Inception

Chapter 35: Genetic Variance

 Kaiju no.9 was much, much worse than the blurry pictures she'd had to peruse for her job. A mushroom head, wide-set, bulging eyes like a frog. Rigid, lipless teeth that looked like a row of human incisors. Pock-marked, sinewy, the color of a corpse.

"Why, hello. Congratulations on not dying."

...Welp, she certainly wouldn't be 'not dying' for long.

"You're rather strong for a human unassisted by our strength. I was certain a small kaiju would be perfect for the task, but I guess I was wrong. Unfortunately for me you stopped it before I could get that suit. Fortunately for you, that little kaiju was able to send me enough information about your blood that I didn't just let you die there. You have a rather remarkable genetic make up for this part of the world. You're not Japanese, are you?"

Lena said nothing. Even if she could override the utter terror turning her to solid ice she didn't know if her gagged out throat even worked.

Kaiju No. 9 hummed and put a long, spindly finger to his chin in an almost human-like gesture.

"I was beginning to think I'd have to go searching on some other continent, which might have been a pain. Humans have endless potential for genetic variance and then they go and ruin it by only mating among their own kin, quite annoying. But then you turned up. I'm quite pleased. I can always get the suit later."

"Why do you want that suit?" Lena surprised herself. Yeah, her voice was raspy and barely worth calling a voice, but she'd spoken. That was something.

"Oh good. I was worried your brain had been damaged in the process. Not that it would have been a problem, I'm sure. But the human brain is the most fascinating part for me. You wouldn't mind if I took a look for a minute, would you?"

Lena shuddered. She wanted to close her eyes and pretend she wasn't here, but she couldn't look away from the kaiju leaning over her. Some tiny scientist in a part of her mind that never left work made a note to include that Kaiju No. 9 seemed to like the sound of its own voice.

The pitter patter of feet came back. Lena managed to tear her burning eyes away from the monstrosity above her to peer around him towards the sound, but what she finally made out didn't seem to compute in her head. Because it wasn't another kaiju, or any kind of monster.

It was a teenage girl. One with hair that blended into the darkness and a school girl's uniform.

She held something multicolored and balled in her hands.

"I got it, Father!" she cried, holding it up like a trophy. As she did so, limp dragon-fly wings flicked up.

"You break that I'm killing you," said Kaiju No. 9 like he was commenting on the weather.

"Don't worry! I have my thumbs in and everything." She bounced up to Lena's bed. "Should I introduce them?"

"Near the mouth."

Lena clenched her jaw so tight her teeth squeaked.

The girl drew closer, and as she did so the faint light from the table reached her face. Lena's chest clenched, even though she'd been expecting that the girl wasn't normal.

She had black eyes, like a bug, not a speck of white in sight, a smile filled with serrated teeth, and thin tendrils waving about her face and neck like wayward strands of especially thick hair.

She couldn't think of what that meant for the world. Kaiju, disguised as people. She'd read about it in the report and had felt an increased urgency to crack the code to the mystery energy, but facing it in person was a new horror she hadn't comprehended at the time. Her heartbeat quaked, as though pumping so hard it threatened to simply shut down.

The winged ball was brought up close. Lena clenched her jaw even harder, going cross-eyed to keep the thing in her view, even as its dragonfly wings stiffened.

Slowly, it uncurled, revealing a long, puckered muzzle tipped with rings of teeth like a tapeworm. Its buggy, lidless eyes reminded her of Kaiju No. 9's, staring at her with fine black pinpricks.

'You...' whispered a needle thin voice in her mind.

"It's moving!" shrieked the girl, utterly delighted.

"We found this girl just in time," said Kaiju No. 9, inhuman voice somehow conveying pleasure. "Another 38 hours and it would have been dead."

The ugly thing's thin wings fluttered, but didn't lift off. Little stubby legs, tipped with clawed, paw-like hands, pulled itself over the girl's fingers.

"Open up." Hard, unyielding fingers dug between Lena's lips, cutting them on the way, and yanked her jaw open. Lena yelped and writhed, even as the taste of blood filled her mouth.

Scabbling, pinprick claws hooked about her teeth. A long muzzle slipped into her mouth, back back, down down, wriggling and filling her throat to the max—to bursting—

Lena tried to scream. Tried to thrash. The taste of blood and that salty phlegm. Blind. Feeling the tiny thing all the way down her esophagus and into her chest, her stomach—