#the station is defunct but not the line so in addition to the horrors you have Environment Hazard TM

[keykidpilipili]

John and Arthur lost in a defunct subway station, for variety in his underground adventures enrichment. <3

[maandarinee]

what are all the podcasts you listen to?

anon I'm so glad you asked

Since it is a pretty long list including synopses (stolen from the podcast feed or website because I'm Bad at summaries and in some cases it's been a while since I listened) I'm going to put it under a cut.

I've separated the list into "Complete" (either finished or cancelled) and "Ongoing" podcasts. Some have additional comments by me. Current favorites are marked orange. My eternal beloved are Our Fair City and Wolf 359.

Complete

ars PARADOXICA: "When an experiment in a time much like our own goes horribly awry, Dr. Sally Grissom finds herself stranded in the past and entrenched in the activities of a clandestine branch of the US government. Grissom and her team quickly learn that there's no safety net when toying with the fundamental logic of the universe."

Blackwood: "Five years ago, Molly Weaver, Bryan Anderson, and Nathan Howell started a podcast focused on the local legend of a monster called The Blackwood Bugman. Quickly, the investigation grew out of their control, as they discovered that, not only are the legends seemingly true, many people in Blackwood have turned up dead or disappeared without a trace." --> [this feels like the Blair With Project, but as a podcast. Didn't get a second season due to no funding, but it works as a standalone]

Dreamboy: "Dane, a spun-out musician spending the winter in Cleveland, Ohio, has two main goals: keeping his job at the Pepper Heights Zoo and trying not to waste all his time on Grindr. What he doesn’t expect is to get swept into a story about dreams, about forevers, about flickering lights, about unexplained deaths, about relentless change, and about the parts of ourselves that we wish other people knew to look for. Oh, and also a murderous zebra." --> [very NSFW; does cool things with music! Didn't get a second season due to no funding, but it works as a standalone]

King Fall AM: "...centers on a lonely little mountain town's late-night AM talk radio show and its paranormal, peculiar happenings and inhabitants." --> [cancelled after 100 episodes, ends on a huge cliffhanger]

Our Fair City: "A campy, post-apocalyptic audio drama." --> [I know the description sounds like nothing but just trust me, I love it so much]

Steal the Stars: "...is a gripping noir science fiction thriller in 14 episodes: Forbidden love, a crashed UFO, an alien body, and an impossible heist unlike any ever attempted."

Stellar Firma: "...a weekly Science Fiction, Comedy podcast following the misadventures of Stellar Firma Ltd.'s highest born but lowest achieving planetary designer Trexel Geistman and his bewildered clone assistant David 7. Join them each episode as they attempt to take listener submissions and craft them into the galaxy's most luxurious, most expensive and most questionably designed bespoke planets. However, with Trexel's corporate shark of a line manager Hartro Piltz breathing down their necks and I.M.O.G.E.N., the station's omnipresent and omniinvasive stationwide A.I. monitoring those necks to within 3 decimal places, they'll be lucky to make it a week before being slurried and recycled into raw human resources." --> [semi-improvised, I thought I'd have a problem with the improv bit because that's not usually my thing, but no, I absolutely devoured this]

TANIS: "...is a serialized docudrama about a fascinating and surprising mystery: the myth of Tanis. Tanis is an exploration of the nature of truth, conspiracy, and information. Tanis is what happens when the lines of science and fiction start to blur." [+ spinoff The Last Movie] --> [I have no clue what the hell is going on here]

The Black Tapes: "...is a serialized docudrama about one journalist's searc for truth, her enigmatic subject's mysterious past, and the literal and figurative ghosts that haunt them both."

The Magnus Archives: "...is a weekly horror fiction anthology podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Join new head archivist Jonathan Sims as he attempts to bring a seemingly neglected collection of supernatural statements up to date, converting them to audio and supplementing them with follow-up work from his small but dedicated team. Individually, they are unsettling. Together they begin to form a picture that is truly horrifying because as they look into the depths of the archives, something starts to look back…"

Time:Bombs: "...a new audio drama podcast about the hilarious world of bomb disposal. Ride along with EOD technician Simon Teller on the busiest night of the year for him and his team - when business is, quite literally, booming."

Wolf 359: "Life's not easy for Doug Eiffel, the communications officer for the U.S.S. Hephaestus Research Station, currently on Day 448 of its orbit around red dwarf star Wolf 359. He's stuck on a scientific survey mission of indeterminate length, 7.8 light years from Earth. His only company on board the station are stern mission chief Minkowski, insane science officer Hilbert, and Hephaestus Station's sentient, often malfunctioning operating system Hera. He doesn't have much to do for his job other than monitoring static and intercepting the occasional decades-old radio broadcast from Earth, so he spends most of his time creating extensive audio logs about the ordinary, day-to-day happenings within the station. But the Hephaestus is an odd place, and life in extremely isolated, zero gravity conditions has a way of doing funny things to people's minds. Even the simplest of tasks can turn into a gargantuan struggle, and the most ordinary-seeming things have a way of turning into anything but that." --> [starts funny, turns very intense]

Ongoing

Alba Salix, Roya Physician (+ The Axe & Crown): "A witch, her apprentice, and her fairy herbalist treat the ills of a fairy-tale kingdom." + "Gubbin the troll tavernkeeper deals with his clueless new landlord, his shady niece, and some new competition."

Archive 81: "A found footage horror podcast about ritual, stories, and sound."

Arden: "A (fictional) true crime podcast about cold cases and the reporter and detective who try to solve them."

Brimstone Valley Mall: "The year is 1999. Lurking somewhere between Hot Topic and the food court, five misfit demons from Hell kill time inciting sin in a suburban shopping mall. When the lead singer of their band goes mysteriously missing, the demons only have two weeks to find him before they play the biggest gig of the millennium - or face the wrath of Satan herself."

CARAVAN: "First rule of Wound Canyon: No one who gets in, ever gets out. So when a brilliant, ghostly specter flies through the sky amid the rain and lightning, Samir stumbles off a steep cliff and into a hidden world, one in which demons, vampires, and all other manner of paranormal creatures take sanctuary." --> [also pretty NSFW and horny in general]

Death by Dying: "The Obituary Writer of Crestfall, Idaho finds himself deeply in over his head as he investigates a series of strange and mysterious deaths… when he is supposed to simply be writing obituaries. Along the way he encounters murderous farmers, man-eating cats, haunted bicycles, and a healthy dose of ominous shadows." --> [I had to stop listening to this in public because it kept making me undignified laugh and snort noises]

Desperado: "Blood magic, Voodoo magic, old gods, new gods: We've got it all! Follow the story of misfits from all over the world, as they try to survive and protect their heritage from modern-day crusaders."

EOS 10: "Doctors in space, a deposed alien prince, a super gay space pirate and a fiery nurse who'll help you win your bar fight."

Girl In Space: "Abandoned on a dying ship in the farthest reaches of known space, a young scientist fights for survival (and patience with the on-board A.I.). Who is she? No one knows. But a lot of dangerous entities really want to find out. Listen as the story unfolds for science, guns, trust, anti-matter, truth, beauty, inner turmoil, and delicious cheeses. It’s all here. In space."

Janus Descending: "...follows the arrival of two xenoarcheologists on a small world orbiting a binary star. But what starts off as an expedition to survey the planet and the remains of a lost alien civilization, turns into a monstrous game of cat and mouse, as the two scientists are left to face the creatures that killed the planet in the first place. Told from two alternating perspectives, Janus Descending is an experience of crossing timelines, as one character describes the nightmare from end to beginning, and the other, from beginning to the end." --> [absolutely harrowing horror]

Love and Luck: "...is a fictional radio play podcast, told via voicemails and set in present day Melbourne, Australia. A slice of life queer romance story with a touch of magic, it follows the relationship between two men, Jason and Kane, as their love grows both for each other and their community." --> [soft and gay, feels like a warm hug]

Potterless: "Join Mike Schubert, a grown man reading the Harry Potter series for the first time, as he sits down with HP fanatics to poke fun at plot holes, make painfully incorrect predictions, and bask in the sassiness of the characters." --> [the only non-fiction podcast on the list]

Primordial Deep: "When a long extinct sea creature washes up on the shores of Coney Island, marine biologist Dr. Marella Morgan is contacted by a secret organization to investigate the origins of the creature’s sudden and unnatural resurgence. Soon, she and a team of experts find themselves living on the research station The Tiamat, traveling along the abyssal plains as they search for answers far below the waves. But there are dangers in these ancient waters. Reawakened, prehistoric monsters are rising from the deep -- jaws wide and waiting, and in the darkness, something is stirring."

Red Valley: "No one at Overhead Industries wants to talk about defunct research station Red Valley, and account man Warren Godby is out of his depth. When he meets Gordon Porlock, a disgruntled archivist with a bag of tapes from the station’s last known occupant, they will begin a journey to the limits of experimental science, confront horror and trauma from the past, present and future, and try to remember the cheat codes from Sonic the Hedgehog 2."

Rusty Quill Gaming: "An actual play podcast following a mixed ability group of comedians, improvisers, gamers, and writers as they play through the extended, tabletop roleplaying campaign Erasing the Line, an original game world of the GM’s crafting." --> [took me a while to get into because I have trouble focusing on non-scripted things, but eventually I got really hooked on the plot and attached to the characters. This podcast is really fucked up at times if you think about it]

SAYER: "A narrative fiction podcast set on Earth’s man-made second moon, Typhon. The eponymous SAYER is a highly advanced, self-aware AI created to help acclimate new residents to their new lives, and their new employment with Ærolith Dynamics." --> [feels like Welcome to Night Vale but narrated by GLaDOS from Portal]

StarTripper!!: "Join Feston Pyxis on a road-trip through the cosmos, as he leaves behind his old life in search of the best and wildest experiences the galaxy has to offer!"

The Amelia Project: "...is a secret agency that fakes its clients' deaths, then lets them reappear with a brand new identity! A black comedy full of secrets, twists... and cocoa."

The Big Loop: "...a biweekly anthology series. Each episode is a self-contained narrative exploring the strange, the wonderful, the terrifying, and the heartbreaking. Stories of finite beings in an infinite universe." --> [I don't like anthologies, except this one]

The Bright Sessions: "Dr. Bright provides therapy for the strange and unusual; their sessions have been recorded for research purposes." --> [think X-Men, but with therapy instead of a school]

The Deca Tapes: "Recordings have surfaced of ten people that are locked into the same space together. We don’t know where they are, or if they'll get out. But the answers must be somewhere on these tapes."

The Silt Verses: "Carpenter and Faulkner, two worshippers of an outlawed god, travel up the length of their deity’s great black river, searching for holy revelations. As their pilgrimage lengthens and the river’s mysteries deepen, the two acolytes find themselves under threat from a police manhunt, but also come into conflict with the weirder gods that have flourished in these forgotten rural territories."

The White Vault: "Follow the collected records of a repair team sent to Outpost Fristed in the vast white wastes of Svalbard and unravel what lies waiting in the ice below."

Tides: "...is the story of Dr. Winifred Eurus, a xenobiologist trapped on an unfamiliar planet with hostile tidal forces. She must use her wits, sarcasm and intellectual curiosity to survive long enough to be rescued. But there might be more to life on this planet than she expected." --> [think The Martian, but on a water planet]

Unwell, a Midwestern Gothic Mystery: "Lillian Harper moves to the small town of Mt. Absalom, Ohio, to care for her estranged mother Dorothy after an injury. Living in the town's boarding house which has been run by her family for generations, she discovers conspiracies, ghosts, and a new family in the house's strange assortment of residents."

VAST Horizon: "Nolira is an agronomist tasked with establishing agriculture in a new solar system, but when she wakes up on a now- empty colony ship, the whole of her plan disappears. The ship has been set adrift, with numerous mission-critical problems requiring immediate attendance outside of her area of expertise. Nolira is aided by the ship’s malfunctioning AI, which acts as her confidant and companion during the fight for survival."

Victoriocity: "Even Greater London, 1887. In this vast metropolis, Inspector Archibald Fleet and journalist Clara Entwhistle investigate a murder, only to find themselves at the centre of a conspiracy of impossible proportions."

We Fix Space Junk: "...follows seasoned smuggler Kilner and reluctant fugitive Samantha as they travel the galaxy, dodging bullets and meeting strange and wonderful beings as they carry out odd jobs on the fringes of the law."

Welcome to Night Vale: "Twice-monthly community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, where every conspiracy theory is true. Turn on your radio and hide."

Within the Wires: "Stories told through found audio from an alternate universe."

Wooden Overcoats: "Rudyard Funn and his equally miserable sister Antigone run their family's failing funeral parlour, where they get the body in the coffin in the ground on time. But one day they find everyone enjoying themselves at the funerals of a new competitor - the impossibly perfect Eric Chapman! With their dogsbody Georgie, and a mouse called Madeleine, the Funns are taking drastic steps to stay in the business…" --> [one of THE funniest podcasts I have ever listened to]

[rockthistowninsideout]

28.08. Freebie - Pacific Rim AU

Digimon OTP Week Part 15

Rating: General Audiences Additional Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence Pairing: Taichi/Koushirou Words: 2605

In which Koushirou is a Ranger but then his partner gets injured and he needs a replacement.

The first time Taichi laid eyes on the inside of the Shatterdome in Tokyo he was shocked. Throngs of people bustled through the enormous building. Heaps of metal climbed into what could only be the sky as the cupola was not visible from down there. Lights blinked everywhere, and above the steel gate he had just passed an enormous clock was installed, the seconds flipping stoically.

"Hey!" a booming voice came straight towards him. He turned and saw a sturdy Afro-American with a white beard stomping through the gate. "You are the new technician? They told me about a tall Japanese guy with hair as wild as a lion’s. You know, I couldn't believe it but they were not joking." He had now reached Taichi and looked up to him, but Taichi felt intimidated.

He only managed a stumbled "Ah, well, yeah, I suppose, that's me, er."

"Not the most eloquent, are you? Anyway, we need every hand. You said in your interview you're good at precision engineering? Well, come along then. I'm Joseph by the way, your foreman. But we're not really into the hierarchy thing here. Except for Pentecost. You know Stacker Pentecost? He's the head of this whole operation; he's the reason why we're all still on board. He can make the difference, you know?"

Taichi just nodded, too overwhelmed by Joseph's hearty verbiage. He followed him down the metal-covered alleyways, past the quarters of the Rangers where he lingered a little before Joseph urged him to hurry further. Taichi would have loved to be a Ranger but he had missed the passing mark in the geography test by one point. In everything else he had excelled but then, in his excitement to be so close to passing, he had forgotten that Sydney was not located on the west coast of Australia.

Out of one of the rooms emerged a short young man with neatly cut red hair in a Ranger training suit. When he saw Taichi he nodded, the tiniest of smiles playing on his lips.

@digiotpweek

***

Taichi proved to be a very reliable and hard-working technician. With his help, Josef managed to repair the disrupted left-hemisphere connections of the Jaeger Winged Cactus in less than half the time he usually needed for such tasks.

When they sat in the break room, Josef interrogating the new employee, they suddenly heard a loud metallic impact, followed by a shocking scream and noisy turmoil. They immediately rushed to the tower where the Jaeger Soaring Wolf was stationed. A finger of the slim and nimble robot had crashed down, but thank goodness only had buried one of the Ranger’s legs. It could have been worse, though. In similar accidents they had had dead to mourn. When they arrived at the scene, a crowd had already gathered. Medics were tending to the lanky man with bluish black hair whose face was a mask of horror and pain. Beside him knelt the red-haired Ranger Taichi had seen earlier this day. Suddenly, the crowd parted like the red sea for Moses and a tall black man in a neat dark blue uniform walked into the inner circle.

 “How could this happen?” Stacker Pentecost needn’t to raise his voice, it was full enough to carry through the tumult and end it at once. Everyone stepped back so the head of the resistance had access to the wounded Pilot.

 “We cannot be sure yet but we suppose that the connecting bolts were not secured correctly. We are currently investigating the event” a technician of this department informed him.

 “This is the last thing we could do with; a Kaiju can attack at any moment. But it has happened; there is nothing we can change about it now. So, take Kido to the medical centre, and we have to look for a replacement for him immediately.”

 Taichi pricked his ears. This was the chance he had waited for. He hesitated not a second but stepped forward directly next to Pentecost. “Uhm, sir, I might be just the person you are looking for.” His voice trembled a little, but it was loud enough for everybody to hear.

Pentecost turned to him. “And you are?”

“Yagami Taichi, sir. I was hired as technician but attended a Pilot training course.”

He had Pentecost’s full attention now. “Why did you not apply as a Pilot then?”

That was the point Taichi had wanted to manoeuvre around. As this proved impossible, he decided to tackle it head on. “I missed graduation by one point because I placed Sydney on the west coast of Australia in the geography test.”

Pentecost eyed him with an indecipherable look, then turned to his assistant and ordered Taichi’s file.  Taichi felt as if he stood on hot coals when he first waited for the assistant to return and then for Pentecost to read the file. It seemed like an eternity.

 “You have an outstanding score in the simulator and your health data is exceptional. I cannot believe they didn’t let you in just because of that little mistake” he told Taichi with the touch of a smile, and then he turned to the red-haired Ranger. “Izumi, go and test your drift compatibility with Yagami. I expect you here in an hour for report.”

The Ranger named Izumi bowed, then took Taichi’s elbow and pulled him away. Taichi managed a half bow towards Pentecost before staggering after him.

***

By the late afternoon Taichi got a Pilot suit fitted for him. After he had slipped into his new equipment, he went to a meeting with Koushirou Izumi, as his new partner had properly introduced himself. He wanted to show him, the rookie, their new working place or, as he had put it when inviting him to it, their second home. Their Jaeger, Aqua Beetle, was a hunky blue, white, and red painted robot with one of its arms replaced by an electric shock cannon and wings that were currently folded at its back. Taichi felt a soft touch at his chin and he realized that his mouth was hanging open. He looked down at a slightly smiling Koushirou.

“I know he’s a beauty, just wait until you’re actually in it.” He stepped into the elevator and Taichi followed him. Through the glass front he could take in the Jaeger in all his glorious 82 metres. That made him seven metres taller than the other Jaegers Soaring Wolf, Red Dragon and Winged Cactus, but these were slimmer and therewith more prone to fall if they were taller.

Just when they had reached the top floor, a siren went blaring off.

“A Kaiju has come through the breach, category four, Code Name Ridger. Winged Cactus, prepare for launch!” Local Command Centre Chief Tendo Choi announced.   

Taichi stepped to the railing and looked down at the at once accelerated bustle. The tower around the green Jaeger lit up, with engineers flocking to it. After five minutes, two women in reddish Jaeger suits marched confidently through the hall to the robot. One had bright maroon hair cut into a neat bob, the other’s head shone up to him in a vivid purple, distinguishing them from the all-khaki-coloured staff. They entered the Jaeger, and soon it raised its massive arms and pressed one fist against the open palm of the other hand, signalling it therewith ready for take-off. Taichi watched in awe as the robot was transported out of the Shatterdome on caterpillar tracks.

“Takenouchi and Tachikawa are our cleverest pilots. They have taken down eight Kaijus by now. Ishida and Takaishi as brothers are the fastest; their count is five, because Soaring Wolf can’t be put into service against the heavier Kaijus.” Koushirou had stepped beside him to the railing.

“And Aqua Beetle? How many have Kido and you taken down?”

“Seven. We catch the bastards that are too heavy for Soaring Wolf.”

“And Red Dragon? What about him?”

Koushirou embarrassedly scratched his head. “Well, he is currently without a crew. Motomiya and Inoue are not talking to each other. No one knows exactly what has happened but it seems severe. Problem is, their drift compatibility is one of the highest ever recorded in the program. Replacing them is nearly impossible, especially with a takedown count of ten.”

“Ten?”

Koushirou nodded. “Best horse in the stable yet unusable at the moment. It’s a shame.” He sounded as he had given up hope and had arranged himself with the situation.

“And Pentecost accepts that?”

Koushirou shrugged. “He’s not exactly happy about it. But those two not only are the best Pilots, they’re also the most obstinate people any of us has ever seen. Nothing you can do about it, really.”

“But, I mean, can they not put their obstacles aside for the sake of, you know, humanity?”

“Common sense might suggest it but - “

Koushirou was cut off by a second bellowing siren.

“Winged Cactus is shut off! Aqua Beetle, get ready for launch!”

“Wait, us?” Taichi asked, baffled.

“Yes, us. Now come on.”

Koushirou grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the door leading into the head of the robot. Within seconds, he found himself in his first real Jaeger. The new surroundings seemed to shut of the questioning part of his mind and put him into battle state. He stepped into the geared boot locks of the Motion Rig with which he could move nearly as free as on stable ground. While he put on his helmet, technicians connected the spine of his suit to the Rig so the neural signals could be transmitted without interferences to the Jaeger. Koushirou had already started calibrating his hemisphere, and Taichi followed suit only a second later. A feminine robotic voice announced that both hemispheres were successfully calibrated.

A holographic display appeared in front of their faces, showing the coast of west Japan. A red dot signalled the defunct Jaeger whose Pilots were about to be rescued by a wing of helicopters. A bigger blue dot encircled it before it turned to head for the coast line. Beside the radar map a table with information about the approaching Kaiju floated into the display:

Codename: Ridger Height: 75 Metres Weight: 9000 Tons Category: III

Beneath the table was a grainy satellite picture of an eight-legged monster with a husky body and long arms that ended in crayfish-like claws.

“Oh Jesus” Taichi muttered when he took in the picture.

Koushirou chuckled. The loudspeaker crackled and Choi inquired “Rangers, are you ready?”

“Rodger!” Taichi answered and caught the amused wink of his partner in the corner of his eye.

“Then prepare for neural handshake starting in four... three... two... one!”

Then they were sucked into the Drift.

Koushirou stood behind an open door, eavesdropping on his parents. He had just heard that he’d been adopted and his parents were debating when they wanted to tell him about it.

Taichi chased a football over a field before passing it to a fellow player. He watched in delight as his friend scored a goal.

Koushirou was hunched over a laptop, his face displaying satisfaction. Before him on the screen flooded a stream of flickering numbers.

A dog barked and Taichi and his friends ran away laughing. Then the owner of the dog appeared close by and they weren’t laughing anymore.

Back and forth swung their memories, pleasant and less pleasant ones intermingling before they finally settled back into the present.

Tokyo. 2024. That’s where they were needed at the moment.

It didn’t feel odd for Taichi to be in the brain of somebody he’s never met before. On the contrary, it felt natural, as if that’s what he’d been doing all his life.

They confirmed that their hemispheres were synched to the massive Jaeger, proving it by both raising their right arm, and the Jaeger did the same.

“Then Aqua Beetle is ready for deploy. It is your order to keep the Kaiju off Tokyo as long as possible. Copy?” Now it was Pentecost echoing from the loudspeaker.

“Copy that, sir” Koushirou answered dutifully.

They were quickly brought to the doors of the Shatterdome, and as soon as the doors had closed behind them, they flicked the levers above their heads. Responding at once to the demand, Aqua Beetle roar to live.

“Enfold wings!” Koushirou commanded, and the colossal blue steel wings spread swiftly, lifting the robot into the air after a couple of powerful bats.

They saw the Kaiju staggering just inside the mouth of Tokyo Bay, so there was still a good chance to keep collateral damage as small as possible. The two Pilots didn’t bother about setting down, they grabbed the monster straight out of the air and, while lifting it up a few metres, spun around to steer it back to the open sea. It immediately started clawing at the Jaeger and growled. It swung back and forth, and the Jaeger swayed in the air. As it got harder for the Pilots to keep the robot straight, they dropped their writhing cargo with a splash into the sea. They set the Jaeger down only a few metres away from it and locked their feet into the seabed.

“Now let’s get this thing going!” Taichi muttered through gritted teeth.

“Yes, let’s give this bastard what it deserves!” Koushirou added.

Taichi glanced to him amused, then focused on the beast in front of them. They locked their right arms in place, and the electric shock cannon started glowing red, sparks flurrying around it. Ridger advanced, its moves looked like it was dancing through the waves.

A faint pling resounded through the head of Aqua Beetle, indicating that the electric shock canon was fully charged. The first shot hit Ridger’s lower abdominal region, and so did the consecutive shots, causing the Kaiju to bend over. But it was not done yet. It issued a terrible war cry and lurched forward, claws spread. One of them caught the right wing of the Jaeger and pulled it forward.

“Damn, why aren’t the wings back inside!” Taichi yelled in irritation.

Koushirou ushered the corresponding command and the wings folded back, but a good chunk of it was torn out. It took a moment for Aqua to regain its footing and the Kaiju seized this second to launch another attack. Now it used its front legs, punching them straight at Aqua.

But the Jaeger was faster. It grabbed them with both hands and tore them apart, ripping it from the body. The Kaiju roared in agony. It had no time for recovery, though.

Taichi commanded for the breast plates to open which hid the blizzard rockets. Smoke rose out of the muzzles after the missiles were fired. They hit the Kaiju square in the chest, going straight through it. Taichi and Koushirou could see the skyline of Tokyo through the holes in its body.

“I think it is done. But why don’t we check for a pulse?” Taichi turned to Koushirou with half a smirk on his lips. Koushirou nodded.

They grabbed hold of its left shoulder and punched its face with the uncharged canon. The body was completely limp.

“No pulse.” Taichi concluded and they let it drop into the ocean.

Koushirou pressed two buttons over his head, activating the comm. “Sir, Ridger is dead. And we left him here in the sea, so there will be no case of Kaiju Blue, either. But Aqua Beetle lost half of his right wing.”

“Good job. The research team will get to it shortly. And you get back here now.”

“Aye, sir.” Taichi replied.

“And you Yagami: Leave the responding to Izumi. You’re just making a fool of yourself.”