Twins of Cold

Akim Ekk pulled his cyclic stick gingerly to the left once again. Depressing the anti-torque peddle slightly, he let up on some of the engine's puttering heart. He tiled his machine and looked down upon the teeming area around Mjöllnir's Summit. From his Helix chopper he could see Boris Yaroslav standing like a statue against the chilling wind. The sublime commander had requested that Akim and his squadron remain in flight around the base while his soldiers prepared the C4 explosives in the bleak and splintered building. The submarine Kirvako was entering and preparing to finish off the bawling creature that he had sent into the sea. The tusked demon's image still burned in his bewildered mind. The violence and hatred it poured from it's being would forever be a residual aphotic memory. One of a dozen war torn thoughts that gnawed at his belting soul.

Suddenly a unusual, but familiar beeping, sounded through his cramped cabin. His aged military wit had recognized the resonance almost immediately. His eyes darted to the radar. The screen had come alive with a large white bleep. The circular signal was moving with great speed towards his location. Akim blinked with puzzlement. The size of the shape was enormous. Far to big to be anything that could fly. He had not seen a shape of this size since the creature that he had just previously engaged in battle. Akim's mind jokily pictured the walrus beast flying. It was a momentarily childish thought that came about because of shattered nerves. It would be the last pleasant concept that would laud his mind.

In the next instant his world was rent sightless. A gust of howling ivory wind from out of nowhere, brought an icy wall that sheathed and glossed over his windows. His hands struggled to keep his flight controllers stable. The powerful hurricane force drafts battered and toyed with his chopper. Within seconds it was over, but the damage was already done. Through his taught muscles he could feel the engine die and the whirling blades of the aircraft come to a slowing pace. He could not peer from out of his bay window, but Akim already knew what was out there; what was fast approaching. The sky and ground were exchanging places. He closed his eyes blissfully moments before his body was alive with flames.

High above, the rest of Akim's squadron watched in staggering horror as their proud captain was sent crashing into the snow covered lands. They had observed with creeping lassitude when the bellowing gargoyle streaked from out of the banking clouds. They gazed shockingly when the creature breathed it's fowl icy breath upon the Helix airship. They starred doleful as the chopper was transformed into a ghostly block of ice in the blink of an eye. Her rudders and blades were rendered motionless. There was no hope of survival for Akim against the coldly grasp of this new nightmare that had appeared. The specter of hate flapped its mammoth fleshy wings to keep it's form hovering over the spiraling stygian fuel-fed cloud that arose from the mass of wrecked metal in the snow. It allowed a low gurgling snarl to reverberate through it's muscled banshee throat. Peguila had arrived to Mjöllnir's Summit.


Beneath the ice, a war with another monster from Earth's past, was already in full swing. The dull leaden tubular body of the Oscar-II class nuclear submarine, the Kirvako, glided through the Arctic Sea with phantom prowess. Her torpedo tubes were already filled with the azure gushing waters. Pressurized and stocked, they loomed ever so closer to their target; like a killer awaiting in the shadows with a savage blade. Inside the ship was devoid of noise; save for the labored breathing of her crew that dripped with terror laced sweat. The captain Commander Boyra Witte, stood by the screen that depicted the photonic mast's readout, with unyielding cobalt eyes. The incongruous beast known as Maguma, was just short of half a mile away from the bow of the ship. The creature made no attempt to flee from the Kirvako. Instead the beast seemed unperturbed. It was waiting at a distance, for the man-made ship to approach closer.

"Lets see how you stand up against something a bit bigger than those Helix bombs," the captain hissed sarcastically through his parted teeth. "Fire torpedoes one through four!"

The sailor that manned the control panel wasted no time in doing what his superior officer had barked aloud with authority. Depressing a few switches, the timid man sent away four VA-111 Shkval torpedoes. The thin elongated pods streamed through the water with little effort. The supercavitation design allowed the sage green machines to sliced through the water with no drag from the sea to hold them back. The brisk nature of the weapons was enough to catch the growling Maguma off guard. Maguma on the land was a bulbous and awkward animal. Yet in the sea the walrus was an archangel among the heavens. Flapping his webbed hands and feet, the monster was able to pull most of his layered bulk out of the path of the oncoming weapons. Three of the ammo rockets passed by, but the forth made contact.

Searing waves of multilayered anguish washed into Maguma as the munitions detonated against him. Scarlet blood bubbled and oozed from the creature's gory wound. Life given sanguine fluid clouded the brittle icy water around the kaiju. Though through the haze Maguma could see the bringer of his pain. Hovering motionlessly against the dank sea, the Kirvako submarine released another set of saddled torpedoes against him. It was not a mistake he would let happen again. Grunting with effort Maguma rocketed his frame around the jetting shells and brought his tonnage against the ship's hull. Klaxon alarms and protesting metal, screeched in fury from the behemoth's battering weight. Inside, men and machinery were tossed about like toys. Sparks exploded from the computer terminals as deep rose red lights mirrored themselves in the control room. Boyra Witte attempted to bring order to the chaos but it was long past that time.

Lurching back his head, Maguma prepared for one final strike. Snapping forward, cobra like, the unnatural beast speared it's ivory tusked into the submarine. The lengthy javelins tore and gouged through the machinery. Layer upon layer of reinforced steel were perforated in malice. The anew rushing seawater, poured into the mortal wound. It's corrosive natural of salt racked and destroyed exposed wiring. Decompression began to set in and the Kirvako began to bend. Plating bucked and caved in under the combined assault of the sea and the monster. Maguma's soulless orbed eyes reflected utter loath at the machine's crushing can, like form. Time, measured in heartbeats, thumped before the grumbling beast as it pulled free it's oil stained teeth. The ancient being watched in disdain as the war machine dipped in cripple manner. The bow the submarine drooped forward and plunged headlong into the blackness. As the depth's increased so did the pressure. Creaking metal popped and sounded in agony. In moments, the Kirvako imploded. Hundreds of men's screams, laid upon their watery battered forms. Their shells drifting about the frigid waters, lifeless as crumbled falling leaves in the dead of winter.

Maguma sighed in satisfaction. He had been victorious but the adversary had taken it's toll upon him. Even now his wound still fogged and clouded the immersion around him. He was about to dive away and give his injuries time to heal when his delicate ears picked up on something. The medium of the water beat a bizarre cry into him. The demon's cackling surrounded and pressed against his form. It was from above. It was from the area that he was just banished from. Was this a foe worthy of his ripened might? Was this just another stinging beast that harkened for him to come and put it out of it's pathetic life? Snapping it's savoring jaws, Maguma kicked his way to the surface, rocketing himself to the opening in the ice that he was cast down from. This howling intruder would met an even more terrible fate than the Kirvako did. This opponent's pain would be forced to linger. Maguma would be the director of this creature's fate.


Gaafa pulled on Vadim's arm as he jumped into the fractured doorways of the squat broken facility of Mjöllnir's Summit. Both men's hearts threaten to break free from their chests. Their lungs gasped and burned. The shooting began again, forcing the duo to lower their heads and cover their ears. From his vantage point, Gaafa could see the faces of the alarmed soldiers as they emptied more explosives and bullets against the newly arrived horror. Mortar fire, slags of heated metal, and explosive shells, dotted the creature's form . The sleet of vehement alloy struck again and again against the monster with little effect.

Peguila had landed soon after he destroyed the lead Helix chopper. The creature of macabre, racked it's taloned feet into the earth, digging in, as the rest of the flying armada sprung to life against him. The silvery machines buzzed and darted through the ethereal sky. Each helicopter had turned their full fury against the horned kaiju. Slews of bombs, bullets, and rockets bleached forth in cascading waves of power. At instances, so great the assault had become, that Peguila was forced to cover his vile head behind his fleshy devil wings. Cowering his countenance, the beast waited for the lull in attack. The wait was not a long one.

The Russian helicopters stopped their prodigious attack to deem how successful they were. It was a mistake that Peguila was cunning enough to exploit. The creature, a fixture of hell's winter, threw back it's scaly wings and gasped it's visage into the sky. Opening his toothy maw, Peguila unleashed a wave of icy hate. Spiraling and twirling, the frosty gusts of breath lanced into the arctic sky. All of the gathered airships were caught in the frothing vapor. Much like their beloved captain, their machines too transformed into frozen tombs. The machine's blades slowed to a crawl, leaving gravity to take control. The General, Boris Yaroslav, could not see the pilot's contorted faces of torture through the iced over windows. Though he knew death well enough when it presented itself in so sourly of moments. He had seen the ravaged faces of those whom had greet demise on the battlefield, in his debacle past. An unbound tear dripped from his eyes, as he watched the Udaloy's battalion of helicopters fall from the sky like cast away stones. Blossoming fires arose from each of their wreckages. The helix machines were transfigured into blooming fiery pyres. Their heaping bodies billowed smoke and soot. It was an image that would have maraud even the bravest of hearts.

The soldiers on the ground turned and ran for phantasmal safety in the partially destroyed faculty they had arrived at earlier that day. Their sudden hysteric and crowd like movements drew the yellow bulbous and vicious eyes of the hissing Peguila. The implausible brute lowered his chiseled face and opened his terrible maw once again. A baptism of ice like fire was to commence. Issuing forth, the freezing gale came once again. Coalescing and mingling itself with the creature's heinous roars, the blast of white fury blanketed soldiers and civilians alike. No difference in attacker or observer were made. All were covered from head to foot in the glaciate typhoon. Skin blacked from frostbite and screams froze on motionless lungs. When all was said and done, all that was left was a parade of icy figures. The standing dead were ghost like. Their gelid forms reflected the streaming rays of sunlight that shown from the heavens. The people of Russia were now a gathered city of stale existence. A testament to vim that only god's could wield.

Boris Yaroslav and his subordinate, Vaslov Chvoz, were the only two souls who had escaped the swamping basin of death. They had jumped through the same doorway that Gaafa and Vadim had moments before dashed into. Pressing his back against the cracked wall, the General struggled to regain his composure. Boris' eyes scanned the room to find whom else might have abscond from the newest of arctic beasts that had arrived.

"Ok, I don't know what the hell that thing is!" Vadim cursed breathlessly. "There is no record of anything like that in the fossil records. I mean for one how in the word can it fly with those heavy wings and how the heck can it freeze things like that I mean that's just impossible!"

The young paleontologist continued to ramble on aimlessly about how improbably the monster Peguila was; much to the muted replies of his fellow survivors. Vaslov shook uncontrollably in fear. Boris was tempering his breathing, regaining his resolve to be as clear as the stars that burned in the night sky. Gaafa was merely looking out a shattered window at the stomping behemoth that graced death upon all whom stood against it.

"What do we do?" Gaafa sighed weakly as he turned to face the Russian commander. He searched the man for some sort of answer, but none came. Only mirrored eyes reflected the same question that Boris was obviously wanting to ask as well. This place was the ninth ring of hell. This was the frozen lake of Cocytus. It had encircled their souls and was siphoning fever from their very spiritual heart. Things could not get any worse, at least so they thought.

A familiar roar resounded across the sky. A rolling wrathful cry that exalted it's will upon the expansion. The Russian men quickly jumped to their feet to join Gaafa's petrified focus. From behind Peguila, in a jagged gaping hole in the ice, the monster Maguma was waist deep in the stench ridden brine sea. They could see a large yawing wound that dribbled blood from it's left shoulder. The creature must have stamped out the nuclear submarine Kirvako. At least, it did not triumph unscathed, Boris Yaroslav's mind growled in contempt at the beast.

Maguma snapped at the air blusteringly as it pulled the rest of his mammoth bulk from the sea. Shaking it's form, the walrus sent torrents of sparking ocean cascading from it's folding layers of blubber. Peering white saucers smoldered with rancor beneath the beast's brow. Maguma's whiskers twitched and flickered at the odium scent of the bluish-green hued creature that flapped it's voluminous wings before him. His brief departure had left an opportunity for another intruder to step into his secluded world.

Peguila thundered into the cavern sky, waving his arms, thrashing in agitated fury. The tiny carrion insects had been dealt with. Now a new sullied stench was brought upon him, carried on the abdominal quadruped that inched closer and closer with each bulbous step. The winged demon's mind flashed with dimly lit memories. Ages ago, lifetimes ago, this was one of the many artic monstrosity's that birthed from his sliver of the world. In such a hellish cold lay, only the largest and most powerful would be allowed to live and spawn. Battles and wars were engaged daily. Peguila's life was forged in the heat of abhorring enmity. Digging in his clawed feet into the snow parched earth, the chartreuse monster began a titanic struggle that had not been bared upon the North Pole since the twinkling dawn of time.

The horned beast charged with cries of mirth and in seconds was upon the bracing Maguma. Buffeting his muscular fleshed wings against the walrus' bulk, Peguila wrestled with the heavy foe. Snapping with tusked bites, the beast of the skies gnawed and worried the fatty body of the stunned Maguma. Digging in his crooked scythe like claws upon his wings, Peguila dug in for better footholds. Sinew and muscle cut and snapped under the deepening dart barbs. He would rend this foe piece by piece. This creature would find it's carcass strewn across his domain and feed his ardor for centuries to come.

Blood trickled from dozens of bites inflicted upon him, but Maguma stood mountain like against the attack. Lowering his head; curling his potent brawn, the kaiju walrus showed the would be attack what true power really was. Snapping his barreled chest muscles and neck, Maguma cast and threw Peguila away to the side. The flapping demon struggled to rise from it's back, but the web footed animal would not allow such an opportune mistake to be made. Wallowing his massive bulk, the creature fell upon his appalling rival. He could feel the failing strikes and nibs of the creature beneath him, but they were far fewer this time around. Maguma reeled back his head like a cobra ready to strike. A brief grunt of rage resounded through his guttered throat before he struck down with his massive tusks.

The twin blades of enriched bone pierced the left wing of the trapped Peguila. The monster screeched in utter dismay. Maguma had brought about an unfamiliar feeling to him. Pain, an odd concept that had not graced Peguila in millions of years. The beast struggled under the odious titan's weight. Clawing strikes and gnashing bites were not availing to his release. Peguila's cold heart throbbed and beat with renewed vigor. From deep within he could feel his infernal might rise. A regal power that deemed to reveal it's unbound zeal. Prickling specks of ice and cold wormed themselves from the belly of his vile slush. Opening his toothy jaws, Peguila unleashed his bestowed gift from the god's upon his opponent. Ceaseless and fowl raging ice poured from between his yellowed teeth.

The typhoon winds pelted Maguma's body and face. This was an unnatural cold that he had not before felt. He could feel his skin burn and blacken beneath the swarming boreal. It was too much, and forced the bullish creature to retreat from his near victory. Shunning his head and backing away, Maguma was pushed further and further into withdraw from the pummeling frost. It seemed ages had passed before the cackling biped creature stopped in it's raid. Maguma glared heatedly at the newly arisen Peguila. The creatures were back in the same position they were before they began their war. Only weeping bloodied wounds and charred flesh signaled that anything had happened before.

"Looks like stalemate," Commander Boris spoke dryly. "Lets hope they just kill each other and end this wrenched hell."

"Now I guess we know what the Japanese feel like," Vadim joked, trying to make light of the recent kaiju attacks that had threaten the oriental country in the past years. It was a joke on deaf ears. The young man backed away from the window and began to pace the room out of nervous habit. He was witnessing something that only writers could ever depict. A bloody battle of titans that nightmares could only manifest. It wasn't until then that a horrible realization birthed in mind. He raced over to his friend Gaafa and faced him with wide white eyes that reflected grasped knowledge.

"The earthquake!" he breathed deathly. "It's still coming here!"

Gaafa, as well as the two soldiers dropped their jaws in awe at the startling subject. Through all the multitudes of terrible happenings of late, the men had completely forgotten about one of the main reasons they were here. Gaafa cursed himself for letting transpiring events to overtake his scientific mind. He scanned the room, desperately looking for his computer that tracked the seismic anomaly. Fear gripped his being for he could not locate the device. It was then he remembered upsettingly where it was. He bolted for the still open door, his gaze cutting across the white expanding grounds. In the distance, he could see his satchel lying next to one of the snow covered jeeps.

The hefty man wasted not a second thought as he plunged himself into the wasteland. Behind, he could hear the faint calls of the others that ordered him to come back. He ignored them and pressed on. Not daring to look upon the warring beasts, Gaafa focused on getting back his seismic reader. Zigzagging from left to right, he dodged and moved around the still standing ice-covered Russian soldiers that littered the field. He could not help but feel the deepest of sorrow over their deaths. Their existence was everlasting, a frozen memorial to the inexcusable product of murder. Their eyes, wide open pools of lingering pain. Gaafa turned his head away, and plowed through the forest of the dead. He dropped to his knees when the finally reached the mangled jeep. As he rummaged through his backpack, he could hear the ominous beeping sound that harkened a coming horror. Pulling the machine free, he flipped open the screen of the computer. A short gasp leapt from his throat. The tiny red dot, which had been the trophy of his work, was within a mile of their position. On the side of the geographical layout, countless numbers and symbols rambled down the page. Gaafa did not have much time to make sense of the waterfall of information, though he could tell from some key figures that the epicenter was growing in strength. Not only was it traveling towards them, it was rising from beneath the Earth.

In an age of science and reasoning, belief and fate were oftentimes cast out. Rudimentary ideals of hope were squandered. Yet, there were times, when even the most faithless would have to give credence to divine intervention. Gaafa grabbed at the flatted wheel of the man made jeep in panic as the ground began to quake. The Earth turned and shifted beneath his feet, rocking from a power that was pulling itself from the bowls of hell. So great was the rippling strength, that it had broken up the raging monsters that turned the landscape into a tattered graveyard of men. Peguila and Maguma cocked their heads, looking about the rattling continent. Each grunted and growled at the revealing force. Mjöllnir's Summit quivered and crumbled in it's weakened state. From his vantage point Gaafa could see the ducking heads of his commands as they attempted to dodge the failing debris.

Moments passed before the shaking subsided. The earthquake had been as quick as it was vicious. Sections of the Russian facility had caved in and the ground had split around it. Gaafa struggled to regain his facade after the incredible display of strength. He had not noticed that the blaring crimson dot had not faded with the ceasing of the earthquake. The rose-hued circle continued to beat, growing in size as it told the machine it was rising from the seabed floor. Something was rocketing through the cold black depths. Swimming through the icy waters, tumbling and churning the damp aqueous seas in it's wake. Powerful muscled clad arms and legs pulled its form towards the surface, it's extending tail giving swift speed to it's journey.

Gaafa screamed in mortal fright when the shadowy form smashed through the ice close to him. It's armored body ripped itself from the sea, as it's crocodilian head unleashed ages of primordial cries that had not been heard upon the planet since the age of the great thunder lizards. It's head was a mask of forged and fanged savagery. The tip of it's snout ended in a short powerful curved horn. The back of it's head, crested in a crown of five larger hooked horns. Roped muscle and bone pulled and burned as the monster heaved it's quadruped form unto the ice's surface. Now the true testament was shown of the creature's being. It's back was an immense shell of bony spikes. The mass of needled bone, laid like a bed a nails. From behind, the creature swayed a muscled reptilian tail. Along it too, grew the same wild spikes that had spawn from it's shell. The tail ended in a lancing skewer. A dinosaur, alive and well, now had entered Gaafa's shrinking world.

"I don't believe it!" Vadim exclaimed in child enthusiasm. "It's an Angurisaurus! I can't believe it, it's a real life Angurisaurus. They were thought to be extinct when the age of the dinosaurs ended. I just…I cant believe this is happening!"

Boris and Vaslov stood petrified at the sight of the giant reptile. A gathering of a trifecta of monsters had taken place. Each that had appeared was worse the one before. In an icy world that was devoid of life, it was strange to see that it was now teeming with some of the greatest powers that had breathed upon the planet. The General turned and faced the gloating Vadim. His face was split into a toothy grin that reminded him of a child with his new toy.

"What is that thing?" he questioned weakly.

"It's an Angurisaurus," the young man shot back, still smiling. "It's a dinosaur. It's a offshoot member of the Ankylosaurus family. I guess you can call it Anguirus for short. It's a herbivore believe it or not and it is a tunneling creature kind of like a mole. He must have been the cause of this "moving" earthquake. My god though, the size of this one is just as impossible as that creature Maguma. There is nothing on record of an individual of his species reaching that size. It's not surprising that Gaafa's seismic computers were able to pick up on him. At that size, he must have been tunneling at a great depth in the Earth."

The paleontologist looked out upon the snow capped land. A trio of roars lifted and blanketed the area, clamoring and resounded in the hearts of those who were unfortunate enough to bare witness to their forms. Only one thought now scorched and burned the human's minds. Who would win this struggle of life. And what would the winner do to them once all is said and done.