I’m filled with such a wave of self-loathing that I almost miss the marker when it appears, hovering over the horizon to my right. I take off for it, running on all fours out of the city. Taisaur’s a pretty fast kaiju and we cover ground quickly, exiting the wreck of a city after only a few moments. We don’t make it far beyond the border though before being forced to come to a halt.
Xenatlas is standing before me. His rage meter is full and glowing with energy.
AI, I snarl. Un-friend Xenatlas. There is too much at stake right now to let him just wale on me and I cannot have him continue to track my movements.
Xenatlas has been un-friended, the AI says.
Caught on to that, did you? His own rumbling growl is so much deeper than my own. Shit, just how big is he now? Xenatlas is nowhere near Plague Doctor’s or Titanocobra’s scale, but after those two he’s the biggest damn kaiju I’ve ever seen. If both of our kaiju were MMA fighters he’d be at least two or three weight classes above me. Maybe more. And he’s standing between me and my goal.
What are you doing here, Xen? I ask.
You still don’t know my name, Aaron? He roars, putting an emphasis on my name to display his knowledge. Max might actually know his real-world identity. But I don’t. Couldn’t even begin to speculate.
Believe it or not, I’ve had other things on my mind, I say.
He tosses his head. The gesture is made more dramatic by the wicked horn on his kaiju’s head. Did you know Megaptera’s real name?
Dane, I say. Sad story.
Not sad enough to keep you from killing him, Xenatlas says and I realize why he’s really here. Oh fuck.
I didn’t kill Dane, I say, though frankly speaking I don’t think I’d hold it against myself if I had. The bastard dropped a fucking kaiju on my head and chased me around Las Vegas killing who knows how many people trying to get to me.
Funny how I don’t believe you, he says. Can you think of any reason why I might have trouble trusting you, Aaron?
Is there a reason you keep using my name? I ask. Because I’m not going to forget it, just in case you’re wondering.
I’m reminding myself that there’s a human inside that kaiju, he says. You’re not Taisaur to me anymore. You’re Aaron Moretti. Ex-con, liar, and murderer. His three massive horns flash with white light between them and I know what’s coming an instant before it happens.
That instant saves me. I activate Taisaur’s Burning Aurora and am enveloped in the red, rippling energy of my kaiju’s forcefield a split second before the miniature White Hole impacts us. The force of it is so great that Taisaur is lifted off the ground and sent flying.
For several stupidly long and chaotic moments the world is red and white. Then I hit the ground and the White Hole continues onward. I deactivate my Burning Aurora before I burn through all of my rage. Against someone as powerful as Xenatlas I can’t afford to use it unsparingly. He’s too powerful. Every use of it has to be made to matter or I’m dead. And, I think as I push myself up off the ground, that could mean dead for real now.
This isn’t the closed beta anymore. When they killed me in the HUB I woke up again after several hours of bloody unconsciousness. Before that when I died on earth as Taisaur I spent a week in a coma. I don’t have time for either. Nor do I have time to deal with the crippling pain the beatdown would induce. With the situation in Vegas, that could prove fatal for me. Worse, it could prove fatal to every survivor counting on me—whether they know it or not—to bring them back this cure.
None of us can run the risk of me dying for real.
Xenatlas bellows and charges me like a linebacker. A linebacker with a triple-point pincer set between his horns and shoulders. If I get caught in that I’m dead, no question. Going toe to toe and trading blows with Xenatlas isn’t an option.
I turn and run.
The game starts chiming at me, reminding me that the marker I’m supposed to be pursuing, this alien egg thing, is behind me. I grit Taisaur’s teeth and pour on the speed, leaving Xenatlas behind me.
I don’t have many advantages over my massive, chitinous enemy, but this is one of them. Xenatlas is slow as fuck. The world lights up and my shadow grows long as Xenatlas roars behind me. I activate my Burning Aurora and soak up the miniature White Hole again, this time riding the momentum and using it to put still more distance between me and Xenatlas.
He tries blasting me a few more times with less and less successful results. I’m too far away and the Burning Aurora is too good a defense. Soon, Xenatlas and his torrent of swear words disguised as roaring fades away to nothing. He’s not visible any more.
Good. I make a sharp left and begin making an enormous loop to double back. It’s not a perfect solution but with the distance I put between us and no longer being tracked by his friend status I manage to successfully circle around. I’ve lost time though. How long have I been playing?
I run harder and actually begin to feel something resembling fatigue. It’s a new experience, feeling this through Taisaur’s body. The disconnect between us seems to have grown lesser still, even in just the time since I logged back in.
The marker begins to chime with a noise that I hope means I’m getting close. A moment later I have arrived. I know that I’ve arrived because what I’m seeing lines up with what little I’ve managed to piece together of the Game Master’s sense of irony, humor, or destiny. Whatever you want to call it, it pulls me up short.
The city before me looks a lot like Vegas. Not because it’s full of lights or casinos, but because it’s covered in thick strands of red webbing, the air full of little floating red needles. Plague Doctor’s been here. And judging by the huge red pulsing mass of threads in the center of the city that looks oh so much like a spider’s egg sack, I just found its nest.
Chapter Twenty-Five
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The quest marker indicates that the red, skyscraper-sized egg sack is my destination. I must have to take an egg out of it. The entire city between it and me is wrapped up in a network of crimson webbing like Vegas. There’s no telling what is hiding beneath all that nastiness. And of course, there’s a damn good chance that Plague Doctor is around. If Xenatlas is out of my weight class, Plague Doctor is out of my league entirely. It wouldn’t even be a contest between us.
The overwhelming power of the webbing and needles they unleash back in Vegas suddenly makes sense. They weren’t designed with humans in mind. They were meant for other kaiju. The fact that humans are so strongly affected isn’t surprising anymore. It’s like hunting squirrels with a Browning Machine Gun. The impact is so overwhelming that there’s nothing left of the target.
Like Titanocobra, Plague Doctor is a freaking anti-kaiju weapon. There’s no other reason for its weaponry or build. It makes a weird sort of sense now that I’ve seen the creature’s work in this light.
What doesn’t make sense is the fact that this city is wrapped up like this after all the damage me and the other players have wrought across this world. I wouldn’t think that the aliens could afford to sacrifice anymore of their cities, not even to one of their massive pets. Maybe they haven’t been sending it after us. I don’t know which thought is more disturbing, the idea that the aliens are willing to sacrifice one of their remaining cities to this monstrosity, or the idea that Plague Doctor, and possibly Titanocobra, were never really under their control.
Right now, it’s not something I can afford to worry about. I wasted enough time circumnavigating Xenatlas to get here and now I’ve got two options. Firstly, I can try to navigate my way through those webs with Taisaur like a sexy thief in a heist movie avoiding lasers. I have zero confidence in my ability to accomplish this at all, let alone in a timely manner. No disrespect to my kaiju, Taisaur’s just not built to do that kind of gymnastics and there are way too many webs. And it’s only a matter of time before whatever they’re concealing leaps out to bite me on the as
s.
So, I go with option two.
I think about why I’m here. I think about Senator Church’s attempts to use me as a scapegoat for this whole fiasco. I think about Mom and her ALS and how brutally I rushed out of her life. I think about Dane dropping a fucking kaiju on me. I think of Dad. Dead. His last words about his wife instead of Mom.
Taisaur doesn’t have tear ducts or I’d be crying. Not because focusing on these memories saddens me, though it does, but because I’m so fucking furious right now I don’t think I could help but shed tears. The world doesn’t make any fucking sense and all it wants to do is hurt me and everyone else in it and it needs to fucking burn.
My rage meter bursts with energy, shining and pulsing. Good. I need all it can give me.
I activate the Burning Aurora and charge straight into the mass of webs.
They give way to me like real spider silk would to a blowtorch. They disintegrate at my passing and come down. Cloud upon cloud of needles is released into the air until the sky is full of them. The Burning Aurora incinerates all of them as they drift near me. Buildings collapse. More webbing falls. More needles are released. My rage meter steadily drops.
I’m a third of the way there and my rage meter’s a quarter depleted. Good. It’s going to be tight but if I can just get to the egg and rip it free of the egg sack before the needles completely destroy me after the Burning Aurora fades away I can logout with my prize. Quest complete, bitches.
I’m hit from the side by something about half Taisaur’s size. It’s the same color and consistency of a maggot. It doesn’t make it through the Burning Aurora, but its many legs scrabble against it, the needle-like proboscis on its face stabs at me, as does the long stinger tail curling underneath it. At the impact with the Burning Aurora its many attacking limbs smoke and burn. The thing lets out a piteous wailing hiss and then I bring Taisaur’s glowing red tail around to pulp it. The crawly thing pops like a zit.
Now I know what’s waiting for me in the webbing. Young Plague Doctors that have already hatched. Oh God, please do not let this thing have left any eggs back in Vegas. The thought of more than just the one massive mama going around is absolutely terrifying.
Another squishy, soft-shelled adolescent hurls itself at me. I swat it away with my tail, the burning limb actually passing through it like a hot knife through butter. These things are weak as hell. But my rage meter is severely depleted and I’m no closer to my goal.
I put on a burst of speed and push forward again, tearing through more hollow structures and red webbing, sending up more needles and unleashing still more soft-shelled Plague Doctors. Creepy little bastards. I really don’t want to find out what they can do to me without the Burning Aurora active. If for no other reason than without the, admittedly gross cockroach-esque chitin of mama Plague Doctor, these things are so disgusting I don’t actually want to make contact with any of them.
I plow through everything in my way horns first, reach the egg sack, and shove a burning claw through the webbing to grab hold of a round object inside I’m confident is the egg I’m supposed to harvest.
That’s when my rage meter empties. Webbing meets Taisaur’s hand and forearm and burns. My HP bar begins to drop and my limb is smoking when I finally rip it free, leaving behind a good bit of flesh.
The needles hit next. The air is so thick with them that avoiding them is impossible and they descend upon Taisaur like a swarm of starving mosquitos. There’s no real damage immediately, but there is pain. Burning, itching, terribly agitating pain. It’s not the pain of a bug bite, it’s the pain of a freshly scratched poison ivy rash multiplied exponentially.
As a human, those needles hurt when they stab me, but that’s it. As Taisaur it’s the opposite. Whatever venom or poison they’ve got inside of them reacts once it’s inside of his body. I roar in sudden agony following the initially painless contact and leave myself open for one of the adolescents that’s caught up.
It hits me in the side and repeatedly stabs me with that damn stinger. Each hit takes only a sliver of HP but it leaves bits of red webbing behind, binding and burning. Then that horrible proboscis slams into my neck. I watch Taisaur’s blood flow through its white, and as it turns out semi-transparent, body, abruptly creating a red bloat in its abdomen and dropping a sizeable chunk from Taisaur’s HP.
I rip the vamiric bastard in half, showering myself in a mixture of maggoty guts and my own blood. I roar in victory, in pain, and in disgust. This is hands down the worst time I have ever had playing this game. I can feel the slime of my dead enemy sliding down Taisaur’s body and getting tangled and caught on the needles sticking out of me and the webbing still sticking and burning into my flesh.
Taisaur’s HP drops. I spin about trying to find the threat. Then realize there isn’t one. The adolescents are keeping their distance. It’s the webbing and needles. They’re poisoning me. If Taisaur’s HP wasn’t as stupidly high as I’d made it we’d already have died.
But I’ve got the egg. Mission accomplished and quest complete, mother fucker. I try to logout.
I can’t.
What the hell? I demand. Why can’t I log out?
It is a status effect of Plague Doctor’s webbing, my AI supplies helpfully, saying Plague Doctor’s name with an odd emphasis that makes me think its substituting for another word entirely.
Wait, so as long as I have the webbing on me I can’t logout?
That is correct, Mr. Moretti.
An enormous, spidery limb comes down next to me. I look up into the needle-beaked face of Plague Doctor. The giant, insectile kaiju is even more terrible up close. I can see all the little spikes and slight movement beneath its brownish chitin.
The proboscis slams down and I activate my Burning Aurora.
I’ve barely recovered any rage and what I have evaporates in a flash of rippling red light that comes into existence only long enough to keep me from getting skewered. The force of the impact however drives Taisaur to his knees. And now I’ve got no rage left.
I’m going to die. Plague Doctor’s wicked tail is curling up behind it, ready to launch down and finish me off.
AI, how the fuck do I activate that Burst Mode thing? I roar.
Burst Mode Activated!
Veins of crimson flow across Taisaur, like his blood vessels have all decided to light up with red light, just like his stripes do whenever I use Burning Aurora.
The massive stinger slams into my gut and lifts me into the air. The pain is excruciating. I can actually feel the poison pumping into my chest cavity, which is definitely too crowded with this thing sticking up into me from under my ribs. I’m moving toward the proboscis, about to be eaten alive, my fluids all sucked out.
Alive…I’m alive. I’m not dead.
I glance at my HP bar. Its length has doubled and the amount remaining has increased accordingly. It’s dropping fast, but it’s not empty. I’m not dead. Burst Mode apparently gives Taisaur a crap-ton more HP. Why the hell wasn’t I using this earlier? With this much HP I could probably stay in any fight indefinitely.
I swing Taisaur’s tail around and crack Plague Doctor across the face. The colossal kaiju staggers back and the motion jostles me loose from its stinger. I hit the ground running. Burst Mode or no, I’m in no condition to try fighting it. My quest is to logout with the egg, which I miraculously haven’t dropped.
I race down the path I cleared out on my way through, doing my damndest not to get any more of that horrible webbing on me. I need to put as much distance between me and Plague Doctor, then rip off the webbing still clinging to me before my HP runs out and then logout with the egg.
None of the baby bug kaiju jump out at me and I’m out of the city. Yes!
I stagger to a halt and begin ripping the webbing free of myself.
Something comes at me from the side and I leap away. Not fast enough. Whatever it is grazes me and the force sends my off-balance kaiju tumbling and our HP drops down to a
sliver. The obnoxious bell-like music that indicates death is near begins to chime over and over again.
I push myself upright and realize I’ve lost the egg.
Xenatlas stands only a short way off.
In his immense digging claws is the egg.
PLAGUE DOCTOR
Chapter Twenty-Six
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I leap back and away as he tries to charge me. Xenatlas isn’t agile but he is fast. Not as fast as Taisaur but with that much mass he doesn’t have to be in order to be dangerous. Especially not when a single hit from him will end me.
He bellows and unleashes a miniature White Hole. I dodge this too and it flies past me, careening through the red webbed city behind me.
It’s then that I notice that I’m no longer in Burst Mode. Apparently, there’s a time limit. I try to activate it again and am met by a hollow chime.
Burst Mode is in cooldown and cannot be used for another twenty-four hours, the AI says cheerfully.
A twenty-four-hour cooldown? Those bastards! I got ripped off. I got fucking ripped off. The buff lasted all of what? A minute at most? Maybe two? That sucks. At least it pulled my ass out of the frying pan. Unfortunately, now I’m in the fire.
Hypocrite, Xenatlas snarls, holding up the egg. It shouldn’t surprise me that in the middle of this shitstorm you’re still taking on missions for the Game Masters.
It’s not what it looks like! Screw it. I don’t have time to stand around and argue with him.
I dart forward and lash out with my tail. He catches the blow on the arm and I watch the sadly miniscule amount of damage it inflicts upon his HP. Great. Only a thousand more hits like that to go.
Fine, he says. That’s how you want to do this? I’ll go ahead and crush this thing. His claws squeeze the egg. It doesn’t crack, but the leathery sides start to give under the pressure.
Kaiju for Dummies Page 13