It was just an ordinary day in Roostville.
Gamingboy was in his office, doing his normal governmental jobs. Everyone
else was chatting happily with each other or browsing the various stores
and Museum of Monsters. The town had started out pretty small at first
but gradually grew until it became the whole purpose of living. It had
transcended into a megalopolis of Tokyo proportions. Its success was based
on the publicity and patience Gamingboy had carefully cultured to draw
ALL Kaiju fans into the city and have it become another well known face
to the world.
No one could have loathed this publicity
and mad rush to go to Roostville more than Orga 99 (Kato Yasunori). To
him, the hype was a lousy attempt to draw people in and place them in a
city just as loud and cheerful as Tokyo. To him, it was all just a lousy
ploy.
"Benefits for Roostville?" he figured.
"What benefits, other than dragging them into the loudest, most crazy place
since Woodstock and Tokyo?" Maybe he was just cruel or even jealous. He
did know he was a schemist, and a bad-ass one at that. His schemes were
never to bring goodness into the world. No, they were all about conquest,
death, plague and destruction. Especially conquest. He didn't care
much about human life. After all, he was a necromancer; a demon from ages
past. Plague, well, it struck when it did, usually after he had left. Destruction,
oh yes! That was his second favorite. And he would get a kick out of his
next plan, which involved a lot of that.
*****
Grey clouds shielded the sun but that
never deterred the residents from having fun outdoors. It hardly rained,
after all. Such a good place to live! They could never have predicted the
siege about to occur would shake the very foundations of Roostville. The
clouds suddenly turned black and rain pounded against the ground. Thunder
filled the skies as lightning blazed through the air.
A man stepped forth on the peak of a
high hill. He was dressed almost entirely in black - military cap, cape,
jacket and pants. Steel boots graced his shoulders and feet. White gloves
covered his hands. Most noticeable of all was his head: not human by any
stretch of the imagination, but like that of a robot - the Transformer
known as Galvatron, to be exact. Everyone who was outside turned to see
this being, not human but not machine either.
"Heed my words!" he roared, causing
everyone to jump with his loud, angry voice. "This city was created in
several weeks! However, it may soon crumble to dust within just one week
as I - Kato Yasunori - will make sure of that. The pride of Roostville
has corrupted its citizens and its future citizens! This megalopolis, therefore,
should not be allowed to exist! I may spare your little, putrid lives if
you leave now but if you choose to remain and fight, then Death will cast
down her iron scythe upon your souls!"
Sheriff Varan stepped forward from the
crowd, pistol drawn. "Sir, you are under arrest for making a threat against
an entire city!" he roared at Kato.
"And you plan to lock me up and forget
about it?" Yasunori spoke, obviously uncaring about the statement the Sheriff
had made. "Have fun trying to even get close to me!" The necromancer pointed
towards the ground in front of Varan's feet and a silver arrow shot from
his index finger. It hit the ground and erupted into flames, sending him
jumping back. "Will anyone else attempt to foil my plans?"
Catbert sat up and shouted, "ME!"
"Nara shine!" Kato bellowed and his
hand rose up into the air, his palm facing Catbert. His fingers curved
and an orange ball of energy formed in his hand. "With this, we won't even
need to count how many times you strike out..."
Anguirus 55 still held tons of rallies
for he was a very good friend to Kato. He lived in a three story house
outside of town and hated most public opinion. He wrote music and song
lyrics and most had been published. A couple of his musicals had been performe
at the Roostville Public Theater.
"It appears that Catbert doesn't deserve
to get slaughtered anyway," Kato said. "I guess I'm just doing what evil
does. But since my evil doesn't motivate me to kill Catbert, I suppose
I should change my aim..." Still holding the orange ball of energy in his
hand, Kato turned his attention towards Ubergeek. The necromancer's eyes
narrowed and the Geekspawn's also. "Hmm... I suppose the Roostville citizen
named Ubergeek needs this more than Catbert does..." He pulled his arm
back like a spring in a pinball machine and held it there. "Well, Ubergeek,
would you like to battle?" he roared. "Knowing how you were-Godzillas live
for the fight, you have two options:
1) You will battle me in the heart of
Roostville, no matter what cost the city and its inhabitants pay or,
2) I will destroy Roostville and all
who live here, including Gamingboy, Sheriff Varan and others. Make your
choice, Geeky One. It may be the difference between Roostville, a thriving
city or a smoldering pile of rubble, littered with the bones of the dead."
The Geekspawn groaned. Yet again, he'd
been on his way to depart Roostville for a look at the Xians' new (and
questionable) 'Duel of the Fates' project and yet again some depraved super
villain saw fit to interfere. A new voice caught the attention of both
combatants-to-be. "Yo, Geek...what's the deal?"
Recognizing his co-workers from Ogasawara,
Uber responded in kind. "Ehh... Just another attempt to destroy Roostville,
Jun. Only one guy this time but he looks fairly tough." Kato graced this
assessment with an unusually articulate sneer, given his robotic facial
features. Above the necromancer, thunder split the sky.
Squinting dead white eyes, an ancient
sorcerer recognized an equally ancient associate. "Yasunori-san?"
Kato, himself recalling the wizened
form alongside the dark-haired newcomer, raised metallic brows with surprise,
then collected himself and smirked. "Yamoto. So the Reaper has yet to finish
his work with you. What was it, half a century since last we met?"
Obake, lost in thought for a moment,
scratched his bearded chin. "Seventy years, I believe, since the time I
sealed you with that Ward of Unicron®. I don't suppose you've reflected
on the errors of your ways?"
The necromancer snarled. "If I did any
'reflecting,' it was on just how to prolong your agonizing demise for that
indignity!" Cape billowing up, the demon levitated, rising up a good fifty
feet on a column of black wind. Obscene energies, a pulsing aura
of blood-red power, swirled about his mighty frame. Eyes crackling with
their own eldritch force, the ancient mage below gestured with his staff,
ushering his fellow were-Gojis off to the side but never taking his gaze
off Kato.
"This duel is mine, my friends. If I
should be unable to subdue him, join in at your discretion."
As one, Uber and Katagiri busied themselves
gathering extra energy from nearby power lines, fires and other such sources.
"Works for us. Just yell when you need a claw." At this point, Kato realized
he might be in for more than he had bargained for.
"I see you are not just brainless children
of the Mayor," he said. "I will call off my duel. However, I cannot guarantee
your city coming out in one piece once I'm through. Let us see...ah, excellent!
You couldn't live without your precious museum now, could you?"
"Oh god!" Gamingboy yelled. "Not the
museum!!"
"Silence, or you will be the first to
die!" Kato bellowed. The ball of energy in his hand dissipated but his
eyes still flashed crimson as they scanned the city. "You know, this would
be a lot more fun if there was something worth destroying alone...." His
fingers curled up on both hands and this time, violet balls of energy appeared.
"This will be more interesting..." The flames dissipated once more and
ran up his arms as lightning crackled around him. He cried out in pain.
"Kato, what are you do-" he began but
the pain caused him to groan as his knees hit the ground and he put his
hands on his head. Throbbing pain, pain everywhere, pain that would not
end.... And Kato's face became human. The pain suddenly ended and the necromancer
was able to stand up again. "I see this method of unifying our power was
unknown to me," he said. "But this does not change my plans." He threw
his arms into the air and flames surrounded his entire body.
"The necromancer has no choice," Obake
growled. "He will challenge me."
The flames extinguished and Kato stood
staring at the citizens of Roostville. "If I made a show just coming here,
I meant to introduce others. Let us see them!" The roar of an engine approached
the Roosters from behind and the crowd turned to look back at what was
approaching. The sea of humans quickly dispersed as a black motorcycle
sped through, its rider a Japanese kid in black clothing and black spiked
hair.
"Kyoji, my warrior." Kato crossed his
arms, smirking as the motorcycle sped up beside him. The crowd of Roosters
quickly rejoined. Gigantic footsteps approached from behind the hill on
which Kato stood. "The time comes that the siege of Tokyo was re-enacted,
here in Roostville," Kato said. "For behold, Bruticonn, the Devastator,
approacheth." Everyone stepped back as a giant 50 meter tall humanoid came
striding up over the hill to stand with its feet on either side of Kato
and Kyoji. In its hands it held a seven barreled weapon. "Now let me introduce
an airborne force," said Kato, gesturing at Bruticonn. Taking the
weapon, the giant fired three shots into the air, the reports from the
gun echoing all over Roostville©. From high in the air came
three blasts and red, black and yellow smoke trails started falling.
"Huh? First he terrorizes us, now he
lets off daytime fireworks. What's going on?" said a puzzled Uber to Katagiri.
"Don't know.... Whoo!" As everyone looked
up, something moving so fast it was just a blur shot between the smoke
trails, leaving them twisting behind in its wake. As they watched, the
blur slowed, taking on form. Like the smoke it had just passed through,
it was red, black and yellow.
Hovering over the city, gleaming like
a shiny diamond was the unimpeachable Jet Jaguar. "Behold, citizens! It
is I, Jet Jaguar! I will save you... For a fee." Hard times had come for
robots.
"A savior,
for this corrupt place?" Kato asked. "Don't you know that saviors always
fall when they try to take on the big one?"
"Since
when?" Jet Jaguar boomed.
"Optimus
Prime fell when he took on Megatron. Tetsuo destroyed the SOL satellite.
And Orga 99 crushed
Dracois."
"Those
are all unfair!" the robot replied. "Megatron got jumped by Hot Rod, which
stalled Prime! Tetsuo got
his arm fragged by SOL before he
destroyed it. And Orga 99, well, just wasn't fair!"
"Oh, hell."
Kato turned to his robot companion, Bruticonn the Devastator. "Bruticonn!
Destroy Jet Jaguar!"
"Ha ha
ha!" Jet Jaguar laughed. "You can barely dent me, much less destroy me!
Bring it on, Booby-con!" He
laughed again.
"Talk is
excessive. Time is limited." Bruticonn raised his rifle cannon, pointed
it at Jet Jaguar's chest and pulled
back the trigger but at the last
second, the hulking Decepticon warrior's optic sensors were scrambled by
a
psychedelic strobe light emitting
from JJ's eyes.
"Not so
easy, is it?" Switching to IR mode, Bruticonn loosed a volley of heat seeking
flechette rounds, only
to 'watch' the low signature JJ
easily somersault over 'em, then land a solid kick to his breastbone. Catching
his
foot, Bruticonn was knocked back
maybe a foot or two. The Sentai-bot's usually cheerful smile quickly inverted.
Bruticonn's dour features, in converse,
warped into a gleeful leer. Bashing foes into slag was one of many things
he excelled at. First up, the titanium-warping
body slam, then a wince-inducing elbow to the back of the
head. Then a stomp to the nerve
center. A lance of nuclear power interrupted this last move just in time,
putting
Bruticonn on his alloyed arse with
a howl of rage.
Jun, now an 80-meter doppleganger of
the Millennium Godzilla, glanced back at the Geekspawn. "I'll take this
bozo if you don't mind."
Uber shrugged: "Take it away, dude."
Thus encouraged, the hulking saurian barreled forward with a baritone roar
that shook the terrain underfoot. Bruticonn, rolling up, took aim and fired,
prompting Katagiri to spring skyward, clearing the white-hot laser blast
and collide solidly with the 'Con's upper torso, wrapping powerful claws
about his head and flipped the malefic mechanoid head-over-heels as he
landed. This spectacular maneuver sent Bruticonn arcing far over Roostville's
rooftops before landing somewhere with a tooth-rattling boom. Baring outsized
reptilian fangs in a wide grin, the were-Mire-Goji® thundered off after
him.
Meanwhile, a duel of sorcerers was fully
underway: Kato and Obake were a spectacular and terrible blur of leaps,
shields, spells and counter-spells. Black and white shiki swarmed about
the two in oddly beautiful spiraling patterns, flinging themselves against
mystic shields and each other with vicious abandon. Occasionally, one would
zip through either mage's defenses, inflicting a painful cut and a grunt
of irritation. Finally, Kato broke the deadlock. Roaring some profane incantation,
he threw up his arms and the earth below them exploded in a wave of pressure
which slammed full into Yamoto's ki sphere, throwing the ancient shaman
off his feet. Kato grinned, then stared mildly stunned as his foe nimbly
somersaulted through the drop. With a war cry of his own, he brought his
bizarre staff up and around in a wide arc. Golden ki energy swirled around
its length, then erupted in a sheet, swirling around the black-clad fiend
and lifting him far off the ground, tossed like a leaf in the breeze. Breaking
free with a pulse of dark anger, Kato seethed, his breath coming in metallic
rasps. His foe, though sweat beaded the wrinkled forehead, graced him with
an affable smile.
"Well played, 'old friend'. Perhaps
you have learned after all."
Goggling at the aforementioned battles
royale, Kyoji and Ubergeek reluctantly turned their attentions to one another.
"So...you feel like a dance?"
Kyoji grimaced. "Dude, whoever you are,
that was too wrong for words."
Uber shrugged. "Yeah. About half the
stuff I say comes out that way." He jerked his neck rapidly, popping the
joints.
The biker shook his head. "Uh, if you're
trying the Neck-Crack®, that was way too fast. Like this." Kyoji cocked
his head slowly, deliberately drawing out the move.
"Ahh..." The Geekspawn tried it again,
drawing a nod from his foe. "Well, thanks. I'll try to go easy on ya."
"Easy? When I'm done, they'll have to
ID you from dental records!" Revving his engine to a throaty snarl, Kyoji
popped a Wheelie© as he bore down on the Geek who seemed to literally
shift shape in a blur of black as he sidestepped lightly and lunged. Sparks
flew off Kyoji's chopper with the merge and the fighters were past one
another. Glaring back, Kyoji got a shock. A fanged grin curling around
his bike's crumpled fender belonged to a ten foot long saurian, resembling
some mix of the Japanese Godzilla and 'Godzilla' 98's panther like build.
"Sorry 'bout the damage. 'Course, I
might have a lot MORE to be sorry about shortly." Spinning his chopper
around with a throaty growl, Kyoji's tires squealed against concrete and
he was tearing off through the streets of Roostville with the were-Goji's
feral bay shaking his eardrums as it streaked like a cheetah in pursuit.
"Kyoji, Bruticonn, fall back!" Kato
roared, obviously pissed about the whole ordeal. "I'll take care of this
wretched city myself!!" A bloody, bruised Kyoji stumbled back towards the
hill while a tattered, creaking Bruticonn activated his jets and soared
into the sky, disappearing above the clouds. "You are failures and for
that I should KILL you!" Kato bellowed. "But I'm still not done with Roostville.
Kyoji, you shall be the only witness to my power when I'm done."
"Master Kato, I will stay."
"Excellent. Then behold..." Kato's entire
form suddenly turned white, shining as bright as the stars. "Raaaggh!!
If I can't destroy these citizens, this city is still going up in flames!!!"
Then everything turned white as Kato's form shone so bright that it blinded
those watching. A sound akin to a crash of thunder filled the air and suddenly,
it became very hot on the backs of the Roostville citizens. The blinding
lights disappeared and everyone turned around to see one very large crater,
with Kato at the center of it. He wiped the blood off his mouth, then cackled.
"That was almost too easy..." It became
obvious what had really happened. He had missed the city and yet his aiming
was perfect to where it was! He looked up as Jet Jaguar held the entire
city in his hand like a plate, grinning down on the necromancer. Kato roared
and disappeared in a white flash. Trading an array of utterly shell-shocked
looks, Neo-were-Goji, Mire-were-Goji and demonically possessed sorcerer
relaxed, then goggled at the towering sentai shape that had (literally)
singlehandedly saved Roostville.
"Holy hell...that's it! From now on,
I pay the extra two bucks for non-toxic spray," Katagiri muttered.
"Most impressive, cheerful metallic
man," respectfully observed the shaman who hid his surprise that their
most redoutable foe had been so quickly deterred. Obake had a feeling this
wasn't over.
"Indeed," panted the Geekspawn as he
reverted to human form. That biker had run him one merry chase. "I mean,
where'd you get the kind of power boost for that level of size expansion,
JJ?"
"OH, THAT WAS EASY. UNITY™ WAS HOLDING
A 50% OFF CLEARANCE SALE ON SURPLUS NANITES!"
"Oh. I think you can set the city down
now." The Sentai-bot did so with impressive care, only wiping out a block
of chop shops in the process, then shrank back to human(oid) proportions
and exchanged high fives with the trio.
"What about me?!" complained Catbert,
poofing out of nowhere atop JJ's pointy noggin. "I...err..."
"...delayed?"
"Distracted?"
"Annoyed?"
"Yeah, that sums it up." Accepting a
day old pack of Skittles© from the Geek's massive backpack, the HR
Director vanished as quicky and noxiously as he'd come. In a hurry to be
on his way, Uber bid a fond (if brief) farewell to his comrades and was
back on course for the Duel of the Fates®. Destiny, not to mention
long gone friends, awaited after all. But there was still more yet to come...
*****
Kato had retreated to a point outside
the city where no one could find him. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! They think
it's over just because I disappeared. Well, they'll definitely think again,
if they can think when I'm finished...." Golden lightning crackled around
his form and slowly, he became larger...and larger...and larger. After
30 seconds, he was approximately 200 meters but still hidden by a sea of
rocky hills and mountains. "This will definitely be the end of Roostville,"
he gloated, turning his gaze back towards the city. Then he disappeared
in a flash of white.
Ubergeek was the only one remaining
in the area after the carnage. The city had taken a bit of a pounding during
the battles and some of the buildings crumbled after Jet Jaguar set it
down but it still remained in reasonably good shape. Suddenly, a noise
like the sound of thunder echoed through the skies and it became progressively
louder. Ubergeek looked towards its source and was blanketed in a shadow
as he looked upwards.
"For a time, I considered sparing your
wretched little city but now, you shall witness...it's dismemberment!"
Ubergeek ran like hell in the opposite direction as Kato's foot crashed
down on a building. "Prepare for extermination..." Having put several blocks
between himself and the necromancer, Uber still found himself in Kato's
shadow as the monolithic fiend continued his rampage. It was patently obvious
that he couldn't hope to match Yasunori in a head-on contest of power.
A bit of surprise was called for.
Content to simply pulverize Roostville's
environs with his sheer size for the moment, said necromancer chortled
darkly at an approaching wingpair of JSDF RF-4EJ recon/attack jets. Behind
them, a full squadron of F-2s spread out, using the rocky terrain and low
altitude flight to mask their approach. Not that any of this mattered.
Having probed into the recon crews' minds, Kato was fully aware of the
intended surprise and murmured a relatively simple elemental spell as he
walked. Within seconds, a great hurricane raged with Roostville at its
eye. The Phantoms never had a chance, colliding as mighty eldritch
winds smashed them from the air. Six out of ten F-2s escaped, having correctly
read the frantic final broadcast one RF-4 crew had screamed out. However,
in the midst of deploying his own surprise, Kato had failed to check his
immediate surroundings and was thus caught a touch off guard as something
slammed into his shins, toppling the necromancer onto his face. Debris
now marring his ancient Japanese Army garb, Kato rolled up with a snarl
just in time to spy a black shape leaping at him, toothy jaws gaping. Swinging
with an immense right arm, he bashed the attacking were-Goji at a paltry
100 meters' height and half his size aside with relative ease. Sent
flying halfway across the city, Uber came to a rather bumpy stop at the
foot of Mt. Aso, then made a mental note as he shook away the stars: don't
JUMP at enemies twice your size, dipstick. A horrendous laugh recalled
him to the matter at hand (or foot) as Kato's left boot descended for the
Geek's skull.
"Let's see how a Godzilla likes getting
stomped for once!" Since Uber was on his back at that moment, the necromancer
missed a telltale dorsal glow and thus got yet another inconvenient surprise
as a blue-hot atomic ray slammed into the bridge of his nose. Sent reeling
backward, Kato teetered precariously for a moment, then dropped upon the
landscape below as a sweeping tail clipped the right foot from under him.
Both combatants quickly regained their footing, Roostville's destroyer-to-be
with an inarticulate roar that shattered glass constructs in a 10 mile
radius. Positively maddened that such a comparatively puny foe had felled
him twice, Kato retaliated with prejudice: a bolt of mystic force projected
from glowing crimson eyes sent his foe springing back with a yelp. Fighter-sized
shiki, streaming out of some void space, drove the were-Goji into a full-out
run as he charged up for a Pulse to stave the little devils off. Then a
wave of quake force, catching Uber midway through said Pulse, threw him
into the side of the mountain. A small avalanche ensued, obscuring the
fallen were-kaiju's position with splintered rock and rising dust clouds.
Raising gloved hands above his head, the necromancer prepared his final
strike.
"Do tell me what Hell's like, changeling.
I should stop by for a visit in, oh, a century or so." With that epithet
delivered, Kato levelled open palms on the center of the cloud, then unleashed
a bolt of indescribable nihilistic power, screaming in some best-forgotten
tongue as he did so. A truly immense explosion ensued, reducing fully half
of Mt. Aso (and a good chunk of the terrain behind it) to powder. Satisfied,
Kato began a maniacal cackle as he turned away, then released a shocked
"#$##$#$$!" as the ground collapsed under his feet. Those few Roostafarians
not fleeing for the hills (or what was left of 'em) were treated to an
unsettling sight: Kato's gigantic black-sleeved arms flailing furiously
as they slowly disappeared underground. As the abyss consumed him, Kato
knew he had only one chance to escape and that was by going up. Kato's
stature quickly shrank from 200 meters to his usual height of 7'-3" before
he disappeared in a flash of white light.
As the biker-warrior Kyoji was pummeled
by the crowd of angry Roostafarians and Bruticonn was taken apart by people
looking for extra parts, evidently something had been missed along the
line. It seemed odd that Kato would not bring along his most treasured
warrior, the man-dragon Megalus. For that matter, why didn't he bring his
very own firelord Kaiju, Biokamitra? It had been assumed that both were
dead but then the more sinister truth came to light: Megalus actually HAD
been in Roostville during the battles but since everyone was preoccupied
with running away or fighting, he just left. For Biokamitra, the fire demon
seemed to be stuck in another dimension where he had blasted Osaka Castle.
Oddly enough, there appeared to be some flesh creatures fighting on top
of the structure even as it burned.
And there were other matters as well.
How many had actually died during the carnage? Where was Kato? And what
the hell was Gamingboy doing, apparently running after something outside
of Roostville? Oddly enough, the news was okay: only about five people
were killed and 20 injured. Kato was assumed to have plunged to his death.
And Gamingboy was trying to nab his hat which had blown off in the wind.
Kato reappeared at his mansion outside
of Roostville. As he wiped the blood off himself with a towel, he figured
out where he had gone wrong: the point where he appeared in Roostville.
"Evidently, a full scale assault is
not the way to go. I'm going to have to blow out Gamingboy's brains in
the privacy of the night. Say... wonder what happened to my Galvatron half?"
Kato glanced into the mirror on the opposite side of the room and there
it was: his human face was now replaced by a horrendous looking robot's.
"So I see..."
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