Bikini Kaiju - Ch 9

**First up Happy Easter everyone! And second, things are kicking off in this chapter! With advance apologies that this chaos is something of a two-parter...**

Steel Ruth and Ramona Dynamite were in their cups when the alert came through for another kaiju attack. Ash had endured a nightmare as the pair drank heavily from tankers of what smelled like pure alcohol, becoming slowly inebriated and talking nonsense about old times. Ramona managed to draw occasional smiles and even laughs from Ruth, an unlikely and rare thing, and they bumped into each other, with a closeness of old friends, which would almost have been touching if not for the box of people they shared between them. The Sin Sierra had collected it from her thundercraft and revealed a screaming litany of captives who they occasionally plucked up and toyed with. They talked and drank as Ramona dangled someone from her fingers, pulling at their limbs or idly squeezing, occasionally chewing on them like she might a pencil. Occasionally she’d swallow them, and occasionally Ruth would reach over and take one for herself. All of their victims begged and struggled, which only made the giant women distractedly laugh, if they noticed at all. Ash, however, was somehow protected in all this, variously clutched in Ruth’s thick, sweaty grip or dumped nearby only to be picked up again if she tried to move. It was a drawn-out and pointless evening, people dying before her eyes as the Sentinels relaxed.

Ash was thankful when the alert came, though she scolded herself for it, knowing what it must mean. It had a quick sobering effect on both giantesses, who leaned in to check Ruth’s alert system and swore together. Ash heard the name before she saw the images herself. The Sheerwolf.

“Well, it’s been fun,” Ramona sighed, standing unsteadily. “But I guess we’re needed. Want to join my ride?”

“It take two of us?”

Ramona snorted and shrugged, not sobered that much after all, and she half-stumbled out of the valley, crunching trees underfoot and knocking the tip off a small hill. Ruth cringed at the sight and told her off, but followed with little more grace. As she swept by Ash, her hand fell down. Ash shrieked and tried to crawl out of the way. Massive fingers curled her back into the fist and she was hefted into the sky before being shoved into a cave of cotton, tumbling into Ruth’s pocket. She bounced against the woman’s thigh as Ruth strode after Ramona, saying, “Got my good luck charm.”

A big hand patted Ash from outside, smooshing her briefly, and her captor laughed, approaching the stirring thundercraft. They got inside with the engines noisily coming to life, and Ash swayed in the pocket as Ruth sat down, commenting “Practically luxury compared to the monster jet.”

Ramona scolded her for not having her own one and Ash tried to picture the vehicle outside, the vast helicopter with its upright chamber big enough for a goddess. Two goddesses, even. They soon lifted off with slurred talk of looking forward to a good fight, like drunks distracted by a new and novel idea that would fill them with regrets tomorrow, and Ash’s mind went instead to where they were headed.

The Sheerwolf. The Luprime Kaiju.

It was impossible to rank the Great Eight, for all the terrible and varied damage they had done through the years, but it was generally agreed that if the monsters had any kind of hierarchy, the Sheerwolf stood at the top. He was the most intelligent, agile and vicious of the kaiju, not just a relentless force of nature but one that plotted and schemed. The others mostly attacked out of primal rage and need, either to eat or to carve out territory. Luprime had more complex motives, often involving pure cruelty. And here Ash was, trapped in the pocket of one of the planet’s protectors, a giantess who had come close to death at the hands of this monster more than once in the past, who was not so fit or even fully cogent right now.

Decades of failed experiments had followed the emergence of the Bikini Sentinels, with the world’s leading scientists competing to be the next to crack the secrets of the giants. These varied from twisted bio-engineered nightmares to mechanical monstrosities, sucking in huge levels of funds and frequently leading to disasters of their own. Usually the projects failed and their facilities imploded, but sometimes the very things they were trying to create turned out to be (surprise!) more dangerous than the things they intended to fight. Of all these experiments, right through to the establishment of the World Unity Initiative in 1986 and its stringent regulations, only two projects showed any signs of genuine promise. The first was the much-celebrated but ill-fated Boy Titan squad, and the second, whose legacy lasted much longer, had the diabolical result of unleashing Luprime Sheerwolf upon the world.

The Sheerwolf was the only kaiju of human origin, once a man, now fused with wolf and grown to unthinkable proportions. The product of rogue Soviet engineering, conducted in a gulag that appeared in no written records, this monster had first appeared in ’84, ripping his way through Moscow and giving some credence to the Russian Premier’s claims that they themselves had not condoned the experiments. It had taken the combined efforts of all the Sentinels to drive the Luprime Kaiju off – and even then he had reappeared and fought them in fierce duels over a period of twenty years before they finally subdued him, with the help of the Chinese disaster robot, Chrome Angel, to put him on ice with the rest of the Great Eight.

But apparently that wasn’t the end of it. Just a hiatus.

“We might get there first, if we’re lucky,” Ramona called out, over the thundercraft’s roar. “If the others are coming down from Alaska, not much distance in it.”

“Only about twice as far for us,” Ruth replied.

“Is it?” Ramona exclaimed. “Why the hell do you live so far away?”

“Because I’ve had enough of all this shit!”

They started laughing together, not fully serious.

Ash slid down into the warmth of Ruth’s pocket, wishing this would end. But they were returning to America at least. Maybe there’d be a way out there. In the middle of a battle against the Sheerwolf… It wasn’t much of a hope.

***

Sheerwolf launched himself out of the San Francisco Bay for a classic bridge entrance. He clutched two of the tall pylons with his vast clawed hands and heaved, rending the metal down and springing his hinged haunches up onto the road. It barely held him, cracking and splitting under the weight of his lane-sized paws, but he was lithe, careful in how he distributed himself not to utterly wreck everything before the fun had begun. Cars and trucks swerved and screeched beneath him, slamming into the barriers and each other, a couple hitting him and crumpling. In the instant gridlock, doors were thrown open and the little bugs spilt out of their vehicles to run screaming in both directions, as Sheerwolf bent back, tilted his snout to the sky and howled.

 Iconic, they would call it – there were certain images carved in the popular psyche that just screamed kaiju, and scaling the Golden Gate Bridge was up there with Ocean Ape climbing the Empire State Building or Spidalien webbing the Petronas Towers. San Francisco itself was a popular site for attack, with its accessible position, varied landscape and high concentration of pompous targets. Something about the fear of the rich and righteous just tasted better. And they kept coming back – that made it even better. San Francissssco, Sheerwolf could roll the hissed sound around his mouth, delicious. San Francisco III, he saw a boastful brass sign announcing on the riverside. Three times they had rebuilt this city, not including partial repairs, in defiance of many other cities which had crumbled and died after attacks. No refugee cities for these stubborn little pretty folk. San Threesco, some were actually calling it now, bastardised into Freesco, like that meant something. But this had to be the seventh or eighth iteration of the bridge, at least. Sheerwolf had broken it before, and Tentacular had torn it to ribbons more than once.

It flexed under him as he pivoted, aiming towards the city proper. Already he could see the streets filling with terrified people, panicking, frantic as those around his paws. The destruction of crashing cars before he’d even started. He bent low, saliva dripping from his long snout with anticipation. Yes. Yessss. He watched for a moment longer, the streams of ant-like humans pushing through the mess of cars as the road split in fissures around them. A chunk of bridge fell off, taking a van and a couple of people with it.

Sheerwolf swiped down, raking his great hand across the bridge to fling vehicles away to the bay with a sprinkling of twirling people. He brought the hand back and landed it heavily on the road, claws spread so his pads flattened another group of fleeing fools. The other hand came down and he curled it around the next group, crunching together people and cars into one mess which he thrust into his panting mouth. Feeling them rolling over his tongue, into his teeth, he narrowed his eyes to the city ahead. Enough for an appetiser. Time for the real fun.

It had been so long. They would suffer for what they put him through.

Swallowing with a few savage snaps, the Luprime hunched up, in a coiled crouch, then sprang forward, moving on all fours. The bridge wasn’t really wide enough for him, shattering and splitting with his padding movements, vehicles and people squishing and cables snapping – but he was fast, out-pacing the destruction, and he burst out from the mess just as it collapsed, roaring to tear up into the buildings. His jump took him over the piers, over the first few blocks, to smash bodily down through towers, dusting them as he skidded, tearing up roads, and he turned to survey his new playground. As he twisted, though, he saw a huge dark shape descending far across the horizon. A flying vehicle big enough for a giant.

He stood on his hind legs, snout stretching to a savage grin. Yes. They would come, the frail women he had fought before. He would have his revenge, even quicker than he had expected. He rolled his immense shoulders, watching the vehicle land. Its roaring engines trembled the city, though, and blocked out the sound of another approach, until it was right upon him. Turning at the last second, Sheerwolf saw a giant running in big strides down the harbour. The same moment, her fist came swinging, catching him full in the side of the head and throwing him back with immense force.

Sheerworlf, the Luprime, was thrown back a couple of steps, head reeling, and he snarled ferociously as he steadied himself. He hadn’t fallen, but that was a hell of a punch and she’d come so fast, unseen. He glowered at her as she took up a fighting stance, fists raised. This one was new. Fresh meat. But that was okay.

All the more for him to kill.

She came at him again, bringing in a low punch to distract him the same time that she turned to the side, signalled by the move of her hip, foot twisting. Might’ve fooled a slower monster, but he was the damned Luprime. He took the punch in his side, absorbing the blow, and brought his claws up to the side, catching the giantess as her leg came up in a powerful but predictable knee attack. One claw blocked that as the other caught hold of her shoulder. He used her own momentum, spinning, and released her to fly through the nearest towers, two fifteen-storey buildings that came apart around her twisting shoulders. He sliced his claws down as she passed, drawing blood and a terrible, surprised cry from her. Not waiting for her to land, Sheerwolf jumped after her, catching her with two paws and slamming down, his weight and hers combining to break through three of the city’s most densely packed blocks, a quake that rattled the hills and threw waves up through the bay. Rubble exploded around them in a huge cloud, countless people squashed under their fall, and Luprime sprang off her, through the darkness, back into the open. As she lay groaning, he skidded across another busy road and turned to the massive vehicle that had descended. He could’ve laughed at the figure on the horizon.

The dark one, the beast of the pack. Washington Fury stood at the top of the hill, waiting for him to see her. She bore her teeth in a snarl, and he showed off his. Much bigger, much sharper. They needed no words – he bounced off the road in a great leap towards her.