The New York Crew Ch. 01
It is a nice warm afternoon in New York City when a couple of homeless men are wandering around the docks near the Hudson Bay. Trying to figure out where to stay the night.
"Hey! Look over there," One of them says, pointing towards the end of the pier at a pile of clothes just setting there. Both run towards the edge to get a good look at the clothing. Just laying there are a pair of jeans, a tan t-shirt, a dark blue sweater jacket that has an I heart N Y on it.
"Now, who would leave a good pair of clothes out where someone could just take them?" the other guy says as he reaches for the clothes.
The two of them are now trying to figure out how they were going to split their new clothes when suddenly they heard a splash as something jumped out of the water and lands right in front of them.
There stands a tall man drenched in water wearing only his underwear and carrying a net full of fish. At first glance he looks like an ordinary guy of average build with dark blue hair. Taking another look you can see some patches of silvery scales on his face, arms, and legs. What worries the guys in front of him the most, are his eyes of a frightening orange color.
The stranger tells them, "Those are mine."
The two guys immediately dropped the clothes and ran away from this stranger. The stranger just rolls his eyes at the usual reaction. He puts his clothes back on before heading away from the docks with his net.
This guy walks through the back alleys of the large city knowing that it is best to stay out of sight, not wanting to cause a panic with his appearance. Taking the usual route to his destination.
As he goes down one of the alleys the stranger hears voices.
"Can we just talk about this, you guys?" one voice with a strange accent is the first to reach his ear.
"Sorry, Slick, but the boss wants his money," another deeper voice chuckles.
The stranger leans up against the wall to peek around the corner. Seeing a small group of three men. Two of them were wearing some suits and one wearing some old torn jeans, a blue shirt, black worn-out sneakers, a pair of gloves with the fingers torn off, and a large brown coat that seemed too big for him.
"Alright, alright. I can get ya the money like tomorrow," the man in the coat tells.
"Too bad the boss wants his money now, Slick," One of the guys in suits says as he pulls out a butterfly knife.
"That's kinda impossible."
The stranger can hear every word from the group. He decides to turn around and avoid being spotted. Come on, Zilla. it's none of your business, He thought to himself as he takes a few steps away before growling as he sets his net down before walking around the corner. "Is there a problem here?"
At the sound of the new voice all three of them turn to the source of the new voice.
"Just a small business transaction," the other man in the suit tells him.
Zilla looks between the two of them and sees the man in the coat has sweat dripping down his worried face. "In that case I'll be off," before he even turned around, Zilla notices one of them pulling out a familiar looking item he had seen military soldiers carrying.
"Now, just hold on a moment!" One of them says, walking up to him with a gun. "I remember the boss saying that if we can't get the money than we should take care of Slick and to leave no witnesses."
At the sound of his words Zilla quickly reacts, grabbing the gun, throwing it at the wall, and punching the guy, knocking him out.
"You scaled faced freak!" The other one charges him with the knife. But before he could even reach Zilla, he was already up in front of him, picking the guy up and throwing him at the other guy, who had just gotten back up, and both slammed into the wall.
Slick asks, "How'd ya do that?" as he is now standing right next to the kaiju with brows furrowed confusion.
Both men stand back up in a bit of a daze. "Now you're going to get it," aiming their guns.
"I've had enough of this," Zilla shakes his head before inhaling. His eyes start glowing an eerie green color. When he opened his mouth, green flames come pouring out. The two guys jump to the side avoiding getting burned. After Zilla finally stopped the three other people present stared at the scorch marks on the wall then back at Zilla. The two guys in suits ran for their lives.
Zilla smirks after seeing the fear in them. He walks back around the corner where he left the net. As he lifts it over his shoulders he hears footsteps coming right behind him. "Take a picture. I'm told it lasts longer," he tells the human with an annoyed tone, figuring the guy just wants a better look at the freak.
"You save my life, ya know?"
Zilla turns around to face the human. "Yeah so?"
"For that I'm in your dept," and holds out a hand to the mutant iguana. This surprised the former kaiju. Very few had talked to him like that. "The name's Slick by the way," he continues reaching his hand out in front of him.
"Just call me Zilla," he tells him mimicking the same movement he's seen his old man do many times with his free hand.
"Zilla?" Slick questions when he grabs Zilla's hand, moving it up and down. "Can't say that's the weirdest name I ever heard. Especially with my name," he says letting go of Zilla's hand.
"Thanks, I guess," Zilla replies before starting back down the alley with Slick following right behind him. "Why are you following me?"
"I'm in your debt an to repay that debt I need to help you with whatever ya need," after saying that there was silence for a long while and after a few turns in the alley Slick had a question. "Why are we walking down alley after alley?"
"To avoid people giving me the 'look at that freak' look," he points to his face. "Otherwise, I'd be fine strolling down the street."
"I'm sure ya would be fine," Slick tells him. "All ya need is some help with disguising yourself," He reaches into his coat. "Take this for your eyes," pulls out a pair of sunglasses and just sets them over Zilla's face. "And which team do you prefer?" he pulls out two baseball hats. Both blue in color, one with a white NY over top of one another, the other the same but with orange instead.
They stop as Zilla carefully examines the hats. The former kaiju has an idea what Slick means by teams from spending enough time with humans in the Old World. He just grabs the blue and white one as they were the most talked about and places it on his head.
"The hat suits ya," Slick reaches into his coat again, this time pulling out a hand mirror. "An it helps hiding the scales," and holds it up so Zilla could see his face. He was right. Some of the scales could still be seen but would not be noticeable unless you are looking for them.
Impressive, Zilla thought to himself before something occurs to him. He looks at his net then back at the guy in front of him. "Wouldn't people still be wondering about the fish?"
"Nah! this is New York!" He says as if he was announcing a big event. "People've seen weirder things than that. I mean just the other day I seen a rat the size of a dawg," Holding his hands out to give an idea of the size. "An I'm from Jersey where they get bigger than that.
"I've seen some larger than one of those cars," Zilla says as he walks away from Slick.
The human had to pick his jaw off the ground. "Get outta here!? That's like amazing!"
The former Kaiju raised a brow, "You believe me?"
"Not if I hadn't seen you spit green fire," Slick recalls what had happened earlier. "At this point I would believe in fairies and pixie dust," Zilla could not help but smirk at his remark.
"Haven't seen those two for a while. Probably with their Goddess."
"What?"
Leaving the alley way Zilla only noticed a couple of people giving him an odd look, but they just shrugged it off and ignored him. After a while they come to what looks like an abandoned apartment building.
"What are we doing in a dump like this?" Slick questions.
"That's where I live," Zilla answers.
Slick chuckles, "Oh, uh, it's a nice place then."
"You humans have a weird definition of nice."
.oOo.
Inside the old building, only one of its apartments was occupied at the time. The room is old and in ruin like the rest of the building. It was a miracle that there is still power. Wallpaper peeling off, most of the windows are shattered. In the apartment there is an old table with a couple of chairs and a torn couch.
Laying down on the couch is a woman who appears to be in her twenties, wearing light tan shirt, brown hoodie, and a pair of jeans. Her hair is dark brown in color and her eyes are green. Most people would think she is just an average woman if it were not for the fact that she has patches of brown scales on her face, hands, and feet.
A closer look at her eyes reveals that they are bloodshot from endless hours of crying. She barely eats, rarely sleeps. The woman is depressed at what she remembers from her old life. Especially at what she lost. There are even times when she wished she were dead, and she probably would be if it was not for one person in her life.
She shifts a bit and digs her face into the couch cushion when she hears the door opening knowing who it is. Though, she can smell something else rather than the fish he usually brings in.
"I'm back!" She hears Zilla calls out. He walks in and sits down his catch next to the table as he does every time.
"Hey, who's the broad?" she is startled by the new voice and is tempted to turn around to see who it came from.
"That's Komodithrax, my partner."
"Really? What kinda business you in?"
"No! She's my partner."
"If you two ain't in business than how…" the realization finally dawns on him. "Oooh!"
Both men sit at the table. Slick glances over at the woman on the couch. "She asleep or someth'n?"
Komodithrax sits up, "I'm awake," and turns. Curious about this new guy.
"Hey!" Slick stands and walks towards her to shake hands. "Name's Slick."
She slaps the hand away, "Komodithrax."
"Ow!" Slick rubs his hand. "Komodi...komodo…komadear…" he struggles to get the name right. "Look, toots, can I just call ya Komi?"
"What did you call me?" Komi starts digging her claws into the already torn couch.
Slicks raised a brow. "Komi?"
"Before that," she glares.
"Uh, toots?" After he said that, fear starts growing inside him as he notices the woman's green eye start glowing blue.
"Komi! Stop!" Zilla shouts and she lets the fire in her throat die down. "He didn't mean any harm okay. Slick here is a friend."
"Whatever!" she gets up and heads for a nearby door. "I'm going back to bed," and slams the door behind her.
"What's with her?" Slick jerks his head towards the door.
Zilla removes his hat and glasses, "Sit down and I'll tell you our story."
.oOo.
"Wow!" is all that Slick can say after an hour of listening to Zilla and Komi's past. "Ya know, I figured your story would be weird, but that sure was someth'n."
Zilla could not help but let out a chuckle, "I guess it would be?"
"An about two of ya were like giant lizards?"
"Sure was."
"Well, that explains the freaky powers. Don't explain what her problem is though," Slick gestures towards the door Komi walked through earlier.
Zilla looks at the door then down at the table. "The last time I saw her before we came to this world she had… an egg."
Slick knew immediately he made a mistake asking that question. That did not stop him from being curious. "What happened?"
"Before it even had a chance, another kaiju attacked the nest. It ended up going over a cliff with Komi and the egg." Zilla could feel his eyes starting to water. "I-I tried to protect them and I-I…" a hand was placed on his shoulder.
"It's not like it was your fault pal," Slick said trying to reassure his new friend. "It was that other guy who took them away from ya."
"I… thanks, Slick."
"Forget about it!" Slick tells him. "Look, pal. I got an errand to run. How about you come with me and after words we get ya your first drink," he gets up and walks towards the door to open it. "Well? Come on!" Slick gestures to the now opened doorway.
Zilla looks at the human, then to the door of the bedroom where Komi is. Walking over to the bedroom he knocks before opening it. "Hey, Komi!" and walks in to sit down on the old mattress right next to his mate. "I'm going back out to with Slick. I'll be back in a little bit. Are you going to be alright until then?"
His mate can be heard mumbling, "Yeah, sure."
"Okay then," he gets back up and heads out of the room. Before closing the door, he turns back around and says, "Be back soon."