Another thing Pablo Rosas never thought he would do is fight an actual kaiju, like straight out of a Power Rangers episode. Except he is in no Megazord. He is simply a passenger on a city-sized walker.

The kaiju attacks the caravan with ferocity. Cannons explode, and mages shoot off magic lasers.

Pablo and The Goddess are mere spectators to all this. They have no special powers to assist in fighting against a literal towering monster. They have no place in the established hierarchy that the soldiers on this walker use to mount a defense. Clearly, they are extremely trained and know exactly what they are doing here.

General Griffin pushes us back. “You two, head for the shelters. We don’t need you unless you can help us.”

“But...” Pablo tries to protest .

“Well, can you help? Man the guns maybe? Give us some magic powers?”

Pablo looks up at the roaring beast that makes swipes at the walker, unable to reach its buffet line of scrumptious humans, and becoming increasingly enraged by the volleys of cannon fire coming from every direction.

It charges up a laser beam attack, its back glowing brighter than even the giant mushrooms that dot the surface of the world.

“I know we can help,” Pablo says. “But I don’t know how.”

“Then get out of here. At least the U.S. guys are trying.” General Griffin turns away from Pablo and The Goddess, as if he no longer regards their existence.

The Goddess gulps. “I don’t think we’ve gained their trust.”

“No, and I don’t know what we can do to help.”

“Destroy that kaiju, maybe?”

“How?”

The Goddess shrugs. “You’re a big guy.”

“It would be very painful, I think, if I tried to attack that thing.”

“For me.”

“Not even for you, I’d do it,” he says.

“Darn. Well then, I guess we ain’t gonna unleash your hidden power and unlock your secret relationship with the Mortal Rim.”

Pablo does a double-take. “My WHAT?”

“...Well, I was just making a guess. I ain’t got a clue if I’m right or not.”

“Oh. You just made it up.”

She nods. “Positive thinking and all that baloney.”

“I see.”

Pablo is determined never to do another mission with The Goddess, because this event has quickly become a complete disaster. Had he gone with Eryk Solbourne, curse his name, or Julie Rafati, who he has never actually spoken to, one of them could probably have actually gone toe-to-toe with a giant kaiju monster. Pablo, on the other hand, was just an ordinary human. A spectacularly strong and gifted human, but nothing on the level of one of these magic system users.

Just as he is about to give up and press his beacon to return to Earth, he overhears something on a nearby soldier’s radio.

Combat chatter.

He sneaks a bit closer to get a better ear for it.

“Viper, we’re off,” a gruff voice says. “Kaiju at my three.”

“Copy that, Rooster,” a high-pitched voice replies.

Pablo looks into the sky and sees three high-speed fighter planes zip off from a far-off walker. That must be the one that the U.S. military was given by these Mortal Rim people, and they are about to try and take down the kaiju.

No, no. If they succeed, they could help gain greater influence here. The fight for allies would be lost before it even begins. Pablo hadn’t realized just how much they had already invested into their excursion into this world, that they would already be sending fighter pilots down to perform combat missions.

The three planes swoop around, shooting bullets and missiles at the kaiju and hurting it badly. It roars out and, instead of unleashing its giant laser beam at the walker, shoots it into the air, trying to catch the planes.

The sky lights up like a rainbow in the dark.

One of the planes is hit.

The radio goes ablaze with voices shouting.

“Rooster? This is Phoenix. I’m hit!”

“Eject!”

“Eject machine broke!”

“Hangman, get out here and save us!”

“Aaaaaah!”

The damaged plane crashes into another one flying closest to it.

“PHOENIX! ICEMAN! NO!”

“Rooster, Viper and Hangman are deploying. Stay calm and—”

The ground shakes, first like an earthquake, then much more violently.

Suddenly, out from the ground—

Another kaiju bursts into the air, with six clawed arms reaching out and grabbing the third plane. Rips it apart.

“ROOSTER!”

And then it turns its attention to the other two planes that are just now taking off from their walker’s landing strip.

Pablo and The Goddess look at each other blankly.

Suddenly, Pablo doesn’t feel so bad about not being able to help the people on Mortal Rim.

General Griffin comes back to the two of them, surprisingly upset for a man who looks like he should be grumpy all day. “You see?” He points to the two kaiju, working together to obliterate the U.S. military planes. “They can’t help us. Nobody from other worlds has.”

“I’m sorry,” Pablo says.

“If you can help us, we’ll give you whatever we can. But until then, you’re just making our lives harder.”

“Y’all take care, then,” The Goddess says. “We’ll be back, though. I promise you harder than a mayfly on July 1st.”

With that, they abandon the people of Mortal Rim. Technically, this mission wasn’t a total failure, because they gained good information. That’s a very technical way to spin it, though.