NOCTURNE

Chapter V (05): Operation Domination

Morning breaks, and both the giant skeletal monster and Akira are exhausted. The monster is bleeding heavily from the stomach (a wound that Akira made when he was able to attack it at close range), but Akira is barely scratched. All he's been doing is dodging and attacking, which does take quite a bit of energy from him, especially with his large sword.

The giant monster roars one last time and takes off into the sky, using its telepathic powers that Akira just recently learned it had. In just a matter of moments, the monster is nothing but a black speck in the purple morning sky. Akira breathes a sigh of relief. The battle is over, but the war has not yet been won.

"I will most surely fight that thing again. But that, I hope, won't be for a long time…"

Akira places his sword back in its metal casing. Tired and slowly losing strength, Akira heads back to the boat to rest… only to run into Dark. Dark squeals happily to have found its master. Akira's strength returns and builds up in his chest as it comes back in the form of anger.

"YOU STUPID CREATURE! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU!"

Dark stops squeaking and looks at Akira innocently.

"I FIGHT HUGE MONSTERS JUST TO LOOK FOR YOUR ASS! You're lucky I'm tired, because if I wasn't, arrrrrrgh…"

Akira glares at Dark, but Dark retains its innocent look. Akira gives up and tells Dark to follow him back to the boat.

But Dark wants Akira to follow him.

Curious by Dark's pleas, Akira follows, still mighty pissed, as Dark leads him deeper into the large jungle. Finally, after several gruelling minutes, Dark brings Akira to a large metallic house, where voices are heard talking inside. Akira hides behind a bush and listens closely as he focuses all his attention on what is being said inside…

"…will take just a matter of months, maybe even weeks if we move fast enough."

"That's suicide! How will we be able to control that many monsters in such a short period of time? What if we lose control?"

"There's no way! I am 100 percent sure of it."

"Where is Monster X? Didn't he land last night?"

"It would seem it retreated after having a ferocious battle last night. It ended this morning."

"What could have battled it?"

"We're not sure yet, but it must have been mighty. In the end, however, Monster X came out the victor, for there are no remains of any other monsters around that could have battled it… besides Manda."

"Are you telling us that Manda battled our Monster X! That's preposterous! That creature is one of the weakest monsters on the island!"

"That's what I said."

"Quit talking, all of you! Leader is about to speak!"

All is silent in the room. 'So…' Akira thinks to himself. 'The large serpent I battled yesterday is named Manda? And that giant skeleton… Monster X? Who are these aliens?'

Just as Akira is about to get deeper into thought, he hears a deep, menacing voice from inside the mechanical house and concentrates once again on listening.

"My fellow Xilians, it is nice to see you all here. All of you are loyal."

'Xilians?' Akira says to himself quietly.

"The day draws near when Planet Imaj will be all ours. We have assembled almost all the acquired monsters for Operation Domination. So far, the list goes as this. We have:

Orochi, the eight-headed dragon that can shoot all types of elements from each of its individual heads.

Monster X, the telepathic monster with strong armor and four eyes that can transform into the mighty Kaiser Ghidorah.

Gigan, the half-cyborg half-monster space beast with the giant razor and long metal claws that can replace themselves into giant chainsaws.

Hedorah, the smog monster. It can pollute the oceans and kill off all the fish, and it can also kill the people and creatures living on Imaj with its powerful toxins.

Destoroyah, the giant four-winged beast with the giant orange horn that can sap the oxygen around it with its powerful Micro Oxygen Spray and its devastating Oxygen Destroyer.

Space Godzilla, the clone of the mighty King of the Monsters with psychic powers and the ability to drain the planet's power, as well as take the power from buildings for its own energy.

Legion, the mighty insect-like creature that can make dozens upon dozens of baby Legion that will tear at the people and fuse to form more Legions.

Iris, the vengeful monster with many tentacles and psychic powers that can gather energy by sucking up projectiles shot at it with a hole on its stomach.

Death Ghidorah, the four legged Ghidorah that is almost as powerful as Kaiser Ghidorah and has the ability to kill people by staring at them and turning them into stone.

Zilla, the fleet-footed monster with the best of eyesight and can swim underwater at incredible speeds and destroy submarines and any other underwater technology that will be used against us.

Gyaos, the giant pterodactyl-like creatures that fly in flocks of the hundreds and that eat anything small that moves on the ground. They also have incredibly strong lasers that beam from their mouths and can cut through virtually anything.

Megaguirus, the enormous dragonfly creature with the large stinger that can be used to suck the life from other monsters that are going to be going against us. She is also the fastest of all the monsters we have mentioned so far, and her wings can disrupt any communication going on as well as jam up the controls of our enemy's weapons so they will become useless against us.

Battra, the evil black Mothra. Although once a friend of Mothra's after a humiliating defeat against Godzilla, we are currently turning it against the good and bringing it to our side. The process will be long, but well worth it.

Now for the monsters that we don't have."

'C'mon, how long of a list are you going to have!' Akira says to himself as he waits impatiently for the Leader of the Xilians to finish his speech. 'And what the hell is "Godzilla?" I've never heard of such a thing. Unless I've seen it already, but never gave it any though... meh...'

"The list goes as this. We don't have:

Super Dragon King Ghidorah, the super powered Ghidorah that can teleport all beings it sees into a large shell, which is stores them for later so it can eat them after they've been gassed or die of starvation.

Biollante, the monster made from combining a rose and Godzilla's cells together to form a huge beast with many tentacles with minds of their own. The creature can spit acid and melt the environment around it, as well as the toughest of metal. It was originally on the good side, but, like Battra, we are going to convert it to become as evil as us.

Mecha Godzilla version 4, codenamed the "X4", is the newest Mecha Godzilla, far more advanced than the human-made Mecha Godzilla of the past and our older generations' version. It is even better than the most recent one they named "Kiryu," that was equipped with the powerful Absolute Zero Cannon. X4 is currently under construction and will be completed in two months' time.

Orga, the alien with the ability to copy other monsters' DNA and become just like them; a copy. Orga's kind live far from us, but we are now forming a treaty with them so that they can be on our side. They're nearly extinct. Only about 47 of their kind are left alive. As soon as the takeover of Planet Imaj is over, we shall kill them off and take the planet for ourselves.

There are more monsters out there, but these are the ones we are most interested in. Now for the final monster. The monster with such incredible strength that no monster alive, not even any being alive, will be able to kill it: Bagan.

Bagan is the ultimate monster ever created. It possesses speed, strength, and psychic powers beyond all comprehension. It lived in the Earth's ultra-ancient past and has vanished since the time of the dinosaurs. It can live for all time and hardly loses strength because of age. About ten years ago, our older descendants brought back Bagan to their time and fused its cells with both Godzilla and King Ghidorah's, making it even stronger. We plan on fusing it with all the monsters above except for the mechas to create the monster that will live in infamy. It will have the power to wipe out galaxies and it will lead us to universal domination. Nothing will stand a chance when we find this magnificent creature of ultimate power."

There are the sounds of cheering Xilians as their anticipation of finding Bagan increases to a new level.

"Sounds like nothing will stop them now…"

Akira stands up from behind the bush… only to hear several voices saying "An intruder!"

Akira sighs.

"Shit. Here we go again."

NOCTURNE

"Fear of death is the realization of life's unresolved contradiction." –Leo Tolstoy