Monster of Justice

Gigan looked back on his fight with Godzilla with embarrassment. He started out coolly and precise like he intended, but it didn't take long for him to lose himself in the action. Wanton destruction was one of his weaknesses. His other weaknesses were giant insects and chainsaws. Fortunately, he was able to escape with his life, unlike his companion. He wasn't concerned for Megalon, though, as he had died plenty of times before. Gigan could make fun Megalon's intelligence all day, but he had to admit that the brute was made of sterner stuff than him.

Gigan turned to look behind and below him. It looked like Godzilla had finally lost his trail and had wandered off to do whatever it is that big, dumb dinosaurs do. The cyclops was glad to see an opportunity to rest and recharge and greedily gobbled it up. He folded his wings back up and let himself plummet to the planet below. The ground shook as he landed and the trees and whatever other forms of flora that were present vibrated excitedly, for they were in the presence of something much greater than themselves. Gigan had a special fondness for invading planets with especially small inhabitants. It made him feel so much greater than he usually did, watching his tiny, pathetic targets flee from him in terror. It was cute.

He stood up and scanned the landscape. He relished the opportunity to turn his head around 360 degrees. It was a neat ability and he didn't get to use it often. He spotted a range of hills and began making his way to it. As he did, he scanned the ground beneath the hills, checking to see if it had anything nice he could use. Lo and behold, there was a sizable deposit of iron right beneath those peaks. Not enough to enhance him in any way, but it was easily enough to fix up his damages.

He raised his bent, dented claws and dug them into the nearest hillside. Inside the dirt and stone, dozens of smaller claws emerged from his hooks and gathered up the materials he needed. As the iron entered his body, it was immediately put to use filling in for lost chunks of body and being used to reforge his claws. Intense heat was naturally required for the process, and the pain it brought was almost unbearable. The fight must have damaged Gigan's nervous inhibitors. That explained why he got so excited during the previous day's fight. While he would prefer to come off as  composed and collected, the giant could never take pain very well.

Gigan unplugged himself from the hills and turned to the horizon, not too far off from the mountain he had recently fled from, where a decent-sized settlement sat, separated from the city Megalon had destroyed by a particularly dense forested area, which could have been large enough to safely be called a jungle. It wasn't nearly as big as either of the cities the cyborgs had visited before, but it was too big to be a town. Gigan stared at it, considering taking out his frustrations on the local quadrupeds, but decided against it. As trivial as it would have been for him to wipe the settlement off of the map, it was safe to bet that their armed forces would arrive fairly quickly, with Godzilla not far behind. Whatever these colorful little creatures called their army would be a cute treat, but Godzilla was dangerous. Gigan wouldn't be dealing with that beast until Megalon was back up. Until then, he had a bit of waiting to do.

The sun had begun to set by that point. The cyclops stared at the serene image, taking in all the warmth and color of it, and wished that he had sprung for the solar batteries. The sun was a very commonly recurring symbol on the castle Megalon had destroyed. While it wasn't uncommon for more primitive civilizations to worship their local stars, Gigan could tell that this star earned its following. Every time he stood beneath it, he felt the power emanating from it. There was an odd feel to its presence, however. Everything about it felt deliberate. Whereas most suns have planets form around them, Gigan couldn't help but feel that the opposite was true in this world's case. The sun always rose and set, but he could never feel the planet move.

Whether this quirk was harmless or not, it was still something that the cyborg's employers should have informed him about. An antenna slid out of Gigan's head as he set out to contact them. He was already supposed to request for help if he encountered any complications, such as the death of his companion, but the help wasn't needed. He mostly just wanted to scream at them for not telling him about the weird sun. But, alas, a connection couldn't be established between Gigan and the people who were paying him. He considered the possibility that he was standing on the wrong side of the planet to make contact, but that only ever caused minor disruption. The sun had completely set and night was upon him, so then was a good time to check the stars and catch his bearings.

He looked up and almost immediately tilted his head in confusion. Gigan had been flying between planets, wiping out wannabe heroes, assassinating planets, and getting paid for it for longer than most civilizations have existed. He knew the universe like the back of his claw, but to his surprise, he didn't recognize this planet's night sky. Every notable constellation that was normally visible from Earth was missing. In their place were images that Gigan could just barely make out. There were images of vicious warlords, unusual symbols, and what appeared to be a local quadruped with a long, flowing muzzle. Closer examination revealed that the stars themselves were different from those visible from Earth. The only other body in the night sky was the moon, and even that felt wrong.

Similar to the sun, Gigan could feel a great power emanating from the moon. It wasn't quite as strong as the sun, but it was still strong enough to be felt from the planet below. Unlike the sun, however, this power wasn't strange to him. Gigan had felt this power before, during Megalon's raid on the mountain-perched settlement, coming from one of the local creatures. During the attack, he locked eyes with an airborne quadruped, dark blue in hue. Perhaps it was worshiped by the lesser creatures along with its supposed celestial counterpart.

Gigan turned his head back to face the city Megalon had recently wrecked and, through his telescopic gaze, saw a new commotion rise from the city's ruins. Megalon had risen back to his feet, spitting in the empty eye socket of death once again. That's a good brute. Excitedly buzzing away from Megalon was a pair of flying quadrupeds. Specifically, the dark blue creature and a slightly larger, brightly-colored one with what appeared to be an image of the sun on its flank. The celestial counterpart, if ever there was one. If Gigan had lips, they would have curled. He had never been given the chance to destroy a star.

But still, there was more to them. On the back of the lunar creature was another quadruped, this one lavender and visibly exhausted, as well as a small reptile. Riding the solar one was another reptile, but this one much larger, even bigger than its mighty steed, dyed a simple grey and with a row of blue fins along its back.

Could that have been a juvenile Godzilla? Now there was an interesting development. Gigan looked over his options. On one hook, he could kill the juvenile. If it was left without a parent, it would inevitably fly off into space, seeking revenge. Plus, nothing warmed Gigan's heart quite like youth being cut down before it could peak. On the other hook, he could let the juvenile live. He probably wouldn't be able to convince his employers to give him a bonus for killing a tiny baby they didn't see.

Gigan shook his head and decided then that whatever happened would happen. If the juvenile survived the coming hours, so be it. If it took its last breaths from the business end of one of Gigan's hooks, even better. Using his telescopic vision, he scanned the horizon and quickly found his colossal mark racing across the countryside, back towards the chaos. Taking a moment to factor in the speeds of both Godzilla and Megalon, as well as his own air velocity, Gigan pinpointed an approximate point where all three of them would meet if he left immediately. He unfolded his wings and bared his metal fangs. This would be the night Godzilla died.