Mutants and Monsters:

The Advent of Lusus Naturae

Fanfiction by Gojizilla1954

"Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty" - Albert Einstein.

"We've been residents here for the blink of an eye. If we're gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us" - Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park.


Prologue

A thousand miles Southwest of Honolulu, July 30, 1961

The ocean waves slammed against the rocky cliffs of a desolate, Pacific island with unbridled ferocity. It was a wonder how the ancient rocks were able to withstand the ocean's power for so much as a day, let alone for however long the island had existed. But today the waves seemed especially vicious. Each torrent of water smashed into the cliff face with thunderous booms and loud crashes. In fact, with the roaring winds and agitated sky, mother nature as a whole seemed to be in a particularly grouchy mood.

Perhaps this was due to the fleet of warships stationed several miles away, waving proud banners of red, white, and blue. Perhaps it was due to the screaming sirens piercing the sky, the uneasy cries carrying across the sea to the tropical island. Perhaps it was due to the strange, metallic object that had been placed on the island by the men of those warships, the object small but intimidating. Perhaps mother nature was somehow aware, despite having no prior knowledge, of what this object was. Perhaps she knew, despite no one having told her, exactly what this object was about to do.

At long last, the eerie sirens shut off, allowing a foreboding peace to settle across the island. However, at the fleet, the sirens hadn't been shut off but merely replaced, a booming voice echoing from the loudspeakers of every ship, counting down from ten to one.

And when that final number was called, a second sun suddenly erupted from the small metallic object. A massive explosion swept over the tropical island, fierce and blinding. A fierce firestorm swept through the dense jungles, eviscerating the thick foliage in a matter of seconds. Animal heads ruptured from the sound waves alone, while their bodies were roasted into dust. Literally burnt to a crisp. A dark, gruesome cloud with a foreboding mushroom shape quickly rose over the island like the collective ghosts of the life that had once lived there, raining down ash, soot, and deadly radioactive fallout. In a matter of seconds, a once lush, tropical island was turned into a burning rock of death and destruction.

The island was effectively destroyed. The test had been a success. Mission accomplished.

Though, perhaps not as successful as one may think.

Nature is tough. Though the surface had been destroyed, mother nature was still alive and well. The waves continued to bash against the rocky cliffs. Winds continued to sweep across the lands. The island's mountains stood tall, strong, and proud.

And within the caves of these mountains, life found a way.


Manhattan, New York City, August 18, 1998

The city was in a nightmare. Rubble filled the cracked streets and fires flickered from within crumbling buildings. Glass and pieces of debris were scattered everywhere, from cracks in the asphalt to the tops of flipped cars. The sky was dark and cloudy, with only the moonlight able to puncture through the shadowy veil and illuminate the shattered city below. There was no rainfall. The storm had stopped several minutes ago. However, despite that, explosive crashes and thunderous booms echoed across the city, loud and chaotic. A ferocious battle was raging, one that shook the Earth and tore the ground.

And amidst it all was a young, fourteen-year-old, Japanese girl.

The young girl walked aimlessly through the crumbling streets of Manhattan, her black hair long and disheveled, her clothes dirty, torn, and soaked from the rain that had ended several minutes ago. Her only possession, besides her clothing, was a small, toy gorilla, its soft fur flattened by the prior storm and the tight grip of the girl's hand. It provided the only source of comfort, the only consolation in such a dark, damaged, and chaotic world.

It was special to the little girl because, only a few days prior, her parents had bought it for her from the city zoo. It was meant as a souvenir. A reminder of their vacation to the Big Apple when they were to return to San Francisco. Before, the young girl hadn't wanted to leave. The sights she had seen were spectacular to her, and she wanted to see them all before she finally returned to her small apartment home in San Francisco. But that was then. Now she wanted nothing more than to leave. But the simple fact was she couldn't. Not just because she was hopelessly lost in the endless maze of a destroyed Manhattan, not just because she had no means of escaping even if she wasn't, but because she was searching for the very same people who had gifted her the toy gorilla.

Her parents.

As the little girl walked on, the thunderous crashes and booms grew louder and louder. Terrible noises, sounding more like screams than thunder, rushed through the empty, abandoned streets, chilling the girl more than the rain of the prior storm. Yet, she walked on. Even if she knew where she was, even if she knew how to escape, the girl would not leave until she had her parents with her. But as time dragged on, and the thunderous booms and horrific noises grew louder, she was becoming less and less sure if that would ever occur. She was just a little girl, after all, and one lost in the middle of a massive city that was crumbling around her. How was she going to find two people amongst all of that? And that was assuming they were even alive.

But just as the last of the girl's hope ran out, just as she stopped in her tracks, tears beginning to drip down her face, something clattered nearby. The girl wiped her face and looked down the cracked street. There, near the right sight of the road, a large van lay flipped over, a few chunks of rubble littered across the vehicle's belly. And pinned beneath the roof of the car, struggling to push herself free, was a woman with long, black hair.

Her mother.

"Mom!" the girl cried, rushing over to the flipped vehicle.

The mother, immediately recognizing the voice of her daughter, looked up, tears streaming down her face. "Miki!" she cried out, overjoyed to see that her daughter was alive.

"Mom!" the girl said again, dropping the toy gorilla as she crouched down beside her mother. "Are you okay? Are you stuck? Where's -"

"Honey," the mother interrupted. Her right arm was stuck beneath the hull of the van, but her left arm was free, and with that arm, the mother gently touched the girl's own, attempting to calm her down.

"Are you okay," the mother asked, giving the girl a concerned look.

"I'm alright," the girl said, giving a small nod. "I'm going to get you out of there, okay?"

"No, wait -"

The girl pushed against the van, struggling desperately to free her mother. However, despite using all of her strength, the vehicle refused to budge. Even so, the girl continued to slam herself against the side of the van over and over, her desperation growing by the minute.

"Miki, stop!" the mother shouted, well aware of how fruitless the girl's attempts were.

The girl obeyed her mother's command, but only due to the new plan that formed in her mind. Crouching back down to her mother's side, the girl asked, "Where's dad?" If anyone could move the van that entrapped her mother, her dad could. He wasn't the strongest person, but hopefully, he would be strong enough. It was mother's only chance.

However, at the mention of her husband, a stream of tears leaked down mother's face. These weren't tears of joy. These were tears of grief.

The look on mother's face drained the warmth from the girl's chest, making it hollow and cold. "Where is dad?" she asked again when mother didn't reply, her voice cracking slightly as her suspicions gradually became more and more devastatingly true. Mother remained silent, but looked at something behind the girl, her face devastated with grief. The girl turned around slowly, afraid of what she might find but unable to keep herself from looking.

She immediately wished she hadn't.

The girl choked out a sob when she saw what her mother was looking at. A pair of legs were sticking out from beneath the rear end of the upturned van, blood staining the asphalt beneath them. The girl recognized those legs. She recognized those jeans, those shoes, those socks. She recognized the man beneath the van.

It was her father, and he was clearly dead.

The girl stared at the lifeless legs of her father for several moments, tears quietly streaming down her face. She had loved her father dearly, just as much as she loved her mother. But now he was dead. She would never speak to him again.

"Miki. Miki look at me," the mother said, trying her best to keep her voice steady and calm.

After a moment, the girl eventually complied, slowly returning her gaze to her mother. The mother's face was caked with dust and stained with tears, but she remained calm as she laid her eyes upon her daughter. A single tear ran down the left side of her face, and the mother choked slightly as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Miki… I need you to run."

The girl's eyes grew wide. "No! I am not leaving you."

"Miki, listen," the mother said sternly, "I need you to run. I need you to get as far away from here as possible."

"I'm not leaving without you!" the girl protested. "I can get you out of there. We can leave together."

"No we can't," the mother said, another wave of tears trailing down her face. "My leg is broken. I can feel it. Even if you can get me out, I won't be able to walk."

"I can carry -"
The girl was suddenly and violently interrupted, though not by her mother, but by a massive crash and a sudden tremor. Miki stepped away from her trapped mother, moving slowly out from behind the overturned van to see the cause of the disturbance. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly as she laid eyes upon it.

Further down the road, one of the tall, brick buildings was collapsing, chunks of debris raining down into the street, the air clogging with dust and smoke. But none of this was nearly enough to hide the cause of the building's collapse. Something moved swiftly through the clouded air, millions of dust particles swept aside in the movement's wake. The thing slammed into the street with a loud thump, cracking the street as it created a tremor that nearly knocked the girl to the floor. At the same time, the dust and smoke were sent rushing down the street by the movement, charging towards the girl like a tsunami.

The girl stepped behind the van just as the wave of dust rushed past, spilling over the van and flooding the street. The girl covered her face with her arms and closed her eyes, practically praying to be awoken from such a horrible nightmare. When the dust tsunami finally died down, the girl lowered her arms, opened her eyes, and stepped back out into the street, returning her gaze to the enormous thing that now stood in the middle of the street.

It was a huge creature, standing taller than even the looming structures lining the street. It seemed reptilian, its body covered with thick, dark green and black scales. The creature was bipedal, each massive foot gripping the ground with four toes tipped with long, wicked claws. The creature had two arms as well, held out in front of its body, its four-fingered hands tipped with equally wicked claws. Its teeth, jutting out from the jaws of the creature's large, reptilian head, were long and sharp; its tail was long and powerful. Three rows of tall, jagged, purplish spikes, shaped almost like sharp maple leaves, lined the creature's back, extending from the back of its head to the tip of its tail.

But of it all, the girl stared into the creature's deep, fiery orange eyes, which seemed to glow like a tempest of burning rage. Furious eyes that, as the girl stared into them, only seemed to stare right back.

"Miki!" the mother called out. The girl, snapping out of her trance, rushed back over to her mother. "Miki," the mother said softly once her daughter was crouched before her, "you have to run. You have to escape. You have to survive."

The girl shook her head slowly, tears dripping down her face. Another tremor shook the ground, and even from behind the van, the girl could see the creature looming over them, steadily approaching. Even so, the girl did not budge, unwilling to leave her mother behind to die.

"I can't," she said. "I can't leave you here. I already lost one parent, I can't lose another. I can't lose you."

The girl's mother gave her a small, sad smile. "You won't lose me. You won't have lost either of us." The mother reached out with her free hand, gently caressing the cheek of her beloved daughter. "We will live in your heart, but only if you live for us to do so."

The daughter was sobbing now, tears rushing down either cheek. "Please," the mother said, "go on. Run. Live."

The girl grabbed her mother's hand, gripping it tightly with her own. "I love you," she said with a sob.

The mother looked upon her beloved child with a great, loving smile, and said, "I love you too."

The girl, reluctantly letting go of her mother's hand, grabbed her toy gorilla off the ground, turned around, and ran. She moved her legs as fast as she could, tears streaming from her eyes as the girl drew farther and farther away from her parents. Even when the creature took another, thunderous step forward, the girl kept her balance and continued running. But she couldn't run forever. She just couldn't. She just had to stop, turning around to gaze back towards the van her mother and deceased father were trapped beneath.

This was a mistake, for just as the girl turned around, the giant creature lifted its left leg up to take another step, slamming it down into the ground below.

Slamming it down into the van the girl's parents were trapped beneath.

The girl released a devastated scream as she saw the van get replaced with a large, reptilian foot. But the girl knew that there was nothing she could do. When the creature lifted its left foot again, what the girl had feared was confirmed. The van was crumpled and crushed, flattened into the ground. There was no hopeful doubt in the girl's mind.

Her beloved parents, both mother and father, were dead.

The girl stood there, tears storming down her face, staring with shock and devastated horror at the spot where her parents were torn away from her forever. When the creature drew closer, practically standing above her, the girl changed her focus to the thing itself. The girl stared up at it, her fists clenched, glaring daggers into the creature's fiery orange eyes as it scowled at something in the distance. This thing, this creature, this monster was to blame for her parents' death. It was the one that started this whole ordeal. It was the one that was tearing this city to the ground. It was the one that murdered her parents, tearing them away from her without thought or care. The girl wanted to do the same to it. She wanted to murder it. She wanted to hurt it. She wanted to tear this monster's heart out as it had done to her.

But then, as it slammed another foot into the ground, the monster twisted its leg and spun around, throwing its tail around like a whip. The reptilian tail slammed into the row of apartment buildings like a club, decimating the top floors of each building the tail passed through. Rubble exploded in all directions, raining from the sky and filling the street below.

The girl had no time to react.

All she could do was scream as the rubble fell down around her. A particularly large chunk of debris slammed into the back of her head, knocking the girl to the ground instantly. All the girl could hear were the crumbling buildings and the monster's terrible roar before the chaotic sounds began to fade and the world dimmed to black.


Manhattan, New York City, August 19, 1998

Smoke drifted lazily into the morning sky as the dust from the apocalyptic night finally began to settle. Though fires still clawed hungrily for air at several locations across the city, they were growing weaker as firefighters began to diminish them. Soldiers and first responders made their way across the shattered city, searching through the endless mounds of rubble in the search of any survivors.

Fortunately, most of the citizens of Manhattan had either been evacuated or gathered at the northern end of the island, where the night's disaster had failed to reach. But even so, there was still the possibility that people had been stuck in the city during the attack, either lost or without the means to escape. So far, several hundred bodies had been found within the most devastated sections of the city.

So far, besides the group of scientists who had been picked up at Bryant Park the previous night, there had been no survivors.

However, as a soldier studied a torn-up shoe he had found near a crumpled van, the sound of clattering debris echoed from behind him. The soldier, gripping his M4, turned around towards the sound, squinting as he tried to spot the cause of the disturbance.

It didn't take him long to spot it.

Climbing out from a large mound of rubble was a little Japanese girl, appearing to be no older than fourteen, seeming dirty but somehow unscathed, and clutching a toy gorilla in her hand.


A/N - And that was the prologue to The Advent of Lusus Naturae, the sequel to Mutants and Monsters! Some of you may have already read some of this story since this prologue was written after I posted chapter 3, a decision I made after making the original prologue chapter 1 due to its length. I won't say much, just that you should probably read Mutants and Monsters before continuing and that all properties within this story belong to their original creators. Also, check out my bio if you want to know a bit about me or about what I am writing. But anyway, that's all for now. I hope you will enjoy what I have planned for this new story and that you have an excellent day.