2200 Hours, Shinjuku.
The monster stood tall above the fallen, it's leviathan form moving awkwardly through the glass and steel canyons of the crowded Tokyo streets. That which was in it's way was destroyed, for it was the assembled souls of the war dead, here to remind the people of Japan that World war 2 should never be forgotten. When it walked, the earth trembled; when it shook it's great dorsal fins clanged together like giant sheets of brass. It's pupiless eyes searched the streets feverishly for victims to destroy.
For it was the god of destruction; Gojira would not rest until the mortals had repaid their debt of dishonor.
The roar of jet engines screamed overhead, and the angry beast reared it's head with a snarl. It's eyebrows knitted in annoyance, and it began to inhale. Motes of bright blue light appeared around it's head, and were quickly breathed in as a blue-white phosphorescence engulfed it's dorsal plates.
The first jet screamed into view, an F2 attacker. It's pilot well trained from joint war games with the USAF and his own JSDF. "I have visual on the target."
200 miles away, an AWACS plane observed the battle, "Green One, you are cleared for engagement."
"Youkai," He shouted, "Green Squadron weapons free at angels one."
Green one was vaporized at the end of his sentence. Green two broke hard to the left, narrowly avoiding the burning blue light. Green three inadvertently banked into the beam emanating from Gojira's mouth, and watched horrified in his last seconds as the beam melted away his canopy.
Gojira turned his head and inhaled sharply as a volley of Type 80 ASM-1 missiles slammed into his armored hide. Bathed in the flames of war, the monster roared and dipped his head bringing his mighty tail to bear on Green 4.
In the chaos, other monsters stirred.
Harandir surveyed the mayhem from the top of a sky scraper with mirrored windows, a broad grin on his pale face. This was a fate fitting for cattle that dared attack their masters. He was the oldest thing upon this cursed rock, and they had taken the only thing he had found in all those years that mattered, and destroyed her. And so he would bask in their misery, and dance in the flames of their ruin. In the chaos of this monsters attack, he would take thousands as they fled to the dark holes and shelters. He would hunt them from below as it smited them from above. The thought of it brought a bigger smile to his face. The pale moon hung low and large in the sky, illuminating both terrible beasts that roamed the night.
Not far away, another watcher observed the god of destruction. This one far older than any man or vampire, and certainly not about to flee to dark holes. Cucumba watched and contemplated. This timeline would have to be protected, as any other. If this monster successfully destroyed Tokyo, a young scientist named Hidenobu Okada would invent a terrifying weapon to destroy Gojira within twelve days. This weapon would shift the world balance, and prevent World War Three. In order for holder of the covenant to amass his weapons, this war must take place. And in this timeline, humanity must suffer to give the Jade Leviathan the chance to learn a technique that can only be learned from a man who rises to great power in the ruin of civilization. This was the way of the gate and the key, and there was no cost great enough to ensure that Kaiser Cucumba wins his battle of destiny. But the monster could not be destroyed either, for it too had a destiny that must be preserved, or other opportunities would be lost.
To add to Cucumba's quandary, the man who would teach the man who teaches this technique in the future was a mere boy in the streets below. If he were to die here, then this timeline would be a wasted development. While time was plentiful for the Verdant Leviathan, he knew that the stakes were sufficiently high enough without losing edges that presented themselves throughout his past.
Cucatoth and his kind would die at Cucumba's hands, but that could only happen if it all happened as it had in the past.
Harandir spotted a group of fleeing people, scurrying underfoot of the massive monster that threatened to consume them all in fire. Fighter planes roared overhead again, temporarily distracting the monster, and giving Harandir his opportunity. The vampire dropped from the building into an alleyway beside the building, his silent fall only interrupted by the flapping of his coat in the wind of descent. He landed on the sidewalk, cracking the concrete, and creating a small crater on the pedestrian strip. The cursed one creeped into the shadows, and followed a lone police officer checking for stragglers. The officer had no idea that his life was at an end, but such is the fate of cattle in the presence of wolves. Harandir grabbed him by the neck with one arm, and covered his mouth with the other as he sunk his fangs into the jugular vein and common carotid artery. The rush of rich red blood flowing warmly into his throat brought not the thrill of the hunt as it did with others: it satisfied, only slightly, his thirst for revenge. This insect was soon tapped of it's life blood, and Harandir quickly set his sights on another. A young boy of perhaps 10 years running alone, fleeing from the eighty meter horror tearing buildings down only a block away. Harandir tore the head of the police officer from it's shoulders, preventing it's return as something other than it was.
Perhaps on reflex, perhaps on intuition, Harandir quickly turned to the boy and drew his Magnum 500, firing one round into the darkness near the boy. Once his mind registered the danger, he looked to see a man with green skin and a leather duster holding his fist out. Like Harandir, the new comer wore dark sunglasses in the dark of the steel canyons. Cucumba grinned and dropped the large slug from his fist, still smoking from the heat.
"I'm afraid," spoke the green man, "that you will have to try slightly harder than that."
"What the . . ," Harandir had seen many things, but never had he seen anyone with the skill and speed to catch a bullet. Still, there was always the chance that he missed, and that this was simply a trick. Undaunted, Harandir, lazily pointed a finger at the newcomer, using up some of his precious blood to induce madness in the strange green man.
Cucumba only laughed.
"Impossible, no one can resist the touch of madness," said Harandir in disbelief.
"Unless one lives in madness itself. Your technique will have no effect on a great old one," the Green Devil said with a mocking tone. "I will not allow harm to come of that boy, nor will I allow this monster to continue its destruction. It would be best for you to leave Shinjuku and hunt elsewhere. What you do otherwise is of no consequence to me."
"What the **** are you . . . . besides a *** leather queen?"
"Heh, just like a vampire, so self absorbed you can't possibly comprehend anything besides lining your own belly and coping with immortality you were never designed to have."
"You don't know **** about me, green man, and you're about to learn the hard way."
Harandir moved with blinding speed, pulling two throwing knives, one in each hand, from the folds of his cotton coat. Cucumba shifted from his defiant stance with arms akimbo to a fighting stance in that same time. Harandir ****ed an eyebrow and saw that this opponent was definitely not of average caliber.
In the pale moonlight, two blades sailed from their master's hands, their deadly cold steel flashing in the night sky under the reflections of neon, explosions and burning rays of doom. Cucumba spun quickly, grabbing the corner of his leather duster, and using the fabric to block the incoming knives. The impact was great, and despite his attempt, on had managed to pierce the coat, and nearly stab his arm. Cucumba grimaced, this was exactly what he did not need; a protracted battle with an opportunist during such a sensitive juncture in time.
Cucumba, tossed his jacket to the side, and leapt to his opponent's front. Harandir leapt back, laughing maniacally, and tossed two more throwing knives at the incoming demon. The green man pulled a short shaft from his belt and pressed a button. In a flash of searing green light, both knives were cut through their centers, molten edges glowing bright red as they fell inert to the earth below.
Harandir only smirked in response, pulling his Magnum 500 once again, and squeezed off several rounds with tight grouping at the chest of the incoming old one. This bullets hit Cucumba square in the ribs, sending him flying backwards. The vampire's triumph was short lived however, for the Jade Behemoth broke apart into small faceless demons, and dispersed. The cursed one drew two more daggers, letting them fly with lethal accuracy, striking two of the, smooth, black, faceless demons dead in their chests. Cucumba reformed, falling from above Harandir, his hands prepared to strike and defend. The vampire was surprised at the demon's bag of tricks, but this was not something he could not handle. Harandir prepared himself for the attack, and dodged out of the way when Cucumba's fist connected with the pavement where he was standing only a heartbeat ago. The concrete buckled, then shattered, and dirt flew from it's confines beneath the slab. Cucumba did not delay in a follow up attack, following quickly with left spinning hook kick. Harandir deftly leaned back, narrowly avoiding the blow. He smiled until he felt the hand on his ankle. He quickly adjusted his weight, and flipped back, again only barely avoiding a succesful attack. When he righted himself he was amazed and horrified to see that the Jade Behemoth was right in front of his face.
He's fast, I'll give him that, Harandir thought to himself, But not fast enough.
Harandir tilted his head to dodge the green machine's well wound up punch. Cucumba's hand connected with the wall of the sky scraper with a thunderous crash.
"You missed, *******," said Harandir with a wide smile again on his face and Cucumba's arm wrist deep in the wall beside him.
"Did I?"
Harandir's eyes darted about with sudden realization. He looked up and saw the glass walls buckle with the impact into a ripple as if one had thrown a stone in a pond. Then he heard the steel support behind him crack and give way as the building began to fall in cloud of razor sharp glass, broken stone, and heavy steel.
"I wonder what happens to you if you become disensanguanated by a hail of glass shards," said Cucumba with a hint of laughter in his voice. With that, Cucumba broke apart into the horrid swarm, and dodged the miasma of razor sharp pain. Harandir moved quickly, but not fast enough as the first shards of glass bit into his undead flesh. Harandir roared from the pain, but quickly developed a plan as the cloud of dust obscured him from view.
Cucumba quickly checked to make sure that Tomokaze Ashizawa, the man who would some day be 65th successor of Hokuto Shinken, was still alive. He then returned his attention to the troublesome vampire.
Much to his dismay, Harandir had dissapeared.
Cucumba stood atop the heaps of rubble where the vampire had stood. Had he been buried in the avalanche of building materials? As Cucumba felt a stir in the force, he felt a strong, cold arm around his neck, and also felt the razor sharp wakazashi of his opponent slide between his ribs.
"I have to admit, your little ****ing trick was pretty good, but your nice little run is over."
With that, the cursed one bit into the Jade Behemoth's neck, tearing open his viens and arteries with his fangs. He pushed the wakizashi through the green devil's chest, and twisted the blade as the hilt found it's resting place. The demon grunted and gurgled as pearl green blood sprayed from the open wound. Harandir's mouth burned from the liquid, and he instantly recognized it as something he should not ingest. He pulled the wakazashi from his victim and dumped his dying body to the floor.
It was over, and he had a child's blood supply to drink.
Meanwhile, the air strikes above had abated, and by the order of Admiral Tachibana, all the long range attacks would be eschewed in favor of an infantry attack with cadmium warhead rocket propelled grenades. The JSDF moved into position, between the fleeing people and the lumbering horror overhead. Red leader guided his group into a tower next to the one that had fallen of some unseen damage. "We are in position," said the squad leader as they waited for Gojira to wander into view.
Harandir was almost upon the boy, and he could already taste his blood, hear the delicious screams of his parents as he's torn apart, and best of all, hear the whimpers of the useless veal as he meets his maker. He grabbed the boy from behind, pulling back his neck and exposing his most vital junctures. The boy screamed in surprise, fighting uselessly against his assailant. Harandir went to bite, stopping as a large framed, green skinned man drifted down before them. His neck was still torn open, but the neck muscles had obviously compressed around the bleeding wounds. Worse still, they seemed to be healing before his very eyes.
"If you go now, I will allow you to leave. If you continue, I will leave your broken body in torpor for the sunrise to find."
Harandir noticed that other things were different, green flames seemed to be coming from the strange man's eyes, and a third eye had appeared in his forehead.
"I think I'll take this snack first, if you don't mind," said Harandir with a laugh. "Then, I'm going to make you eat your ****ing ultimatum."
But Harandir found himself unable to move his head forward to bite. Cucumba pulled on the force with all of his might to keep the vampire from slaying the key to the assasin's fist; he could not afford to lose him now.
Harandir tossed the victim to the ground with a snarl, and lept at the jade behemoth, wakazashi at the ready. The green devil only focused his eyes on the incoming attack, and sidestepped all of Harandir's deadly attacks. Harandir could not beleive what he was seeing: it appeared as if the green man could read his movements before they even happened. Cucumba retaliated soon enough, attacking with his knees and elbows whenever the vampire made it in close, striking the insides of Harandir's arms as his blows were parried.
Harandir disengaged breifly, regrouping his thoughts and formulating a new angle of attack. "Tell me your name warrior, you greatly amuse me," said the damned one. "The ****ing thrill of it is giving me the shakes. I can't wait to decorate the square with your entrails."
"I have no name that dogs may speak."
"Why you mother****er . . ," Harandir lunged forward, but felt a twinge of severe pain in his shoulder. He reached his free hand to his deltoid, and felt the muscle spasm so severely that it tore from his bone, and ruptured in his hand in a gieser of blood. He cringed with the pain as Cucumba slammed into him with a sun punch to his bread basket, sending him careening into the vestibule of a skyscraper.
"You may be a vampire, but your body is still of humans," snarled Cucumba, "and my fist specializes in destruction of human tissues."
Within the vestibule, the JSDF soldiers waiting for Gojira made their way to the sudden entrant. Guns drawn, and RPGs shouldered, they looked upon the man in confusion. His shattered glasses lay strewn about the floor around him, and a grievous wound was oozing blood from his shoulder.
"What the, should we help him?"
"Stick to the mission objectives!"
"But he's hurt . . ."
With that, black mist began to seep from his body, and his eyes darted open, glowing fiery red in the dark of Shinjuku's burning belly.
Tomokaze looked at the strange green man that had saved him. "Thank you for saving me mister."
"Get to safety. NOW," roared the jade behemoth. "Before he comes back." The Onigan saw many things, and none of them were good. Cucumba watched on in annoyance as the vestibule became a shower of blood, and a sundered arm was flung to the streets.
The dark cloud flew across the debris strewn streets like a nightmarish belch of diesel exauhst; murderous claws only hinted at what was between the rolls of darkness. It's eyes burned with hatred as it approached at breakneck speeds. Cucumba took the massive blow, his body floating weightless as it slammed into a digital advertisement board for the PS3. The electricity burned Cucumba's clothes, and scorched his skin, causing his body to jerk violently within the frame of the tool of mass merchandising.
Beneath, the cloud of evil waited anxiously, forgetting momentarily the child it was hunting only moments ago.
Cucumba pulled himself from the shorted electronics, and smiled at his opponent, wiping green pearlized liquid from his lower lip.
"I wonder what will happen when I don't hold back anymore."
From Cucumba's gold irises, green flame poured with anger.