The Arctic Ocean
1973
A pod of Narwhals scattered as the kaiju glided through the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean. His massive body was as unaffected by the freezing temperatures of the water as it was by the scalding heat inside of a volcano. The monster’s crescent horn pierced the surface of the water as he came closer to shore. A dragon-like head rose above sea level and focused its eyes on the frozen tundra of Siberia. The monster would one day be labeled Gfantis by humans, but as of yet he was unknown to mankind. The landscape was ideal Gfantis’ needs. At this time of year, the sun would be in the sky for nearly an entire month. The light from the sky would also be reflected off of the perpetually iced over landscape creating the perfect situation for Gfantis’s solar powered body to absorb all of the sunlight it required for the next several months.
Gfantis lumbered ashore and headed for a mountain that dominated the landscape. He positioned himself in such a way that his body would catch as much sunlight as possible both from the sun above and from the reflection off the side of the mountain. With his body placed in the optimal position, he lay down on the snow. By selecting remote areas to charge himself, the beast avoided detection by humans, and he intended to keep it that way. Gfantis closed his eyes and prepared for a month long rest.
Roughly fifty miles to the north of the area where Gfantis had made landfall, a small fishing vessel fought to maintain its course through rough seas. The deck of the fishing ship was struck by a series of icy cold waves that rolled across its stern. The sailors on deck were both wet and freezing. Furthermore, there was not a single fish to be found onboard the ship. Despite the lack of fish and the horrible conditions, not a single man complained. There were no complaints because these men were not fisherman, but rather they were highly trained soldiers for the United States Navy. They were currently engaged in a top secret mission that would bring the Cold War to an end. With the thought of ending the communist threat on their minds, the crew persevered through the difficult conditions.
Inside the ship’s cabin, two men sat across from each other. One man was Teddy Tyson. He sat in a chair with much more on his mind than the rain and cold. Teddy had a special gift. His mind was able to connect with the minds of animals. In the cases of most creatures, he was able to use his will power to overcome the animals and control their actions. Teddy’s thoughts were currently focused on a creature swimming through the frigid waters thirty fathoms below the ship. The creature to which Teddy was sending his thoughts was much more than a mere animal. It was a kaiju, and his name was King Komodo!
Teddy could not so much control King Komodo as use the power of suggestion. He had found that the best way to influence King Komodo was to subtly mix his suggestions with King Komodo’s memories. In a mission such as this, where he wanted King Komodo enraged and ready to inflict damage on a target, Teddy had found that it was necessary to access the most vivid memories of King Komodo’s past battles. With this in mind, Teddy replayed the memories of King Komodo’s battles that he had witnessed firsthand, thus enhancing the monster’s memories of the battles with his own.
King Komodo had started life as a massive Komodo dragon, until one day fallout from an atomic weapons test had cascaded down onto his island. The radiation mutated the creature into a towering green and yellow bipedal kaiju. King Komodo had grown to a height well over three hundred feet. His forelegs had changed into powerful arms that ended in massive claws. Three sets of rigid blue spikes ran from the top of his head to the tip of his tail. The spikes themselves were connected by a thick membrane of yellow skin. His gargantuan legs ended in powerful feet with massive spikes protruding from them.
In addition to his incredible size and power, the radiation had endowed King Komodo with a unique ability that the media had dubbed his “Atomic Loogie.” King Komodo was able to ignite the mucus in his throat and then spit it out in a blazing fireball. After his transformation, King Komodo had ruled over of an island of other mutated monsters. The beast defeated every creature that dared to challenge his reign.
That was until sixteen years ago, when King Komodo finally encountered a challenge that even he was unable to overcome. Teddy and his adoptive father, Sam Tanner, had traveled to the island. When they were attacked by a gargantuan crustacean, Teddy had used his telepathic ability to summon King Komodo. The reptile arrived and quickly slew the crustacean. The monster then went to attack the campsite, but was rendered unconscious by a combination of Teddy’s mental powers and a barrage of gas grenades.
Tanner transported King Komodo to the American Southwest, where he put the monster on display with several other kaiju he had captured. King Komodo quickly escaped from captivity and began to rampage through a nearby town. Teddy himself would have been killed by the monster had he not used his telepathic ability to direct a gigantic yeti, known as Snowball, to battle King Komodo. The two beasts were engaged in a battle with each other, as well as with the military. Suddenly, an earthquake opened a fissure beneath them, they fell into it. The world at large was under the impression that both King Komodo and Snowball had been killed when they had tumbled into the earth, but that was far from the truth.
As Teddy replayed these memories in the monster’s mind, the man sitting across from him extinguished a cigarette. Then he calmly reached into his coat pocket, pulled out another cigarette, lit it, and placed it between his lips. The man had known Teddy for nearly twenty years, and after all of that time, Teddy still did not know the man’s name or title. When King Komodo and Snowball had been swallowed up by the earthquake, it was the Smoking Man who had them captured and taken to a research facility known only as Area 51.The kaiju remained there with other monsters and extraterrestrials that the Smoking Man had captured. The Smoking Man found Teddy, and then made him a generous offer, combined with a disturbing threat, that convinced Teddy to work with him at Area 51, honing his skills to influence monsters.
For years Teddy had improved his abilities, training for this day, the day when he would send King Komodo marching from the most remote section of the Soviet Union into Moscow itself. King Komodo would utterly destroy Moscow, and then rampage through the rest of Russia. The Soviets would respond by using their military in a vain attempt to stop the monster. King Komodo would crush the Soviet army along with the majority of their cities. The monster would cause the damage of half a dozen atomic bombs without the radioactive fallout, and more importantly, without anything to connect the damage to the United States. From the Soviets’ perspective, it would seem that the kaiju simply appeared from some unexplored region of the world and then attacked them. Teddy and his monster would single handedly end the communist threat in the span of a few short weeks.
The Smoking Man removed the cigarette from his mouth and spoke in a measured tone. “The ship cannot go much closer to land without drawing undue attention from the Russians. If you send the beast ashore at this point, will you still be able to influence his actions?”
Sweat poured down Teddy’s face as he continued to focus his thoughts on King Komodo. “Trying to influence him is like maintaining a tensed muscle. It wears me out very quickly. I will not be able to influence his thoughts much longer, but he is sufficiently enraged, and the thought of Moscow is firmly planted in his mind. When the Soviets engage him, his natural aggressive tendencies will take over, and he will continue his march through Russia without my influence.”
The Smoking Man nodded. “Very well. Will you still be capable of maintaining contact with his mind and tracking his progress through his thoughts?”
Teddy rubbed his forehead. “The bond between our minds has grown stronger over the years. I would guess that as long as we are within 500 miles of King Komodo, I will still able to see into his mind.”
The Smoking Man took a long drag from his cigarette. “Excellent. Send him ashore.”
Teddy placed his fingers on his temples and focused his thoughts to the point that his body began to shake. The ship itself was tossed to the left and nearly
capsized when King Komodo swam underneath it. A swell of water formed on the surface of the ocean and began to move toward the frozen shoreline. Then a massive reptilian head emerged from the swell. Seconds later, the gargantuan monster emerged from the ocean. The memories Teddy had stirred in King Komodo’s mind had driven his already aggressive temperament to the breaking point. The monster glared at the mountains in front of him and unleashed a roar that echoed across the tundra, sending birds fleeing into the sky and animals darting into the forest.
King Komodo stepped out of the water and onto the frozen land. His enraged mind was determined to find something that he could destroy. A sensation inside of his brain was directing him in a southward direction toward a large city. The beast’s primitive mind could not comprehend where the sensation was coming from, nor did he care. He only knew that he needed to destroy something, and that the sensation was guiding him to a suitable target. King Komodo roared once more and then began to march directly across the frozen wasteland.
For roughly an hour, King Komodo marched across the tundra, and then he suddenly stopped in his tracks. The leviathan lifted his head into the air and sniffed it. His eyes opened wide as a tidal wave of anger rushed into his mind. The backlash of the rush of emotion reached Teddy back on the ship. He fell to the floor and screamed in pain, while simultaneously King Komodo roared defiantly at a mountain in the distance. King Komodo then changed his direction and started heading toward the mountain.
The Smoking Man bent down and helped Teddy back into his chair. “What happened?”
Teddy shook his head. “I can’t believe it. I haven’t felt this level of anger and determination in King Komodo since I first called him to battle a gigantic crab. There is something else nearby, something that he sees as a challenge to his dominance.”
The Smoking Man leaned forward. “What could he possibly see as a threat to his dominance? Unless …” The Smoking Man stopped in the middle of his thought, as if he was afraid to utter it.
Teddy nodded. “Another kaiju!”
The Smoking Man threw his hands into the air. “That’s impossible! None of the intelligence we have collected suggests that the Russians have a kaiju!”
Toddy shrugged. “They may not have a kaiju. This might be an unknown rogue creature.”
The Smoking Man shook his head in anger. “Everything we know about the kaiju suggests that they are somehow drawn to each other. King Komodo’s very presence might well have drawn in this other creature.” The Smoking Man sighed. “Call him back. We can’t risk losing him in a battle to the death with some unknown creature. This mission is officially over.”
Teddy closed his eyes and focused on King Komodo. He exerted his mental abilities to the point that his nose and eyes began to bleed. Teddy’s body slumped down in exhaustion. “It’s no use. He senses the other creature, and he is determined to destroy it. There is nothing we can do. King Komodo is either going to kill this creature, or die trying.”
Gfantis was sleeping on the ice when he felt an impact tremor under his legs. The beast slowly opened his eyes, thinking that it was merely an earthquake. When the tremor was followed by two more impacts at regular intervals, a surge of adrenaline ran through the monster’s body. He shot up into his bipedal stance, bringing his body to its full height. The tremors could only signify that another creature was close by. Gfantis roared a challenge at the invader, and began walking toward the epicenter of the incoming tremors.
The sun shone brightly in the sky, and a polar wind whipped across the landscape as Gfantis lumbered around a massive snowbank that had accumulated at the base of a mountain. When he had cleared the snowbank, Gfantis’ trek came to halt as he beheld the awesome figure of King Komodo standing before him. The two kaiju stared at each other in silence for a moment and then, in unison, they roared and charged each other.
Gfantis was the lighter and the quicker of the two monsters. He lashed out at his adversary, striking King Komodo with his right claw, followed by his left, and then his right again, snapping King Komodo’s head from side to side with each blow. King Komodo took a half step backwards and then brought his shoulder crashing into Gfantis’s chest with all of his strength and weight behind it. The shoulder charge knocked Gfantis to the ground. King Komodo reached down, grabbed Gfantis by his leg and throat, and then in a display of unimaginable strength, he lifted the golden dragon over his head. King Komodo roared at Gfantis, and then slammed him to the ground. When Gfantis hit the ground, he immediately rolled his body away from King Komodo. King Komodo’s attempt to crush Gfantis’ head missed, and the monster’s foot stomped into the ground.
Gfantis sprang to his feet, and in a show of surprising speed for a creature of his size, he charged King Komodo once more. When he reached him, Gfantis bit into King Komodo’s left forearm. King Komodo’s head reared back as he howled in pain; blood spurted from his forearm. Gfantis pressed his attack by slicing his left claw across King Komodo’s thigh and using his right arm to strike at King Komodo’s midsection.
King Komodo pulled the arm Gfantis was biting across his body, causing Gfantis to lose his balance. As Gfantis’ momentum pulled him forward, King Komodo’s jaws shot down and latched onto the back of Gfantis’s neck. King Komodo’s mouth filled with blood as he shook Gfantis neck in an attempt to break it.
Instead of trying to pull away from the attack, Gfantis thrust his head upwards and into the bite, causing King Komodo to loosen his grip. Gfantis then reached up with both of his claws and dug them into the base of King Komodo’s skull. Gfantis pulled down hard and rolled his right shoulder into the body of his adversary. King Komodo’s chest was gouged by Gfantis’s spikes as his body was dragged across them, prior to crashing into the ground.
Gfantis looked down on his grounded opponent and moved in for the kill. King Komodo quickly lifted his chest of the ground, but he kept his torso low, using his tail to counter balance his weight rather than support it. His flexible spine allowed his upper body to nearly bend in half as he whipped his head around and sank his fangs into Gfantis’s right thigh and hip. King Komodo used his grip to give a massive yank, causing Gfantis to tumble to the ground.
Gfantis attempted to lift himself up as King Komodo spun around and sent his club-like tail smashing into Gfantis’ face. King Komodo attempted to strike Gfantis with his tail again, but the Prince of the Monsters was ready for the attack. He grabbed King Komodo’s tail as it swung toward him. Gfantis shifted his grip to the base of King Komodo’s tail, lifted King Komodo into the air, and brought him crashing back into the ground. He repeated the move three times before King Komodo was able to dig his claws into the ice and pull free of Gfantis’ grip.
King Komodo turned to face Gfantis, recoiled his neck, and then let loose a flaming ball of mucus in the form of his Atomic Loogie. The burning mucus exploded in Gfantis’ face, temporarily blinding him. King Komodo charged Gfantis, spitting several more Atomic Loogie’s at the monster as he advanced. Fire and smoke engulfed Gfantis’ body as King Komodo delivered a viscious kick to his midsection. Gfantis doubled over, and King Komodo brought his fist crashing down into the back of Gfantis’s head.
Gfantis shook off the blow, lifted his head, and in the same motion struck King Komodo across the face with his right claw. Lowering his head, Gfantis drove his crescent horn into King Komodo’s shoulder. King Komodo howled in pain and, in a fit of rage, grabbed Gfantis by the neck. He squeezed and pushed back on it, slowly extracting Gfantis’ horn from his shoulder, causing blood to spray out of it like a geyser. The heavier King Komodo continued to strangle Gfantis and force him backwards. When they had reached the base of the mountain, King Komodo threw Gfantis into the rock wall with enough force to shatter a skyscraper.
King Komodo looked at his downed opponent to see the crescent horn atop of Gfantis’s head glowing. A second later, a white hot beam of light scorched King Komodo across his body. Gfantis rose to his feet and fired his Crescent Beam once more at the Lizard King.
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br /> King Komodo roared in defiance at Gfantis and then spat another Atomic Loogie at the beast. Despite having Gfantis’ beam burning his body, King Komodo struggled toward Gfantis and struck him in the jaw with an uppercut, causing the kaiju’s Crescent Beam to fire wildly into the top of the ice mountain. The beam sliced through a cliff near the top of the mountain. The severed cliff remained still for a moment, and then it began to slowly lurch forward.
At the base of the mountain, the two monsters continued to exchange blows. Neither one of them was aware of the impending doom above their heads. As the kaiju continued their battle, the cliff above them gave way and started an avalanche down the side of the mountain. Even as the ice and snow began to bury them, the two monsters continued to claw at each other.
Back on the ship Teddy opened his eyes. “The battle is done. King Komodo’s mind has gone dormant, as if he’s unconscious. As far as I can tell, both creatures are now buried beneath the ice. It’s over. We don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting him out of there. If we tried to send in a recovery team, the Russian’s would see it coming a mile away. All of these years preparing for this mission, and it’s an utter failure.”
The Smoking Man quickly regained his composure as he lit another cigarette. “A failure? No one could have foreseen another kajiu showing up in the drop zone. I this see more as a temporary setback and additional opportunity. We don’t need a snowball’s chance in hell to get King Komodo out of there. We just need to take a chance with Snowball in Siberia to walk away with two monsters. The Russian’s would notice a large team excavating for days on end in Siberia, but would they notice a one day trip by a 300 foot Yeti?”
Teddy gasped. “You want to bring Snowball here too?”
The Smoking Man smiled. “He is built for this terrain. We can have him brought here by ship in a couple of weeks. He can dig King Komodo and the other creature out of the ice and then carry them back to a transport ship.” He inhaled deeply from his cigarette, “Just imagine the future. You will have had more time to develop your telepathic connection with King Komodo, we can bring Snowball with us next time as well, and we can add another kaiju to our stable, one that was able to battle King Komodo to a standstill! With multiple kaiju attacking different cities, the Russians won’t have a prayer of stopping them.”
Two weeks later, on a massive freighter posing as a Japanese whaling ship just off the coast of Siberia, Teddy was in telepathic contact with Snowball as the Yeti trudged across the frozen wasteland. The Smoking Man stood next to Teddy, demanding updates on the monster’s progress. When Snowball reached the area of the avalanche, Teddy persuaded him to start digging. After digging for nearly half an hour, Snowball had found King Komodo. The monster was in a state of suspended animation, but still very much alive. Snowball placed the kaiju on the ground to thaw in the sun, and then he began digging once more. Snowball had cleared a few more tons of ice when the drift he was digging into suddenly collapsed in on itself. Teddy once more suggested to Snowball that he keep digging. The Yeti moved more ice to find a massive tunnel leading into the mountain.
Back on the ship, Teddy turned to the Smoking Man. “The other monster, the one that fought King Komodo, he seems to have burrowed into the mountain. He could be anywhere by now.”
The Smoking Man cursed under his breath and then lit a cigarette. “That is a shame, but it is no real loss to us. Have Snowball bring King Komodo back the ship. We are going to return home and then generate two new missions. The first will be to develop another entry point to send both King Komodo and Snowball into Russia. The second mission will be to find and capture that other kaiju. We can’t afford to have a wildcard with that kind of power running loose in the world, or worse, falling into the hands of the Soviets! That creature will be ours, and when we have it, there will be only one superpower on this planet.”
The End
Gfantis vs. Raiju
Story by Matthew Dennion
Art by Scott Caffrey