Gfantis, Kodoja, Atomic Rex: At World’s End
Story by Matthew Dennion
Art by Dennis Roth
Author’s Note – This entry into the Gfantis vs “Guest Monster Series” features two different kaiju! One kaiju comes to us from the world of comics and the other from a novel.
Kodoja – Is the kaiju featured in the comic Kodoja: Terror Mountain Showdown. Kodoja is a 200 foot tall Bio-Mechanical Droid created by the government as an ultimate weapon. In its comic, Kodoja activates itself and goes on a rampage. Kodoja no sooner starts its rampage than a second kaiju appears and the two monsters are set on a collision course with each other! Kodoja was created by Keith Foster, Rory Smith, and Lance Pilgrim. You can purchase Kodoja comics and keep up on his adventures at https://kodoja.com/
Atomic Rex- Atomic Rex is featured in my novel Atomic Rex. Atomic Rex is a Destroy All Monsters homage to the giant monster films of the 1950’s and 1960’s. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where daikaiju have taken over North America and split it up into various territories. In the novel, the Northeastern United States is ruled by the nuclear powered theropod Atomic Rex. Atomic Rex is published by Severed Press and can be found in both print and digital formats on Amazon as well as at www.matthewdennion.com and www.severedpress.com
It was the middle of July as Juliet Cruz sat alone on the Jersey Shore as waves lolled peacefully onto an empty beach. Decades ago, the beach would have been full of teenagers like her swimming in the surf and basking in the sun, but that was before the end of the world. That was before the coming of the kaiju. Juliet coughed and a mouthful of blood shot out onto the sand. Juliet looked at the blood for a moment as she contemplated the events from three years prior that had brought both her and the rest of mankind to this point.
The United States government had run nuclear tests on a series of remote islands in the Pacific Ocean that they thought were uninhabited. Had anyone taken the time to thoroughly check the island chain in question they would have found the greatest biological discovery in the history of mankind. The islands were populated by creatures long thought to have been extinct such as dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. When the island was exposed to the nuclear tests the radiation mutated the dinosaurs and other forms of life into kaiju. The kaiju in turn lashed out at civilization. Within less than a year, the kaiju had conquered and destroyed most of the known world and claimed its remains as their own.
The monstrous acid spewing turtle known as Tortiraus had destroyed everything along the Gulf of Mexico. The quadrupedal Giladon had laid waste to the Midwest. The giant cannibalistic Yokozuna had eaten every human that he could find in the Northwestern United States. The Northeastern United States had been claimed by perhaps the most terrifying and powerful kaiju of them all in Atomic Rex.
When the kaiju had first appeared, humanity had tried fight back against them with the creation of gigantic mechs. The general population rejoiced at the creation of the mechs. The giant robots were seen as the saviors who would end the threat of the kaiju and restore humans to their proper place as rulers of the world. Those sentiments changed after the first few battles between the mechs and the kaiju. Before the power went out for the last time, people watched on TV’s and computers as one by one the mechs were crushed by the kaiju. It appeared as if the most powerful weapons that the humans could control was no match for the mighty kaiju. The mech’s fell and with them so did humanity. The world had ended. The kaiju now freely roamed the continent and as they walked over their various territories they spread their radiation.
The radiation that the kaiju emitted effected the fauna of the landscape. Animals, bugs, and microscopic organisms were all mutated by the radiation into ravenous giants. These creatures would in turn increase the threat of giant monsters posed to humanity.
The last that Juliet had heard the few people who remained alive were heading to Kansas as if that were a refuge from the kaiju. Juliette had grown up in a family where her mother and father were high ranking members of military research and development. When the kaiju attacked her family had been moved to what was thought to be a secure location in Washington DC. While they were in hiding, the remaining political leaders of the United States begged her father to share with them the long held family secret to reactivating the one weapon that humans had that was capable of defeating the kaiju. That weapon was the bio-droid known as Kodoja.
Despite the threat posed to humanity by the kaiju, Juliet’s father refused to divulge the information. He had said, “The human species may still find a way to recover from these kaiju attacks. We may even find a way to exist in world that is ruled by the kaiju. If we were to activate the bio-droid it would mean the end of all life on Earth. Human, kaiju, everything would be wiped out.”
Kodoja had been created by Juliet’s ancestors to be the ultimate defender of the United States but in reality the bio-droid was a doomsday weapon. Once when her father was talking to the military about the weapon she had seen a photograph of Kodoja and a list of his awesome abilities. The bio-droid was a massive humanoid construction. The overall form of its body exuded a sense of raw brutal power. When Juliet had first seen Kodoja, it had reminded her of some of the characters from the comic books that her father had saved for her. Kodoja’s body structure reminded her of a giant form of something akin to the Incredible Hulk or the Doomsday monster that had killed Superman in a memorable story. The main difference between these fictional characters and the bio-droid was that Kodoja had a thick and elongated face that seemed almost too large in proportion to the rest of its body.
The bio-droid also had an odd outer layer of synthetic skin. As Juliet looked at the report she realized that the skin allowed Kodoja to stretch its body to extreme lengths almost as if it were completely composed of putty. The bio-droid was even able to fire off pieces of its body as projectiles if needed. It also had the ability to reabsorb those pieces back into its main body when it had recollected them. In addition to its awesome physical power, Kodoja also had a wide array lasers embedded in its body.
Shortly after its creation, Kodoja had become self-aware and it went on a rampage attacking everything in sight. After the bio-droid had caused massive amounts of destruction, Juliet’s ancestors had managed to find a way to shut down Kodoja and since then it had remained dormant. Juliet’s father was determined to keep Kodoja dormant, but that all changed when Atomic Rex attacked the compound where Juliet and her family were hiding.
Years later she could still remember the attack as if it had happened only yesterday. Alarms blared throughout the compound. People were screaming orders as a recorded voice continued to echo over the PA system repeating the command to calmly evacuate the compound. Outside of the compound, Juliet could hear the sound of cannons being fired repeatedly. Her father was holding her hand and her mother was running behind them with her younger brother as they tried to make their way to the heliport where a helicopter was waiting to whisk them away from the horror that was coming for the base.
Juliet and her father were still running when they felt the first impact tremor. A few second later, a second impact hit the compound with such force that it shook the walls of the building. Then despite the blaring alarms, the PA system recording, and the cannon fire Juliet heard a sound that a sent a shiver of fear down her spine . It was a long, deep, and guttural roar. It was a roar that she would never forgot. He father stopped running for a second and he said, “My god, it’s him.” He looked over at his wife, “I have heard that roar on recordings. This is no mere giant mutant. Atomic Rex is here!” He grabbed his wife and young son and pushed them ahead of him, “He’ll kill everyone in this complex! We have to go now! We have to get out of here!”
As Juliet’s mother took off down the hallway with her young brother clutched to her chest, another deafening roar rocked the complex. Juliet started to run when a shockwave shook the complex and caused her to lose her balance and fall to the ground. Juliet’s father stopped to help her. Ju
liet was laying on the floor and watching her mother and brother run down the hallway toward the helicopter when a massive green clawed foot crashed through the roof of the hallway and crushed them both to death. Juliet screamed and her father fought back tears as he helped her up. Juliet stared at the saurian leg as it pulled itself back out of the hallway. She looked up the through the opening that that the leg had created to see a huge dark green theropod like head came into view and roar as it was struck by a series of missiles.
Her father snatched her up and then they ran back through the hallway. He took Juliet outside of the complex and they took off into the woods. They watched from a distance with tears in their eyes as the military fought in vain to the last man as Atomic Rex destroyed everything in sight. He had simply crushed most of the resistance beneath his clawed feet. From a distance, Juliet could see the daikaiju in its entirety. Atomic Rex was aptly named. The beast had the overall appearance of theropod dinosaur like a T-Rex. Like a T-Rex, the monster had a long body that was balanced out by a thick tail. There were differences though from most theropods. The most obvious difference was size. The largest T-Rex was about thirty feet long while Atomic Rex was over one hundred and fifty feet in length. Atomic Rex also had long and powerful arms that he could use for grabbing items and grappling with other kaiju. The monster also had a hard alligator like caprice that ran from the back of his neck to the tip of his tail.
The most terrifying differences were in the monster’s unique abilities. As was the case with most of the kaiju, Atomic Rex was nearly indestructible. Bullets and cannon fire simply bounced off of the monster’s thick hide. The military needed to use high caliber rockets and missiles to even get the kaiju to notice that they were attacking him. Gaining the attention of Atomic Rex, was not the best plan for dealing with the creature. When the kaiju was angered or felt that he was in danger the beast would unleash his most powerful attack in the form of his Atomic Wave.
Juliet had witnessed this awesome attack first hand when saw Atomic Rex destroy the military instillation that she had called home. She watched as the nuclear theropod continued to stomp the compound into rubble. All that she could hear was the monster roaring and the sound of buildings being crushed and falling to the ground until there was a high pitched shriek that came from the sky behind her. She and her father turned around to see a Blackbird fighter descending from the sky above them. The Blackbird dropped to an altitude just above the tree line and when it flew over them the slipstream that jet created threw Juliet and her father to the ground.
Juliet’s lifted her face from the soil to see the bottom of the Blackbird open and reveal and large missile. The jet fired the missile and Juliet watched as it streaked toward the rampaging Atomic Rex. The missile struck the kaiju and engulfed Atomic Rex and what remained of the compound in a ball of flames. Juliet stared at the smoke where Atomic Rex had been only moments before and she waited to see the burning corpse of the monster that had killed her mother and brother. What she saw was something entirely different as a bright blue light started to appear inside the thick smoke. Her father grabbed her and picked her up as he shouted, “We have to find cover immediately!”
Her father started running while Juliet looked over her father’s shoulder as the smoke began to clear and the bright blue light continued to grow. When Atomic Rex stepped out of the smoke, Juliet could see that it was the kaiju’s body that was glowing. The monster roared and stomped his foot. When Atomic Rex’s foot hit the ground, a large dome of blue light cascaded out from his body. The dome continued to expand as it raced across the landscape knocking down and burning everything that it came into contact with. Juliet watched as the dome of energy knocked down and incinerated trees as it moved toward her and her father. Her father found a shallow stream and he jumped into it pushing Juliet to the bottom of the stream while simultaneously using his body to shield her. She watched as her father’s body shook when the wave rolled over his back. A moment later her father pulled her up from the bottom of the stream and walked her over to the shoreline. He moaned and then he dropped her into the muddy bank of the stream. He then fell to the ground face first and Juliet saw that most of his back was ripped to pieces by the energy that had struck it.
Juliet began to tear up as her father used the last of his energy to lift his face out of the mud to look at her, “I was wrong. There will be no world left if the kaiju continue to roam free.” He looked into Juliet’s eyes, “It’s up to you Juliet. You need to wake Kodoja so that it can slay the kaiju that have destroyed the human race.” He coughed as he continued to try and talk, “We buried the bio-droid in the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. It is connected to a large array of solar panels at the edge of the forest. You need to travel there and turn on the solar grid using the code Asmodeous1964. It will take roughly six hours to power up the bio-droid. When he wakes up he will destroy everything that he comes across. Even Atomic Rex won’t be able to survive against the destructive force of Kodoja.”
Her father coughed and then he used his finger to write down coordinates into the mud. He pointed at them, “This is the location where you can find the control station to power up Kodoja. Remember them, go to New Jersey, Power up the bio-droid, and then unleash him on the kaiju that have killed your family and your species.” He grabbed Juliet’s hand, “I love you my daughter.” Her father then closed his eyes and died leaving Juliet alone in a world ruled by kaiju.
It took nearly four weeks for Juliet to make the trip to New Jersey on foot through a land inhabited by giant mutated animals. In addition to mutants and kaiju, she was also faced with and ever increasing sense of feeling sick. Her father had educated her well. She knew exactly why she was feeling sick. Her father had used his body to shield her from the blast and the heat of Atomic Wave but the radiation had still reached her. Juliet was slowly dying of radiation poisoning. When she realized that her death was imminent she doubled her efforts to reach Kodoja and activate the weapon that would slay the monster that he killed her entire family, destroyed much of the human race, and ultimately sentenced her to a slow and painful death.
Her mind flashed ahead to when she had located the hidden base and the control station from which she could start to repower Kodoja. Her heart leapt for joy when she typed in the codes that her father had given her and she saw the massive body starting to twitch as the solar panels sprang to life and began absorbing the sun’s energy then pumping it into Kodoja.
As Juliet watched the dormant form of Kodoja starting to come to life like some giant version of a Frankenstein Monster she knew that, much like the infamous Doctor Frankenstein, that she too would be destroyed by the creature she was giving life too. The difference between Frankenstein and Juliet was that she was actually at piece with the idea. In her four week long journey, she had seen no other living humans. She happened to come across the base which had sent the Blackbird to attack Atomic Rex only to find that it had been smashed to pieces as well. There was no remaining outpost of humans for her to join and her entire family was in the afterlife waiting for her. As far as Juliet was aware she was the last human alive on the planet. In a world ruled by kaiju where she had radiation poisoning, Juliet did not view death as a something to be feared but rather as a release from the hell that she currently lived in. Juliet’s radiation sickness had progressed to the point where she was sure that she only had a few painful weeks left to live. All that remained for her to do before she died, was to see her revenge come to its fruition when Kodoja slew Atomic Rex.
She felt a grim sense of satisfaction when she realized that from within the bunker where Kodoja was located that she would be able to see him slay Atomic Rex through the bio-droid’s own eyes. None of her ancestors had ever figured out how to control Kodoja but they had figured out how to tap into the bio-droid’s visual feed. From within the bunker buried beneath the Pine Barrens, Juliet would be able to see everything that Kodoja saw as he crushed Atomic Rex.
A waved rolled over Juliet’s feet and s
he opened her eyes brining her back to the present. She looked at the sun and realized that it was nearly noon. She had started powering up Kodoja when the sun rose and then she had hiked the mile distance out to the beach to see it one last time. The bio-droid was due to be fully powered any minute now. The creation of her ancestors would awaken and then go on a rampage destroying everything around it. Juliet knew that she was directly in the heart of Atomic Rex’s territory. She also knew that all of the kaiju were highly territorial and that the minute Kodoja awoke that Atomic Rex would sense his presence and start heading toward the bio-droid to protect his territory. What Juliet was unaware of was that but activating the solar panels that she had entered a third variable into the equation in the form of another kaiju.
Off the shores of the Atlantic Coast, the Price of the Monster’s stirred beneath the waves. Since the dawn of the age of kaiju Gfantis had mainly stayed in the deep ocean. The beast was content to simply drift along the surface of the water for long stretches of time in order to let his body absorb the sunlight that powered him. Gfantis could sense condensed forms of solar power from vast distances, in the same manner that a shark could sense could sense a drop of blood in the water from miles away. When Juliet had activated the solar panels to charge Kodoja, she had also gained the attention of Gfantis who sensed the energy that his body craved gathering into a single point. Each particle of solar energy that Kodoja drew into his body helped Gfantis to zone in on the bio-droids location. From the moment that Juliet had turned on the solar panels to power Kodoja, Gfantis had been heading to shore and as noon approached the Prince of the Monster’s was about to make landfall.
Juliet was still looking out at the ocean as she waited for Kodoja to wake up. Another cool wave rolled across her feet and then as the wave returned to the ocean she watched as most of the water in front of her receded back as well. She knew exactly what the receding water meant, and when she saw a large swell of water heading toward the beach it confirmed her suspicions. Juliet ran to the to the top of the nearest sand dune in order to keep herself from being swept away by the oncoming surge of water and to hide from the direct sight of Atomic Rex!
Juliet hid in the tall grass of the sand dune and she kept her body close to the ground. She was waiting to see the monster that she would soon have her revenge against after Kodoja had destroyed the nuclear horror. She was taken aback when she saw two large pointed horns and then a smaller crescent shaped horn break the surface of the water. She had seen Atomic Rex on numerous occasions and she was sure that the creature did not have horns. A golden saurian head broke the surface and when Juliet saw the creature’s face she became even more confused as none of the known kaiju were golden in color. The creature continued to emerge from the ocean and Juliet noticed that while the kaiju had some qualities similar to that of dinosaur that it also had vast differences. Unlike Atomic Rex who used his tail to balance out his body this creature stood upright and walked like a primate. The kaiju had long jagged spikes protruding from his back. As the kaiju walked out of the water he lifted his head into the sky and roared.
Juliet felt the ground shake beneath her and as the sun caught the monster she remembered a story that she heard before the time of the kaiju. Her father would read the tabloid magazines for fun. There was one magazine that covered the story of a golden kaiju known as Gfantis. Her father and everyone else had thought that the Gfantis stories were the exploits of a writer’s imagination but as Gfantis stepped onto the beach she realized that the stories of the monster were all too real.
Gfantis looked in the direction of the solar panels that were due to bring Kodoja to life at any moment. Juliet whispered to herself, “Those old tabloids claimed that Gfantis was solar powered. He must sense the energy being generated by the solar panels that I activated.” Seemingly in response to Juliet’s deduction, The Prince of the Monsters started walking in the direction of hidden bunker. After Gfantis was well past her, Juliet came out from within thick grass of the sand dune and she began to follow the creature. In most instances, the unexpected appearance of a kaiju was a cataclysmic event but in this instance it was a fortuitous turn of events for Juliet. Not only was Gfantis heading directly for Kodoja but he was in Atomic Rex’s territory as well. With both Kodoja and Gfantis in the same area of his territory, Atomic Rex was sure to appear to try and drive the invaders from off his land. Atomic Rex would find not one but two formidable adversaries waiting for him. Juliet smiled to herself confident in the thought that Atomic Rex would meet his end on this very day.
Gfantis walked into the thick brush like trees of the Pine Barrens and before long the solar panels that he sought came into view. The monster roared when he saw untold acres of solar panels ahead of him. The kaiju started to walk toward the concentrated form of sunlight that his body craved and as he did so he sent shockwaves out in front of him with each step that he took.
Deep beneath the earth in the sandy terrain of the New Jersey, one of the shockwaves from Gfantis’ footfalls shook ground that Kodoja was buried in. The bio-droid’s eyes snapped open and it found its body to be fully powered. Kodoja stood up throwing tons of sand and trees into the air as it did so. Then for the first time in decades, the most powerful killing machine ever created climbed out of the hole that it was buried in and stood upon the face of the earth.
Gfantis saw the ground explode between himself and the solar panels that he coveted. As the dust cleared he saw the awesome form of Kodoja standing before him. Kodoja turned toward Gfantis and its mechanical brain quickly scanned the kaiju’s body for possible strengths and weakness while simultaneously bringing up any information on creatures matching Gfantis’ description. Within less than a second, Kodoja had every known piece of information on Gfantis downloaded into its cybernetic mind.
Juliet had stopped running several hundred feet from where Gfantis was standing and in front of the golden kaiju she could see her family’s legacy in the form of Kodoja. She was standing only a few feet from the entrance to the control bunker where she already had the feed to Kodoja’s visual processing unit up on the computer screens but seeing Kodoja standing before her froze her in her tracks. Kodoja was the creation of her family that would avenge the destruction of the human race and she felt an instinctual urge to view the creature with her own eyes.
Gfantis roared at the bio-droid that stood between him and the energy that he desired. The monster took a step toward Kodoja and he did so the bio-droid opened its mouth and unleashed a blast of plasma energy at the kaiju. The beam hit Gfantis in the chest with such force that it knocked the kaiju on its back. Gfantis rolled over onto his stomach then he stood up on all four legs in his quadrupedal position. Juliet watched as the crescent horn atop of Gfantis’ head began to glow. A second later, it fired an arcing yellow beam at Kodoja that sliced right through the bio-droid’s forearm arm. The bio-droid didn’t even acknowledge the fact that it had been injured as within seconds of having the beam go through it Kodoja’s body had repaired the damage done to its arm. Kodoja bent its knees slightly then it jumped at Gfantis. Kodoja landed in front of Gfantis and brought his right fist crashing down into the monster’s head driving it into the ground. Kodoja lifted its left fist in to the air in order to strike Gfantis again but before it could do so the kaiju latched his jaws onto the bio-droid’s right hand. Gfantis pulled down on Kodoja’s arm forcing the bio-droid to the ground. Kodoja’s back hit the forest hard and Gfantis immediately crawled onto the bio-droid’s chest and closed his jaws around its head. Gfantis dug his teeth into Kodoja’s head and then shook the bio-droid’s skull with more than enough force to have broken the neck of any living creature.
Feeling that his enemy had been vanquished Gfantis released his grip on Kodoja and then unleashed a roar to proclaim his victory. Juliet was watching in disbelief as she had been led to believe by her father that Kodoja was all but invincible. Her faith in her father’s claims was reassured when she saw Kodoja’s right hand lift off the ground and swat Gfan
tis off its chest.
Gfantis went rolling through the forest from the force of Kodoja’s blow. The monster skidded to a stop then he began clawing at the ground. Kodoja stood up ready to reengage his foe but the bio-droid was unable to locate the kaiju. Kodoja saw a large hole in the ground where Gfantis had been a moment ago and the bio-droid’s enhanced cybernetic brain recalled that Gfantis had the ability to burrow beneath the earth. Kodoja was scanning the ground between itself and the hole when Gfantis exploded up from beneath the bio-droid. The kaiju dug his horns into Kodoja’s right thigh then he stood up sending Kodoja tumbling through the forest. Kodoja stopped its momentum and pushed its body into a crouching position. Before the bio-droid could stand, Gfantis used his tail to strike it in the face. Kodoja’s head snapped to the side and Gfantis pressed his attack by using his claws to strike Kodoja’s repeatedly across the face and the top of the head.
The bio-droid absorbed the blows then he shot up from the ground and connected with an uppercut to Gfantis’ jaw that sent the kaiju soaring nearly a half mile through the air and caused him to crash down in the middle of the dense forest. Juliet stared at Kodoja in awe at the sheer power of the monster that she had awakened. Kodoja turned around slowly and looked toward Juliet. She was fully aware that the bio-droid knew she was there and that it would most likely crush her like a bug but Juliet also noticed that it seemed as if Kodoja was looking past her and not at her.
It was at that moment, that she felt the familiar shake of the ground beneath her feet. Juliet slowly turned around to see the horrifying form of Atomic Rex walking through the forest behind her. Atomic Rex glared at Kodoja and the kaiju’s grew wide with anger. The nuclear theropod reared his head back and unleashed a roar that was so loud it forced Juliet to fall to the ground and cover her ears to prevent her ear drums from shattering.
The shaking beneath her feet increased as Atomic Rex began running toward Kodoja. With the kaiju bearing down upon her, Juliet quickly ran over and opened the hatch to underground compound. The entire compound was shaking and dust was falling on her head from the ceiling above as the massive form of Atomic Rex ran overhead. She looked over to the computer screen to see Atomic Rex running at Kodoja from the bio-droid’s point of view. The view from the screen, was akin to what it was like sitting a in shark cage as a great white charged the steel barricade with much greater speed than the diver had anticipated. All that Juliet had the chance to see was a streak of green as Atomic Rex closed in on Kodoja. From that point on, all that Juliet could do was to watch as the two titans above her battled.
As Juliet was racing over to the computer screen, nearly a mile away Gfantis lifted himself out of the crater of sand and timber that his body had created. The monster shook himself off, roared, and then started heading back to the solar panels that he coveted and the bio-droid whom he was now determined to destroy.
Atomic Rex charged Kodoja with a speed that belied his massive size. Even the bio-droid’s reflexes were unable to respond quickly enough to stop the oncoming kaiju. Atomic Rex slammed into Kodoja with the force of a hurricane while simultaneously latching his jaws around the shoulder and left arm of Kodoja and wrapping his arms around the bio-droid’s waist. Atomic Rex drove Kodoja back and to the left before throwing the bio-droid to the ground. With Kodoja flat on the ground, Atomic Rex stepped onto its chest and bent down to tear off Kodoja’s head but he was met with a powerful right hook to the jaw that knocked him off the bio-droid.
Kodoja stood up to see that Atomic Rex had already recovered from the blow that had removed him from its chest. Once more Atomic Rex charged at Kodoja, wrapped his arms around the giant, and then began using his massive jaws to tear into the bio-droid’s chest. Atomic Rex had no sooner sank his teeth into Kodoja’s chest then the bio-droid shifted around the mass of its body so that the kaiju’s jaws had nothing to latch onto. Kodoja’s entire body reshaped itself then reformed in position where it was able to use its powerful arms to trap Atomic Rex in a headlock. Kodoja pulled hard on the nuclear theropod’s neck, lifting the beast off his feet and then releasing him sending Atomic Rex tumbling through the dense trees of the Pine Barrens. Atomic Rex’s body continued to roll until he entered the field of solar panels that had revived Kodoja. The kaiju’s body had crushed most of the solar panels before he was finally able to stop his momentum. Atomic Rex stood up and roared at Kodoja, indicating that his battle with this intruder into his territory was far from over.
Kodoja was staring at Atomic Rex when a beam of white hot energy tore across its back. Kodoja’s back was still smoking as it turned its head around a full one hundred and eighty degrees to see Gfantis standing behind it. With Atomic Rex and Gfantis threating it from either side, the bio-droid attacked. Kodoja fired a blast of plasma out of its mouth at Gfantis while at the same time firing another blast of plasma energy out of its chest at Atomic Rex. Both blasts struck their respective targets in the chest and caused the two kaiju to back up several steps. Once he had regained his footing, Gfantis fired another blast of his crescent beam at Kodoja, while Atomic Rex took the opportunity to charge at the bio-droid.
Atomic Rex lower his head and slammed into Kodoja with enough force to knock the bio-droid off its feet and to send it tumbling toward Gfantis. Kodoja stood up in front of Gfantis and the Prince of the Monster’s bit into the bio-droid’s left forearm while using his claws to rake the doomsday weapon across its chest. While Kodoja was engaged with Gfantis, Atomic Rex ran up to the bio-droid and attacked it from its right side by latching his jaws onto the giant’s hip and wrapping his arms around Kodoja’s waste. Atomic Rex and Gfantis clawed at tore at the bio-droid as it used its one free arm to fight off its attackers. Despite the ferocity of their attack and their incredible physical strength, the nearly invincible Kodoja was slowly managing to overpower both of its attackers. It took several blows to free Gfantis from its arm but when Kodoja had finally managed to force the golden kaiju off its arm, the bio-droid delivered a round house punch to the monster’s face that knocked Gfantis to the ground.
With one monster knocked away from it, Kodoja wrapped both arms around Atomic Rex then the bio-droid forced the nuclear theropod to the ground. As Kodoja continued to apply pressure to Atomic Rex, the kaiju could feel both the air being squeezed out of his lungs and his bones starting to crack under the incredible pressure being exerted on them.
Atomic Rex’s eyes grew wide and he roared at the semi-living thing that had dared to challenge his supremacy. The kaiju reached deep into his very cells to find the energy that powered him. Kodoja still had Atomic Rex trapped in the crushing hold as the kaiju’s skin began to glow a bright blue color. Behind Kodoja, Gfantis had recovered from the blow that was dealt to him and he was prepared to attack the bio-droid again when a dome of bright blue light shot out from Atomic Rex and sent Kodoja flying into him. Both kaiju and bio-droid were caught up in the expanding dome of nuclear energy that was the Atomic Wave.
Deep within the bunker beneath the carnage occurring above her, Juliet saw a bright flash of blue light through Kodoja’s eyes and then her screen showed nothing but static.
The Atomic Wave carried both Kodoja and Gfantis nearly five hundred feet back in the direction the ocean before it dropped them into the forest. Atomic Rex stood up in the middle of what looked like ground zero for a nuclear attack. He looked at his fallen adversaries then he roared proclaiming his supremacy to the world.
When Gfantis finally stopping hurtling through the air he found himself laying on his back with the lifeless form of Kodoja slumped across his chest. The bio-droid has absorbed most of the blast of the Atomic Wave and partially shielded Gfantis from the attack. Gfantis pushed Kodoja off of him and then he stood up to see Atomic Rex standing near the ruins of what had once been the solar panels that had initially drawn Gfantis to this area. Gfantis roared at the creature that had destroyed the source of his power and in doing so he alerted Atomic Rex to the fact that he was still alive. The still enraged Atomic
Rex responded to Gfantis’ challenge with a roar of his own and then he started running toward the golden kaiju.
Juliet stared at the static filled screen before her. She ran over to the computer attached to the screen and she began looking at the data coming from Kodoja. She scanned the data for a moment then she said, “It seems that most of Kodoja’s systems are still running. That nuclear blast must have knocked out the biological component of Kodoja that helps to keep him conscious.” She continued to talk herself through ways in which she could reawaken the fallen bio-droid.” It only took one quick look at the minimal amount of data coming in from the destroyed solar panels for her to determine that there were barely enough solar panels left to power the bunker let alone to reawaken Kodoja. An idea entered her mind and she shouted it out loud, “Kodoja is as much a living creature as it is a robot. I can’t control it but I can influence a few of its biological components. If I can’t use energy to repower it maybe I can use a bio-chemical process to reawaken it.” She ran over to the keyboard and she began typing in commands which she hoped would send a surge of adrenaline coursing through the bio-droid.
Above ground Gfantis and Atomic Rex were caught in a blur of teeth and claws as the two dragon like kaiju went at each other with a ferocity unmatched by any of the other monsters on the planet. Blood flew from both beasts as the evergreen trees below them began to take on a red hue from the radioactive and solar powered blood that rained down on them. While the two kaiju were for the most part evenly matched Atomic Rex was fighting to protect his territory and step by hard fought step he was slowly forcing Gfantis back toward the ocean.
Sweat was pouring from Juliet’s brow as she feverishly typed commands into the computer. When she finally hit the Enter key Kodoja’s body convulsed as shot of adrenaline ran through it. As the adrenaline reached the biological component of the bio-droid’s brain the feed from its visual processing unit flashed back onto Juliet’s screen.
She watched through the bio-droid’s vison as Kodoja stood up, looked in the direction that Atomic Rex and Gfantis had headed in, bent its knees, and then leapt into the air.
Atomic Rex and Gfantis were less than a quarter mile from the ocean when Kodoja came crashing down next to them like a meteor falling from the sky. Atomic Rex had his jaws latched onto Gfantis’s left arm while Gfantis clawed at Atomic Rex with right arm and had his teeth dug into the nuclear theropod’s right shoulder. The two kaiju were jockeying for position as they were both trying to force each other into a compromising position. The two saurian kaiju were so focused on each other that they did not even address the fact that Kodoja had returned to the fray until the bio-droid walked up to the entwined monsters and delivered a blow that sent them both flying through the air and onto the beach.
Atomic Rex and Gfantis rolled through the sand of the Jersey shore and they came to stop in the shallow surf of the shoreline. The two kaiju stood up and looked at the invincible bio-droid that had attacked them. The two kaiju roared in unison at Kodoja. The bio-droid responded by leaping at the two monsters and tackling them into the water. The three titans stood up and began attacking each other in a blur claws, fists, and teeth.
Through the computer screen in her bunker, Juliet watched as Kodoja wrapped one hand around the throat of each of the other two monsters. With Atomic Rex secured in his right hand and Gfantis in his left, Kodoja increased the pressure of his grip on the two monsters as he started to force them out back into the ocean. Juliet watched through the eyes of bio-droid who was as much of a descendant to her ancestors as she was as the crescent horn atop of Gfantis’ head began to glow, while at the same time Atomic Rex’s skin exuded a blueish hue. A split second later the screen was nothing but static once more as Gfantis fired his crescent beam in conjunction with Atomic Rex unleashing another blast of his Atomic Wave.
Juliet stared silently at the static filled screen. She coughed and another mouthful of blood splattered across the screen. She tried to input another command that would send more adrenaline running through Kodoja but the command failed. Juliet turned away from the computer, as the lights around her started to flicker and then went out. She realized that the last of the energy that the solar panels had absorbed was gone. Juliet looked at the pitch black darkness around her and she realized that there was nothing more that she could accomplish there. She knew that the area above her was radioactive due to the blast that Atomic Rex had unleashed and that if she was exposed to the radiation that she would not live to witness another sunrise.
She also knew that expediting her death was one of the few mercies that this world could offer her. Juliet took a deep breath, opened the hatch to the underground bunker, and walked out into the radiation filled forest.
She looked in the direction of the ocean and she spoke out loud, “Roughly a mile to the ocean.” She shrugged and looked to the heavens, “Give me the strength to reach the shore. Before I die, grant me the strength to see the corpse of Atomic Rex or the grandeur of the ocean on last time.” Juliet’s head dropped as a prolonged coughing fit stuck her causing her to fall to her knees. She waited for the fit the pass then she stood up with her head held high and she began walking back to the ocean and to the family that awaited her in the next life.
The End