Atomic Rex: Challenge of Gurral

by Matthew Dennion

  The reptilian beast decided to first destroy this invader into his southern waters and then to move north along the coast to challenge and slay the other threats he sensed. The fifty-meter-tall beast moved through the water in an undulating motion, as with each stroke of his powerful tail, he could tell that he was closing in on the creature that was hunting in his domain. From the vibrations he was picking up ahead of him, Atomic Rex could sense that a large animal was being attacked. The radioactive dinosaur knew that if he could catch up to the creature being attacked, he would encounter the predator that dared to enter his territory. Atomic Rex growled and then doubled his speed toward the injured prey.

  Roughly two kilometers ahead of the radioactive leviathan, a mutated hammerhead shark was fleeing for its life. The creature had been deadly enough before it had absorbed ambient radiation causing it to grow to four times its normal size and to sprout two additional heads. Since its transformation, the creature was one of the deadliest predators in these waters. There were only two things it feared. The first was Atomic Rex, and the second was what was currently pursuing it.

  As the three-headed giant was fleeing for its life, the head on the left side of its body looked back to see how close the pursuing predator was. The left head shook with terror when it saw several black and white shapes with horns pointing out of their heads and long powerful arms at their sides.

  The creatures chasing the three-headed hammerhead had been dubbed the Pod by the humans in South America. The Pod had been a group of six orcas that like many other animals were mutated by the radiation of the kaiju. The radiation caused the already dangerous predators to enlarge to a size of about fifteen meters long, grow long gorilla-like arms and hands, and to form a narwhal-like horn on their head. With the addition of arms and hands with opposable thumbs as well as a deadly horn, the orcas who mutated into the Pod became one of the most dangerous predators in the ocean. Originally, the Pod had stayed close to Antarctica but as they exhausted the food source down there, they started to move north. The Pod knew that they were encroaching on the territory of Atomic Rex but the brazen family of mutated orcas felt as if not even the dreaded kaiju could oppose them when they fought as one.

  While the Pod was not even half the size of their three-headed prey, they were far more intelligent and they were organized. As the faster Pod closed in on the shark, they implemented their attack plan. Two of the quicker females broke for the creature’s tail and when they reached it, they impaled it with their horns. The two horns crossed each other in the middle of the shark’s tail. The effect was that the horns impeded the shark’s movement while the females’ weight acted like twin anchors pulling the shark down. With the shark immobilized, two of the smaller males made their way to the front of the hammerhead. The Pod knew that sharks were able to bend their flexible bodies almost in half. In order to distract the shark from attacking those coming behind her, the two males jabbed at the shark’s three heads with their horns and then backed away out of the reach of the deadly jaws of the giant fish.

  As the smaller males distracted the shark and the females slowed its progress, the larger males moved in for the kill. They attacked with a ferocity exhibited by few other creatures on the planet. Two males swam to the creature's sides, bit into its hide just behind its fins, and then used their arms to grab onto the shark’s fins. They then tore off the fins with their arms while simultaneously ripping out a chunk of flesh from the shark’s sides. A cloud of blood surrounded the panicked and wounded three-headed mutant as the Pod made their final moves for the kill. The two males on the shark’s sides reached in with their hands and pulled out any organs they could get a hold of while the alpha male, at nearly twenty-five meters long, swam below the shark and drove its horn into the creature’s heart. Within seconds of being caught by the Pod, the deadly three-headed hammerhead was floating dead in the water.

  Typically, the Pod would immediately begin devouring the shark but this was not a typical attack. The whales knew that they were in Atomic Rex’s waters and that the monster was chasing them. The Pod had been striking in the nuclear theropod’s waters and then leaving but with each passing attack they grew more and more brazen. The Pod had decided the time had come to challenge the saurian kaiju for dominance over these waters. The orcas planned to use the dead shark to draw Atomic Rex to them. The next step in their plan was to set up a trap for Atomic Rex by using the cloud of blood coming off their kill to hide themselves from the monster’s senses. As Atomic Rex drew ever closer, the Pod circled the waters in their prey’s blood as they waited to slay the most powerful monster on the planet.

  The smell of fresh blood in the water sent a wave of adrenaline coursing through Atomic Rex. It seemed that the mysterious beast who was hunting in his waters had made another kill and taken more food from him. The nuclear theropod rose to the surface of the water, let loose a roar challenging any creature that dared to enter his territory to confront him, and then dove back beneath the waves.

  Atomic Rex swam for another twenty minutes before he came upon the carcass of the dead mutant hammerhead. When he saw the deceased shark, the monster was immediately puzzled by the fact that the creature showed no signs of being eaten. Atomic Rex could see forms moving in the large cloud of blood around the corpse but it was clear that whatever the forms were, they were not eating their kill. Atomic Rex flashed his teeth in the direction of the cloud of blood when he realized the creatures who had killed the shark were waiting in the crimson-obscured water to attack him.

  The radioactive dinosaur was far more intelligent than his opponents gave him credit for. Atomic Rex saw the ambush these invaders had set and he knew how to dispel it. The cunning kaiju swam a little closer to the cloud of blood then he came to a dead stop in the water. Atomic Rex shifted his body into an upright position then he pulled his arms and legs close to his body. As he pulled his extremities close to him, Atomic Rex’s body began to take on a light blue glow. His body glowed like this for three seconds, then he extended out his arms and legs and in doing so sent his dreaded Atomic Wave cascading through the water. A ball of pure blue nuclear energy shot out from Atomic Rex. The blast struck the carcass of the dead shark, the cloud of blood, and the Pod members hiding within it. The blast sent the members of the Pod and the body of the mutant shark tumbling through the water while completely dispersing the concealing cloud of blood.

  The six members of the Pod who had planned to catch Atomic Rex off guard and attack him were now floating stunned in the water as the fearsome creature swam toward them. One of the smaller males of the Pod barely had enough time to open its eyes and see Atomic Rex’s jaws coming toward him before the nuclear monster closed his jaws around him. Atomic Rex’s teeth sank into the male’s spine, shattering it from above, while his lower jaws pierced the mutated orca’s lungs causing them to fill with blood. The paralyzed beast was drowning in his own blood as Atomic Rex shook him back and forth causing the saurian’s teeth to drive themselves deeper in the mutant. The Pod member was able to send out one pathetic whimper for help before Atomic Rex’s teeth tore his heart to shreds and ended his life.

  As Atomic Rex was slaying the one member of the Pod he had captured, the other members were recovering from the Atomic Wave. The alpha male was the first to regain his bearings. The alpha saw his family swimming around erratically as they watched their family member being slain by Atomic Rex. Knowing that they needed to work as a group if they were to dethrone the current ruler of these waters, the alpha sent out attack commands to his family.

  As soon as the other members of the Pod heard the alpha’s commands, they quickly organized their efforts and attacked Atomic Rex. As they had with the hammerhead shark, the two females swam behind Atomic Rex and drove their horns into his tail, weighing him down. Aside from impaling the tail with their horns, the females also grabbed onto it with their arms and pulled down to further impede Atomic Rex’s mobility. Two of the remaining males then swam toward Atomic Rex’s face. They stabb
ed the reptilian beast in the snout with their horns causing him to release the body of their brother.

  Knowing that Atomic Rex’s arms presented a different challenge than the mutant shark, the alpha swam behind the dragon-like kaiju to pierce his heart through the back as opposed to his chest. The male aimed his horn at Atomic Rex’s back and shot toward him, intent on ending the monster’s life and claiming the kaiju’s waters for his family.

  Atomic Rex’s tail was bleeding badly from the female’s attack and the two smaller males were forcing him to use his claws to prevent them from blinding him. The intelligent monster immediately realized that he couldn’t see the alpha. Knowing that an attack was most likely coming from behind, Atomic Rex shifted the top of his body forward and down. The motion caused the alpha to swim over his back as he was ducking, then sent the two females embedded in his tail crashing into the smaller males who had been striking at his face.

  With the alpha shooting past him and the smaller males knocked off balance by the females, Atomic Rex turned his attention to the Pod members attached to his tail. First, he brought his body back to an upright position then he dug his long claws into the females attacking his tail. Blood gushed from the females and his own wounds as Atomic Rex gripped tightly and pulled their horns out from his body. The water in front of Atomic Rex was turning red as he held the two females impaled on his claws in front of his face. The two females were struggling to free themselves from his grip as he let them see the anger in his eyes before he began smashing their bodies into one another. Atomic Rex repeatedly forced the females to stab each other in the face with their own horns, shattering their skulls and crushing their brains in the process.

  The two females had just expired when the nuclear theropod felt a searing pain in his shoulder blades as the two smaller males drove their horns into the exposed area between the armored carapace on Atomic Rex’s back and his arms. Once the mutant orcas had their horns buried in Atomic Rex’s body, they grabbed onto his shoulders with their arms. The saurian kaiju was unable to move his arms as he saw the alpha male charging toward his chest with its horn pointed at his heart.

  With his arms immobilized, Atomic Rex quickly adapted a new tactic to defend himself. Just before the alpha reached him, Atomic Rex spun around in the water and used his tail to slam into the alpha’s side, sending the largest of his attackers tumbling through the ocean once more. The two males were still using their horns to gore Atomic Rex’s shoulders when they felt the scales on his back heating up and saw the kaiju’s body taking on a light blue glow. The smaller males were trying to pull their horns out of the monster when the Atomic Wave burst out from their prey and blew them to pieces. Atomic Rex shook his body free from the charred remains of the smaller males and then he set his enraged gaze on the alpha.

  When he saw Atomic Rex’s eyes fixed upon him, the alpha was filled with terror. His entire family had been wiped out in a matter of minutes and now he was facing the creature he had gravely underestimated when he desired to take his territory from him. The alpha turned and fled.

  Had it been any other member of the Pod that was the last surviving member of his family and was fleeing, Atomic Rex would have been satisfied, but this was the alpha. Atomic Rex knew that if the creature survived, he may one day try to invade his territory again and that was not something the nuclear theropod could tolerate. Atomic Rex knew that he was not fast enough to catch the alpha, but in its panicked state, the mutant had fled in the direction of land as opposed to the open ocean. The reptilian monster snarled and then he began to chase the failed usurper of his domain.

  Several times throughout the chase, the alpha tried to veer to his left or right in order to make his way back out to the ocean but every time he did, Atomic Rex would change course and block his path, forcing the alpha to swim closer to shore. Atomic Rex was not fast enough to catch the alpha but had more than enough speed to prevent the mutant from getting past him.

  For over an hour, Atomic Rex and the alpha replayed the scenario of the mutant orca trying to change course and head back out to the ocean only for Atomic Rex to block his path and force the mammal closer to shore. The chase continued this way until the alpha ran out of water and was forced to beach himself off the shores of Panama.

  The alpha was on the shore of the beach rolling from side to side and squealing in fear as Atomic Rex rose out of the water behind him. The True Kaiju walked up to the stranded mutant and placed his foot down on its back. Atomic Rex then leaned his head down and roared as he looked into the terrified eyes of the creature that had dared to challenge him. As his roar echoed across the beach and ocean as warning to any other beast that sought to challenge his dominance, Atomic Rex closed his jaws on the head of the flailing mutant killer whale. With one pull, Atomic Rex tore off the alpha's head and pulled the creature’s spine out of his body. The kaiju tossed the defeated monster’s horned head onto the beach and then he began devouring its corpse.

  After finishing his meal, Atomic Rex looked to the north. While this minor threat to his domain had been dealt with, he could still sense two powerful threats nearby. There was the kaiju coming from across the Pacific and the beast that had suddenly appeared on land. Worn out from his battle with the Pod, Atomic Rex laid down in the sand to rest. The monster would digest his meal, let his nuclear power heal the wounds inflicted by the Pod, and then continue north to face and destroy the other two invaders.

  Chapter 10

  The Settlement, Northwest California

  The sun was shining brightly in the sky and a cool breeze was coming in from off the ocean as Chris was walking out toward Steel Samurai 2.0. He was in the mech’s shadow, when he saw Sean coming toward him on a horse drawn cart full of fruits and vegetables. As Chris approached the young man he knew was having sex with his little girl, he did his best to smile at him as he thought to himself, “Emily is a woman, not a little girl, and Sean is a good man.”

  Sean waved at Chris. “Good morning, Captain Myers.”

  Chris waved back. “Good morning, Sean. Where are you off to today?”

  Sean shrugged and gave a sheepish smile as he knew that his soon to be father-in-law wouldn’t like his answer. “Just taking this food out to Ramrod. Emily said to make sure he’s happy and stays where he’s at, scaring away a lot of the lesser monsters.”

  Chris sighed and walked up to the young farmer. “Sean, I think you’re a good man and I know Emily loves you and I can see that you love her.” He shook his head. “I have to say though that I am giving you my daughter, and aside from loving her and treating her right, the only other thing I ask is that you protect her. Do you really think keeping a monster close to the settlement, close to your farm, is a good way to protect the woman we both love?”

  Sean was quiet for a moment as he collected his thoughts. After several seconds he shrugged. “Captain Myers, I know I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to things like running a town or figuring out how to fight off monsters but there are a lot of things I do know. I know I love Emily and that I trust her. I also know that she’s a very smart woman and that she has studied Ramrod ever since we first started dating.” He shook his head, “Honestly, I don’t like the idea of having that monster around anymore than you do, but I’m smart enough and I trust Emily enough to believe her when she says keeping Ramrod happy where he is, is the best way to keep him from causing trouble for us and to keep other monsters away.”

  The young farmer slid off his cart, looked the hardened Air Force pilot in the eye, and spoke as genuinely as he could. “I also know that if Ramrod or any other monster came near us, I would give my life before I let anything happen to Emily. I also know that my fiancé's father is a real-life hero. He literally saved the world and I know if there was any threat to his daughter, his family, or the settlement, he would do everything he could to protect them.”

  Sean shrugged. “You may not know this, Captain Myers, but you're a hero to me and everyone else who grew up in this set
tlement. You and Mrs. Myers saved what was left of the human race and helped us set up here. You’re a legend to us, sir. I mean, heck, you’ll be a hero for generations to come. As much as I believe in Emily, I also believe in you. As long as you’re around I have complete faith that everyone including me and Emily will be safe.”

  Chris was at first taken aback by the statement. He had never considered how history would remember him or how the generation who grew up in the settlement would view him. Chris had always thought of his quest to draw the kaiju into each other's territory as a continuation of his failed mission to stop them in the first place. He never thought of himself as a hero or someone who would be looked up to.

  Chris pushed these thoughts aside and tried to focus back on the question of Sean being able to protect his daughter. “I appreciate those thoughts, I really do, but what about when I’m gone. I won’t be around forever, how will you protect Emily and my future grandkids when I’m not around?”

  Sean looked over at the towering form of Steel Samurai 2.0. “Well, I don’t see me ever being able to pilot a giant robot like you do. I know you guys tried to build another mech for Emily and Kyle when you guys were first starting to scout Japan but we ran out of old mech parts to use. Without any new mechs coming, we need something to keep monsters away. Also, I figure all the special weapons Steel Samurai 2.0 has like bullets and missiles will be running out soon anyway. Knowing that, I figure the best way to protect Emily and everyone else I love is to do what Emily suggested and make friends with a monster and hope he protects us from other monsters.” He shrugged. “I know it’s not much, sir. Like I said, I know I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. That’s the best I can offer and while it may not be much of a plan, I promise you I’ll carry it out to the best of my ability to protect the woman I love and my home.”