U-boat?'
Dr. Reisendorf became thoughtful. 'When I studied it in Berlin, it was indeed, as you say, of normal human size, though it still bore many uncanny and unnatural properties. For instance, its ability to live on without any manner of sustenance, like a living perpetual motion engine. I believe that you are correct, Mr. Katagiri, the radioactivity is the only possible explanation for the growth.'
Katagiri paused, considering the elderly German doctor's words. When he spoke, it was in a guarded, almost hesitant voice. 'Dr. Reisendorf, as I understand it, radiation has always proved harmful to humans.' Katagiri gestured toward the beating, giant heart. 'Yet it has actually had a non-degenerative effect upon Frankenstein's heart. Do you imagine that, if the secret of why this is so could be discovered...'
'Why, yes!' exclaimed Dr. Gildor, seizing upon Katagiri's hypothesis. 'If we could unlock the secret of the heart, then we would be able to use that knowledge to help countless victims of radiation poisoning!'
'Yes,' agreed Katagiri somberly. 'In Japan alone there are tens of thousands who have suffered from the effects of radiation. The aftermath of Godzilla's attacks is terrible and his blood poisons any ground it falls upon, or any person who comes into contact with it.'
Dr. Reisendorf shook his head and removed his glasses. He gestured toward the giant heart. 'This thing was created by Frankenstein,' he stated. 'No good can ever come from anything that madman touched.'
'But this was created by Victor von Frankenstein,' Dr. Gildor pointed out. 'What you say may be true about Heinrich von Frankenstein's work, but this is an entirely different matter.'
'Is it?' asked Dr. Reisendorf in an almost inaudible whisper. 'Can you be so certain that it is not the same thing?'
Dr. Reisendorf would not elaborate on the comment, nor explain the haunted look that had entered his eyes.
'Lower the pile,' Dr. Otani ordered. The technician in the Ogasawara command center obeyed the command and lowered the glowing atomic pile. It was the second day that Godzilla had failed to appear for his feeding. It was a bad time for the monster to go missing. There were many in Japan who were counting upon the monster to come to their rescue and destroy the beast Bagan when and if that terrible demon creature decided to attack them. Dr. Otani was somewhat suspicious about the way the government was handling the matter. It seemed to him that they were positive Bagan would threaten Japan.
'Shall we try again tomorrow?' asked the technician. 'Maybe he just isn't hungry.'
'Yes, we'll try again tomorrow,' agreed Dr. Otani. Since the awakening of Bagan, and her horrible vision of the beast, Miki Saegusa had been unable to contact Godzilla, her disturbed state interfering with her natural empathy with the monster. Again, the timing could not be worse.
Dr. Otani looked over at the main panel of television monitors. Each of them showed a different section of the island. Mothra was gone, probably dead from the sketchy reports coming out of Afghanistan. Rodan was still half-dead from the battle in Tokyo. The larva Mothra was being tended by Anguirus, a circumstance that had existed ever since the elder Mothra's departure. Now, Godzilla was gone too. If the JSDF came here looking for a way to stop this Bagan creature, there was little Monsterland could offer them. Gorosaurus would not last very long against a creature that had defeated Mothra, and Baragon was far more likely to eat everyone rather than save them from the demon.
Yes, Godzilla had chosen a most disturbing time to decide to go wandering.
The huge shape slithered through the sea. It could sense the Sea Hawk moving ahead of it. Briefly the monster considered attacking the tempting morsel. But it restrained itself. On the very periphery of its sense it could detect an even greater warmth somewhere ahead of it. Perhaps the strange warm fish was returning to its school, unaware that it was drawing a predator into the fold.
The Devil Fish considered these things. No, it would follow the warm fish back to the greater warmth it detected. Then it would feed.
Dimly, the Devil Fish detected a spot of warmth somewhere behind it. It was much greater than that of the fish it was chasing, but insignificant beside the immense warmth the fish was leading it too. The Devil Fish instantly rejected the thought that it might attack this new warmth. The glowing energy it detected ahead was far too tempting.
The immense octopus continued onwards, following the Sea Hawk, unaware that it in turn was being followed as well.
Dr. Gildor was working late in the lab, completing his preliminary study of the monster's heart. Dr. Reisendorf, by no means an energetic man, had left hours ago and even the determined Japanese researchers like Dr. Kawaji and Dr. Togami had left. It was just him and the heart now. If the German was honest with himself, he would have admitted that it was somehow unnerving to be alone in the same room with the enormous organ. At times, even he would admit that there seemed to be something almost supernatural about the thing.
Dr. Gildor was still looking over his notes when he became aware that he was no longer alone. Two thuggish looking Japanese men were standing in the doorway of the room. One of the two men held a gun in his hands. The other produced a cloth and a bottle.
'Stay still, Doc,' the man with the gun snarled. The other thug advanced upon Dr. Gildor. The German made to defend himself, but the thug with the gun gestured menacingly.
'We were told to bring you back alive,' he said. 'That doesn't mean I can't put a bullet in your leg. It won't kill you, but it'll hurt like Hell.'
Dr. Gildor resigned himself to his fate. The other thug placed the cloth against the German's mouth and nose. The scientist tried to pretend and fake the effects of the anesthesia drenching the cloth, but the thug knew his business and kept the cloth in place so long that Dr. Gildor had to breath. He took in a lung full of the noxious fumes and was almost instantly unconscious. The last thing his dimming eyes could see were two more thugs wheeling away the huge tanks that contained the heart of the Frankenstein monster.
It was night in San Francisco when the nuclear submarine Sea Hawk returned to its port. Indeed, aside form the assorted military bases, the once great city was depopulated. The terrible accident with the atomic cannon during the attack of the monster Anguirus had effectively destroyed the city, irradiating much of it, poisoning both land and air with its atomic legacy. It unnerved the crew of the submarine every time they returned to the still operating naval base. The city was still largely intact, but no lights twinkled in the darkened buildings and no life stirred on the empty hill-side streets. It was a ghost town of the 21^st century, a lesson to the rest of the world that no place was immune from the shadow of calamity.
Commander Mathews emerged from the conning tower of the submarine and stared long and hard at the hull of his ship. He could not believe the eerie sight of the strangely scarred surface of the submarine. Everywhere there were great saucer-shaped discolorations, where the black paint had been eaten away, the metal beneath scraped and savaged.
'What in God's name happened?' Commander Mathews wondered aloud. As if in answer to his question, there was a disturbance in the water of San Francisco Bay in the vicinity of Alcatraz Island. The naval commander watched as a huge dark object surged from the foam. Long, snake-like tendrils whipped into the night air. The huge form sped across the bay, reaching the once populous wharf. The beast surged upwards as it struck the shoreline, slithering onto the deserted piers, crushing the neglected wooden structures beneath its massive weight.
The Devil Fish could feel the radiation all around it, basking in the poisonous energy just as a lizard beneath the early morning sun. The mammoth octopus began to soak the warmth into its skin. The beast lashed out with its tentacles, pulling apart those structures nearest it, feeding the rubble into the beak-like maw hidden beneath its body. The mollusk did not understand that its very presence in the city was enough to feed it the life-giving radiation. Its primitive mind still related food with the act of eating, and so it attempted to consume the structures around it. But radioactive or not, wood and stone and steel were not compatible with the Devil Fish's digestion. The octopus turned its alarmingly keen eyes around, looking for more edible objects.
After some time, the Devil Fish focused its vision upon the glittering lights of the naval base and the small figures scurrying about the shipyard. In its world of perpetual darkness, light and motion had always indicated food. Hungrily, the giant Devil Fish oozed towards the alerted navy base.
Dr. Gildor awakened in darkness. He was seated in a chair, of that much he was certain. He tested his arms, finding them unbound. The young German scientist began to rise from his seat, but a powerful hand pushed downwards on his shoulders, forcing him back into his seat.
'You, stay,' growled a twisted Japanese hunchback, standing just behind the straight-backed chair.
'You must forgive Goke's rudeness,' a calm, modulated voice said from the shadows. 'I am afraid that it is quite necessary that you remain where you are, for the time being.' Dr. Gildor could sense rather than see a thin form moving within the darkness.
'Who are you?' the German scientist asked.
'Can you not guess?' laughed the voice in the shadows. 'Do not tell me the great Dr. Gildor, Germany's foremost expert on the works of Baron von Frankenstein is a complete moron. If that is the case, then I am afraid that I have absolutely no use for you whatsoever.'
'Heinrich von Frankenstein!' gasped Dr. Gildor. It was impossible. The infamous war criminal had to be dead. Every indication was that he had perished while working for a Japanese terrorist group called the Red Bamboo in 1993.
'That will do, for now,' replied the cold, modulated voice.
'Why did you kidnap me?' demanded Dr. Gildor. 'Why did you steal the heart from the CCI labs?'
'My friends in the Japanese Yakuza have long owed me favors for the rather unorthodox surgical procedures they have asked me to perform for them.' A pair of withered hands, like blackened tree-limbs, emerged from the shadows. 'Though I must rely upon Goke to act as my hands, these days.
'As for stealing the heart, if it is not my property, than to whom may it be said to properly belong? Is not my claim on much firmer ground than any other?'
'You did not answer my question, why did you have me abducted?' There was a dry, cackling laugh from the darkness.
'You have a reputation for being one of the most skilled surgeons in all of Europe, and your knowledge of my work is unrivalled, however much that preoccupation may have cost you in social circles.' There was again a suggestion of movement and a light snapped on. Dr. Gildor could see a large box-like object shrouded by a heavy black cloth.
'Under my direction, Goke is a very capable surgeon. But he is only so under my direction. I have need of a surgeon who understands what he is doing without being told what and why at every step of the game.'
'You intend some new outrage with the heart!' accused Dr. Gildor.
'In time, Doctor,' the voice from the darkness responded. 'First there is another task which you will perform for me. Don't worry, I shall tell you exactly what you need to do before we start.'
Dr. Gildor watched in horror as the black shroud was torn away, revealing a large water-filled tank. Floating in the midst of the murky water was a human body. As if that was not enough, it was a body that Dr. Gildor recognized from his many years of study. It was impossible, but the body floating in the tank was that of Heinrich von Frankenstein. Not the hundred-year old man he should now be, if he were alive, but the healthy thirty-year old that had been the fiend of the Nazi Reich.
'God in Heaven!' Dr. Gildor gasped.
'Yes, it is a very remarkable piece of work, don't you think,' the voice from the shadows stated. 'My mind and Goke's hands built it, pieced together over the course of some five years. In fact, the hands were not added until a few days ago.'
'It is horrible,' muttered Dr. Gildor as he began to understand just what it was that he was looking at.
'Now, now,' protested the voice, 'I think it is a very good likeness. Much better than this one.' The figure strode into the light, a charred, blackened skeleton of a man, so loathsome in visage as to no longer look human. Dr. Gildor screamed as Heinrich von Frankenstein stared at the young German with his lidless eyes.
'Do compose yourself, Dr. Gildor,' the Nazi renegade scolded. 'You must be in top form when you remove my brain from this desiccated husk and place it within my new body,' Frankenstein rapped his blackened claw against the glass. 'Succeed and I shall teach you things all the books in the world could never reveal to you. Fail, and I have given Goke leave to make your death as unpleasant as possible.
The flayed flesh of Frankenstein's face puckered into something remotely resembling a smile. 'You have a fine mind within that head of yours. I am certain that you will not disappoint me.'
By C. L. Werner
Chapter I:
It Came From Beneath the Sea
Tension was threatening to tear the world apart. First there had been the build up of Allied forces in the Indian Ocean and Asia Minor in preparation for an all out campaign against terrorists and those who offered them refuge. Then had come the horrendous advent of the super-monster Bagan. Finally, had come the devastating attack of Russia's orbiting doomsday weapon called Perun's Axe. The governments of the world were in uproar. Some applauded Despot Ivan Vladimir Vasalov's decision to employ the solar powered particle beam, for it had apparently destroyed the monster before it could turn its grim attention to more populous regions. Others decried the use and very existence of the weapon as criminal, employing inflammatory words like 'holocaust' and 'genocide' in their descriptions of the terrible device.
With such uncertainty straining relations across the globe, the Navy of the United States was on its highest level of alert. The nuclear-powered submarine Sea Hawk had been recalled from duties elsewhere and sent to the Sea of Japan, within close striking range should things turn ugly with China or North Korea. It was, of course, a secret mission, for the President had no desire to make either the Chinese or the Koreans nervous about an armed presence in their vicinity.
Commander Pete Mathews reviewed his largely unfocused orders. The politicians had yet to clearly define what they thought to accomplish in the region, indeed, every passing hour the attitude in Washington and other capitals seemed to change. Mathews had a bad feeling about this uncertain deployment of his ship and his crew. In the mid-Pacific, he discovered that he had good reason to be concerned.
The submarine was rocked as if by a tidal wave, despite the many fathoms of water between the sub and the surface. Red warning lights replaced the normal illumination within the sub and klaxons began to sound. Commander Mathews barked orders to his crew, ordering them to secure bulkheads against any breeches in the hull. Almost at once a status report was being read back to him by the chief engineer. Mathews did not like what he was reading.
'What the devil happened?' the Commander growled as he mentally calculated the force required to cause such damage to his ship. 'Did we hit an underwater mountain?' It was impossible, but it was the only thing that he could think of.
'No, whatever struck us was not a fixed object,' responded the engineer.
'What then? A whale?' Commander Mathews considered that unlikely possibility. 'Perhaps that creature of Dr. Mafune's that is unaccounted for?' Again, he was forced to concede that either event would have first been heralded by radar contact.
'Sir, it could have been the man in the moon, from what we know,' the engineer replied. 'I think that we will get a better picture of what happened when we examine the outside of the ship.'
'Well, with all of this damage, we certainly won't be doing the US Navy any good in the Sea of Japan,' Commander Mathews sighed. 'Helmsman, change our heading. We're going back to the ship yard in San Francisco.'
In the dark, nighted depths of the sea, the submarine slowly came about, heading off in exactly the opposite direction. Unblinking eyes regarded the submarine as it moved away with the hungry look of a predator. The beast had sensed the warmth emanating from the ship and had at once attacked, greedy for the life-giving energy it sensed within. Its powerful appendages had wrapped about the hull, grasping it in a brief, crushing embrace. But it had not understood the massive propellers whirring behind the ship. The tips of its tendrils had snaked about the props and been instantly severed. The shock and pain had caused the beast to at once release its prey and flee a safe distance.
Now, it would study this strange object, try to understand how it had been able to injury the beast. It was the first thing it had ever encountered that pulsed with the warmth and the sea monster was not about to allow it to escape. No, it would follow the strange fish, study it. Then, when it was certain that it would not be able to harm it again, the beast would strike. And feed.
'Amazing,' gasped Dr. Gildor, his blue eyes focused on the pulsating mass of flesh lying within a large aquarium. 'How can it really live without a body?' Dr. Reisendorf cast an amused look at the younger scientist.
'For one so versed in the atrocities of Heinrich von Frankenstein,' the old scientist mused, 'you don't seem to know too much about what his work could do. I assure you that I saw his accomplish things with the human body that were far more amazing than this.' The old German's eyes clouded over with sudden darkness. 'And far more horrible.'
'Why is it so large?' interrupted the dark-suited Japanese politician standing behind them. Katagiri had taken precious time from his meetings with the Japanese security council to meet the two specialists from Germany. 'I understood that the heart of the Frankenstein monster was essentially a normal human heart. This thing is as large as an entire human body.' Katagiri suspected that he already knew why the heart had become so large. He decided to voice his opinion. 'Has it reacted to the radiation within the U-boat?'
Dr. Reisendorf became thoughtful. 'When I studied it in Berlin, it was indeed, as you say, of normal human size, though it still bore many uncanny and unnatural properties. For instance, its ability to live on without any manner of sustenance, like a living perpetual motion engine. I believe that you are correct, Mr. Katagiri, the radioactivity is the only possible explanation for the growth.'
Katagiri paused, considering the elderly German doctor's words. When he spoke, it was in a guarded, almost hesitant voice. 'Dr. Reisendorf, as I understand it, radiation has always proved harmful to humans.' Katagiri gestured toward the beating, giant heart. 'Yet it has actually had a non-degenerative effect upon Frankenstein's heart. Do you imagine that, if the secret of why this is so could be discovered...'
'Why, yes!' exclaimed Dr. Gildor, seizing upon Katagiri's hypothesis. 'If we could unlock the secret of the heart, then we would be able to use that knowledge to help countless victims of radiation poisoning!'
'Yes,' agreed Katagiri somberly. 'In Japan alone there are tens of thousands who have suffered from the effects of radiation. The aftermath of Godzilla's attacks is terrible and his blood poisons any ground it falls upon, or any person who comes into contact with it.'
Dr. Reisendorf shook his head and removed his glasses. He gestured toward the giant heart. 'This thing was created by Frankenstein,' he stated. 'No good can ever come from anything that madman touched.'
'But this was created by Victor von Frankenstein,' Dr. Gildor pointed out. 'What you say may be true about Heinrich von Frankenstein's work, but this is an entirely different matter.'
'Is it?' asked Dr. Reisendorf in an almost inaudible whisper. 'Can you be so certain that it is not the same thing?'
Dr. Reisendorf would not elaborate on the comment, nor explain the haunted look that had entered his eyes.
'Lower the pile,' Dr. Otani ordered. The technician in the Ogasawara command center obeyed the command and lowered the glowing atomic pile. It was the second day that Godzilla had failed to appear for his feeding. It was a bad time for the monster to go missing. There were many in Japan who were counting upon the monster to come to their rescue and destroy the beast Bagan when and if that terrible demon creature decided to attack them. Dr. Otani was somewhat suspicious about the way the government was handling the matter. It seemed to him that they were positive Bagan would threaten Japan.
'Shall we try again tomorrow?' asked the technician. 'Maybe he just isn't hungry.'
'Yes, we'll try again tomorrow,' agreed Dr. Otani. Since the awakening of Bagan, and her horrible vision of the beast, Miki Saegusa had been unable to contact Godzilla, her disturbed state interfering with her natural empathy with the monster. Again, the timing could not be worse.
Dr. Otani looked over at the main panel of television monitors. Each of them showed a different section of the island. Mothra was gone, probably dead from the sketchy reports coming out of Afghanistan. Rodan was still half-dead from the battle in Tokyo. The larva Mothra was being tended by Anguirus, a circumstance that had existed ever since the elder Mothra's departure. Now, Godzilla was gone too. If the JSDF came here looking for a way to stop this Bagan creature, there was little Monsterland could offer them. Gorosaurus would not last very long against a creature that had defeated Mothra, and Baragon was far more likely to eat everyone rather than save them from the demon.
Yes, Godzilla had chosen a most disturbing time to decide to go wandering.
The huge shape slithered through the sea. It could sense the Sea Hawk moving ahead of it. Briefly the monster considered attacking the tempting morsel. But it restrained itself. On the very periphery of its sense it could detect an even greater warmth somewhere ahead of it. Perhaps the strange warm fish was returning to its school, unaware that it was drawing a predator into the fold.
The Devil Fish considered these things. No, it would follow the warm fish back to the greater warmth it detected. Then it would feed.
Dimly, the Devil Fish detected a spot of warmth somewhere behind it. It was much greater than that of the fish it was chasing, but insignificant beside the immense warmth the fish was leading it too. The Devil Fish instantly rejected the thought that it might attack this new warmth. The glowing energy it detected ahead was far too tempting.
The immense octopus continued onwards, following the Sea Hawk, unaware that it in turn was being followed as well.
Dr. Gildor was working late in the lab, completing his preliminary study of the monster's heart. Dr. Reisendorf, by no means an energetic man, had left hours ago and even the determined Japanese researchers like Dr. Kawaji and Dr. Togami had left. It was just him and the heart now. If the German was honest with himself, he would have admitted that it was somehow unnerving to be alone in the same room with the enormous organ. At times, even he would admit that there seemed to be something almost supernatural about the thing.
Dr. Gildor was still looking over his notes when he became aware that he was no longer alone. Two thuggish looking Japanese men were standing in the doorway of the room. One of the two men held a gun in his hands. The other produced a cloth and a bottle.
'Stay still, Doc,' the man with the gun snarled. The other thug advanced upon Dr. Gildor. The German made to defend himself, but the thug with the gun gestured menacingly.
'We were told to bring you back alive,' he said. 'That doesn't mean I can't put a bullet in your leg. It won't kill you, but it'll hurt like Hell.'
Dr. Gildor resigned himself to his fate. The other thug placed the cloth against the German's mouth and nose. The scientist tried to pretend and fake the effects of the anesthesia drenching the cloth, but the thug knew his business and kept the cloth in place so long that Dr. Gildor had to breath. He took in a lung full of the noxious fumes and was almost instantly unconscious. The last thing his dimming eyes could see were two more thugs wheeling away the huge tanks that contained the heart of the Frankenstein monster.
It was night in San Francisco when the nuclear submarine Sea Hawk returned to its port. Indeed, aside form the assorted military bases, the once great city was depopulated. The terrible accident with the atomic cannon during the attack of the monster Anguirus had effectively destroyed the city, irradiating much of it, poisoning both land and air with its atomic legacy. It unnerved the crew of the submarine every time they returned to the still operating naval base. The city was still largely intact, but no lights twinkled in the darkened buildings and no life stirred on the empty hill-side streets. It was a ghost town of the 21^st century, a lesson to the rest of the world that no place was immune from the shadow of calamity.
Commander Mathews emerged from the conning tower of the submarine and stared long and hard at the hull of his ship. He could not believe the eerie sight of the strangely scarred surface of the submarine. Everywhere there were great saucer-shaped discolorations, where the black paint had been eaten away, the metal beneath scraped and savaged.
'What in God's name happened?' Commander Mathews wondered aloud. As if in answer to his question, there was a disturbance in the water of San Francisco Bay in the vicinity of Alcatraz Island. The naval commander watched as a huge dark object surged from the foam. Long, snake-like tendrils whipped into the night air. The huge form sped across the bay, reaching the once populous wharf. The beast surged upwards as it struck the shoreline, slithering onto the deserted piers, crushing the neglected wooden structures beneath its massive weight.
The Devil Fish could feel the radiation all around it, basking in the poisonous energy just as a lizard beneath the early morning sun. The mammoth octopus began to soak the warmth into its skin. The beast lashed out with its tentacles, pulling apart those structures nearest it, feeding the rubble into the beak-like maw hidden beneath its body. The mollusk did not understand that its very presence in the city was enough to feed it the life-giving radiation. Its primitive mind still related food with the act of eating, and so it attempted to consume the structures around it. But radioactive or not, wood and stone and steel were not compatible with the Devil Fish's digestion. The octopus turned its alarmingly keen eyes around, looking for more edible objects.
After some time, the Devil Fish focused its vision upon the glittering lights of the naval base and the small figures scurrying about the shipyard. In its world of perpetual darkness, light and motion had always indicated food. Hungrily, the giant Devil Fish oozed towards the alerted navy base.
Dr. Gildor awakened in darkness. He was seated in a chair, of that much he was certain. He tested his arms, finding them unbound. The young German scientist began to rise from his seat, but a powerful hand pushed downwards on his shoulders, forcing him back into his seat.
'You, stay,' growled a twisted Japanese hunchback, standing just behind the straight-backed chair.
'You must forgive Goke's rudeness,' a calm, modulated voice said from the shadows. 'I am afraid that it is quite necessary that you remain where you are, for the time being.' Dr. Gildor could sense rather than see a thin form moving within the darkness.
'Who are you?' the German scientist asked.
'Can you not guess?' laughed the voice in the shadows. 'Do not tell me the great Dr. Gildor, Germany's foremost expert on the works of Baron von Frankenstein is a complete moron. If that is the case, then I am afraid that I have absolutely no use for you whatsoever.'
'Heinrich von Frankenstein!' gasped Dr. Gildor. It was impossible. The infamous war criminal had to be dead. Every indication was that he had perished while working for a Japanese terrorist group called the Red Bamboo in 1993.
'That will do, for now,' replied the cold, modulated voice.
'Why did you kidnap me?' demanded Dr. Gildor. 'Why did you steal the heart from the CCI labs?'
'My friends in the Japanese Yakuza have long owed me favors for the rather unorthodox surgical procedures they have asked me to perform for them.' A pair of withered hands, like blackened tree-limbs, emerged from the shadows. 'Though I must rely upon Goke to act as my hands, these days.
'As for stealing the heart, if it is not my property, than to whom may it be said to properly belong? Is not my claim on much firmer ground than any other?'
'You did not answer my question, why did you have me abducted?' There was a dry, cackling laugh from the darkness.
'You have a reputation for being one of the most skilled surgeons in all of Europe, and your knowledge of my work is unrivalled, however much that preoccupation may have cost you in social circles.' There was again a suggestion of movement and a light snapped on. Dr. Gildor could see a large box-like object shrouded by a heavy black cloth.
'Under my direction, Goke is a very capable surgeon. But he is only so under my direction. I have need of a surgeon who understands what he is doing without being told what and why at every step of the game.'
'You intend some new outrage with the heart!' accused Dr. Gildor.
'In time, Doctor,' the voice from the darkness responded. 'First there is another task which you will perform for me. Don't worry, I shall tell you exactly what you need to do before we start.'
Dr. Gildor watched in horror as the black shroud was torn away, revealing a large water-filled tank. Floating in the midst of the murky water was a human body. As if that was not enough, it was a body that Dr. Gildor recognized from his many years of study. It was impossible, but the body floating in the tank was that of Heinrich von Frankenstein. Not the hundred-year old man he should now be, if he were alive, but the healthy thirty-year old that had been the fiend of the Nazi Reich.
'God in Heaven!' Dr. Gildor gasped.
'Yes, it is a very remarkable piece of work, don't you think,' the voice from the shadows stated. 'My mind and Goke's hands built it, pieced together over the course of some five years. In fact, the hands were not added until a few days ago.'
'It is horrible,' muttered Dr. Gildor as he began to understand just what it was that he was looking at.
'Now, now,' protested the voice, 'I think it is a very good likeness. Much better than this one.' The figure strode into the light, a charred, blackened skeleton of a man, so loathsome in visage as to no longer look human. Dr. Gildor screamed as Heinrich von Frankenstein stared at the young German with his lidless eyes.
'Do compose yourself, Dr. Gildor,' the Nazi renegade scolded. 'You must be in top form when you remove my brain from this desiccated husk and place it within my new body,' Frankenstein rapped his blackened claw against the glass. 'Succeed and I shall teach you things all the books in the world could never reveal to you. Fail, and I have given Goke leave to make your death as unpleasant as possible.
The flayed flesh of Frankenstein's face puckered into something remotely resembling a smile. 'You have a fine mind within that head of yours. I am certain that you will not disappoint me.'