Atomic Rex stumbled back several steps, and before he could regain his balance, Steel Samurai 2.0 slammed his shoulder into the kaiju’s chest, knocking him to the ground.
The blood-covered Gurral bellowed in frustration at what was transpiring before him. “Get the hell out of here! This is my fight! I can take him!”
Kate grabbed the microphone to the external speakers and yelled, “You said you were sent here to catch Atomic Rex and bring him back to your world! Not to kill him! Don’t you have some kind of deal with the Arena Lord you talked about? Isn’t Atomic Rex supposed to take your spot or something? Will the Arena Lords honor your deal if you kill Atomic Rex instead of bringing him back?”
Gurral’s face softened and he looked down at the taser on his chest. He grabbed it and said, “You’re right! Keep his attention for a minute while I get into a place where I can use this thing on him!”
Gurral had just finished his direction when Atomic Rex sprang back to his feet. The saurian monster’s eyes were filled with rage as he roared at the mech that had once more kept him from what he wanted. The monster lunged at the giant robot only to have the mech strike him across the face with its sword.
Atomic Rex’s head was shifting to the right where he saw Gurral standing next to him. The Smasher grinned. “Nap time, Rexy.” He then jammed his taser into Atomic Rex’s hip and sent millions of volts of electricity coursing through the monster. The radioactive leviathan roared as electricity danced around his body and assaulted his nerves.
When the shock reached his brain, the nuclear theropod could feel himself blacking out. From the corner of his eyes, Atomic Rex could see a wave of darkness creeping into his field of vision. The reptilian horror clenched his teeth and fought back the darkness creeping into his eyes. The nuclear theropod had never known defeat and he did not intend to be introduced to it now. Atomic Rex pushed through the electricity coursing through his body and reached out to the nuclear power stored within his cells.
Atomic Rex then lifted his leg into the air and roared. As he brought his leg crashing back to the ground, the Atomic Wave cascaded out from him, forcing out the electricity that was plaguing his body. The wave expanded to the point that it struck Gurral and then Steel Samurai 2.0, sending both the monster and mech tumbling backwards.
Atomic Rex glared at the two foes on the ground before him and roared at them in defiance of their attempt to defeat him. He then swung his head in the direction of the smoking form of Steel Samurai 2.0.
Kate and Chris were staring through the mech’s eyes at the sky when they felt the ground shake beneath the mech. Kate screamed. “Chris, we have to get back on our feet!”
Chris grabbed the controls. “I’m trying!” The pilot had managed to get the mech back up to one knee as Atomic Rex loomed only a step away from them.
When she saw the look in Atomic Rex’s eyes, Kate grabbed her husband’s hand. “Chris, I love you and I want you to know that you have given me a life I never thought I could have. You’ve made me happier than I would ever have thought I could be.”
Chris was about to share his last thoughts to his wife when Gurral slammed his shoulder into Atomic Rex and knocked the kaiju over. He looked down at the monster and roared, “Leave my friend alone!”
Chris smiled as he got Steel Samurai 2.0 back to its feet. The mech stood side by side with the arena champion as they looked down at Atomic Rex regaining his feet.
Gurral took a quick look at the taser in his hand. “Well, that didn’t work.” He shrugged. “Guess I’ll have to smash this freak and forget my retirement.”
Kate called out from the external speakers, “Try the taser one more time! We can divert electricity from the robot into the sword! Maybe together we can hit him with enough juice to knock him out!”
Before Gurral could reply, Atomic Rex was charging toward them.
Kate's hands moved in a blur as she diverted what power she could to Steel Samurai’s 2.0 sword. When Atomic Rex was within reach, Gurral stuck his taser into Atomic Rex’s ribs while Steel Samurai 2.0 drove its sword into Atomic Rex’s shoulder. Atomic Rex roared in pain as more than twice the amount of electricity he had fought off before coursed through his body. The nuclear theropod let out a defiant roar while his legs twitched, and then his body went limp as he fell to the ground unconscious.
Gurral was looking down at the unconscious Atomic Rex when he heard Kate screaming at him. “Open the portal and toss him in before he wakes up!”
Gurral nodded, grabbed the portal generator off his chest, and used it to open a portal to Arena World. With blood still leaking out of the wounds on his jaw, chest, and stomach, Gurral picked up the unconscious Atomic Rex and tossed him into a portal that led to the arena floor.
Gurral looked over at Steel Samurai and gave an unsteady nod.
Chris grabbed the external speakers from Kate and called out to his new friend, “Well, I guess you’ll be heading back home now?”
Gurral shrugged. “In a minute...I just gotta…” The Smasher then passed out and fell onto his back in a pool of his own blood with the portal still open before him and Atomic Rex beginning to stir on the other side.
Chapter 19
Beach of Southern Mexico
Chris and Kate were looking at the bizarre sight before them. The couple could see the unconscious form of Gurral lying in the sand and next to him a rift in the space time continuum leading to another world. Through the swirling vortex they could see Atomic Rex in the middle of a colossal arena with all manner of strange alien creatures filling the stands around him. The saurian beast was stirring as his incredible healing abilities started to counteract the effects of the electrical attack he had suffered.
Chris pointed to the portal device strapped to Gurral’s chest. “Kate, we need to figure out how to use the device to close that rift before Atomic Rex wakes up, or those aliens decide to come check out what’s been going on here.” He sighed. “We also have to help Gurral. He looks like he’s hurt pretty bad.”
Kate shook her head. “How do you propose we do either one of those things? The device he used to open the rift is some form of alien technology that we have no idea how to use. What if we were to…I don’t know…Create an artificial black hole that destroyed our entire solar system while we were trying to figure out how to close the rift? Then how can we possibly help Gurral? Again, he’s an alien with physiology we have no idea about.”
Chris was silent for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. Once he had formulated a plan of action, he began to unhook himself from his pilot’s seat as he explained his course of action to his wife. “We may not know a lot about Gurral’s body, but during my field training for the Air Force they taught us about injuries and field wounds. Gurral said last night that he heals pretty fast but the wounds on his arm, chest, stomach and jaw are all still bleeding. I’ll bet if we don’t stop that bleeding, he’ll bleed to death.”
Kate nodded. “Okay, how do you propose that we do that? We don’t exactly have kaiju sized bandages lying around.”
Chris nodded. “The quickest way to stop someone from bleeding out in the field is to cauterize the wound. We still have the blowtorch in the maintenance bay. If I can use it to cauterize some of the wounds maybe we can keep enough blood in him to keep him alive. There’s also a good chance the pain will wake him up long enough for him to use the device to close the rift.”
Kate cast her eyes to Gurral. “You’re talking about cauterizing numerous wounds, won’t that be unbelievably painful for Gurral?”
“I’m sure it will be, but we don’t have many other options.”
Kate pointed to the strap on the Smasher’s chest. “That dust, what did he call it, Impervium or something? It acts like a drug for Gurral, right? I mean, last night after he put it on his food, it pretty much knocked him out, right?”
Chris smiled. “Yeah, it did! Here’s what we do. Have the mech drop me on his chest with the blowtorch. You use the mech to hold Gurral down while I s
tart cauterizing the first wound, that way he doesn’t accidentally kill me or hurt himself more while I’m working on him. Hopefully, he wakes up and we can convince him to close the rift and then let him take his dust to knock him out so we can finish cauterizing the wounds!”
Kate reached out and grabbed the controls in front of her. “Okay, grab the blowtorch and go to the external port in Steel Samurai 2.0’s right hand. Wait until I have Gurral’s arms firmly pinned to the ground, then start closing the first wound.” She looked back into the portal to see that Atomic Rex’s eyes were partially open and that his tail was moving from side to side. “Chris, if this is going to work, we need to move fast.”
Chris nodded in reply and then ran out of the cockpit. As he was grabbing the tools for his impromptu surgery, he started talking to himself. “Trying to save a kaiju’s life is just one more thing I never thought I would see myself doing.” He shrugged. “I can’t wait to hear Emily’s reaction to this when I get back. I’m sure I’ll never hear the end of it.”
Kate’s voice suddenly came out from the internal speakers. “She’ll be proud of you, just like I am proud of you for doing the right thing.”
Chris sighed. “So, used to being in the cockpit I forgot about the internal feed. Thanks for listening in to me talking to myself, honey.”
Kate laughed. “Anytime, Doctor Kaiju. Now get to the arm before Atomic Rex fully wakes up and while we still have time to save your patient.”
Chris threw the blowtorch over his back, slapped the welding helmet on his head, and then sprinted for Steel Samurai 2.0’s arm. Less than three minutes later, Chris found himself walking across Gurral’s massive chest. It was obvious that the three largest wounds on Gurral’s stomach were the ones in need of immediate attention. As he walked up to the wounds, the pilot could see that while the wounds were already starting to heal, they wouldn’t close fast enough to stop Gurral from bleeding to death.
When Chris reached the first wound, he looked up Gurral’s body to see Kate using the mech’s hands to grab Gurral’s wrists and push them down into the sand.
After Steel Samurai 2.0 had a firm grip on the Smasher, Kate yelled into the internal speakers, “You’re good to go!”
Chris flipped down the welding helmet to protect his eyes, turned on the blowtorch, and placed it over one of the deep gashes Atomic Rex had caused in Gurral’s stomach.
The instant the blowtorch hit his flesh, Gurral’s eyes snapped open, almost glowing red, and he bellowed in a mindless rage fueled by pain. The arena champion’s muscles tensed, and as he roared, he began forcing his arms up off of the beach.
Despite Steel Samurai’s weight and all the force the nuclear powered mech could muster pushing down on Gurral’s wrists, and despite the fact that the Smasher’s arms were fully spread out, his incalculable strength was easily lifting his arms out of the sand and off the ground.
Fully aware that in his frenzied state Gurral would kill Chris, leaving a portal to an unknown dimension open for both Atomic Rex and anything else to access Earth, Kate screamed into the speakers, “Gurral, Chris is trying to save your life by cauterizing your wounds!”
Gurral didn’t respond in the slightest, but continued to roar and push. Kate then realized that he was not actually awake. The pain was driving him to defend himself even while unconscious through pure instinct. She knew that reasoning with him wouldn’t work, and she didn’t have any other options. In desperation, she had Steel Samurai 2.0 release one of the behemoth’s wrists and punch Gurral across the face as fast and as hard as possible. Gurral’s roaring stopped for a short moment, then continued as he yelled, “Ow! What the hell?” and looked around frantically to gather his situation.
In the portal behind Gurral, Kate could see Atomic Rex rising to his feet. She tried to sound as calming as possible, while also conveying how dire the situation was. “Listen to me! Chris is patching your wounds, but Atomic Rex just got up. You need to close the portal now!”
As Kate finished her sentence, Atomic Rex finished standing on the other side of the portal. The monster fixed his eyes on Steel Samurai 2.0 and Gurral as he unleashed an earth-shaking roar!
The radioactive leviathan was moving toward the portal as Gurral ripped his other wrist free and used both his hands to grab the control device and close the portal just in time to prevent Atomic Rex from crossing the rift.
From atop Gurral’s stomach, Chris breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the swirling vortex closing and trapping Atomic Rex on the alien world. The pilot sneered. “I’m finally rid of you, you bastard. I hope you rot on the alien planet.”
After closing the interdimensional gateway, Gurral winced in pain, then grabbed the sack of dust he was carrying. He looked down at Chris who was still standing on his stomach. “You’re still helping me even though Rexy’s gone?”
Chris shrugged. “There’s no way I’m going to let a friend bleed out on my watch. Especially, one who just kicked Atomic Rex off the planet for us.” He gestured to the sack of dust. “Take that stuff already so I can get back to work on you before you lose too much blood.”
Gurral took a double pinch of dust from his dwindling reserves. “You don’t gotta tell me that. I usually like it with food, but in this case, I think straight up is fine.” The Smasher sprinkled the Impervium dust into his mouth. With no food and double his normal dose, Gurral could feel the effects of the Impervium dust almost instantaneously. As he was drifting to sleep, he looked down at Chris. “I don’t have many friends. Most wanna use me or kill me.”
Gurral had nearly fallen asleep when he heard Chris reply, “I never had a friend who was a monster before.”
Once Gurral had passed out from the dust, Chris returned to the job of cauterizing the Smasher’s wounds. An hour later and after exhausting the fuel for the blowtorch, Chris had finally managed to close all of Gurral’s wounds. When she saw that he was done with Gurral, Kate reached out with Steel Samurai 2.0’s hand, allowing her husband to climb back into the mech.
When he reached the cockpit, he smiled and hugged his wife. “It’s over. It’s finally over. Atomic Rex is gone from our lives and our world forever.” He looked back at Gurral. “We have him to thank for it. Can you believe it? After all these years, it wasn’t luring another monster into a fight with Atomic Rex that finished him. It was working with a monster.” He shrugged. “A really smart, talking alien monster, but still a monster.”
Kate smiled. “A monster whose life you may have saved in return.” She looked down at Gurral. “It seems like Emily is right. The best way for people to survive is to find monsters that we can set up mutually beneficial relationships with.”
Chris still had his eyes fixed on Gurral. “Maybe, but Ramrod is still a wild monster. He’s just a beast that Emily managed to aim in the right direction. Gurral is so much more than that. He’s intelligent, just imagine if we could convince him to stay here? There’s plenty of giant mutants for him to eat, and just think about the protection he could offer.” Chris sighed. “I know he said he wants to retire, but believe me I know a warrior when I see one. He may be ready to retire from fighting in his arena but he’ll always be a fighter. Maybe we can give him something more meaningful to fight for.”
Kate could see hope in her husband’s eyes. Hope for a future where Gurral would fight side by side with Steel Samurai 2.0 in protecting the settlement. Hope for a future where he had a friend who was a soldier that he could relate to and share war stories with.
Kate however knew the truth. She thought that Gurral genuinely liked Chris, but she knew there was something that Gurral wanted and needed more than friendship. Before the world had ended, Kate had friends who were drug addicts. To them there was nothing that mattered in this world or any other that was more essential to them then their next fix. Gurral was clearly addicted to the dust he was using and no promise of food, friendship, or a retirement would override that addiction. Chris couldn’t see that about his new found friend at that moment. He had see
n addicts in his time in the military but he had never really interacted with them in their personal lives. He didn’t know how the drugs they were addicted to ruled their lives.
She thought about telling Chris this but when she saw the look in his eyes, she didn’t have the heart to shatter his dream. Kate never thought she’d see the day where Chris was ready to live side by side with a kaiju, let alone consider one a friend. Her husband had grown so much over the past couple of days.
Kate knew when Gurral awoke that he would make his way back to his own world in order to access more dust. She figured it was best to let Gurral himself tell Chris he was leaving then it was for her to inform him.
She smiled at her husband. “We’ll see when he wakes up. In the meantime, he’s lost a large amount of blood. Let’s fill the internal tanks with fresh water so we can give him a drink when he wakes up, otherwise he might dehydrate.”
Chris smiled and grabbed the controls of the mech. “Right. There’s a river not far from here.” He then pulled on the controls causing Steel Samurai 2.0 to take off into the sky as Gurral rested on the beach.
Chapter 20
Arena World
The crowd in the arena sat in stunned silence as Atomic Rex rose from the arena floor and made his way toward the rift that he had come through mere moments ago. They had been cheering raucously as they watched through the internal feed while Atomic Rex battled their champion, Gurral, on the alien planet. The clash between the two monsters was one of the greatest they had seen in recent memory. To add to their frenzy, the involvement of the giant robot on Gurral’s behalf had caused mass arguments as to whether Gurral or Atomic Rex had won the first encounter.
Atomic Rex: Challenge of Gurral Page 16