The third step of recalling the good things in his life centered around his thoughts regarding the two female members of the Kaiju Corps, Miki and Michelle. Nick was starting to focus on them when an alarm blared throughout the installation. Nick wasn’t sure what the alarm signified, but it was quickly followed by the announcement, “This is a level one alarm. All members of the Horsemen are to report to the conference room! Kaiju Corps members are to report to the Hangar 18 in one hour.”
Nick shook his head and turned off the shower. He had nearly gotten his body to a stage where he felt as if he was completely human and now he feared that he would not only have to stop the process, but he was afraid that he would need to change into Leviathan again. Nick feared that for the first time in history, the Kaiju Corps would be officially activated.
Chapter 2
The cold and dark was crushing her as she continued to push her way through the hard rocks and dirt that surrounded her. Miki reached up and tore another chunk of earth out of her way, causing even more soil to fall into her face as she made her way up in an attempt to escape. A moment ago, she had been in a secure underground bunker in the Pocono Mountains. The next thing that she was aware of was that she felt the need to escape and destroy. Miki found that her head had nearly reached the ceiling of the warehouse-like bunker. As she reached up for the ceiling, she noticed two long and thin lizard-like claws where her hands should have been. She tried to scream but all that emanated from her mouth was a hissing sound. She hissed and then ripped through the ceiling that confined her. As dirt poured into the hole she created, she started increasing the size of the opening in the ceiling until she was able to crawl into where she now found herself buried beneath the ground.
Miki kept digging her way up until she felt her face force its way into the open air. A moment later, she managed to pull her entire body into the sunlight. As soon as she had pulled her head out of the ground, she threw it from side to side and hissed at the sky. She looked around to see that she was surrounded by what appeared to be tiny fir trees. She heard shouting to her right, and instinctively, she tried to run from it. As she fled, she became aware of the odd manner in which she was moving. Her head and neck seemed to be swaying from side to side as she moved. She swung her head to the right, and she was amazed at how far back she could turn her neck. She was even more amazed when she saw a long serpentine body with two small thin sets of legs attached to them. Miki continued to extend her neck and to examine her body as she tried to comprehend what she had become. Her first was thought was snake. Miki had thought that she had transformed into a giant snake.
She tried to orient herself to where she was, but the hissing sound and the screaming below her made it nearly impossible for her to concentrate. She was filled with rage at all of the noise, and when she turned her head to see where the screaming was coming from, she saw a tiny man and woman standing below her. The young couple was standing next to the campsite where they had slept the previous night. Miki tried to tell them to be quiet so that she could think, but once more, the only sound that came out of her mouth was a terrible hissing noise. The young couple turned and began running toward a lake. When Miki saw the lake in the distance, she felt compelled to head for it as well.
She began to slither toward the lake, and as she moved toward the water, she crushed a winding path through the forest. The couple that was running away from her heard her heading for them, and they had the good sense to take a ninety-degree turn and move out of Miki’s path. Miki ignored the couple as she made her way to the water that seemed to call to her. When she reached the water’s edge, she stopped for a brief moment and she looked down at her reflection. She had expected to see the flat round face of a snake, but instead, she saw a long snout with whiskers poking out of it staring back at her. It was at that point that she realized she had not changed into a giant snake. With her thin rear and hind legs and her long, whiskered snout, she more closely resembled a Chinese Dragon than she did a snake.
Miki stared down at the alluring water for a moment and then she gracefully slipped below its surface. The lake was not very large, and Miki’s nearly two-hundred-foot-long body was able to swim the circumference of it in less than two minutes. The relatively small size of the lake was of no concern to Miki; she simply felt more at peace with her new body when she was submerged in the water. She continued to swim circles around the lake while the two campers that she had scared ran back to the nearest town’s police department, screaming about a lake monster.
Two hours later, the local police department, along with half of the town, arrived at the lake armed with everything from shotguns to dynamite. The lake water was crystal clear and everyone who stood around it could see Miki’s dragon form as she swam by them. The town sheriff grabbed a microphone and called for everyone to open fire. Miki remembered hearing an explosion as she felt harmless but annoying projectiles bounce off her thick hide. She swam to the surface of the lake, and when her snout rose out of the water, people either screamed and ran or started shooting at her eyes. Even the bullets that struck her eyes were not able to injure her, but the part of Miki’s brain that was still maintaining her human consciousness was enraged that these people were attacking her for simply going for a swim. Miki saw a flash of red before her eyes, and then the next thing that she remembered was waking up naked in her human form along the shore of the lake. She sat up to see the crushed and mutilated bodies of the town’s people surrounding her. Her mind quickly came to the realization that she had caused the deaths of all of these people. A wave a panic ran through Miki’s body as she stood up to see that entire shoreline of the lake was covered in bodies.
Miki awoke screaming in her bed as the memory of her first transformation had once more returned to haunt her dreams. It had been five years she had first morphed into her kaiju-self, and still, she was disturbed by what she had become and what she had done.
She walked over to the bathroom that was part her quarters and she splashed cold water on her face as she tried to calm herself down from the nightmare that she experienced on an all too frequent basis. She looked in the mirror at herself to see the pretty face of a thin and athletic twenty-year-old woman staring back her. Her hair had grown longer than she liked it to be. Miki usually cut her hair when it reached her shoulders, but now, it was draped over her shoulders and down her back. She started brushing her hair, then she sighed as she continued to recall the events that had occurred after her first transformation.
The Instructors had learned after the first time that Nick had changed how emotionally and psychologically devastating the first transformation from a human into a kaiju could be. In response to this, the Horsemen had the Instructors move the members of the Kaiju Corps to remote underground locations in hopes of containing them in case they were overwhelmed by the shock of when they first became a kaiju. This plan had failed miserably in Miki’s case. When she first changed into a kaiju, she had not only burrowed out of the underground bunker, but she had also been attacked by the local law enforcement agencies, and in attempting to defend herself, she had killed several dozen people.
Dozens of people had died before Miki finally reverted back to her human form. In response to the disaster, the Instructors quickly destroyed the bunker, removing any evidence of where the kaiju had come from. Miki herself was placed on a train and whisked away from the Poconos. She was looking out the window when an Instructor sat down next to her with a cell phone in her hands.
The Instructor began reading information off her phone. “Miki, you are a member of the Kaiju Corps. You are fifteen years old and the human part of your DNA is of Japanese origin.”
Miki nodded in reply, not fully aware if the Instructor was asking her questions or simply stating facts.
The Instructor smiled. “My name is Clarissa, and I will be your personal Instructor from now on.” She placed her arm around the teenager. “Would you like to talk about what happened?” Miki remembered breaking down in tears as she
hugged Clarissa, and as she was reliving this memory and looking at herself in the mirror, she saw a tear run down the side of her check.
Clarissa whispered into her ear, “It’s not your fault, dear. It’s not your fault.” Miki knew that these were the same words that Nick had heard when he first underwent the change. She shook her head and sobbed into Clarissa’s breast, “What are they calling me?”
Clarissa hugged her tightly. “Chagon. It’s a blend of the two words Chinese and Dragon.”
She filled her hands with water again and splashed it over her face when she heard the alarm sound in her quarters followed by the order to go Hangar 18. Miki took a deep breath as she realized what Hangar 18 meant. She took one last look in the mirror as she fought back her emotions and composed herself. She stared directly into the reflection of her own eyes as she spoke to herself, “Hangar 18, this is it. This is no drill. The Kaiju Corps is being activated. We are going to war.”
Chapter 3
Deep in the Atlantic Ocean, the submarine USS Venture was cruising along the ocean floor. The sub was moving at top speed as it made its way along the coast from Philadelphia to Norfolk. The submarine had crossed roughly half the distance of its journey when a huge set of eyes snapped open in the darkness behind the vessel. A massive beast lifted itself off the ocean floor and began swimming toward the sub. The monster swam closer to the surface of the water, and when it did so, it was illuminated by the sunlight that had managed to pierce the darkness. The sun reflected brightly off the glistening white fur that covered a body with a form similar to that of a polar bear but less bulky and more elongated. The creature also had a face that was akin to a polar bear with long powerful jaws and a short black nose. While the kaiju had many similarities to the endangered bear, there were also marked differences. The most notable features were the two bull-like horns that protruded from the sides of its head. Additionally, the monster also had a long, thick, fur-covered tail that ended in a series of spikes like the ancient Stegosaurus.
The kaiju moved through the water with a velocity that far surpassed the speed of the submarine she was pursuing. The creature was over two hundred and fifty feet long from head to tail, but it was able to move through the water with the agility of a river otter. The monster was known as Bearadon and she was the fourth member of the Kaiju Corps. In her human form, she was known as Michelle. She was a twenty-three-year-old woman whose genes had originated from Apache ancestors. Her human appearance reflected her Apache heritage. She had beautiful brown skin, long raven-colored hair, and stunning hazel eyes. She was an intense young woman who had devoted herself totally to the cause of being a member of the Kaiju Corps and defending the human race. Michelle had not been raised as an Apache. She and all of the members of the Kaiju Corps had the same diversified upbringing that came from being taught and raised by the greatest minds around the world, all from different cultures. While Michelle had not been raised as an Apache, she was still aware of how her ancestors and other Native America tribes were decimated and nearly driven to the point of extinction when they came into contact with Europeans. Michelle took this tragedy to heart, and she vowed that she would do all that she could to ensure that no other large-scale genocide occurred while she was walking the earth.
Her focus on her training and her determination to protect her world allowed her to be able to make a seamless transition from human to kaiju without incident. Just as Jerome was able to control his kaiju-self when he first transformed, Michelle also maintained complete control of herself when she first became Bearadon. Like the other members of the Kaiju Corps, Michelle was assigned a personal Instructor. Her name was Susan, and while it was her responsibility to offer Michelle emotional guidance, the two of them were never close due to Michelle’s desire to be independent. While the other Instructors acted as mentors and surrogate parents to their assigned members, Michelle mainly treated Susan as her liaison to the inner circle of the Horsemen. Susan continually tried to be an emotional outlet for the young woman, but Michelle always opted to keep her relationship with the Instructor professional.
Michelle’s work ethic and her determination to succeed in her missions had at first led to the idea that she would be the field leader of the Kaiju Corps. As the Instructors studied her more closely, they began to realize that she lacked several of the key attributes that were required to lead a team. While Michelle had excellent instincts for tracking and battling in her kaiju form, she had extremely poor interpersonal skills.
Michelle often saw the other members of the Kaiju Corps as extra baggage that hampered her from successfully completing her mission rather than teammates who could help her complete it. It was these traits that led the Instructors to designate Jerome/Garudasaurus as the leader of the Kaiju Corps. This fact didn’t matter to Michelle when she was first informed of it, nor did it have any bearing on her current training mission, as she continued to make her way toward the remote-controlled submarine that she was supposed to destroy.
She was closing in on the vessel when she noticed that it altered its course from moving in a straight line and dove to the ocean floor. Bearadon snarled as she realized that the Instructors who were controlling the submarine must have realized that she was stalking them, and as such, they dove to the sea bed in an attempt to lose her. The act was futile, as she was still fully capable of tracking the submarine and catching it, but it galled her that she had been noticed by the people controlling the crewless vessel. She changed her course in pursuit of the submarine when, to her surprise, it turned around and started moving toward her.
Bearadon was confused by this motion. She had performed this drill several times before and each time that she did, the submarine had done its best to avoid her. Yet in this instance, it appeared as if the sub was turning around to attack her. Bearadon increased her already considerable speed as she charged toward the strangely behaving submarine.
Bearadon had closed roughly half the distance between herself and the sub when she saw two torpedoes streaking toward her. The lithe kaiju streamlined her body and rolled, causing the projectiles to streak past her and explode in the water behind her. Bearadon was fairly sure that her thick hide was capable of withstanding the force of the exploding torpedoes, but she had no desire to find out during what was supposed to be a routine training exercise. She quickly swam up to the submarine, reached out with her powerful claws, and with a single swipe, she sliced the aquatic drone to pieces.
Bearadon’s attack was surgical in its precision. She had struck the ship in such a way that it would not explode but rather the drone simply filled with water and then sink to the bottom of the ocean. Bearadon’s mind was a mix of both anger and confusion. She needed to return to base so that she could confer with the Instructors as to why they had so drastically changed their tactics in the approach to this mission. The mammalian kaiju swam in a tight circle and then she started heading back to shore. For both security purposes and for their own protection, she and the other three members of the Kaiju Corps were constantly being moved around the world from one hidden location to the next. The facility that the team was currently housed in was the Horsemen’s primary facility in the Catskill Mountains.
Bearadon was swimming back to shore when she received a radio transmission through the communication relay implanted within her ear, “Bearadon, we have a level one alarm. Please return to the Catskill station and report to Hangar 18.” Bearadon growled as she continued to push through the water. The Instructors had run numerous drills claiming that there was a level one emergency over the past few years, but they had never conducted a drill that started in Hangar 18.
Despite the fact that the Kaiju Corps moved all around the world, they never felt like they left home. This was mainly due to the fact that no matter where they went, each and every facility that they were sent to was set up exactly the same. Not just in terms of the ways the facilities were constructed by everything down to the artwork on the walls and even the personal belongings of the
team members were exactly the same in every facility that they were sent to. Miki had a thing for snow globes. She had at least a dozen snow globes, and in each facility around the world, she had the same dozen in each of her quarters. Having the facilities set up in the same manner not only helped to keep each facility running as efficiently as possible, but it also helped to create some sense of normalcy and consistency for the Kaiju Corps and the Instructors who traveled with them.
One of the most consistent rules of their travel was that no matter what facility they were in did they ever enter Hangar 18. Each and every facility that they lived and worked from was constructed as if it were an underground air base. Every facility had twenty large hangers where the team members had the space to change into their kaiju forms and train. In each of these facilities, Hangar 18 was off limits. The Instructors had never explained why this was the case, and Michelle and the other members of the Kaiju Corps had often discussed amongst themselves that Hangar 18 must be reserved for actual emergencies. With the drone submarine acting out of its normal operational pattern and the order to report to Hangar 18, Bearadon was sure that a real emergency had presented itself. That alone would have been enough to concern her, but the fact that it was designated as a level one emergency terrified her. Level one emergencies represented potential extinction-level threats. Bearadon growled again as she continued to push herself as hard as she could to return to the Catskill installation.
Chapter 4
Detroit, Michigan
It was almost ten in the morning as Brian Linke continued to work furiously on his computer at the Ford motor car assembly plant. Brian was the head computer programmer for the site, and when he arrived at work a little over an hour ago, he was met by several of the floor workers who had shocked looks on their faces. The floor workers had informed Brian that when they arrived at work and started the automated assembly line, it was not working properly. The robotic arms that constructed the cars piece by piece were not assembling the cars in the fashion that they usually did. The workers had shut down and rebooted the assembly line several times but each time that the assembly line was reactivated, it simply continued to not follow its protocols. After the assembly line had moved forward for roughly half an hour, putting all types of odd parts together, the line stopped moving, and whatever the system was putting together started to look far different and far larger than any car or truck.
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