Big Fire’s underwater base was an ongoing construction project, it seemed like Emperor Guillotine was always finding new things he needed the base to do. It had started with his starship, landed on the seafloor the cigar-shaped vessel greatly resembled a World War 2 era submarine, with bulges at the sides, a wedge-shaped nose, conical aft section, and a short command tower about halfway down its length on the dorsal. There were no obvious external weapons, though if one looked closely concealed missile launchers could be seen in the bulges on its sides. From there, Guillotine had expansions built up connecting to the ship’s airlocks, small pods at first, to produce oxygen, food, electricity. But these eventually proved inadequate and so tough tunnels were added connecting the pods to each other and to new, squat blocks. The blocks housed the new human recruits, ammunition supplies, communication arrays, and computer mainframes. For thirty years Guillotine had been preparing for his conquest of Earth, he was a patient sentient after all, and over all that time his starship had been slowly transformed into an underwater city. There were currently nearly 1000 permanent residents with a capacity to house up to 1500 more comfortably for a year. The construction was funded largely by theft and piracy, well concealed for most of Guillotine’s campaign, but recently his accelerated timetables attracted inevitable attention, and he knew now as he looked out from his command tower over his city, that sooner or later the humans would locate him. Therefore, the base was obsolete, and he would need to relocate.
To that end, his guest was summoned. Currently at his normal size, Konga the gorilla stood across the desk from his paymaster. “So, in return for the growth serum you require, I want you to dig out this space under Mount Kinpu.” As he says this Guillotine points to a blueprint on the wall behind him, “You will carve out this space and once finished we will provide you with sufficient serum to last the rest of your life.”
The gorilla grunted and snorted something that sounded disagreeable.
“I understand your concerns, but the volcano IS extinct. You will simply have to break through the outer shell of rock to expose the former magma chambers for us to build in. The task will be time consuming, but not dangerous.”
Again, the simian seemed to have an issue with the project, huffing and snorting his displeasure.
“You will not receive a combat bonus for a construction contract in which combat is neither expected nor desired. You negotiated these terms weeks ago. Do you wish to buy out of the contract? You are almost out of the growth serum the late Dr. Decker came up with. Perhaps you wish to finally go into rehab and quit cold turkey?”
The gorilla stiffened, rigid, and fiercely angry at the barb. The insult was great. But despite his dependence, Konga still retained his intelligence and at least some dignity. Realizing that without a method of gainful employment and a source of the serum it would be a short trip to an honorless, ignominious death, Konga knew he could not now back out of his deal with Guillotine. Besides, the alien had been good to him over the last five years. He had fulfilled completely every promise on his end of the contracts, and Konga could not fault him for that, or use it as an excuse to quit now. This last job would provide him with enough serum for the rest of his expected 40 years of life. A life he would spend wrecking the Empire that had treated him so poorly after that fool mad scientist had manipulated and forced him into a murderous crime spree that ended with Konga nearly dead. Soon, full sized, and full of rage, he would return to the British Isles and have his vengeance!
Konga finally agreed, giving Guillotine a salute, he left the office bound for the long dead volcano. He would dig around in the dirt for a month or so and then get back on with his life!
As soon as Konga was gone a Big Fire engineer stepped out of a hidden alcove in the office, “Sir, once again I feel I must point out that just using a standard mining machine would be much more efficient,” but he was cut off by Guillotine.
“Nonsense. Everyone knows using a giant ape is better!”
“Sir, I am an engineer, we use math, and you know, facts. Not opinions.”
“Look if a giant ape was good enough for that evil doctor, one should be good enough for me too!”
“Who?”
“Yes, that’s the one.”
“Who?”
“Exactly, he was an evil doctor one could admire.”
“What doctor, who are you talking about?”
“No, not the time traveler, the other one.”
The engineer by now looked about ready to pull his own hair out. “Fine. I’ll just go work on the Death Star plans some more.”
Miles away, on the island of Skikoku, Koko Sokko was led up to Unicorn’s main headquarters. Today she was wearing a cream-colored one-piece outfit, relatively free of lace, the skirt featured an extra bottom section in white and there is a white leather belt. It featured long sleeves, still puffy at the shoulder, with white cuffs and collar. Her necklace sported a large cross attached by a second length of chain to an aquamarine-colored rose about the size of a half dollar. She was wearing thigh high stockings in white with lace tops and matching garters, her shoes were white flats secured with white ribbon wrapping up her legs to mid-shin. Her hair was still in twin tails, but was back to its natural black color, the tails were tied with aquamarine-colored balls, and her ever present parasol was the same cream color with a white handle. The building looked like a horribly old fashioned “futuristic” complex probably designed in the 1960’s as some kind of new age shopping center. Koko wore a look of disappointment with the place and even Mamoru eventually took notice. “Look Koko, it’s not as bad on the inside as it looks from the outside. We’ve got the best Wi-Fi on the island, and the Rec Room has a flat screen TV that’s two meters tall! You’ll love it!”
Unconvinced, Koko allowed herself to be led inside, but Mamoru’s hand strayed just a little too low on her back, resulting in a pinch to his bicep that left a nasty bruise. “Oh, are you into th-”
But before he could complete his sentence and probably earn a swift beating, the leader of Unicorn appeared. He was a man seemingly in his early 50’s, good physical condition, but his hair was greying and starting to get thinner. He wore the awful, awful, Unicorn official uniform: brown khaki pants and jacket (with a vaguely military look), heavy duty steel toed boots, and overly large black leather gloves, plus a Unicorn insignia on his left breast. “Enough goofing off Mamoru, nice to meet you Ms. Sokko. My name is Shinichi Okagawa; I am the leader of Unicorn.”
“Nice to meet you Mr. Okagawa,” she replied as she shook his hand. “Thank you for agreeing to take my baby in.”
Okagawa laughed a little, “We’ll take good care of him for you. In fact, we’ve already begun to analyze the robot and are formulating a training regimen to teach you what we’ve already learned about it.”
“Can I see him soon,” she asked.
“Of course but first let’s find you a room to stay in while you are here, my assistant Ms. Hayashibara will show you the way,” he turned and indicated a woman about his own age. She had a regal, dignified bearing and was dressed in an impeccable business suit. She nodded to Koko, extending her own hand as well in a friendly greeting.
“Nice to meet you Ms. Sokko, if you’ll follow me,” she turned to lead Koko down a hall to the women’s’ dorms.
Ms. Hayashibara opened the door and stepped into a fairly functional, if plain, studio style apartment room. “There is a kitchen, bathroom with a shower, a laundry room, and a separate bedroom; we have provided some basic furnishings, but nothing to extravagant as you can see. We didn’t expect you would be spending a great deal of time here.” There was a TV, but no game systems or computers, a microwave oven, a nice refrigerator. Koko disappeared into the bathroom, returning a minute or so later after having looked in on everything she considered important. “Thank you! It is more than adequate. I can always bring in some of my own touches later” she replied with a genuine smile.
“Would you like to see your robot now,” Ms. Hayashibara asked.
“Oh yes. Please!”
Koko was led by Ms. Hayashibara to the hangar, a huge facility capable of holding the largest aircraft ever built. Currently, it housed only the giant robot which was lying flat on its back on a huge, tracked, trailer platform. Ms. Hayashibara led Koko to a mountain of a man with wild red hair and a full beard and piercing green eyes, who was barking scathing commands at his subordinates in English so heavily accented it was difficult to understand him, overall, his angry visage made him appear quite mad. Naturally, as a Chief Engineer, he was Scottish.
“Ah, Good day Mr. Wallace, how is the work on the robot going,” Ms. Hayashibara asked.
The man with his wild, mad eyes rounded on her, seemingly with a mass of aggression, “OH HELLO MS HAYASHIBARA. THE WORK IS PROCEEDIN’ AHEAD OV SCHEDULE, WE’VE ALREADY COMPLETED THE SCANS OV THE ROBOT’S INNARDS AN’ THE LADS ARE WORKIN’ ON A TRAINING PROGRAM RIGHT NOW.” Though his speech was delivered in an extremely loud voice, it was surprisingly polite. “IS THIS THE YOUNG MISS KOKO???”
Koko, surprised by the man’s volume and somewhat frightened of his appearance, shrank back from him until Ms. Hayashibara spoke to her, “Don’t be afraid Dear, Mr. Wallace was in a tragic unfreezing accident with experimental suspended animation technology and cannot control the volume of his voice.”
The man’s countenance softened immediately, as he leaned in closer to the girl, “Aye Missy, please forgive me, I haven’t been able to do anything about it since I was thawed. That pompous, oversexed, British twat got over it, but I never have. Oh good, I’m back to normal.”
Koko shook the man’s hand. “Uh, nice to meet you. You’ll be handling the robot’s repairs and stuff, right?”
Wallace straightened himself to his full height, towering nearly a full meter over Koko, “Aye. Whenever, there’s a problem, just come to us.”
Koko reached into a pocket and pulled out a stack of pages, “I have some ideas, would you mind?”
With a puzzled look Wallace took the pages from her and began looking at them, flipping slowly from one to the next, and occasionally going back to previous pages as he scanned the documents, finally he spoke, “I can see that you aND I WILL GET ALONG FINE!!!” He clasped his arm around Koko and pulled her into a jovial hug laughing heartily as the smaller girl was pulled around like a ragdoll by his bulk.
Meanwhile at Mount Kinpu, the gigantic form of Konga was digging away at volcanic rock with his bare hands. The giant ape’s titanic strength pulverized tons of super hard material throwing huge heaps of rubble behind him. Konga had found a fault in the rock early on was concentrating his efforts on it; already he had bored through nearly 100 meters of stone. According to his briefing he should be nearly halfway through.
Big Fire engineer Tomlinson witnessed the enormous primate’s efforts from a safe distance through a pair of binoculars, “It’s taken him this long to go about 100 meters. A digging machine would be much faster.”
Standing beside him was another engineer named Frederich, “Yeah but Guillotine insisted. Maybe when he said ‘more efficient’ he wasn’t talking about the time factor.”
Tomlinson put down his binoculars, “Hmmn, what do you mean?”
Frederich answered, “Well think about it, a mining machine requires a higher financial investment. You got to buy the machine, then provide it with a constant power supply or fuel. It needs maintenance, a crew to operate it. Konga just needs his drug to get big, and food when he shrinks, and us to make sure he’s on schedule. And honestly, one of us could do that job, all in all a significantly smaller investment in capital and effort.”
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Tomlinson looked at his partner for a few moments. After a while he turned back to Konga, “You might be right, but I still think a machine is more reliable, the results are more controllable. When Konga’s full size he can do what he damn well pleases and what could we do about it if he refused to follow the architectural drawings?”
Frederich ‘clucked’ his tongue, “True, but he has been very reliable throughout his employment, we’ve never had that kind of problem before. You’re basically saying, ‘humans are unreliable; we should replace them all with machines.”
“We should,” Tomlinson answered instantly.
“Your wife replaced you with a machine you know.”
Tomlinson doesn’t answer; he just flinched as if struck by a fist.
For the next several weeks Koko spent her time training in a simulator learning the giant robot’s weapons and other abilities. Meanwhile, the robot itself was undergoing modifications. Koko’s ideas included repainting the intimidating looking machine into something “cuter” to appease her sensibilities. The first change was to repaint the machine white and pink.
But where Koko would have been satisfied there, lead engineer Wallace continued to modify and tinker with the robot. The robot was shrouded from view by huge curtains while crews worked round-the-clock behind the curtains intensely.
At Mount Kinpu, Konga hauled back his massive, battered fist and threw a powerful punch! Finally, the wall of volcanic rock crumbled and an open space could be seen beyond.
“He’s finally through,” Tomlinson exclaimed!
“Thank Christ, I thought we’d be here till next year,” answered Frederich.
The two men descended the ladder from their observation post to ground level and walked over towards Konga who had taken a short break after his exertions and was breathing heavily.
Tomlinson raised a bullhorn to his mouth, “Konga, you alright? Need some water or something?”
The great beast looked down at the tiny human. He liked these two; they were very responsible, reliable men. They insured the water piped in for him was fresh and chilled just the way he liked it. Konga had worked with observers before who did not go to the effort. The ape flashed them an “OK” sign and began lifting large boulders from the rubble pile in front of him, clearing the path for smaller machines to enter so Big Fire could begin construction on the new base.
As Konga resumed work Tomlinson turned to Frederich, “Well, he’s done it.”
“Yes, too bad. Konga is pretty loyal and useful. But the cost-benefit analysis just doesn’t support keeping him on. I kind of feel bad the boss decided to betray him. Start feeding the hallucinogen into the water tap” Frederich replied.
“Yeah, too bad, he’s a stand-up guy, uh, gorilla.” Tomlinson turned to a control panel and flipped a red switch. The switch released a chemical from a storage tank into Konga’s water supply, within seconds, even as Konga was still clearing debris, the entire supply was contaminated with a compound that would soon cause the ape to have a psychotic episode, he would flee into the open country above the mine shaft, be detected by the Japanese government, and destroyed, either by the military or Unicorn according to the plan.
Konga was nearly finished clearing the debris, but he had been feeling bad for a while now, something was off. He was getting dizzy; it had come on after his break for a drink. He KNEW someone was watching him and meant to do him harm. He KNEW it. There was a voice, he couldn’t place it… Was it that bastard Decker? The great ape hefted a final boulder. As he rose to stand straight, he turned, Konga could hear it clearly now. It WAS Decker. He was here. Konga dropped the boulder. Where? Where was the villain? Decker’s maddening voice was coming from all around now. Urging him to kill, just like before. But there was no one here; even the two engineers were nowhere to be seen. But the voice could not be denied! He HAD to obey! He had to FIND something to kill. Konga glanced about the cavern searching, finding nothing. The maddening, sickening voice was angry at being denied! Then Konga spied the tunnel exit. He knew what to do! The huge beast took off at a jog for the exit, once outside it would find something to kill for Decker. Once the voice was satisfied Konga would be free of it.
Konga emerged into the light and immediately set his eyes upon the city of Kumamoto to the east. He knew he would find many people to kill there. The voice would be pleased, it would stop antagonizing him. Konga let out a mighty roar and charged toward the city in the distance.
Konga smashed his way through the suburbs and into the city proper in minutes. His powerful fists and feet crushing and stomping buildings and people with no purpose or reason. Anything in his path was subject to destruction. Homes, schools, clinics, shopping centers, all were equally trashed by the thrashing beast. Those not crushed beneath his bulk scattered in sheer panicked fear, either running anywhere they could, or flung away by sweeping fists and kicking feet. At a concert hall an idol singer tried to direct the concertgoers to exit calmly, Konga seized her from the stage and ate her as her horrified fans watched in complete impotency.
At city hall, spared due to not lying in the path the monster had chosen, the mayor and police chief had assembled emergency response teams. “The death toll is staggering. At least 500 confirmed dead already,” the mayor said grimly.
The Fire Chief added, “Six people were killed trying to get ‘selfies’ with the monster in the background.”
“Stupid fools,” a secretary muttered under her breath.
The Chief of Police stood to speak, “My department can no longer keep order, we were completely overrun by panicked civilians south of the Town Square, 15 of my officers were badly injured in the stampede and two more may die.”
“If the beast magically disappeared RIGHT NOW reconstruction of the damaged parts of the city would take more than a year,” an engineer added.
The Mayor looked gravely over the assembly, “Then I must call in outside resources.”
Mamoru threw open the doors to the conference room, leading Koko in. His face wore his “All Business” attitude which came into play when he was in Bodyguard Mode. He sat beside her at the briefing table.
Mr. Okagawa rose from his seat at the head of the table, “The monster attacking Kumamoto appears to be an enormous gorilla. So far it has displayed no powers beyond the immense strength of a body so huge. But that is sufficient for it to have absolutely laid waste to the city. Damage is already in the tens of billions and at least 500 people are known to be dead. Ms. Koko, you are not part of our group so we cannot order you. Will you and your robot help? We feel you are the best capable person to deal with the menace.”
“Of course, the robot and I will help in any way we can,” she replied.
Mr. Okagawa bowed to her, “Thank you! Doctor Barlow, will you brief Ms. Koko?”
Doctor Barlow was a European woman, Koko did not immediately know her nationality, but she at least looked the part of intelligent competency, “As Mr. Okagawa said, the monster appears to just be a huge gorilla. Based on satellite imagery and close surveillance film from aircraft and traffic cameras of it we have tentatively identified it as a missing kaiju from an incident in the 1960’s in England. Its name is “Konga”, as the monster has no special superpowers you should be able to easily dispatch it with the robot’s hand rockets,” as she finished Doctor Barlow sat down.
Koko looked kind of dejected.
“Is something wrong Koko?” Okagawa asked.
“No, nothing, I just thought I was going to get to meet a real celebrity when they said “enormous gorilla”,” she replied somewhat sheepishly.
“Well, let us be thankful for that! The one you are talking about would be a MUCH more formidable threat!” Mr. Okagawa replied. “Anyway, Mamoru, get Koko to the hangar, let’s get you out there and save some lives!”
“Right Chief!” Mamoru stood and did the goofy Unicorn salute causing Koko to roll her eyes, as she always did anytime anyone did it. “It’s just so – CORNY!” she thought.
Moments later down in the hangar, Koko activated the giant robot. “Giant Robot! Activate! It’s time to kick some giant monkey ass!”
The shroud concealing the robot began to retract, revealing it’s remodeled form. Gone was the angry, red and gray Egyptian Pharaoh motif, the robot had been redesigned to more closely match Koko’s own look. Standing proud and tall before her was a huge Gothic Lolita Robot in pink and white. An armored skirt had been added which extended down to the mech’s mid-thighs, covering the vulnerable hip joints. More armor had been added to the arms that looked like gloves extended from the fists up to the elbow joint, adding protection over the wrists and elbows as well, and the final armor add-ons were on the legs themselves extending from the feet upwards to just above the knees protecting the ankle and knee joints and looking like a pair of shoes and stockings. A sensor and ECM net had been added to the head which looked like long hair extended down to just above the mech’s “shoulder blades” on its back where the jet thrusters that allowed it to fly were located. The chest and shoulder armor had been slightly modified completing the illusion that the machine was garbed in a dress.
Mr. Wallace walked up behind Koko, a look of immense pride on his face.
Koko turned to him, “I LOVE YOU!!!” She GLOMP’D him as hard as she could, his massive bulk preventing her giving him the full effect.
“Ah, you’re welcome Lass, I hope you like what I did to her.”
Koko let him go and looked into his eyes; she was crying tears of joy from shining eyes. “This is the only thing I can imagine that could possibly make owning my very own giant robot any better!”
Wallace’s immense hand fell on her head, “Thank you Koko, I am glad you like it. Now the next thing you have to do is give her a proper name.”
Wiping away her joyful ecstatic tears Koko replied, “Yeah! I will, but after I stomp this C-Lister in Kumamoto!” She turned back to the robot and raised the control device to her face, “Giant Robot pick me up, let’s go flying!”
The robot took a couple of steps towards Koko and Mamoru picking them up in its hand, then launched into the air through the open ceiling hatch, turning south towards the stricken city.
The robot arrived over the city quickly locating the rampaging psychotic ape. She landed next to a high-rise apartment building depositing Mamoru and Koko on a balcony as instructed and turned back to Konga.
“Giant Robot! Drive the monster out of the city!”
The Voice continued to torment Konga! No matter how many people he had crushed or eaten it would not stop! Konga’s mind couldn’t take much more! As his fist crashed into another large building, pulling soft, squishy humans from inside it to crush them to pulp between his fingers he heard the sound of some incredibly heavy thing landing on the concrete nearby. Konga turned towards the sound, catching sight of an immense female. In his madness he believed the shape to be human. He knew her! It was the assistant! Margaret! The one who had given him the overdose that addicted him and turned him into a giant in the first place!!! THIS was his target! The Voice was compelling him to kill HER! Konga would have his vengeance for her misdeeds! Dropping the pulped remains of the pair of humans in its grip the ape charged towards the robot while screaming a feral roar of rage!
The impact of flesh against metal shattered windows in all the nearby buildings, and even the robot’s mass was staggered by the force of it. Konga began battering away at his foe wildly, its madness so all-consuming that it had now lost the final bits of intelligence it had retained, becoming nothing more than an unthinking engine of pure destruction. The robot grappled the furious foe entangling its arms in an attempt to gain an advantage. Eventually, the robot managed to firmly grip one of Konga’s arms and twist it behind the wild beast’s back. Like a police officer with an unruly suspect the giant robot then latched its other powerful hand to the gorilla’s shoulder and began forcibly marching Konga towards the edge of the city.
“That’s it Giant Robot!!!! KEEP IT UP!!!” Koko encouraged. Next to her Mamoru could only look on mystified.
But the insane monster was struggling with all its madness-enhanced strength, and the robot was having difficulty retaining its hold. Before she had forced the creature out of the city proper it finally broke free, turning on her and attacking without restraint in wild animal fury. Its fists rained blows on the robot’s face, the ape not realizing the blows had no effect, and worse were damaging its own hands. The robot fought back trying to regain its advantageous hold, but it soon became apparent to Koko it would be impossible, Konga’s madness and fury was too great.
She turned to Mamoru, “Konga is in the section of the city that’s already heavily damaged. I don’t think the robot will be able to force it any further out of the city. I think I should have her try to kill it right there.”
Mamoru looked at her, thinking for a few seconds. “Yeah I agree, the ape’s gone insane and it’s not like we have a king-sized pair of handcuffs to restrain it with. I’ll officially support your decision.”
Koko raised the control device, “Giant Robot! Use the Hand Rockets now! Put Konga down before he hurts anyone else!” The pleasant, positive tone BWEEP’D from the device again.
The robot stopped trying to entangle Konga at once, its hands grasped the monster’s shoulders and it brought up its powerful leg, kicking Konga in the groin while simultaneously pushing back with both hands. Stunned, Konga stumbled back a few steps, crushing underfoot the remnants of some houses. Before it could recover the robot’s arms came up, the hands and fingers locked into firing positions, and volleys of small rockets began to pour forth. Several of the projectiles went wide, detonating in already crumbling buildings, but more than enough hit home, their armor-piercing tips penetrating Konga’s thick mutated hide before the warheads exploded inside among the monster’s soft organs. All at once, Konga’s rampage ceased, and the huge hulking body collapsed backwards to the ground unceremoniously.
Koko spoke into the device again, “Good work Giant Robot. Come get us and let’s go home!”
Mamoru turned to her, “I sure am glad I don’t have to clean that up. I mean, it must be like a dead blue whale just washed ashore in the heart of the city! Imagine the smell once it starts to rot!”
Koko, turned back to look at the corpse as she boarded the robot’s hand, “Yeah, not like with the squid where we could just push it out to deep sea and let nature take its course. But at least the devastation is over, the people here can start to get back on with their lives.”
Back in Guillotine’s office Tomlinson and Frederich stood in front of the desk delivering their report, “The base construction is proceeding on schedule, the entrance shaft Konga used has been camouflaged and blocked off, anyone discovering it will think it is a lava tube that collapsed in a cave in, and Konga has been dispensed with.”
Guillotine’s chair rotated to face them, “Excellent work. Your preliminary report pleases me greatly. The two of you will return to supervise the base’s full construction. As a bonus I grant you the honor of naming it upon completion.”
The two men exchanged surprised glances before responding in unison, “Thank you Sir.”
“You are dismissed to return to your more important duties.”
“GLORY TO BIG FIRE!” the two replied before exiting the room.
Guillotine turned again to face the window into the ocean outside. He brought a glass with a strange looking glowing liquid to his lips and sipped it. “Perhaps it is time to consider dealing with the giant robot.” He chuckled lightly to himself.