Emergence: Kaiju Invasion

[Godzilla165]

Back at the foster home

Even though it was extremely late at night, Laurence, instead of going to bed, stayed up and watched some old movies in front of the living room TV.

“What’re we watchin’?” A familiar voice suddenly asked.

Laurence craned his neck around to see Mr. H standing behind him with a paper plate in his hand, whilst stuffing something in his mouth. Laurence gave the man a tired smile and returned to the movie. Mr. H followed the boy’s gaze and laid witness to a grey lizard and a Power Ranger robot, fighting against a green chicken with hooks and a giant beetle with drills for hands. Bobby’s eyes instantly lit up, and before Laurence knew it, he had plopped down on the couch behind him.

“SWEET, Godzilla vs. Megalon! This is a classic right here!” Bobby exclaimed.

Laurence looked at Mr. H in surprise, “you know about Godzilla?”

“But of course. I happen to be a connoisseur of all things G-Man!” Bobby proudly proclaimed. “I used to have quite the collection of Godzilla figures when I was your age, Laury; I forget what ever happened to those things.”

Laurence drooped his bottom lip some, “well that sucks, maybe you could’ve passed them down to me one day.”

Bobby nodded slowly, “yeah, sorry about that kid; those things were freaking awesome too. I had this one that had a long red tongue, and a giant freakin’ fist that shot out like Voltron!”

Laurence’s eyes lit up with excitement and gave an inaudible, “whoaaa”.

Bobby chuckled, “yep, it was pretty darn cool. Tell ya what, maybe tomorrow you and I can hit up a couple pawn shops and see if we can get lucky, eh?”

Laurence nodded enthusiastically, and noticed whatever Mr. H was chowing down on. “What even is that?”

“Mmm,” Bobby responded with a mouthful of food, “it’s some of that leftover birthday cake from Diane’s party. Want some?”

“No thanks, who eats birthday cake while watching a movie anyway?” Laurence laughed.

Bobby looked down at the piece of sugary goodness and shrugged. “I dunno, kid... Something about it just feels right today.”

Laurence rolled his eyes and laughed again, before he and Bobby looked just in time to see the monster now known as, “Godzilla”, slide on his tail and kick the giant beetle right in his chest. They both hooped quietly in sheer happiness and began cheering Godzilla on, and were quickly rewarded when Godzilla did it again a second time. His infamous roar soon filled the living room, and echoed throughout the house.

[Zarm]

Asyrax stood on the shore of the lake like a golden-pink statue, steam rising from its gkowing surface. It was beyond the tentacle range of its stunned adversary, planning.

Inside, it processed what it had taken; further absorption could wait. While inclement action was the only remedy to its current challenges, Asyrax calculated maximum value in inaction. Extremes of epidermal heat-stress lessened with every passing second; comensurately, Asyrax calculated a 73.923% probability that its opponent would be weakening every second that it was deprived of favorable environmental conditions.

When it stirred, Asyrax could strike. Until then, the passage of time was beneficial. With two targets, both passive, the biding of time conveyed advantage- and preparation to attack whichever target prioritized itself.

Before Asyrax- its back seemingly to Thanatos- the surface of the molten pool rippled tranquilly, the only sign of recent, violent action within- and a brief, silent lull fell over the heart of the conflict.

***

Location: The Strategy Room

The large screen displaying a situation map of the world, the central feature of the chamber's far end, litup abruptly with a grainy video feed, startling five men out of an uncomfortable silence. As it had turned out, five career military men from different cultures with the weight of the world on their shoulders did not make for excellent small talk. Even the verbose General Gamal had eventually petered out in the silence, after failing to engage any of his companions.

Bridgewell squinted up at the display; it was too large to takein all at once, the ornate table that they occupied set too close to it, and it was almost painful how low-resolution the feed was when blown up on a monitor that dwarfed even an IMAX screen.

He only had a moment to wince at the logistical blunders before his attention was stolen by the poorly-depicted subject.

The alien being, like a large beetle, sat partly obscured beneath a small pile of sand in the foreground. Several interpreters and staffers were visible in the background- but the apparently-incompetent cameraman had, for some reason, framed the scarab-creature abnormally high, near the top of the image, leaving a large blank span of floor at the foot of the sand-pile as the bottom of the image.

Bridgewell could only hope that the hastily-assembledpresentation of the Council on the other end was a bit more technically-competent.

Clearing his throat, he turned and nodded to General Li, who stepped forward to address the creature with what they had agreed would be their introduction and leading question. After that... its answers would dictate the flow of conversation.

[JAGzilla]

Li cleared his throat quietly, briefly taking in the alien visitor's bizarre appearance and contemplating how very odd it was to be holding his (indeed one of humanity's) first true conversation with a non-human. He'd had pets over the years he'd spoken to innumerable times, of course, but it wasn't as though they understood more that the barest gist of what he said. This creature, from what he'd been told, would not only understand him in detail, but would be able to reply in kind. The awkward realization came to him that he'd also never had to worry about offending a dog, but who knew what Ba-Pef's cultural taboos might be, especially considering that they'd likely be discussing how best to destroy creatures that may well have been this thing's relatives. He'd just have to tread as carefully as he could, and hope.

"Greetings, Ba-Pef," he began, trying to speak very clearly without coming across as condescending. "I am General Li. My associates (he indicated them with a sweep of his hand) and I form the United Nations' Council of Five, and have been entrusted by our people to coordinate humanity's defensive efforts for the duration of the present crisis. We are thankful that you've chosen to come forward and open a dialogue with us, and hope that this conference will be mutually beneficial. We'd like to start by getting better acquainted with you. Will you tell us what role you play in all of this? Do you speak for your kind in any sort of official capacity?"

[Dawsbfiremind]

Kiara looked up at Ba-Pef, nodding.

Ba-Pef looked down at the pile of sand in front of him, humming softly, and extended his segmented hands. It's been awhile since I've done this...
The sand hissed, streams of it spreading across the ground as it formed into two words.

Greetings Five.

Ba-Pef's wings fluttered. Focus...
The sand shifted again.

I speak for those of us who have not yet arrived, those of the Artemian Revolt. Our role is the mutual preservation of our home worlds.

[Andrew the Gojifan]

Thanatos growled. He had learned enough from what had just occured. He walked towards Asyrax, a mad plan in mind.

[Zarm]

"There are more en route?" Bridgewell growled to himself.

More kaiju in the world was not on the agenda. Not even if...

"Revolt?" he spoke up. "Are you a part of some sort of... resistance? A rebellion against some governmental structure or organization?"

***

Asyrax detected movement; Thanatos was approaching. He had regained his lost mass, just as Asyrax had. Asyrax ran the numbers.

Projectile fire had proved ineffective against Thanatos with the materials at hand. Incendiary fire had proved only mildly more effective. Two alternative approaches presented themselves.

Thanatos had evidenced two forms of attack; a direct bite which might prove difficult and painful with its current heated epidermis, and showcased limited efficacy- and a far more powerful attack that Asyrax had proven able to sustain, followed by a mass reduction that would almost certainly allow for several execution strategies.

If Thanatos behaved logically, it was, in essence, a stalemate- until time and processing could turn that tide. Electing to ignore the approach of a foe that would either do minimal harm or open itself up to annihilation, Asyrax shifted into gunnery mode and began to probe Kronos' exterior with a barrage of hardened granite projectiles.

[Billzilla1974]

Ignus Lung felt the roar of the enraged ursine in his very bones, Tyrosus had survived all 30 seconds of the his fire breath, although the attack was powerful enough to burn his fur and even some of his skin, the damage only seemed to make Tyrosus even more ferocious. Hesitation, and momentary fatigue from using all of his fire breath at once, prevented the fire dragon from evading the great bear's shredder breath. Draconian toe claws carved trenches in the now heat-hardened ground, as the 6,000 ton reptile was pushed back by the beam's force. "RrrrrrnnnaaaAA!!" Ignus reared his head back and shouted in pain, feeling the shredder breath punching into his chest with incredible pressure. As the Rex of the north ceased firing, Ignus staggered for a moment, putting his hands to his knees, before straightening back up.

Breathing heavily, the crimson beast examined his chest, two of his golden plates were drilled through, with a couple above and below them having several cracks formed on them. Orange, molten blood flowed from the wound, with a few, sizzling drops the size of people splashing onto the ground. Thankfully, there were perks to living under several miles of magma & volcanic rock, as the injury was much shallower than expected, with Ignus's pressure hardened scales taking the brunt of the damage. Deciding that the injury could be ignored for the moment, the greenish-hazel eyes of Ignus lung focused on Tyrosus, preparing to counterattack.

The lung could sense his friend Tekuta, as well as the vampiric Sangrazotz carrying his frigid counterpart to safety. As much as the serpentine kaiju wanted to argue with Tekuta the moment he screamed to that "mind controlling bastard" for help, he knew it was better than letting their mysterious ally die to the angry Tyrosus. Having decided upon a new attack plan, Ignus suddenly launched himself toward the bear kaiju at Mach 4, seemingly aiming for his chest, only to rocket upwards at the last second, landing a swift uppercut on Tyrosus's chin with his right fist with an echoing boom, before flying out of the range of the Rex's claws milliseconds later. Turning around, the Monster of Myth flew in, prepared to punch the wall of muscle and burnt fur again from behind.

[JAGzilla]

A sudden, deeply unpleasant sensation jolted Kronos back to his senses. What... ow… it... he couldn't... he jerked and writhed, trying to figure out what was going on. Pain? Whoa! He'd forgotten all about pain. He hadn't felt it in so long, but now it was everywhere, and it... ow! It HURT! He didn't like it at all. His chin and mouth hurt from whatever that impact had been, and now sharp jabs of pain, smaller impacts, were raking quickly across his stomach and flippers, and wouldn't stop…

He let out a long, high groan of annoyance and confusion, flailing his flippers as he tried to roll over... there. Awkwardly righting himself, he turned to face the pool, crying out again as the stream of incessant pain left his body and moved to his face. What the heck was doing this?! Blinking, he tried to force his eyes to focus, and made out a blurry image of his obnoxiously tough toy, standing further down the shoreline, and it was... he squinted... throwing things at him, or something? Tiny blurs, almost too fast to see, streaked toward him and pelted against his scales like rapid-fire punches. Aha! So they were causing the pain! After a few seconds, he couldn't take any more, and swung his head wildly from side to side, trying and failing to get away from the barrage.

He turned and crawled clumsily toward his home... no, wait those were trees... he groaned again in pain and frustration. The constant impacts mingled with the ridiculously cold air to make him shudder and shiver, made it hard to think or focus...

Oh! Duh! A possible way out occurred to him, and he whirled (slowly) back around to face his attacker. All right, fine. It wanted to play rough, did it? He'd play its game, and do it a lot better...

Roaring a challenge, he opened his jaws wide, trying to ignore the pellets that now slammed into his tongue and bounced off his teeth... energy rippled through his body and worked its way up his throat... with a sizzling, crackling hum, a wide beam of hazy light streaked forth, instantly making contact with the towering brute. Kronos chuckled to himself as he waited for the inevitable screams of agony as the thing felt its very molecules dying one by one...

[Dawsbfiremind]

Ba-Pef took a deep breath through his sides, manipulating the sand again.

Our revolt is why Earth still exists.

He manipulated the sand to show four spheres.

As well as our worlds: Duat, Shambala, Tamoanchan, Valhalla, Rome Prime,

A fifth sphere, shown split in two, joined the others.

and the fallen Olympus. We rebel against the Titans and those who side with them.

[Godzilla165]

Strategy Room


Hayden took as many notes down as he could, whilst secretly recording the conversation with his phone stuffed securely inside his pants pocket. This, “Ba-Pef”, was certainly intriguing to say the least. Though, Hayden wondered if the being could truly be trusted. He peered up at Amelia far in front of him, and even though Hayden couldn’t see her face, he had enough experience to tell from her position and subtle mannerisms that she had a tinge of skepticism towards Ba-Pef.

And Amelia was skeptical of Ba-Pef, if for the sole reason of him being a life form from a different world. How did anyone currently inside the Strategy room know if they could trust Ba-Pef and his ilk? Without warning, Amelia stood from her chair and approached a bit closer.

“If you all would please excuse my rude interruption”, Amelia began and turned to face Ba-Pef, “My name is Amelia McClain, I am a British Diplomatic Advisor, and I currently have a few... Concerns regarding the situation at hand here.”

Hayden stopped taking notes entirely to see what she was going to say next, and if she was going to echo his same sentiments.

“I know that you spoke of a mutual relationship between our kind and yours, due to us sharing a common enemy with each other, and ultimately trying to save what we refer to as, ‘home’, from the very same creatures that threaten them both.” Amelia paused for a moment to gather all of her thoughts together first, and then proceeded with a stern and solemn expression. “But, with all due respect to you and your people, Ba-Pef... How do we as a people know that we can trust yours? What type of assurance do we have from you that you wouldn’t possibly attack us when we are at our most vulnerable? Because, if what you say is true, and there are more of these things arriving as we speak, our kind needs to be ready for anything and everything, including even potential war.”

The room was silent at this point, which in turn made Amelia feel the tiniest bit embarrassed. She knew she might have been severely overstepping her position then, but honestly, she didn’t care; she had to know where this literal alien being was coming from. James looked on at Ba-Pef, curious to here what his response would be. He didn’t even try to stop Amelia from doing what she just did, because he had had the chance, he would’ve asked the exact same thing.

[KaijuCanuck]

Lord Hunter stiffened in his seat at Amelia's brash interjection. It would not do to call her out in front of Ba-Pef, and betray any sort of weakness or lack of solidarity amongst the humans - but he simply couldn't sanction representatives of his own country making the situation any more unpredictable than it already was. He stood up, quickly shooting Amelia a cold, disciplinary stare - and then addressed Ba-Pef himself.

"We are prepared to defend our planet from any threat, that is true. You must understand our apprehension at these... intrusions by your kind. My own home is this very instant being overrun with monsters. You say it is because of you that we still exist... but to us it seems like we are under attack. Why have the kaiju come? Why are they attacking us?"

[JAGzilla]

Li actually found himself grateful for McClain's interruption. Unprofessional and accusatory as it may have been, it had kept the conversation on track. The creature's bombshell of a last statement, concerning as it had the apparent actual existence of various realms depicted in ancient human religions, had threatened to steer things in a very different direction. A whole host of new questions had come to Li's mind, none of which had much to do with the immediate realities of the kaiju conflict. Even if he was not sure he wanted the answers to come from a giant alien cockroach, he might well have been unable to hold his tongue had the diplomat not jumped in. She and Hunter were quite right, of course. There was no reason to assume they could trust a word Ba-Pef said, and either way the crisis needed to be the focus now. But he couldn't help but look at the creature differently than he had a moment ago, and in a way that made him feel small and cold. Could that chitinous face, with its compound eyes and waving antennae, possibly be the face of humanity's true God?

[Zarm]

Bridgewell's eyes narrowed, and he motioned his aid over as he waited for the alien creature to answer Hunter's unfortunately-provocative question. Diplomacy was rapidly giving way to accusation- a trajectory that had been launched by a civilian observer whose career he intended to ensure ended today, and forever.

"Contact security," he murmured, as the aid bent low. "Get that woman out of here. And make sure security knows that any further interjections are to be met with zero tolerance. We have five people designated to represent the planet in first contact with an alien being; if our advisers aren't mature or intelligent enough to hold their damn tongues, I'll have the room cleared for the duration."

As the aid bustled off, Bridgewell tried to hide his scowl and returned to the screen. Perhaps the most important negotiation in human history, and they were lucky enough to to have a professional diplomat that thought she was in Howdy Doody's peanut gallery.

[Dawsbfiremind]

A blue light pulsed from Ba-Pef's chest as he rose up, shouting in his incomprehensible speech of instectile buzzing. "We are not beasts, mortal-

"Ba-Pef," Kiara shouted, motioning with her hands once he glanced at her. "They can't understand you. Use the sand."

Ba-Pef buzzed again, stretching his hands out and manipulating the sand.

Woman, I could wipe out your planet right now. Why don't I?

Kiara covered her face. "Not the way to go..."

And we are not "kaiju". They are formless primals, we are born of celestial tears and endowed with the hearts of suns. We are gods compared to you.

We do not destroy you because we honor your ancestors who fought alongside us, who buried some of our number. We in turn prevented the Great Destroyer from shattering your sphere of water and mud like it did Olympus.

But why now, you ask? The pulse. The Titans have awakened and taken the Destroyer back from the void it rested. Then you opened a new Gate in the Kalum-Kalar Waste. You let us in.

_______________________________________________________________________________________
Cairo

"You guys ready?"

"Depends. We going after the bug swarm or the Cobra?"

"The Swarm. Red's taking the Cobra."

[Zarm]

Gamal shifted in his seat as four pairs of inquiring eyes shifted toward him. He swallowed, hard, and struggled to find the cool-headed leader that had been cowed out of him by the immensity of his responsibility.

"I think, perhaps, that we labor under a misunderstanding. The project that opened this door was-"

He paused. He honestly didn't know its origins or intent; despite his various newly-minted clearances, the red tape had not yet unshrouded this detail.

"-An unfortunate error. However, I believe we may be laboring under misidentificaiton of factions. If our people and your own have a common past, it has been lost to our recorded history. If your revolt has indeed saved our world, we are grateful; but we did not know. Our ancestors failed to convey that knowledge to us. Until three days ago, we knew of no sentient races other than our own. There was no sign of kaiju, or any creature of such immensity on our world. Now, we have kaiju awoken from beneath our surface, others arriving through this gateway, some falling from the depths of space, and yet other beings- like yourselves- that we may have misidentified with the kaiju because, until now, we did not know the distinction. We only know that our small, insular world has been opened to many things we do not understand. Some of us are afraid, and challenge or fear what we do not know; others make wild assumptions. Our people die by the thousands, and we have no information or understanding about what is happening to us. We mean no offense to you; we labor to understand."

He stood, walking past Li and spreading his hands as he approached the screen.

"Please, be patient. If you can, explain- there is our people, and your people, that once fought together. There is a force against which you rebel; is it of your own kind, the kaiju, or another force entirely? There is a destroyer; is he of the kaiju, your people, the ones against whom you rebel, or a fourth faction? And which of these did we fight against in common cause before?"

He lowered his hands, clasping them before him, bowing his head in a gesture of respect.

"And the kaiju... what are they to you? The wild animals of your ecosystem? A plague? An enemy force? What are your intentions toward them? And toward us?"

[Dawsbfiremind]

Ba-Pef leaned back, re-forming the sand into a basketball-sized sphere surrounded by a crowd of minute sand-people.

The Primals have been on Earth much longer than us. You used their nectar to build the first Gate, and all the rest.

The sand formed a shape bursting from the sphere, the shape resembling a ball of flame with bird wings.

Ra was the first.

The sand formed into more spheres, dozens of shapes bursting from them. As each formed, the winged fireball flew to them.

More Gates, more worlds. Ra helped your ancestors construct them so an alliance across worlds could be formed: an alliance defending life from the Titans.

The sand formed into seven wavering figures resembling a human viewed from a thick veil of water. The figures turned to face each other and began to fight.

There were many once, before they massacred each other.

One of the figures ripped another in half. It fell apart, the sand falling through the air until it scattered on the ground.
Then, slowly, the sand formed into a tiny Ba-Pef, soon joined by other figures.

We are born from the blood of the fallen Titans. We can communicate across our worlds with our Hearts of Suns, but we were stranded on our own worlds until your ancestors built the Gates.

The Titan-figures disintegrated, re-forming into a beach ball-sized Earth appeared, a crowd of people on its surface. They threw small ropes into the air and pulled.
A Titan crashed into the Earth, lying still.

They had never been aware of your existence until one of those who remained found Earth and was slain by humans-

Small sand-kaiju, some of them familiar, rushed onto the Titan, tearing it to shreds.

...and the Primals. They knew it would threaten life on your planet and attacked it.

The sand shifted to show a group of Titans again, each of them holding a blade. They cut their arms, shaking drops of sand to the floor. The sand formed into a small human.

They sought to replicate you and so created the Delphics - humans made to be like us.

More Delphics formed before going to stand beside miniature figures, Ba-Pef and the winged fireball among them.

They were placed on our worlds, travelling to yours when the Gates opened.

The sand formed into another planet.

The Titans managed to find the metal deep within Earth - the same metal our armor is made from - deep in space, and used it to construct an alloy with the Black Steel found in the great voids. Out of this alloy they made Olympus, using their blood and the metal to construct beings like us:

A humanoid being, its body appearing to be made from metal plates, emerged from the sand.

The Olympians. What none of us knew was that they were an experiment to see if they could create the most powerful weapons ever seen.

Another, much smaller Olympian emerged from the sand and stood among an equally small crowd of figures.

Artemis was the first to discover this, and she told all off us as well as your ancestors.

The crowd turned on each other.

Some of us believed in siding with the Titans to preserve our own safety. The rest of us sided with Artemis and believed the Titans needed to be killed and their weapons destroyed.

The sand re-formed into a beach ball-sized Olympus. A moment later a marble-sized sphere crashed into its surface, shattering it in half. The small sphere unfolded into beetle and crawled across what remained, drawing sand off Olympus' surface and growing larger before curling up again and being picked up by a Titan and thrown through space.

Their weapon, the Great Destroyer Khepri, shattered Olympus first before being sent to Earth.

Khepri hurtled though the air, passing through a sand replica of Earth's solar system, before being caught by a four-armed humanoid, who when threw it into a large whirlpool.

One of our number, Kali, prevented it from destroying Earth and threw it into a great void.

The figures disappeared. Sand formed into Tiamat.

But now we have lost contact with Kali, and another one of us has confirmed Khepri has been freed from the void. The Titans have returned.

Tiamat disappeared.

Now so have we. We will defend all our worlds as we once did, starting with yours.

Kiara frowned up at him. "They're coming for Earth first?"

Ba-Pef looked down at her, sighed, and manipulated the sand again.

Ganesh believes the Primals awoke because they sense a threat. The Titans are coming here.

[Zarm]

"...Er, thank you for that," Bridgewell managed, into the stunned silence of the room. He wasn't sure that most of the people in the room had followed more than half of that, but...

At least they had a name for this 'destroyer' that Vosozum proclaimed. Khepri, weapon of the Titans. Hopefully one of the advisers could clue him in on Earth mythology connected to that later. In the meantime.

"We are, uh- appreciative of Kali's actions on our behalf, and sorry for her... endangerment. Do you have any kind of ETA- that is, do you have any idea how long it will be until this Khepri arrives? And in the mean time- we are having difficulty with these 'primals' alone, much less anything more advanced; do your people have a way of containing or destroying them? If we're going to be defending our world against Khepri, we certainly don't need to be fighting the kaiju on a second front, if we can-"

Gamal interrupted, stepping in front of the screen and speaking over him.

"Thank you for the enlightenment. We have many questions yet, but these two are most of consequence- there is a swarm of smaller creatures ravaging the land in which you reside. Do you have any way of stopping them? We're all-but powerless to stop even the smallest kaiju. And while you have been generous with your information, we do not wish to try your patience. What would you seek in recompense for the knowledge and the assistance? Is there anything we can do to aid you?"

Bridgewell stared at the Egyptian's back, agape. Had the nitwit just admitted to a foreign power that they lacked the technology to stop both the kaiju, and these kaiju-in-all-but-name? Had he just tipped Earth's entire hand in the process of groveling in front of this unverified quantity?

Lacking the ability to do anything within the bounds of decorum to react appropriately, Bridgewell could only bury his head in his hands.

Well, Earth had had a good run while it lasted.

[Dawsbfiremind]

Earth, 10,721 years before current events

“So Olympus is dead,” Ba-Pef said. “And all because we didn't act on Artemis' words...”

Ganesh leaned back, his tusks pointing to the ceiling. “It was a disaster built by the father Titans, Ba-Pef. Acting on it would have been difficult regardless of time.”

“I know,” Ba-Pef said. “What difference does it make at this point? We can’t do anything about them.”

“We can kill them,” said a massive humanoid crocodile, a long-handled hammer at his side. “It was done before.”

“But we don’t know how,” another kaiju, a feathered serpent with four wings, said.

“More importantly it’s sacrilege,” a short kaiju with the head of an ibis said. “If it is the Titan’s will to destroy us, then let it be-”

The crocodile swung his hammer down, nearly hitting the much smaller bird kaiju.

“Wait.”

The kaiju gathered in the massive temple turned, squinting at the glaring illumination emanating from another humanoid kaiju, spreading from his body out to a pair of wings.

“Brother Ra,” a jackal-headed kaiju said. “What is it?”

Ra stopped in the center of the room. “One of them wants to speak with one of us in the In-Between.”

The crocodile lifted his hammer. “I’ll go.”

“They wish to speak with someone reasonable,” Ra said. The light turned with his head. “Ba-Pef?”

Ba-Pef straightened. “I will go. Show me the door.”

Ra turned, reaching out his arms and drawing a circle in the air, some of the light remaining behind. “Our hopes go with you, brother.”

Ba-Pef stepped through the circle.
_________________________________________________________________
His compound eyes focused, searching for shapes amidst the surrounding fog as the light circle continued to buzz around him. “I am told one of you wanted to speak.”

The fog parted, revealing a mirror of Ba-Pef’s own face made of the fog itself, the face at least fifty times Ba-Pef’s size.

“Dear, dear child. Why do you come here expecting conflict?”

Ba-Pef stared up at the Titan’s face. “Show your true form and I’ll tell you.”

The fog swirled. “You stand in it, child. We are immaterial. We are material. We are that which makes and which is made.”

Ba-Pef tracked the fog’s motion with his gaze. “You destroyed Olympus.”

“Is that what Baren told you?”

“That is what Bellona told me. She was there.”

The fog formed a massive recreation of Bellona’s face. “So she says.”

“I believe her.”

The cloud flashed orange. “And not your deity?”

Ba-Pef tilted his head. “What did you want to talk about?”

The Titan blinked. “We want you to do something for us. Fail, and we will not stop Khepri from attacking your worlds.”

Ba-Pef sighed. “What?”

The face disappeared from view again. “Destroy Earth. They are by far the most threatening faction sided against us. Against you.”

“Why not destroy the others instead?”

“Nu Wa still holds power. Baren is unpredictable. The others...they are enigmatic. Earth is contained. Destroy Earth for us.”

“Why couldn’t you do it yourself?”

The Titan reappeared, a vague humanoid form hovering in the fog. “This is a test of faith, Ba-Pef.”

Ba-Pef sighed again. “How many of you are there?”

“We are infinite.”

Ba-Pef nodded. “We will consider.”

The fog swirled, gathering into a sphere high above Ba-Pef. “We await your answer.”

[Zarm]

As Asyrax anticipated, there was more to this foe than simple grappling; this was proving a statistically-common trait of kaiju. Confirmation of expected data did little to negate the awareness of mild damage to its structural systems, however- and before it was able to shift the molecules of its body to negate the worst of the damage, Asyrax registered an unfortunate loss of molecular mass.

Several seconds of contact- which might have appeared as dull stupidity to an outside observer- allowed sluggish processors to complete an analysis. Against biological tissue, such an attack would be devastating; event he molecular cohesion of its own form was disrupted where such components shared a partial quality, and prolonged contact was doing damage.

As the beam continued to tear against its torso, Asyrax processed. Current materials for projectiles were proving of the same low effectiveness as the beam against itself; the other primary ranged option, incendiary attacks, were unlikely to be effective against a creature whose natural habitat was immersion in molten material. Asyrax's most effective attacks would be close-range, but simply making its way upstream against the force of the beam registered as a wasteful accumulation of harm to itself.

Slowly, ponderously, Asyrax began to walk sideways. The beam remained constant, tearing and blazing against its chest- the mounting frustration of its opponent evident as he poured more and more fury into the attack.

Asyrax sent out several subtle seismic pulses, testing- cognizant of the mounting damage that was slowly accumulating from exposure to the beam. It came to a stop, processors already running through potential follow-up scenarios to the intended maneuver; its effectiveness would undoubtedly be brief.

For a moment, it simply stood there, internal compnents shifting, preparing as the beam broke against it and tore at its molecular bonds.

And then, Asyrax sprung into action- altering its form. An an instant, it widened, elongating- middle distending and parting to form a ring. At the same time, it fired off a single, high-powered incendiary shot, and activated a rocket-burst from its now-useless bow-legged supports. Before it could topple off of the legs that were now too narrowly placed to support its wider form, it was darting forward through the air, the beam- for a second or two, at least, before its startled adversary could respond and readjust- passing through its new central hole to strike at the target Asyrax had placed itself directly in front of: Thanatos. Whose reaction to the flesh-flaying beam would be complicated by the impact of the fiery explosive that Asyrax had launched his way as well.

Asyrax arced through the air, about to land in a heap in front of Kronos- where it would lose several valuable seconds reassembling its for to stability and regaining equilibrium- before it could begin delivering the far more effective punishment that it was capable up close. And perhaps, if the foe demonstrated a predictable, manipulatable quality... further harness its far-more-effective anti-organic weaponry against Thanatos.

If the next several seconds did not turn the battle against it in an unanticipated manner as both combatants reacted to its strategy.

With a clatter of gangly, distended parts already laboring to reassemble into a more orderly manner, Asyrax hit the shoreline of the lakeside, only a few yards from Kronos, and promptly toppled over.

[JAGzilla]

Kronos belatedly cut off his beam, turned to face his now-fallen enemy. His mouth hung open in surprise and confusion. Of all the reactions he'd expected, that had not been one. He eyed the thing warily, taking in its drastically altered shape. It was a giant ring, now, with arms and legs. How the...?

Well, whatever. It was down, now, and that was what counted. It looked like it might not stay that way for long, though; the whole body was slowly shifting again, like it was trying to return to its previous form. Was it actually hurt, or not? It was still disconcertingly silent, not a single scream or even a whimper revealing any sign of pain.

But Kronos had an advantage, now, and he was going to press it. Lurching ponderously closer to the creature, he located its head. Or... well, the top part of its body, at least, which had eyes and looked sort of like a head. Roaring a gruesome promise, he heaved the front half of his body upward, resting precariously on his rear flippers for a moment, and then-

WHAPP!

With a thunderous slap and a tremor that shook half the island, he brought his bulk crashing down upon the writhing ring-beast's 'head'. Tilting his head back, he let loose a moaning laugh of vindictive glee into the night sky, then shifted his weight around, brutally grinding his victim into the dirt...