Chapter 4

The monster in question was completely unaware of the aliens' plans for taking over the Earth. But he was aware that when before his view as he was fishing for a school of tuna had been crystal clear, it was now rather obscured by a gigantic metal box that dropped over him and automatically closed its one open side as soon as it had done so.

The creature bellowed in rage, furiously clawing, biting, and tail-whipping the sides of his prison. He even did something purely out of instinct that he had never done in his life, mostly because he had never been in a situation where he had needed to; he expelled a blast of fire from his mouth. He stopped for a moment, confused. He had never been able (or so he thought) to do that before. He tried it again. It worked! If the monster was able to think in words, he would have thought, Wow, that was awesome!

Still, the novelty of discovering his new ability was limited in amount, and he was soon head-butting, body-slamming, and fire-blasting the box with just as much ferocity as before.

X liked this one.

The creature ramming its body against the transparent metal terrarium was nothing short of a work of art. Its two-legged body was sleek and hunched close to the ground. The legs themselves were large and muscular, perfect for running fast. The arms were very much comparable to the legs, long and flexible. Its tail made up a full half of its massive length. Its neck was somewhat long and had a decorative flap of skin hanging at the bottom. The head was fearsome, the mouth and jaws making up most of its size as glittering teeth lined the inside of the top and bottom halves and a circular design connected the lower jaw to the rest of the head. Looking into its eyes would have made even an optical surgeon shiver, a mixture of red, orange, and yellow throughout with a pupil so dark in contrast it seemed to be sucking in the rest of the eye like a black hole. To top it all off, three rows of triangular spines ran along its back and pointed forward menacingly.

Overall, it was definitely the coolest looking of the monsters that they had collected.

"This one looks promising," said X with satisfaction evident in his voice.

"Outer appearance is no indication of one's inner strength," said the Controller, folding his arms. Despite this, though, X could tell that he liked the look of this one too.

"We won't really know how powerful this one is until we test it," the Xilian Leader continued. He called to the technician stationed at the control panel on the other side of the room, "Commence combat simulation." The technician nodded and started punching in buttons in on his keyboard.

"In the meantime, what do you think we should call this monster?" the Controller asked X. X thought for a couple seconds, his eyes widened, and he snapped his fingers.

"Zilla."

"Hmm….. I like it," said the Controller in approval.

A large hole (though not large enough for Zilla to crawl through) had been opening in the floor of the kaiju-sized terrarium for the last few seconds. By now it was completely open, and Zilla stopped attacking the walls to look at it curiously.

A 20 meter droid rose out of the opening. Its silver body was column-like, with laser gun turrets and buzz saws jutting out every once in a while at odd angles. Near the top, four red optical receivers encircled the head's circumference. Overall, it looked a something like an oversized model that one might see while at a modern art museum.

Zilla walked forward cautiously, stopping every few steps to sniff the air doubtfully. The two Xilian leaders observed the proceedings with interest.

Zilla was now within ten meters of the droid. Suddenly, the buzz saw closest to him began to spin. Zilla jumped back a full eighty meters.

"This one's a good jumper," remarked the Controller.

X, however, was far from satisfied. "He jumped back," he said with a sort of negative awe in his voice.

Zilla was now eying the simulator droid with - what was that emotion on its reptilian features? Was that nervousness? Even fear? As it did so, one of the laser gun turrets began to glow a dull red. It increased in intensity for about two seconds, then shot out a fine, crimson laser beam. Zilla jumped to the side, but not before the ray skimmed his forearm.

Zilla howled his high-pitched contrabass roar in pain as thick blood the same color as the laser beam oozed out of the wound. He spun around and ran full speed - an impressive 500 kilometers per hour - away from the droid. When he hit the wall, he clawed at it, no longer out of bestiality, but pure fear as the droid slowly retreated through the floor.

The word "incredulous" does not do the expression on X's face justice. "He ran away!" he cried. "None of the other monsters ran away, not even Hedorah, and he was the weakest one! No monster backs away from a challenge without at least fighting first! And did you see how easily he was hurt by that beam?! That was practically the lowest power setting! Kamacuras was less sensitive! WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE WORLD?!"

The Controller stayed as calm as ever. "Hold on," he said. "When we finish the genetic modifications, Zilla will be under our control, and he won't have a choice whether to attack the city or not."

"But what about his physical weakness?" inquired X, still fuming.

"That won't be an issue," said the Controller offhandedly. How would that not be an issue? The monsters were there to destroy the cities and be able to stand up against the human military at the same time - right? X waited for further explanation, but received none.

"Now," the Controller continued, "we need to start the modifications so that he will obey us and we can carry him around in the Transporters instead of that obsolete box. Then we can go home until the minor details of the invasion are all straightened out."

In spite of himself, X silently agreed to both. He had never bothered to learn all about the technical details of how they worked, but the Monster Transporters could only pick up and store things that contained M-Base. He would be relieved once they were able to do that; in one nasty incident in particular, Anguirus had actually managed to break out of the box. Luckily, they were able to secure him before he did any major damage to the ship. It was possible that Zilla could escape too, so the sooner the better.

Still, he couldn't help thinking, I have a bad feeling about this as he watched the monster eat a few of those swimming animals - err,"tuna," that was it - that had been caught in the box with it.

If the ship had been visible, it would have glowed faintly before it jumped into hyperspace, taking its kaiju cargo with it.