Fifth Age of Man: Rise of the Kaiju

Chapter 1:

Kaiju Control Research Center:

 

    The sun filters in through the blinds onto a desk in a seemingly ordinary office, a plump Japanese business man sitting behind it thumb a report print out in front of him as a shadowy man in a dark suit wearing shades despite being in doors stands beside him.  

 

    The plump man pushes the report towards a Japanese woman of about her mid thirties who clearly takes care of herself and is wearing a grey business suit with a knee length skirt, “Miss Hidaki,” says the plump man, “is this your report?

 

     She looks at it, up at the man, quickly over at the other man she’s never seen before looking back at her boss, “yes sir,”

 

     “So,” says the man, “when did they get to you?”

 

    “Who sir,” she asks as she adjusts her round rim glasses.

 

    “The Anti D-Battery lobbyists, of course.” says her boss with a scowl.

 

    “Sir,” says Ms. Hidaki, “no one *got to me* my report is as I see the facts.”

 

    “Really,” says her boss, “now I may not be a scientist like you, or my friend here from D-Battery conglomerate, but even I know D-batteries are safe…well I mean unless your dumb enough to expose yourself to the core, but that’s just like nuclear energy or drinking gasoline. Even a moron knows not to do that.”

 

    “That’s not what’s in my report…sir.” says Miss Hidaki.

 

    “Oh no,” says her boss, “yeah, you’re concerned with what was Horoshi?”

 

   The man who had been standing quietly behind him, now identified by the name Horoshi adjusts his un-necessary shades and says, “Miss Hidaki is under the false impression the grey mist and grey sludge by products of D-battery construction are responsible for the emergence of the Kaiju.”

 

    “Right, right,” says the boss, “but you’re the scientist, how about you explain to Miss Hidaki, like you did me why that isn’t true.”

 

     “Sir,” says Miss Hidaki who is cut off by her boss shooting her a look and putting his hand up saying, “you have been here for seven years now Miss Hidaki, this is just one mistake but it could cost us billions if the wrong people see this report and don’t understand…as you clearly don’t why this is impossible. Now Mr. Horoshi was so kind to come down here and educate you rather than fire you or heavens forbid this had gone to the papers and come down here to issue us a subpoena for slander.”

 

     “Thank you Mr. Tomagaki.” Says Mr. Horoshi, “Now then Ms. Hidaki, you say here…” he picks up the report and flips through the pages, Miss Hidaki wonders if he is really looking at the pages he is talking about, “that you believe the by product can mutate life forms into the Kaiju, however you cite instances that are circumstantial at best.”

 

   He steps around the desk and leans on a filing cabinet, “As you know tests showed the substance was radioactive, not unlike hard water, however unlike hard water or any other industrial waste the by product of D-batteries is easily disposed of, salt water quickly breaks it down, the substance even turns into salt water as a result. You cite here the under sea disposal unit, claiming this site responsible for the creation of the Kaiju dubbed Sharkalypse and Arcollossus by the Americans who dealt with these creatures. You also state here you believe the Arizona plant responsible for the creation of the creature dubbed Monstroso Grande.”

 

    He sets the report down on the desk before turning to her again, “Miss Hidaki, these creatures did indeed emerge shortly after these disposal sites opened; however we’ve known for some time; and been public about it that the D-batteries attract these creatures. However you fail to mention those Kaiju which clearly existed prior to the existence of the D-batteries, what about Nox-era who was found under the Antarctic ice caps? Or Shogona from Northern Japan and Nuwa-Gara from China? All three of these creatures were found sleeping in places clearly ancient. Not to mention Cerberus from Greece, Huru-Khan from Central America, and Empress Scorpio from Africa, all three of which attacked plants just when they opened up; long before any by product could be produced.”

 

    “Isn’t that threat enough?” says Miss Hidaki, “aside from some being the result of the sludge?”

 

    She crosses her arms.

 

    “Changing your story now?” says Mr. Horoshi.

 

   “No,” says Miss Hidaki, “if you read my report,”

 

   “Oh I have,” says Mr. Horoshi, “I’m not convinced.”

 

    He stands straight and looks out the window, clearly trying to look contemplative; something that doesn’t fool Ms. Hidaki, but much to her dismay is obviously fooling her boss.

 

   “D-batteries,” says Mr. Horoshi, “prior to the discovery of this energy source a mere twenty five years ago our world was on the brink of war due to an energy crisis. Only a few countries had control over oil reserves, coal was nothing but an air polluter, and nuclear energy a ticking time bomb; water dams, wind mills, and solar power unreliable sources for constant power for large areas; and no reliable way to store large quantities electricity on top of all of this. But then we found the D-source, limitless energy from the space between spaces, safe to harness so long as our scientists didn’t get greedy and try to harness it all from just one spot; we’ve never tried to hide that fact either. That’s why we build multiple plants around the world, our planet’s movement through space all we need to collect power at no risk. An age of peace and prosperity, not to mention a limitless clean energy source has granted us all the means to advance faster than we ever could before, put a colony on the moon, a base on Mars, and even explore deep space. I hear the Americans in a joint venture with China plan to put a base on Titan around Saturn just next year. The savings earned on energy alone make repairs to damages by Kaiju less significant.”

 

    “Except to people’s lives.” says Ms. Hidaki.

 

    “Don’t get me wrong,” says Mr. Horoshi as he turns around, “we know the Kaiju are a problem, that’s why our company is in a joint venture with these labs, the very labs you work for to find a biological solution to stopping more from emerging and stopping the ones that exist; just as we are also working with the militaries to develop better giant robots. …you’ve seen those in the news right?”

 

    “The long short of,” says Mr. Tomagaki as he puts his hand up for Mr. Horoshi to stop, “is this Ms. Hidaki, un-substantiated reports like this could damage our reputation, that of the D-battery conglomerate and cause un-necessary panic. What we need from you and more so your lab are solutions for dealing with these…things, not your opinion on where they come from. Understood.”

 

    Ms. Hidaki, swallowing her pride says, “yes sir, can I go now?”

 

    “Yes,” says Mr. Tomagaki.

 

   As she gets up, bows and heads for the door, Mr. Tomagaki says, “one last thing Ms. Hidaki, this report never existed, you aren’t to speak to anyone about it…which given your confidentiality agreement with us is only natural. Given your work with us so far, especially if not for the repellent missiles you designed that have saved so many plants you’d be out of here. One more screw up like this however and even I might not be able to keep you inside these doors.”

 

   He waves a dismissive hand making her fume, but keeps it to herself as she walks out the door.

 

   After she is gone Mr. Horoshi says, “that one is trouble, she knows too much.”

 

   Mr. Tomagaki replies, “It was only a matter of time before someone made the connection, so many new Kaiju popping up and where they are appearing, only a matter of time.”

 

   “Any one else figure it out?” asks Mr. Horoshi.

 

   “huh?” says Mr. Tomagaki, “no, its like you said, the evidence is circumstantial, all the ones created by accidental spills are all small fry compared to those others that were already here somehow. Problem is those deterrents and anti-Kaiju weapons have been about useless against them.”

 

    Mr. Horoshi grabs the report.

 

    “Oh don’t trouble yourself,” says Mr. Tomagaki, “I’ll dispose of that.”

 

  He reaches for it but Mr. Horoshi snatches it away, “that’s alright,” he says, “its no trouble at all to dispose of this completely erroneous report.”

 

   As he heads for the door and opens it he says, “it’s a good thing no one was on the other side listening in…Mr. Tomagaki…with the way you’re talking someone might get the wrong idea…you know that you might believe the erroneous information in this report…Mr. Tomagaki.”

 

    Mr. Tomagaki gulps as Mr. Horoshi leaves, his fingers subconsciously scratching at the tape holding the wire & tiny microphone in place on his chest.

 

    ******

 

    The door reads [Kaiju Control research lab #123], not a very homey name to Ako Hidaki who has been working here for seven years and developed for KC many weapons to protect civilian, corporate, and military bases from the Kaiju. Her expression is one of disgust, much to the confusion of the plain looking American man she’s been working with for at least four years now since he was transferred to their labs.

 

    “Something wrong Ako?” asks the man.

 

    “He didn’t believe me Dan,” says Ako

 

    Dan looks confused for a moment and looks around, “Uh…what? He read the report right? I mean we even put Chirpy-tron in it, I mean we made a Kaiju in the lab, granted a little one but that’s proof that the sludge can mutate organisms.”

 

    Not far away in the animal test subjects room there is a small bird with four legs and teeth with the name [Chirpy-Tron] on its cage.

 

   “Either,” says Ako, “he didn’t read past the first page or he’s in D-battery Conglomerate’s pocket.”

 

    “Woah,” says Dan.

 

    “One of them was there.” says Ako coldly as she walks over to the table.

 

   “What?” asks Dan walking over to her and putting his hand on her shoulder.

 

   “There was a DBC agent, claiming to be a scientist in the office waiting with Mr. Tomagaki. There is no other explanation, they plan to bury the report, he didn’t even talk like anyone else’s name was on it. No doubt they’ll buy off or silence the whole team on this issue.”

 

    “So,” says a younger blond woman with a European accent coming into the room from the animal containment area as she sees Ako, “I take it from that gloomy expression the boss didn’t care for your report. I told you just knowing where something comes from is useless, unless you can show the higher ups how that information is useful it wont matter, I mean we still don’t have a cure for that poor bird Dan cursed with that horrible American robot name.”

 

    Dan just shoots her a look as he walks back to his work station.

 

   “What?” says the woman, “Its not like I…”

 

   “Circumstantial evidence,” says Ako to the girl who stops in her place and gives Ako a confused dog look.

 

   Ako continues, “Mr. Tomagaki…and a DBC agent…called it circumstantial evidence and are burying the report Erika.”

 

   Erika stops, looks back at animal containment and points.

 

   Dan laughs and says, “I already went over that with Ako, looks like we wasted our time. Looks like the big bosses are more concerned with image than on anything else.”

 

   Erika says, “you didn’t try to sell the idea that it was all just there doing I mean there are…”

 

  “I know!” yells Ako before calmly saying, “sorry, yes that was in the report, but that agent acted like I was trying to Scape-Goat their company. All we can do is continue.”

 

    “But if they’re burying it…” starts Dan.

 

   “No,” says Ako, “we know what we wrote, the real science underneath it. I’m sure DBC’s scientists got that report and it’s the real reason they want to bury the report.”

 

   “You mean the Extra Dimensional Mass effect?” asks Erika, “you put that in the report too?”

 

   “It was with the data on the mutation effect of the sludge on the test subject, our graphs on the additional mass increase of our test subject exceeding conservation of mass limitations. I didn’t think Mr. Tomagaki would go so far as to share it with DBC though. We’ll have to be more careful from here on out.”

 

    Erika, Dan, and Ako exchange nods before returning to their work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2:

Attack of the giants:

 

    Elsewhere a Canadian military base is scrambling, the alarm sounding and the speaker reporting,

 

   *Nox-era has been spotted attacking the Barnes Ice Cap on Baffin Island, all units are to deploy immediately.*

 

   One Air-man can be heard as they scramble into their flight gear, “Baffin island? How’d that thing get so far north with out being spotted?”

 

    ******

 

    Nox-era, one of a handful of Kaiju that is the subject of much debate on many an online forum, social site, the news, and general conversation; as unlike most Kaiju this one looks very human. Standing three hundred and fifty feet tall it looks be a woman with an athletic build wearing some sort of black dragon themed armor. Armor ridges along the exterior over the arms, shins, waist, with a layered blade like armor over the abdomen; she even has what appears to be a breast plate and armored boots. The softer sides; if they can be called as such are covered in black dragon scales; something that has those looking at her debating if this is armor or the creature’s flesh. The head appears to be wearing some sort of face guard completely covering the mouth and nose with almost pointed ear like blades over the side of the head and a guard above the eyes. Long jet black hair comes out the back and down the back ending at the small of the back. This “hair” is a most unusual feature as up close it’s more like freely moving shadow tendrils, morphing and moving about independently. In flight this air quickly shifts, to the casual observer it would look to turn short while a massive pair of shadow like dragon wings appear. Up close however the hair fuses into the wings; even as they connect to the back. The debates rage on if this is a giant woman wearing armor, a very weird techno-organic mutation, or perhaps even a giant robot from a long forgotten civilization; something put forth by the fact that Nox-era was found in a hot lake beneath the Antarctic glaciers.

 

    All of that is academic of course, especially to the brave pilots flying out to face this gargantuan armored monster. Out of all the Kaiju in the world she is listed as one of the most powerful and most mysterious; facts not lost on these pilots as they watch her attacking the Barnes Ice Cap. With its armored claw like hands outstretched dark energy bolts fire forth from the air before the palm blasting at random bits of the ice and snow. The giant leans down and picks up a chunk of ice, lifting it to her face. Her mouth guard opens like the mandibles of some strange insect; inside is a face covered in black scales and pair of dark lips. The mouth opens, a blue energy, almost like what one may imagine a liquid fire to look like flows out of the mouth and fills it as she takes the ice to her mouth and consumes it.

 

    “We are a go,” comes the voices of the pilots as they get the all clear sign to engage.

 

    Missiles fire exploding on the creature’s body; apparently causing her to drop the ice and her mouth guard to close. Her eyes glow red and the ear like extensions extend out, a sign the world has to come to know means it’s angry. The armor along the forearm opens, quill like energy spikes emerged and glow as she extends her hand; this time instead of dark energy darts a spiral of blue flame is the last thing three pilots see as their jets are consumed like paper in the twisting inferno. The battle goes on like this, in the end seventeen pilots lose their lives before Nox-era extends her wings and flies into the atmosphere. Radar tracks her, but then her signal vanishes.

 

   “Damn it!” screams the general watching the radar screen, “every time that monster just vanishes!”