Death Duel with the Devastator of Worlds

Nicholas Sato “stood” in the air near the factory where he and Sensei first 'met,' watching as three beings he had thought were human even an hour ago merged to form Ghios, the Devastator of Worlds, the most feared of the known ‘daikaiju’ of the Exerian invasion force.

In his head, Sensei said: “I am sorry, Nick. I had not realized this or would have told you - the Star Sword was designed to fight Ghios. That memory was not available until now. Good news - both reserves are full. Unfortunately, that method of charging has reduced armor integrity to ninety-four percent.”

“Understood,” Nick replied. “And either we will win this without the Star Sword, or we would have lost it anyway with it. Don’t worry, Sensei. We have done well. Maybe we’ll take them out even if they kill us too.”

“Understood, sir. The central head controls the body and is the only one without ranged attacks. The elder head, with the horns, fires lightning attacks like the Blastcrows, the youngest head, with the beak, has a sonic blast attack. The tail can be energized to be a deadly melee weapon as well. It was theorized that taking out two heads would defeat the creature but never tested to my knowledge.”

Nick nodded as the voices of Ghios spoke to him: “You now face the full power of Ghios, the Devastator of Worlds. Submit to the Exerian Empire and become our agent to run this world, or cower I fear before we destroy you utterly!”

Nick laughed. “I’ll take option three and kick your triple butts. Thank you for the offer, though.”

Ghios let out an odd, triple-voiced roar and shot up into the air while sending a sheet of lightning at Protector. Nick called up all of his acrobatic training to dodge the blast and almost made it through unscathed. His left heel was hit by the blast and began smoking slightly, while a kind of numbness set in. He shot away from the three-headed horror. “Sensei, assessment?”

“Armor on left foot is at five percent. Can repair to seventy but will reduce all armor to that level. Numbness should pass momentarily. Sonic wave incoming.”

Nick dropped low enough to vault off of a building and managed to twist and spin over the waves of sound - which tore a corner off the building he had just employed. “Good maneuvering but staying on the defensive will not serve us well, sir.”

“I have a plan,” Nick replied. “Probably not a good one but - ah, there is the platform,” he said, noticing something on the ground. “Can you tap into it from here?”

“Platform? Ah, yes. One moment. You want to…”

Nick interrupted: “Open it up fully. We need to find that red crystal, right? And the size of that room will limit Ghios if they follow us in…”

“Ah, good thinking, sir.” Sensei replied as the platform Nick had ridden from the hidden bunker to his first fight as Protector slid down into the depth of the hidden military base.

A single blast of lightning narrowly missed Nick as he shut off Gargantua Mode and dove into the darkness below.

“Run all you want,” the three voices bellowed, “Ghios will destroy you unless you submit to our will!”

“Come and get me, you oversized turkey lizard,” Nick called back.

Ghios pulled up, their powerful wings allowing them to hover nearly in place, and the remaining Blastcrow dove in to pursue Nick.

As Ghios hovered, watching the darkness with all three heads, they failed to notice something coming up fast behind them, and Protector’s eye beams cut a deep, smoking gash in the center neck.

Ghios roared in pain and spun around. “Ah, the female joins the fray. She is inferior to the Prototype. This should be an easy distraction.” The three voices said - or at least two did - one seemed to drop out at the word ‘inferior’ almost as if in protest.

“That is probably Nick’s girlfriend,” the ‘missing’ voice suddenly said. ‘She is smarter than he is, so may not be easy.”

Guardian replied: “Thank you for the compliment. Never underestimate the female of the species.”

***

Meanwhile, in the bunker below, lights were coming on as Nick flew through the large, nearly empty area. “Where should we begin looking?”

“I can follow the signal - yes, the room across from the platform controls… wait, we have company!”

Nick landed and turned around, barely giving himself enough time to dodge a wing sweep from the Blastcrow that followed him. “Those claws look sharper than I remember,” he mused. “Would Turbolasers be safe to use here?”

“This room was designed for testing. The walls should be able to take it any anything if value is in the side chambers. It is turning around.”

“I see it. Expect a lightning  blast in three… two” instead of saying ‘one’ Nick just jumped in the air and did a midair flip, barely avoiding the blast from the avian terror's horn.

He clapped his hands together as he landed, swung them out, and then brought the Turbolasers to bear just as the Blastcrow turned in the air to bring its deadly leg talons to bear. The energy pulses tore into the monster’s belly and its corpse landed on its back and skidded several meters on the ground. Nick hesitated for a heartbeat, then headed to the room Sensei indicated as holding the red crystal they were here to retrieve.

The room held a bank of computers, all attached to a large chest of some sort. The chest bore a logo that Nick had seen before but could not immediately identify.

“Inside that container,” Sensei informed him.

There appears to be some form of electronic lock,” Nick observed.

“Try oh-one-oh-three-two-zero-three-seven. The date it was brought here,” Sensei suggested. Nick coded in the numbers and … the box popped open. Inside, in a bed of electronics, was a large red crystal of some sort. “Should I just take it out?” Nicholas asked.

“Yes, but carefully. It may have become fragile over the years,” Sensei warned.

Nick turned off the armor, as he felt he had better control with his hands, and gently lifted the stone out of its ‘bed.’. It was a little heavier than he had expected. As soon as he had it free of the chest completely, he reactivated his armor.

“Opening an input socket on your forehead. Please insert the gemstone there,” Sensei requested. Nick complied and felt the stone lock into place.

There was a moment of silence, and then: “Nicholas, this is almost overwhelming. But Sandra is in trouble outside…”

Sensei had not even finished saying Sandra’s name before Nick was in the air, moving as fast as he could - he bounced off the wall of the shaft heading up but otherwise made it out into the open air in time to see Sandra dodge a blast of lighting, only to take a hit from a sonic wave right in the chest.

Remaining at human size, he shot towards Ghios and noted the damage to the monster’s central neck… Flying directly at the gash, he pulled one arm in and led with the other, waiting until the last possible second to both open fire with that arm’s Turbolaser and shift to Gargantua Mode. The combination, plus a punch hitting that point added to the sudden growth, was enough to rip the central head free from the body!

The scream Ghios made was deafening - even the few humans observing the conflict heard it, though none could make out the words under the cry: “Barbarian! How DARE you! Child, take over the body, we must kill them NOW!”

“Understood, Mother,” came the second voice, with a slight shudder of pain to it.

Nick flew up to Sandra’s side. “Are you Okay?”

“Mostly,” she replied, “though another blast like that and I’ll be without armor - down to about twenty percent!”

“If we work together, maybe we can take out one of the other heads. There is a theory we only need to take out two to defeat them,” Nick informed her.

“I vote the ‘old’ one - I hate her,” Sandra said.

“I can work with that,” Nick replied. “We should move apart to keep their attention split until we are ready to strike.”

Instead of replying, Sandra simply flew off and fired eyebeams at their massive foe. The beams went wide as Ghios dodged to the side. Nick scanned the area, looking for something to use as a weapon - and that was when he spotted a van moving through the area in their direction.

***

Moments earlier, in the approaching van, as it dodged one pothole only to bounce out of another, Dan cried out: “Are you sure you know how to drive this thing?”

At the wheel, Judy replied angrily: “I’ve had an emergency license since I was fourteen because of Dad's health issues and have been driving ever since my brother went off to school a few months later…. Now shut up and let me concentrate…. Yipes!”

Part of the body of a Blastcrow dropped into the road in front of them, forcing her to drive on the shoulder until they were past the obstruction.

In the seat behind Dan, Peter said: “She’s pretty good, Dan. I still think we should have looked for Nick and Sandra though, before coming out here.”

“There was no time - and look - is that King Ghidorah?” Dan replied.

“Holy crap - Protector is here too and they just ripped off one of the … look out!” Pete cried as the severed central neck of Ghios plummeted to the ground less than a meter away from the battered - and now monster-blood splattered - van as it rattled along.

At Pete’s side, Karen spoke up: “Why again are we doing this?”

“Pete wants to be a journalist, I like watching fights, especially the kaiju ones lately, and Judy just loves driving this old beast whenever she gets a chance,” Dan explained.

Judy added: “And you’re dating Peter, which seems to make you a package deal…”

Karen just smiled and squeezed Pete’s hand.

Though he returned the gesture, Pete’s attention was not in the car: “They’re splitting away - good strategy. Keep the heads focused separately.”

***

In the sky above them, Ghios had fired another sheet of lightning at Protector, who managed to wheel about and dive under the blast, this time avoiding it entirely.

Guardian tried to swoop in and blast Ghios but the monster, despite its size and bulk, was surprisingly nimble and spun around, snapping at her and almost hitting with the beaked head.

“How did you do that dodge, Nick?” Sandra asked through Guide’s interface.

Nick replied: “My last upgrade was maneuverability.”

“Hey, maybe we could try some kind of over-under thing and strike at them from both sides?” Sandra suggested.

“I’ll follow your lead,” came the reply.

She flew off to the side, just out of range of a swipe from Ghios’s left wing and then dove under. As she was beneath the monster’s feet, Nick swooped in to a point directly above Ghios - and then stopped in midair, opening fire with the Turbolasers, focused on the stump where the middle neck had been. Ghios shot upwards and snapped at him with the beaked head while the other head sent a focused bolt of lightning after Guardian. Nick’s shots had cut into the body of the monster, tossing chunks out but not slowing it down at all, and the bite caught his right leg, twisting a chunk of his armor around in a way that made moving the leg at all painful.

“Armor integrity down to fifty eight percent. Energy reserves at sixty percent,” Sensei warned him.

The young man asked: “Any way we can do repairs of some sort?”

“Not without reverting to human form for a few minutes,” came the disheartening reply. “Automatic Repair is available at level Eleven or higher.”

“That sounds like poor planning,” Nick grumbled.

“We were not expected to face Ghios before level twelve, hopefully level fifteen or higher,” Sensei replied, somewhat apologetically.

“You recall those details,” Nick replied. “That’s probably good.”

“Yes, it is - and - dodge, sir,” Sensei warned.

Nick did as requested, narrowly avoiding being caught by the powerful jaws a second time.

“Nick,” he heard Sandra’s voice, “Your forehead is glowing!”

“That won’t save you now, children,” Ghios informed them.

“Actually, Nick, it might,” Sensei replied, disconnecting from Guide and Sandra for a moment. “If you can focus all your anger, fear and other emotions into the red stone and just give, I don’t know, a primal scream, that might be just what we need.” Then Nick heard a click of some sort and: “Guide, shut down communications, all communications and, if this works, get ready to attack for all you are worth when an opening comes. Do not restore communications until either this fails or this works.”

Nick called out: “Come on, you big ugly lizard puke. Show me what you are made of.”

“We can fly circles around you, brash child,” the two voices replied.

Nick grinned and flew straight up. “Then show me!” he challenged them.

Almost lazily, Ghios beat their wings against the air and shot up in pursuit.

As soon as the distance began to shorten, Nick spun around, placed one hand on the gemstone and focused everything he could into it - all of his anger, his fear, even some of his hopes and his feelings, everything, and he screamed. It was the loudest, purest scream he had ever made, a moment of pure sound.

Ghios seemed to stumble midair, and the beaked head seemed to look around in confusion. The other head, however, focused on Nick with pure hatred in its reptilian eyes and it opened its mouth to hurl another electrical attack, just as Sandra plowed into it from below, hitting first with her fists and as they slid along its belly, following with her eye beams. Nick took that moment to dive in and fire both Turbolasers full blast into the stump and then slide them along towards the “older” head.

Ghios cried out in pain and executed an impressive mid-air flip to get away from the two-pronged assault.

Sandra was knocked aside by a wing blast and Nick just barely managed to evade a bite from the head he had targeted during the maneuver.

“Very clever, child,” the voices of Ghios intoned, one at a time instead of in unison as usual, “using the Communication Matrix as an attack. You almost had us there, but you lack the skill, the killer instinct to make it work. You are pathetic.”

Sensei then told Nick what to send back, and he did: “That was not meant for you. I was trying to wake up the others…”

“Others, child, there are no…” the voices of Ghios once more spoke in unison but were interrupted.

A new voice had joined their ‘discussion’ - it was faint, strange, and somehow simultaneously menacing and nurturing; feminine: “One has heard, and others will. I can do nothing now but lend you strength. Defeat this annoyance and find me.” it said, simply.

Sensei spoke: “Nick, power reserves are full!”

Sandra commented: “What was that? My reserves are suddenly full, too!”

“I believe that was a terrestrial daikaiju,” Nick replied. “Let’s finish this!”

***

In the van below, Dan said: “Did you just see what I did?”

Peter replied: “I don’t know - did it look like that gem that Protector has on his forehead - the one I don’t remember seeing before today - turned from red to blue, and then a blue glow surrounded both of the giants?”

“Yeah, and I don’t remember seeing it before either. I wonder what it means?”

Suddenly there was a loud ‘bang’ and the van skidded in a half-circle before Judy brought it to an uneven stop. “Ugh,” she said, noticing several flashing lights on the dashboard. “These tires are supposed to be puncture-proof, but something just shredded the front drivers’ side one…”

“We’ll have to save up and get you an air car,” Dan said, unbuckling his seatbelt to get out. “Do you have a spare? Fortunately, dad insisted I learn how to change tires and do all sorts of basic maintenance on these antiques and more modern cars before I even started drivers’ ed.”

“Have to check the back,” Judy replied as she undid her own seatbelt.

Peter and Karen also got out of the van as they did. Judy stared at the tire in question for a moment, and the others ran to join her. “Is that … a tooth?”

It looked like one of the teeth from the central head of Ghios - a tooth almost as large as the tire itself! - had gotten lodged in the tire.

“Must have been thrown off when the head crashed to the ground,” Peter mused. “Terrible luck!”

“Yeah - let’s just hope it didn’t damage the rim or axel,” Dan replied. “Where is the spare supposed to be?”

“Left side in a compartment on the wall. At least it is supposed to be a full one and not one of the tiny ones a lot of antique cars have - but that assumes it is actually there; my brother was pretty hard on this old beast when he drove it, and did not always replace broken stuff,” Judy replied sadly.

Karen proved to be almost as adept with tools as Dan was and between them, they found the tool compartment below the tire case and got the tire compartment opened while Peter continued to watch the fight above. They were pleasantly surprised to find an intact, and full-size, tire in the compartment, and quickly got it out, along with an autojack, and emerged from the van, only to find both Judy and Pete just pointing up at the sky above. Dan and Karen silently joined them in watching as the battle seemed to take a turn for the worst - Ghios fired an electrical blast at Protector that seemed to hit him and knock him out. The giant monster dove and caught him in the head with only two eyes and odd tufts at the side of the jaws.

***

In the air, Nick suddenly asked Sensei: “How does this communicator thing work?  Sometimes Ghios can listen in and communicate, sometimes not?”

“At up to ten meters, secured communication is possible,’ came the reply, “Beyond that range, up one hundred kilometers, unsecured communication functions. Some kaiju can send and receive beyond that, but most are limited, just as you are.”

“Good to know,” Nick replied. “I wonder how that works?”

“Have some theories,” Sensei replied, “But this is not the time for that discussion.”

Nick let out a quick laugh and shot away from Ghios, to pass close enough to Guardian for a private discussion. “We need to keep them busy for a bit and then let one head grab me,” he told her. “Trust me, I have a plan - and need you to watch my lead and attack at the exact time I do. Can’t say more as they might be able to listen in. Understood?”

“I think so, Nick - be careful!” Was the reply.

They separated and Nick punched Ghios in passing while Sandra flew as close as she could get while staying just out of the range of the claws or teeth of their massive opponent.

The next time Ghios fired an electrical blast at Nick, he seemed to clumsily dive into it instead of out of the way, and began to fall, apparently unconscious. With a cry of triumph, the rightmost head caught the falling giant warrior in its jaws - exactly as Nick had hoped. He continues to play dead until Sandra moved closer, and then he activated the Electrical Field while twisting around to place one fist on either side of the massive head and open fire with both Turbolasers.

Sandra saw his movement and shrunk down to normal human size, swung around to one side, and flew at the head, firing her eye beams and returning to Gargantua Mode at impact.

The lower jaw of that head snapped off as she connected with it, and dark energy rippled through the body of Ghios as a scream that had both audio and mental aspects tore through the area, giving both of the flying warriors serious headaches. The darkness seemed to shoot off of the body in two directions, one up into the atmosphere, the other down on the ground in the ruins near the parked van.

“Power at seven percent, Nick, but it appears we have won,” a tired-sounding Sensei announced.

“That was … brutal,” Sandra said. “Brutal but effective. Both amor and power supplies are in single digits, you Nick?”

“Armor at twenty but power at seven,” he admitted. “Let's not repeat this one soon…”

“We should head back to school and see how everyone is doing,” Sandra suggested.

Protector just nodded and headed back in that direction.

The war was far from over, but they had won a major victory this day.