Match 170: Bemular and Goliath vs. Mechagodzilla (Showa)

Match 170: Bemular and Goliath vs. Mechagodzilla (Showa) is the 170th Match of the KWC and is written by Andrew Sudomerski.

## Story

The Age of Monsters came to an end the day Godzilla died. Years ago, a catastrophe occurred, one that nearly wiped out all life on Earth. What it was or what had happened has been lost in the ensuing destruction and the times. The great monsters of old are only spoken of as myths and legends, creatures beyond human comprehension. Now humanity, or what little there is left, hangs by a thread to survive the aftermath of the catastrophe. Leftover monsters that are deemed too dangerous to approach. Mankind can only flee from their presence.

Humans no longer have a hero to look upon. That is, until the day a hero rose from the depths.

--

*In the ruins of Tokyo.*

Hidden under the apocalyptic surface in a damp subway station, a lone child quivers in fear. Two kaiju converged on the former metropolis; for what reason, he could only guess the destruction of his family and everyone around him. His parents told him these monsters aren’t here to protect, but to destroy. And for that, young Akio worries deeply for his parents. He had been separated from them during the initial landing, lost in the flood of survivors seeking refuge underground. The tunnel quakes with the footfalls of the giants that loom above, small chunks of rubble falling to the abandoned railway. It won’t be long now…

The city seems deserted, but they knew better. Humans were mere ants in scale, but their presence could pose a threat if they were given the chance to repopulate. It was by their master’s orders that the humans must be purged. They’ve splattered many humans by trampling them, leaving only piles of bloodstains within their footprints. Even more incinerated by blasts of blue flames or bolts of lightning, burying the remains in a sea of fire. Their eyes scan the rest of the landscape, knowing there are more hidden from their sight. Yet deep in their subconscious, something irked them. A feeling of yet another presence, be it alerted by their natural instincts or endowed with this knowledge by their masters. The blue and purple titan, known as Goalith, stops to turn. On the horizon, a figure makes its approach. Goliath taps his partner, the long-necked reptile Bemular, with his tail to shift his attention, to which he does. They both see it, but cannot determine what it is. Is it an ally that will help in wiping out humanity from the face of the Earth? Or is it a hero of the olden age, here to stop them and save this world from further devastation?

The newcomer makes himself known. His scaly flesh is like the bark of a tree, his snout rounded, each foot having three toes. A single row of large dorsal fins, with two smaller ones on each side, aligned on his back. Yet his eyes burn with determination. His long wormy tail slams against the wreckage and cracked asphalt and unleashes a powerful screech that has been foreign to their ears since the day of the catastrophe. In the minds of the colossal aliens, only a single name clicks in their subconscious.

Godzilla.

The piercing roar catches the attention of Akio and those around him. While they had suspicions when the bellows of the rampaging kaiju died down, the arrival of this new monster raised questions. Only a curious few dared to peek at the surface, with Akio tagging along. When they made it above ground, they all saw it. Three monsters having a stand off. At the sight of this, Akio tugs at the shirt of an elderly man, one that he and his parents have had associations with since his birth.

“Mr. Takeyama,” Akio mutters, “is that the monster you told me about?” He points to the bipedal reptile with the three rows of dorsal fins along its back. Takeyama could only nod.

“That has to be him,” he said, with a shake of doubt in his voice. ‘But how could that be?’ he thought to himself. ‘Godzilla died many years ago. They all did. Could this be a new species?’ He asked himself more and more questions, none of which had proper answers based on fact. He could only use his eyes to prove that what was before them is real. ‘Maybe the Earth, and humanity, will finally have a fighting chance.’

The Japanese youth pulled at him, trying to get his attention. “Do you think he will save us all?” The elder had to ponder for a moment. In the tales that Takeyama’s father told him as a child, Godzilla was no hero of justice, but a judge of nature. A mutation born of our sins of crossing the boundaries set in place.

“We will have to see.” It was the only tangible response he could come up with.

Godzilla set his eyes on the extraterrestrial menaces, seeing who would be the first to strike. Of the two, Bemular bursts a blue stream of concentrated fire from his gaping maw. Sparks explode as the flames sear against Godzilla’s charcoal gray flesh. He knew who his first target will be. Springing into action, he beelines to the lumbering space cretin with his fists clenched. With no hesitation, Godzilla boxes Bemular with a hard left hook square in the face, sending the titan spinning and spitting bodily fluids. Goliath, however, didn’t take this sitting down. The blue leviathan collides his armored body against the Monster King, bashing him with his monstrous hands. Godzilla returns the favor by striking back with hard-hitting jabs, shoving the space monster off of him.

With no break in between, Bemular whips Godzilla with his thick tail, cracking his rough bark-like skin. Godzilla turns to face the other foe, only for the alien reptile to whack with the backside of his cranium, which is comprised of rugged spikes. They impale through the skin, yet don’t pierce all the way in. Bemular didn’t think anything of it as Godzilla forcefully shoves him away with his bare hands. The duo crackle with energies from maw and horn respectively, as Bemular spews fire and Goliath shoots lightning. Assailed by the onslaught of projectiles, Godzilla turns his back to them to protect his chest. Bits and chunks of Godzilla’s flesh explode upon impact, though not enough to incapacitate him.

As a means of throwing the enemies off, Godzilla’s segmented tail sweeps across the rubble and the already existing fog of dirt from the beam assault, kicking up a larger cloud of dust. He continues to do this until the massive haze shrouds the battlefield, rendering him, and by extension the space monsters, invisible. For Bemular and Goliath, the two halt their beam firing. Amidst the brownish fog, their primary target could be anywhere. They scour the area with their eyes, but alas find nothing.

Even so, the eventual sounds of footfalls echo across the dusty landscape. The two kaiju ready themselves, but not fully prepared for what comes next. Godzilla’s silhouette breaks through the cloud, but with a large spire in his arms. It was formerly part of a rusty transmission tower, but the tip has been melded together with intense heat to form a spike, still hot to the touch. With utmost accuracy, Godzilla javelin tosses the customized spire at Goliath. Before he realizes it, the metal tip burrows deep into the thick blue skin on his belly. The agony burns as red blood flows and evaporates from the wound. Goliath drops to the ground, moaning and aching from the foreign body inside of him.

As the blue behemoth tries to pull the metal lance from his body, Bemular knew he had to stop Godzilla. Encasing himself in a bright blue sphere, the alien fiend flew straight toward the nuclear menace. Distorting the dusty air, the energy body crashes into the reptilian leviathan, knocking him off his feet, and with it a thick piece of Godzilla’s shoulder.

Goliath, meanwhile, pulled the weapon from his body and held the bloody hole in his stomach. Sparks of electricity zapped at the wound and cauterizes it with the heat of plasma. The moment he was able to, he snapped the red coated spire in two and tossed them aside, then went to assist his comrade in battle.

The humans watch the spectacle from their safe haven as the battle of monsters takes place. However, between the sphere exerting too much light and the thick fog of dust and dirt, it was impossible to tell what was going on. Some say the two were exchanging a beam war, but the rest couldn’t tell. All that they were allowed to see was when Bemular’s sphere of light faded. The exact specifics about what happened is unknown, between the walls of Bemular and the brutal beat down that must have been ensuing. Regardless, all that they see is the kaiju-sized silhouette flying in their general direction. Only those with the common sense make it out alive, as the rest of the fools become bloody pulps as Bemular’s body skids across the ruins and broken asphalt.

Takeyama snatches Akio and books it back to the underground. Takeyama was far from the young man he once was, so when the rumbling of the kaiju’s mass began to shake the entire area, the force of it sent him and the youth flying at an arc. Wanting the next generation to live so that humanity may prosper, Takeyama held the child tightly in his chest and turned to take the full force of their landing.

CRACK!

In an instant, the old man went limp and the child rendered unconscious. Those who were retreating to the community also fell, some living to see another day, others not. The ones who lived dashed back to their friends and neighbors to tell them of what has transpired, their eyes lighting up with hope… And dread.

The two exchanged blow after blow; Godzilla jabs the behemoth with a flurry of boxing-like hooks and Goliath likewise returns the favor with bulky hits infused with electricity. Goliath finishes his side of the fight with a lethal uppercut to Godzilla’s jaw, shocking his flesh and cracking his jaw. Goliath expected to savor in the pain, relish in Godzilla’s misery. However, all Godzilla did in the wake of his attack was snap his lower jaw back in place. With no change in his fixed determined expression, Godzilla’s jaw was functioning as normal. The sight of this unnerved Goliath down to his animalistc core. His pig-like nostrils smell for any traces of blood… Only to realize that all he could smell were his own blood, Bemular’s, the airborne dirt and the slain humans.

Stirring from unconsciousness, Bemular picked himself back up, licking the blood from his chops. As his head clears of the pain, Bemular wastes no time and charges straight for Godzilla and Goliath to intervene.

Goliath holds his bearings, as he is brutally whacked by Godzilla’s tail repeatedly. An opportunity presents itself, fortunately, and Goliath grabs hold of the kaiju king’s wormy extension. His hands burst to life with electricity, zapping the tail with intense voltage. Godzilla twitches and reacts unnaturally, but still has the fixed determined expression. With a robotic stiffness, Godzilla lunges toward the blue fiend. Specifically, the nasal horn. A precise yet shaky strike rips the horn from its resting place, Goliath reeling in genuine pain and misery. Without his horn, Goliath could no longer manipulate his electrical prowess. Godzilla recalibrates and purges the excess lightning from his body, then delivers a hard hook right into Goliath’s face. The beast collapses from the weight of the hit, still in agony from the loss of his horn.

A stream of blue flames struck Godzilla’s hide, diverting his attention to Bemular. The spiny reptile screeches in defiance, eager to take down this new Monster King. Godzilla, leaving Goliath be for now, scans his foe, determining what to do next… Then it clicks in his mind. Bemular stands guard, waiting to see his opponent initiate the first move. Godzilla backs up, paws the ground with his feet, then charges at top speed while dragging his tail. The acceleration allowed Godzilla time to heave his body into the air, allowing the momentum of the wormy tail to handle the rest. Sliding on his tail, Godzilla has his feet ready to slam against the unfortunate foe in his path. Bemular braced for it, pressing his talons into the earth to stand his ground. But not even preparation could attest to Godzilla’s power. The feet plant themselves onto Bemular, shoving him to the ground with Godzilla on top of him. Without mercy or remorse, Godzilla stomps and crunches on Bemular’s chest.

The only reason Godzilla never got the chance to fully break Bemular’s rib cage is in thanks to the intervention of Goliath, tossing his entire mass on Godzilla and pinning him to the earth below. Even without his electrical enhancements, the blue behemoth relentlessly slams his fists and gnaws at Godzilla’s hide. Although Godzilla tries to relieve himself of this nuisance, Goliath persists. This gives Bemular enough time to recuperate. Rising from the gravel pit, Bemular assists Goliath by kicking at Godzilla’s cranium, hoping to cave his skull in and have the brain matter splatter across the ground.

But Godzilla does not cry out.

Akio awakens with a fuzzy memory, his vision blurry. However, as his senses come to, it realizes where he is. How they got here. Looking up, he realizes that his dear old friend is unmoving. He tugs at his collar, trying to make him wake up.

“Mr. Takeyama! Mr. Takeyama!” Akio cries aloud, his little heart breaking as the cold reality starts to dawn on him. Tears stream down his face, his nose running with wet mucus as he clutched to the body of an old friend. First his parents, now a man that he looked up to. The people he considered family are gone, and there’s nothing he can do. In his mind, he felt the utmost urgency to return to the community that he’s known for all of his small life.

“Godzilla will save us all. I know it.”

Bemular’s toes feel numb. Regardless of how often he drives his foot into the fallen kaiju’s cranium, it seems to do nothing. He resorts to simply blasting Godzilla with fire, making sure to avoid Goliath. The space monsters continue their two-on-one assault for a full thirty-seconds longer, bashing him with clenched fists and bathing him in hot blue flames. However, the tide of the battle turns over in Godzilla’s favor. Just as Goliath was ready to chew his way at Godzilla’s snout, the Monster King opened his maw.

His dorsal fins ignite.

A fiery golden radioactive beam spewed from his mouth, bursting through the back of Goliath’s throat, severing the neural connection with his brain.

Like that, Goliath collapsed. Bemular recoiled at the sight of this sudden turn of events, frightened and not knowing what to do. ‘Godzilla’ shoved the giant’s corpse aside and stood back on his two feet. The skin that was torn off from the assault was nothing more than a cover for the metallic body hidden beneath it. Feeling compelled to disobey its direct orders, Bemular encased itself in the ball of light once more. Instead of using it offensively, Bemular took off with all the energy he could muster. ‘Godzilla’ knew he would not let him live. Thusly, ‘Godzilla’—no, Mechagodzilla—calculates what to do next. His body burns brilliantly with white flames, shedding the disguise. As the dust cloud settles to the ground, Mechagodzilla’s silver body shines with the fading sunset, reflecting the star’s light. The rockets within the soles of his feet rev to life, granting Mechagodzilla the ability of flight.

Bemular huffs and puffs while in the ‘travel ball,’ feeling sure that he has distanced himself and the mechanical menace. His panicking mind races with thoughts that cloud his better judgement. What does catch his attention, however, is the sound of burning rockets. He twists his head and, like from a nightmare, sees Mechagodzilla closing the gap between them. Bemular increased his speed to maximum capacity, hoping to outrun the fiend.

It didn’t.

The forearms of the doppelganger click into place, carefully aiming his fingers at the flying sphere. Bursts of finger-rockets target and make it to their target, exploding into plumes of smoke and flames. For Bemular, this isn’t even the worst of it. Although his sphere reduced the damage of the missiles, Mechagodzilla had more tricks up his sleeve. The reptilian imposter’s lifeless red eyes flashed with energy, streaming a rainbow beam of destructive force. All it took was two extra shots of the eye beams and more missiles before the sapphire orb faded, Bemular plummeting to the earth below.

As Bemular’s bloodied body writhed in agony, Mechagodzilla ceased his rockets and made a smooth landing. He made the approach toward the dying alien. When the two made eye-contact, Bemular feared for his life. There was nothing he could do now to stop his executioner.

For a moment Mechagodzilla stood idle and motionless. His processes were calculating and awaiting the final verdict from his masters.

Mechagodzilla received the transmission. He reached out with his stiff metallic hands and stuffed it down Bemular’s throat. In a last ditch attempt to save his own life, Bemular squealed for mercy. The pitiful screeches stopped as Mechagodzilla blasted the helpless fool with a barrage of missiles, exploding Bemular’s head into a mess of gore, blood and brain matter. The lifeless corpse slammed against the rubble and ruins. Enough was enough, and Mechagodzilla left his corpse to rot. With that, Mechagodzilla followed his path into the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Akio never saw what happened after that. All his childish mind knew was that the threats of the space monsters were vanquished. He told everyone all that had transpired after they all left, or at least what little he could recall. The story, though saddening for the loss of life, brought hope in the eyes of the people. A monster by the name of Godzilla came back as humanity’s last true line of defense. Humankind will repopulate, have a second chance at taking care of the Earth. Soon, a new Golden Age will prosper and humans will thrive once more…

--

*Deep in the Pacific Ocean.*

Mechagodzilla returned to an undersea headquarters, with seven other creatures like Godzilla, each with their own unique sets of physical features, waiting on the seafloor. A sliding door opened and he gracefully makes his descent. The door closes, and sirens blare. The salt water drained from the facility. With the area empty, alien machines began to operate Mechagodzilla’s systems to ensure everything is in check and optimal.

Within the observation deck overseeing Mechagodzilla’s repairs, Kuronuma grinned. Long ago, they, the aliens from the Third Planet of the Black Hole, came to Earth in hopes of a new home. He led the first wave with the very first Mechagodzilla constructed by his kind, only to die by the hands of a handful of humans. His successor, Mugal, took reigns of their kind as a second wave was initiated. This, too, was fruitless, but Mugal escaped from the human’s clutches and faced near-death experience by the hands of the true Godzilla. He kept low for several decades, in which he found the little remains of Kuronuma and resurrected him with the cybernetic infusion that was used to keep Katsura Mafune alive. Since then, by request of Mugal, Kuronuma kept hidden from humans, supercivilizations and aliens alike… Until the catastrophe. A cataclysmic event that nearly purged the entire world of life. The Year of Destruction. While he may not have witnessed it, his knowledge of this world’s past has remained intact, unlike those ignorant humans.

Kuronuma gazed upon Mechagodzilla. It represented something deeper to him than any slave within this facility. Mechagodzilla is the ultimate weapon that he will use to restore mankind’s hopes, then shatter them into despair. His pawns Bemular and Goliath served perfectly for this role. And he will continue the act for as long as need be, until the time is right. He will send in mind-controlled monsters, then one of his Mechagodzillas will stop it from destroying the humans. He knew he had the power to wipe them all out now, but it would be no fun in making them suffer first.

Humans never had a hero to look upon. Only a phantom who would rise from the depths.

‘I wonder how long we can keep up this charade?’ he wondered to himself.