[ Contents | 17. ... vs. Dark | 18. Monster's Revenge | Epilogue ]

Yamucha's Student

By Dragoness Eclectic

 

Chapter 18. Monster's Revenge

"Bloody hell! Who is that punk?" Colonel Dark picked himself up out of the trench he'd dug in the hillside--

A sudden roar from below caught his attention. He rose into the air and looked over the harbor--

"BLOODY HELL!" Dark's eyes widened as he watched an immense draconic form slither onto Dock One and toss men and tanks about like small plastic toys. "Damn that punk for destroying the controller! Now I have to destroy Reptilicus as well."

Dark hurtled across the bay and hovered high above the rampaging reptile, power glowing in both hands. With a shout, he flung two bolts of energy into the raging monster's head, searing and blinding the monster--but not killing it.

"Damn." Dark wiped sweat off of his forehead; this would take more power than he'd expected.

"HIII-YAAHH!" Saisei slammed into Dark's back, sending him plunging toward the sea. Dark righted himself and rose into the air.

"Stupid punk; you got lucky once," Dark snarled, his aristocratic face flushed with anger. "Now you will die!" Twin spheres of power launched from his hands.

Saisei nimbly dodged them both--

WOOOSHHH!!

Both Saisei and Dark went tumbling through the air, flung hundreds of yards by the vast winged shape that sliced through the air just above them. An immense beak opened, and voiced an ear-shattering shriek.

"Rodan! No! This is too much!" Dark snarled. "Only one thing to do..."

Saisei righted himself just above the low headland enclosing Dock Two. He blinked; Rodan was circling wide, coming back around the island; below, the draconic monster Reptilicus spat globs of acidic slime at knots of fleeing soldiers and vehicles. Still far out to sea, two more gigantic shapes surged through the waves, coming closer with every heartbeat. Above them, a familiar ki drew ahead--

"Yamucha! He turned the monsters around!" Saisei grinned triumphantly--then his eyes widened in alarm. In his grief and rage he'd forgotten someone very important.

"Puar! The twins! They're in danger!" He turned back toward the Dock Two, then looked at Dark again. Dark's back was turned; the Dark Ribbon leader was intent on his rampaging monsters. If Saisei got lucky, he could put Dark down very quickly--

--and Gojira was coming rapidly toward them and Dock Two. Was his revenge worth Puar's life?

Saisei dove back toward the gaping cavern of Dock Two.

Colonel Dark, intent on his own course of action, ignored him. He dove steeply down on Reptilicus, darting toward the monster's head and gold tendrils of the control harness. If he could just touch the harness, the punishment circuit would take Reptilicus out of the fight--

CRUNCH!

Something cracked him across the ribs, flinging Dark into the water. He zoomed out of the bay, shaking water out of his hair, to face Yamucha.

"I don't know what you want, but I figured I wouldn't like it, so I stopped you," Yamucha said jauntily.

Dark snarled wordlessly at him, and started to summon the power to blast this fool into oblivion--and stopped abruptly as he staggered in mid-air.

"DAMN IT TO BLOODY HELL!" He was too low on power! His internal power storage was almost exhausted; Dark was running on reserve power only.

"Whoa!" Reptilicus surged up and snapped at them, forcing Yamucha and Dark apart. Reptilicus' huge head turned to follow Yamucha--and Dark saw his chance. He fled.

Yamucha dodged back from the huge reptile until he was almost above the cavernous mouth of Dock Two. Had he really seen Saisei flying toward the cave? He didn't remember teaching his student how to fly...

Dark still had enough reserve power to reach his destination--the main base building, where the backup controller was. If he could get to it and switch it on--

A brilliant rainbow arched across the sky and plunged down, just missing the fleeing Dark Ribbon leader--and striking the main base. The entire building vanished in a blinding flash of energy!

In a series of explosions, the arch of destroying rainbow energy walked down the hill back toward the harbor. Dark glanced back; Barugon and Gojira were swimming into the bay; Barugon's deadly rainbow arced from his back through the air to the locus of destruction making its way down the hill. In a matter of minutes, there would be nothing but gravel left of the entire harbor complex.

Jerome Dark changed course for the airfield, where the jetcopter he had ordered would be waiting for him. It was time to retreat.

*      *      *      *

"Whoa!" Yamucha said again as the rainbow arch parted the sky between him and the fleeing Dark Ribbon leader. "These guys are getting a bit frisky! Time to find Puar and Saisei and get them out of here!"

Yamucha calmed himself and waited, feeling for Saisei's ki. There he was--down and to the left! Yamucha looked that way, and heaved a sigh of relief as Saisei waved to him from the top of the headland.

He was not so relieved when he alighted beside Saisei and saw the blood-stained blue and grey form cradled gently in the youth's arms. The twin kami stood on the rock beside him, looking up hopefully.

"Please tell me that's your blood dripping on her," Yamucha implored.

Saisei shook his head reluctantly. "No; she was shot, but I think she'll be okay if we get her to a doctor soon. The twins looked after her."

Puar opened one eye. "Yamucha! You're okay! Did we win?" Her voice was weak but steady.

"Oh, crud! I lost track of their leader when Barugon cut loose!" Yamucha glanced out into the harbor at the great monsters wading ashore. Gojira opened his mouth and screeched his ear-tearing rusty-hinge screech. "I don't think it's safe to stay here, either!"

"We will sing to them," said the kami, "but without Mothra it is hard for them to hear us. They are very angry right now and will not listen until they have calmed."

"Right. It's definitely not safe here--Saisei, can you actually fly with Puar? If you can, I'll carry the twin goddesses and--"

"No, we must stay here," the little goddesses chorused. "The kyojin will not harm us, and we must sing to them and send them home, or they will cause much trouble."

"Are you sure?" Yamucha asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Of course. We live on Kyojin-shima with them all the time. They cannot harm us; only human beings can do that. But we thank you for your compassion." The twin goddesses bowed to Yamucha. "Puar will be all right as soon as she has rested, and we thank her, too. She was very kind to us, and freed us from our prison."

Yamucha bowed to them in return. "You are welcome, ladies."

The tiny women glanced as one at the harbor, then turned back to Yamucha in alarm. "You must hurry; go now!"

Yamucha glanced at the looming shape of Gojira. "Yiii! Go, Saisei!"

Saisei nodded and lifted into the air, swooping down the long backslope of the headland, keeping the rocky prominence between the monsters and his precious burden. Yamucha followed quickly after--and suddenly reversed course. He had almost forgotten....

*      *      *      *

As Dark touched down on the airfield with the last of his energy, the jetcopter suddenly spun up its engines from idle to take-off. Dark ran across the field; Lunch was sitting beside the pilot!

"Not so fast," he said as he wrenched the pilot's door open. "What are you doing here?" Dark asked Lunch as he dragged the pilot out and tossed him heavily to the tarmac.

"Your pets are a bit big for even me to handle," Lunch chuckled, but there was no matching laughter in her eyes.

"Yes, they are," Dark said as he stole a glance back toward the harbor at the towering figure of Gojira. He strapped himself into the pilot's seat and took the copter up as fast as it would go. He glanced at Gojira again; it didn't feel fast enough. "How much do you weigh--with all your gear?" he asked Lunch.

She glared at him. "Approximately 70 kilos," she snapped.

"More like 80, unless you're out of ammo," Dark corrected. "Eighty kilograms--that's about three percent more climb rate." Almost too fast to see, Dark flipped open her quick-release buckles; then he grabbed Lunch by the shoulder and slammed her against the opposite door, popping it open and pushing her out the tiny cabin.

"Jerome! YOU BASTARD!" Lunch raged as she fell.

"Sorry about that. Don't take it personally; I really do care about you, but I care about me even more," he called after her. Relieved of her weight, the copter surged up, gaining altitude even faster; within moments, he would be out of reach of Gojira's searing breath.

The shockwave of Rodan's passage hit the tiny copter like a brick wall. It tumbled wildly in the turbulence as the blades tried to balance forces they were never designed to handle. They failed in fractions of a second; the rotor hub flew apart a second later, tearing apart the main engine as it went. All the little copter's control surfaces sheared off under the same shock, and the rest of the laminate hull simply disintegrated.

As quickly as that, Dark found himself plumetting through the air. With the dregs of his reserve energy, Dark righted himself and slowed his fall; it would be a hard landing, but one he could walk away from.

Then Gojira breathed and proved Dark was not beyond the monster's reach.

*      *      *      *

"Whoa!" said Lunch as a pair of strong arms caught her. She blinked; Yamucha was holding her.

"I thought you might still be here somewhere," Yamucha said.

"Normally I'd kill you for grabbing me like this and holding me there," Lunch said, glaring fiercely at him.

They both glanced up as white fire blasted across the sky; something tiny and dark was caught in the blast of Gojira's breath and seared to a flaming cinder that plumetted into the sea.

"Normally, you would," Yamucha agreed.

Lunch hooked her arm around Yamucha's neck. "Things aren't normal," she conceded. "Let's blow this joint."

*      *      *      *

They looked back once. Smoke rose from the eastern end of the island, where Gojira, Reptilicus and Barugon rampaged. Off the northwestern tip of the island, smoke rose from the roiling water; Saisei caught a glimpse of a monstrous red claw gripping the shattered bridge of a ship. It disappeared quickly as another form reared out of the ocean and marched ashore. Megalon smashed his way through Dock Three, exacting his own vengeance as well as the vengeance of the Seatopians.

As they flew homeward, the last thing they all heard was terrible rusty-hinge screech of Gojira as he roared in triumph...

*      *      *      *

CONCLUDED IN THE Epilogue


[ Contents | 17. ... vs. Dark | 18. Monster's Revenge | Epilogue ]

Disclaimer: See Credits.

Copyright 2001 by Dragoness Eclectic