Prologue:
Giant monsters have repeatedly threatened the world’s major cities. Ukania, a large city on the pacific coast of Canada in British Columbia, thought it was safe. Then Onra a 100 ft Ant, headed towards Ukania. Suddenly, a new monster, which the Fire Bringers, (an international peacekeeping force, which now focused solely on destroying the monsters) named Gaterdon, appeared. Gaterdon killed Onra, but attacked Ukania himself. Fortunately, he never made it past the docks, thanks to a giant air-battle-ship dubbed: the Alphaship. However, the Alphaship was destroyed in the process. Gaterdon died, and sunk to the bottom of Ukania bay.
…………………………
A large Canadian Naval submarine silently and slowly floated through the water. It was a small submarine, about 90 ft. long. Its silver armor glittered off the eerie water. The submarine submerged even deeper, more quickly now, as it continued its voyage to the bottom of Ukania Bay.
Ukania proudly held the world record for deepest and widest city bay in the world. This submarine was handpicked for the mission, due to its resistance to high pressure.
Despite the fact that this was a Canadian military vessel, it was performing a mission for the Fire Bringers, to prevent more monsters attacks. Conventional weapons were failing, and the monsters were getting bigger. The current record was a huge 1000 ft. long snake that attacked Moscow. Funnily enough, the snake was barely 100 ft. wide. The snake was eventually destroyed in an air raid, but not before causing damage. The Alphaship had been rebuilt, stronger and better, and more stable than before, but it wasn’t enough for a whole world worth of giant monsters, and the Fire Bringers did not have enough money left to make more than one.
A member of the submarines crew alerted the captain as their target at the bottom finally came into view. The rest of them gasped and gaped. They of course had been told what to expect, but they hadn’t really believed it until now.
The scarred and decaying corpse of Gaterdon lay sprawled on the bay floor, his once ferocious body already decomposing. Bits of flesh had already been disintegrated, leaving a grotesque beast, half skeleton, half body. Next to it, the seaweed and rust covered wreckage of the last Alphaship.
The captain finally appeared on the deck, where two scientists, a man and a woman, in extra-pressurized diving suits stood.
“All right,” said the Captain. “Now as you know, it would be too expensive to start Operation Komodogater from scratch, so we need some skin samples from Gaterdon. But only one small piece, one that could fit into a jam jar, got that? Gaterdon deserves to rot down there.”
The two scientists nodded their heads in agreement, and dived off. Two hours later, they were back, the female of the two holding a small-pressurized jar containing a piece of red skin, skin from Gaterdon.
…………………………
A small gray helicopter with a dome shaped cockpit landed on a large attractive heli-pad. Fire Bringer General Gregory Lambert stepped out and surveyed the impressive sight.
His original surname being Ross, Lambert had taken his wives surname when he married a month ago, due to constantly being subject to jokes about the General Ross from the old Hulk comics. Lambert had originally been a colonel in the Canadian Forces, the army of his homeland. He had carried out many successful operations in Afghanistan, and was promoted to colonel in the Fire Bringers. He then went on to personally kill several monsters, and rose through the ranks yet again. He was now General, and although he no longer got to fight in the field, on his command, many more monsters had been killed, and he had even helped stop a war in Africa.
A large hi-tech Fire Bringer base spanned out before the general. To one side, barracks, where Fire Bringer soldiers of all nationalities drilled, a big airfield, and about 100 parked tanks. To the other, a landing field, a radio tower, a wide group planning and meeting buildings, and a large dock where aircraft carriers and submarines were docked. There was also another, smaller docking bay where the Alphaship is parked when not on duty.
But Lambert could not take in the sites for a while, as he had a mission. He reached inside his pocket and brought out a glass container with the skin of Gaterdon that was recovered two days ago in it. He walked up to the largest of the meeting buildings, which he knew had a gigantic laboratory inside it.
Two men walked out of the building to meet him, the Prime Minister of Canada, Alfred Poole, and a scientist whom Ross guessed to be the one executing Operation Komodogater. The two parties met.
“Mr. Poole, how good to see you again,” Ross greeted, shaking the Prime Ministers hand. He turned to the scientist. “And you are…”
“Johnny Marbeo, I’m going to be executing the experiment.” The scientist said, confirming Ross’s suspicion, and shaking his hand vigorously. Alfred Poole frowned nervously.
“John here is very excited, but I must admit, I find this business very risky,” Poole said. “If I had my way, we’d all chip in money to build a fleet of Alphaships instead of this abomination, but the other world leaders overruled me. Bah! Mark my words this will all turn out badly and they’ll all eat their words. And when it does, guess which city is most likely to suffer? Ukania! And guess which country that’s in? Mine! If it goes wrong, which it will, it’s my country that has to suffer! Why did this damn base have to be so close to the mainland!”
To this Lambert had to agree. The location of the base was indeed a bit close to the Mainland, and there were more pacific islands to choose from that were farther away. But, it was a good island. It was nicknamed ‘X-Island’ probably by someone who thought it sounded cool, but Lambert liked it.
An awkward silence followed. Desperate to be gone, Lambert lied, “I’m afraid I have a prior appointment, so here is the skin, and I’ll be off!” Ross quickly handed the case to Johnny Marbeo, and half sprinted back to the helicopter.
…………………………
Johnny Marbeo paced his lab, waiting for the timer to Bing. After half an hour of meaningless pacing, the Bing sounded, and Johnny walked over to the liquidator. He removed the vials that had each held a piece of the skin, but now held a thick green liquid. Johnny poured the liquid into a syringe and then walked over to his desk. On top of the desk, in a round incubator, stood a crocodile egg. Johnny pulled back his sleeve and delicately injected the egg. As the liquidated skin took effect, the egg began to slowly flash an electric yellow…
…………………………
5 years later…
“Quick! Steer left! Fire!” Nick Strato yelled over the roar of the engine. At his order, another crewmember steered the wheel left, and the Alphaship veered left. Then a different crewmember fired the machine gun. It hit its target.
A huge two legged lion roared in pain as the bullets quickly found their mark. It reared back and fired a green ball of flame from its tail tip. At Nick Strato’s order, the Alphaship quickly moved out of the way. “Now,” yelled Nick, “Wait for him to roar, and fire the virus missiles, into his mouth.”
In almost no time at all, the giant lion roared and a crewmember blasted two large rockets into the creatures gaping maw. The rockets flew down its throat and exploded in its stomach. The virus inside the rockets was released, and quickly attacked the lion’s body from within. The crew of the Alphaship waited, and about 11 seconds after the rockets were fired, the giant feline exploded, his guts being spread all around Chicago. The Crew cheered, and the Alphaship headed towards the Fire Bringer base in Chicago to refuel.
Nick Strato proudly polished his new rank badge. During the battle with Gaterdon, only one of the crew had been killed. The captain. The captain had been killed when the ship was ramming into Gaterdon, and the Captains chair had failed to eject. Nick had rather disrespectfully mourned for a short period of time, because he was soon upgraded to the new captain. However, despite his insensitivity and selfishness, no one could deny that Nick was a good captain.
The Citizens of Chicago cheered as the gleaming gold arrow shaped form of the Alphaship sailed overhead. Nick, being the person he was, stuck his head out and waved back.
…………………………
Alfred Poole waited in the reception area. It had been five years since he had last been here, on X-Island. Five years since he had met with Johnny Marbeo and Gregory Lambert. And five years since he had reluctantly started Operation Komodogater. A 600 ft. tall, 950 ft. wide structure now stuck out of the top of the main laboratory, which Alfred guessed held the experiment.
Now he was back, waiting in the lab’s reception area, for Johnny Marbeo, who said the experiment was ready. Alfred was bored. He’d been waiting for an hour. Finally, Marbeo stepped out.
“Mr. Prime Minister sir,” Marbeo began. “It’s been too long. Congratulations on winning the last election!”
“Yes, yes, Marbeo, tidings to you too, now, can I please see the experiment?” Johnny Marbeo blinked twice at the Prime Ministers ‘tidings’, instead of ‘good tidings.’ But this did not last long, and Marbeo led the way through the entire length of the laboratory until they got to a viewing platform in front of the 600 ft. structure. Alfred gasped, and dropped his hat. “How tall is it, Marbeo?” He managed to splutter.
Marbeo grinned. “Last we checked, 400 ft. tall, 900 ft. long.” Alfred gasped again.
Standing in front of them, inside the huge container, stood a monster. A giant monster. 400 ft.! Twice as tall as Gaterdon!
If Alfred had to classify it as an animal, he would of said crocodile. The beast sported a long crocodile head, and a long crocodile tail, which was tipped with a small blood-red arrow shaped stinger. Its top jaw sported two huge curved fangs, not that the rest of the sharp teeth in its terrifying jaw were not deadly. Like most monsters, it stood on two legs, and had long two fingered arms, with sharp blades sticking out of the elbows. It had beige skin, and a row of hair running from its head to the middle section of the tail down the middle of the back. It had hard, bony skin, almost armored, that looked like nothing could penetrate it. Komodogater.
“We got the gater part of the name from Gaterdon, who I guess is technically his father,” began Johnny Marbeo. “And the Komodo part from a milk carton in Seattle.”
“Wouldn’t the Komodo part be from the Komodo dragon?” Alfred asked, still surprised by the monster in front of him.
“The what?” Marbeo replied confusingly. Komodogater opened his giant snout, and let loose a vicious roar. It was nothing like Gaterdon’s high-pitched shriek. It was ten times louder, and was very deep. As the creature closed his mouth, Alfred got a look at its gigantic eyes. They were glowing red, without pupils. Alfred shivered.
“H-h-how do we control it,” Alfred said, suddenly realizing that the beast could simply knock down the structure it was in, with its bulging muscles, and that they were completely at its mercy.
“He has a chip, by his ear hole, that we use to completely control him. He is not being controlled now, but when he’s not, the chip zaps his energy, so he cannot do anything to escape.” Marbeo explained. Now that Alfred knew for sure that the creature was not being controlled, he noticed the expression on its face. Pure hate. He felt a singe of pity. It must really hate it in there.
“All right Marbeo, I’ve seen enough. I think I must go home now.” Alfred finished.
“Please sir,” Johnny asked. “It’s a long flight to Ottawa from here, and it’s late. Please stay here for the night.” Alfred reluctantly agreed.
…………………………
It was night. All the pesky little people were finally gone. Komodogater snorted. These people thought he was stupid. He did not understand their annoying gibberish, but he knew he needed to get rid of the metal object by his ear hole. Every night, after dark, when the tiny people were gone, he had feebly scratched at the object with what strength he had left, and now it was finally loose. He lifted his mighty arm and flung the metal object off. Freedom! No longer would he have to bend to the will of the insignificant munchkins. Feeling his strength return to him, he once again lifted his arm, and smashed at the wall.
…………………………
Alfred awoke with a start, as a dark skinned soldier shook him awake, and yelled in an African accent, “RUN!” Alfred quickly grabbed his coat and ran outside, and nearly fainted at the scene.
Fires raged everywhere, and every single building had been destroyed. Uniformed corpses lay everywhere, each with the same terrified expression on their faces. And there, standing in the middle of it, stood Komodogater roaring like hell at the moon, his red eyes as bright as ever in the night sky, like two giant headlights. Alfred led the soldier to his private jet, where thankfully, the plane and his pilots were still intact. An explosion erupted behind them, and the soldier yelped and flew fifty feet ahead, and lay still.
Not stopping to think, Alfred desperately continued to his jet, and tripped over a body. Alfred recognized the corpse as the once happy and eccentric Johnny Marbeo, and continued his trek, muttering things like ‘stupid git’ and ‘all eat their words’ and ‘crap’. Finally Alfred got to his plane, where his pilots and assistant, Sharon Boset, immediately took off; leaving the carnage that was X-Island behind. From his window, Alfred saw Komodogater enter the ocean, and swim towards the mainland, but not before sinking the last aircraft carrier left standing.
Finally regaining his senses, Alfred said “Sharon? Contact the mayor of Ukania. Tell him I need an urgent meeting, and tell the pilot to fly to Ukania. Once you’ve done that, contact General Gregory Lambert at the Ukania Fire Bringer base. I don’t trust that damn mayor, so I need Lambert to mobilize right away. Tell Lambert this is a direct order from the Prime Minister. And also tell him not to let the mayor notice anything. Finally, contact Captain Nick Strato, and tell him to engage Komodogater before he reaches the mainland immediately.” Sharon nodded politely and swiftly went about her orders.
…………………………
The Alphaship was already almost at X-Island after it received a distress call, but now they had orders from the Prime Minister himself to search for Komodogater over the ocean. So they were now doing just that.
“I’ve found him, captain!” yelled a crewmember at Nick. Nick nodded, and at his command, the Alphaship flew over the area they found Komodogater.
Noticing their presence, Komodogater raised his head out of the water and challenged the Alphaship with a roar. Then he ducked his head under again and continued towards Ukania, probably attracted by the lights, which were just visible now. This wasn’t the largest monster Nick had ever dealt with, almost, but no, not the largest. But Nick Strato couldn’t help feeling scared, more scared than he’d ever felt. Those eyes, those red eyes. Nick shook his head and commanded, “Start dropping bombs, maybe we can force him to resurface.”
Like always, the crew obeyed, but Nick could tell they were scared too. The large cylinder bombs dropped and landed on their target, but Komodogater continued. Soon he had led them to a small island, to resurface and face this annoyance. As he did, the Alphaship got a full view of the beast, and Nick, as well as the rest of the crew gulped as their dreadful feeling increased tenfold.
The monster now stood in front of them, and the two would-be combatants glared at each other. Nick reacted first.
“Fire all weapons!” Missiles and shells and bullets of all varieties burst forth from the Alphaship and exploded on Komodogater.
…………………………
Daniel Burkright paced his office. He had just received a call that the Prime Minister was here to see him. Burkright hated Prime Ministers. Mayors like him should have more power over their cities. And he had been rightfully elected as mayor of Ukania two years ago! Well, rightfully wasn’t exactly the right word, he thought to himself with a snicker.
Daniel Burkright was a billionaire, after inheriting his fathers fortune when his father had an ‘accident’. Burkright snickered again. The mafia truly is good at what they do. So, with his father’s money, he bought his way up the ranks, ran for mayor, and knowing that none of the citizens would vote for him, bought his political victory as well. Know one would suspect him after he won. Ukania was a big city, where most people don’t know each other. So how would they know whom everybody else voted for? Exactly. And with more money again, he hired a small group of terrorists, to bust the economy of other cities, and gave them stolen Fire Bringer equipment and slightly modified uniforms. They now formed kind of his own ‘private army’. He called them ‘the Burkright squad’. Not exactly original, but it still sounded good. Just he should need to ‘dispose’ of the Prime Minister, Burkright now had a member of the Burkright Squad standing next to him, disguised in a business suit.
The Prime Minister entered the office without bothering to knock. Burkright stared at him. Alfred Poole was bleeding in several places, and was in his pajamas, which were also very torn up. He half ran up to Burkright, gripped his arms, and gasped, “Evacuate your damn city!”
Burkright blinked, and said coolly, “Please Poole, sit down and tell me what happened. So Alfred sat down and recited rather quickly the situation. After he had finished, Burkright waited a few moments, just to bug the Prime Minister, before saying, “I’m afraid I can’t evacuate.” Alfred Poole stared with a horrified expression on his face. “You see,” began Burkright, “I can’t evacuate, because if Ukania is empty, then it is weak. If everyone stays, then Ukania is strong and united.”
Alfred yelled, “YOU BLOODY FOOL! THOUSANDS ARE GOING TO DIE IF YOU DON’T EVACUATE! TO HELL WITH YOUR UNITED UKANIA, YOU BLOODY FACIST! I’M THE PRIME MINISTER, AND UNFORTUNATLY YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO POWER IN THIS DECISIO-” The disguised terrorist knocked Alfred on the head, knocking him out. “Dump his body on a road somewhere,” ordered Burkright. “Then post guards at all the exits in the city. Once the people see this ‘Komodogater’ they will try to get away. Shoot anybody who tries.”
…………………………
Nick Strato strained his eyes to see through the thick smoke. The Alphaship had emptied its entire arsenal, although the barrage would have been enough to kill ten monsters. A loud groan and thud sounded Komodogater’s obvious defeat, although they still could not see through the smoke. The crew cheered, and Nick shook hands with all of them.
Suddenly, large red eyes appeared through the fog, followed by a long crocodile jaw that quickly closed around the Alphaship, utterly destroying it, and killing everyone inside. Komodogater roared a victorious roar and stomped back into the ocean, and continued his march towards Ukania.
………………………..
Burkright stood in his grand office in Ukania City Hall. It was large for a municipal government building, at 300 ft. tall. Indeed, about 85% of the building was empty. Burkright considered himself the king of Ukania, and a king needed a palace. So he had this place built when he ‘won’ the election. Then, he burned down his house for the insurance money and moved here. Burkright was also a bit paranoid, so he built a bunker underneath. His assistant mayor, (who was almost as bad of a person as he was) had gone into the bunkers, but Burkright had not. He was going to stay here, in his office on the top floor. Ukania needed a leader to stay strong, and that meant that the leader could not go into hiding. Besides, he wasn’t scared. What could an overgrown croc do?
…………………………
Alfred Poole awoke with a start, and realized that he was rolled up in an expensive purple carpet in the middle of the Ukania outskirts. He was lying on a road. His head was throbbing and bleeding. Curse Burkright! If he ever got back to Ottawa, he’d make sure that that man was sent to jail. Pity Canada got rid of the Death Penalty. Damn it!
Quickly, Alfred wriggled out of his fancy prison and limped away, just as a car came zooming down the road and ran over the carpet. Alfred instinctively headed towards the nearest hill, which fortunately turned out to have a great view of the whole city. Alfred stopped for a moment to take a breath, but quickly turned his head when he saw a commotion on the water in Ukania bay. Komodogater had reached Ukania.
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Alfred watched in frozen horror as the giant beast headed towards downtown waist deep in water. He heard his citizen’s cry in despair as they frantically ran for their lives. BOOM! Komodogater’s enormous three-toed foot crashed into the dock, followed by the rest of his monstrous form. Komodogater lumbered across, destroying everything in his path. Unfortunately, the docks were built in a straight line, so everything in his path meant everything.
Finally Komodogater made it to district 1, where he towered over the skyline. Alfred could hear the strangled cries of hundreds of people being crushed by falling debris or even directly under Komodogaters foot. Soon, district one was completely destroyed, and the Monster crossed over into district 2 where the buildings were about level with Komodogaters towering height. But this did not matter. They too toppled like toy blocks.
Alfred smiled and cheered out loud from his hill. The Fire Bringers had arrived! He had begun to worry that General Lambert hadn’t got Sharon’s call. But troops, tanks, helicopters, and jets were now assembling in front of the confused Komodogater. Komodogater stared at them and cocked his massive head.
Every single Fire Bringer opened fire. Komodogater stepped back. He looked more annoyed than in pain. He lazily growled. Then, Komodogater let loose a long roar and the inside of his mouth glowed an electric yellow. Suddenly a beam of yellow electricity shot out of Komodogater’s gaping maw. It struck a group of soldiers and immediately disintegrated them. Still firing, Komodogater moved his beam upon the entire huge force, destroying all of them. He then turned his beam on what was left of district 2, leaving everything in flames. Alfred started to cry.
Komodogater lifted his head to the sky and roared into the night. Flaps on his neck un-folded, and became a huge frill, like that of the Australian Frilled Lizard. Komodogater finished his roar and the folds re-folded. Then Komodogater walked into the remaining districts. Here, the buildings dwarfed Komodogater, towering over him. But they fell just as easy.
Komodogater stomped his way to the Ukania Tower, the tallest building in Ukania. At 1200 ft. tall, it was world famous landmark. Was.
As the once great structure toppled over, Alfred wept, as his city was demolished, and that he couldn’t do anything about it. Damn Burkright! It was his entire fault! But the worst was yet to come.
Komodogater picked up a bus, and shook the people inside it into his mouth. Alfred could almost hear them scream. Then, Komodogater was gobbling down humans left and right, adding to the already horrendously high death toll.
Ukania was now in complete ruins. Smoke rose grimly into the red sky, and billowed through the bloodstained streets. No building, no matter how tall, stood standing. Except for one. City hall.
…………………………
Daniel Burkright was hiding under his desk. He had ordered his assistant mayor to lock the office door from the outside, but he was starting to regret it. Screw Ukania! He wanted out! Everything had gone quiet. There were no more screams. No more roars. No noises at all. Dare he leave his desks underside and look outside?
Slowly, Burkright pulled himself up, forced his head to turn towards the window, and yelped pathetically.
A huge red eye stared back at him. Komodogater raised his webbed two-fingered arm, and struck the building.
…………………………
The Fire Bringer council sat tensely the table. Luckily, their base was underground, and had not been harmed. At the head of the table, General Gregory Lambert stood next to a map of Ukania and the surrounding areas.
“Komodogater has destroyed the entire city,” Lambert began. “Downtown, the Neighborhoods, and everything else have been destroyed. At least 90 percent of the population here is dead. The only up sight, Burkright is dead, and the members of his squad that were not killed by the monster have been apprehended.
“Komodogater has now left the city limits, and is rampaging across the countryside. Soon he will be walking past a large rock cliff. We have no plan to kill him, since as far as we know; there is no way to do it. We will simply bomb the cliff, and burry Komodogater.”
…………………………
“There he is!” the pilot said through his radio as he flew over Komodogater. “Bombing the cliff now!”
The pilot whooshed over, and dropped 100 tons of bombs onto the cliff. It crumbled on impact, and the rocks fell down and buried Komodogater, covering the evil beneath hundreds of stones. Komodogater uttered one last roar and fanned out his frill again, as he fell. The pilot quickly flew back to base, and Komodogater went silent.
