The smell was getting closer and closer just as the sounds and smells of burn wood were. With her steady pace Scarlet continued on her way until she realized something, "Jenna!"

She turned around and found that Jenna wasn't behind her and the MEGTAF agent's scent was faint. Scarlet sighed, but she kept going. As she raced through the now charred forest Scarlet wondered what type of Kaiju she would meet, 'I guess it doesn't matter what they look like. I just need to take them down.'

Finally, she came to an area consumed by flames. Running straight through with a second thought Scarlet the heat of the flames actived her Kaiju form. Her skin began dry, her pupils split, and her nails and teeth grew. As she went through the blaze Scarlet scanned through the flames expecting to see one of her father's lackeys. Instead, she saw flames coming from someone more her size. He had short, brown hair that flickered as the heatwaves came from his mouth. His eyes glistened red, and his ginger skin was lit by his flames. After stopping his firebreathing and taking in a few breathers he quickly turned his head towards Scarlet.

A smile curled on his face as he said, "You must be the hybrid princess."

"Good guess," Scarlet said, "what gave it away?"

"Oh, just your scent, your face, and the fact that your father isn't exactly ashamed of his offspring."

"Really?" Scarlet lifted an eyebrow, "That's actually really surprising. So, I guess you've got a bone to pick with my father?"

"I've got more than a bone." He pointed his finger at her, "Your father has yet to end the tension between human and Kaiju. All because his precious offspring are half-breeds. And then he has the audacity to announce another heir to the throne. I've got news for you princess; no one wants you around."

He blew flames on his hands and quickly threw them like knives. Scarlet dodged before the flames hit a tree and cut it down. Looking him in the eyes Scarlet said, "I've got news you for buddy I don't want the throne as much as my father wants me to."

Scarlet ran straight towards him and pinned him to a tree. Her arm sat on his neck and bearing her canines she looked up at him saying, "Give up!"

"Never!" Grabbing her neck, the stranger lifted her off of the ground and she looked down at him struggling to breath he narrowed his eyes as he whispered, "Unlike you I have no mercy."

Scarlet took her right hand and scratched his face as hard as she could. He loosened his grip just enough for Scarlet take her feet and bounce off of his chest and away from his grasp. He took his hand away from his face showing a red scar that ran from one cheek across his nose to the other cheek. Seeing his shocked face Scarlet hesitated giving the stranger an opportunity to blow his flames towards her. As the fire consumed her Scarlet tried her best to block when all of a sudden pain shot through her torso. Her opponent had punched her in the stomach such force it left Scarlet stumbling backwards into a bush.

He tried to scratch her face in return, but Scarlet dodged while still recovering from the earlier attack. Scarlet mustered up her strength and as he lunged at her she used her legs to propel him away from her. The strange kaiju caught himself and it wasn't long before he came for Scarlet once more. Scarlet quickly stood up and blocked his attacks until she saw an opening. Taking her chance, she dipped below a left hook and hit him with an uppercut. With her opponent thrown off she took the chance to get some hits in. After one final kick to the ground, she took a moment to look at her adversary who didn't seem to have the energy to continue.

With heavy breathes he looked up at her and said, "Please…mercy…I surrender."

Scarlet looked him up and down before asking, "Can you fly?"

"Yes."

"If you're really done leave," she strongly said, "now."

Scarlet watched as he sat up and released his wings from his back. Satisfied Scarlet turned around and unknowingly her foe had a grin fall upon his face. As Scarlet's scalp felt sudden, sharp pain she heard the kaiju behind her say, "Didn't your father ever tell you not to turn your back?"

Slinging her back by her hair Scarlet was thrown into another tree with such force there was pain running through her neck. Before she knew it his hand was covering her face and slammed her into the ground below. Just as soon as his hand was off of her face came an assault of punches on her face. It didn't help that as he sat on her chest Scarlet felt like she couldn't catch a breath. Finally, he pulled both hands back with the intent of crushing her skull with a one, two punch giving Scarlet an opportunity to catch his incoming fist. They locked eyes as he continued to push his fist towards her and Scarlet's weak, shaky hands tried to hold them back as much as possible.

Suddenly a blast of energy came into Scarlet's view and threw the male off of her chest. Sitting up Scarlet looked over and saw Jenna holding up one of her MEGTAF guns and an air filter attached to her face. Looking over to her foe she him on the ground pulling his hand back from his wound with a mild look of shock on his face.

"Stand down!" Jenna yelled.

With a look of anger on his face the kaiju looked at Jenna then as Scarlet. He slowly stood up, raised his brows and said, "You were spared today princess, but the humans nor your father can protect you forever."

He flew away in an instant and letting out a sigh of relief Scarlet turned to Jenna who was putting her gun down. A tree toppled over next to them and Jenna said, "We need to leave!"

Using Scarlet's kaiju skin as a shield they made their way out of the forest. Taking off her air filter Jenna immediately got to business, "So, didn't mention your dad is back?"

Realizing she'd been caught Scarlet just rolling her eyes Scarlet and said, "He's not my dad."

"Fine, then what was all this about?" Jenna said pointing to the blaze behind them.

"I don't know who it was, but it's just like Belloc said there are other kaiju who want the throne and don't agree with my existence. Whoever he was he was making a scene to get my father's attention."

After MEGTAF conducted their investigation the two had an awkward drive back to Jenna's place. In fact, the whole night was a long, awkward silence. Scarlet got to her room, laid on her bed, and for a short while stared at the dark ceiling before finally letting her mind slow down.

The sun was just peaking over the horizon and Scarlet was trying to quietly make her way out of the house. Just as she grabbed the doorknob Jenna laid a hand on her shoulder and asked, "Where are you running off to so early in the morning?"

"Well," Scarlet said turning to face her, "Duncan is supposed to be home by noon, and I figured it'll only be a couple of hours so, I'll be out of your hair."

Scarlet grasped the doorknob again until Jenna said, "At least let me drive you home."

"I'll be fine Jenna, really. Besides a nice walk is exactly what I need and if I need you, I'll call. I promise," she tried to give a reassuring smile.

"How about this so your brother doesn't kill me call me when you get back to your place?"

"Deal, thanks Jenna," Scarlet said before making her escape.

As she started walking in the direction of her home she thought, 'Belloc will kill me if I'm late and Jenna will ping my phone to see if I'm lying.'

As soon as she was out of Jenna's line of sight Scarlet started a slow jog which eventually turned into a run. It wasn't long before Scarlet found herself on her block and eventually at her home. Scarlet was genuinely surprised as she didn't even break a sweat. She gave Jenna a quick call to satisfy her before once again making her way to Belloc's lair. When she made it to her destination Scarlet couldn't tell whether or not she was late or not. For a moment it was just her and Belloc staring at one another.

Finally, Scarlet asked, "Am I late?"

"Quite the contrary," Belloc said as he looked down at his human sized daughter, "you're early and your breathing is steady." He gently touched her cheeks with one of his massive fingers, "You've barely broken a sweat."

"And what does all of that mean?" Scarlet asked pushing him away.

"Hmm," he said before walking away from her, "I want you to stay in this spot until the sun aligns with the lone tree to your left. Then you may track me. I expect to see you an hour after your start time."

Scarlet looked over to her left to see the tree and thought, 'It doesn't look that far away.'

An hour and a half later the sun was finally aligned. Scarlet got up from the ground and popped a few bones before taking a deep breath of air. Breathing out she locked in her father's scent and started on her journey. She began walking to make certain she was heading in the right direction, but then Scarlet thought, 'He expects me in an hour and with those legs of his he's probably a lot farther than I realize. I better get a move on then.'

The princess then started off with a slow jog and eventually progressed into a steady paced run. There were a couple of times Scarlet had to stop and retrace the scent as she realized that there were turns taken on this journey. After some time, the scent led her to a dark, human sized cave that descended into the earth.

'Another lair?' She pondered before making her way into the darkness.

With her night vision nothing the dark was never really an issue, but the thoughts of what may be lurking was still an old childhood fear. As she went deeper, and deeper Scarlet could hear the continuous drop of water getting louder. Likewise, the stalactite seemed to grow closer to the cave floor eventually creating a maze of calcium. As she passed through the narrow cave hanging there were little hints of Belloc's scent here and there. Finally, Scarlet made it through the maze and realized the ceiling was much higher than it was before. From the wall were still stalactites, but the largest of ones were in the center of the room dropping into a large pool of crystal-clear water. Scarlet went to the water's edge just to admire it for a moment when she realized the trail had gone cold. She looked all around and saw there was no other way out of the cave except in.

'The water!' It was too late. Belloc had already grabbed her waist by his tail. As the rest of his body came from the water, he lifted her off of the ground enough to turn her to face him.

Shifting back to his original red he said, "Listen well daughter, awareness of your surroundings is of the highest priority at all times. But you are here earlier than expected."

"How can you tell?"

"You don't live on this earth almost 40,000 years without getting used to telling the time in multiple ways." He put her back on the ground before asking, "Scarlet do you understand how far we've travelled today?"

"No, but I'm guessing you do," she replied nonchalantly.

"We're 30 miles from where we started and you're nine minutes early. It seems your brother received my wings, and you received my legs."

"Joy," Scarlet half-heartly said cross her arms. Then it hit her, "Wait, you have wings?"

"Who else would your brother get his from?" Belloc said as he released them from his back. Scarlet's eyes grew wide as she took note of them. Similar to Duncan's they were massive and stretched even farther than his arms. Retracting them once again into his back Belloc said, "I don't often need them in this form or my other. They can be quite a nuisance at times."

"Speaking of nuisance, I have something to ask you if you don't mind."

Belloc seemed intrigued so she continued, "There was a kaiju yesterday burning down one of the local forest. I was wondering if you knew anything about it."

Belloc gave a low, angry growl before answering, "His scent is still on you. His name is Masaru the son of my advisor Kin. It is just as I warned both you and your brother; the other kaiju are competing with you for the throne. Though I do not agree with escalating tensions with the human world I understand his drive."

"Can't you do something? You're the king!"

"I can only do so much to prevent any further damage to the human world, but I cannot stop their need for conquest. One way or another, consequence or no consequence they will come after you." He put his hand on his daughter shoulder and continued, "That is why you must train. Many of your people are much stronger than you are. Compared to them you're weak."

Scarlet gave him and ugly look before sighing, "You may be right about that, but I can't let him or any other kaiju for that matter think that targeting the surface world is ok."

Hearing the protective aggression in his voice Belloc gave a small chuckle before informing her, "You'll have your chance to defend both sides of your heritage at the Leri (Lee-ree) uk (uh-k) Iqirinsyx (eh-ker-ren-sicks)."

"And that concludes this year's Company Connection Convention," said the announcer. "We're so glad you could all be here and please grab a gift bag on the way out."

As he was making his way out of the convention hall Duncan spotted Angie helping her co-workers take down their booth. He waited till they were almost finished before walking over. Angie gave a smile and a wave as he approached.

"Hi hero!"

"Don't call me that!" Duncan chuckled. "So, headed back to Fresno?"

"Yeah, good ole Fres-y. Where I give a weather prediction and people forget the word 'prediction'. And you're going back to a logging company and trying to work around all of those Cali environmental mandates."

"Yeah," Duncan gave a nervous laugh before confidently asking, "well I was just thinking that maybe you'd like to grab some lunch before you head out? Maybe at the little cafe down the road that seemed like your style and-"

She smiled at his rambling before cutting him off, "I'd love to. In fact, since it's down the street we can just walk over there when I'm done with this."

"Great! Yeah, that works!"

They made it to the cafe, sat down, and soon the waiter took their orders. Angie with first asking, "Can I get the grilled cheese and tomato basil soup combo with a water?"

He then turned to Duncan who asked, "Can I get the red velvet cake with a caramel hot chocolate?"

"Sugar addiction?" Angie jokingly asked.

"No, my body runs off of carbon which sugar is full of."

"Wait," she thought for a moment before asking, "does that mean you can eat diamonds?"

"Uh," Duncan thought about his answer, "I don't think I've ever tried." They shared a laugh before Duncan goes, "My turn. Why did you want to be a meteorologist?"

"Hm," she said before gazing out the window, "when I was growing up, we didn't really have network tv so, all I had to watch were the cable channels. Every morning and every night my dad and I would watch the news and I really adored Regina Raines. She was beautiful and smart, and I wanted to just like her. My dad saw how much I wanted to be a meteorologist and he cultivated it even more. Whenever he could get a cheap science set for me, he would. Then in the 6th grade I got to actually meet my hero on a class field trip. I snuck off to her dressing room to speak with her one on one and I told her how much I wanted to do exactly what she was doing and…"

Her pause made him realize just how nervous she really was. One of her heals were clicking and she was tapping her fingers on the table ever so slightly. He asked, "And what?"

"And she told me not a lot of people like me make it to the screen. That I'd be lucky to be the backup weather woman. I went home and I wanted to give up so bad, but dear old dad wouldn't let me. He said I was pretty enough for any tv screen and smart enough for any job I could want. Then he told me to prove her wrong and eventually I did." She turned back to him and smiled, "And now I'm here blabbering about it to you."

"You weren't blabbering; I asked you a question and you answered," he reassured. The drinks came over and Duncan picked up his hot chocolate and said, "Here's to completing another round of conferences."

They did a little cheers and took a sip before he said, "You're turn."

"My turn? Ok, um," Angie took a moment to think before asking, "what did you want to do when you were a kid?"

"I didn't know in the slightest. Mom wanted me to go off to community college and live a quote-on-quote normal life and my father wanted me to be King of the Kaiju. And I didn't like either of those ideas. Senior year came along, and I still didn't know what I was doing until Scarlet was born."

"Wait, your sister was born during your senior year?"

"Yep, and she's a March baby so, I dropped out of school, took guardianship, and went from there."

"Wow," Angie grinned, "you seem like a really cool big brother."

"You mind telling my sister that?" Duncan chuckled.

"Have you ever wanted to go back to school?"

"Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. School was always a crappy experience wherever I went so I don't exactly have the best associations with it, but I know mom always wanted it."

"If you don't mind me asking," Angie asked in a gentle tone, "what happened with your mom?"

"Well," his gaze moved away from hers, "she died when Scarlet was born."

"I'm sorry…if it means anything degree or no degree, I'm sure she'd be proud of you no matter what."

Duncan gave a small grin and moved his gaze back, "Thanks…who's turn, is it?"

"Well, that was a question so technically it's my turn," she gave a smug grin.

Their lunch was served but, the conversations didn't end. In fact, it got to the point where the waiters changed shifts. Finally, that's when Angie's phone buzzed. She looked at it for a moment and said, "I'm sorry I really need to head out. There's a storm coming in San Diego that they want me to cover."

"That's ok! It is your job after all," he said as they started standing up and heading for the exit.

As they were walking back to their cars Duncan said, "I had fun."

Angie just giggled and said, "So did I. Is this the part where you try to weasel my number from me?"

"Well, I was hoping I wouldn't need to do too much weaseling."

"Hm," her grin was back as she looked up to him, "I don't know it's really fun to see what awful pickup lines people come up with."

Duncan jokingly rolled his eyes before saying, "Ok, I've got one. You must be a category five hurricane because you're sweeping me off my feet."

Angie laughed for a moment before admitting, "That was good. Cheesy, but good. Here," she handed him a slip of paper as they made it to her car, "you've now officially earned it."

They smiled at each other before she hopped in her car and rolled the window down as she peeled out of the parking spot saying, "See you soon, hero!"

As she drove away Duncan couldn't help, but smile. His smile quickly faded when he noticed the time.