Ukania 7: Cybergater - Humanity Strikes Back!
By: James Ewasiuk
Prologue
The world has been repeatedly threatened by giant monster attacks. Among the most famous of these attacks is the attack on Ukania by a monster named Komodogater. The croc reappeared, and attacked the cities of Haloy, Osaka, and then later Gillas Island. On the island, a research center to study the resident monster Gillas, Komodogater fought with Gillas. The battle ended in a tie, and Komodogater disappeared. The Fire Bringers, international peacekeeping force, deemed that Komodogater had died of his wounds. He then returned, savagely attacking London. Meanwhile, a race that had been secretly living underground revealed themselves to the public, saying they were descended from the Neanderthals and had been driven underground. They called themselves ‘The Liberators’. They then launched an attack on the United States with their two machines, Flameron and Zezpus. Both were destroyed, and all contact with the Liberators has been lost. Soon, the Earth faced a new invasion as a UFO crashed into earth revealing dozens of horrific giant metal insects named the Metalibugs. They were fortunately defeated by the Fire Bringers, the MDF, and as well as by Komodogater and Gillas, though Ukania was damaged slightly again. Komodogater has once again escaped.
…………………………
Ukania was a proud city. Since it was first settled by a group of French colonists, it has become one of the largest cities in Canada. Though British Columbia is not a French province, like the provinces of Manitoba, Ukania has become a large centre for both French and English. Though its neighbor, Vancouver to the south, gets most of the trade with the United States, Ukania experienced a huge boom in the 1950’s with the introduction of a huge trade industry with Asia and Australia, which contributed to its massive growth and the construction of huge skyscrapers in the 1970’s. The tallest of these was the Ukania Tower, originally standing over 1200 feet in the air. It was at first intended as a petty copy of the US’s ‘Empire State Building’, obvious to anyone who sees it due to its appearance, but the Ukania Tower soon become a national landmark in its own right. In population Ukania is second only to Toronto.

The City is famous throughout Canada for its giant ego, and generally disliked (in good humor of course) by many other Canadians, not unlike Toronto. This sense of dignity came about with the establishment of the ‘Royal Ukania Rifles’ which saw service in World War Two, where it performed magnificently. However, this ego has been damaged only twice. Once, by the vicious attacks of Komodogater, which left the city in utter ruins, leaving hundreds dead, a humiliation that has only recently ended with the completed reconstruction, and once when the city was hit with the powerful eruption of Mount Tonnerre in 1984.
Mount Tonnerre is probably one of the only volcanoes in Canada. Situated on a small island just outside of Ukania Bay, it’s huge. Due to cold temperatures in the winter, Tonnerre is hardly ever active. Its eruption in 1984 however, was devastating. The lava ripped into 75th avenue, melting it to shreds, though fortunately it did not continue into the rest of the city. Six people were killed. 75th avenue was considered one of the most cultural places in the world, with restaurants from all over the world, street performers, music festivals, and also home to the Ukania Art Museum. Thanks to donations from the faithful citizens, the place was rebuilt quickly, though millions worth of art was lost.

After the attack by the Metalibugs, the Mountain has once again become active. For the citizens returning home to Ukania after being evacuated from the city during Komodogater’s attack, it still felt unsafe in their newly rebuilt homes. Officials are keeping a sharp eye on the volcano, ready to order evacuation whenever necessary.
…………………………
General Gregory Lambert looked out the window as the grey helicopter he was inside flew over the pacific towards his destination. To him, it was déjà vu. He was once again heading out to some stupid island, where some stupid genetic experiment that would probably result in the destruction of a major city. Nobody ever learns, he though grimly to himself as the helicopter finally touched down on the island. He had to admit though; they were almost out of options. The monster problem had almost gotten out of hand, and the Fire Bringers only had so many troops. All the nations of the world only ever helped kill the monsters when they were on their soil, and were too busy with their various petty wars to notice much anyways.
Stanley Hanson and Emily Lent waited at the landing pad. The island was beautiful. Once the home of a strange group of Natives who unfortunately went extinct, it was converted into a military base for the Fire Bringers. Half of the island, however, remained a tropical oasis, filled with trees, wild life, and a huge mountain rising into the sky. The other half was disgusting. Stock full with Troops, tanks, ships, planes and any other military type thing you could think of was here, and in the hundreds. Then of course there was this landing pad. The island had been named ‘Fire Bringer Pacific Command’.

The helicopter was pretty ordinary, just a grey copter with the crest of the Fire Bringers painted on one side, and the logo of the UN slapped on the other. Stanley and Emily waited respectfully as Lambert exited the copter, placing his decorated General’s hat over his short brown hair.
“General Lambert, it’s good to see you sir!” Hanson called, heaving his fat hand upwards to meet Gregory’s.
“Yes, hello Stan, and Emily, hi, I’m here for…. Well you know what I’m here for.”
“Yes we do Gregory, follow us please” Emily replied, and the duo took off, their white lab coats trailing behind them. Once again, Gregory thought off how this had all happened before, and horribly wrong it had turned out, but thankfully some mistakes had been corrected. For one thing, the project wasn’t headed by an idiot this time.

They came to a tiny space, no bigger than a small garage. After placing their hands on a scanner, a door slid open, and the trio stepped inside. Gregory was confused, until suddenly the floor began moving downwards, taking them with it, and Lambert realized that they were headed underground.
The platform came to a grinding halt, and they were in a room about the size of a backyard. The room was crammed with blinking machines and computers propped up on desks. Scientists manned these machines, writing down notes and chatting in hushed voices with each other. To a fighting man, it all seemed very strange.
The trio came to another sliding door, and after that, a long hallway. Gregory was beginning to wonder if they would ever get to wherever it was they were going. Finally, they came to a final sliding door, and Stanley said

“Here it is. The Hanger” as the door slid open. Gregory’s jaw dropped. The room was huge, bigger than even a dozen football fields. More scientists, but also armed fire bringer soldiers wearing green camouflage and red berets patrolled the mostly flat ground, and even a few tanks rolled by. But the real thing was to the side.
Mounted on a wall, bound to it by giant metal claws and many metal chains, was Komodogater. Except that it wasn’t Komodogater. The real Komodogater was somewhere in the ocean. This creature had been deformed by pieces of metal armor strapped to it. The entire top jaw and back neck had been replaced with metal, as well as one eye, which while it was open, was simply an empty black space. The organic eye remained closed. The wrist of the left arm was metal, and equipped with two repeating blasters, and the entire right arm was metal, with the hand being replaced with what looked like a circular canon with a short thin blade attached to the bottom. Both feet were metal, and a large plate of armor was grafted to the belly. An even greater canon was mounted on the right shoulder, with a huge Gatling gun on the left. The last quarter of the tail was metal, and instead of a stinger like Komodogater, it held what looked sort of like a flamethrower. The metal was painted silver and crimson, and a rocket pack was strapped to the creatures back. Gregory stared at it, lost for words. This one better work.

After going up a small lift, they entered the control room, which over looked the whole hanger. The room was filled lined with rows of desks and computers, filled with scientists and technicians, as well as two soldiers guarding the door. Gregory sat down.
“All right Stan, Emily; it’s certainly an amazing thing you’ve accomplished in such a short space of time and the funding we gave you. But how is this going to turn out any different from the last experiment? You all know how Komodogater turned out, and this is... well it’s essentially the same animal, isn’t it?” Gregory asked.
“Don’t worry; we took extra precautions with this one.” Stanley replied. “First of all, it has no brain, no consciousness. It is a robot. Well technically a cyborg, but you get the idea. As for the funding, we managed very easily. We scavenged, you see.” The general raised an eyebrow, but Stanley chuckled and waved a hand dismissively. “No, it’s nothing bad. To build such an advanced robot is simply almost beyond our understanding. We have no idea how to build a laser beam, or anything like that. So we scavenged. We took parts off of Flameron and the Zespus, our old friends. Those Yernulans have no idea what they did, giving us technology like this. They may have jumped us forward hundreds or years!” The scientist sounded very excited.

“And the pilots?” Gregory asked.
“Jonathan Strato and Yoshima Yamane; you remember them from the Alphaship?” Emily answered. They will be the pilots, as well as two new pilots that just finished training at the top of their class.”
“So you mean they’ll actually be inside the thing?” Gregory asked, astounded.
“Yes. The cockpit is inside the chest, and the crew will be able to see outside from screens connected to cameras in the eyes, which are reinforced to protect against powerful ranged attacks.” Emily explained. “As you’re aware, the UN is only allowing us to use this against monsters, not against any human enemies. But I think it will serve its purpose well. We have decided to call it ‘Cybergater’.”
“Cybergater” Gregory repeated. “I like that. I’m no scientist, but could I see the blueprints?” the general requested.
“Sure,” Stanley said, and he walked off and came back five minutes later holding a large bunch rolled up pieces of blue paper. He handed them to Gregory, who opened them up and started reading.
“What this?” he asked, pointing to some sketches. Stanley smiled.

“Good, you’ve found our secret weapon. Well, weapons.” Emily said before Stanley could answer. “You recall how back in Ukania with the Metalibugs and Gillas, how we almost killed Komodogater? Well, actually those Plain Warriors almost did, but same thing. IT was the hyper acid, the substance that amplifies Gillas’s poison.”
“So,” Stanley continued. “We’re going to be placing two rocket launchers along the length of Cybergater’s torso. Each rocket head will be filled with the stuff.”
“So why build a whole robot when we could just dump this on him?” Gregory asked, confused.
“Hyper acid only works on animals with Gillas’s venom in their blood stream. So far, that’s just Gillas and Komodogater. And Cybergater was built to end the monster threat once and for all, to combat all monsters. But of course, Komodogater will be the first test.”
“How come I didn’t see the Hyper Acid launchers?” Gregory asked again in a serious tone.
“We haven’t finished making them yet, but they will be ready soon. Our engineers are working on it. You have to understand the time it takes for these things.”
“Of course. And the latest status on Komodogater?”
“Well, because of his electrical properties, radar and sonar just don’t work, and cancel out when the hit him. But we do believe he’s been hibernating in the pacific ever since the fight with the Metalibugs.”
“Thank you Stan, Emily, I think I’ve seen enough, I will inform Alfred of your progress.” Gregory said. “I think I’ll retire now, and maybe meet the pilots in a few hours?”
“Certainly!” Stanley replied. “Dinner should be ready soon. I’ll tell the cook to have it ready, say in an hour?”
…………………………
Beneath the ever churning waves of the pacific, a creature lay resting at the bottom of the ocean floor. As the endless water flowed all around its massive bulk, its cool touch soothing its now healed wounds, the creature awoke. Its eyes flashed open, revealing their demonic glowing red glare.
It flexed its reptilian nostrils as if to take a breath, or a sniff, remembering its surroundings, its conscious, and its memories. A low growl escaped its throats, its sound vibrating throughout the water.

Finally the beast arose, standing to its full awesome height, way at the bottom of the sea. It pushed off with its powerful tail, and began swimming off to land, its mind now full of rage as it slowly shook of the last remnants of its drowsy hibernation, and remembered what had happened before. It had been in pain, immense pain, to the point of almost death. Though it couldn’t remember what had happened afterwards, it knew this. It knew that it was now full of uncontrollable anger, and that it had to lash out, it had to attack, hurt something. It had to taste blood, it had to bite, and it had to destroy. It had to kill… Komodogater had returned.
…………………………
Alfred Poole, Field Marshall of the Fire Bringers, stepped through the streets of Manhattan, on his way to work. It was a cloudy morning, still wet from last night’s rain, but nevertheless, the citizens busied themselves about their day, the city ever alive and moving. The Fire Bringer main office was here.
Alfred finally came to his building, exhausted from the walk. Next time, he told himself, drive. The Fire Bringer office was no military base, but the office from which the officials did their work. It was no impressive building, rising just ten stories, dwarfed by the rest of Manhattan, and due to its age, was built from old bricks. The only real attractions were the Fire Bringer and the UN flags hanging off the edge. But oh well, Alfred could deal with that.

The Fire Bringers worked on a contribution basis. Soldiers could ‘sign up’ for it like they would any other army, and these men and women would be put in multicultural units with others from around the world. But it was mainly made up of contingents sent by countries from their own armies to complete a tour of duty for the Fire Bringers. These soldiers would usually operate in their home countries, but would sometimes be sent overseas. For example, the Fire Bringers at Komodogater’s attack on Ukania would have been from the Canadian Army, and the Fire Bringers active in any other country would usually be from that countries army, just with fire bringer uniforms and equipment.
As he stepped through the door Alfred immediately came to the lobby, which consisted of a desk, two attendants to said desk, the flaming crests of the fire bringers painted on the wall behind them, and a small coffee shop off to the corner. But this was as far as most people could get. The elevators were in a separate room behind the lobby, and only members of the Fire Bringers could get in. As soon as he stepped in, he saw two armed guards, who immediately snapped to attention and saluted. Alfred returned the gesture hastily and stepped past them, where dozens of small screens suddenly came down from the ceiling on robotic arms and scanned every inch of Alfred’s body before a computerized voice said ‘Scanning complete. Field Marshall Alfred Poole, authorized.’
Alfred finally made it to the elevator, and went up to his office. Outside he saw his secretary, Sheila Boset, who smiled at him. She was a nice lady, but she always smelled bad and always seemed to get lipstick on her teeth.

“Sir, General Lambert has finished inspecting Cybergater; he says it’s a success. Oh, and General Reynolds is waiting for you in your office.” Sheila said in her squeaky voice.
“Thank you Sheila” Alfred replied, and he went into his office. Just as Sheila had said, General Lance Reynolds was indeed waiting for him inside. Reynolds was not pleasant man, nor did he have any respect for Alfred, but he was a good soldier, and Alfred had put him in charge of locating monsters and researching the mysterious creatures who called themselves the Liberators. “Ah, Lance hello, do sit down,” Alfred requested, gesturing towards a chair in front of Alfred’s desk as he himself sat down behind it. Reynolds sat down. “Now, any more new on the Liberators?” Reynolds shook his head.
“No sir, it’s very perplexing. If not for Flameron actually showing up, I would swear that this was a hoax. We only ever saw one of them, that one called Shirazt, and even then it was only on screen. We’ve investigated the tunnels that Flameron and Zespus came from, but they don’t lead anywhere! There’s absolutely no trace of them, and really sir, if there really was a technologically superior race living beneath the Earth’s crust, where, by the way, it’s too hot for anything to live anyways, I’m fairly certain we would of heard from them before.” Reynolds reported, looking Alfred squarely in the eye.
“Yes, I’ve been thinking about that too.” Alfred began. “There’s definitely something we’re missing here, and we have absolutely no idea what. Anyways, what did you want to talk to me about?”
“It’s Komodogater sir. He’s been sighted heading for Hong Kong.” Reynolds said.
“Oh dear” said Alfred. “Wait, Pacific Command isn’t that far from Hong Kong. We should be able to deploy as many ships as possible to the city soon. How long until he makes landfall?”
“Estimated twenty-five hours.”
“Very well. Tell the Fire Bringer base at Hong Kong to evacuate the city, and please notify Chinese and Hong Kong officials and please ask them to deploy their forces as well. Make sure that Hong Kong Bay is blocked off by our destroyers and submarines. Also, please tell Cybergater to deploy.”
“Yes sir!” Reynolds gave a salute and left.
…………………………
The meeting between General Gregory Lambert and the pilots of Cybergater was about to begin. Gregory was in a large living room in the staff living quarters, and it was luxurious, with tall bookcases lining the walls, many highly decorated types of furniture, and a huge blazing hot fireplace to one side, which remained the only light in the room besides two dim lamps.
Gregory sat in an elegant red and gold armchair, as he waited for the pilots to arrive. Soon they came in, and gave respectful salutes, standing to attention. Gregory recognized the original two pilots of the Alphaship, Jonathan Strato and Yoshima Yamane, but they were two new ones, both female. One sported long blond hair tied up in a ponytail and soft blue eyes, but sported a tough and hardened look on her face, while the other was a stereotypical redhead, hair cut short and face full of freckles. Gregory also noticed how they were all wearing their ceremonial uniforms, to be worn only on special occasions. It was the standard Fire Bringer red, with a black military cap. Though red was the standard ceremonial uniform color for all Fire Bringer ranks (excluding generals, which was a dark blue) its elegance always depended on rank or stature, and these four specifically chosen pilots uniforms were especially decorated. Laced with gold cuffs and buttons, the red on these was actually a bright scarlet, and shone brilliantly through the dimly lit room. It was a stark comparison to Gregory, who currently wore his regular generals uniform and was colored a dull green.

Stanley walked in too, and introduced them to Gregory, who stared intently at the pilots, who stared back.
“General Lambert, I believe you’ve already met two of the four, but they have since been promoted. So, allow me to introduce, Major Jonathan Strato from Ukania, and Captain Yoshima Yamane from Tokyo.”
“All right, how we feeling today boys?” Gregory asked the two with a smile.
“Good sir!” the two replied in unison. Stanley continued.
“Lieutenant Natalia Mackiw from Kiev, and Lieutenant Aliza Peres from Jerusalem.”
“Thank you Stanley” said Gregory, who then turned to the pilots and said “At ease”. Instantly, the four pilots relaxed and placed their hands behind their backs. “Now,” Gregory continued, “You four know why you’re here. You have all been given an enormous responsibility. The fate of many lives may hang on your skills to pilot our newest weapon. Your task, as you know is to rid the world of monsters. And the first one may be the toughest of them all. Komodogater.” The pilots all nodded their heads.

“But sir, he hasn’t shown up for ages!” replied Natalia, who spoke in a thick Ukrainian accent.
“Up until now Lieutenant” said Gregory. “But I just received word from Field Marshall Alfred Poole that he’s headed for Hong Kong. You are to leave in two hours.” The group looked at each other, startled. Stanley cut, as he too was surprised.
“But Gregory, they haven’t had real training in Cybergater yet, only in simulations!”
“Jonathan and Yoshima have had plenty of experience. And there’s no choice, we might not get a better chance to get Komodogater for a while. You know how he disappears sometimes. Either way, we’ll be planting a tracking device on him this time, the one that you made coated with rubber so his body doesn’t cancel it out.”
“But we haven’t even placed the Hyper acid missiles one yet!” Stanley continued to protest.
“Sorry Stanley” Gregory said sadly, then turned to the pilots. “You’d best get your gear together.”
…………………………
The Chinese news helicopter flew across the magnificent cityscape of Hong Kong. The city gleamed with the intensity of millions of tiny lights below as the sun set behind it, though more and more were being switched off as the city evacuated. The copter flew across Hong Kong bay, and headed out to see. It wasn’t hard to spot its objective.
Now out past the bay, Hong Kong still visible in the distance, the newscasters could see the hundreds of naval ships streaming below. They could almost not see water for ships. Hundreds of other helicopters, these ones troop transports, with the Fire Bringer emblem plastered on the side, headed in the other direction, to land tanks and troops on the island itself. The huge military presence, made up of mainly Fire Bringer forces, was here to make a stand against Komodogater, who was headed for the city. Above, dozens of fighter jets circled the area, read to strike as soon as possible. The ships and the jets made up the first line of defense, while submarines and artillery on the shore in Hong Kong bay made up the second, and the land forces making up the final. This had all been tried before against Komodogater, and had to worked, but they were going to try again anyways. What more else could they do?

A camera was stuck out the end of the chopper, and the news anchor began his report, when suddenly the lead ship burst into flames as something below came into contact. The flaming ship sank beneath the waves, to the astonishment of the anchor, who immediately stopped his broadcast mid-sentence. Then, another ship burst into flames, this time erupting into a huge explosion, sending pieces everywhere and striking more ships. One piece of rubble hit the propellers of the copter, sending it hurtling towards the water where it exploded in a smoky haze, instantly killing the pilot and the cameraman and anchor. Thankfully most of the fleet remained intake.
Jets swooped in, dropping bombs into the water until finally Komodogater emerged. The great beast emerged right in front of a pilot, and the jet exploded right on the creature, enraging it further. Komodogater roared, and all of the servicemen saw his full form, or at least the half that emerged.
A 400 ft upright standing crocodile, with beige skin and glowing red eyes, curved fangs in the top jaw, two fingered arms with blades on the elbows, and a long tail with an arrow shaped stinger on the end, visible as it loomed out of the water and splashed back down again. A row of hair ran down its back. Komodogater roared a loud, deep, and beastly roar and his neck seemed to unfold to show a huge frill, intimidating his enemies. They responded.

Instantly every single ship and jet opened fire with everything they had. Shells, bullets, missiles, rockets and torpedoes all slammed onto the monster. As he was surrounded by smoke, they could hear him growl in anger as pieces of skin came flying off. Finally, they all stopped and, and it went quiet.
An electric light began to flash, and out of the smoke came a yellow electrical beam, as it moved its way from ship to ship, then turned to the sky and blasted the jets. Komodogater had eliminated an entire fleet and an entire squadron with one blast. The creature ducked underwater once more and continued his push to the island city. Line one defeated.
The artillery on the shore waited patiently. Soon dozens of underwater explosions began sending shock waves all the way to them, as water went up in the air, and the new that the subs had engaged Komodogater. A small submarine was suddenly thrown out of the water, crashing into a skyscraper and sending it crumbling to the ground. Komodogater reared his head, and the artillery opened fire. Komodogater lifted himself out of the water, destroying the artillery with his three toed feet and tail. Line two defeated. Now the rampage would begin.
Buildings fell as Komodogater made his way through the city, destroying everything in sight. Tanks and troops and helicopters fired up at him, but it did nothing, and Komodogater continued, smashing anything taller than him, and crushing anything smaller.

Overhead, Cybergater flew through the air. The huge mechanical crocodile looked kind of awkward in the sky, as it was propelled just by its rockets and didn’t look aerodynamic in the least, but it moved fast. Below, the crew could see as Komodogater engaged with a group of tanks, sending a building crashing down on them.
Inside the cockpit, the crew got ready for combat.
“All right guys, this is it!” Jonathan cried. “Aliza, why don’t you send him a little present? Fire missiles!” Missiles streamed out of the rocket pack and came crashing down all over Komodogater. The monster winced, and looked up at the sky, turning all attention to Cybergater. The ground forces pulled back, not wanting to be caught in the middle. Komodogater let loose a beam of electricity, which scraped the metallic belly of Cybergater, sending sparks raining down. The crew remained unharmed.
Now the Cybergater landed. The rockets decreased in power and Cybergater turned vertical, planting its feet upon the ground. The two stared at each other. Komodogater looked startled. He seemed to recognize himself in his metal counterpart. He attacked it none-the-less, running straight for it, but Cybergater was too fast, opened firing with its repeating blasters and shoulder canon. The lasers and the shells rattled into Komodogater’s torso, and the monster fell over, rolling on the ground in pain.
“Firing whip!” called Yoshima, and the sort thin blade spat out, revealing to be attached to a long sharp wire. It wrapped itself around Komodogater’s neck and pulled, picking to crocodile into the air and sending him into a building. The crew cheered.

Komodogater emerged from the rubble, angrier than ever. All he had to do was get close. He shook off the debris, and growled his challenge, simply getting hit by more projectiles and sending him back to the ground. Komodogater knew he might lose. IT made him angry. It made him so very angry. It made him want to kill so badly.
“C’mon John, lets finish him” called Natalia.
“All right, fire all weapons!” said Jonathan. Outside, Cybergater let loose with all of its weapons, every laser, every shell, ever missile, every bullet, all hitting Komodogater in one blast. But when the smoked cleared, he was nowhere to be found. All except for a huge hole in the ground………
“Crap, he’s burrowed!” spat Aliza.
“All right, stay calm, he’s wounded, so he can’t exactly go far.” Jonathan advised. “Okay, so we just need to take- SHIT!” Suddenly sparks went flying around the cockpit as outside, the ground beneath Cybergater burst open and Komodogater emerged dragging the cyborg down with it. He slashed with his razor sharp claws, slicing into the armour and pulling out wiring, also taking in electrical power from the sparks. Komodogater stepped out of the hole and pulled up Cybergater with him, which was still struggling to do anything, and Komodogater began tearing at it, pulling out all sorts of parts. He sliced into the head, carving a huge hole into it. After smashing a big hole into the chest, Komodogater fired his beam into it, causing Cybergater to short circuit and just stop working. Komodogater raised his head into the sky and roared in victory. Then he left, adding back into the ocean. For now, he was satisfied.

Inside, the crew was in bad shape. Having been rocked around a bunch, they were bloody, and burnt. The Fire Bringers sent in some work teams, who managed to pull the crew out before placing them on a helicopter, while two larger helicopters airlifted Cybergater back to the base. A small red helicopter with the Fire Bringer crest flew overhead Komodogater as more of the beast became submerged. A man opened the door stuck out what looked like a very long rifle, and fired it and Komodogater. He looked through the scope, checking he had hit what he aimed for, and then gave the thumbs out to the pilot
. “Tracker’s in place!” he called cheerfully, and the door slammed shut as Komodogater disappeared completely from view.
………………………
It was a sorrowful day at in Alfred Poole’s office. The man sat in his desk, head in his hands, cursing. He finally looked up, and his face was wrinkled and red with stress. He pressed the button on his buzzer and spoke through.
“Sheila? Could you get Mr. Hanson on the phone please? I feel a need to yell at him.”
“Yes sir, right away.” The speaker phone rang, and was soon picked up.
“Hello, Stanley Hanson speaking.” came the chipper greeting on the other end.
“Ah yes, hello Stan. Do you mind telling me exactly what happened at Hong Kong the other night?” Alfred asked calmly, though in his tone he was obviously furious.
“Hey Alfred, that’s not fair. It wasn’t my fault” Stanley said defensively. “I told General Lambert that Cybergater was not ready, but you made me launch him anyways. Remember, the only reason we were going to use Cybergater in the first place instead of just dumping hyper acid all over him was so that it could be training exercise for the pilots. I was going to be a push-over.”

“Exactly!” Alfred yelled. “So why wasn’t it a pushover?”
“I told you, because we weren’t ready, I still had to install the hyper acid missiles. We all know Komodogater is incredibly dangerous, and so far he can’t be killed. He can withstand an immense amount of pain. Against Sun beast, he was beaten so badly, but then he did not die. Instead he just waited to find a weakness. And even against Cybergater in Hong Kong, he withstood a lot. No matter what, in any fight so far, with the exception of Gillas, it’s only a matter of time before he wins. He ALWAYS wins. But against hyper acid he doesn’t stand a chance. We were going to place them on Cybergater, and have a nice little practice round on the ol’ croc, but oh no! You made me launch him anyways, and he was smashed in pieces!” Stanley was getting increasingly angry as he went on. “So don’t you tell me I’m doing a bad job Mr. Poole, because I don’t know if Gregory told you or not, but we were winning at first, so even without the acid, MY INVENTION WAS STILL DOING A GOOD JOB!”
“All right, all right, we’re grown men; we don’t have to argue like this!” Alfred replied.
“Your right, I’m sorry. But now that Cybergater is out of commission, can we at least now just dump a bunch of hyper acid on Komodogater? You said it yourself, it would kill him.”

“Sorry Alfred.” Stanley replied, having calmed down. “We have no hyper acid left, and the missiles are as unstable as it is. I was surprised that we were able to get it into the launchers without setting them off as it is. But taking them out, we’ll blow the whole lab apart. No, we’ll have to fix Cybergater to use them.”
“Damn!” Alfred exclaimed. “Very well, how long will it take? It won’t take long for Komodogater to recover from this one.”
“A year, minimum.” Alfred said matter-of-factly.
“What? We don’t have that long!”
“Triple our staff and quadruple our budget, and maybe, if we work hard, about three months.”
“You have yourself a deal Stan.
“Wonderful. And don’t worry Stan, after the fight Gregory had a helicopter team plant a tracking device on the Crocodiles neck. It’s coated with rubber too, so it doesn’t short circuit from the electrical discharge. We’re tracking him now. We’ll know when he’s on the move.”

The conversation over, they said their goodbyes and hung up. A knock came at Alfred’s door.
“Come in” he said. The door opened, and General Lance Reynolds stepped in.
“Sir,” the general said. “A new development sir. We decided to search the areas underground where Flameron and Zespus emerged one more time, and we found their hangars. It’s amazing. All there seem to be are metal structures from which they took off, inside two huge large caverns that seemed to of been carved out, but that’s it. No tunnels leading to them, or any other sign of life. It looks like they’ve been sitting under the earth for hundreds of years, just waiting-”
“Just waiting for someone to activate them from someplace else” Alfred finished. “So the Liberators… they’ve been waiting all this time to launch their attack. But other than that, absolutely no trace of them seems to be found. We’ve been fooled Reynolds. Thank you, this is very good progress.”
..........................
Three and a half months later
On the other side of the ocean, a research team trekked up Mount Tonnerre. They were working for the Ukania Conservation of Nature Group (UCNG), and had come to investigate some natural problems. At the very bottom of the volcano was a large pond, full of many small creatures. A recent test confirmed that the pond had been contaminated, as well as the water surrounding the mountain and it was thought that it probably was because of Ukania Electricity (UE). Ukania Electricity was Power Company in Ukania, and they had a power plant situated on the Volcano. UE had had two huge power cords running up the length of the mountain, one which ran under the water to the city feeding electricity and another under the water where the plant sent all of its wastes. The UCNG suspected that the waste cord had broken. UE would not let the UCNG have a look at the waste cord without City Hall approving it, so they decided for now just to test the mountain earth to see if it was contaminated.

Mount Tonnerre, though big, was not actually very tall as other volcanoes were, though it was certainly extremely wide and as such, the group was able to hike up the mountain without the need of gas masks. As they drew closer to the peak, the lead on said,
“Hey uh, guys? You notice it getter hotter?” The group stopped. Another one said,
“Yeah, I do. I didn’t notice it at first, but, yeah, I am.” The rest of the group nodded in agreement.
“Oh shit, look!” cried one, pointing into the air. Though the peak was blocked by a piece of rock, they see black smoke rising into the air. Mount Tonnerre was active once again.
…………………………
True to Stanley Hanson’s word, Cybergater had been completely repaired. The hyper acid missiles had been grafted on, and all they needed now was to lure Komodogater out of the ocean. At the Fire Bringer Pacific Command base, Stanley, Gregory and Alfred met to discuss tactics.
“So!” Stanley said, starting of the meeting in his usual chipper mood. “Emily is off overseeing the final check to make sure everything is in order. All that’s left to do now is plan.
“Well where is Komodogater now? What’s he been doing this whole time?” Alfred inquired.
“Well, he hasn’t moved much. Most of the time I guess he’s been sleeping, but he has moved towards the west coast. Stan, if you will?” Gregory asked.
“Certainly General” Stanley said back. He picked up a remote and pointed it a large screen. The screen flickered on, showing a map, and a blinking red dot in the ocean indicating the position of Komodogater.
“Why... why... he’s right back by Ukania again!” Alfred cried in disgust. “No, no! I’m not having this! This will be the third time!”
“Who says we’ll let him enter the city? We’ll first draw him into the surface by dropping bombs from fighters. Then, the jets will draw Komodogater to land.”
“To land!?”
“Yes Alfred. As soon as Cybergater arrives, they’ll take over in drawing the beast to land. But not to Ukania. You probably heard about this as well, Mount Tonnerre is active. If all else fails, in the extremely unlikely event that the hyper acid does not work, and then we have to try and push Komodogater into the top of Mount Tonnerre. There, he will be burned to a crisp. However, only as a last resort, as it might trigger an eruption. Even then, I’m only risking it because not many citizens have moved back to Ukania. I call this, Operation Croc Slayer.”
“Very well. Its time Komodogater was stopped for good.” Alfred said. “Begin the operation at six o’clock tomorrow British Columbia time.”
………………………..
Two fighter jets soared over the pacific. In the background, they could just make out the skyline of Ukania and the looming shape of Mount Tonnerre. They circled the area they’d been told too. One of them crackled over the radio,
“This it?” The other pilot replied,
“Yep, this is it all right. Remember, once he comes to the surface, we take off, right? Cybergater should be here any minute.”
“Roger that, bombs away!” Both jets let loose a load of light depth bombs, programmed to explode once they reached a certain depth. Water flew up in the air as they exploded under the waves. Nothing happened. “He’s not coming, over, try again!”

But before they could, the water began to bubble, and the gigantic head o Komodogater soon reared up. The beast growled at these annoyances and a beam of electricity burst from his mouth, just missing one of the jets.
“Open fire!” one fighter said, and the two let loose with missiles, then swung back and headed towards the mainland. Komodogater pursued, swimming in the water like a real crocodile with his tail moving back and forth and the top of his head uncovered.
Mount Tonnerre was now very close, and the pilots were wondering if Cybergater would ever show up. Komodogater fired another beam, and this time it scraped the wings of one of the jets.
“AAAUUUGH!” he screamed as he plummeted and hit the water with an explosion.
“No!” cried the other one. Komodogater was about to fire again when he was hit with huge shell, crocodile skin exploding into the water. The jet, knowing his job was done, flew off as Cybergater hung in the sky, hitting Komodogater again and again with the shoulder-mounted canon.

Cybergater landed at the base of the volcano and continued to pelt Komodogater. Komodogater fired his beam, scraping into the dirt around Cybergater, then ducked underwater.
“Careful” Jonathan told the rest of the crew. “He may of gone underground again.”
Thankfully, he had not. Komodogater emerged onto the island, to face Cybergater once more. The two stared at each other.
“John, I think it might be time to use those missiles!” Yoshima advised.
“All right, fire the Hyper Acid Missiles, let’s end this!” Jonathan called. The missiles burst out, and rammed straight into Komodogater. The effect was devastating. As they exploded, clear acidic fluid burst out, splashing them all over Komodogater. The monster fell to the floor, as it cut through his skin. He screamed, a pitiful high pitched shriek as his flesh was eaten away. Steam rose from the body, and the crew was able to see bone actually showing itself before Komodogater was completely enveloped in the steam.
“That was a little too easy” Natalia commented.
“And what’s wrong with that?” Aliza replied, stirring a laugh amongst the rest of the crew. “Wait, what was that?”

A low growl erupted from the steam, and as the crew squinted into it, they saw a flicker of movement.
“Shit, he’s alive, okay Yoshima?” Jonathan asked. “How many of those missiles do we have left?”
“Enough to kill him with” Yoshima said back.
“Okay, lift off!” Jonathan ordered, and the metallic croc lifted off, hovering just above the ground. “Okay, now he can’t get us from underground. Can you guys still see any movement?”
“Nope, nothing right now” said Natalia. And just as she said that, the steam glowed a bright yellow, and an electric beam cut through, slamming into Cybergater’s chest and sending it down. As it hit the ground, the steam finally cleared, revealing Komodogater, eyes glowing, standing up. It was a horrible sight. The hyper acid had done its job well.

There was no blood; just melted skin, dripping off and sizzling on the floor. It was like the opposite of Cybergater. Instead of metal, pats of the body were skinless, showing just bone and muscle. Some skin still lay hanging off, and Komodogater stepped closer, hi entire right side of his face stripped to the bone. Komodogater was on his last legs, that much was clear. But the fact that the creature was still going was simply amazing. He opened his mouth, and let loose a loud, powerful roar, his frill unfolding and glaring at Cybergater menacingly.
“Yoshima, fire the missiles now!” Jonathan screamed.
“They’re not working! They’re not working!” Yoshima proclaimed. “They must have been broken by the blast!”
“WHAT? But Alfred said the launchers were almost indestructible!” Jonathan screamed.
“Yeah, almost!” said Aliza. That blast must have been one in a million!”
“No, that’s too lucky! He must have known where to hit!” shouted Natalia.
“Okay, everyone just calm down!” said Jonathan. “Okay, so they don’t work. We can figure that out later, but right now we need to fight Komodogater. Plan B, we throw him to the volcano. I shouldn’t be too hard, I mean just look at him. He hasn’t even attacked us yet, he’s just sort of staring at us.”
This was true. Komodogater was fazed and confused after being hurt so badly. He had gotten to his feet and still didn’t really know what was going on. But he was beginning to snap out of it, and he once again fired his beam on his enemy, but this time, the powerful armour prevented Cybergater from falling.

“There” said Yoshima. “At least he can’t penetrate our armour.”
“Oh no, he’s going underground!” shouted Aliza, who then started firing her blasters on him. Btu it was too late. Komodogater had disappeared.
“Oh, crap.” exclaimed Jonathan. “Okay, I’m radioing command, let’s take off and circle the island, maybe we’ll see him come up.” They circled a bit, and finally got a message back from command saying,
“Cybergater crew, Cybergater crew, we have spotted Komodogater. He has emerged halfway up the Volcano on the other side.”
Cybergater flew over, and sure enough, Komodogater was there, but he was once again digging.
“All right,” said Jonathan, “let’s blast him before he goes back under, and then drag him to the top.” Cybergater let loose all of its weapons, thumping down on the earth and sending dirt into the air. Komodogater roared in anger, but continued digging. He wasn’t burrowing. His huge two fingered hands pulled a huge cord. It was the UE’s power cord, which supplied all of Ukania with electricity. Komodogater began drawing power from it, and electricity crackled all around him as he grew in strength. His wounds disappeared, and body grew more powerful and slightly musclier. He was more powerful than ever before. The entire city, a few miles away, blacked out as it lost its power.

“Next he’ll be headed for the actual plant!” said Yoshima, his voice panicked.
“Relax, he hasn’t seen us yet” said Jonathan. “Let’s wrap him up with the whip and drag him up to the crater.”
A long whip came out of Cybergater’s arm and wrapped itself tightly around Komodogater’s neck. The monster was so surprised it couldn’t do anything. Still airborne, Cybergater flew up the mountain, dragging the unhappy Komodogater with him. Komodogater did not like this.
They got to the top, and saw huge amounts of steam rising from a big hole in the center. It was huge, many times bigger than either of the monsters. Cybergater was almost there, almost about to drop Komodogater, when the monster let loose a blast of electricity, cutting through the whip and sending both monsters to the ground.
Komodogater got up first, followed closely by Cybergater, back facing Komodogater. Cybergater tried to take off again, but Komodogater blasted the jets on the robot, sending it back to the ground.
“His beam was never powerful enough to actually cut through our armour like that!” Aliza commented.
“Which means he’s a lot stronger now.” said Jonathan.

Cybergater once again got up; its flying gear destroyed, and opened fire on Komodogater. The crocodile took no damage. A third electrical beam was fired, this one right at Cybergater chest, and for the third time, Cybergater fell down, taking immense damage.
“All weapon systems are down!” said Natalia, as sparks flew in the cockpit and broken wires hung above their heads. “All we have working is the emergency grappling hook, and the blades!”
“Then we can’t let him hit us again, right?” Jonathan replied. “Okay, extend blades.”
Outside, a long blade extended from each arm. “Now” said Jonathan. “Now we have to charge him.”
Cybergater stomped forward towards its enemy, arms at the ready to slice into Komodogater. They were literally right next to the crater, smoke rising behind them. Komodogater roared, unfurling his frill again as the blades on his elbows extended. The two met.
Cybergater slashed first, cutting into Komodogater’s shoulder. A thin line of bright red blood splattered Cybergater’s now burnt silver and crimson armour. Cybergater tried to slash with the other arm, but it was grabbed by Komodogater’s jaw. The creature started squeezing, Appling huge amounts of pressure to the arm, and then ripped it right off. Komodogater growled and let it fall to the floor, and slashed Cybergater diagonally across the chest with his left elbow blade. It cut through the armour, sparks flying.

Cybergater tried to counter by throwing its remaining arm blade at Komodogater, but the croc sliced it in half with his other blade. Then Cybergater made a last ditch effort to try and push Komodogater into the crater, but Komodogater shoved Cybergater on the ground and leaned over him.
Komodogater clawed at the cut made by his elbow blade and tore into it, making it bigger and bigger. He pulled out wires and all kinds of important-looking pieces, absorbing more electricity as well.
“He’s going to reach the cockpit soon, us, John, we really need a plan right now!” panicked Yoshima.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have any ideas!” shouted Jonathan back. “This thing wasn’t exactly built for throwing stuff in volcanoes when a CROCDILE IS GOING THROUGH ITS WIRING!”
“WELL THEY SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT!”
“WELL I GUESS THEY DIDN’T, DID THEY?”
“John, I don’t what, but I think he’s just cut through something important. We can’t move the legs or arms or torso” Aliza reported, just as a gigantic claw tore though their wall. Komodogater had just reached the cockpit, and the crew stared in horror as the beast put his huge red eye to the hole and looked back. They could smell his breath, and it was rank with the smell of rotting flesh.

“Backup generator is online!” said Natalia, and Cybergater once again got back to its feet. Only this time, the crew was not looking at a screen, this time they were staring straight at Komodogater through the hole, and it was a lot scarier. “Missiles!” cried Natalia in delight. “Missiles are working again!”
“The hyper acid?” Yoshima asked.
“No, regular.”
“Shit!”
“Hey” said Aliza. “What if we bomb the earth with them? Bomb the ground beneath him and maybe he’ll fall in?”
“Okay, we’ll try it” said Jonathan.
Cybergater punched Komodogater, but with the exact same result as before. Cybergater was now armless, and back on the ground. This seemed to be happening a lot lately. Cybergater stepped back and opened fire with its remaining missiles on the earth beneath Komodogater and……it worked.

The earth was already very fragile from the fighting and gave in. Komodogater grunted in surprise as he lost his balance and fell, thousands of feet towards the steaming hot lava. The crew heard his high pitched shriek echo than disappear, his final fate unknown. Though, it was highly likely that he just hit the lava and died. Large planes soon came in to pull the crew out, then pick up the empty Cybergater and carry it back.
For the first time, mankind had actually triumphed over Komodogater. Though the Fire Bringers knew not to let their guard down, for all they knew, he was dead, burnt to a fiery crisp. They could now concentrate on the final elimination of the monster scourge. Komodogater was gone. It was finally over.

The End