Frankenstein Has Risen From the Grave
By C. L. Werner
Chapter III:
The Revenge of Frankenstein
The massive creature slithered through the waves, incapable of understanding the tremendous changes ravaging its body. Its once moist skin was hardening, its once elastic body becoming too tough and scaly to perform as it once had. The Devil Fish surged upwards, up from the black depths of the sea to the bright sunlight of the surface. As the huge mollusk broke the waves, its eyes focused upon a nearby ship. Hunger still filled the creature, and though it detected no trace of the warmth emanating from the ship, the vessel was moving and to the Devil Fish, movement indicated prey.
A scaly tentacle emerged from the foamy, troubled sea. Even as those on the deck of the ship screamed and pointed at the massive limb, a second tentacle wrapped itself about the prow of the ship. A third and fourth struck out, wrapping about the vessel in a crushing embrace. The Devil Fish pulled its main bulk from the disturbed sea, its evil eyes scouring the deck of the ship, focusing upon those small fleeing figures. The tentacles snaked about the ship, striking anything that moved, fastening upon men and women with razor-sharp suckers. The tentacles whipped back to the main body, placing their victims within the beak-like maw beneath the giant octopus' body. As the cruel beast fed, surges of radioactive energy coursed through its body, rippling about its scaly body like chained lightning. The radiation made the paint on the ship's hull bubble and catch flame. Its effect upon those on the ship was even more horrific.
The Devil Fish let the surge of atomic energy escape its body, easing its pain. Then, a blast of even more powerful nuclear power struck the dying vessel. The ship exploded upon the impact of the searing blue flame, casting shrapnel across the waves. The Devil Fish was lost within the resulting ball of flame and fire.
Godzilla roared lowly, stalking forward to see what had become of his adversary. The monster king had followed the hideous mollusk from San Francisco to this point in the mid-Pacific, determined to end its rapacious predation and avenge the injuries it had inflicted upon him. Godzilla watched as the flames from the ship slowly condensed, becoming nothing more than a slick of fire upon the rolling waves.
Suddenly, from the depths, the huge shape of the Devil Fish erupted, its glistening tentacles wrapping about Godzilla's reptilian hide, digging into his scaly flesh with razor-sharp suckers. The Devil Fish pulled its main mass upwards, glaring at Godzilla with its eerily human eyes. Massive horns now sprouted from above the Devil Fish's eyes and they began to glow with a phosphorescent light. The Devil Fish tightened its grip upon Godzilla, then sent a radioactive charge searing into Godzilla's body. Godzilla roared in pain, his claws closing about one of the Devil Fish's tentacles. Godzilla grunted with the effort as he tore the tentacle's suckers from his flesh and raised the writhing, whip-like limb upward toward his mouth.
It was the Devil Fish's turn to feel agony as Godzilla's powerful jaws closed about the tentacle, severing the limb from the mutant octopus' body. The Devil Fish pulled away from Godzilla, retreating back into the water. Godzilla roared at the fleeing monster and then dived after it. The chase was on once more.
'Made any progress?' the oily voice of CCI chief Katagiri inquired as the dark suited official entered the room within the CCI facility. Interpol agent Murakoshi looked up from the stack of papers he had been perusing. On the other side of the table, aged German scientist Dr. Reisendorf continued to read the reports.
'I would be able to answer that better if I knew what I was looking for,' Murakoshi answered, trying to rub some of tension out of his neck.
'This was your idea,' pointed out Katagiri. 'You are the one who is so convinced that Frankenstein is alive and still in Japan.'
'Dr. Reisendorf says that Frankenstein is a very vindictive man,' Murakoshi said. 'If Godzilla injured him as severely as the Red Bamboo terrorists have said, then he is going to stay close until he has destroyed the monster.'
'As far as I know, no mad scientists have made an attempt on Godzilla's life lately,' sneered Katagiri. 'And I don't see how anything like that is going to turn up in those police reports.'
'No,' stated Dr. Reisendorf, 'but something else might. If Dr. Frankenstein is still in this country, then he must somehow have equipped himself with a laboratory and medical equipment. I have been looking for any reports of stolen surgical supplies. Also, I fear, any instances of bodies stolen from morgues or cemeteries.'
'We have found a few things that are possible leads,' Murakoshi added, 'and some of your Special Police are already looking into them.'
'Do you think that they will find him?' Katagiri said. Whatever answer Murakoshi was formulating was cut off by Dr. Reisendorf's excited exclamation.
'I think that I have found something!' the old scientist declared. 'Here is a report of a missing German tourist in Osaka.'
'Wasn't there also a German engineer who disappeared in Osaka?' Murakoshi asked, rifling through his stack of reports.
'And also a hospital that was burgled,' Dr. Reisendorf added.
'How do missing Germans tie in with Dr. Frankenstein?' Katagiri asked, not following the conversation.
'You must remember that Heinrich von Frankenstein is, among other things, a Nazi,' Dr. Reisendorf said. 'He may not have worshipped Adolf Hitler like most of those goose-stepping zombies, but there was much in National Socialist philosophy that he did agree with. The first and foremost of these was the Nazi belief in a Master Race and the superiority of the Nordic bloodline.'
'Meaning?' Katagiri inquired.
'Meaning that if Frankenstein was in need of replacing an injured body, he would insist on putting his new form together from the bodies of other Germans,' Murakoshi declared.
'Yes, Gentlemen,' Dr. Reisendorf concluded, 'there can be little doubt. Frankenstein is alive and he is operating somewhere in Osaka!'
'Baron, you can't really intend to release that, that thing upon the world,' protested Dr. Gildor. The two German scientists stood on the beach, the stars obscured by heavy clouds. Behind the two men, a large truck with a long bed idled. Upon the bed of the truck was a large tarp, beneath which something moved.
'Reports say that Godzilla and this Devil Fish will make landfall in Sendai if they stick to their present course,' Heinrich von Frankenstein stated. 'Two uncontrollable beasts thrust upon a defenseless city. Really, Dr. Gildor, how can my Prometheus make matters any worse than they already are? How can a creature firmly under my control be as bad as two rampaging monsters?' Frankenstein lifted the hand radio to his mouth and snarled a command into the radio.
The shape beneath the tarp on the truck began to rise, pulling the obscuring fabric away. It was huge, easily thirty feet tall, its shape that of a man. The head was square and misshapen, the eyes staring dully from the greenish, corpse-like face. The monster strode towards the two men standing on the beach, halting just before them.
'You see, Dr. Gildor?' gloated Frankenstein. 'Completely under my control.' Frankenstein produced a heavy canister and barked another order into the radio. The hulking Prometheus leaned downwards. Frankenstein placed the canister in the monster's hand and commanded Prometheus to swallow the capsule.
'More of the elixir?' gasped Dr. Gildor.
'The last of it, I am afraid,' replied Frankenstein. 'His digestive juices will eat through that canister in a few hours. Then the elixir will begin its work. By the time he swims to Sendai for his rendezvous with Godzilla, my creation will be able to defeat the monster and we shall both have our revenge.'
'But what about the people?' Dr. Gildor demanded.
'Oh, there will be some casualties, I am sure,' Frankenstein remarked. 'But that should hardly concern us.' Frankenstein barked another command in the radio.
The huge monster became ridged, his right arm shooting forward. A harsh, misshapen mouth tried to mimic the words he had been taught, but the croaking growl that emerged was unintelligible. Then, the monster strode into the surf. Dr. Gildor and Dr. Frankenstein watched as Prometheus faded from view.
'I must work on his speech skills,' Frankenstein mused. 'Perhaps when he finishes with Godzilla we will get him on the table again and see if we can't work on that.' Frankenstein let a malevolent look cross his face as he looked at Dr. Gildor. 'Or perhaps he needs a new brain.'
The huge Devil Fish slithered onto the nighttime beach at Sendai, its scaly skin glistening wetly in the lights of the city. The powerful, tentacled beast lashed out at the JSDF tanks and missile launchers that had been formed up to halt its advance, diverted from the massive buildup of troops preparing for the seemingly inevitable arrival of the devil-beast Bagan in the south of Japan. These were very much second-string forces, new recruits using old and out-dated equipment. Many of the weapons did not even begin firing until after the giant octopus had begun its assault. By the time the Devil Fish began to claim serious casualties from the JSDF forces, the bulk of the formation had collapsed into a chaotic retreat, soldiers abandoning their vehicles to scramble into the streets of the city, tanks and missile launchers ramming into each other in their desperate attempts to escape.
The Devil Fish paid all of this little attention, its tentacles lashing out in every direction to deliver a surge of radiation to anything that moved. The scaly, mollusk-like monster slithered ever deeper into the city, heedless of the few shells and missiles that impacted harmlessly against its body. No, the weapons of man could not harm it. But there was something that could. The Devil Fish could still feel the agony of its missing tentacle, and its wicked primitive mind could sense the tell-tale aura of radiation that heralded the coming of his pursuer.
Godzilla's head and shoulders emerged from the bay, his roar splitting the sky. Godzilla lost no time making his way to land, eager to come to grips with his enemy. Twice now, the Devil Fish had escaped him. It would not do so again.
Godzilla blasted a building that loomed above the huge octopus, showering the Devil Fish in rubble and debris. The reptile had learned that the mollusk was immune to his radioactive flame, so Godzilla no longer attempted to strike the Devil Fish. But to bury the beast alive in a mound of debris was another thing.
The Devil Fish squirmed away from the shower of stone and concrete, its body bruised and battered. The octopus' gills noisily puckered, announcing its anger to Godzilla. The octopus slithered back towards his attacker, no longer content to play the part of the prey. It was time for Godzilla and the Devil Fish to battle once more. And this time, only one would survive.
By C. L. Werner
Chapter III:
The Revenge of Frankenstein
The massive creature slithered through the waves, incapable of understanding the tremendous changes ravaging its body. Its once moist skin was hardening, its once elastic body becoming too tough and scaly to perform as it once had. The Devil Fish surged upwards, up from the black depths of the sea to the bright sunlight of the surface. As the huge mollusk broke the waves, its eyes focused upon a nearby ship. Hunger still filled the creature, and though it detected no trace of the warmth emanating from the ship, the vessel was moving and to the Devil Fish, movement indicated prey.
A scaly tentacle emerged from the foamy, troubled sea. Even as those on the deck of the ship screamed and pointed at the massive limb, a second tentacle wrapped itself about the prow of the ship. A third and fourth struck out, wrapping about the vessel in a crushing embrace. The Devil Fish pulled its main bulk from the disturbed sea, its evil eyes scouring the deck of the ship, focusing upon those small fleeing figures. The tentacles snaked about the ship, striking anything that moved, fastening upon men and women with razor-sharp suckers. The tentacles whipped back to the main body, placing their victims within the beak-like maw beneath the giant octopus' body. As the cruel beast fed, surges of radioactive energy coursed through its body, rippling about its scaly body like chained lightning. The radiation made the paint on the ship's hull bubble and catch flame. Its effect upon those on the ship was even more horrific.
The Devil Fish let the surge of atomic energy escape its body, easing its pain. Then, a blast of even more powerful nuclear power struck the dying vessel. The ship exploded upon the impact of the searing blue flame, casting shrapnel across the waves. The Devil Fish was lost within the resulting ball of flame and fire.
Godzilla roared lowly, stalking forward to see what had become of his adversary. The monster king had followed the hideous mollusk from San Francisco to this point in the mid-Pacific, determined to end its rapacious predation and avenge the injuries it had inflicted upon him. Godzilla watched as the flames from the ship slowly condensed, becoming nothing more than a slick of fire upon the rolling waves.
Suddenly, from the depths, the huge shape of the Devil Fish erupted, its glistening tentacles wrapping about Godzilla's reptilian hide, digging into his scaly flesh with razor-sharp suckers. The Devil Fish pulled its main mass upwards, glaring at Godzilla with its eerily human eyes. Massive horns now sprouted from above the Devil Fish's eyes and they began to glow with a phosphorescent light. The Devil Fish tightened its grip upon Godzilla, then sent a radioactive charge searing into Godzilla's body. Godzilla roared in pain, his claws closing about one of the Devil Fish's tentacles. Godzilla grunted with the effort as he tore the tentacle's suckers from his flesh and raised the writhing, whip-like limb upward toward his mouth.
It was the Devil Fish's turn to feel agony as Godzilla's powerful jaws closed about the tentacle, severing the limb from the mutant octopus' body. The Devil Fish pulled away from Godzilla, retreating back into the water. Godzilla roared at the fleeing monster and then dived after it. The chase was on once more.
'Made any progress?' the oily voice of CCI chief Katagiri inquired as the dark suited official entered the room within the CCI facility. Interpol agent Murakoshi looked up from the stack of papers he had been perusing. On the other side of the table, aged German scientist Dr. Reisendorf continued to read the reports.
'I would be able to answer that better if I knew what I was looking for,' Murakoshi answered, trying to rub some of tension out of his neck.
'This was your idea,' pointed out Katagiri. 'You are the one who is so convinced that Frankenstein is alive and still in Japan.'
'Dr. Reisendorf says that Frankenstein is a very vindictive man,' Murakoshi said. 'If Godzilla injured him as severely as the Red Bamboo terrorists have said, then he is going to stay close until he has destroyed the monster.'
'As far as I know, no mad scientists have made an attempt on Godzilla's life lately,' sneered Katagiri. 'And I don't see how anything like that is going to turn up in those police reports.'
'No,' stated Dr. Reisendorf, 'but something else might. If Dr. Frankenstein is still in this country, then he must somehow have equipped himself with a laboratory and medical equipment. I have been looking for any reports of stolen surgical supplies. Also, I fear, any instances of bodies stolen from morgues or cemeteries.'
'We have found a few things that are possible leads,' Murakoshi added, 'and some of your Special Police are already looking into them.'
'Do you think that they will find him?' Katagiri said. Whatever answer Murakoshi was formulating was cut off by Dr. Reisendorf's excited exclamation.
'I think that I have found something!' the old scientist declared. 'Here is a report of a missing German tourist in Osaka.'
'Wasn't there also a German engineer who disappeared in Osaka?' Murakoshi asked, rifling through his stack of reports.
'And also a hospital that was burgled,' Dr. Reisendorf added.
'How do missing Germans tie in with Dr. Frankenstein?' Katagiri asked, not following the conversation.
'You must remember that Heinrich von Frankenstein is, among other things, a Nazi,' Dr. Reisendorf said. 'He may not have worshipped Adolf Hitler like most of those goose-stepping zombies, but there was much in National Socialist philosophy that he did agree with. The first and foremost of these was the Nazi belief in a Master Race and the superiority of the Nordic bloodline.'
'Meaning?' Katagiri inquired.
'Meaning that if Frankenstein was in need of replacing an injured body, he would insist on putting his new form together from the bodies of other Germans,' Murakoshi declared.
'Yes, Gentlemen,' Dr. Reisendorf concluded, 'there can be little doubt. Frankenstein is alive and he is operating somewhere in Osaka!'
'Baron, you can't really intend to release that, that thing upon the world,' protested Dr. Gildor. The two German scientists stood on the beach, the stars obscured by heavy clouds. Behind the two men, a large truck with a long bed idled. Upon the bed of the truck was a large tarp, beneath which something moved.
'Reports say that Godzilla and this Devil Fish will make landfall in Sendai if they stick to their present course,' Heinrich von Frankenstein stated. 'Two uncontrollable beasts thrust upon a defenseless city. Really, Dr. Gildor, how can my Prometheus make matters any worse than they already are? How can a creature firmly under my control be as bad as two rampaging monsters?' Frankenstein lifted the hand radio to his mouth and snarled a command into the radio.
The shape beneath the tarp on the truck began to rise, pulling the obscuring fabric away. It was huge, easily thirty feet tall, its shape that of a man. The head was square and misshapen, the eyes staring dully from the greenish, corpse-like face. The monster strode towards the two men standing on the beach, halting just before them.
'You see, Dr. Gildor?' gloated Frankenstein. 'Completely under my control.' Frankenstein produced a heavy canister and barked another order into the radio. The hulking Prometheus leaned downwards. Frankenstein placed the canister in the monster's hand and commanded Prometheus to swallow the capsule.
'More of the elixir?' gasped Dr. Gildor.
'The last of it, I am afraid,' replied Frankenstein. 'His digestive juices will eat through that canister in a few hours. Then the elixir will begin its work. By the time he swims to Sendai for his rendezvous with Godzilla, my creation will be able to defeat the monster and we shall both have our revenge.'
'But what about the people?' Dr. Gildor demanded.
'Oh, there will be some casualties, I am sure,' Frankenstein remarked. 'But that should hardly concern us.' Frankenstein barked another command in the radio.
The huge monster became ridged, his right arm shooting forward. A harsh, misshapen mouth tried to mimic the words he had been taught, but the croaking growl that emerged was unintelligible. Then, the monster strode into the surf. Dr. Gildor and Dr. Frankenstein watched as Prometheus faded from view.
'I must work on his speech skills,' Frankenstein mused. 'Perhaps when he finishes with Godzilla we will get him on the table again and see if we can't work on that.' Frankenstein let a malevolent look cross his face as he looked at Dr. Gildor. 'Or perhaps he needs a new brain.'
The huge Devil Fish slithered onto the nighttime beach at Sendai, its scaly skin glistening wetly in the lights of the city. The powerful, tentacled beast lashed out at the JSDF tanks and missile launchers that had been formed up to halt its advance, diverted from the massive buildup of troops preparing for the seemingly inevitable arrival of the devil-beast Bagan in the south of Japan. These were very much second-string forces, new recruits using old and out-dated equipment. Many of the weapons did not even begin firing until after the giant octopus had begun its assault. By the time the Devil Fish began to claim serious casualties from the JSDF forces, the bulk of the formation had collapsed into a chaotic retreat, soldiers abandoning their vehicles to scramble into the streets of the city, tanks and missile launchers ramming into each other in their desperate attempts to escape.
The Devil Fish paid all of this little attention, its tentacles lashing out in every direction to deliver a surge of radiation to anything that moved. The scaly, mollusk-like monster slithered ever deeper into the city, heedless of the few shells and missiles that impacted harmlessly against its body. No, the weapons of man could not harm it. But there was something that could. The Devil Fish could still feel the agony of its missing tentacle, and its wicked primitive mind could sense the tell-tale aura of radiation that heralded the coming of his pursuer.
Godzilla's head and shoulders emerged from the bay, his roar splitting the sky. Godzilla lost no time making his way to land, eager to come to grips with his enemy. Twice now, the Devil Fish had escaped him. It would not do so again.
Godzilla blasted a building that loomed above the huge octopus, showering the Devil Fish in rubble and debris. The reptile had learned that the mollusk was immune to his radioactive flame, so Godzilla no longer attempted to strike the Devil Fish. But to bury the beast alive in a mound of debris was another thing.
The Devil Fish squirmed away from the shower of stone and concrete, its body bruised and battered. The octopus' gills noisily puckered, announcing its anger to Godzilla. The octopus slithered back towards his attacker, no longer content to play the part of the prey. It was time for Godzilla and the Devil Fish to battle once more. And this time, only one would survive.