(A/N: I recognize that people don't come to the AzuDai section to read about giant monsters kicking the snot out of each other, but I was having just so much fun…)
"People… of Japan," Xolarus announced. "Thanks to your wonderful future Queen, the metropolis of Tokyo is safe! However! A demonstration of our power is still necessary. Our intelligence indicates that the creature you call Godzilla is on a small island some ninety kilometers from your shores… watch the sky carefully, Earthmen, and know that our ultimate weapon is loose on your world!"
If he was going to say any more, it was forever lost as the gub'mint once more clamped down. "Pay no attention to the blue man," the same hard-faced official said upon retaking the signal. "There are no aliens and there is no invasion."
Perhaps this assertion would have been more convincing if people who looked up couldn't see an unnatural, unwinking point of light hanging in the Eastern sky. Needless to say, they watched very carefully.
"It's been an hour," Tomo said matter-of-factly, casting a calm look around at the dense traffic. "You know what that means."
"Huh?" Kagura gave a start; she'd been on the edge of falling asleep.
"YOU LOSE!" The wildcat idiot burst into hysterical laughter, drawing the baffled attention of the people in the next car. Happily, the light ahead of them changed before she could start making faces at them.
Instead of retorting, Kagura punched her on the arm. When Tomo tried to counterattack, she protested, "You can't hit me, I'm driving!" and punched her again. Their conflict could only escalate…
"Well, at least they're having a good time," Yomi muttered in the backseat.
"Something just occurred to me," Chiyo piped up. She'd been sitting on Osaka's leg and so had to turn back to address her. "Ms. Osaka, are you awake?"
"Eh?" One dark eye half-opened. "…yeah."
"If you really have to go to Birth Island, shouldn't we get you a radiation suit or something to protect you? I could call my father and ask him to order one through the Sendai office."
Osaka stared at her for a few seconds as if she'd spoken English, then smiled wanly and waved the offer off. "Don' worry 'bout it. Mothra's got me."
"But…" Chiyo wanted to believe the older girl, but she sounded so resigned. Her bleak gaze was more frightening than any space demon, for while Osaka's words said that it was taken care of… her eyes said that it didn't matter.
Xandra reacted faster than thought, catching the dragon's head between two fingers and jerking it away, ribbons of blood twisting between its vicious little fangs and Sakaki's punctured arm. The creature hissed and snarled, beating its leathery wings and laying about with all four sets of barbed claws, covering its master's arm and face with scratches.
Sakaki regarded the blood oozing through her sleeve in blank surprise. One minute Xandra's pet had been cuddling right up to her, the next…
"Bad dragon!" Xandra snapped in X-lish, swatting it exactly once—but when the beast was duly punished, her wrath turned on herself. "I'm so sorry!" she wailed in Japanese, "I should have warned you about sudden moves! Are you all right? Oh, oh… let me see that…"
"It's okay," Sakaki said as the Xian girl took her arm and frantically pulled her sleeve up. The wound wasn't nearly as bad as a few she'd gotten from the biting cat. "Please, don't worry."
"Don't worry?" Xandra was nearly in tears. "But you're hurt!"
Sakaki took her shoulder with her other hand. "It's fine. I shouldn't have moved so suddenly… it's okay. Don't worry."
Xandra stood and walked quickly across the room, depositing the dragon on a chair as she passed. A cabinet in the wall hissed open beneath her touch and she withdrew a reel of bandage and a disinfectant spray.
"At least let me do this," she pleaded. "I'm such a moron… meeting the future Queen, of course I had to bring the jumpiest…" at this point she lapsed into X-lish, and Sakaki could only nod sympathetically as she muttered away, agile fingers quickly cleaning and bandaging the twin punctures. "I'm so, so sorry…"
"I'm used to it… are you okay?" Sakaki asked.
"Why wouldn't I…?" Xandra ran a finger over some of the scratches on her cheek, then laughed. "Oh, no problem. Happens to me all the time."
Sakaki nodded, relieved. "What were we talking about?"
"Huh?" Xandra thought back. "Oh… uh, you were telling me about 'cooking.' It sounds so interesting!"
"But what do your people do?"
"I guess they might cook back home, but I'm a space brat. I've lived on instant shipboard stuff my whole life."
"Your whole life?"
"I've only been on Planet X twice, and never more than a few days. And to tell you the truth, it's not that much different from the ships 'cause they were driven underground by Ghidora before we tamed him… and you know something?"
Sakaki indicated that she was listening.
"I think it's kinda weird how his name doesn't start with 'X' like everyone else's. It's how we mark people and important places, y'know? It's almost like he came from somewhere else… wait, 'King!' That's an Earth word, isn't it? What does it mean?"
Sakaki wasn't sure of her English. "Like a ruler, I think."
"Huh. I wonder what he rules, then. Maybe the dragons?" She reached out and her pet dragon leapt onto her arm, winding back to its habitual place on her shoulders. "Do you owe him fealty, little guy?"
Listening to her ponder the meaning of Ghidora's name made Sakaki realize who the Xian reminded her of. Xandra had mostly dispelled the unrelenting terror that had dogged her since her abduction; it was good to know that not all of these people where psychopaths and megalomaniacs.
The Invasion of Earth. Sakaki was painfully aware that, until she and Xolarus were (gulp!) married, she had no say with the Xians. Funny, but now that she had enjoyed a few minutes to brace herself and calm down, it seemed that her poker-face was holding inside as well. She realized that, as Queen of Earth, she'd be able to stop the fighting, or at least moderate it. That was a good thing, right? That must be what Xond had meant by her chance to save the Earth…
But marriage?
"Thinking of changing your name?" Xandra asked.
"I'm sorry?"
"I mean, there's nothing wrong with Sakaki, but without the X, it won't sound like a person's name to the Xians. It'd be like having… Queen Footstool or something."
The door chime went off, startling both of them. The dragon registered its surprise by sinking its teeth into Xandra's arm, but she didn't seem to notice. "Who's… who's there?" Sakaki called.
"Second-in-command Xethnex," that worthy answered from outside.
"And third-in-com—" thump! "Ow!"
"I said I'd handle this! Just watch!" Xethnex hissed, then cleared his throat and spoke naturally. "Ms. Sakaki, I must speak with you about a fairly urgent matter."
The girls looked at each other. "Come in," Sakaki finally said.
Xethnex entered rather diffidently and took a chair near to the door. It creaked ominously, but the heavyset man obviously knew what he could get away with. Xoltan took a position at his side and leaned against the wall more casually. "Hello, there," the second greeted, "I'm sorry we had to meet under such… strained circumstances."
"Me too."
"It is a great responsibility to thrust on someone who's so young. Unfortunately, you don't know just how great. The situation is even direr than you might think."
Sakaki looked around, meeting each pair of golden eyes in turn. Xandra clearly didn't know what was going on, but the two officers seemed almost to pity her. "How?" she finally asked.
"Prince Xolarus is an advocate for taking worlds with a minimum of bloodshed. He doesn't believe that we must act like the conquerors of old to get those worlds that we need." Xethnex's tone darkened, "His father the King is not of that opinion. It is only with the greatest of reservations that he agrees to let Xolarus have this chance, and he's watching us every step of the way.
"If the Prince falters in any significant way, the King will come to Earth with his own space monster and take its resources using his method. The last world taken thus, you call Mars. Once it was verdant, but it has been reduced to a blasted desert by the very creature that we are loosing on your world.
"Now, many aspects of our invasion are being monitored, but the most vital as far as the King is concerned, and what he considers the greatest duty of any individual man, is how Xolarus manages his bride."
You could have heard a pin drop. "That's you," Xoltan said helpfully, earning another blow. "Ow! "
"So… if I don't marry him…" Sakaki's eyes were wide.
"Your world will die."
"Sorry guys, but I can't drive like this…" Kagura gave a thunderous yawn that would have done Osaka proud. "I need to sleep. Anyone got money for a hotel or something?"
Everybody instantly looked to Chiyo. She winced, but then relented, withdrawing a slender wallet from her back pocket. "I guess this counts as an emergency."
"It's been a long day," Yomi added. "We all need rest."
Kaori looked around frantically. How could she sleep when Sakaki was in trouble? They had to stop the aliens and save her! There wasn't time to--an involuntary yawn strained her jaw. Curse her frail body and its needs!
They pulled into a small hotel just as the last of the sea-green twilight was fading in the West. And in the East, that unholy light burned steadily like the Eye of Sauron, promising a grim fate for the world beneath its fiery gaze.
Xandra slept uneasily, half-curled on her pallet with the covers twisted around her, clutching the much happier white dragon like a stuffed animal. The Keeper paused over her on his way out and gently brushed a gray lock of hair out of her face. He was glad that she wouldn't see the advent of Ghidora.
Now he would be acting in his full capacity as Keeper, directing the space monster's actions on a hostile world. With any luck, the humans would surrender when they saw Ghidora's might and Earth would be theirs by the time the sun rose on Japan again. Of course that was wishful thinking; the Keeper had no doubt many Earthmen would die.
As he strode to the bridge, a colossal pair of red eyes opened in the blackness of the main hold and the beating of that great heart grew in strength until it throbbed through the whole ship. Orange eyes opened as the hold was thrown into relief by powerful floodlights. Yellow eyes opened as the decking began to slide open, revealing the impossibly bright expanse of Earth far below.
Ghidora fell.
Leathery wings wrapped batlike about his body and already glowing with friction., 60,000 metric tons of golden malice plunged through the upper atmosphere. It was at this point that the government official appeared on television and said that they were very sorry and yes, there was actuallyan alien invasion. The populace didn't take much convincing.
This living comet shrieked through the cloud cover over Tokyo Bay before King Ghidora's wings spread, catching his massive weight with a thunderous clap of air-resistance. Tokyo's lights blazed off of his body as he loosed a gravelly shriek, first the center head, then with the left and right adding their voices, each a different pitch and horribly dissonant with the first.
To Tokyo's immense relief, he didn't stick around. Two heads scanning the dark waves keenly, Ghidora set out Northeast at nearly the speed of sound, paced by a flight of SDF fighters. The monster ignored them; the pilots' feelings weren't badly hurt.
Ghidora's objective became apparent as the minutes wore on. He was bound for Birth Island and the equally fantastic creature that called it home. He was bound to challenge the most powerful living thing on Earth: the King of the Monsters, Godzilla!
FEEL THE DRAMA!
Earthling tacticians rejoiced. They'd never seen such a formidable problem move so quickly to take care of itself before. Talk was even made of pay-per-view, but arrangements couldn't be made on such short notice. The Press tried to move in, halted by the SDF's ironclad no-fly zone around Birth Island. No great tragedy; the Press, as you know, is well-versed in round-the-clock coverage with nothing to report.
Millions of eyes around the globe were trained on the space demon as he closed on Birth Island and the battle that would decide Earth's fate. And through it all our heroines slept, unaware that they would awaken to a changed world!
Birth Island was a rapidly growing blotch on the horizon when Ghidora received his official welcome to Earth. Those watching didn't even see the beam; it just looked as though the universe (or their TV screen at least) had turned searing blue.
The atomic ray struck Ghidora's chest before he even caught sight of the enemy, knocking him from the air for sheer surprise. As the spray from his fall roared up, the SDF boys peeled off; Godzilla had shown his gruesome skill at pegging fighters from the air several times in the past.
Ghidora thrashed and flailed underwater, finally managing to get his wings above the choppy foam. Unlike in many of the space monster's portrayals, they were jointed like a bat's, complete with fingers and nasty hooked claws. After a few prodigious beats, they lifted him skyward, great waterfalls rolling from beneath his scales.
Even as he struggled to rise, though, the beleaguered invader saw a titanic shadow slicing beneath the waves towards him. Before Ghidora got more than twenty meters into the air, his foe surged up from below and plowed into him, bringing both crashing down into the ocean and raising a mountain of spray visible from the mainland.
The invincible space demon's invasion was turning out to be fairly anti-climactic. Writhing desperately, he escaped the Earth monster's grip and started for the island again, shrieking in pain as Godzilla's teeth sank into one of his tails. Dragging his foe, Ghidora finally made landfall, crashing into the barren stone of Birth Island and struggling to rise.
Godzilla followed confidently, plodding onshore and giving spectators their first view of Earth's champion. He… oh, hell, you know what Godzilla looks like! It's important to note, however, that the beast moved with shocking grace, not at all like a little guy in a 300 pound costume. He roared at the larger monster, waiting for him to rise with what could only be contempt.
Suddenly, though, one of Ghidora's tails lashed back, sinking the cluster of barbs at its tip into Godzilla's throat. The Earth monster made a sound that was half-grunt and half-gurgle, grabbing the tail with both hands as the other dug into his stomach. His foe turned sideways, the rightmost head spewing a jagged gravity beam that left an ugly, smoldering wound across Godzilla's chest.
The spikes burst free from his throat with a gush of pale green blood and Godzilla waded forward, roaring in fury. The space monster beat his wings once, hopping and turning to face him, then all three heads sprayed gravity beams all over Godzilla, almost knocking him off his feet.
It was then that the King of the Monsters did something new and completely surprising. He ran. More enraged than ever before, Godzilla charged towards his alien foe, the thunder of his tread making seismographs on the Japanese mainland jitter.
For a moment, it seemed certain that nothing could stand against the saurian's fury… but then Ghidora's right head lashed out like a viper and latched onto his already much-abused throat. The left head snapped down and took hold of his thigh, and the center caught his arm. Ghidora took to the air for just a moment, letting the other monster's momentum carry him under and releasing him so that he could stumble on through and crash into a convenient mountainside.
King Ghidora whirled and started firing gravity beams into the billowing dust and smoke; from the horrible sounds that issued forth, it was clear that they were connecting. Suddenly, things didn't look so good for the Monster King, and unfortunately for Earth, the space monster didn't look back.
Some five minutes later, as Ghidora hauled his defeated foe over the ocean and dropped him in, a cheer rose on the invaders' bridge, punctuated by the pop-pop-pop of Space Champaign uncorking. But even as Xoltan poured him a glass, the Keeper couldn't bring himself to enjoy their triumph too much.
After all, if the Earthmen didn't capitulate, their city of Sendai would be next.