To Fight Monsters, We Created Monsters (Pacific Rim)

Chapter 1: Beginning of the End

2013, August 10 – 10:32 – Anchorage, Alaska, United States

It was a relatively nice day in Anchorage, which was more than people could say about the state of California. No one at the time would have thought that a Hollywood thriller was able to come to life.

See the headlines now, on front pages of newspapers and magazines and tabloids everywhere. 2013: The Year Science Went Too Far. Yeah, that sounded just about right.

Greyson Darcy had gotten up early on that particular Saturday to catch the brunt of the Marvel Movie Marathon on one of many cable channels. She switched to the local news when she got up to make breakfast for her father and herself.

"...Great summer weather here in Anchorage," the weatherman said, "with a high of 65 on Wednesday. Temperatures across the state, August 10th: 55 in McGrath, Anchorage and Juneau at 57, St. Paul Island's there at an observed 48 degrees..." Greyson rarely watched the news; her dad was the avid news-watcher in their two-person family, keeping her up-to-date with whatever newsworthy and/or possibly apocalyptic event that was ever aired.

From the kitchen, she heard how the Aces looked like they were getting ready for the ice hockey cup, and that ESPN was doing a beat about the upcoming San Francisco Giants and Baltimore Orioles baseball game later in the day.

It was when Channel 11 showed the local newscasters reporting a 7.1 earthquake in California did anything attract her attention. The television practically yearned for it; wanted her to see for herself. She returned to the living room for a moment, intently watching the videos being shown.

Earthquakes weren't considered an anomaly in that part of the United States, she knew that much. All right, okay — admittedly this quake was particularly high on the Richter scale. She did, however, find it weird that the newscasters announced witnesses reported a sighting of something near the Golden Gate Bridge.

Greyson took a firm hold on her remote control, and when she clicked to another channel, its feed took her by surprise; it looked to be playing out like a scene from a Godzilla movie. Upon realizing that she was tuned in to news, Greyson held the television remote a lot tighter, clicking through other channels too — just to make sure. It's too late for April Fool's pranks, isn't it?

The young teen had looked at all the news outlets she knew of and they all said the same things: "MONSTER" SURFACES FROM PACIFIC OCEAN. GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE ATTACKED. The timestamps for the videos aired were from an hour prior.

With furrowed brows and a weary voice, she called out warily, "...Dad?" I'm dreaming, Greyson thought unpleasantly, this has to be some kind of sick joke. She called out again for her father, louder this time. "C'mere! San Francisco was attacked!"

William Darcy took his sweet time walking out to the brightly lit living room. His dark hair was standing up at multiple angles and his sweatshirt was askew across his broad shoulders. Sleepily, he yawned and shuffled his feet forward until he stood behind the sectional sofa.

He smelled strongly of alcohol, but Greyson ignored it, like she always did.

In Filipino, the father asked, "Ano ba, anak?" He blinked a few times, rubbing the sleep from his dark brown eyes, before fully turning his attention to his fourteen-year-old daughter. "What is it, Sonny?" William repeated, this time in English.

Greyson only raised her brows, pointing to the television screen like it was so damn obvious — which she thought it was: The same video feed was being replayed, over and over again, but the news reporters and correspondents were frantically trying to update residents with the goings on of the Golden State.