This may come as a surprise to some of you; I actually have interests besides Halo and Mass Effect. I know, right? Weird. One of the big ones is Kaiju, my first true geek love. The thing I've been geeing out about ever since I was just three years old. I could give you the whole story but really, that's what my tumblr account is for. All you need to know right now is that this is a fanfic that has been taking shape in my mind ever since I saw a certain summer blockbuster….

….

They say that monsters aren't born. They're created.

The first Kaiju attack happened in 1954. A giant reptilian monster rose out of the sea and burned the city of Tokyo to the ground. Thousands died during the First Kaiju's rampage. Thousands more died of radiation poisoning not long after. Nobody knew where it came from, but the radiation poisoning revealed that nukes were involved. Some say the beast was born from all the H-bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean that the United States were conducting. Others say it was born from the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After several failed attempts to take him out the old fashioned way, the Japanese used a new super weapon, dubbed the Oxygen Destroyer by its creator, a chemist named Daisuke Serizawa. It worked. It killed the First Kaiju but killed all marine life in Tokyo Bay with it. The weapon was deployed by Dr. Serizawa himself, but he sacrificed his life in the process. He burned all of his research notes and documents on the weapon beforehand to prevent it from being replicated, believing that his creation was too horrible to ever be used again.

The people of Japan grieved, rebuilt, and moved on. Dr. Kyohei Yamane, a Japanese paleontologist, publicly warned against further nuclear testing, saying that the First Kaiju won't be the last, that he was just a harbinger of things to come. In retrospect, we should've listened. But we didn't. All throughout the mid to late 20th century the United States, Soviet Union, the British, the French, the Chinese, the Israelites, everyone that could build nukes tested them on remote islands in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. For decades, we didn't see any ill effects.

Then in 2005, Dr. Yamane's warning finally came true. It happened again. A giant ankylosaur went on a rampage in San Francisco. Over half a year later, a pair of mutant pterodactyls tore Manila apart. A few months after that, a flying lizard attacked Cabo. And then we learned….

This was not gonna stop.

It didn't take long to realize that your run-of-the-mill tanks and fighter jets aren't gonna cut it against monsters like these. So we started making better tanks and better jets, specially outfitted with weaponry specifically designed to fight kaiju.

But they still couldn't cut it. The most they could do was slow a Kaiju down before they inevitably tore our cities apart and killed thousands. We didn't think things could get much worse.

Then in 2014, he came back.

The First Kaiju. No one knows for sure how he came back. Some say that it was a different one of the same species. Others say it was the original's son, all grown up and eager to avenge its father. A few have even said it was the original, back from the dead to wreak its horrible vengeance.

However he came back, his return made us realize that we needed something else. Something more. Tanks and planes weren't cutting it. The most they could do was slow a Kaiju down before it inevitably leveled a whole city and killed tens of thousands. That's when we realized that in order to fight monsters, we needed to create monsters of our own. We needed a new weapon.

The Jaeger Program was born.

The idea was to build huge robots to fight the Kaiju one-on-one. We've seen Kaiju fight each other to the death before, so we knew it was possible to beat them if we could build Kaiju of our own. During the trial phases, we learned that the neural interface to pilot these robots, these Jaegers, was too much for one pilot to handle. So we came up with a new system. Docs call it the PONS System. Most of us just call it the Drift.

Two pilots instead of one. Our minds and our memories connected. It allowed both pilots to share the neural load and more easily control the Jaeger. The more in sync the pilots are, the more effectively the jaeger fights.

They worked. Out of everything else we've ever come up with, the Jaeger Program was, and still is, the best way to keep the Kaiju in check. We were finally taking the world back from the Kaiju. We were the masters of our world once again.

We had forgotten the original lesson taught to us by the First Kaiju. That sometimes, the worst monsters are the ones we create ourselves.

…..

PPDC Anchorage Shatterdome

2020

…..

Raleigh's eyes snapped open at the blaring of alarms. The very next second, he was up and moving. "Come on, come on, wake up." Raleigh said as he beat on his brother Yancy's chest like a bongo drum as he slept in the bottom bunk. Yancy lazily swatted a hand at him, but he was too slow. Raleigh was already at the sink freshening up.

"What time is it?" Yancy groggily asked as he summoned all of his will to crawl out of the bed.

"Four." Raleigh quickly answered.

"In the morning?" Yancy demanded.

"Yep." Raleigh replied. He threw a cold wet towel at Yancy's head. "Come on, get it together Yancy. We gotta be in Gipsy in five." Yancy only grumbled in reply before he finally mustered the will to rise out of the bed and follow his younger brother out.

The Becket brothers made their way out of the shatterdome's barracks and towards the fitting room where members of Gipsy Danger's'pit crew' outfitted them with their drivesuits. As the crew helped the Becket brothers into their suits, Tendo Choi's voice came over the intercom. "Morning gentlemen." he greeted.

"Morning, Tendo." Raleigh cheerfully replied. Yancy simply grumbled some more. "What have we got today?"

"Category three kaiju heading straight for Anchorage." Tendo explained. "Sonar buoys have given us a positive ID. It's Ebirah."

"The shrimp?" Yancy asked. "What's he doing this far north?"

"Well, it is King Crab season out in the Bering." Raleigh pointed out. "Maybe he's looking to get lucky?" he joked.

"More likely there's something in Anchorage that he's hot for." Tendo replied. "He's really hauling ass."

"How much ass are we talkin'?" Yancy asked as he zipped up his circuitry suit.

"He's moving at roughly 56 knots and is showing little sign of stopping. He's mostly an aquatic Kaiju, so you know the drill." Tendo further explained.

"Drag him on land if possible and beat him senseless while he flops on the deck. Got it." Yancy replied as his spinal clamp snapped on. Raleigh gave Yancy a thumbs up once his was finished. The pit crew then handed them their helmets. The brothers took the helmets and marched out the other door down another hallway, the pit crew close behind.

By the time they put their helmets on, they found themselves in a circular room, Gipsy Danger's conn pod. Raleigh took his spot on the left side of the room, while Yancy took his on the right. Devices locked on to their boots, rooting them in place. The pit crew busied themselves affixing the feedback cradle to the gauntlets and spines of their drive suits, cabling them into the interface drivers that transmitted their nerve impulses into Gipsy Danger herself. Their helmets were then filled with relay gel. It was always an odd sensation, having your face completely covered by liquid yet you had no difficulty breathing. It had taken the brothers a while to get used to it at first, but after four years in the Jaeger Program, it barely even phased them. It drained as quickly as it filled. The feedback cradle in place and the Becket brothers firmly affixed to the motion rig, the pit crew scurried out of the room.

"Engage drop, Mr. Choi." Marshall Pentecost's voice ordered.

"Engaging drop, sir." Tendo replied.

The brothers looked at each other and nodded. "Release for drop." Yancy said. The two of them each hit a button on the conn pod's command console.

It was then that the brothers suddenly felt a massive falling sensation, like they were in an elevator and someone just cut the cord. It suddenly stopped as the Becket brothers could see out the visor-window of Gipsy Danger,the world slowly spinning as their jaeger's head was screwed on, the body and the head of their Mark-III Jaeger once again united.

"We are locked." Yancy reported as they could hear Gipsy Danger's nuclear turbine roar to life.

"Rangers, this is Marshal Stacker Pentecost." the Marshall stated, formal as ever. "Prepare for neural handshake."

"Starting in four….three…..two…..one." Tendo said.

It was then that the two men felt it. The Drift. The memories and emotions of one filled the mind of the other, their minds synchronizing into one consciousness. A balloon popping. Choosing to join the PPDC over going to college. Their mother's death. The memories washed over them like rain. After a few seconds of that, they were back in the present, ready to fight a Kaiju once again. Drifting was easy for them. They were brothers. They grew up together. Many of their memories were already shared.

"Neural handshake strong and holding." Tendo reported.

"Right hemisphere ready." Yancy reported.

"Left hemisphere linked and ready." Raleigh also reported. "Gipsy Danger ready to deploy."

"Gentlemen." Pentecost began. "Ebirah is on a collision course with Anchorage. Your orders are to hold the city's miracle mile, copy?"

"Copy that." Yancy reported. He hesitated upon checking the heads-up display. "Uh, sir? There's still a civilian vessel in the gulf-"

"You will not risk a city of one million people for a boat that holds ten. Am I clear?" Pentecost interrupted.

"Crystal, sir." Yancy said as he turned off the comm. He turned to Raleigh, who was already looking back at his brother.

"You know what I'm thinkin'?" Raleigh asked.

"I'm in your brain." Yancy reminded as he tapped the side of his helmet with his finger. They smiled at each other.

"Let's go fishin'." Raleigh said. The two took their first steps.

…..

A storm was raging outside, churning up the Bering Sea into a snow white froth. The doors of the Anchorage Shatterdome opened and a sliding platform extended over the water, carrying a Jaeger out on a gantry. The gantry unlocked and the metal giant dropped into the water.

Upon standing back upright, Gipsy Dangerslammed a closed fist into an open palm. The palm's fingers then closed around her fist. With that, the Jaeger began to wade through the angry sea, dead set on its quarry.

…..

"Storm just keeps getting worse, Captain!" a deckhand shouted to Captain Lake of the Saltchuck over the roar of the storm. "I think it'd be better if we head back to port! Wait it out!"

"You kiddin'?!" the first mate demanded. "We won't even make it past the shallows!"

Captain Lake gritted his teeth as he held on tightly to the helm. He glanced at the radar and saw salvation; a small island. "What about that island?" he said as he pointed to the silhouette on the radar screen. "It's three miles-"

His sentence stopped in its tracks. "….two miles." he suddenly said. "One….."

The three men looked off to the left and saw a fast-moving object just under the water, heading right for them. The captain could make out a pair of red, beady, mammoth-sized eyes. "Kaiju…." he breathed in horror. He grabbed the ship's intercom. "All hands! Brace for-"

*BOOM*

That's when the Jaeger came out of nowhere, knocking the sea monster out of the water with an upper cut. It made a screech like nails scratching on glass before slamming back into the surf.

….

"Whoo!" Raleigh cheered upon completing a successful uppercut, knocking Ebirah right out of the water.

"Okay, now that Ebirah's seeing stars, let's help out our local small businesses." Yancy said. Gipsy Danger then reached down to the boat, gently picked it up in one hand, and placed it off to the side in a position where it can run away from the fight. Once that was done, the Jaeger turned around to face the Kaiju.

Only to find it trying to swim away.

"Oh no you don't!" Raleigh yelped as Gipsy Danger grabbed the gargantuan lobster by its tail. "You're not goin' anywhere!"

Ebirah thrashed in the water, screeching bloody murder, desperate to get away. Raleigh smiled. He loved whenever a Kaiju got scared. There was no doubt that, if Ebirah wore pants, he'd be shitting them right now. Yancy wasn't smiling though, as he noticed something was off. "Hey Raleigh. Both of his front claws are missing." he pointed out.

Raleigh glanced at Yancy, who in turn glanced back. Normally Raleigh would have asked the significance of that, but thanks to the Drift, he didn't really need to. Ebirah hadn't been encountered by a Jaeger in months, and at the end of that last encounter, it still had both its claws. So how did it lose its claws?

"I'll fire up the com and tell Pentacost we got him." Raleigh said.

"He probably already knows." Yancy replied.

"Sure, but he hasn't heard us say it." Raleigh countered. "You know how he is about following protocols."

Trusting Yancy to maintain a tight grip on the jumbo shrimp as he continued thrashing like the captured wild animal he was, Raleigh toggled the com back on. Pentecost's voice filled the conn pod. "Gipsy!" he barked. "What the hell is going on?!"

"We have Ebirah, Shatterdome." Raleigh reported in. "Do we bring him in or take him out?"

At that precise moment, Ebirah's desperate struggling finally paid off as it finally slipped free of Gipsy Danger's grasp, slipping back into the ocean. "Shit!" Raleigh cursed.

"Kaiju is getting away. Beginning pursuit." Raleigh reported.

…

"Don't bother, Gipsy Danger." Pentecost replied as he stared at the primary monitor back in the LOCCENT. "Ebirah is moving too fast. No way you can catch up to him in the water. He's already several hundred feet south of your position."

"Wait, south?" Yancy asked. "You mean he's turning back?"

"Correct. Heading south by southwest." Pentecost replied as he saw Ebirah's signal heading back out to sea. "Whatever it was that he wanted in Anchorage, it appears our crustaceous friend decided that it wasn't worth fighting a Jaeger over."

"Sooo….crisis averted?" Raleigh asked.

"For the city, yes. But not for you." Pentecost growled. "You disobeyed direct orders, Ranger."

"With all due respect sir, we intercepted a Kaiju, sent him running back home to mama, and saved everyone on that boat and in that city." Yancy haughtily remarked. "All before the Kaiju could even see the miracle mile."

"Just get back to your posts." Pentecost said.

"Can do." Yancy replied. "Can't wait to crawl back into my nice, cozy bed."

Pentecost continued eyeing Ebirah's signature as it continued on its new course. Something wasn't right. As Marshall of the PPDC, Pentecost knew each and every registered Kaiju, living or dead, like the back of his hand. He knew that Ebirah wasn't usually that timid around Jaegers. Just a few months ago, the lobster gave Diablo Intercepta decent run for her money before it was driven back into the sea. Why was it so desperate to get away this time?

"Sir!" Tendo reported. "Picking up a new Kaiju signature, coming in from the southeast, heading straight for Gipsy Danger's position."

"Hold position, Gipsy Danger." Pentecost ordered. "You're not done just yet." He turned to Tendo. "What category?"

"Analyzing now sir." Tendo replied. "Calculating size in combination with radiation residue and projected energy output….."

Tendo Choi paused as his mouth suddenly began to hang open like a fish gasping on the deck. "What is it?" Pentecost asked.

"….Category five, sir."

The whole room suddenly went silent. Pentecost tried his best to remain stoic. But on the inside, he was horrified. "Is it….?"

"He's moving too fast to know for sure." Tendo replied. "Sonar buoys are going haywire from all the background radiation."

Pentecost grimly nodded. "It's him, alright." he said, barely above a whisper.

"Copy that, Shatterdome?" Yancy asked. "What category?"

"Category five, Gipsy Danger." Pentecost said.

….

Raleigh and Yancy exchanged a look at one another. "That's impossible." Yancy said. "The only category five Kaiju out there is…." Yancy paused as he realized who he was talking about.

"Ebirah wasn't interested in Anchorage, he was just running away." Pentecost said. "Just like you should be. Get out of there. Now."

"Sir, we can take him." Raleigh tried to argue.

"That's bullshit and everyone here knows it." Pentecost said. "You're not taking on you-know-who without backup, and I am sure as hell not going to let him destroy another Jaeger. Get out of there, Rangers. That's an order."

Though Raleigh was hesitant to do so, Yancy convinced him through the Drift that Pentecost was right. Gipsy Danger couldn't take the King of the Monsters one-on-one and expect to win. The Jaeger turned around and started wading back towards the Shatterdome as fast as it could.

"How fast is he comin'?" Yancy asked.

"Too fast." Tendo reported. "Five miles and closing."

Raleigh turned to Yancy. Yancy nodded at Raleigh's thoughts through the Drift. No way they could make it back to the Shatterdome before he catches them. That really only left them with one realistic option.

Gipsy Danger turned around once again, putting up its fists, ready to fight.

"Gipsy Danger, what are you doing?" Pentecost demanded.

"Shatterdome is ten miles out, Marshall." Yancy reported. "No way we'd get there before he catches us. And even if we do, we'd be leading him right to you guys."

"So you're going to kill yourselves?" Pentecost demanded.

"Better just us than all of you." Yancy said.

"And who knows? We might get lucky." Raleigh added. "Gipsy Dangermight go down in the history as the Jaeger who finally knocked the king off his throne."

"….Godspeed, gentlemen." Pentecost replied.

With that, Gipsy Danger stood her ground. Raleigh and Yancy held up their fists, ready for the Jaeger Von Jaegers to hit them. Raleigh pulled up the motion-tracker screen. A blip appeared in the direction they were facing. The blip moved closer. "Engaging plasma caster." Yancy reported as he made ready Gipsy Danger's primary long-range weapon, hoping to get a few shots in before the Kaiju hit.

"Three miles and closing." Yancy said. "Two point seven five. Two point five."

"Bastard's moving fast." Raleigh replied.

"He's the First Kaiju, what did you expect?" Yancy asked. "Two miles. One-seven-five. One-five."

"Bullshit." Raleigh hissed as he looked out through Gipsy's visor. "We should have a visual on him by now."

"He must be underwater." Yancy replied. "One mile."

"The water ain't that deep! We should've seen him by now!" Raleigh yelled. He was starting to lose his composure. "What, now you're gonna tell me that he can fly?"

"He's here!" Yancy yelled.

"Where?!" Raleigh yelled back.

It was then that a shadow fell in front of Gipsy was all the brothers saw before the Jaeger was suddenly knocked upwards by a great force. It landed in the water, its head beneath the surface. All the Becket brothers could see out the massive visor in front of them was light refracting through the water's surface.

The brothers tried to stand themselves back up, knowing that the last thing you wanted to do in the presence of a Kaiju is lie on your back. Slowly, they were able to get upright again, but the Kaiju was nowhere to be found. "Where is he?" Raleigh demanded.

Alarms blared in the conn pod as reports showed that Gipsy Danger's shoulders were suddenly under extreme strain. The Beckets didn't need to read those reports as they could feel the weight on their own shoulders. Neurally piloting the Jaegers was the best way to control them, as it allowed unparalleled motor control of the robot. It was a double-edged sword however, as the Rangers could feel every blow dealt to the Jaeger like it was being dealt to themselves. This drawback revealed itself in the worst way as the weight on the Becket Brothers' shoulders was so strong that the Jaeger collapsed to its hands and knees. Alarms blared, alerting that the arms and legs were still under too much strain from the huge weight on their back.

The weight on Gipsy Danger's back suddenly disappeared, ending the strain reports. The Jaeger lifted its upper body up, but not by its own volition. Like something had grabbed the Jaeger by both arms or its torso and forced it up. The Beckets looked on in horror as a shadow completely enveloped the Jaeger's visor window, as though the Kaiju wrapped one of its limbs around the head of the Jaeger, which it most likely did. They tried to move the Jaeger's arms, but found that they couldn't. Something was keeping them bound.

It was then that Raleigh felt an odd pressure on his left arm, near where the arm met the shoulder. It felt like a python had wrapped around that area and began to squeeze. Hard. Raleigh gritted his teeth as the pressure turned into pain, his vision going fuzzy as warning sirens blared in the conn pod reporting an unusual squeezing pressure on Gipsy Danger's left arm. Raleigh suddenly screamed as he gripped his left arm as the pain exploded into a sudden white coldness.

Reports showed that the Jaeger's left arm had been torn off.

Yancy felt the same pain too through the Drift, grabbing his own left arm. "Arm's gone cold." he said through gritted teeth.

"My arm, not yours." Raleigh panted. "Fire."

Yancy's arm still in plasma-caster mode, Yancy warmed it up to fire a few volleys. However, Yancy shouted in pain as his right arm was forcibly jerked upwards just as the plasma gun fired. The plasma bolts wound up hitting nothing but sky.

Maybe it was delirium from the stress of losing his arm - Gipsy Danger's arm Raleigh corrected himself - but Raleigh could've sworn he heard giggling outside the conn pod.

It was then that the brothers suddenly heard the creaking of metal. A crack appeared on the visor. Now the Kaiju was putting the squeeze on the head. Yancy tried to move the Jaeger's right arm but it was no use. The Kaiju had a grip like a bear trap.

Mysteriously, the shadow obscuring the visor vanished. The metal stopped creaking, the glass stopped cracking. Out the window, the Rangers saw nothing but ocean. They now knew that the Kaiju was doing all this from behind the Jaeger, so there's that. It was probably holding them in a full nelson.

It was then that huge teeth suddenly pierced the roof of the conn pod, right above Yancy. The metal creaked again as the beast growled in an attempt to bite down. Sparks of static electricity danced around the teeth, warping the air around them. A high-pitched screech of a roar could be heard outside.

Yancy and Raleigh turned to each other. "No." Raleigh quietly said.

"Raleigh, listen to me-" The rest of Yancy's sentence was forever lost. The monster's bite won against the Jaeger's armor as it bit down, a huge mouth clamping down on Yancy and pulling away just as swiftly, exposing the conn pod to the storm outside.

Raleigh felt it all through the Drift. Yancy's dread as he knew he was about to die. The fleeting half-second of terror mixed with despair, followed by a couple seconds of blinding pain. Then, silence. All that was left on that side of the conn pod were sparking electronics now.

Raleigh could hear it more clearly now. The giggling.

It wasn't him. It wasn't the King of the Monsters. It was something worse.

And it was laughing at him.

Raleigh worked fast. He hammered at a bank of manual switches, trying to engage the crisis command matrix. With the CCM online, he gave it its first command; reverse headbutt.

Gipsy Danger thrust its head backward, trying to throw the Kaiju off. Raleigh heard and felt the Jaeger's head colliding with the Kaiju's earning a squeal of pain. He felt the kaiju's grip on Gipsy's remaining arm loosen. He then put every ounce of strength he still had into twisting the Jaeger's body clockwise, knocking the Kaiju's head yet again as he did so, this time with Gipsy's remaining hand balled into a fist.

Raleigh gave the CCM one last command; Plasma Cannon Overload. Now free of the Kaiju's grip, he aimed the plasma cannon at the shadow in front of him. He still couldn't get a really good look at the Kaiju, even as it was standing in front of him, because of the storm. It was massive, half again as tall as Gipsy Danger.

The monster roared at him.

Raleigh roared back as he fired.

…..

Bruce grimaced as he held on to his coat, hugging himself tightly in the blizzard. There should be a law against this. He should be inside, watching Avengers 3 with a cup of hot cocoa in his lap. But no, Grampa all but insisted on continuing the hunt in spite of the weather. He looked at his grandfather as he continued waving his metal detector across the snow-encrusted sand of what would be a beach during the summer. When Bruce agreed to help his Grampa on a treasure hunt, this isn't what he had in mind.

He sighed, watching his breath rise into the air as a puff of smoke. What he wouldn't give to just turn back and go home right now. Or at least have something happen. Something that was cool enough to justify being out here.

It was then he heard a kind of huge splash, like a whale just breached. He turned towards the ocean. Another big splash, followed by another louder one. It wasn't a whale. If it was, it wouldn't sound like it was getting closer. Bruce's eyes widened as he saw the silhouette appear through the haze of the blizzard.

A Jaeger! A real live Jaeger! Never in his wildest dreams did Bruce think he would get this close to a Jaeger in person! "Grampa! Look!" he yelled. But the old man was too intent on his metal detector. His headphones didn't help. Bruce then ran up to his grandfather and tugged on his sleeve. That did a better job of getting his attention. Bruce then pointed to the approaching Jaeger. Grampa looked stunned as the massive robot approached.

Bruce immediately recognized the Jaeger as none other than Alaska's own Gipsy Danger. He owned three Gipsy Danger trading cards, so he knew it when he saw it. But it was missing its left arm, its head looked funny, and it was practically covered in scratches and holes. When it was close enough to the beach, it collapsed onto its remaining hand and knees. It then fell on its left side, shaking the ground as it crashed, almost making Bruce and his Grandfather lose balance.

The two of them rushed over to the Jaeger as someone climbed out of the head. It was Ranger Raleigh Becket. Bruce didn't have his card yet. He was still in his white drivesuit and was looking around, like he was lost. "You okay?" Grampa asked him. But Raleigh looked too confused to answer. That's when Bruce noticed blood running down Raleigh's face. Grampa turned to Bruce. "Go get help!" he ordered.

Bruce nodded and ran back to the house at the far end of the frozen beach.

…..

One Month Later….

….

Raleigh Becket was extremely shook up during the debriefing. Shrinks said losing Yancy, in the middle of a Drift no less, had given Raleigh a bad case of post-traumatic stress disorder and recommended that he take a few weeks off at least. Just as well. Marshal Pentecost was planning on grounding him for insubordination anyway. That was what he would cite as the official reason for his temporary dismissal, at any rate. He reasoned it looked better on a profile than 'psych leave,' which was unofficially code for 'he's crazy.'

Only Raleigh had no interest in coming back at all. He quit the PPDC just a few days after the psych eval. Refused survival benefits, as well as the requests for a brain scan requested by the drift technicians to determine how he was able to fight off a category five literally all by himself.

As for the category five, one thing Raleigh kept insisting is that it wasn't the First Kaiju. Pentecost didn't really believe him at first. If it wasn't the First Kaiju, then who else could it possibly be? But sure enough, the retrieval of Gipsy Danger's black box confirmed Becket's testimony. The roar he heard on the black box recording wasn't even close to matching the First Kaiju's roar. In fact, it didn't match any roar in the PPDC's Kaiju database. It was an entirely new Kaiju, never before encountered.

Even worse, it was still out there. Though Raleigh fought valiantly, he couldn't kill the category five. He only drove it off. Last sonar scan showed it moving south before they lost track of it. The PPDC knew next to nothing about this Kaiju, except that it was very large and very powerful. Many thought that there was something in Anchorage that it wanted, but Pentecost had his own theories. When that monster appeared, it wasn't heading for Anchorage. It was heading for Gipsy Danger. When it retreated, it went back out to sea. It had no interest in the city, only the Jaeger defending it.

Whatever this creature was, it's possible that it specifically targets Jaegers. It was just a theory. Less than a theory, actually. More like a hypothesis. Either way, it still put a chill through the Marshall's bones. The next wave of Jaegers would need to be the most powerful yet if they were to stand a chance against this new threat. There was just one problem.

"What do you mean there won't be any Mark VI's next year?" Marshall Pentecost demanded. He stood in the Anchorage LOCCENT, staring down a wall full of computer monitors, on each one a member of the Subcommittee on Kaiju Defense and Security.

"Well Marshall Pentecost, there's really no easy way to say this, so I'll just go ahead and put it out there." said the American representative. "Jaegers are expensive, and we just don't have the money to build any new ones anymore. Hell, the last Jaeger we built cost one hundred billion dollars alone."

"Yes, and Striker Eureka was worth every penny." the Marshall argued. "She's the fastest moving Jaeger we got. She's the reason both Rodans are dead, a pair of Kaiju that have been on the wanted list for a long time mind you, and their hatchling is now secure on Monster Island."

"And that is by no means the PPDC's only victory." the Japanese representative said. "Baragon, Varan, King Caesar and several others have all been successfully captured and detained on Monster Island. Dozens more Kaiju have been killed outright. All in all, the Jaeger Program is a rousing success."

"So why are you denying my request for Mark VI Jaegers?" Pentecost went on.

"Because they are not needed." the Russian representative huffed. "Many Kaiju are either dead or locked up on Monster Island. Kaiju Attacks have finally started to decrease in frequency. We finally have some breathing room."

Pentecost took a second to stamp out his utter disbelief at the phrase 'not needed.' "With all due respect, need I remind you that just a few weeks ago an unknown cat-five tore Gipsy Danger apart? And that it's still out there?"

"A regrettable event." the American replied. "None regret it more than I do. The Becket Brothers were All-American heroes that made my country proud. But they knew the risks when they signed up. As for the cat-five, we have full confidence in the PPDC's ability to hunt it down and bring it to justice."

"How am I supposed to do that without any new Jaegers?" Pentecost asked.

"With the Jaegers you have, of course." the Canadian representative said. "Worldwide, there are over thirty Jaegers total. That should be more than enough to dispatch this new threat along with any other Kaiju that's still out there. In addition, while we are denying your request for new Jaegers, we will gladly fulfill your request for continued maintenance funding. Essentially, you already have everything you need to reign in however many Kaiju are still roaming free."

"What about Monster Island?" Pentecost further questioned. "There's no such thing as an inescapable prison, and that goes double when Kaiju are involved. Mark my words, that island's defenses are going to crack one day."

"Admiral Gyozen has assured us that Monster Island's security systems are air-tight." the Japanese representative stated. "And even in the unlikely event of an escape, he has a full strike group of Jaegers stationed near Monster Island at all times to intercept the escapee."

"We know you disagree with the Admiral's methods of keeping Monster Island's Kaiju in line." the Japanese representative added. "But as distasteful as those methods may be, they have been effective. On record, only one Kaiju has ever so much as attempted an escape."

Pentecost said nothing on that subject. He didn't really need to. His opinion on Noritaka Gyozen was already well-documented. Instead, he went on with the topic at hand. "We are at war, ladies and gentlemen." Pentecost told them. "And when you're at war, you don't cut funding to your army just because it looks like you're winning."

"With all due respect Marshall, you give the Kaiju far too much credit." the British representative at last spoke up. "We have not, nor have we ever truly been, at 'war' with the Kaiju. And as difficult as this may be for you to hear, your Rangers are not soldiers. They are merely exterminators who were called in to address a pest control problem. The vermin are receding, so it looks like the exterminators' job is nearly done."

"Nearly, but not completely." Pentecost countered. "A single pair of rats is all it takes to bring back the pest problem with a vengeance."

"Except Kaiju have only been able to reproduce in extremely rare cases, so that actually makes a very poor analogy." the American said.

"There's still one very important point I feel I must make." Pentecost said. He marched up a few steps closer to the screen. "The First Kaiju is still out there."

The representatives were silent for a moment. Pentecost thought he saw the Japanese rep in particular lose a little color. "Look. The point is that you already have thirty plus Jaegers in total. You really don't need any more. You say we still have Kaiju problems? Work with what you've got to deal with them. This meeting is over." the American said. With that, all the monitors winked off.

Pentecost took a breath. He reached into his uniform pocket and pulled out a pill box. He pulled out a pale yellow tablet and swallowed it. After putting the pill box back into his coat pocket, he turned to Tendo Choi and Hercules Hansen, who had been watching the meeting from out of the subcommittee's line of sight, as they often did. It was against the rules to let them listen in on his meetings, but they were part of his inner circle. He knew they were at their best when they were kept in the loop.

"Suits and ties and flashy smiles." Herc said with a shake of his head. "That's all they are. They don't know a thing about war."

"Well, so much for the next wave of Jaegers." Tendo said with a sigh. "Now what?"

"…I suppose we'll just have to make do with what we have." Pentecost replied. His mind was reeling. For the first time since the Jaeger Program was born, requests for new Jaegers had been denied. Had the world truly gone so complacent? He may have plenty of Jaegers now, but how long would that last? No Jaeger can fight forever. It was only a matter of time until gaps started appearing in the PPDC's lines, and without fresh new Jaegers to fill those gaps, the line may eventually collapse. There are still a lot of Kaiju out there, including the mysterious cat-five who murdered Gipsy Danger in cold blood. That's not even mentioning the First Kaiju. There was still so much left to be done.

Pentecost decided that he'd better get to work.

…

Happy Halloween to all! And what better way for me to celebrate it than with the premiere of an all-new monster-centric fanfic from the literary genius that is myself? Stay tuned for ANOTHER update to this fanfic later tonight.

Oh what? It's Halloween, and this is a fanfic about monsters. You'd think I'd be content posting just ONE chapter?