"The town of Ocean View in the state of Delaware,” said I. “It adjoins Bethany Beach and so is becoming quite popular in the eastern shore tourist trade.”
Dressed in my usual finery -- including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, panama hat, jungle boots, and one of my favourite opera capes -- I was driving my specially-modified canary-coloured Edwardian roadster (affectionately known as “Lizzie”) as we arrived at the edge of town.
“So this is where the UFO sightings have been reported?” queried my companion, Miss Millie Drake, from beside me in the passenger seat.
“Quite so, Mills,” I affirmed, “and our equipment back at HQ has picked up some kind of signal that indeed appears to be extraterrestrial technology.”
Millie is an exceedingly beautiful young lady, petite and perfect with luxurious chestnut hair, lovely violet eyes, and a sun-kissed complexion. The purple dress she wore only served to highlight the soft lines of her slender teenage figure.
“It’s too bad Kit-10 couldn’t come along,” said Millie in reference to our catlike mobile personal computer, “but the signal we detected would have interfered with her systems.”
“So it appears, my dear,” I replied. “The alien frequency seems to be applied to-wards the remote control of mechanical equipment.”
We had by now alighted from the vehicle, there between the outskirts of the town of Ocean View and the beach area. The sky was overcast, filled with dark, lowering clouds that foretold of a coming storm.
“But what could aliens want to do,” continued Millie Drake, “using some kind of technology at a place like this?”
“That is what we must ascertain, hmmm?” I replied. “Then we can…”
Then, my words were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a long ululating roar. Millie and I turned to the direction from which it came and beheld what appeared to be a sort of bipedal lizard, hundreds of feet tall, with a triple line of serrated spikes down its back.
“It’s Pederosis!” said Millie. “What is he doing here?”
I reached into my jacket pocket and retrieved the transonic turnscrew, an highly-advanced scientific instrument somewhat resembling a writing pen. I then used it to scan the monster from afar.
“The transonic is not affirming identity,” said I upon reading the scan results. “Something is interfering with it; likely the alien signal we detected before.”
“Daniel, look!” screamed Millie Drake. “Pederosis is attacking the town!”
As we looked on in horror, the huge green monster stalked to-wards the buildings of Ocean View and began to tear them down, then unleashing its radioactive flame-breath to start fires throughout the town. We heard the people shouting in fear and terror whilst their homes were destroyed around them.
“By the Triple Star!” I exclaimed. “This makes no sense at all. Pederosis is the friend and guardian of Earth, one of the ancient Kaiju who has defended the human race many times from invasions and other horrors.”
“Then why would he do this, Daniel?” cried Millie. “Why?!” …
My name is Doctor Daniel Rumanos. I carry within my blood the vastly superior genes of the legendary Watchers of Algol, the most intellectually advanced race in all of the known galaxies, whose technology is so sophisticated it often appears to be miraculous to lesser beings.
Whilst most Algolites live in elitist seclusion from the rest of the Universe, I am an operative for an organisation known as the KOSMIKOS. Assisted by the beautiful Miss Millie Drake, I protect Earth from all manner of menace. I am -- The Daemon-Star!!! …
As we watched in horror, the monster continued its destructive path through the town of Ocean View, destroying buildings with its mighty claws and crushing automobiles beneath its gigantic feet.
“Daniel,” continued Millie Drake, “what could have turned Pederosis against the human race? Why would he do these terrible things?”
“I have a feeling, my dear Millie,” I rejoined, “that things are not exactly as they seem. Look!”
In the sky above us, a spaceship had appeared. It was black in hue and quite large, a gruesome hovering sphere far up just below the clouds in which it had been hiding. Then there was a voice, a deep tone emanating from the ship.
“People of Earth,” it said, “we are the inhabitants of the seventh planet of the Nigrescent Nebula. We are superior to you and have come to claim our domination over your world, as we have others. The monster is under our control. Its destruction of these habitations is a demonstration. We now demand that the governments of your planet surrender to us immediately. Failure to do so will result in our sending the monster to similarly destroy the very centres of your worldwide municipalities.”
“Daniel, it’s an invasion,” cried Millie, “and the aliens have control of Pederosis!”
I pondered deeply, and raised the transonic turnscrew upwards to-wards the alien spaceship. I managed to achieve a brief scan of it before it retreated into the clouds.
“According to the transonic, their systems are indeed in control of the monster,” I said. “The aliens are humanoid but have a sort of collective consciousness by which they have achieved interstellar travel. The same consciousness is in control of the signal controlling the monster’s attack.”
“Is there anything you can do to jam it?” enquired Millie.
“Not at the moment,” I admitted. “The combined alien consciousness is too focused upon it. Now, perhaps if we can get them to…”
“Daniel, look!” suddenly interrupted Millie. “Out at sea!”
I whirled around and beheld, in the Atlantic Ocean beyond the beach, a tremendous spray of surf from which appeared… an huge bipedal lizard, green of colour and thickly-muscled, and with a triple row of serrated spikes down his back. His subtly-slanted eyes bespoke of a keen intelligence. As we watched, he waded ashore with a mighty roar of challenge.
“Another Pederosis?!” wondered Millie Drake.
“The real Pederosis!” I affirmed upon scanning him. “He has awakened from his slumber at the bottom of the sea and has come to defend Earth from the aliens and the monster that they control.”
“So the monster that attacked the town is an alien copy of Pederosis?” asked Millie. “It’s just a duplicate of some kind?”
“So it appears,” I agreed. “Look!”
As we watched, the real Pederosis came ashore and stepped upon the sands. The few beachgoers who had been there on that cloudy day had already fled in terror, and so Pederosis crossed the beach quickly and approached the town of Ocean View.
The monster that had been wreaking destruction then turned to face Pederosis and, with mutual roars of defiance, the two titans hurried to-wards each other to clash in one incredible battle!
Pederosis against… Pederosis?! That was the strange sight that Millie Drake and I had before us, that fateful day under the cloudy sky there at the town of Ocean View, Delaware. We watched in wonder as the two monsters, in all points identical of appearance, clashed in what amounted to a mighty battle for the ages.
Then something happened of extreme grotesquery, forsooth something that indeed managed to solve a certain mystery, but that in doing so also opened the way of our knowledge of even further eldritch horrors from beyond all sane reality. For at that time, when the two monsters had moved a few steps away from each other in their fight and Pederosis then utilised this opportunity to unleash a blast of his own fire-like radiation breath at his foe, it happened.
The radiation burned long on the other monster, covering it completely until, when it finally cleared, we saw that what had appeared to be the monster’s skin had burned away to reveal its true form. It was still in the shape of Pederosis, but was made of a shiny metallic material, its torso and limbs and joints and head all of mechanical and advanced technological aspect.
“Daniel, look at that!” exclaimed Millie Drake. “The other Pederosis is really… a robot!”
“Of course!” I exclaimed. “The aliens have created a mechanical duplicate of Pederosis in order to terrorise the planet Earth! It is… Robopederosis!”
“So that explains the qualities of the signal we detected,” added Millie.
“Quite so,” I agreed. “The alien signal is indeed being used to control a mechanical device -- the robotic monster itself!”
The two monsters then again clashed -- Pederosis against Robopederosis! In sooth, the heroic giant lizard fought hard and mighty against the mechanical terror, but it seemed that absolutely every attack he could muster was immediately defended by a similar one from the giant robot. From his radioactive breath to whipping tale, the horror known as Robopederosis duplicated perfectly every battle ability of Pederosis himself!
“Daniel, what can we do?” enquired Millie Drake. “What can we do to help Pederosis defeat Robopederosis, and to save the planet Earth from the invasion?”
“If there were only some way we could shut down the signal from the alien ship,” I pondered. “It might not stop Robopederosis completely, but it would hinder the preciseness of his movements, which are only so fast and certain due to their control from the combined alien minds.”
“But to do that we would have to get on board the spaceship,” replied Millie. “Wouldn’t that be too dangerous?”
“Perhaps not,” I returned. “Their minds are so occupied in controlling the robotic monster that we might be able to do some stealth damage before our presence is even noticed.”
Miss Millie Drake and I then suddenly noticed a disturbance in the air near by to our location. From a shimmering light, there suddenly appeared a trio of figures before us. They were shaped like humans, but both their metallic clothing and skin were of absolute ebony black, their eyes a dark crimson red. One of them spoke.
“You have been identified as Algolitish agents,” it said in its deep alien voice. “Your presence here is unacceptable. You must be destroyed.”
Then the alien invader produced a type of advanced handgun and shot a ray of deadly laser-light directly at us!
In matter of truth, it was only our superior Algolitish speed and reflexes that even barely allowed Millie Drake and me to evade the deadly ray of light fired at us from the alien gun. We both dodged quickly to the side and, before the invaders could again fire upon us, I had raised the transonic turnscrew to-wards them and then activated it. With this, the shimmering effect appeared again, and the three aliens immediately vanished from view.
“They utilised a matter transit beam to come down from their ship,” I explained. “Fortunately, I managed to use the transonic in order to reverse its polarity and send them back. Their attempt against us finished, they should return to the connected consciousness of the other aliens in controlling the robotic monster. Now, if I can just utilise the transonic again to catch hold of the residual power of the transmission, we can… Ah, here we go!”
When the transonic turnscrew had hit the proper frequency, the shimmering light of the matter transmission beam surrounded Millie and me and, within a mere second of the passing of time, we disappeared from the beach area. …
We then, an instant later, found ourselves on board the alien spaceship. As I had deduced, the aliens paid no attention to us, all being huddled as they were around a central control system, utilising their combined mind power in order to control the monstrous mechanical horror known as Robopederosis. A series of view screens around the perimeter of the area showed in detail the battle of the titans that was transpiring below us.
“So how are we going to do this?” whispered Millie. “The aliens are in complete control of the systems both of the ship and of the robotic monster.”
“For the moment they are,” I replied. “If we can somehow distract them without attracting too much attention to ourselves, or…”
“Daniel, look,” suddenly interrupted my companion. “On the screen.”
“By Daemonia!” I swore under my breath at what I beheld. “It is worse than we thought. Robopederosis has powers of which we did not even suspect…”
It was indeed the fight between the monsters that we saw on the alien view-screens, a fight that had continued to rage on there on the outskirts of the town of Ocean View in the state of Delaware on that strange and eventful day. It was a fight that had by now begun to take quite a negative turn for our giant lizard friend. …
For some time, the fight had continued to be an apparently equal match between Pederosis and Robopederosis. Whatever the giant lizard could do against his foe, the mechanical horror could duplicate, and vice versa. Nevertheless, eventually a new element added to the confrontation, an element that threatened to destroy the mighty Pederosis forever.
Suddenly, Robopederosis had begun to emit a powerful jet propulsion system from the heels of its metallic feet, a mighty force of energy and movement that began to propel his entire metallic form directly upwards. At the same time, the horrid robotic terror suddenly reached out and grabbed Pederosis, then lifting the giant lizard off the ground before the latter could even react -- and heading with him to-wards the sky!
Up an up and up they went, upwards to the very edge of the dark clouds that hung in that stormy midday sky. Then -- so incredibly horrifying to relate! -- Robopederosis simply dropped Pederosis from that great height!
Then, as Pederosis fell, several bolts of lightning from the growing storm hit him directly -- hitting him hard and loud with all the power of nature’s own force of electricity . When the giant heroic monster known as Pederosis reached the ground, the lightning continued to play and crackle and roll around his now motionless form!!
My dear friends and most appreciated readers, do you even commence to recognise the horror -- forsooth the supreme and ungodly terror of this grotesque situation? The metal monster known as Robopederosis had apparently vanquished the mighty Pederosis. The heroic giant lizard who had in the past saved the world from so many horrors now lay apparently dead or dying, surrounded by flashes of lightning. …
“Daniel,” said Millie as we watched on the view screen from inside the alien ship, “Pederosis is dying!”
“Perhaps not, my dear Mills,” I responded. “Look!”
As we watched on the screen, the bolts of lightning continued to roll around the form of Pederosis, but it became obvious that they were now beginning to heal rather than injure him. Within a few moments, he had regained his feet, and the lightning had become a constant glow that surrounded and energised his form.
“So the lightning is actually helping Pederosis?” queried my companion.
“Quite so,” I affirmed. “It has healed and re-energised him and has becoming a power that he can use.” …
Outside, Pederosis had turned to directly face the robotic terror. As the lightning played about his massive form of Pederosis, his foe then suddenly started to be drawn to-wards him. In truth, Robopederosis found itself being taken to-wards the giant lizard as if by a magnet. …
“Pederosis has turned the lightning into an electromagnetic field,” I explained. “The metallic monster is defenceless against it.” …
Pederosis had now drawn the helpless Robopederosis completely to himself and he then reached out and, with a mighty effort, managed to tear the mechanical horror’s head from its metal body. …
“The aliens will be distracted now,” I said, “since they have lost control of Robopederosis. Now is our chance!”
I aimed the transonic to-wards one of the spaceship’s mechanisms and activated a certain setting.
“That will initiate a self-destruct sequence,” I explained. “We only have a few seconds. Hold on, Millie!”
I then aimed my device to another mechanism and, a moment later, the shimmering glow of the matter transit beam surrounded Millie Drake and me as we vanished from the ship. …
We reappeared below, just in time to see the end of the battle of monsters. Pederosis tore off the robotic horror’s mechanical head, and then threw it far from them. Then he proceeded to wreck the metallic body of Robopederosis.
“Pederosis has won!” cheered Millie.
“And that is not all,” I added. “Look at the spaceship!”
As we watched, the alien ship burst into flames, soon burning into total non-existence. The same thing happened to the remains of Robopederosis, and within moments the mechanical monstrosity was no more.
“It’s the sabotage you did on the ship!” Millie Drake said.
“Quite so,” I affirmed. “The self-destruct I triggered via the transonic destroyed the ship and took the remains of Robopederosis with it.”
Then, as we watched, the mighty Pederosis -- the electrical glow having now faded from him -- turned his face to-wards the sky and let forth with a tremendous roar that seemed to cause even the very air to tremble.
“It is his roar of victory,” I explained, “and also of warning to any and all that would think of attacking the planet.”
Pederosis then turned and moved across the beach to the ocean.
“So, where will he go now?” asked Millie.
“He will return to his ages-long slumber at the bottom of the sea -- until he is once again needed.”
“Goodbye, Pederosis!” waved Millie Drake. “Thank you so much for being our friend!”
Then, with a final roar of triumph, the mighty Pederosis swam out to sea.
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
