Luke’s wife was kidnapped by Aiden and taken to Asgard itself. This move forced Luke and Chimera to travel to the realm of the gods where the cruel but wise Odin determined that a battle between he and Chimera would lay waste to Asgard, and as such, he released Melissa and promised that the gods would end their attack on the human race. The king of the Norse gods did leave a warning that they were only seeking to slay the humans because they were destroying the planet. Odin cautioned that there were beings known as the Dark Ones in the multiverse that would seek to destroy all life on the planet. He further warned that without the gods in place to dissuade them, the Dark Ones would eventually attack the Earth as well. This warning was one of the core reasons that Luke continued to train Chimera in preparation for this second war should it ever come. The other potential threat came from the nymphs. The men who mated with the goddess were killed immediately after impregnating them, but the woman had to be kept alive until their babies were born. The beautiful and devious Allison kidnapped these women prior to them giving birth to their babies. She also managed to seduce Victor Toombs into joining her. This meant that in addition to the threat of the Dark Ones returning to Earth, there was also a power-hungry nymph with a potential army of demi-gods and a man who could create a kaiju under her sway.
Luke’s thoughts returned to the present as he drove into the middle of the town and stopped his SUV. He climbed out of it, walked around to the back, and then he took out one of the huge cubes of beef, bamboo, and squid that served as an edible reinforcer for the hybrid monster.
Luke tossed the cube into the middle of the street and then he reached back into his SUV and removed a megaphone from it. Luke then gestured for his family to step out of the SUV. Over the course of the war with the gods and their monsters, Luke and his family had grown close to Chimera. Not only Luke, but Melissa and the girls all viewed Chimera as an extension of their family. They all viewed the colossal monster as if he was a well-loved family pet. Chimera loved the Davis family as well. Through his training with Luke, Chimera had grown to love Luke as Luke paired with him through the consistent process of giving Chimera a command and then reinforcing him for successfully completing the command.
After Luke had developed a personal relationship with Chimera, he slowly began having his family interact with the kaiju. While most people would have thought that exposing his wife and children to a giant monster was a bad idea, Luke knew that having Chimera build a relationship with his family was the best way that he could keep them safe. Luke’s foresight in having his family form a relationship with Chimera was justified when he had to travel to Asgard to free Melissa from Odin’s clutches. The moment that the monster entered the extra-dimensional realm, he was able to smell Melissa’s scent and determine that she was in danger. Luke could see the anger on Chimera’s face at this realization and he had no doubt that the monster’s rage would have led him to a victory over the powerful Odin had the two of them clashed.
Given their relationship with Chimera, Luke had no fear of having his family stand next to the area where he was drawing the kaiju to. The monster’s footfalls may shake the ground around them, but Chimera had proven on numerous occasions that he would operate with the utmost care when around Luke and his family. By having his family near Chimera’s food source and by having them be part of the process of rewarding him for following directions, it would continue to build the relationship between Chimera as his family. Luke also knew that strengthening the relationship between the monster and his family would continue to increase the likelihood that Chimera would defend them in his absence.
With the threats of the Dark Ones and Allison still looming, Luke made sure that Chimera maintained a strong relationship with his family so that when these beings came and attacked, Chimera would feel the same urge to protect Melissa, Sally, and Suzie that he did.
After reminding himself of why he had brought his family with him on this training exercise, he put the megaphone to his mouth and yelled, “Chimera, come to me!”
Luke’s command was answered by a roar that shook the ground and echoed like thunder across the sky. His family watched in awe as a living mountain rose out of the forest around them. Even though Chimera was nearly a mile from where they were standing, the Davis family could see the colossal monster towering over the forest. Chimera shook his head, causing large branches to dislodge from the shaggy lion mane that wreathed his head.
Melissa smiled. “It seems as if you have woken our boy up from a nap.”
Luke smiled back at his wife. “He has been getting too used to sleeping in late. I think getting him up early once in a while is a good thing.”
Chimera’s huge sperm whale head turned in the direction of the Davis family and the mock town they were standing in. The kaiju opened his mouth and showed the long canine teeth that had torn asunder so many of the gods and their monsters. The beast then reached out with his long simian arms and placed them down on the ground. Chimera then started to walk forward with the same stride as a mountain gorilla but with his sperm whale head moving from side to side in front of him while his long, thick, fluke-like tail swayed in the opposite direction behind him. It only took Chimera a few strides to reach the faux street that the Davis family was standing on.
When Chimera was two steps from entering the mock town, Luke looked at Melissa and said, “Now it’s time to see if Chimera has mastered the newest command that we have been working on.” Luke held up his megaphone, pointed to the cut-out buildings, and yelled, “Chimera, be careful!”
The intelligent beast stopped walking. He then followed his trainer’s finger to the fake buildings he was pointing toward. The monster lifted his hands and arms off the ground and stood on two legs. Then he slowly walked into the fake town, taking care not to step on any of the buildings while also making a conscious effort to step lightly. Chimera continued to move in a slow and steady fashion until he reached the center of the town and was standing in front of the Davis family.
Luke yelled into the megaphone, “Good work, Chimera!” as Melissa and the children cheered and clapped. Luke then pushed the huge block of food forward which Chimera carefully picked up and devoured. He then he leaned toward his adopted family and exhaled.
The force of the monster exhaling his breath blew across the Davis family, pushing the girls’ hair into their faces. Suzie wrinkled her nose and said, “Eww! Chimera’s breath smells like old fish!”
Melissa laughed and then looked at her husband. “It’s amazing what you have accomplished with him!”
Luke shrugged. “Thanks, but I am just the facilitator. It’s the ABA process and Chimera’s own intelligence that really make the difference. Remember that with the best parts of a gorilla’s and a whale’s mind in his head, Chimera has roughly the intelligence of a three-year-old human and I think that he is actually becoming more intelligent as he grows older.”
Melissa kissed her husband on the cheek. “Well, I am proud of you anyway.”
Luke turned to kiss his wife back when his cellphone rang. He looked down to see General Sam Parsons’ name on the screen.
Luke lifted the phone to his ear. “Yes, General.”
Parsons’ commanding voice didn’t waste time with pleasantries. “Luke, you and Chimera need to return to base immediately. We have reports of multiple kaiju attacks taking place across the United States.” There was a brief pause as Parsons chose his next words carefully. “Meet us outside of Hangar Eighteen and bring Chimera to the outskirts of the base with you. When you get here, don’t let Chimera too close to the hangar. I don’t want him to know what’s inside.”
Luke replied, “Copy that, General. I will lead Chimera to the back of the base near the hangar. Have a guard at the rear entrance to let me in.”
Parsons replied with a, “Copy that.” Then he hung up the phone.
Luke turned to Melissa. “There are multiple kaiju attacks occurring across the country. We need to get back to base right away.” He looked at his
monster. “Parsons wants us to bring the big guy back to base and then he wants me to meet him outside of Hangar Eighteen. He wants Chimera close by but he doesn’t want him to know what’s in the hangar.”
Melissa shook her head. “Parsons doesn’t have another monster in there, does he?”
Luke shrugged. “I don’t know what he has in there but whatever it is, he clearly thinks Chimera might want to attack it. I need you to take the car and drop me off about a half mile from the base. I will jog the rest of the way with Chimera. Then I want you and the kids safe at home. I will send a military protection unit over to the house just in case. We don’t want any more nymphs trying to kidnap you again.”
Melissa nodded and then she started ushering the kids back into the SUV. Luke grabbed his megaphone and yelled into it, “Chimera, follow me!” He then jumped into the passenger side of the SUV. Melissa turned the ignition and started heading back to base with Chimera lumbering behind them.
Chapter 2
El Dabaa, Egypt
The moment that Atomic Rex found himself on this new Earth, he immediately began searching for both food and nuclear energy. The nuclear theropod’s keen senses were able to detect a source of nuclear energy north of his current location. Atomic Rex began wandering through Egypt toward the El Dabaa nuclear power plant. The monster still had some energy left within his cells, but he was in need of recharging his body with the nuclear energy that gave him his amazing powers.
With each step that the monster took, radiation seeped out of his body and into the desert. Beneath the sand, dozens of rodents, insects, arachnids, and reptiles were infected by the radiation that Atomic Rex’s body gave off. Most of the creatures that were infected with the radiation from the monster would die as a result of their exposure to the deadly energy, but some of them would survive and mutate into giant monsters themselves. Atomic Rex and the other radioactive monsters like him had spread radiation across his Earth, causing many of the animals there to turn into giant mutants. As Atomic Rex walked across this Earth, his body had the same effect on this ecosystem that it had on his own world. The threat posed by Atomic Rex went far beyond the large-scale death and destruction that he could cause directly. Much like the person designated as patient zero in a zombie film, Atomic Rex’s true danger came from the countless other monsters that he would generate as a byproduct of his mere existence.
The monster’s presence was first noticed by nomadic goat herders who were roaming the desert with their flocks. When he came across these flocks, both the animals and the people tending to them ran in terror from the prehistoric horror. Despite their best efforts to flee, Atomic Rex made a quick meal of both the goats and their keepers. As he continued to move farther north, the monster walked through numerous small towns and villages, crushing them beneath his colossal feet.
Local police and town militias attempted to halt Atomic Rex’s advance with small hand guns and hunting rifles, but when they opened fire on the monster, he did not even notice their attacks. The few people who had access to homemade explosives attempted to hurl them at Atomic Rex’s feet, and while the monster felt the explosions, they were not powerful enough to deter him from continually making his way toward the nuclear power plant and the radiation that his body craved.
The monster had left a path of destruction nearly fifty miles long in his wake when he reached the outskirts of El Dabaa and its newly constructed nuclear power plant. With the power plant recently completed, the Egyptian military had a strong presence in the city. Atomic Rex had not yet entered the city when he was met with a battalion of tanks and a squadron of attack helicopters. On his Earth, Atomic Rex had not encountered vehicles such as tanks and helicopters. Aside from other monsters, the only other resistance he had come across was in the form of giant robots. When the tanks and helicopters moved toward Atomic Rex, he looked at them with a sense of confusion rather than anger.
Atomic Rex’s tail whipped from side to side behind him as he stared at the vehicles until they opened fire on him. The kaiju’s body was engulfed in a maelstrom of shells, bullets, and missiles. For the first time since he had found himself on this Earth, Atomic Rex felt pain. The nuclear theropod roared at the small robots which had dared to attack him. The monster charged forward and ran over the tank battalion. Atomic Rex stomped on the tanks with the fury that had made him the king of two continents on his planet. Within seconds of attacking the tanks, Atomic Rex had crushed them as if they were made of paper. With the robots that were attacking from the ground destroyed, Atomic Rex lifted his head into the sky and glared at the helicopters that were firing on him and roared a challenge at them.
Seeing their ground forces destroyed in mere seconds, the helicopters quickly increased their altitude. The helicopters began circling Atomic Rex and firing on him. The kaiju snapped his jaws and waved his long and powerful claws at the machines, but the annoying helicopters remained out of his reach. Two of the helicopters flew straight at Atomic Rex’s face and fired twin missiles into the nuclear theropod’s mouth. The projectiles exploded in the monster’s mouth, tearing it apart.
Atomic Rex roared in anger and pain at the tiny vehicles that had managed to hurt him. The kaiju shook his head from side to side as his frustration continued to build. As he was shaking his head, a bright blue light began to emanate from beneath the monster’s scales. The helicopters continued to fire an unending barrage of missiles and bullets at Atomic Rex as the light from within the monster continued to increase in brightness. Atomic Rex was reaching into the very cells of his body to draw out the nuclear power stored within them. When Atomic Rex could feel the full fury of his nuclear power gathered beneath his scales, the monster lifted his right leg into the air. The monster stomped his foot into the ground and when he did so, a dome of pure radiation burst forth from his body in the form of his Atomic Wave. The dome of radiation engulfed everything in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree radius around Atomic Rex for nearly one thousand feet. The helicopters that had been attacking Atomic Rex were reduced to slag in mid-air from the heat of the blast. Atomic Rex roared in victory as the flaming and melted helicopters dropped from the sky around him. The homes and small buildings that were within the blast radius of the Atomic Wave were turned to rubble and ash.
The nuclear theropod swung his head from side to side then he turned around to see if there was anything else that sought to challenge him. Just beyond the crater of destruction that the Atomic Wave had caused, the kaiju could see tiny humans running into the streets. The people were covered in burns and their skin was peeling off their bodies from the massive dose of radiation they had absorbed. Compared to the people who were dying and would die over the next few days from radiation poisoning, the pilots who were instantly incinerated in their helicopters had a merciful death.
Atomic Rex roared and then he began walking toward the newly completed nuclear power plant which held the radiation that his body now badly required. He took several steps into El Dabaa to find the streets before him filled with people trying to flee away from the horror that had come to their city. The kaiju roared, sending the people into an even greater panic. Hundreds of people were pushed to the ground and trampled by those behind them who were fleeing in terror from Atomic Rex. Seeing the river of meat in front of him, Atomic Rex dropped his head to the ground and dragged his mouth along the street until it was filled with screaming people. The kaiju took two quick bites, skewering roughly a third of the people in his mouth on his teeth and ending their lives. The people who were not chewed to death screamed in horror as Atomic Rex titled his head back and swallowed them whole while they were still alive. The monster filled his mouth with humans three more times and swallowed them before he reached the nuclear power plant.
When he reached the power plant, the monster walked directly up to the silo where the nuclear energy was generated. He roared, spun around, and then with one powerful swipe of his tail, Atomic Rex knocked the top half of the silo off. Radiation poured out of the now e
xposed core of the silo and into the air. Atomic Rex took a step forward and then leaned his torso over the core with his arms wide open. A blue energy began to waft from the core of the silo and into Atomic Rex. As the nuclear energy was absorbed by Atomic Rex, it not only refueled the power that had been depleted from his cells, but it also jump started the monster’s amazing recuperative abilities. The wounds that had been inflicted on the monster’s mouth began to heal and close. Within a few minutes from when Atomic Rex had started absorbing the radiation from the power plant, the wounds that he had suffered during his battle with the helicopters were completely healed.
The nuclear theropod stood above the core for nearly a half an hour until he drained all of the energy from the reactor. With his power fully restored, Atomic Rex lifted his head into the air and roared with a renewed vigor, announcing his presence to this new world. The roar also served as both a warning and a challenge to any other threats within the sound of his voice.
Confident that he had effectively communicated his dominance to any creatures in the area, the monster turned and began heading west toward a different but still familiar Atlantic Ocean. As he made his way through the city, Atomic Rex found the streets were filled with throngs of people trying to escape the horror that had come to their city. As he had done before, Atomic Rex bent down and filled his powerful jaws with the citizens of El Dabaa. The monster gorged himself on the people of the city until his need for meat had been satiated. Thousands of people would be devoured by Atomic Rex and tens of thousands of more people would be crushed by the monster’s feet or by the falling debris that he created as he walked through the buildings within the city.
While the monster made his way through El Dabaa, radiation continued to emanate from his body. Even the people in the city who had avoided that kaiju’s teeth and claws would die as a result of the radiation that had inadvertently escaped from the monster’s body. Atomic Rex had come to a city that was full of people. People who had jobs, families, homes, and dreams. When Atomic Rex had exited the city, less than fifty percent of the population remained alive and many of those who were alive were condemned to a slow and painful death. In less than an hour, Atomic Rex had turned El Dabaa into a city of the dead.
Atomic Rex_The Conquest of Chimera Page 2
