Strangefu Superheroes!

Caerulea abruptly opened her eyes and felt a throbbing headache where her antennae came out of her head. She was floating thousands of meters below the surface of the ocean, sleeping, when she felt it, a being, broadcasting its presence in the hivemind. Mom? No, it couldn’t possibly be her. This was something different, and it was angry.

Despite being so deep under the ocean, she was still able to faintly see thanks to her enormous eyes. She quickly tried to triangulate the source of this disturbance. Her antennae started to sweep back and forth and she was able to get a better understanding of where this thing was. North east, a long way away, deeper than she was and possibly hundreds of kilometers? It was hard to tell.

It was probably another Kaiju, herself and her mom were the only non-hostile Kaijus known to the PPDC. She was suddenly scared, most kaiju were sent to Earth for one purpose, to destroy mankind. She was hoping at one point to become a protector of humanity, just like her Mom and the other Jaegers. Maybe then they would accept her and let her talk to others.

Then the other Kaiju started to move, her antenna bobbed side to side, up and down, trying to get a better reading. It was moving fast, about 40 knots! It was moving east to west, it would end up somewhat near to where she was! Then she remembered, the faint glow on the horizon. Was it a city? Was this where the Kaiju was headed? Oh no.

Caerulea didn’t think she was ready for this yet, joining the Corps like her mother was always a distant dream. Lea was enamored by the wonders of humanity and she wanted to protect them one day, just like her mom. To prepare, she had gotten some training from her mom who had a lot of combat experience fighting Kaijus and training with Jaegers. However, her mom could only teach her so much, Lea was a humanoid and her mom was a giant horse so while Orchid knew a lot about bipedal combat she was not one herself. Lea had never fought a Kaiju like her mom did but she took pride in her physical fitness, wanting to be ready to one day take on a kaiju.

Until only a few months ago, the world had become more peaceful. The Corps had sidelined her, worried about what the public would think about her existence. The precursors seemed like a waning threat so perhaps she didn’t train as hard as she should have. She had a lot to learn. Still, she was very physically active, swimming a lot and training on occasion. Her dad even taught her how to increase her muscles’ flexibility and range of active motion using human flexibility training techniques. Caerulea didn’t have a lot of distractions, relatively isolated in her part of the ocean away from other people she was able to focus on her fitness. Because of this, she had become very athletic, coordinated, limber and quite muscular for a female.

Still, excuses swirled through her mind. She wasn’t fully trained for this, she was almost a novice. Maybe the PPDC had someone left to help? No, her mother had been clear. There were no more Corps and she was painfully aware of how vulnerable humanity could be to a Kaiju attack if there were no opposing Jaegers to defend them. Caerulea balled her fists. She had to do something, no one else was going to come to the rescue.

A shiver of fear coursed through her but then she growled. She couldn’t let this creature destroy thousands or millions of people like her Dad. She had to at least try, Earth was her home! Caerulea began to swim, she felt the rush of water rush over her skin. Nervousness and excitement built up in her as she began swimming to where the Kaiju would be in a few short hours. She was excited for a few reasons, she had only ever seen glimpses of cities from very far away and pictures. Perhaps today would be the first time she got to see a city up close. Her mother told her that the buildings in many of the cities were taller than she was and that humans lived inside of them. However, dread also built up within her. Would she be able to face a kaiju?

She continued to swim as thoughts raced through her mind. Every so often she would look back and point her antenna to figure out where the other Kaiju was. It was getting closer. She thought about what she would do when she got there. Truly, she had no idea what would happen but she had to try and at least warn them.

Finally she found the continental shelf. She hesitated, if she climbed up then this would be the point of no return. She would most likely be spotted by humans, but she knew their language. Her mom had taught her so many human languages and her dad taught her English, the language of America. She would be fine, right?

There was not a lot of time to hesitate. She took a few big gulps of water, it filtered through her gills and she prepared herself to breathe air. She steeled herself and pulled herself up the shelf. The water was still deep enough for her to crouch without breaking the surface. She slowly stood up and her head emerged ever so slowly out of the water. Brilliant sunlight assaulted her eyes, the sound of the surf and startled seagulls cried as her head came out of the water. She gasped in some air and looked around. On the horizon was the city’s skyline. She gasped again, this time at the beauty of the city. She smiled widely at the city. It was only about a mile away. With her excellent vision she could see so many humans! A few were on the beach, playing volleyball with each other, so many cars were flying around. She saw a boardwalk, if she stared hard enough she could sometimes see the silhouette of a human inside one of the buildings! There were beaches, docks, parks, highways, even a subway station! But most amazing were the buildings, some were smaller, others were about as tall as herself but a few were twice or even three times as tall as she was. What amazingly talented creatures! How were they able to create such things despite being so small?

She was so dumbstruck by all of the amazing things she was seeing that she had forgotten what she was here for. Her senses were incredibly acute, so she could clearly see and hear things a mile away. When she heard an exclamation her eyes darted to the source, a lady pointing directly at her. As soon as she looked at the lady from a mile away the lady screamed. Caerulea winced and her hearts fell. She almost wanted to just submerge herself and go back to hiding in the deep ocean. She dipped half of her head into the water in shame. Then came another scream, she looked and another female was pointing at her and it pulled out a device to its ear. Then yelling, coming from multiple places as people spotted her 50 foot tall head in the water.

Caerulea was crestfallen. She should have known, she was a monster. Humans are afraid of monsters. They have every right to be. She was frozen in indecision. Should she just emerge and try to talk to them or would that just make it worse? She turned her head and wiggled her antenna towards the other Kaiju, it was much closer now. She heard more gasps and screams from behind her. She groaned in frustration, she didn’t realize how loud it was and the humans on the beach were working themselves into a frenzy. It had to be done. Caerulea steeled herself and began to walk forward. She raised an arm into the air, waved and her torso emerged from the water as she continued to walk forward.

“I’m sorry for scaring you, I’m just trying-”

She was still far away from shore and humans with their less powerful hearing didn’t hear her from half a mile away because the sirens had started wailing.

“Wait! I’m not a monster!”

She covered her ears with her webbed hands at the annoying wailing and groaned again. Everyone was running away, getting into their vehicles and quickly leaving. She stared, mesmerized at the coordinated movements of all the humans running to their cars and driving away. Now everyone was screaming.

“NO, WAIT! You’re in danger, a kaiju is coming!”

No one could hear her through the yelling, screaming, and the sirens. All the cars were trying to leave at the same time and it created traffic jams everywhere. The city was now gridlocked and people were starting to run out of the buildings.

“Please, stop!” Caerulea was starting to cry, tears ran down her eyes.

The roads which were working so efficiently just a few minutes ago were now congested, sometimes she would see cars run into each other or jump the curb just to get away from her quicker. She watched in horror at all the chaos she had caused with her mere presence. Well, at least they were warned now. Caerulea nervously chuckled at herself.

Caerulea finally made it to the beach, it was almost deserted but there were a few stragglers. She was covering her ears at all the noise. She stepped onto the sandy beach with her satyr hooves and gingerly crouched down to try and talk to a straggler. He was running away, he would soon reach the edge of the beach but before he could, she reached down and blocked his path with one of her hands. The blaring sirens filled her hearing but she grimaced and persevered.

“Listen to me, I don’t want to hurt you! I’m trying to warn you about-”

The man collapsed in the sand. Oh no! Did he have a heart attack? Caerulea lifted her hand from his path and then went on her hands and knees to get her face closer to the man. Her hair was made of thousands of tentacles. It was the safest way for her and her mom to interact with her dad. They were small enough that they were unlikely to crush a human like her hands could. They were difficult to control because there were so many of them but she had lots of practice. Her mom had taught her how to achieve some impressive and gentle dexterity so that she could interact with her dad. So, she was able to gingerly use one to flip the man over and she used another one to slip under his shirt and feel his chest. His heart was beating very quickly and the man was breathing shallow but quick breaths. Was he faking his death?

Then she sensed it. The kaiju was getting close, very close! She abruptly stood up and faced the direction the other kaiju was coming in and wiggled her antenna at the other kaiju. She glanced down, sure enough the human was sprinting to his car. She sighed in frustration.

The other kaiju was a few miles away and it wanted to destroy the city! Where were the Jaegers? Were they really all wiped out?

Caerulea nervously looked around at her surroundings, the streets seemed to slowly become less and less busy as people evacuated. What to do now? Caerulea nervously and gingerly stepped over the parking lot and onto the street. The street’s asphalt cracked beneath her. Well, it didn’t seem like it was going to give out. Buildings didn’t crack the ground, right? Well, they weren’t exactly the type to move around quickly. She slowly and carefully hid herself behind a building, peering around the side, waiting for the other kaiju to appear.

Then she noticed it, bubbling coming from the bay. Her stomach dropped and she started breathing more heavily, her hearts started to beat more. Her eyes, the tips of her hair and antennae started to glow brighter. Never before had she faced something that could possibly kill her. She was always the largest thing around.

The other kaiju started to emerge from the water. It was insectoid, a praying mantis. Caerulea shifted to get a better view and to better hide herself. She peered over a slightly shorter apartment building. The damn thing was going to destroy the city. There were no Jaegers coming. She bared her fangs in anger. Then she heard a shrill squeak coming from the top of the building. There, on top of the building was a girl. She looked to be in her early to mid teenage years. The girl was looking at her in horror.

Caerulea suddenly remembered what her mother had said about being friendly to humans, “remember to smile!” Caerulea tried to shift her fang baring scowl into a smile and didn’t really succeed, instead it morphed into an awkward grimace, her face twitching with the effort. The girl below seemed to be paralyzed with horror.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the praying mantis had also heard the squeak and turned its head in their direction. It fiddled its mandibles and its oval eyes with the tiny black pupils scanned the buildings. It hadn’t spotted them yet.

Caerulea whispered as quietly as she possibly could. “Listen, I need you to be very quiet!” Caerulea glanced at the Mantis. “You need to get out of here! The mantis hasn’t noticed me yet, but you need to get to one of the kaiju shelters, one of the PPDC certified ones. Let me help you get down from here.”

Caerulea’s hair tentacles started to reach for the girl, then the girl started to cry. Caerulea hesitated and her hair stopped reaching out. “No, no! Please! You need to be quiet!”

It was too late. The mantis wasn’t scanning anymore, it was looking right at them. Quicker than would seem possible, the mantis jumped towards them and began to slash at the building with one of its bladed arms.

“NO!” Caerulea yelled and she blocked the blade with the chitinous armor on her wrist before it could slice the building the girl was on in two. Caerulea’s hair quickly grabbed the girl. The girl screamed. Her hair tentacles started to wrap around the girl, immobilizing her and holding her close to her head. Her wrist smashed into the place where the girl used to be, damaging the building. Caerulea pushed back against the mantis blade. The mantis seemed surprised that its blade could be blocked and was thrown off balance, stepping backwards into the bay.

Lea growled and sidestepped the building, paying less attention where she stepped. A car was crushed beneath her hooves and she pressed her attack, hoping to drive the mantis into the water. The mantis was a bit shorter than her, maybe only 250 feet high but it was quick. The mantis’s head tilted to the side in curiosity at Caerulea. Caerulea’s teeth were bared and her hands balled into fists at the ready, then she roared. It was a terrifying sound, maybe not something you would expect a female to be capable of making. Her eyes glowed brighter and something like electricity sparked but it might have been a trick of the light. The mantis’s mandible fiddled a bit and then it hissed at her and charged. Caerulea followed suit and charged at the mantis with her wrist armor raised.

She blocked the first strike with her right wrist but the second blade made it past her guard and sliced her torso on her left side. Caerulea screamed, but she used the opportunity to grab the mantis’s face and eye by her left hand and begin squeezing. Before the mantis could even screech, she used this opportunity to dig her long nails into the mantis’s eye socket and the mantis pressed its blade further into her side, doing its best to try and break through her rib cage. If she kept this up then perhaps the mantis might actually pierce her vital organs. Locked in this struggle, Lea dug her left hoof into the ground, remembering some of the martial arts training her mother gave her. The training she had over the years was helping because she had enough muscular control and flexibility in her right leg to reach up to place her hoof on the mantis’s middle.

“HAH!” She kicked out and tried to tear the eye socket of the mantis while she kicked them apart. The mantis’s blade bit deeply into her side as they separated. Lea couldn’t tear the Mantis’s eye out but deep gouges made by her nails deeply wounded the eye. The mantis screeched as it realized that it couldn’t see out of its right eye. Lea’s rib was cracked but she didn’t even notice as whatever the Kaiju equivalent of adrenaline flowed through her and dulled her pain.

The mantis charged again but this time it was a bit more sloppy. Caerulea was able to block both blades but the mantis pushed her back and she was toppled backwards, crashing into a building. Then the mantis quickly stabbed at her while she was down. She deflected one with her left arm but the other one stabbed her deep in the stomach, she tried to block but it still stabbed into the side of her abdomen. Caerulea screamed in pain but she knew what she had to do. She lifted her right arm with great effort and grabbed the right eye of the bladed mantis and squeezed with all of her might. The mantis screeched but it had her pinned to the ground with its blade. Then, POP. The mantis’s other eye popped in her hand. The mantis could not see at all and tried to shield its eyes with the blocked blade.

The pain was starting to get to Caerulea but she had to calm down. No one was going to help her out of this one. Every time she breathed the pain of the blade made her feel weaker. She grabbed the blade with both hands and started to pull it out while the mantis was distracted by being disoriented by a lack of sight. She breathed shallow and quick, trying not to worsen the wound and pushed. The pain was so terrible that darkness started to cloud the edges of her vision. Slowly she was able to push the cursed thing out of her stomach and she kicked the mantis back. She rolled over. She gasped for air and grabbed at her stomach. She needed to retreat.

The mantis had its bladed arms up to its eyes trying to rub them clean but it could not see. It screeched in rage and swung at the air, then it suddenly decided to go back to the ocean, probably to regenerate. It retreated into the water. Caerulea was wheezing on the beach, wounded as she lay down. She couldn’t believe it, had she really defended a city? She watched the mantis go back into the ocean. It hurt to breathe.

“Fire!”

Caerulea was suddenly peppered by a barrage of bullets and tank shells. They stung but were nothing compared to the wounds she received from the mantis kaiju. She looked over at the humans. She tried to wheeze out a plea but she just coughed instead. With great effort, she staggered to her feet. She raised her hands up with a sign of peace but a tank shell slammed into her stab wound. Lea cried out, that was painful.

The sirens were too loud, she wouldn’t be able to talk to these humans. She needed to retreat and also regenerate. Maybe she could try again some other time. She covered her wound with her hand and turned tail, limping into the water. As she got to deeper waters, relief started to wash over her. This was her element, she was able to easily control her buoyancy and swim at a leisurely pace. She couldn’t believe she had done it, too bad she couldn’t finish it off. She definitely needed to improve, one more mistake and she could have died! Everyone thought that the threat of the Kaijus and precursors was going away. She cursed not pushing harder to get trained by the PPDC when she had the chance. She was about to dive when something near her ear screamed.

“WAIT! PLEASE! We humans aren’t all bad! I’m sorry the soldiers shot you, we’re just scared! Please don’t dive, I can’t move and I’ll drown!”

Caerulea widened her eyes in surprise. Oh my cod! That girl! I forgot! Her tentacles had the girl in a vice grip. Out of reflex, the grip of her tentacle hairs tightened as Caerulea’s stomach dropped. She coughed out the gulp of water she was about to inhale upon diving.

“Ahh, too tight! Have mercy!”

Caerulea immediately loosened the tentacles’ grip on the girl and stopped swimming to float in place. Lea had a look of horror and was paralyzed, her mouth was slack jawed. She had kidnapped a human! She couldn’t go back to the city, and this girl would probably die out here miles from the shore. Furthermore, she needed to rest and regenerate. What could she do?

“Oh thank you, thank you!” The girl coughed as the tendrils loosed. “I thought I was hallucinating when you talked to me, but you can understand me, right?”

Caerulea was speechless trying to think of what she could say. “Yeah.” She said dumbly.

The girl was shivering, she could feel her. Poor little thing, she was so scared! “So, uh, do you think you can drop me off on land? I don’t know about my chances out here in the ocean. Or maybe just let me leave before you dive? I can’t really move with your hair thingies grabbing me so tightly.”

Caerulea was stuck, flabbergasted. She still didn’t know what to do or say for that matter. She stayed silent for a very long ten seconds. The other girl was still shivering. Caerulea felt terrible, she must have traumatized this little human. It was a miracle that she didn’t get hurt.

“I-I’m sorry.” Caerulea mumbled. “I’m sorry for forgetting about you and smashing your building. I probably shouldn’t have been hiding behind it.” Caerulea felt the girl’s heartbeat and breath quicken as she spoke. Her own heart was racing.

The girl spoke softly and she stroked one of Caerulea’s tentacles. The girl’s voice was emotional but she kept it steady. “It’s ok, you saved me. Thank you for fighting that big mantis and driving him away from my city. I know a lot of others might not have understood what you were doing but I saw from the top of the building.”

Caerulea blushed at the praise, she could feel the girl’s hands stroke her hairs, it felt good and calmed her down a bit more. Caerulea also spoke softly. “I was told the Corps were wiped out. I sensed the other Kaiju heading straight for the city, and with the Corps being gone, I had to do something.”

The girl noticed the giantess’s ears wilt as well with some subtle body language and smirked. “Well, it’s appreciated! I probably would’ve died if you weren’t there.” She hugged one of Caerulea’s tentacles tightly. Caerulea couldn’t see her but she wanted to cry. Caerulea didn’t know what to say, but the girl continued to pet her. “I also noticed your top says PPDC, you look a little bit like Orchid. Wait, are you related to her somehow!? No one I know has ever heard of you before. I thought Orchid was the only one.”

Caerulea took a few seconds to respond and control her emotions. Sadness emerged at the mention of her mom. “Orchid is my mom, and the Corps kept me a secret. The public knows about Orchid but the Corps were worried about what everyone might think of me. I-I’ve never really gotten to meet anyone else other than my mom and dad. And now that they’re gone, there’s no one left.”

Caerulea couldn’t hold back her sadness, she started to cry and sob quietly with the uncontrollable gasps of held back emotions. She cried about her lost parents, she cried about her loneliness and this beautiful tiny human that allowed her to release her emotions just by talking. She didn’t realize how much she needed to talk to someone. It wasn’t a need that she knew she had until now. She cried about the enormous responsibility she had to protect these small creatures who could no longer defend themselves against huge bullies. She cried at the pain in her side and the screams of countless humans as they ran away from her.

The girl cried a little bit at Caerulea’s story. It was quite a sad circumstance, to be so isolated and then losing the only people you had strong connections with. She continued to stroke a tentacle in what she hoped was a soothing manner. It twitched sometimes at the touch so she thought it was having some effect. “It’s okay to cry. Let it out.”

Caerulea cried in earnest now. For a few minutes they just sat there together with Caerulea crying and wiping her eyes with her hands while the girl listened and slowly tried to comfort the huge kaiju with rubs and pats. Caerulea finally began to stop sobbing and instead sniffed every so often. It looked like she was finally starting to finish.

“H-h-h-h-how are you doing?” Caerulea stuttered with uncontrollable gasping hiccups.

The girl’s heart leaped. She was still nervous at the enormous crying Kaiju that she hoped might be a friend. To cope she quickly started rambling in a quick and nervous manner. “Me? Well, besides feeling like I was on a roller coaster ride, I’m doing ok. Ha, ha! I threw up once or twice. But you were stabbed, do Kaiju really regenerate?”

The girl was talkative, she sounded nervous. Caerulea was feeling much better after her cry. Caerulea felt bad for making the girl nervous, she really wanted to gain her trust. It felt so amazing to just be able to talk to another person. Caerulea was nervous before talking to the girl but after her fight and crying for so long, she was just exhausted.

“I-I’m sorry for making you throw up. I promise I won’t leave you in the middle of the ocean, I’ll keep you safe. And yes, we regenerate but it takes a bit of time. Do you think you could stay with me just for tonight on an island? I really want to rest and regenerate for at least one night before I go back near human territory to drop you off.”

“That is so cool!” The girl gushed at Lea’s abilities, but eased back to the kaiju’s wellbeing. “But, are you sure you’re doing alright? I noticed you were stabbed pretty deeply.”

Lea nodded. “Yeah, I’m doing ok. The wounds have already started to close up. I’m also feeling a lot better after crying. Thank you for-” Lea paused, what was she thankful for? “Thanks for talking to me.” She said quietly.

“It’s cool.” They were both silent for a few seconds. “I can stay with you for tonight but I’m going to need water eventually. Can you bring me back early tomorrow?”

“Absolutely.” Caerulea paused as she thought for a moment. “There’s a spring of water on my island that I think is clean but I’ll definitely get you back early tomorrow morning regardless if anything happens.” Caerulea said. “Do- do you think we can be friends?” She suddenly blurted out.

The girl giggled and then suddenly laughed. Friends with a Kaiju, what a thought! She couldn’t stop laughing at the ridiculousness of a shy Kaiju girl. Caerulea’s ear wilted and her face tinged blue with embarrassment as the girl laughed. Caerulea’s hearts fell, of course she couldn’t be friends with- “Hah! Slow your roll! At least buy me dinner first!” The girl said.

Caerula’s stomach dropped. What did that even mean? She wasn’t rolling and she didn’t have any money to buy dinner! The girl looked at the side of Caerulea’s face with pity when she realized that Cearulea didn’t understand anything of what she just said.

“Aw man, you’re adorable, despite being so big! Look, what’s your name? Mine’s Rebecca.” She continued to soothingly stroke one of Caerulea’s tentacles.

“Uhm, my name is Caerulea.” She mumbled, completely lost.

“Well, Caerulea, I would love to be friends!”

Caerulea’s hearts leapt out of her stomach.

“Really!?”