GIGANTES, THE FIRE MONSTER

Prologue

It had been eight months since the first onslaught.

Tokyo was being rebuilt better than before. Dr. Yamane sat in his chair, looking at a picture of his daughter, Emiko, and her new husband, Ogata. He thought of the events of the past few months; Dr. Serizawa's death, the destruction of Tokyo, Godzilla's demise.

Steve Martin had gone back to his own country after his amazing survival of Godzilla's second attack. Emiko and Ogata had wed shortly after Tokyo had been leveled, and Emiko was expecting a child in six month's time. He looked forward to his grandchild's birth.

He was still musing as the phone rang. He went to answer it. "Hello?....yes. This is Yamane, how can I be of service to you?...What? Hai, I'll be there, yes, sayonara." He quickly replaced the phone in its cradle, hurriedly packed a bag, and was out the door.


The roar of the plane overhead quickly dispelled the peaceful silence of the ocean scene. Tsukioka, the plane's pilot, had been looking for schools of fish from overhead. He worked for a canning factory and relayed the coordinates to the fishing fleet.

With him in a separate plane was his longtime friend Kobayashi. Kobayashi's plane began to have trouble, and he was forced to make an emergency landing on the taboo, forbidding Iwato island. Tsukioka follows him there in order to pick him up, where he finds his friend nursing an injured wrist. As Tsukioka and Kobayashi are trying to dry their flight jackets, and discussing women, they are rudely interrupted by a loud scream. They find out very quickly that they are not alone on the island!

Two monsters are having it out. One had a back full of spikes and walked on all fours; the other looked a lot like the monster that had destroyed Tokyo. The two went back and forth; it was obvious to Tsukioka that they had absolutely no love between them. Finally, the dueling pair fell off a cliff into the ocean below. They still fought underwater, stirring the ocean into a bubbling jacuzzi.

The two men manage to take the opportunity and escape in Tsuki's plane. They dropped everything and hurried to the police and the authorities, who had them go through pictures of prehistoric creatures. Kobayashi spots a picture that resembled closely the spiked monster; which is then identified as "Angorusaurus." or "Angorus" for short. The other monster received the name "Gigantes."

All eyes in the room focus on Dr. Yamane, who had just arrived fresh from Tokyo. He explained to them that what happened to Tokyo could very well happen to Osaka. He then told them the bad news: there had been only one Oxygen Destroyer and its inventor had not only died but destroyed the formula. He then suggested that the monsters could be led off shore using bright flares. The military was sent out to keep track of Gigantes.

It was reported that Gigantes might possibly hit the Shikoku-Kishu area instead of Osaka. The people of Osaka strike up a party in their relief. Unfortunately, their festivities and the accompanying neon advertising lights has attracted a much bigger clientele! So off go the lights and everyone runs and hides. The planes drop their flares in an attempt to lead Gigantes away from Osaka...which works until they hit an unforeseen snag.
A truck carrying a group of violent criminals is escorting them to safety when the men conspire to escape. They break out of the truck after subduing the guard. Several of them seize a gasoline truck and attempt to outrun the police who are chasing them with Tsukioka driving. The truck crashes and explodes, creating a huge fire.

Out of the corner of its huge reptilian eyeball, Gigantes notices this fireball and decides, "to hell with the flares. I'm going ashore!" The creature comes ashore and begins to tear up the city. Shortly afterward, its spiked nemesis makes an appearance, and the two start going at it again. Angorus is eventually killed by Gigantes' sharp teeth severing its spinal cord and a blast of Gigantes' killer breath. After defeating its prickly foe, Gigantes disappears.

Tsukioka is transferred to Hokkaido to help with the fishing cannery there. His girlfriend, Hidemi, surprises him by radioing him. They go out to dinner that evening. During the festivities, they hear bad news: one of the boats has been sunk by Gigantes.

The Defense Forces are deployed to hunt Gigantes down. Gigantes retreats to a snowy island. In an attempt to intimidate the monster by dive-bombing it, Kobayashi is wiped out by Gigantes' radioactive breath. Vowing revenge for his friend's death, Tsukioka returns to the island in a Defense Forces jet. He leads the squadron in an avalanche attack on Gigantes, burying it in ice and snow.

The end is a startling one, and vastly different from that of the first one: Tsukioka goes back to Hidemi and spends a romantic evening with her...staring at the moon. Aaaaahhhh....

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