Chapter 4: Mother/ Mothest

Madison clutched her children to her as the elevator made its way to the roof, and the helicopter waiting on it. Far below, Madison could see the city of New York going about its normal routine. No evacuation order or call to flee had been given to any of them. In fact, most of them probably thought the threat was over. After all, the Navy had won and saved Boston from the Beast. But the news had left out that it was still alive… and that the Navy was in shambles… and the infectious horror running rampant through Boston. That ignorance was not gifted to Madison. 

Being one of the best biological scientists in the country meant Madison had been brought on the study the Beast from the very beginning. It still filled her with wonder and horror. How something so large could survive was… impossible and the rate at which it mutated and adapted… Madison wanted, NEEDED, to learn its secrets, to classify it, to understand it, to… to… KNOW it. And with Boston now a treasure trove of test subjects and samples, it was all Madison could do not to be at her desk 24/7. But, no matter how devoted to work she was or wanted to be, her kids came first. Always. And they needed to get further inland.

With a soft ding, the elevator reached the roof and its doors slid open. A well kept and polished helicopter awaited her and the others as they filed out. Her children clung to her even tighter and Madison smiled down at them both. She had already told them she wasn’t going with them and neither was happy with that fact.

“I don’t wanna go to Grammy’s,” her daughter pouted as her son tightened his grip on her pants. Madison sighed and took them out of the line before kneeling down to them.

“I know you both want to stay, but you need to go see your grandparents once in awhile,” Madison said, not daring to tell them the truth of why they were leaving. 

“Then why aren’t you coming?” her son asked with a pout. Madison ruffled his hair till he slapped her hand away.

“Because mommy has to work and make sure she can buy you new toys. I know it’s boring out there, but just put up with it for a week. And when you get back I’ll get you both a new game, alright?” Madison said. Both brightened a bit at the prospects of new stuff, but still looked annoyed. It would have to do as she hefted them up and headed for the helicopter. 

Madison made sure each was safely buckled in and made sure one of her co-workers going on the trip would keep an eye on them. The door slid shut and Madison gave one last wave as the helicopter roared to life and turned away. She watched it go till it had almost disappeared before turning back. She had work to do.

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“You sure you want to stay? I mean, if it comes here…” Travis, Madison’s lab assistant asked. Madison didn’t even glance at him as she moved a sample into a new petri dish.

“I could ask you the same thing. You have kids, too,” Madison shot back.

“True, but I also have a wife so it’s not like my kids won’t have a parent,” Travis answered as he labeled the dish and filed it away. 

“I’ll be sure to tell your wife of the many joys of single parenthood,” Madison said as she started another sample. She shot Travis a smirk to dispel any fear of upsetting her and he chuckled to himself. 

“Guess I should have figured you are here for the same reason I am,” Travis said before his humor faded away. Madison was sure he was seeing the same pictures and reports she was seeing in her mind. The death… the mutated people… the projected numbers if the attacks continued… The final one still gave her chills and it was made before they knew what the Beast’s blood could do.  

“Running won’t be an option for much longer,” Madison said and Travis let out a sigh.

“Yeah… Guess we better hurry up and save the world then,” he finished, trying to liven the mood. It might have worked it both didn’t jump out of their skins from a sudden noise. Madison glanced down and cursed as her phone buzzed in her pants. Getting her arms out of the sealed testing area, Madison rolled her eyes at the caller ID.

“Mom’s always have the best timing,” Travis said and Madison gave him a withering look. He turned away as she stepped off to answer her mother.

“What did they forget?” Madison asking, already assuming what her mother was calling her back for. It had been hours since her kids had arrived and her parents had picked them up. Far too soon for a check-up so...

“Forg- No, baby, you need to leave! Get on the first subway or plane or or SOMETHING get out of there!” Madison’s mother said, her voice quivering.

“Leave? Mom wh-”

LISTEN TO ME! YOU NEED TO L- Tom sto-” her mother said, interrupted as a scuffle started on the other end. Madison sighed as she  thought of hanging up, but her father came over the line before she made the choice.

“Madison, listen closely,” her father said using a tone he hadn’t used with her since she was a kid, “That thing is coming. It was just spotted off the coast heading for New York. You need to get out, understand? I don’t care how, just get out of there. Don’t worry about anything or anyone else, just get OUT.” For a second Madison didn’t understand what her dad was talking about. And then it clicked into place and her heart sank to her feet. Oh God…

“OK, dad. I’ll talk to you later,” Madison managed to say calmly before hanging up. That charade shattered as soon as the phone clicked off. She sprinted toward the door and slammed her keycard into the reader, she was about to throw the door open herself, or at least try to, when Travis spoke up.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked. The door was now open and Madison could flee through it, but Travis had a child too. Her father would have to forgive her not listening to him.

“The Beast is coming. My parents just told me. We need to leave, now!” Travis looked at her in confusion before realization dawned on him.

“Oh God…” Travis said as his face turned deathly pale. He let the dish he was holding fall to the ground as he rushed to join her. Both of them sprinted out of the lab and toward the elevator.  The moment the doors opened, they practically slammed the bottom floor button. Finally, the doors closed and it rumbled downward going agonizing slow. Dammit, why didn’t it go faster!?

They were halfway down when a massive quake rocked the building and sent them both tumbling into the walls. The elevator’s light flickered off before the entire thing slammed to a halt. The doors opened and no amount of button mashing made it move.

“Dammit, a safety feature must have kicked in. Come on!” Travis yelled as he left the elevator. Madison followed and they sprinted to the stairs. A few people were milling about with some going to the windows, but the two ignored them. Madison felt bad about it, but a mass panic would make it impossible to escape. Even if the building had only a skeleton crew thanks to the quiet evacuations.

The two made a beeline for the emergency stairs and Travis tossed the door open. Madison followed him in a mad flight down the seemingly endless stairs. Another massive quake forced them to grab the railing for dear life, but both got back to their feet the second they could. The quake had been far closer and the reason was obvious. Screams and panic started to leak in from other floors and Madison pushed her body to go faster before they were pinned in.

They had reached the sixth floor when another quake sent them both tumbling. Madison tried to grab the railings, but missed and smashed into Travis. Both of them tumbled down to the fifth floor landing and crashed into a heap. Madison groaned as she untangled herself from Travis.

“Sorry… I lost-” her voice trailed off as she noticed someone running up the stairs. Travis groaned as he got back to his feet and made to keep going. Madison, though, stopped him with an outstretched arm as another person took off going upward. Both looked at each other in confusion.

The two of them walked into the office and moved toward the windows. People were fleeing down the streets and various accidents had blocked normal traffic. Bit of debris had been knocked loose by the quakes as well, but Madison didn’t see any-

“Holy shit…” Travis said spotting something. Madison turned and her eyes went wide as she saw what had driven those two up rather than down. A huge wave of water was moving toward them, growing larger as it came. The massive tidal wave must have been kicked up by the Beast and had grown to nearly seven stories tall. And they were on the fifth floor…

“RUN!” Madison yelled as they both sprinted back to the staircase. She took them two at a time as both tried to get to higher ground. Another quake, though, sent both spilling to the floor and lost them precious seconds. Seconds that cost them everything as the dull grumbled of the water turned to a roar. And with a massive crash, flooded the building and the fire escape. Madison’s last thoughts were of her kids and how sorry she was…

Suddenly, the light returned and she heard echoing coughs. Someone was above her, pressing her chest and turning her head. Something spilled from her mouth and Madison felt sweet air filled her lungs The person said something, but the world spun away again as Madison fell back, not into oblivion, but rest. Her breathing was the sweetest feeling in the world. 

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The soft ping of an alarm roused Madison from her slumber. She let out a soft yawn as she sat up, greeting the night. The lights in her bedroom switched on, but only dimly, as she stretched her arms and wings. With a second yawn, she fluttered up and out of her silk hammock before gliding to the ground. She landed so softly as to barely make a sound and tucked her wings back behind her. A third yawn managed to escape as she arrived at the bathroom. 

“Good night, Doctor Madison. The time is 23:01. You have no appointments today,” the AI assigned to her, Harvard, said. Madison nodded a silent thanks as she stepped into her air shower.  

Spreading her wings and arms out, Madison let the huge vent below her whirl to life. A huge rush of air blasted through the cylinder shower and Madison let herself relax as it caught her wings, allowing her to float. She floated on a cushion of air, spinning in place to make sure every part of her was properly blasted as cleansing powder was mixed into the air. Madison made sure to spread the powder over her body and gave anyone who was watching the show of a lifetime. Madison, though, had long stopped caring about modesty. Besides, her change had made her into a curvy paragon of motherhood so why not show it off from time to time? 

After about ten minutes of letting the air and powder do its work, Madison gave another nod and the air died down. She fluttered back to the ground and shook her hair out, now a tangled mess of knots. The rest of her, however, felt refreshed and clean with the grime of yesterday blasted away.

“Thank you, Harvard. I will be in the testing area in five minutes. Please have my experiments and data ready for inspection,” Madison said as she moved to her mirror to finish her waking rituals.

“Of course, Doctor,” Harvard said as he went silent leaving Madison to turn to her reflection… And find Mothest’s staring back at her.

Mothest… Madison despised that name. Not because it was a constant reminder of her change, or how she was forever disconnected with the rest of humanity, or how she was now nothing more than a living weapon. No, she hated it because it was a stupid pun of the fact she was a mothER… and looked like a human-moth. Oh how she wished she could find who had thought of it and give them a stern talking to. With her hand.

Pushing the annoyance of her callsign aside, Madison focused back on herself. Her blonde hair was a tangled mess thanks to the air shower and combing it out would be vexing. Still, there was no better way to get clean now that water had become an… issue. Mostly that was due to her fur, but there were other reasons. Thankfully, the large clumps of white fuzz around her neck, down her upper arms, and around her chest didn’t need combing. They were best left alone to do their job.

Picking up her comb, Madison began to straighten her hair back out. A few years ago she would have needed help for such delicate work. The chitin that covered her arms and much of her legs made it nearly impossible to feel anything. That made delicate tasks near impossible as she couldn’t feel resistance or slight changes very well. But she had learned to cope with it when it came to her hair. It was far quicker if she did it herself and that gave her more time to focus on her research.

Having finished straightening her hair, Madison put her comb away and left the bathroom. Back in her bedroom, Madison walked under her self-made bed of silk and grabbed the lab coat hung up on the hook by the door. Some part of her knew the thing was pointless and did nothing to help her in anyway. Hell, she couldn’t even close the front thanks to the two monsters on her chest. And yet she just couldn’t seem to focus as well without it, couldn’t get her mind in the proper space for research. Besides, Hoover went to all the trouble of making it for her, the least she could do was wear it. So Madison put on her lab coat and moved to the door leading out. It hissed open and she strode out into her massive greenhouse.

The colossal greenhouse was big even compared to Madison. Plants the size of skyscrapers lined the various rows of the greenhouse and their roots made virtual roads twisting all around.  Each one was a kaiju-infected specimen and a constant source of data for Madison. The information she had gathered from them was unrivalled anywhere in the world and it wasn’t an overstatement to say nearly all kaiju knowledge came from them. It also helped that her size and… condition made gathering the data far safer than it would be otherwise. Which was why her “employers” allowed her to keep them in her housing area. And provided her with lab equipment fit for someone 500+ft tall.

“And how are all of you tonight? Have a good day in the sunshine?” Madison asked as she checked on the various plants, most far less lively now with the sunset. Just as well as a few could be a bit… feisty. As she inspected each, Harvard piped up with various information about them. Their rate of growth, water intact, nutrient levels, current experiments, any new mutations, those kinds of things. None of them showed anything too anomalous, well any more than usual, and Madison moved on to her lab proper. 

Her computer was already waiting for her along with the new data her various tests had given. She gave another silent nod of thanks to Harvard as she started to pour over it. Sadly, most of it seemed rather bog-standard and nothing ground-breaking. Still no sign of a cure or means of reversing the mutation, though Madison had mostly given up on such a thing years ago. Still, she couldn’t quite force herself to give up the search completely. She still had two huge reasons to- 

A small ding sent every thought flying from Madison’s mind. A call was coming through and Madison was sure who it was. She brushed her hair back and pulled her coat closer around her to make sure she looked more presentable. She even grabbed a fake pair of glasses and put them on, trying to conceal how mutated her eyes had become. Now looking far more normal, comparatively anyway, Madison accepted the call… and deflated as an owl appeared on the other side.

“Sorry, Madison, I normally wouldn’t call at this time b-” the owl-man started to say, but she cut him off.

“It’s fine, Hoover. What’s the emergency?” Madison said, taking off her fake glasses and getting her mind back into work mode. Hoover was her handler, a changed who had taken on owl-like features. His head was mostly that of an owl, even capable of the full head turn, while his body had stayed mostly the same, save for a few feathers along his arms. He was dressed in his usual business suit, save the arms due to said feathers, and was polished to an almost shine. Even the feathers on his head looked properly groomed, cleaned, and placed just so. 

“A report has arrived from a clean-up crew near the Scar containment area. One of their storage tanks had a leak they didn’t notice until they were sucking out blood from the area. It spilled out and onto an unprotected crew member. Said member mutated and has already grown several times. Full kaiju status hasn’t been granted yet, however,” Hoover said, in his usual all business tone. Madison sighed at the news and cursed to herself. Of all the times…

“How big is the subject?” Madison asked as she took off her coat and hung it on a nearby hook that appeared. Harvard had it whisked away.

“Last report was somewhere in the fifty foot range and still growing, though that was about thirty minutes ago,” Hoover said, a rare crack of sympathy showing through his usual rigid face. No doubt about it, they were going kaiju… Damn...

“Understood. Harvard, inform MCP that I am making a preemptive sortie. Hoover, keep me posted on any changes. And…” she trailed off, looking back at the screen of her computer.

“I will tell them their mother is busy saving lives,” Hoover said with as close to a smile he could make with his beak. Madison nodded with a smile of her own before looking up. Above, a massive glass hatch was beginning to slide open to allow Madison to leave her glass home. With another sigh, Madison closed her eyes... and let Mothest loose.

A rush of energy flooded Madison as her antennas, hidden away in her hair, sprange upward. Her moth-like wings shot outward and flapped as they grew bigger and thicker. Her eyes shifted and their iris’ split before turning into hundreds of new ones. Her furry thickened and began to glow as small sparks leapt between the hair. With a groan of pleasure, Madison let her kaiju form fully come to the surface and her head rose upward another fifty feet. Now standing over 600 ft, Mothest turned her head upward.

“Mothest, moving out,” she said, voice shaking the area, before leaping into the air. She easily cleared the dome of glass and rocketed hundreds of feet off the ground. No sooner did she start to fall did her wings catch the wind and lock her in place.

Far below, Mothest could see the base around her greenhouse starting to come alive. The sky was nearly pitch black with only a small slit of a moon, but it might as well have been day to Mothest’s eyes. She watched the trees rustle from the wind, people in the base look up at her, the hatch slowly close, and even Hoover heading for the command center. She saw it all at once and yet could make perfect sense out of it all. That had taken the longest to perfect as she mastered her kaiju form. And mastered it she had, which was why the MCP let her leave of her volition. 

“The location of the leak is north, north-east of your current position,” Harvard said, his voice being sent out on a wavelength only her antennas could pick up. Madison nodded.

“Understood,” Madison said before diving forward. She caught the wind and pulled up before soaring off toward the Scar. As she flew, her eyes scanned the horizon, picking out anything that might get in her way. Planes, balloons, birds, anything at all she spotted, adjusted for, and avoided. It took focus, but Mothest had plenty to spare. Even if sh- No, no time to think about that.  

Back in the lab, a small ding came over her computer as a new incoming call was detected. 

Monster Containment Protocol (MCP)

Created after the death of Echidna (referred to as the Beast at the time), the MCP is a semi-independent organization made by the United States. With the massive amount of tainted land, mutated wildlife, and mutated citizens, the government realized the crisis was far too much for existing departments to deal with. Attempts were made to make another department, but the scale of the disaster, and the appearance of multiple kaiju-level threats, prompted a more drastic answer. The MCP was this answer.

Made from personal taken from various departments, from the military to the treasury, the MCP sole goal is the containment and cleaning of Echidna’s blood from US shores. To this end, it has been granted near autonomous control over itself with very little oversight as to its methods. While this has come under attack in recent years, the ongoing crisis and constant kaiju threat has made such issues minor and rare. 

Currently, the MCP’s main focus is on anti- kaiju operations. With most traditional weapons only adding to the problem, the MCP took an unusual approach of turning kaijus against kaijus. While the scale of such operations has been financially stressing, the results so far have silenced nearly all dissenting voices.