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iamthekaijuking · 5 years

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Name: N’yergolep

Aliases: Nergle

Date Discovered: August 20, 1958

Place of Origin: Miskatonic Valley, Massachusetts

Notable Stomping Grounds: Miskatonic Valley, Boston, Wherever Plumera and her family goes

Height: 80 feet

Biology: N’yergolep, or Nergle for short, is a failed beyonder experiment. Originally an inhabitant of Mars, Nergle was captured when the beyonders invaded the Martian home world. Upon being captured, Nergle was subjected to a lot of the same experiments as Deluxman and Promythigor, which granted them incredibly powerful psychokinetic abilities. However, instead of gaining an extra eye like the previously mentioned Earth Kaiju, his single eye became three lobed; having three irises and pupils in a single eye. Nergle is also a member of the same group of Martian animals as Kemlasulla and Sombarvot, but their anatomy is inversed. Nergle lacks their armor plating (and their skin is actually fairly weak) and Nergle’s legs are small and used for manipulating objects while their tentacles are used mostly for moving around.

Nergle’s psychic abilities grow more powerful as they get more scared and stressed out. At max power Nergle’s psychokinesis is so powerful it can allow them to manipulate and lift entire skyscrapers. However, they don’t have much conscious control over how it interacts with the environment, and things will seemingly start levitating at random.

N’yergolep’s powers set includes

-Super Strength

-An Enhanced Healing Factor

-Immunity to Radiation

-Extreme Stress Fueled Psychokinesis

Personality: Despite N’yergolep’s frighting appearance and extremely powerful abilities, they’re ultimately a nervous wreck. Nergle didn’t leave their containment pod for over a year out of fear. Ready to flea at any moment, Nergle is constantly on edge. They often make high pitched squeaking sounds when startled or surprised, and they need a lot of reassurance to calm down. Despite being afraid of nearly everything, there’s not a shred of hatred or malice in Nergle’s heart. Even when running for their life, they only use their psychic powers as defense against projectiles and physical attacks, and never use them to purposely harm others.

After coming into contact with Plumera and her family and becoming part of it, there has been a significant decrease in anxiety attacks Nergle has experienced. Plumera and her gang of disabled and pacifistic kaiju have made Nergle feel welcomed and have been by their side and have been there to help calm them down during panic attacks, especially Plumera herself. N’yergolep has since remained very close to Plumera at all times.

The Story: Many cities were hit hard during the beyonder invasion, and some more than others. Boston was one of those unlucky cities. Few buildings stood, and recovery efforts had only just begun. When reports of an unopened beyonder containment pod in the nearby abandoned town of Miskatonic Valley reached the citizens of Boston, they were understandingly distressed. They had only just begun rebuilding their city, and to have another kaiju set foot in it would be devastating.

The military decided to send in a small team to investigate the crash site. When they got to Miskatonic Valley they noticed a lot of strange things. At first it was the occasional pebble or bucket floating around, but as they got closer to the containment pod entire houses and near kaiju sized chunks of the earth were defying gravity. Cautiously, they managed to open the containment pod, and were greeted with N’yergolep.

All it took was for a shivering Nergle to look the soldiers in the eye and squeak in terror before everything descended into madness.

The soldiers fired at N’yergolep, grazing their skin. As Nergle shrieked in pain, the ground surrounding the pod cracked and rumbled and the floating debris started swirling around the containment pod. Nergle burst from their containment pod running for their life. The ground split in their wake while the debris followed them. They ran straight through Miskatonic Valley and, unfortunately, in the direction of Boston.

The soldiers called for backup, and radioed the people of Boston to evacuate. News stations on the radio also started reporting that there was other kaiju in the area headed toward Boston as well. Fortunately, reports confirmed that the kaiju were in fact Plumera and her family.

Over the past few years since her appearance, Plumera has gained world wide recognition for traveling to places with human activity with fun and socializing in mind. Her ability to understand the basics in multiple languages had increased and she had shown scientist that she could actually hold basic conversations via writing, and that she was not merely parroting words. While she has been guided to Typhon Island on multiple occasions, she always eventually leaves to seek out humans, which is never really a problem since she has never caused trouble and has in fact de-escalated many situations involving kaiju. Plumera had also created something of a family for herself by befriending disabled and abandoned monsters, most of whom were rejected beyonder monsters like Nergle.

The monsters following her were a giant blind genetically engineered hybrid between plants and tyrannopyrodon dubbed Rose by the press due to roses sprouting from her skin after being under the love and care of Plumera, a pink baby kaiju of a species related to Zillser given the name Bubblor, a member of a species related to Ugugular that resembled Chinese architecture named Shēnghuó tǎ, and a levitating golden beyonder relative capable of telepathy given the name Dhyandogen. Plumera had managed to befriend each of these monsters and teach them to not hurt people, and Boston hoped that she could do the same to the new kaiju as well.

Nergle fled in the direction of Boston with the military hot on their trail, and Plumera trailing a few miles behind as well. She came across Miskatonic Valley and subsequently the containment pod. Dhyandogen and Shēnghuó tǎ immediately recognized the structure as beyonder technology, and judging by how fresh the destruction around it was, it was recently opened. Dhyandogen telepathically alerted Plumera of the situation at hand, and it’s urgency. Plumera picked up Bubblor (who had been trying to climb onto her back) and handed him to Rose, while Dhyandogen told her about the situation at hand. Rose was blind, a little clumsy, and had faulty regenerative abilities. The new kaiju might not be very friendly, and so Rose would have to stay behind with Bubblor for both of their protection.

Plumera, Dhyandogen, and Shēnghuó tǎ made their way to Boston. Plumera hoped she wouldn’t have to fight, since not only was she terrible at fighting, but she absolutely hated it as well. She was thankful to have Shēnghuó tǎ and Dhyandogen by her side. If things were to go south then Shēnghuó tǎ was willing to be a meat shield, and Dhyandogen would easily be able to restrain the new kaiju with his manipulation of gravity. Both options weren’t favorable though, as they could potentially escalate the conflict and stress out both sides.

Upon their arrival to Boston, they were greeted with the sight of the military hammering into a terrified N’yergolep who was using their psychic powers to use buildings and rubble to block as many attacks as they could. Dhyandogen approached and used his telepathy to ask the military to stand down. The military withdrew after seeing the trio of kaiju. They knew their weapons weren’t enough to take Nergle down, and hoped that Plumera and her companions could resolve the conflict.

Plumera was the first to step up. With the military backing off, N’yergolep’s attention was focused solely on the trio in front of them. Plumera continued her approach, and stopped when about a hundred feet was between the two. She then started making cooing noises to try and sound friendly. Nergle eyed her nervously while using their psychic powers to lift up a building and make it float between the two.

And so it stayed that way for awhile. Plumera sitting non-threateningly and trying to look as innocent as possible, while Nergle occasionally peeked over the floating building. Eventually N’yergolep was no longer stressed enough to lift up a building, and put it down, however they were still stressed about the situation. Dhyandogen then moved up beside Plumera, and eventually Shēnghuó tǎ. Dhyandogen made a mental link with Nergle and spoke to them.

“Do not worry. We mean no harm. We know of the pain you have suffered from the small tentacled ones from the stars. I too have suffered because of them, and so has the yellow and red one with many heads beside me. They are no longer here. There are less dangers in this new world, and you must be careful around the stone jungle the small two legged ones. You might hurt them”

At that moment Nergle looked at the ground, and saw a family trying to hide in an alley. They looked at the child the two adults were hugging closely, and saw them crying in fear. N’yergolep never knew they were hurting such small creatures, and they never wanted to hurt anyone. With tears in their eye, they turned back to Dhyandogen.

“Follow us. We will protect you, and help you to not hurt others”.

Nergle carefully emerged from behind the building, slouching a little out of shame. Plumera stepped forward and extended her wing out in friendship. Nergle cautiously extended their own leg and grasped her hand, and squeaked in surprise when she shook it. Plumera, Dhyandogen, and Shēnghuó tǎ turned to leave the city, but before they left they looked back at Nergle expecting them to follow.

And so N’yergolep did.

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So that’s my submission for @tyrantisterror’s atom contest, coupled with a kinda “meh” short story. I always wanted to expand Plumera’s family if there was ever another atom contest. The story is basically how Plumera adopts a new monster into her family. I also wanted Unit 01 from from the last contest (which was probably the saddest and most depressing submission out of the 70 something contest entries) to have a happy ending. So I retconned her death and renamed her to Rose. I had a ton of ideas from the first contest that I decided not to do here. From a swamp kraken that looked like a hamburger to a baby bioluminescent bat that had a hormone imbalance that made him constantly angry. But I also really wanted to do a Martian monster. So I took Kemlasulla (arguably my favorite atom monster) and inverted him both physically and personality wise, but Nergle is also a nod to one of the forms nyarlathotep takes. Martian monsters also aren’t male or female, so I made Nergle non binary. This entry also has a bunch of Cthulhu Mythos references, so see if you can spot them all. This entry is also a treat for me because every one of my previous submissions all make an appearance. So yeah, that’s my submission.

#nergle #n’yergolep #atom #atom revenge of the create a kaiju contest #tyrantisterror #plumera #bubblor #unit 01 #rose #Shēnghuó tǎ #Dhyandogen

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highly-radioactive-nerd · 5 years

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Coloration: Golden Underbelly, bright orange eyes and deep purple armor. The horns and spines that jut from its body are bone white.

TSUNOKING

Scientific Name: Ceratodracos rex -- “Horned Dragon King”

Date Of Discovery: November, 1958 by Paleontologist Kyohei Shimura. The monster was released from a system of volcanic tunnels beneath Mt. Fuji, went on a brief excursion through Osaka and, after hurting itself in a fight against its own reflection, wandered off into the mountains of Hokkaido.

Stomping Grounds: Fuji Fire Pits, Hokkaido Wilds

Biology: Tsunoking is a Ceratodracos: a Jurassic aged Paleo Tyrant that sports a thick, domed skull, regal hooked horns, dense armor plating covered in spines and osteoderms and a powerful, hammer shaped club. Standing approximately 90 feet tall, Ceratodracos was master of its territory, settling disputes by ramming its challengers with its thick skull, tearing flesh with its savage jaws and wicked claws and by breaking bones with it’s hammer club. It sports no fire venom and relies entirely on its physical might.

Powers -Rapid Regeneration -Immunity to Radioactivity -Extra Durable Armor -A reinforced skull that can reflect some projectile attacks as well as batter opponents

Weaknesses: -Pride. Tsunoking in particular is a prideful animal and does not forgive personal slights easily. It will pursue and attack rivals until its honor is restored. -Speed and Weight: Its thick armor reduces its mobility. It has difficulty fighting fast or flying foes.

Personality: Tsunoking is basically if a samurai were a dinosaur. His quiet demeanor hides a fiery spirit and he has a strong moral code: he does not attack children or nesting parents, he does not kill foes weaker than him, he has a deep respect for life and considers those who can defeat him as rivals and friends. His morals were born from his own suffering as his parents died when he was very young and he was forced to learn to dominate his home on his own. He puts forth an aloof, detached nature, but in truth, he is rather lonely.

Despite this, this warrior does not actively seek out combat. Tsunoking prefers to stick to his own territory and guard it from threats. but willingly meets the few challengers who do cross his path. He gives all he has, for to hold anything back would be an insult to his foe and he expects the same honesty in return.

Tsunoking will not tolerate being insulted. If its pride or honor is mocked it will ceaselessly pursue its foe until it can prove itself superior. Death before dishonor. Similarly, it dislikes being dirty. After combat it will thoroughly clean itself, ensuring its golden belly and purple armor shine vibrantly. He cherishes the mighty weapons given to him by his mother and father.

EXTRA NOTES: -Tsunoking is a cross between Dracorex and Allosaurus, with a splash of Euplocephalus. I don’t think there are any pachycephalosaurs in the ATOM lineup, and while Ceratodracos isn’t exclusively a pachycephalosaur, it’s a step in that direction. -Tsunoking’s name was coined by a reporter traveling with Professor Shimura. Shimura explained the monsters scientific name, which wasn’t quite punchy enough for the pressman. He made a portmanteau of the japanese word “tsuno” for horn, and the english word “King.” -Tsunoking entered Osaka out of pure curiosity. He was very careful to avoid hurting the squeaky little mammals running about his feet. He found them rather cute and detested the thought of harming them. -Tsunoking was repelled from Osaka after mistaking his own reflection in a skyscraper for a challenger. Because the other “monster” only mirrored him and did not follow the correct challenge ritual behavior, he took the challengers action as an insult and rammed the building, causing it to topple on him. He wasn’t fatally wounded, but the incident has made him wary of cities and he prefers to stay away from them.

@tyrantisterror for REVENGE of the ATOM Kaiju Contest

#atom #mine #my art #revenge of the atom kaiju contest

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sablesablesablesable · 5 years

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ATOM: revenge of the kaiju

Name: Iron-Mouth Menace/Munchy/City Muncher

Date discovered: September 1st 1964 by Reina Kawaguchi

Place of origin: Wakabayashi Ward, Sendai Japan

Notable Stomping Grounds: Sendai, it’s outskirts and cave systems, and the Sendai bay

Width: 50 feet

Length: 250 feet

Biology: Silkworm, (Wakabayashi Landrace, which is a local species bred specifically from stock from one area)

Notable abilities/features:

Mandibles able to chew through concrete and similar materials

Production of massive amounts of silk

Iron-Grip™ Claws/true legs

Increased healing factor

Disastrous appetite

Immunity to radiation

Appearance:

Munchy resembles the wakabayashi landrace of silkworm caterpillars, if only superficially, with black-tipped spines and a wider, more robust body compared to the average silkworm, as well as having more brightly colored true legs. Munchy’s first pair of prolegs are much larger, and having multiple segments, allowing a bipedal stance. However, most prominently, Munchy’s head, mandibles, and true legs are a matte-black consisting of some kind of carbon-steel alloy. While the rest of Munchy’s body is covered in large plates, or scales of various materials, some reaching 5 feet in diameter.

Personality:

Munchy exhibits little emotion beyond hunger, however, it does have notable quirks, such as preferring not to eat living beings, and stripping entire neighborhoods down to the foundations, sometimes even eating those. Munchy is however seen as an unambiguously good caterpillar, due to being the lesser of evils, so to speak. With its slow, methodical approach to feeding. Munchy has a lesser body count when compared to other Kaiju of its size, and even contributes to tourism, when not destroying precious monuments.

History:

Munchy, as nicknamed by it’s original caretaker, before being turned over to the Japanese government for development, was a silkworm caterpillar. The original caretaker, Reina Kawaguchi, a Yamaneon-enhanced individual herself, credits her obsession with the mineral and its effects with the development of Munchy. She reports that she had been given silkworms to care for, so decided to fill their tank with stuff she found in a cave, which she visited with her parents the week before. Reina left Munchy and some of its siblings on top of a radiator, and when she woke up the next day, munchy had grown to “maybe three or four times its previous size” and had “eaten everything but the glass” of it’s tank. This growth continued up until Reina had to turn in the silkworms. At which point her teacher contacted the authorities, and munchy was turned over to the government. Reina still has visitation rights over the weekend, though they are limited to no contact.

The Japanese Government, under the purview of yamaneon researchers, decided to enhance Munchy further for testing. It is unclear what happened after this point, but sources claim that due to improper handling of specimens, Munchy and numerous other proto-kaiju were disposed of improperly. After a quiet period spanning from when the government took over Munchy to 1970, Munchy emerged as a 50 foot long menace to society. Munchy then ate its way into the city proper, slowly following the roads from the cave systems north of Sendai.

As of present Munchy is making way for new beach front properties by following the coast. It’s hypothesized that somehow Munchy has adapted to consume salt-water, though these cannot be proven until it molts again. Which is the main way of tracking Munchy’s health and diet.

#atom create a kaiju contest #revenge of the atom kaiju contest #silkworm #munchy uwu

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dragonseeker-rex · 5 years

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My Revenge Of The ATOM Create-A-Kaiju Contest Entry: Orothorn

Name: Orothorn

Date Discovered: May 11, 1958

Place Of Origin: The Sonoran Desert, near Patagonia, AZ

Notable Stomping Grounds: Sonoran Desert, Yucca Flat, Hollow Mt.

Height: 79′

Length: 106′

Biology: Gilded flicker(a type of woodpecker)/saguaro cactus hybird

Orothorn’s power set consists of:

-Super Strength

-An Enhanced Healing Factor

-Immunity to Radiation

-Nigh-impregnable beak used for rapid attacks

-Sonic scream(Used only as a desperation move, as he prefers to use his voice to sing pretty tunes)

Appearance: While he keeps the typical male gilded flicker’s signature features(gold cap and underwings, red ‘moustache’, black bib), his plumage is mostly the light green of a saguaro cactus, lined with rows of small needles. These, as well as his beak and talons are gold, thus becoming the basis for his name. Finally, the base of his tail is gold, while his tail feathers are white, resembling a cactus flower. Around his neck, he wears a silk scarf colored in gold, commissioned for him by his human friend, Mick Auricson

Personality: Friendly, cheerful, and inquisitive, Orothorn wishes to emulate the heroics of the singing vigilante cowboy, The Golden Spur. Whether that entails defending the innocent, or simply delighting others with his beautiful birdsong, his acts throughout the American Southwest and Mexico eventually earn him the title of Arizona’s State Kaiju

Backstory: While filming his latest picture, Michael ‘Mick’ Auricson(better known as The Golden Spur) happens upon an injured gilded flicker, naming him Oro. Oro eventually recovers and Mick releases him back into the wild, though Oro never strays too far, nesting in the Yamaneon-irradiated cacti near Mick’s trailer. Our feathered friend likes to alight nearby while Mick practices his singing and guitar playing, sometimes singing along, to Mr. Auricson’s great amusement. He also observes Micks heroic deeds on-set, not understanding that Mick is merely acting.

One fateful evening, an accidental detonation of a large cache of dynamite in front of a mountainside cactus patch causes a rockslide. While trying to escape, Mick trips and falls face first knocking him for a loop. The ever-present Oro then swoops into action, gently pecking at Mick’s face until he comes to. He narrowly escapes, and when the dust settles, he returns to the scene to see if he can find Oro amongst the rubble. After an hour of unsuccessful searching, Mick sighs and hangs his head, fearing the worst for little Oro. Suddenly, the gargantuan pile of boulders and destroyed cacti begins to quake and rumble, until one particularly large stone is jackhammered into pebbles, and a kaiju-fied Oro emerges, looking no worse for the wear.

Overjoyed, Mick rushes up to him and exclaims excitedly, “Oro! You’re okay! I--I can’t thank you enough for saving me! I would’ve been a goner for sure!” He pauses momentarily to collect himself, taking in his friend’s new appearance.

“That’s quite a set of thorns you’ve got there, isn’t it?”

Oro simply cocks his head in response and chirps happily, before instinctively shaking all the dust off himself. In turn, Mick ducks into his shirt while vainly trying to wave the dust away, coughing and laughing at the same time.

Notes: I don’t frequent Tumblr nearly as often as I used to, so I didn’t know there was another contest until a few days ago, and I like to think I whipped up something pretty nice and fitting in the interim! I hope @tyrantisterror likes my ‘singing cowboy kaiju’! BTW: This final version is vastly different to my first idea for a cactus character(I love cacti and succulents), who was pretty much just Dex-Starr the Red Lantern

#revenge of the atom kaiju contest #atom #kaiju #tyrantisterror #the atomic time of monsters

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undercoverwizardfanfiction · 4 years

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A Winter Night: A ROTTMNT Holiday story

Rating:G

Word Count;2358

for: @snakeeyesdraws

Characters: Donnie, Leo, Kendra

pairings: [takes breath, pulls out sword] LISTEN

update; i accidentally uploaded the draft the first time ^^’ i fixed though this is the finished version

An overtly saturated neon sign of a Santa selling sandals catches him in the corner of his eye. He uses his forearm to protect his aching eyes as he passed the sign. When he passes the blinding neon of Santa, the turtle takes a deep breath, a soft mist escaping his mouth. Honestly, he is grateful the streets aren’t more crowded. But not for his slowly numbing hands. He stuffs his hands into his unlined pockets and moves forward. Grateful more than ever that he had updated Shelldon with a heating unit so he didn’t have to weigh himself down with a heavy coat. It was making the walk to Hueso’s a bit more tolerable. He’d have to remember to update his brothers’ gear to include a heating unit like his. Course knowing them they’d probably use it to heat up marshmallows in their pockets and that was a mess he was NOT going to clean up for-

He is so wrapped up in the nightmarish scenario of having to clean marshmallows out of circuitry when a loud shriek of anger followed by a trash can flying past his line of vision causes him to jump on one foot with a shriek of fear

“Stupid AIDEN!!”

It takes Donnie a moment, and another trash can flying by his vision to realize he is not the source of anger, or in danger. He blinks and peers down the alley before having to duck in time for another trashcan to get stomped in the middle with enough strength to crunch it in half before, in a mixture of amazement he blinks. “Kendra?”

In a feral rage Kendra stomps a trashcan nearly in half before swerving around and glaring at him snarling. Her thick purple hair twisted in half ragged tangles, her beret lay on the ground as though she had thrown it to the ground before deciding that wasn’t enough to help vent her rage. Her half-crazed eyes narrowed at him. “What do YOU want?!” she bites and for a moment Donnie wishes he hadn’t stopped, “Are you here to ruin my day again?! Wreck my plans?!”

“Um,” Don blames his lack of ability to come up with a snappy come back on his even more urgent need to survive the next five seconds, or at least not end up like that trashcan. ”Are you doing something that should be stopped?”

Kendra narrows her eyes at him. “NO.”

“Do you HAVE an evil plan that I should stop? Again?” With a snarl Don worries he might have said the wrong thing.

But then she lets out an angry sigh, “No, not now.”

“Um.” He really didn’t want to end up a Donnie shaped hole in the wall, “Then, no?”

Kendra narrows her eyes at him, Donnie could barely see the little puffs of steam burst out of her nose like a bull trying to figure out if he was a matador worth charging. But then she lets out an angry growl, ”Fine, go away then,” she says, crouching down and yanking the trash can back into a standing position kicking at it a few more times to try and un-dent it. Donnie glances back at the trash cans in the road and sighs. He pulled off his gloves, cursing the fact that he didn’t bring any extra rubber gloves, and pulls one of the trash cans off the street. Kendra glares up at him before eyeing the trashcan in confusion, “What do you want?”

“To not see cars hit trash cans? Is that supposed to be a hard question?” he asks, again berating himself when Kendra narrows her eyes at him, but lets him stand his trash can next to the one she had ‘undented’, she doesn’t thank him when he drags by the other one too. But to be honest he doesn’t really expect it. But he does finally notice that, even though she traded out her leggings for sweatpants, she’s lacking her purple dragons' jacket and is wearing a dark grey sweater and boots. All signs indicated she had not been planning on being outside in December and is using all the anger she had been trying out on the trash cans to not shiver, “Where are you going?”

“What’s it to you?” she demands.

Donnie raises his hands in mock surrender. “Honestly? I was just trying to help but if you’re going to keep acting like a jerk, I’ll-“ he wasn’t sure how he was going to finish that thought. ‘Walk away?’ ‘Blog about it angrily later?’ But it ended with someone shouting ‘heads up’ and something hard slamming into the back of his head, his vision exploding in bright colors and the breaking of a snowball contacting with his head. Off balance he finds his world spinning and himself on his knees, hands holding his head trying to make sense of the pain and his disorientation.

“Hey!” Kendra’s voice was far away, but that could be ‘cause she had stormed over to yell at the kids who had thrown the snow ball. “The hells your problem?! That was basically an ice ball you weebs.” Don could barely make out their mumbled sheepish apology. He pulls off his hat and touched the soaking bandana underneath. Any hope that it had just been snow went out the window when he drew his bloody fingers off his head.

“Holy-“ Sounds like Kendra was back, his vision was spinning so bad that he assumed the spinning purple mass by his side was her. “Hey how many fingers am I holding up?!” she said holding out her hand. He could barely make out her fingers but gave a weak, “Four?” with strength surprising for someone her size, she took his arm and lifted him to his feet, pulling his arm over her neck, “Come on there’s a hospital nearby-“

“NO,” he answers quickly.

“Are you kidding me you’re HEAD is BLEEDING.”

“And I'm a giant talking turtle which do you think will matter more to a hospital staff?!” He often wondered how Yokai managed in the city without access to a hospital. He had been meaning to ask Hueso about-. He blinks, there was no way he could let Kendra take him home. But he was already close to the pizza place “I have a place I can go. But you can’t go with me-“

“Again, your HEAD is BLEEDING,” she snaps. “I’ll take you where you need to go but I won't get any closer got it?” Donnie knew she wouldn’t take no for answer and only answered with a sigh and a nod. She pulls harder on the arm wraps over her neck and took more of his weight. Despite their height difference he barely touches the ground which only added more to the feeling of being disoriented.

“Thanks,” he muttered weakly.

“Don’t thank me til we get there.” Donnie struggles to keep his eyes open but his swirling vision forces him to keep his eyes closed, a hand slaps his face lightly. “Hey stay awake nerd.”

“Pot calling the kettle-“ Donnie bit off the end of his statement as he tried not to dry heave. He could feel Kendras frozen bare arms through his coat and feels even worse for being out in the first place. “H-Hold on,” he says, stiffening his legs up to drag her to a stop. He manages to pry her arm off him long enough to peel his coat off leaving him in his long sleeved dark pink Atomic Lass shirt. “You’re obviously cold.” As callous as he is sometimes, he finds it’s better to be honest than to dance around the subject, “Shelldon has a heating unit that’ll keep me warm.” Though it wouldn’t help his arms, he could handle a few blocks though. Thankfully his vision is returning to some extent, enough that he notices Kendra looking to his pack and for a moment Don struggles not to shift to put the pack out of her sight, “That’s Shelly right? Is he still mad at me for tricking him?”

“Oh definitely. He has a stack of crayon drawings dedicated to his revenge on you.” He feels the shoulders on his back tighten as though Shelldon was reprimanding him for revealing his secret plans.

Kendra lets off a small shrug “Yeah fair enough, I’d probably do the same thing” before smirking directionally at the pack, ”But for the record little buddy, blue prints are a much better way to plot out revenge.”

Don tries to grin before dizziness settles in again. Kendra must have noticed since she ducked under his arm. “Hold on nerd, keep talking to me.”

He manages a nod, mentally keeping track of their location. “Wh-what were you doing out here kicking trash cans?” he asked. “And who’s this Aiden guy who has you so mad? Not that it's any of my business, but I’m kinda hurt there’s someone out there you currently hate more than me,” he says with an added offended tone that makes her glare at him in confusion. ”I mean not to brag, but I sorta consider it a pride and joy to have an enemy worthy of my intelligence.”

Kendra narrows her eyes. “Please, he’s not worthy of my time,” she says through her teeth. “There’s this guy in the robotics club with us, Aiden. A loser who couldn’t tell a snickers from a soldering pen. There was a contest to submit the best blueprints, and who ever won would to be our project for the semester.”

“I’ve seen you build stuff on your own though. “

“That wasn’t the point,” Kendra lets out an angry huff, “I won, like I knew I was going to. But he got second place, I checked the points and he was twelve points away from wining. Twelve! The loser pretty boy who had his private tutor help him.”

“But you still won-“

“-He shouldn’t have gotten that close. I did all my work by myself. Didn’t ask for help, spent nights coding and drafting. I should have left him in the dust a broken swaddled nerd with broken dreams. But no. I made sure he knew how I felt about it, but the creep tattled on me. Freaking snowflake got freaked out because his blue prints ended up on his front porch on fire. Since when is that illegal.”

“I mean,” Don pauses, “I think always.”

“Anyway, I got kicked off the club and that’s why I'm out here.” She shrugs. “If my Dad or step mom saw me getting this mad then they’d make me do the ‘breathing exercises,’” she said with air quotations, “Being all ‘Kendra we’re worried about you’ ‘Kendra we love and support you we just don’t want to see you go down a bad path’ and ‘Kendra where do you keep getting access to all this fire!?’” Her frustrations forced her to kick out at a sign they passed but thankfully not hard enough to knock it over, “So as soon as I’m done helping you, I’m going to see my Mom. She’s the only one who gets me.”

Donnie blames his concussion on being so surprised Kendra had a mom but tried to keep it off his features. But judging by the quiet scoff from Kendra he hadn’t done a very good job, "How about you Greeny? Why did you come out here if you already had a concussion? Don’t pretend like you didn’t have one, I saw the bandages when I was checking your scalp. You already had a head injury before you got hit in the head.”

Figures his hat would blame him, and his own disorientation for forgetting that Kendra had checked his scalp. “It's complicated.”

“More complicated then plotting revenge on a spoiled white boy in a Vanilla Ice t-shirt?” she says in a tone that tells Donnie she’s trying to make a joke. And despite his best efforts not to, he snorts slightly, “No, I'll agree it’s not that complicated.” But it still feels weird to share with a certified enemy who once tried to steal the Spirit of Labour Day (don’t ask can’t explain). Thankfully she doesn’t rush him as he tries to collect his thoughts. “I got into an argument with my brother.” He still doesn’t want to let her in on too much information. “My brothers are all protective of each-other but he's’ protective in a way that makes me nuts. He thought it was too soon for me to go out with this whole situation,” he said gesturing to his head bandage, “And I disagreed. Except I didn’t really do it in the best way.”

“I think I know what that means,” Kendra says. “Did you say something bad?”

For a moment, it takes all of Don’s remaining mental energy to not think about Leo’s face, watching his concerned features fade away to one of hurt. So hurt in fact he hadn’t even called after Donnie when he stormed out. He lets out a sigh. “I did. I wish I had a reasonable excuse for it, but to be honest I don’t like feeling like I'm depending on people. I don’t like feeling like he’s always concerned about me. I especially don’t like him being right about it.”

“Sucks when it feels like you’re under-appreciated huh?”

“Yeah.” He could make out a familiar sandal store that housed Hueso’s alley. “We’re here,” he says.

Kendra looks around, and for a moment Donnie is concerned Kendra is going to insist on taking him ‘inside’ but she ducks from under shoulder. “You sure?” she asks, “I can take you further.”

“I’m good, thanks though.” He tries to give her a confident smile but his lips only twitch in response. She gives a half shrug before she starts pulling off his coat. “Keep it. You have a long way to walk and I still have Shelldon to keep me warm.”

“Thanks,” she says pulling the coat back on. “I’ll catch you later Greeny,” she says. She looks like she's’ about to walk off when she pauses. “But for the record, it still must be nice to have brothers who have your back.”

“It is.” Don nods. “And honestly Aiden sounds like a little bitch.”

For the first time since their strange encounter began Kendra put on a full smile. “Thanks,” she says before walking off.

(#)(#)\/(#)(#)

Leo didn’t snore.

So when his phone went off amongst his makeshift ‘pillow floor’ in the living room he did not ‘snort’ awake. He made a strangled noise before sitting up. Patting his sweatpants and hoody pockets before diving into the mass of pillows. Breaching a moment later like a whale with his phone in his teeth. Hueso’s ID is flashing across his screen. With a scoff he answers. “For the last time BONE man I don’t work today-“

“First of all, that is NOT how you politely answer a phone,” Hueso starts with a snap of his teeth. “Second that’s not why I'm calling. Your brother is here with me.”

Leo blinks, he blames his previous hibernated state on why it took him so long to remember which brother had left the lair. “Donnie? Is he ok?” he said already going to his room and looking for his sword under his bed.

“He is alright, but it looks like he got hit on the head pretty hard-“

That’s all it takes for him to charge out of his room, lingering only long enough to grab the toolbox he used for a first aid kit, and grabbing his portal sword from the kitchen (vaguely remembering he had used it to cut some cheese for his peanut butter and cheese grilled sandwich earlier) and slicing the sword down to activate a portal to Hueso’s office. Without saying bye, he hangs his phone up and jumps through.

The aforementioned skeleton, who had been glaring at his phone as though offended Leo had hung up on him, gave a shriek as the turtle appears by his side. “BAH! Leo, I hate it when you-“

Leo immediately tuned him out when he saw Donnie laying on Hueso’s couch with an ice pack over his forehead, he hurried forward and knelt down. “You ok buddy?” he asks.

Donnie looks up at him from under the ice pack with a weak smile. “I don’t know, are you really uglier than the last time I saw you or is that my head talking?”

Leo couldn’t help but grin. “I thought brain injuries were supposed to make people nicer,” he says. He turns to the toolbox and starts going through the first aid supplies inside. “Thanks for letting him rest. In your office,” he tells Hueso as he sets aside a pen light and some new bandages.

“Why wouldn’t I? Out of your brothers he’s most definitely my favorite.”

“Wait you have a favorite?” Leo looks to him. “Then who's your least favorite?”

After a pause, Hueso gives a wide and strained grin. “I will leave you two to it. If you need me just call me,” he says before ducking out quickly.

It’s only then that Leo turns his barely contained worried energy on Donnie “What happened? Who did this? Do you have their address and sleep schedule-“

“Leo,” Don starts in a pained voice, “Please, my head feels like someone tried to split it with an ax. It was an accident. Some kids hit me in the head with a snow ball.“

Leo was about to start on another tirade of questions when he forced himself to take a deep breath, “Yeah, ok, I'm sorry,” he says. Also trying to ignore Donnie’s missing coat. He looks back to his supplies and pulls out a pen light. “I’m going to check your pupil dilation, but only if you're up for it.” He waits for Donnie to give a slight nod before he lifts the pen and carefully pushes the ice pack away from his eyes. Using his thumb to cover Don’s opposite eye without actually touching him, with a flash the pupil constricts and dilates as it should. He does the same process to the other “Well that’s good at least,” Leo says. “How’s your vision?”

“Spinning, but I think that’s from the pain.”

That would make sense. The red slider turtle rose to sit on the edge of the couch, carefully unwrapping Don’s scalp as gently as he can, checking his facial expression for any signs of increased pain before he lets out a sigh of relief. “It's just a surface bleed. It doesn’t look like the actual injury itself reopened.”

“That’s good,” Donnie says with a soft sigh. “You’re doing a good job.”

“I had a good teacher.” Leo made sure to give Donnie a soft smile that the turtle barely returns. “Let me just change the bandages and we’ll head home when you feel up for it. Maybe we can order some pizza; I've had a monster craving for anchovy and chocolate syrup pizza for days-“

“I was wrong.”

Leo blinks, pausing from unwrapping the new bandages with his hands. It takes him longer than he should to realize what Don’s apologizing for and when he does, he only returns to digging through his kit. “You were a little right,” Leo says quietly putting aside a bottle of alcohol, “I mean it's kinda right, right?? You're usually right-“

“No, Leo.” Donnie tries to sit up but fails to get up more than a few seconds before Leo’s grip on his arm forces him back down. “Leo I was wrong. I was angry, my head was killing me I would have said anything to hurt you. You don’t mess everything up-“

“Except I do?” Leo lets out a soft laugh. “I mean I do. Between the minotaur's pizza and Big Mama I'm surprised I get anything right-“

Don’s hand grabs his shoulders and before Leo can stop him, the soft-shell forces himself into a sitting position with pure grit alone (judging by the pain filled grimace on his face, “Would you listen to me?!” Donnie demands shaking him by the shoulders, “I shouldn’t have even said it but I would have said anything. I was angry at feeling so helpless and dependent. I was angry because you were right for trying to stop me from going out. I did need your help and I shouldn’t have been so difficult. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry-“ his last sentence is interrupted with a sob that helps him notice the tears running down his face. Donnie lets out an aggravated huff as he presses the heel of his hands against his streaming eyes to help spare his dignity in some way.

He feels the couch shift as Leo shifts closer, wrapping his arms around him. “Ok, ok you were wrong. I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing Leo,“ Donnie manages to say from his brother’s shoulder. “I’m the one apologizing not you, idiot.”

“Alright, alright I apologize for apologizing. You were wrong I was right. Is that what you want to hear?” he asks. Don nods into his shoulder. Leo rests his cheek on Dons’ shoulder rubbing his shell for a few moments as Don’s erratic breathing finally starts to calm down.

After a few seconds Don lets out a small sigh, “Damn it, I was doing so good too. I can't even tell anymore if these are meltdowns or panic attacks.”

“As long as you don’t have to deal with them alone when you don’t want to, that’s all I care about.” Leo gives him a final squeeze before reaching up and taking Don’s shoulders, gently guiding him down to lay down again. “Ok buddy. I’m going to rewrap your head, and then I'm going to go order us some food and portal us home. You just relax ok?” He waits for Donnie to nod before Leo starts applying some alcohol to a cotton ball. “I’ll be honest though, I’m sorta surprised you made it here safely.”

Don for the first time since Leo entered Hueso’s office looks him with his tired blood shot eyes. A soft smile forming on his face as he relaxes. “Yeah,” he whispers. ”Me too.”

#rottmnt #rottmnt fanfiction #Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #leo #donnie #kendra #christmas #gift #what a long year

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mgrgfan · 4 years

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Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 4. Breaking the blockade.

"Finally," said the Emperor, looking at the monumental machine, placed in the largest temporary sort-of-a-VAB built so far. "Finally! FINALLY!!!" Officers, which were standing not too far away from this genius, but a crazy one at that, exchanged looks of understanding. After all, this was his dream made real, even if forced to be remade for destruction… and protection. The ship itself - the first real, atomic explo-flyer, envisioned long ago, but built only recently - was truly a masterpiece of technology. Massing 4000 tons fully loaded, equipped with the most advanced sensors, protected by the arcanotech-enhanced composite armor, armed with railguns, howitzers, rotary cannons, space combat missiles and retro-missiles for planetary bombardment, this was the most powerful warmachine of the Soris Empire... so far. The nuclear fission reactor of this ship was built with inclusions of components from the reactor of Space Lab 2, as a way to drive the point of revenge and attract the blessing from the Red Spirit (though barely anyone believed in this one). After all, according to the mythology, this spirit gave its blessing to anyone, who was fighting to avenge the fallen comrades. Right now, the giant rocket was quietly sitting on the launchpad (built specifically for it) and receiving final checks. The first stage - the NUCLEUS booster - had simple, but pretty efficient chemfuel engines, which used liquid hydrogen as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. A titanic tank of fuel in center of rocket, a sectionalized torus-like oxidizer tank around it, a monstrous plug-cluster aerospike engine right in the middle of bottom and several blocks of control engines near the edges - all of that could lift two thousand tons to orbit just by itself and then safely come back and land. However, that was not needed - it only needed to raise the payload roughly halfway to the space... The payload - the first manned interplanetary spaceship in the history of the world, remade into first space warship - had the nuclear pulse engine. When the separation happens, the shock absorbers, collapsed for the duration of the first phase of launch to make the rocket more compact, will first extend to full length, then the shaped-blast charge will be launched from gas gun between them and fly through the trapdoor in the pusher plate, before exploding and launching a wave of superheated nuclear plasma, which will impact the plate, protected by the layer of graphite, and transfer the momentum to the ship through two stages of shock absorbers. Then the auto-sprayers will apply the new layer of graphite, the new bomb will be launched and explode, and then it will repeat again and again... "Comrades, I think those nine months of accelerated work weren't for naught!" the Emperor finally stopped laughing like maniac and got himself together. "Prepare to remove the building shell. Prepare to fuel the NUCLEUS booster. All cosmonauts - prepare to board the ship. Begin the launch countdown." "Aye-aye, Your Majesty. Countdown begins, T-72 hours and counting. Beginning the launch pad preparations. Beginning the VAB final disassembly." Most of the stuff in the giant building was already removed in the preparation for launch. Now, the only thing they've needed to do was to activate fast-disassembly mechanisms, which will safely collapse the roof and walls outwards, without damaging the launch pad and the monstrous ship on it. ---- Empress knew, that her husband was crazy. She knew, that this launch can - and, likely, will - worsen the already-far-from-good terms, on which the Soris Empire now was with the Pokemon Nation (culture clash did not help, especially with the whole thing about decent amounts of nationals worshipping Legendaries and Mythicals). She knew, that Nation can see it as an act of war. But for some strange reason, she was nearly as excited to see this launch, as her husband was. Or, actually, like the most of sorisians will be very, very soon, when the "Red Explorer" gets finally unveiled. After all, her internal political campaign about honoring the memory of 11th expedition to the Space Lab 2 really helped. The sheer growth of the metal processing and nuclear, chemical, arcanotechnological and many other industries, amongst other developments… it was wonderful. Besides, this launch, should the ship survive the upcoming battle, will majorly lift her support. Even after all those years (The Shift not included), "Bread And Shows" still worked great time - both for the Soris Empire (some parts of the space program, along with most entertainment) and Pokemon Nation (League and Contests). And if the Nation decides to try to attack them… well, that's what for the ship has several "Lightning" retro-missiles with city-buster warheads! ---- "Look at this," said one of the operators in the Mossdeep Space Center, showing the director, who was walking nearby, transmission from the kantonian research plane, which was flying near the Soris. Right now, the biggest building in the complex of Zemlino Space Center has just… fallen apart, slightly reminding them of a flower, and revealed a giant rocket inside. This rocket was roughly comparable to those, which Pokemon Nation used for the Moon missions… except much, much thicker. "Are you even sure, that this is a rocket?" wondered director. "It's so huge… How would it even take off?" "No idea," replied the operator. "I suggest we get some Cornn Berries and watch the fireworks, when the Rayquaza destroys this thing!" "Be careful with your words!" notified him superior, then quietly added, "I agree. If they didn't get yet, that as soon as it flies to strato - it dies, then we can have some good views. Though I wonder, what they are overcompensating for…" ---- "T-10 minutes and counting," announced one of the operators in Zemlino. After several very hard days of final workings and pre-flight checks, the "Red Explorer" was finally preparing to leave the ground. The nuclear reactor of the ship was now working at minimal capacity, cooling through external loop, the NUCLEUS booster was checking the thrust vectoring and aerodynamic control surfaces, the cosmonauts were getting more comfortable in their chairs… The final launch poll resulted in "go" and now there was only one way - the way up. ---- "… Seventeen, sixteen, water suppression system online, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, ignition sequence start, six, we have ignition, four, three, two, all engines are running!" reported the announcer. "Liftoff! We have a liftoff, thirty-two minutes past the hour, liftoff on "Red Explorer"!" With a horrifying roar, the giant rocket started to slowly, but surely rise above the launchpad and accelerate, shock diamonds visible in the exhaust flames of working plug-cluster aerospike engine, rest of the launchpad clouded in steam, created by evaporating water from the water suppression system. "Tower cleared!" happily screamed Emperor Ivan the Second, tearing the microphone from the hands of announcer, when the giant machine passed the tower - the last remain of VAB's scaffolding. "T plus ten seconds, tower cleared, speed increasing as planned! The roar is terrific! The building is shaking! Look at that beauty go!" People, who were in this room, saw the Emperor going flat-out childish, jumping around while laughing like a madman and crying tears of joy. The last time he was like that was during the launch of Imperial Moon Mission on the Water Dragon rocket. ---- "Holy crap," mumbled one of the telescope operators in the Mossdeep Space Center. "Josh - do you see what I see?" "If you're about the unreasonably giant rocket finally going up - yep, I do. Honestly, what in the name of Ray… sorry, but still, what is this thing?" "No idea." Image from kantonian observatory was quickly routed to the main screen, allowing everyone to have a nice view on the rocket. Finally, the main engine in the first stage has gone silent. "The stages separate… Wait, what? The first stage is actively decelerating, and the second… What it this? I don't even…" The second stage indeed looked weirdly. Instead of the usual great bell of the rocket engine or the cluster of smaller engines, there was a thick plate with some kind of a tube in the middle of it, installed on several shock absorbers, a cone between the shock absorbers - and that's all. On the screen, suddenly, something was launched from the cone, flew through the plate, and… "Feed from O7 is dark. No idea, what the Reverse World was that, but the telescope's matrix is dead." "Routing the SolOb6 to screen… Arceus the Original One, what the frak?" "..." entire room got speechless, as the telescope camera, designed for studying the Sun, showed ship steadily accelerating on what seemed to be huge explosions - probably, nuclear in nature. Thick plate (which, for some reason, was varying in thickness as the explosions were going - probably, serving as an another shock absorber) and long piston-based shock absorbers served well to protect the giant ship from explosions and soften the acceleration. Blast after blast, the giant ship was surely rising higher and higher... ---- "Separation commencing," reported the pilot, looking at the screen, which displayed the data of active autopilot. "Separation complete. Booster is out of the danger zone. Initiating nuclear pulse propulsion. Stand by for acceleration. Bomb drive now firing." Entire ship shook, when the drive bomb, launched from the gas gun, detonated behind the ship's aft. Wave of superhot tungsten plasma, along with aerial overpressure wave, struck the plate, but thin layer of graphite worked well, ablating, but protecting the arcane-enhanced steel alloy underneath from getting damaged. Under normal conditions, the sheer acceleration would've instantly killed the cosmonauts and collapsed the hull of the ship. However, thanks to the gas bags right behind the plate and heavy, two-staged hydropneumatic shock absorbers, the fraction of second of acceleration got elongated, proportionally lowering the loads on the machine and men inside it. Milliseconds after the plasma from the detonation of the drive bomb dispersed, auto-sprayers deployed themselves and created a new layer of graphite on the plate, then retracted back, right before the new bomb was launched and exploded. And then it repeated again, and again, and again, and again... ---- "So, if I'm understanding even remotely right, the first and, so far, only launch table for ultra-heavy rockets got destroyed by the exhaust?" Empress Svetlana asked her husband. "Yep," replied Ivan in surprisingly jolly voice. "Launch Table ST-1 has partially melted now due to insufficient power of water suppression system, but the ship is in space and there is barely any radiation trail in the atmosphere! By the way, launch stage recovered successfully." "That's good to know, but still, we've lost our only launch table for this kind of rockets and it'll take a long time to repair it." "I know. It's not like the Sea Launch Platform was an option for us at that time, though…" "On the topic of the sea launch - are you planning to use the Water Dragon rocket for building the replacement space station, since the Space Lab Two was destroyed by the Rayquaza? I've seen some suspicious increases in funding…" "Yep. The NUCLEUS rocket will remain for launching explo-flyers mostly, while the Water Dragons take lesser operations. One of them is getting prepared right now for launching the supply block to the "Red Explorer", when it gets to the orbit." "Uh-huh. And what about your spaceplane project?" "The Project BLUEBIRD? So far, so good, tests of the final version should begin in a week or so. I must admit, the hypersonic hybrid air-breathing nuclear rocket engines are still somewhat problematic, but we are very close to ironing those problems out." "Range?" "Unmanned - all the way to the Red Planet. Manned - to the Moon in a reasonable amount of time." "Docking to the "Red Explorer"?" "Possible through the expandable top adapter, but the spaceplane won't be able to fit into the docking bay." ---- "We are on the action orbit now, comrade captain," said pilot, getting himself more comfortable in the acceleration chair. "Drive bomb magazines and propellant storages for the reaction control system are at optimal level after orbital injection, we can go to the Moon and back on those reserves in just a day!" "Nuclear ordinance for anti-space engagements and planetary bombardment is nominal, awaiting codes and targets," reported weapons operator, scrolling through the lists and making some mental notes. "Point defense rotary cannons ready, main caliber railguns ready, Lance Howitzers ready." "Targeting telescopes nominal, thermal scopes nominal, radars nominal," sounded the report from the sensors operator, who was already switching through the feeds, monitoring the surroundings. "Radiators deployed, cooling system nominal, reactor nominal," said the engineer, feeling proud of his participation in creating power plant of this ship. "Shock absorbers are fine, pusher plate is fine, drive bomb launcher, graphite sprayers and plasma deflection cone are fine, RCS nominal. Oh, nearly forgot - life support is also nominal and will be in this condition for at least a year. We'll run out of food much earlier. And landers, along with space workpods, are also fine and ready." "All comm systems are ready and tuned," added the comm officer, fiddling with headset, then suddenly turning pale. "Uh-oh. Comrade captain, FCC just told us, that Rayquaza is exiting the atmo and will engage us in few minutes, arrives from the east." "Then all hands to battle stations!" ordered captain, feeling shivers. Of course, their ship was the technologies of tomorrow embodied, a state-of-art space warship, armed with the most advanced, yet reliable and efficient weaponry Empire has created, but their opponent was no less than the Sky High Pokemon itself, who was once considered by less developed humans to be god of the skies and even now, it remained a great force to be reckoned with. However, this battle was a decisive one. There can be only one winner… and all of the humans aboard the "Red Explorer" will do their best to make sure, that the Rayquaza won't be it. "Aye-aye, comrade captain! Retracting the radiators, reactor output set to combat levels," reported the engineer, trying to keep his confidence in the great machine. "Railguns and point defence are deployed, the capacitors are charging up, anti-space missiles are armed, Lance Howitzers are loaded," calmly stated the weapons officer. Among the fellow crew members, he was the calmest and most confident one - mainly because dozens of nuclear missiles and howitzer-launched shaped-blast bombs, along with electromagnetic railguns (with nuclear and canister shots) and rotary cannons, were now under his control. "RCS and bomb drive are ready," said the somewhat unnerved, but slightly cocky pilot. The drive bomb counter and RCS propellant storages indicators told him, that the battle can go on for a decent amount of time - the NUCLEUS chemfuel booster allowed them to save a lot of bombs during the ascent. "Radars located bandit retrograde-breaking the atmo west and a little south, but no definitive lock so…" began the sensor operator, suppressing his nervousness with deep focus on work. Calling the Rayquaza "bandit" helped all of the officers to distance themselves from the fact, that they were fighting an actual Legendary now. "Yeah, telescopes acquired it! Locked on!" "SCMs away, 3 "Firestorms", 4 "Firelances"!" nearly screamed weapons operator, pressing the launch trigger. On the ship's hull, several round armored hatches opened, revealing missile silos. Right after it, seven of the streamlined machines of death were ejected by small explosive charges, turned around and engaged their solid-fuel engines, accelerating at 100 g and doing their best to track and intercept the designated target. Even with remote guidance from the ship, sensors of which were far superior to those, which could be installed on space combat missiles, it was not an easy task. The Sky High Pokemon, seeing several dots leave the more massive target, started to perform the evasion maneuver, as uneasy as it was during the already-ongoing Dragon Ascent. It was a wise decision and, probably, would've helped… were it not for the missiles with Lance warheads. When four of the missiles, armed with shaped-blast charges, reached the optimal distance, the "Red Explorer" sent a very simple command to them - "detonate". Under normal circumstances, this command would have served only for performing self-destruct… but the circumstances now were anything but normal. The small stars of exploding 10kt thermonuclear warheads grew for a split-second in space. It would've been a nearly-harmless firework for the Rayquaza… but, unfortunately for it, for each of the "stars", more than 80% of the thermonuclear power got channeled and concentrated onto a small tungsten disk. Even this metal could not withstand such a magnitude of energy, so, it turned into plasma and, shaped and accelerated by the still undergoing fury of the fusion reaction into a tight stream, flew in the desired direction at the recognizable fraction of the speed of light. Four jets of very hot relativistic plasma impacted Rayquaza. Even with the energy of Dragon Ascent surrounding the Legendary, it still hurt major time… and then the rest of the missiles came. When the Sky High Pokemon was distracted with the pain from the nuclear lances, warship directed the last three small machines of destruction to come in-close and detonate the neutron warheads. Even though the effects of fireballs were negligible (as it was with most of the nuclear detonations in space), the neutron flux from explosions was pretty decent, especially with overlapping irradiation areas. Now that the Rayquaza's body was irradiated like this, the combat capability of this Legendary will be lowering and lowering as the time goes, until the radiation poisoning takes the max effect and turns it into the agonizing wreck, before the death finally comes. As a nice bonus, those explosions have also caused enough of a shock to the Rayquaza to cancel out the Dragon Ascent. "All hits scored. I think the battle has started pretty good, comrade captain," cheerfully reported the weapons operator. "Don't get too cocky," warned them all commander of this ship, silently reminding, that they were still fighting a being of incredible power, which held the atmospheric and orbital superiority undisputed for who-knows-how-many years, only occasionally leaving its position and allowing a few travels up there. "Bandit has recovered from the shock and prepares to use the Hyper Beam," grimly stated the sensors operator. "Acknowledged, stand by for rotation. RCS now firing," warned everyone the pilot, slightly smiling to himself. The relatively small attitude control jets expelled streams of superhot hydrogen, turning the massive ship around. The Hyper Beam is a powerful move. Really powerful. But it has some drawbacks - the first one being exhausting user and forcing it to spend some time recovering and the second being relatively low velocity of the energy beam itself. The space is big. Really big. Even in low Earth orbit, dozens of kilometers are still considered pretty small distances. Between Rayquaza firing the Hyper Beam and it getting to the "Red Explorer", a pretty long time has passed. Long enough for the ship to turn and take the stream of destruction not the nose- or side-first, but on the pusher plate, built to withstand close nuclear explosions and covered by ablative layer of graphite. "Attack over, no damage to drive. Graphite layer restored. Stand by for acceleration. Bomb drive now firing," reported pilot, smiling even wider. Wham. Wham. Wham. Only the crew of the ship, who got pressed into acceleration chairs upon the drive's operation, heard those sounds, as the vessel began to change its trajectory. "Railguns charged, #2 locked on, "Firecracker" loaded. Firing," said the weapons officer with a slight smirk, as he pressed the trigger. Deep inside the ship, a one of three groups of electric capacitors of tremendous, well, capacity, already charged by the energy from ship's nuclear power plant, discharged all at once, transferring the power to the two parallel rails of one of the simplest electrodynamic mass drivers. The railgun spat out a projectile with barely any fireworks (save for plasmified remains of launch assist armature). In the vacuum of space, there wasn't even a characteristic "crack" of sonic boom… and the projectile experienced no aerodynamic drag, keeping the velocity at constant level with no need for active propulsion. And since this velocity equaled more than 2503 meters per second, and the projectile carried a small nuclear warhead… ---- ""Red Explorer" is firing "Thunderlance" railgun, "Firecracker" 1kt nuclear shell"- emotionlessly said one of the operators in the Zemlino's FCC. "Hostile Rayquaza's biological armor is being damaged." "Is she always like this?" whispered Emperor to the FCC's director. "Sometimes." "Huh. You know, I'm still unpleased, that we weren't able to make guidance system being capable of directing more than seven space combat missiles and two howitzer charges at once before the ship was launched…" ---- "Bandit is temporarily inoperable, trajectory - full retrograde orbital, roughly similar to ours," reported the sensors operator. "The respite will be brief, assume re-intercept in 45 minutes." "Acknowledged," said the engineer. "Deploying the radiators, beginning cooling." Several small square hatches opened on the hull of the ship, allowing the thin metallic structures to unfold from them and start barely noticeably glowing dull-red, allowing the waste heat to leave the heat accumulators and prepare the machine for the new round of combat. Combat, which will need a lot of energy and leave a lot of waste heat. ---- The big digital timer above the main screens in the "rubber room" of the Zemlino Space Center ticked off the seconds since the launch of the "Red Explorer". When it passed half-hour, Emperor said, “Try it now.” He put on his own headset. Far outside of the armored launch bunker, across the entire Empire, both on the ground and on the sea ships, many giant parabolic antennas started turning around, trying to lock onto signature of the first space warship and establish connection. "Routing through the Grey Sea fleet… link established!" happily reported the comm operator. "Dancer, this is Pothouse, report!" said the Emperor, deciding to use codenames of both ship and flight control center for some reason. Sometimes, it was really hard to understand this man. "Pothouse, this is Dancer. No big scratches so far, re-intercepting bandit in five minutes or so. Radiators are now retracted, cooling is internal, preparing to launch SCMs." "Dancer, this is Pothouse, acknowledged. Be careful - bandit is likely to employ new tactics, don't let it hit the shock absorbers!" "Pothouse, this is Dancer, understood." "That's good. May the Red and Green Spirits bless you, guys!" "Thanks. Warning, bandit is in range, engaging!" The link cut off, as the ship resumed the combat. ---- "Go, Dragon Lord, blast this thing!" young Draconid cheered, looking at the TV screen. An hour or so ago, the live broadcast of telescope and radar surveillance of the Imperial warship started and, less than an hour ago, Rayquaza started the battle with it. So far, the battle was going… strange. The giant weaponized spaceship of the Soris Empire was constantly turning around, engaging her explosion drive from time to time and attempting to take beam and projectile attacks on the aft plate, which was more than capable of withstanding them without getting scratched, since the nuclear explosions were the primary method of propulsion for this ship. In addition to this, most weapons of this warship, as the TV commenter pointed out, were also using nuclear explosions to cause damage. Few Draconids knew about nuclear technology enough to understand full ramifications of it, but those, who did, were really worried. If the sorisians have harnessed the power of atom and truly mastered it, then even the mighty Lord Rayquaza was in danger. ---- "Bandit now re-engaging!" warned everyone sensors operator. "Ancient Power, two seconds!" "Incoming projectile attack," noted weaponry operator, who was obviously enjoying this battle. "Point defence firing… Attack neutralized. Seven "Firelances" away… Hits scored." "Warning, damage to the lander bay #2 armor!" reported engineer in somewhat worried voice, then eased up. "No penetration, no damage to contents." "Stand by for acceleration and rotation," said pilot in steel voice, while his eyes were burning with excitement of being among those, who fought the Rayquaza itself. "RCS and bomb drive now firing." Hiss. Hiss. Wham. Wham. Wham. Wham. The whole battle turned into series of reports and memorized actions, which happened a dozens of times on the ground simulator already, combined with sounds of propulsion and reaction control systems, weaponry and occasional hits to other places, than the pusher plate. Rayquaza was a formidable opponent… but the ship, originally intended for peaceful space exploration, then remade into warship, was designed to be capable to take on even the most powerful opponents and be victorious. Entire nuclear industry of Soris was recently redirected to supply the ship with enough propulsion bombs and weapons. Hundreds of millions were watching their battle right now. They've had no right to fail, lest the humanity forever become prisoners of this planet, with insanely territorial feral dragon ruling the skies and killing everyone, who dares to try to break free of gravity's hard embrace and turn their eyes towards the distant stars. Not to say anything about the Pokemon Nation, which, probably, will consider starting the war with Soris Empire, if the ship goes down, along with all the nuclear armament. "Bandit prepares Dra-Met, five seconds," noted the sensors operator, monitoring feeds from targeting telescopes, radars and thermal scopes at the same time. "Acknowledged, railguns charged, #1 locked on, "Dustbin" loaded. Firing…" half-reported, half-mumbled the weaponry operator, looking at his screens. "Draco Meteor dispersed and denied." Indeed, shooting a canister shell, loaded with tiny pellets of depleted uranium - byproduct of nuclear industry - right in the direction of Rayquaza's mouth was not a bad way to prevent the dangerous attack from being performed. As a nice bonus, several pellets hit eyes of the Legendary, causing it great pain and making it squirm. "Stand by for acceleration. Bomb drive now firing." Wham. Wham. Wham. ---- The old dragon was hurt. Really hurt. For thousands upon thousands of years, it ruled sky undisputed. It showed the inferior beings their places. Even the Eon Duos were rightfully afraid of it. A few… days? Weeks? Months? ago the Sky High Pokemon has destroyed the human constructions, which violated its territory. It thought, that this time, they'll learn, that higher skies and space are not meant for them… but they didn't. They've decided, that they can force their point. They've built a giant machine, far beyond any previous constructions. It wasn't like old ones, which were frail, sacrificing everything to save the weight - no, this one was huge and sturdy, capable of taking hits and unleashing inferno in return. More than just capable, in fact. The battle was going on for a several hours already, filled with constant flybys and intercepts, where the combatants did their best to injure the opponent as much as possible and don't get killed at the same time. The whole body of the Legendary was either in pain, like from fire (even though the dragon's body should've been resistant to it), or slowly going numb. The machine, however, was still kicking with no visible major problems and unleashing attacks like no tomorrow. In fact, for one of the combatants, there indeed will be no tomorrow. Someone will remain victorious and hold the control over skies, someone will be destroyed and burned upon re-entry. The old dragon prepared for the final, death-or-glory attack… and suddenly the entire world for it turned blinding-white for less than a split-second, before everything disappeared and the complete abyss came. ---- "All nine hits with Lances scored - seven SCMs, two Howitzers with "Matchsticks"." "Bandit… completely inoperable and will re-enter atmo in two hours," reported the shocked sensors operator. "Guys… did we just... win?" "I hope so," replied the engineer. "I really hope so, since the heat accumulators are nearing critical and if it goes on like this for another dozen minutes or so - it's either scramming the reactor, dumping a decent amount of our hydrogen for open-cycle cooling or deploying radiators mid-battle!" "Deploy the radiators," gave an order the captain. "Power down the weapon systems and retract the weapons. Set reactor output to non-combat level. Return the ship to patrol orbit. Activate the habitation centrifuge. Report to the ground… that we've secured this frontier and avenged the 11th expedition to the Space Lab 2. Red Spirit should be proud of us now." "Aye-aye, comrade captain!" replied all officers in unison, before the attitude control jets hissed again, the pulse engine thumped a few more times and commlink received happy screams from the FCC. Captain of the "Red Explorer" barely cared about all of that. He was just happy, that this battle ended with them as victors… and he also hoped, that, whatever this dragon was doing to keep the balance on this boulder, humans will be able to do just as fine. "Comrade captain, FCC congratulates us! They say, that, when we return to the ground, Emperor and Empress themselves will give us the Medal of Skies!" happily screamed the comm officer, who still could barely believe, that they've done what was considered to be next to impossible - they've successfully defeated the higher-grade Legendary! "Yeah? Okay then. And what shall we do now?" "... Emperor told me, that we should just… "Soar over space"? What does that mean?" "It means, pals, that we did fine and we can take a break. A well-deserved break. Tell the service team to start total damage evaluation and repair." Author's notes: Green Spirit - yet another mystical being in Sorisian mythology, which patrons those, who protect and help others. Launch configuration of the "Red Explorer" and the "Red Explorer" itself were based on the data about the Orion Battleship, gained from here. SCM-1 "Firestorm" - mid-range solid-chemfuel space combat missile with TD-ENF-10K-1 enhanced radiation thermonuclear warhead (a.k.a. "neutron warhead"), 10kt yield. Radio command guidance. SCM-2 "Firelance" - mid-range solid-chemfuel space combat missile with TD-SB-10K-1 shaped-blast thermonuclear warhead (a.k.a. "Lance warhead", based on the real Casaba Howitzer project), 10kt yield. Radio command guidance. PBRM-1 "Lightning" - planetary bombardment retro-missile with liquid-chemfuel engines, armed with TD-CB-25M-1 heavy "city buster" thermonuclear warhead, 25 megaton yield, or six TD-CB-1M-1 1mt yield "city buster" multiple independently targetable maneuverable reentry vehicles. Combined radio command/inertial/active terminal homing guidance. Lance Howitzer - simple auto-loading mortar for firing "Matchstick" shaped-blast thermonuclear warheads. STW-10K-1 "Matchstick" - shaped-blast 10kt thermonuclear warhead with basic radio command guidance system and some tiny attitude jets, launched from Lance Howitzer and detonated shortly after. ERMA-2-S "Thunderlance" - 127mm electromagnetic rail mass accelerator (a.k.a. "railgun"), adapted for space and capable of accelerating shells up to 2506 m/s. NRS-1K "Firecracker" - nuclear shell for the ERMA-2-S, 1kt yield. Contact/remote/timer detonation. CRS-3 "Dustbin" - canister shot for the ERMA-2-S, depleted uranium pellets. RC-6-20-S "Chestnut" - 6-barrelled 20mm rotary cannon, adapted for space and used in the PD-1-20-S "Sweeper" space-adapted point defence system.

#Ancient Soris Empire #Shift Universe #mgrgfan writes a new fic

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skarmorydraws · 5 years

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@tyrantisterror Revenge of the ATOM Create-A-Kaiju Contest Entry: GNOMORAN

Date Discovered: ‎December 1, 1956

Aliases: The Beast of Emain Ablach, The Mutant Mole Monster, The Elder Gnome, Sciúirse Talún (”Scourge of Earth” in Irish)

Place of Origin: The Emain Ablach Earth Hollow

Notable Stomping Grounds: The Emain Ablach Earth Hollow; most of the coastal regions of Ireland and northwestern Europe; possible sightings in and around Scandinavia and the European Arctic circle

Height: 50 feet

Length: 75 feet

Description and Biology:

"Unsightly" is a word that describes Gnomoran quite well. Descended from a deviant prehistoric species of talpid mole that found its way to Ireland prior to the last ice age surrounding the island country with seawater, the fossorial creature has changed quite significantly compared to its ancestors, though its overall build - a cylindrical body, powerful burrowing clawed forepaws, velvety fur that doesn't flow in any major direction, sharp insect-catching teeth, and an acute sense of smell - has been retained due to being perfectly suited for its ecological role. However, its limb proportions are quite different from a typical mole, in that they are somewhat longer proportionally, though the back limbs are still shorter than the forelimbs. Likewise, its scaly, rat-like tail has become thicker and longer, more like that of a lizard, and though largely quadrupedal, it can rear up and even walk in a tripodal stance if it needs to either better sense its environment when above-ground or bring its weaponry to bear in combat, though it still looks somewhat hunched when on two legs. The forelimbs are burly and bear-like with hairless, scaly paws and five enormous, sturdy, relatively straight claws almost like those of a ground sloth on each hand, and the enlarged digit-like bone on each wrist has also developed into a curved, bladed spike for use as a weapon. Its plantigrade back feet are also scaly but with much shorter, more curved claws for traction. Most significantly, however, its head barely resembles that of its ancestors from the outside. Its medium-length snout and sharp-toothed jaws seem to have been remain largely unchanged in skeletal structure, and its light red eyes are small and insignificant, but the similarities end there. The front of the forehead bulges upwards and is heavily reinforced, because it serves as the base for a massive, straight, conical horn, spiraled like a narwhal's tusk, that points straight ahead and helps Gnomoran bore through the earth along with its clawed paws; the snout and mouth poke out underneath it like the mouth of a goblin shark. The snout and chin themselves are covered in long hair like a mustache and beard, and on the very end of the snout, the nose itself has about a dozen flexible fleshy feelers like catfish barbels which it uses to sense its environment. It is the top of the head that is most notable: it is entirely hairless, and the base of the horn, the scalp, and the sides of the face are all covered in wart-like tumors and skin eruptions of varying sizes. Its teeth are typical of a mole's, which resemble those of a carnivoran (including canine fangs and carnassials) rather than those of the only distantly related rodents; however, the front-most incisors are elongated to the point where they resemble rodent teeth, and some of its teeth are also missing or even broken from countless fights.

The monster's scraggly, unkempt fur is a uniform shade of pale bluish gray with silvery streaks here and there, along with cream-colored facial hair uncannily resembling the mustache and beard of a garden gnome. Its paws, tail, and the skin and tumors on its face are a pale red, and its claws, wrist spikes, and horn are reinforced by iron and are thus a vivid red-orange in color.

Aside from enhanced brute strength and burrowing capabilities, Gnomoran seems to be an accomplished swimmer, and has been seen paddling through the coastal seas off of northwestern Europe in a breaststroke-like fashion, moving with surprising speed to surprise watercraft and tunneling straight into the ground from the water, though its agility in the water obviously pales in comparison to more dedicated swimmers. Like some other species of mole, it also has venomous saliva which causes temporary paralysis, once used to store prey in "larders" for lean times, but also just as effective in combat. Most critically, however, the tumors on the mole-beast's head, which seem to emerge as often as they are ruptured, contain a grisly byproduct of its radiation-metabolizing biology, a corrosive grease of sorts formed from the juices of its runaway regenerative processes. If an opponent foolishly attacks its face, the fluid released by the punctured pustules will more often than not begin to flow down its horn, making its goring attacks even deadlier. It may even pop its own pustules using its front claws and wrist blades to coat them in these caustic juices, and doesn't care if its skin and fur are also eaten away in the process - it can simply regenerate afterward. In fact, its regenerative ability is especially developed among kaiju of its scale, recovering from injuries in a much shorter span of time than normal and bouncing back from wounds that would kill a more typical kaiju, making it that much more difficult to kill and all the more frustrating for it.

Gnomoran thus adds a few insidious abilities to the standard kaiju set:

Super strength

An extremely enhanced healing factor

Immunity to radiation

Paralytic venomous bite

Caustic Pus

History:

The ancestors of Gnomoran seem to have gone extinct towards the end of the last ice age, when a gradually warming climate and increased humidity deprived them of the drier, cooler soils that they favored, as well as the cold-tolerant invertebrates that made up much of their diet. The last known population seems to have held out on the Isle of Man before fading out some 10,000 years ago, but not before some of them presumably tunneled into a Yamaneon-rich earth hollow beneath the island which wouldn't be discovered until much more recently. The hollow was found by a team of Irish geologists in late 1956 and, accordingly, named after an otherworldly location in Irish myth associated with the Isle of Man among other isles in proximity to the region. The hollow itself was not the only discovery they made that day, however - Gnomoran's instinctive prey drive, largely unchanged despite no longer requiring sustenance, regarded the scientists as prey and incited it to pursue them out of the hollow, killing several of them in the process. Escaping to the outside world, it made its way to the nearest body of land it could find and laid waste to the town of Newcastle, Irleand before military resistance sent it back into the sea. The creature then ventured northwards, attacking any coastal settlements and ships unlucky enough to be in its path, before finally tunneling into the Isle of Arran and disappearing from the public eye.

Several months later, the city of Glasgow, already in economic decline and rapid de-industrialization at the time, was in for a nasty surprise when an enormous red horn burst out of the streets and Gnomoran plunged into the heart of the city, ransacking everything in its way and devouring dozens of homeless, destitute people as it went. It was only thanks to British military aid that the creature was driven away from the better-off parts of the city, but not before a significant portion of the infamous Glasgow slums had been reduced to rubble. Its rampage finally ended when it attempted to escape into the River Clyde only to take a torpedo to the mouth, critically wounding it, whereupon it was promptly captured for transportation to the newly established Siberian Monster Zone. Sometime during its transportation, however, the ship containing it mysteriously sank, with all on board reported dead or missing - Gnomoran itself being among the latter. Eyewitness reports of the creature doing battle with other kaiju across northwestern Europe came up several times throughout the following year, complete with documented evidence of its presence, but no accounts of the creature invading major cities have been recorded since its sacking of Glasgow. Plans upon detainment are to deposit it in the Siberian Monster Zone as originally intended, but actually finding it is another story - the randomness of the mole-beast's meanderings means its current whereabouts are as yet unknown.

Personality:

As a result of Yamaneon exposure and atomic fossilization, Gnomoran's regenerative factor seems to be quite enhanced even by kaiju standards. Combined with its toxic secretions, this makes it an unexpected threat and a daunting foe to face despite its size and seeming fraility, and as has been gleaned from personal accounts by many survivors of its attacks, the mutant talpid seems to be aware of this. It is chaotic and unpredictable, retreating one moment and barreling at opponents horn-first the next, and its ability to strike from unexpected angles and disappear without much fanfare has made for infuriating and often traumatizing experiences for both the various European militaries and enemy kaiju it's encountered. The Pleistocene relic also has a sadistic, vindictive streak, exacting disproportionate retaliation and brutally mauling other life forms on its scale even if they only harmed it by accident, to say nothing of toying with smaller things like humans and vehicles like a child prone to breaking playthings on a whim. It also cares little for self-preservation due to its healing factor and is highly aggressive to beings that upset it as a result, having the audacity to fend off kaiju several times its size. The mole-beast is infamous for picking fights with others without rhyme or reason, attacking even when its remaining instincts aren't informing it that it is hungry.

Reportedly, kaiju who weren't as violent as Gnomoran itself have learned to simply leave rather than engage the creature whenever it drew near since its emergence, presumably having witnessed the bloody aftermath of its fights during their own travels. Many in fact preferred not to draw its attention if possible, lest it decide to chase them down and exercise its self-perceived entitlement to chronic and sustained cruelty. Strangely enough, however, more than half of the sightings of the creature since the Glasgow incident involved the provocation of an even bigger, more powerful beast, with Gnomoran sustaining severe or even mortal injury upon disengaging. Some have speculated that it may even have enjoyed being mangled each time, explaining why it incited such fights so often. The kaiju has even been known to quite happily hurl itself right into dangerous territory such as hazardous environments and obstacles, fights where it is severely outmatched, or even disasters it has bought upon itself, further validating these claims.

Humanity fares even worse against the monster, for obvious reasons, and military efforts have thus far only raised its ire ever more greatly. Vehicles and groups of people attract its predatory instincts, as its brain is hard-wired to view smaller creatures as prey, especially in groups. Whenever it has made landfall, it seems to have made a beeline for coastal villages and suburbs. Its experience in Glasgow seems to have taught it not to venture into major cities, however, which is just as well, since the collateral caused by both it and military actions against it would be too great if it decided to attempt another municipal raid. Although it doesn't even need organic sustenance anymore, it is still compelled to consume large amounts of small prey due to its mentality remaining the same as that of a much smaller creature. This compels it to seek populated regions, forcing military retaliation and fueling its contempt for humanity in a vicious cycle. This is why many north-European coastal nations have since made evacuating rural areas their first priority in the event of its appearance, only employing martial resistance if left with no other choice.

As elusive as the elderly creature is physically, remnants of Gnomoran's presence, typically fur, pus, blood, and even bits of flesh, have been recovered from almost every site where conflict between it and other kaiju has been noted. Recent biological analysis of these remains has revealed that its abnormality and instability seem to extend beyond the tumors on its head - its small size and sadomasochistic aggression have resulted in it sustaining many, many injuries, including numerous internal ones due to how often it has been crushed or its vitals damaged. Its extremely high healing factor fast-tracking the repair of these injuries seems to have resulted in tumors and pustules overcrowding any wound it has received, and the extent of the cycle of damage may go beyond even that.

Many scientific reports related to Gnomoran have turned up one distressing commonality: living cell matter associated with the mole-beast has been known to spontaneously develop into tumors even in containment or otherwise in isolation of the source, and some have speculated that the monster's own inner anatomy constantly experiences the same issue, with every muscle, organ, and neuron growing, eroding, and re-growing at an explosive rate. Combining this with accounts of its cries constantly sounding as though it were severely hurt, along with its habit of intentionally blundering into hazardous situations, a few analysts have even speculated that this aspect of its biology causes the kaiju immense pain on a constant basis, which may explain why the creature is so pugnacious and prone to violence and self-harm: its own runaway growth may be railroading it into waging war with others so that its own constantly growing flesh can be broken, battered, and ripped away from itself before it overtakes its critical anatomy, condemning it to an agonizing fate far worse than death.

In summation, it seems that Gnomoran is a beast that has vastly overstayed its welcome, both on Earth and compared to the expected lifespan of its kind, and the inadvertent prolonging of its mortal coil has thrown some catastrophic side-effects into the mix. While its behavior may be an indicator that it is vaguely aware of this notion, its instincts have sadly locked it into the violent, self-destructive path it has followed for far too long. The mole-beast is indeed a monster - but not an entirely unsympathetic one.

Notes:

Whew! This guy, right here, was a true exercise in flexing my creative muscles, and took a number of attempts design-wise to get right, but I believe I pulled through in the end. :)

One of the gaps I noticed in both ATOM and the real life giant monster filmography worldwide was that Europe seems to have been rather neglected in the atomic age, in spite of having a rich source of mythical creatures that could've been adapted to the era in some fashion (hell, IIRC only Reptilicus borrowed from that, being a medieval dragon and such). There also weren't as many Trogcestor kaiju as there were retrosaurs, so in the wake of how successful one of my last ATOM contest entries was, I needed something both mythical and prehistoric-looking. My original plan was in fact a gigantic monstrous unicorn with a rhinoceros-esque flair and a theme like a jousting knight, but then I remembered that a Behemoth already exists as a kaiju in the ATOM canon, and what with unicorns being closely related to behemoths in the fantasy 'verse ATOM shares its world with, I sadly had to scrap it. Luckily, another concept I had planned fit much better, and that was refined into Gnomoran here.

This bad boy is, in fact, related to the ancestors of TT's dwarves (including gnomes), which are basically weird sapient moles, so I decided to pitch to myself the idea of a freaking lawn gnome as a kaiju - which would be a gloriously ridiculous idea without the context - and see if I could make it work. I ended up with this gigantic monstrous prehistoric "unicorn mole" with a lance-like horn on its head referencing the famous hat, with a touch of The Mole People B-movie mixed in (note: the date of discovery is the same as the real-world release date of The Mole People). The overall design combines said Mole People not only with more accurate anatomy from talpid and star-nosed moles, but also flourishes from Guiron, Gabara, Baragon, and even a touch of Knifehead for the snout, though the facial tumors were entirely my invention. The history meanwhile is more akin to The Giant Behemoth (which was released just over two years after The Mole People, incidentally), the titular beast of which was said to be suffering radiation sickness but didn't have a design indicating as such. I decided to swap out radiation for cancer for thematic reasons, and had Gnomoran live through his ordeal and escape to live and fight another day. His name, by the way, is a portmonteau of "Gnome" and "Formorian", a race of vicious subterranean dwarves from Celtic lore, which also explains his presence in an Irish territory - the Isle of Man is one of the real locations associated with the mythical realm of Emain Ablach, for which Gnomoran's place of birth is named.

So why does he have "everywhere-cancer", you may ask? Well, that ties into the theme I had in mind. I noticed that there were plenty of "good guy" monsters in the world of ATOM, and even a lot of the antagonists redeem themselves to some extent. But has there been anybody designed as a "hate sink" of sorts, someone despicable enough that nobody wants them around? I wanted to come up with one of those since I'd done only one antagonistic kaiju in the previous ATOM contest compared to three relatively decent ones, but I obviously didn't want to violate the ruling that the villain has to have at least one virtuous characteristic, though, so I ended up making him a tragic villain instead, and themed him around the health complications of old age and the perennial issue in fantasy fiction of prolonging one's lifespan through unnatural means. The inspiration for this was the loss of my family's two dogs earlier this year, and in the case of the latter I actually had the misfortune to witness her waste away due to health complications at her age. "Old-ness" is an unavoidable thing that is only comprehensible to those who are already old, and hated by everyone else in some way or another. Who would want to see the loss of their youth and vitality while becoming elderly and senile, after all? There are a lot of things to enjoy about the autumn years of your life, sure, but the sad truth is that when you're old, you're more vulnerable to disease, and cancer in particular. The elder of our dogs lost his life to spleen cancer, in fact, which has weighed heavily on me since then. Thus, I gave Gnomoran a face encrusted by tumors, while also hinting at his entire body from snout to tail also being full to bursting with more of them. Then I realized that a certain merc with a mouth from the X-Men comics has the same issue, and then everything fell into place regarding his personality. Deadpool would, after all, be a completely unlikeable asshole without all that snark! So Gnomoran thus became this crazed, elderly maniac with all of Deadpool's psychotic problems and none of the fourth-wall-breaking comedic charm, thus bringing the issues Gnomoran has to the spotlight: he's old and outdated, constantly and gravely ill, and hurting all over, which has made him totally miserable, but unfortunately, his coping mechanism is not snide meta humor but rather attacking anything that crosses him in the hopes of alleviating the constant overgrowth of his own body. This may have even come about because his first interaction with humanity was violent by necessity, what with him trying to eat people and all. Hence, he's a crotchety old geezer who WILL cut a bitch when given the chance - an opposite to the way more mellow albeit territorial Julkath, if anything - but he at least isn't violent without reason. The fact that many insectivorous small mammals really are almost as aggressive IRL and have stupidly short lifespans because reasons was the icing on the cake. Poor guy outlasted his entire species, no wonder he's mad about it. :P

All in all, I'm happy with this crusty old fart and his overall concept, and hopefully it'll be worthy of its place alongside the other entrants into this second ATOM Create-A-Kaiju Contest. Best of luck to everyone else who's submitted, and of course, may the best monster win! :D

Atomic Time of Monsters universe (c) @tyrantisterror

#Skarmory's art #Atomic Time of Monsters #kaiju #tyrantisterror

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virovac · 5 years

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Revenge of the ATOM Contest Entry: Nematerror

Aliases: Nematerror the relentless, Ms. Curious, "The worm that saved the world in an eating contest"

Date discovered: August 1,1957

Place of Origin: Unknown, but likely caused by yamaneon chain reaction stemming from the underground testing around the Nevada National Security Site.

Notable Stomping/Slithering grounds: Sonoran Desert, The HM Pits Kaiju Sanctuary, Baja California Desert; The town of San Angelo, California

Height: Generally holds head 100 feet above the ground when rearing up.

Length: 420 feet

Biology

Nematerror combines the kaiju normal kaiju abilities with an adaptable nature that allow it to survive and obtain food almost anywhere its curiosity takes it leading to a list of abilities comprising:

Super strength

An enhanced healing factor

Immunity to radiation

Adaptive molting for new jaw structure

Facultive Amphibiousness

Digestive spray

The gigantic roundworm is a reminder of how even the most seemingly inhospitable places can hold life.

The beast was born from one of the few atomic tests sadly continued by the U.S. for a bit even after the link between tests and kaiju was suspected.

It was assumed if the test was conducted deep enough underground, no organisms capable of undergoing atomic fossilization would be present.

They were wrong. And Nematerror was born.

Unlike the parasitic nematodes the public is generally familiar with, Nematerror was most likely mutated from a free-living nematode living in underground submerged rock. Some speleomicrobiologists have contributed the possibility that it may be a fusion of multiple types of kaijufied nematodes, like some of the stranger Russian Kaiju; but others scoff at the possibility a chimera kaiju's components could work in tandem well enough for the kaiju's molting system to be possible.

Its hide (or cuticle, to be more accurate) is like its smaller brethren, tough yet flexible.

The biggest change is its yamaneon-infused cuticle is better at preventing dehydration than its smaller relatives, allowing it to be active in dry areas, though its instincts do often drive it to moisten itself when given the opportunity,

While its microscopic brethren are transparent, pigments normally consigned to eyespots have been repurposed and spread throughout the body, giving it a burgundy color with splotches of brown and red. At night, the kaiju has sometimes been seen to glow blue, likely by means of a yamaneon-radiation catalyzed reaction, similar to how a scorpion glows under an ultraviolet lamp.

On "top" of the head are two beady dark lenses, channeling light to eyespots held protectively within the body. However, Nematerror is known to travel upside down almost as often as right side up.

What appears to be segmentation is some places actually vents and slits for sensory organs.

The most well known aspect of the beast by the public nowadays is that it possess the rather unusual ability to enter a hibernative state from which it can molt with a different jaw structure.

While its most well known usage would be to adapt to different food sources (a generalist mouth when food sources are spread out, a sap-draining stylet when in a forest); during its confinement at the HM Pits, in response to harassment by other kaiju, it developed a retractable spear (something many nematodes have convergently evolved) and jaws similar to a hookworm. Once allowed to move to another body of water in the sanctuary, it went back to its generalist mouth structure.

Nematerror is capable of burrowing but rarely does so unless trying to avoid conflict or it is hungry and senses food below it.

Nematerror's sex is unclear due to the diversity of nematode reproduction strategies, but it is most likely to be female or an androdioecious hermahprodite (though one capable only of fertilizing itself and not others). As such the media has taken to calling it a female when writers wish to give it pronouns.

Personality

Personality is difficult to evaluate when talking about such a simple creature, and honestly leads one to step back and ask "what do we mean by personality?"

Nematerror's instinct as a nematode to avoid light and ultraviolet radiation combined with its new yamaneon based physiology led the creature to be in a state of confusion and indecision for several years. As such it took Nematerror some time to finally pull itself together before it made more than brief trips to the surface and started becoming a threat/nuisance, slowly losing its fear, or at least aversion, of the sun.

Nematerror, though having one of the toughest hides known among kaiju, is generally conflict avoidant, due to lacking much fighting ability in most of the forms she takes and much of her body being covered in sensory organs. This has made the beast somewhat easy to manage but, a wide range of munitions and chemical weapons must be used and carefully cycled through in repelling it, or it will grow used to them and start ignoring what clearly isn't harming it.

On land, Nematerror will rapidly twist, and tangle her body to orient her vision organs, unintentionally creating an effective threat display. In water she is a more competent battler.

Despite her primitive nervous system, Nematerror posses a need for proper (and preferably novel) stimulation lest she wander off. Which she did several times from the HM Pits, an early kaiju sanctuary attempt that specialized in East Coast U.S. freshwater kaiju, mostly aquatic insects. The giant "ponds" were bodies of water in yamaneon tunnels exposed to the surface by the Superquake and were a perfect place to dump giant fish or aquatic invertebrates in. Surrounded by desert, kaiju placed there generally decided to stay put. Nematerror was not one of them, hence her numerous breakouts.

In the rare case she was successfully goaded into a fight, she sometimes seemed to "get bored" or forget she was fighting, and abruptly leave unless the other kaiju forced the issue

At the risk of anthropomorphism, Nematerror does appear to have the sort of kaiju competitiveness: not in combat, but in eating. A trait that turned out to be very useful when dealing when dangerous colonies of kaijufied mushrooms appeared in California.

History, thorough description, and inspiration below the cut

The Story

During one of her many breakout wanderings from the HM pits, Nematerror eventually came across a truck carrying samples from a much more concerning problem: rapidly growing colonies of kaijufied fungus in the Baja California desert.

The fungus was like a grim procession of mushroom clouds in slow motion. As it spread underground, it would send up stalks that would emit spores as they continually grew, until they withered ,collapse and fell (thankfully most of the time rotting normally rather than undergoing yamaneon transmutation, as long as they died of "natural causes")

What to do with the fungus became a clear problem. A renewable organic source of yamaneon could be a godsend; on the other hand there was no known way to control its spread.

As the network of fungus grew, its fruiting bodies started uprooting homes in small towns.

Not to mention animals kept coming to feed on the fungus risked the creation of new kaiju.

Several kaiju ended up being born just from a lightning strike on a stalk that failed to collapse and underwent crystallization after it was killed with chemical weapons.

Here's where the worm came in: Nematerror showed an obsessive nature in her encounter with the fungus samples, "licking clean" the transport vehicle like a child trying to get every speck of a piece of candy.

This inspired an idea.

Nematerror and several other omnivorous kaiju with digging ability were lured to the various fungal masses.

It worked wonderfully.

At first it was thought Nematoerror would be relatively useless in the efforts given her usual method of feeding was suction. But the nematode monster started by the unconventional (for its smaller brethren) method of squirting gastric juices to soften the fungus up.

Nematerror put in a good effort, but other kaiju soon outpaced it. It was almost like the kaiju were competing over who could eat more. Eventually while the other kaijus' pace started to slow, Nematerror stopped completely and and prepared to molt.

At first, some in the military was worried Nematerror was going to grow even larger and become more of a threat, but researchers familiar with the worm assured them that wasn't the case.

There was a different change coming.

The following night Nematerror burst from its husk with a new jaw structure specialized for absolute consumption

While most diurnal kaiju slept off their meal, nematerror renewed her assault.

She would start by pumping each fungal stalk she came across with using a piercing stylus to start digestion. The beast then proceed to topple, chew, spray and vacuum at the same time, the bell like structure surrounding its mouth creating a pressure gradient like a suction cup. Not a crumb escaped.

Nematerror eventually made her way to the original fungal mass in a never-ending frenzy. The fungus responding by growing downward deeper and deeper into the earth in an attempt to escape. The worm followed, burrowing even past rock so as to not let the quarry go. Both Nematerror and the last of the fungus vanished into the Earth below.

It was one of the more unusual cases of humanity pitting kaiju against each other, and not even really a battle, but the effectiveness could not be denied.

Unknown to humanity, Nematerror eventually made her way to an abandoned Reptodite settlement, happily (if such a word can apply to such a simple creature) exploring every fascinating nook and cranny. Perhaps she will get bored someday, but for now, she is satisfied.

Description

A burgundy color with splotches of brown and red. Can glow blue at night.

If in a movie would basically be a garden hose covered in well stuffed socks that had holes cut in them. Where "socks" meet and are "stitched" together there ridges poking out from inner tissue to outside world. (the alae, sensory organs)

Its hide is covered with (relatively) small sensory bristles, pits, and pores that likely don't need to be illustrated.

On top of head are two beady dark lenses, channeling light to eyespots held protectively within the body. They face the sky instead of forward, so the kaiju rears up and reorients its head to look at things, or just crawls upside down with the durable lenses facing the ground.

Its hide is covered with (relatively) small sensory bristles, pits, pores, that don't need to be drawn.

Fitting for a monster made from a hose, the head of the monster can be imagined like an old brass nozzle available during the 50s (a visual aid below)

Bear with me: I’m going to talk about the design as if it were a movie monster prop for a bit.

[Taylor]

As stated elsewhere, the jaw structure of the monster is adaptive. There are two forms important to its story.

One, its generalist omnivorous form which has a mouth similar to a bacteria eating nematodes from the front (see the hellworm picture below for rough idea. )

[Picture from Borgonie]

but the side profile of the mouth/front of head before the visual sensory organ is the output part of the nozzle (see below)

As a joke about frugal prop reuse, the "fungi killer" form is basically the nozzle unscrewed from the hose and placed within the head of the theoretical prop backwards. Covering it is a fleshy bell-like structure looking like the arms of a vampire squid, under which hides chewing jaws, and a stylet (piercing mouth structure like Kumonga's stinger). (Suggested to not try drawing the jaws. Nematode jaws are weird, that's what the covering is for, to avoid having to look)

Spiral-shaped grooves on sides of head area the are sensory organs akin to nostril. Giving the impression of ears or swirly eyes depending on how someone looks at them. Example below thanks to Holly Bik

Inspiration Explanation

The fungus came from another entry idea , an organic equivalent of The Monolith Monsters called Atmungous that I didn't feel was strong enough on its own, but worked well as an unnamed threat. San Angelo, California was a fictional town in that movie. (The real life San Angelo is in Texas.)

From there came the idea of an "eating contest", and to combine the ideas of a "children's book journey.' Combining ideas The Hungry Caterpillar, and The Little Engine that Could, all with a kaiju twist. Noticing the story I was developing also had similarities to The Blue Elephant (about an elephant desiring a particular kind of enrichment in their exhibit), that along with the common illustrations of the Little Engine inspired me to give the monster the ability to glow blue at night, which I can easily see being used as a gimmick in a classic B-Movie film.

The "HM Pits" are named on the "Highly Magnified" H. M. Woggle-Bug, T.E. (Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated) from the Oz book series, which was a bug that jumped off a projector screen connected to a microscope in a suitably cartoony fashion. I thought a place to put freshwater kaiju was something that wasn't really in the setting, I figured they'd mostly be aquatic invertebrates given the theme of American kaiju are giant arthropods and retrosaurs.

I had to do so much research on nematode biology for this: it was inspired by nematodes being found deeper down below than anyone expected, as seen in the Live Science article I cited for image used as a reference in the description.Thing is, these species aren't that different from those on the surface or in oceans nearest the caves. They were already pretty much perfectly suited to the conditions after getting washed down there by accident. Which made designing a monster based on one much easier than I feared.

Month and date of discover is when Dune was first published. 1957 is the year Monolith Monsters and the Monster that Challenged the World came out. I like to include multiple references in my monster dates.

#Revenge of the ATOM Kaiju Contest #atom kaiju contest 2 #kaiju oc #nematerror

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quinnred · 5 years

Photo

NAME: MR. PRESIDENT

Aliases:

The Locust, The Dream, The Consumer, Industria, Zagan, Eligos, Dantalion, Gabuthelon

Origin:

“ ...Speculation is all that one has, but the visions started soon after the new age itself started. I dont know were it truly came from, but it’s influence cropped up down [REDACTED] and is making major progress towards Washington. His...”Voters” are those who heard his hum and saw the Locust in their head, appealed to by basal motive and swayed by his musical demand. The Voters can be anywhere and anyone at this point, willing to do just about anything Mr. President wishes, its like a secret club or a cult. What he wants? Seems to be anything we see value in, like food, presents, people, or even movies and music. I think he wants power most of all, he wants... He... He wants me to fly and I, uh, cant say no to the President.” - Interview with Mr. Jack Fin moments before jumping out of a window.

Stomping Grounds:

ț̸̉̂͐͒̂͠a̶̛̙͒̈́̉͘͝͝m̵͋͋��͙͉̕ ̴̨͉̓̍͋̓͘p̶̧͙̩̠͕̀̀̈́͐̈́́r̴̢̡̡̛̟͎̻͇͓̔̋o̸̙̫̫͔̯͍̣̤̞̤̐͛p̶̨̨̯͚̻̲̫̫͓̒̇̄ͅê̸̪̟̜͍̬̑̍͗̍̄̀͘ ̷̳̭̅́̃͒͂͘͝q̶̢̼̮̻̱̪̯̄͜ư̸̲̩̳̻̖̿͗̌͌͐̉͒͜a̶̡̩̣̬͉͙̒̄m̸̢̡̛̞̺̱͖̺͉̞̗̿̿̎̾̄͠ ̴̧̧̩͎̭̭̹̯̝̋ṕ̶̳̝̓̇̄̔̀̔̌͌͠ȑ̵͍̍̓̂̈́o̸̡̧̗̯̔̐͑̕͘͝c̷̼̱̗̝͕͒́ͅư̵̬̥̼̞̬͇̟̝̻̈ľ̵̠͖̝̘̔͘͜ͅ

Height:

t̴̡̢̟͔̫̘̯̹̑̄́́̃͜ḁ̵͍̙̲̀̅̔̚m̶̨̢̞͇̙͚͖͚̏͛̊́̽͂̇̅ ̶̡́͝v̵̢̢̦͕̟̥͔̿͆͒̕a̴̩̦͍̦̱͋̓͝n̷͇̳̭͉̅̉̄͠͝͝ù̴͕̣͇̦̮͓̈́͌͑̏́͗́̓̚m̵̲̞̩̜̦͈̈́

Length: s̵̬̯͎̍͊̏͆͐̎̌̚i̸̧̟̬͔̼͍̹̼̔̽̈́̍̿͐̓͜͠͠c̷͉̹̻͖͛̃̾̒͌̋͊͜û̷̬̗̜͇̬̱̬̖̈́̈̕͜t̴̗͎̻̦̅̆͛͜ͅ ̷̧̢̣̮̣͠d̸͎̊̎̎̃̎̕e̵͉̒̍̾͝͠͠s̴̻̠̀̀͗́ḯ̵̥̣̖̪̅̈́̍̿̂͂͠͝d̴̤̜̉̐͊͑̊͗͗͆̑͘e̸̫̮̞͗͛͗̏͝r̶̢̲̣̗̳͈̭̯͇͖̐̃͌̎͗͘͝a̷̻͉̫̹͛͂̈́̏̃̅͝v̴̭̯̞͍͉͓͝i̷̺̗̜͐̏t̶̢̲̤̊͂̒͂͛͐ Biology: Possibly incorporeal, or the projection of some distant being. Anyone who is contacted exudes tiny traces of Yamaneon radiation, so there is some sort presence beyond just illusion. May be a gaseous cognitive semblance of Yamaneon. It appears to prefer the image of a Locust in the minds of others and often enlarges this form and abstracts it to drive certain emotions.

Personality:

Mr. President is a thing of demands and commands and only such. It enjoys using terms of it’s various subjects that are particularly “sing songy” or rhyming. It seems to lack any and all moral compass and will commit all sorts despicable actions through it’s subjects to the most shockingly intricate degree. It is speculated that the creature may not comprehend much of it’s own “speech” and simply relies on the tune of the words and reaction to judge and motivate it’s subjects.

Original photo taken by [email protected] @tyrantisterror

#Revenge of the ATOM Kaiju Contest

#atom kaiju contest #tyrantisterror #locust #mr.president #lovecraft #eldritch #quinn red #art #gif #grasshopper #insect #silly #kaiju #giant monsters

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tyrantisterror · 5 years

Text

Revenge of the ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest: ENTRY ROUNDUP!

Twenty three wonderful monsters were submitted by twenty three wonderful people to the second ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest. Let’s give them all their due before the winners are announced, shall we? Just as with last time, I went ahead and sketched them all, because I’m a masochist who enjoys hurting his carpal tunnel ridden hand, and because I feel like it gives every monster a fair shake.

@bugcthulhu starts us off with Rohobaron, a hot-headed retrosaur/crocodile chimera that can superheat his body to ignite the landscape and incinerate enemies with a touch. Despite the fairly nasty powers, Rohobaron actually has a somewhat sweet personality, being quick to make friends and staunchly loyal to his allies, though his short fuse can also make him drag his friends into danger.

Design-wise, Rohobaron’s got a very solid concept, with those dynamic fuckoff-big arms and horns being the most obvious selling points, along with little dashes of character like the gharial lump on his nose and the heavily armored plates on his chest. You wouldn’t confuse him with the other retrosaur kaiju in the series, that’s for sure. The idea of a monster this burly and gnarly looking being a sweetheart is the kind of “appearances can be decieving” thing that ATOM thrives on, and giving a kaiju powers that reflect its personality (in this case, hot-headedness = heat powers) is always cool. There are some minor continuity issues with the bio given what’s going to happen in ATOM Vol. 2, but Rohobaron doesn’t lose points for not reading a book that isn’t fully written yet. All in all, a wonderful submission!

@akitymh is next with Charlotte, a retrosaur of the herbivorous persuasion. Exactly what clade of herbivorous retrosaur it belongs to is intentionally unclear, as Charlotte has a thagomizer like an armored goliath, but also shares some quirks with horned goliaths, despite lacking horns itself. A missing link, perhaps? She’s also unusually large for an ATOM kaiju, which suggests she’s been around for a long time - reinforced by her calm and sometimes protective nature, as the older kaiju tend to be less fight-focused than the young ones in ATOM.

Charlotte’s design is very interesting, and I like the idea of having some retrosaurs who don’t quite fit into any one given clade - it makes it more like real life taxonomy to have some oddballs here and there. Her smattering of armor plates gives her and interesting look, and I like how her long hind legs allow her to go bipedal as well as walk on all fours. Her neutral personality also makes her stand out among the mostly fight-happy monsters of ATOM. All in all, a solid entry!

We continue the prehistoric theme with @ariccio50‘s marvelous armored retrosaur, Scolosurtr! An genetically modified armored goliath, Scolosurtr’s most prominent features, as you have no doubt noticed, are the two massive yet hollow spikes on his back, which are connected to the kaiju’s two massive hearts and occasionally shoot projectiles when he’s pissed (though this is painful for the reptile to do). Scolosurtr can superheat his blood as a defensive mechanism, which in turn allows him to melt the ice that often clings to his body in the frosty countries he tends to roam. The armored monster is very easily stressed out, particularly by his fellow kaiju, and will even bite his tail in an attempt to calm down.

Scolotsurtr’s design is rad as hell - I love a giant monster that looks like a mountain, and the mini-volcano shaped shoulder spikes are such a cool pokeon-esque design feature (I say that as high praise). His icy, antisocial personality is a fun contrast with his fiery look, and the personality tick of biting his own tail to calm down is a very endearing quirk. Also, can we appreciate how wide this fella is? Just an absolute unit. His powerset allows him to stand out from the mostly tooth and claw fighters of ATOM, while still being balanced thanks to the pain it causes him to use it. A very well rounded entry!

@scatha5 brings us our fourth entry, the enormous armadillo Rerradon! Shy but willing to fight when backed into a corner, Rerradon is a formidable enemy when roused, with thick armor keeping him well defended and enough claws and spikes to make other monsters rethink their choice to attack him.

Mammalian kaiju are, as many have noted, very rare, and Rerradon is an excellent contribution to their small but growing ranks. I’m a sucker for armadillos too, and Rerradon keeps all the traits I love about them while still having a unique and monstrous look to him. My favorite detail on this fella, though, is one of his alternate names - “Dracula’s Weird Dog.” Why? Well, because of the fact it references some obscure monster movie trivia - both in the 30′s when the Bela Lugosi Dracula first came out, and the 50′s when it was prominently re-released, armadillos were not a particularly well known creature, and would have been considered exotic and strange by most Americans. As a result, the film-makers of Dracula put an armadillo in the vampire’s haunted castle, banking on viewers thinking it was some sort of strange monster. And, at the time, it works - most people who saw the film had no idea what the strange lizard rat thing was, though I imagine anyone living in the Southwest probably wondered why the hell an armadillo was in Transylvania. Obscure references to monster movie minutia are exactly ATOM’s jam!

Our next monster is @quinnred‘s flying saucer mimic, Mogul! An enormous descendent of the sea cucumber, Mogul needs both Yamaneon radiation and water to survive, and causes a great deal of chaos in the process of feeding until scientists realize dehydration can drive the creature away, While too simple in nature to exhibit much of a personality, Mogul’s mysterious nature and accidental imitation of interstellar travelers allows it to leave a mark nonetheless.

An incredibly clever design that I wasn’t quite skilled enough to capture in my sketch (you should always check out the links to the originals here, folks), Mogul is tailor made to a great 1950′s style monster story. You have the initial mystery with an inherent red herring built into it (i.e. everyone thinking the creature is initially a UFO), the startling discovery of what we’re really dealing with, and a creative solution that scientists come upon when studying the monster’s biology. While Mogul’s simple nature means it might have trouble in a kaiju vs. kaiju story, it’s incredibly well suited to a stand alone tale, the kind that could really flesh out ATOM’s giant monster crisis.

@cerothenull brings us our first big arthropod, Acanpetax the enormous assassin bug! A gnarly insect that wears the bones of kaiju its killed as armor, Acanpetax is a cruel and vicious hunter of its fellow monsters, though over time its vicious ways soften.

Kaiju bones turn to Yamaneon when they die, and Yamaneon crystals are shaped in a way that would give them a very coarse, spiky texture (if my muddied memories of Geology 101 are correct, anyway), making the insect’s armor even more evil-looking, which is great for a monster that (initially) plays a Heel role. This guy has the makings of a great villain monster, and I like that, in ATOM fashion, he still manages to get a heroic turn over time, especially the implication in his bio that it comes from communicating with the spirit of the snake monster whose skull he currently wears as a hat. It’s delightfully weird! A big bug with a solid visual to work off of and a great role and character arc baked into his personality, Acanpetax is a strong contender!

(no seriously you really need to check out the original postings, my sketch here does not do this fella justice)

@evolutionsvoid also shows ATOM’s big bugs some love by bringing the fungus infested Megaria into their ranks! Originally a larval cicada that was parasitized (and likely to die) by a fungus, Megaria’s sudden transformation into a kaiju brought her into a more balanced symbiosis with her parasite. Neither an attacker or a protector, Megaria is a spectator of kaiju fights, and will eagerly watch her fellow giants battle without participating herself. She is a force to be reckoned with when backed into a corner, though, as Megaria’s fungal growths have given her a variety of sound-based abilities, many of which she is not fully in control of.

It hasn’t been touched on in ATOM much yet, but plants and fungi are affected by Yamaneon radiation in a very similar manner as animal life, and Megaria presents a fun opportunity to explore that. The idea of a parasite and its victim becoming partners post-mutation is really interesting, and Megaria’s design is just as interesting to look at as its concept is to think about. Her fungal symbiote also gives her a great number of unique powers and abilities to make any fight scenes she’d be in unique, while her personality as a kaiju spectator allows her to stand out (I can see her making cameos in other stories as a background monster). Another solid contender for the contest!

@highly-radioactive-nerd takes us back to the past with the helmeted retrosaur Tsunoking! Technically a paleo tyrant, Tsunoking sports several defensive adaptations that are similar to those sported by many herbivorous retrosaurs as well, though perhaps his most notable adaptation is the crown of horns that gives him his name (see, he’s pointing to it in my sketch! It’s a nice crown.). A proud but honorable monster, Tsunoking is a powerful fighter who prefers to fight similarly powerful foes, and is also rather fastidious when it comes to personal hygiene.

I love the chimeric mix of features here - the dragon-y snout, the pachycephalosaurus dome skull, and the ankylosaurus tail club all give Tsunoking a very unique silhouette among the many carnivorous retrosaur kaiju in ATOM, and would no doubt provide some fun speculation for ATOM’s paleontologists. The vanity gives his heroic personality a fun flaw to work with, and I likewise think his Samurai-esque honor code could be interesting to work with in a story. A wonderful prehistoric monster to add to the roster!

@dragonzzilla brings us a very strange and melancholic monster, the bipedal caribou Najjuk! In addition to its striking humanoid stance, Najjuk emits a great deal of toxic gas as a byproduct of its Ice Age biology, and its inability to cope with warm temperatures results in it becoming incredibly aggressive and dangerous whenever it leaves its arctic environment.

There’s a clear (but not too heavy handed) metaphor for global warming in the threat Najjuk presents, as the warming of the earth leaves it less cool spaces to seek refuge in, and the caribou’s methane emissions actually contribute to the problem that’s destroying its home. The monster also has a great deal of pathos built into it - a herd animal that is the last of its kind, forced to live in a habitat that’s too inhospitably cold for most other kaiju to tolerate, making it an incredibly lonely monster. Combine the symbolism and pathos of its plight with a very striking mammalian design and you have an incredibly unique entry into ATOM’s menagerie of monsters!

@virovac gives us a truly bizarre entry with one of the most clever descriptions I’ve read so far, the low budget monstrosity known as Nematerror! A mutant roundworm, Nematerror is one of the monsters considered too simple in nature to have a personality, though it still seeks what it needs with enough voraciousness to be considered a threat.

The really ingenious thing about this entry lay in its description, as virovac chose to describe how the creature would look if it were an actual prop in a low budget 50′s monster movie. Made from a garden hose, stuffed socks, and some other trash, Nematerror is the kind of cornball monster puppet idea that could only be carried out in the atomic era of creature features, the kind that Joel and the bots would have a field day with. There’s even a description of how its hose nozzle could be turned around to represent a nematode’s malleable mouth parts! It’s very clever, and definitely the sort of idea that suits ATOM’s love of cheesy monster movies.

@skarmorysilver brings us the old and crusty mole monster, Gnomoran! A sadistic curmudgeon, Gnomoran is a deeply unpleasant monster to face in battle. With venomous spit and caustic pus secreted from its many facial sores, Gnomoran’s natural weapons give it a revolting edge, which is made all the more nasty by its mean-spirited personality. However, Gnomoran is also in immense pain, as its healing factor has been thrown off kilter, giving it the kaiju equivalent of cancer.

The design of Gnomoran is excellent. Like many of the previous ATOM CKC entries, it plays on the secret connection between ATOM and my Midgaheim stories, in this case using my mole-derived Gnomes/Dwarves as a starting point, and working back to show their more explicitly rodent-like roots. The star-faced mole nose, long beard, big ol’ horn, and lumpy tumors all give him a bunch of iconic design details, and his power set of venom and caustic pus is uniquely gross. He’s a great Heel monster, with a nasty attitude to match his equally nasty looks and power set, all while still having the ability to be sympathetic. Figuring out how to explain why his healing factor has gotten so out of whack presents a bit of a continuity hurdle - Gnomoran has symptoms of both cancer and old age, which normally aren’t possible in an ATOM-verse kaiju, so that would need a good explanation. But design and personality wise he’s a damn good fit!

DA user Lediblock submitted the chicken/retrosaur hybrid Galiente! Made by splicing DNA from Tyrantis’s blue nemesis, the Terror, with that of a chicken, Galiente is a panicky, defensive monster who is tormented by the knowledge that other kaiju find his flesh ridiculously delicious.

Galiente’s design is a freakish mix of reptile and bird that goes for body horror, with a patchwork mix of scales, feathers, and raw skin, twisted limbs, and, somewhat inexplicably considering the two animals it’s a mix of, velociraptor feet. The result is a very tortured looking creature, which fits its nervous and tragically aggressive personality - Galiente is a monster that picks fights because it fears it will get hurt if it doesn’t make the first move. There’s a sadness that goes along with its wretched appearance and attitude that’s very sympathetic. The monster’s backstory would probably need some tweaks, though - the many ways it is tied to Tyrantis specifically seem a bit unnecessary, with the “people mistake it for Tyrantis” angle being a bit implausible (and somewhat redundant, given Tyrantis already has two enemies that are his twisted doppelgangers as is), and I’m not sure a monster hunting organization would recruit a chicken farmer into their ranks, no matter how good his business savvy is. Still, a plausible backstory wasn’t one of the contest requirements, and design and personality-wise Galiente is a very solid concept.

@protagonistprepblog submitted Gentil, an armored monster with a sweet disposition! Gentil is designed to be something of an earth elemental, with a mix of traits from various creatures associated with that element. He sports a healing mist/aura, a poison blast from his mouth, venomous claws, and the standard kaiju powers of strength and nigh invulnerability. He’s also smart enough to join an organization specifically to help people.

Gentil has a very striking design, albeit one that’s (intentionally) hard to place taxonomically. He would probably be the result of genetic modification in ATOM’s world, though the way his creator described him as the kaiju of the Earth Element makes me think the intention is for something more magical in origin. The sweet personality suits his name very well, and as far as monsters go he’s very friend-shaped. Most of Gentil’s information was shared with me by his creator via DMs, and he’s a very thoroughly developed concept, albeit one that seems to fit a story of protagonistprepblog’s creation a bit better than ATOM. A wonderful submission nonetheless!

@dinosaurana submits the nuclear gator known far and wide as One-Armed Louie! Already a menace when he was just a big, one-armed alligator, Louie became a true menace when he survived the explosive failure of a nuclear power plant, resulting in a number of wild mutations that, among other things, allow the massive crocodilian to assume a semi-bipedal stance. Louie’s aggressive nature and history of getting into mischief ironically make him a pretty good kaiju to have around, as he will more often than not turn those shit-starting instincts on his fellow giants and end up keeping them in line as a result. Even Jim Madson, a gator hunter turned kaiju wrangler, can’t help but appreciate how the “rat bastard” has become something of a boon to humanity since becoming freakishly large.

One-Armed Louie brings a true crocodilian to ATOM’s cast, which warms my reptile loving heart. One could argue that the retrosaurs are all just very weird crocodiles, of course, but while that may literally be the case, most of them don’t look like crocodiles - they don’t have that pure crocodile vibe - and Louie makes up for their deficiency by being very much a big ol’ crocodilian. Big ol’ gators and crocs are a giant monster movie archetype just as much as big ol’ bugs, and Louie gives them their due very well. He also looks absolutely hardcore, which fits his aggressive “rat bastard” personality to a T. A very solid entry for the contest!

@iamthekaijuking submitted the modified martian monster Nyergolep! Originally from the planet Mars, Nyergolep was kidnapped by the Beyonder Alliance and experimented upon until it developed psychic powers. Designed to be a sort of anti-Kemlasulla, Nyergolep is a nervous wreck who hates combat and desperately wants to escape the Beyonders.

Nyergolep’s design takes a lot from Kemlasulla’s, albeit with a lot of twists - fitting for the “Anti-Kemlasulla.” Its tentacles are much more massive than its legs, with the roles of each set of limbs being reversed (i.e. using tentacles for locomotion instead of grasping, using legs for grasping instead of locomotion), and it lacks all of the armor Kemlasulla has, including the bony plates protecting the head and eye. The result is a very fragile looking martian, the squishy mage to Kemlasulla’s rough and rowdy fighter. I like the wiggly line of its upper jaw the best - don’t ask me why. “Nergle’s” design is a little too closely tied to Kemlasulla’s for me to give full marks in that category, though I do love that wiggly mouth. Its personality is pretty damn good though, fitting with the other shell-shocked war veterans in the Beyonder Kaiju army.

@dragonseeker-rex submitted the cactus/bird hybrid Orothorn! In a story that feels like it came from one of the more light-hearted Twilight Zone episodes, Orothorn began as a normal gilded flicker that happened to befriend an cowboy actor named Mick Auricson (specializing in playing cowboys was A Thing in the 1950′s) after Mick nursed the little bird back to health. An ill-placed dynamite explosion near a hidden Yamaneon deposit not only supersized Orothorn, but fused it with some of the nearby cactus (violent bursts of Yamaneon radiation can do this kind of shit on occasion), creating a massive, thorny-skinned bird monster with a heart of gold and a fondness for humans in general, and Mick Auricson in particular. The feeling is mutual, as Mick even commissioned a special kaiju-sized scarf for the bird to wear (which I forgot to illustrate, whoops!).

Birds are lacking in ATOM’s roster (we don’t even have any in the core 50 files), and Orothorn is a unique take on the concept, with cactus thorns sticking out from between his feathers. Him being a kaiju that specifically emulates the heroic behavior of a cowboy (actor) is also adorable and so very in line with ATOM’s sensibilities, it’s genuinely cute and I love it. It’s a giant bird with cactus thorns that wears a scarf and thinks it’s a cowboy, how can you not love that?

Dracosaurus Rex submitted the enormous tuatara kaiju Tuatani! Initially mistaken for being a retrosaur, this three eyed reptile can shoot energy blasts from his third eye and carries a virulent disease in his blood that infects any who encounter it. A lonesome creature, Tuatani is very placcid during the day but will go on nightly rampages from time to time, apparently in a fit of vengeful despair at being the only one of his kind.

A clear homage to the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Tuatani nevertheless has a lot to set him apart from his inspiration, with a multi-eyed motiff that sports an actual third eye as well as several eyespots. The loneliness that drives him to lash out is a nice nod to both the film and the short story that inspired it, and his status as a Tuatara descendant would make him the last modern reptile missing from ATOM’s pantheon. The nature of the disease in his blood would need some elaboration, as the immune systems of ATOM kaiju are very strong (being able to regenerate white blood cells almost instantaneously makes it very easy for them to learn which micro-organisms need to be destroyed), but it’s an interesting power for the monster to have. A very solid entry!

@umbercario-sablesable gives us the giant silkworm, Munchy! A caterpillar whose head, jaws, and true legs are covered in a metal alloy. Munchy lives to eat, and with metal jaws he can eat quite a lot of things! While the insect will eat any non-living matter it comes across, it prefers not to eat living things, which makes it one of the few monsters who finds buildings more appetizing than the people inside them. Though Munchy has little desire in this world outside of sating its gluttony, it isn’t a malicious creature, and so long as your house isn’t in its path you have little to fear from the monster.

Silkworms have a short but important role in kaiju history, as Mothra’s larva form is based on a type of silkworm, so making a silkworm kaiju plays into a very grand tradition. Munchy goes for a more morally neutral route than Mothra, though, taking the voracious appetite of a caterpillar and exaggerating it to a proper kaiju scale. The simplicity of it actually makes for a rather unique kaiju, as Munchy’s single-minded desire to eat as much non-living matter as possible makes it a very different sort of antagonist than the somewhat more complicated kaiju villains of ATOM. Add to that the massive variety one can find in silkworms and you have a recipe for a very good monster!

(Apologies at the possible inaccuracy of my illustration - google could not find images of the wakabayashi landrace species of silkworm that he is specified as being, so I had to just look up silkworms and hope I was somewhere in the correct ballpark - and then I missed the detail about his first pair of false legs being long enough to give him a bipedal stance so uh... well I think he’s still pretty cute, that counts for something?)

Sir K brings us the lung/ryu kaiju Yokaigon the Incredible! Mistaken for a retrosaur by its initial discoverer (we certainly have a lot of scientists in ATOM who are very bad at taxonomy), Yokaigon is capable of affecting the weather like some of the few psychic kaiju in ATOM’s setting, suggesting latent psychic powers on the reptile’s part. He is also able to absorb electricity and may or may not be able to fly. Introverted and antisocial by nature, Yokaigon isn’t driven to seek out combat like most other kaiju, and prefers to be left alone.

With a backstory inspired by an absolutely terrible dub of Varan the Unbelievable!, Yokaigon is a fun homage that winks at some of the mythic creatures that existed in ATOM’s universe long before the series takes place - a surviving Loong/Ryu, much as Kraydi is a surviving dragon and Gorgolisk a surviving basilisk. While Loongs aren’t covered in my Midgaheim Bestiary project, I have done sketches of what they would be like before, and it’s fun to see them mixed with a suitamation look here. I don’t think a sea monster necessarily needs to make storms to still feel appropriately mythical, but the hydrokinetic ability to summon sea storms is plausible enough in ATOM (I’ve got a Yeti who summons blizzards in roughly the same way, so who am I to judge?). And people always want more dragons.

@toothlessloveshiccup brings us the prehistoric arthropod Insectra! Despite appearances, Insectra isn’t actually an insect, but actually a much older arthropod that is more closely related to horseshoe crabs. Forged in a conflict between natives and an encroaching military force in the South Pacific, Insectra protects the local human civilization of her island home while repelling those who would destroy it. With EMP blasts in her already powerful arsenal, she is a formidable enemy for anyone, man or kaiju, to face.

Insectra’s design has a great Hanna Barbera bug-monster vibe, the sort of thing you could see going toe to toe with the Herculoids or Space Ghost. It’s simple in some places, but to the point, with great big spears for hands and wide, stompy feet. Her motivation as a protector is a great nod to Mothra, while having an even more explicit anti-imperialist bent to it. A very well rounded entry for the contest!

Shadyserpent brings us the draconic reptile Karax! Another mythic creature sneaking into the world of ATOM, Karax is a serpentine beast whose vestigial wings allow it to fly (Yamaneon’s ability to defy gravity doing some of its most implausible work yet). With terrible venom and a better-than-average healing factor, Karax is a deadly opponent, the dragon-like beast is thankfully more focused on collecting shiny objects than waging war against man or kaiju, though his desire to add to his hoard sometimes causes trouble.

See? I told you people like dragons! Karax’s design retains the ATOM-approved level of scientific plausibility, with his wings being fairly simple/under-developed compared to the more fantastical dragons of my Midgaheim stories. He retains the prehistoric monster vibe that other Midgaheim survivors like Gorgolisk and Kraydi have, towing the line enough to fit in with ATOM’s menagerie while still winking at the mythic side of things. His fondness for shiny objects is both a nice nod to his draconic nature and a fun character quirk that can get him into the kind of trouble that stories are made of, and the fact that he’s also got more than a few references to the classic giant monster movie Reptilicus is also a plus! A very good entry.

@titleknown brings us Neuro-Idiom, a brain monster who creates psychedelic mass hallucinations! Formed from a bunch of aliens fusing their minds together, Neuro-Idiom conjurs other creatures out of thin air with its psychic powers, and has pretty much every other psychic power to boot!

Neuro-Idiom’s primary design, that of a big walking brain creature, fills a monster archetype that hasn’t been present in ATOM thus far - i.e. the big, ambulatory, disembodied brain, and yes, that is a SUPER popular archetype for 1950′s/60′s monster fiction. Its psychic projections also pay homage to various monsters in fiction that were actually just the manifestations of an unsound mind - the Id monster from Forbidden Planet, the crawling brains of Fiend Without a Face, and the Crackler from Godzilla: The Series are examples of this concept. The backstory of this monster would need to be reworked since it kind of ignores that “kaiju” in ATOM is a word with a very specific meaning (you can’t have a kaiju without Yamaneon involved), and the monster having amplified versions of EVERY psychic power makes it significantly more powerful than anything in ATOM’s canon, so that might have to be toned down a bit as well, but all in all it’s a lovely brain monster!

@drrockso20 brings us our final entry, the massive bison Chief Wrigley! With gorilla-like arms and enormous horns, this big bovine has the muscle he needs to protect his herd and territory from any creature that dares to challenge it! He’s not all brawn, either, as Chief Wrigley is clever enough to use the environment to his advantage, and even makes use of simple tools from time to time. He can telepathically communicate with others, and can sometimes generate electric blasts from his horns.

With a very unique design, power set, and personality, Chief Wrigley has the makings of an excellent protagonist/hero kaiju, the kind who could headline his own corner of ATOM’s kaiju-verse. Bison are a really underused basis for a kaiju, too - they have very unique heads, and their bodies are build in a way that’s very good at conveying mass. With just enough special powers to make combat scenes interesting, but not so many that he feels out of place in ATOM’s world, Chief Wrigley is a strong contender in this contest!

Those are the entries! Who will be the top three winners, and who will get the grand prize? You’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out, but for now, let’s appreciate how many wonderful monsters we made here! In a way, they’re all winners in my book, even if I can’t give prizes to the whole batch!

#Revenge of the ATOM Kaiju Contest #The Atomic Time of Monsters #kaiju #giant monster

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