Catherine was at her office in Tokyo. It was two months after Gillas destroyed Arcadias, and it was a huge headache. The coast cities were constantly being troubled by Gillas appearing in the harbors. She still could not understand why Gillas was suddenly so aggressive. She felt there was only one place to get that answer: Gillas Island.
After Catherine got the go-ahead for the investigation, the research plain was already on the way to Gillas Island. The Pacific seemed to move beneath them so slow. What felt like seven hours was actually three. The island was in sight as the plane approached. The runway was intact, luckily. The plain came to a halt as it hit the end of the runway, beside the research center.
The center looked like it had been blasted by a bomb, with half the building destroyed while the other was still standing. They began to search the rubble for anything, anything that could help. Catherine came on the room where she did most of her research. It was in bad condition. Then the rubble stirred. She peered over, and there was Jim, pulling himself up.
Jim was immediately rushed to the plain. He told the story of what had happened while he ate his food. Jim was paralyzed from the legs below, but thankfully they had an emergency wheelchair. Catherine was shocked. She never expected The Plain Warriors to actually make a move. And the man Jim described, Catherine knew who it was: Franklin Robertson, The Plain Warriors commander and general defending Sidney from Gillas. Catherine said “Jim, how the hell did you survive for two months with being paralyzed?”
Jim began “it wasn’t easy.” He took a breath and continued “I was able to dig myself out of the rubble and I was able to get to the emergency bunker. There I lived until I heard your plane.”
But then began a nightmare. They heard a screech from the west: Gillas’ roar. Immediately they began to run as Gillas came in site. The monster saw the people running below; those who would steal his island. He was about to blast them when he saw Catherine. She locked eyes with Gillas, and Gillas immediately stopped. The monster bent down and sniffed, recognizing the scent. He then turned and walked back to the ocean. The researchers and Jim just looked at Catherine.
The plane ride back was buzzing with talk. The group discussed what had happened while Catherine flew the plane, deep in her own thought. But either way, it was all about the encounter. The plain landed in Haneba Airport and the taxi took Catherine and Jim to the head office. The debriefing was long as Jim was questioned about The Plain Warriors. Then it came to the encounter with Gillas. When the debriefing was over, Jim was dismissed. Catherine stayed where she was assigned a new position. When she came out Jim asked “what happened, Catherine?”
She half-smiled and said “you’ve been promoted to head office of the MDS.”
Jim said “but then what will happen to you, Catherine. What’s going to happen to you?”
Catherine said “I’m going to being tracking and traveling Jim. I’m going to chase Gillas.”
Lately at NASA, the main goal was getting a human expedition to Mars, which meant that space observatory was not at the highest importance at the moment. So lately it had been a very boring day for the operators of the Hubble Space Telescope. Each day they took more pictures. But today was special. George Remington was moving the telescope when he saw it. He moved the telescope and zoomed in. It was a comet headed for Earth.
Days later the comet hit Kahoolawe, an uninhabited Hawaiian island. Jim flew in on the private jet. He had a feeling that this could have broken the atmosphere and might have something to do with Gillas. His jet had to land on a nearby island and then he had to cross on a boat to reach the island. As he arrived, fellow scientists greeted him. When the tent was set up, he radioed Catherine and said “how is the search going, Catherine?”
Catherine replied “it’s been hard, but I think Gillas is sticking to the ocean.”
Jim said “that’s unusual. I thought he would be back?”
Catherine replied “he could have attacked in retribution because of the Plain Warriors, I don’t know.”
They said a few more things, and then Jim went to see the site. The edge of the crater was crowded with scientists who wanted to observe the site. But he was able to squeeze through, running over a few feet. The crater had wiped out all vegetation, leaving a perfect bowl of charred land. As Jim was about to cross the line, a security guard stopped him and said “only scientists with top clearance can come through.”
Jim flashed his wallet, showing his badge and asked “is the Japanese government enough approval?”
The guard let Jim through and he went through. The area was hard to cover, and Jim took most of the afternoon. But near the center, Jim swore he saw movement. Then there it was again. He moved his wheelchair over and looked down on the ground. It was a venus flytrap, but one like he’d never seen. It stood about as tall as his knee with a stem that looked like a rope of twisted vines. There were two arms that ended in wicked sickles. Its teeth were like little needles that could deliver quite a bite. It looked at Jim for a second (did it even have eyes?) and squawked. Jim told his assistant to return to the tent and grab a container.
Jim became famous for his discover of the specimen. He called the plant Venus, since it was a mutated venus flytrap. The little plant was in a container in Jim’s tent. Jim was able to get a small bit of tissue from the plant. As he inspected it, he found something strange. His assistant, Senji, walked in and said “what have you found sir?”
Jim said “this very strange, Senji.” Senji was puzzled that his tutor was puzzled, but Jim continued “at first, I thought it was a mutation from some space radiation, but then I saw the DNA. It wasn’t altered like I thought. It’s like it’s mixed with another thing.”
Senji asked “but what could it have mixed with professor?”
Jim said “we’ve speculated that there might be some organisms that could survive outer space, but we were never positive. My theory is that the comet was carrying an extraterrestrial parasitic bacterium. When the comet crashed, the bacteria molded with the flytrap and became a new organism.”
Senji said “that means you’ll be famous and you’ll be a leader in the scien-“
But Jim cut him off and said “we have to be careful though Senji.’ Senji gave him another puzzled look and Jim answered “we have absolutely how this plant has been mutated. It could carry a disease or it could have some other dark power that we don’t know about. Because of this, we must be cautious. We will stay here for a week, and if we don’t notice anything, we’ll take it back to Japan for study.”
Jim slept in his bed one tent away from his lab tent. Jim awoke when he heard the sound of glass shattering. He quickly put on his slippers and rushed to the lab tent. The sound was soon discovered. Venus was now stood as high as Jim. The jaws opened as it screeched. Vines sprouted from the ground and began to entangle Jim. He tried to wrestle free, but they were to strong. Then Senji rushed to the tent with an axe and he saw his professor in the grasp of Venus. He swung his axe and cut through each vine. Jim and Senji ran and instantly called the security. Guards ran to the tent where they opened fire on the giant planetoid. But Venus opened its jaws and fired a beam of plasma at the guards, incinerating them.
The next morning the camp was evacuated. Venus was 30 meters tall, and the vines could reach out a kilometer. The scientists were working out what to do when the sound of helicopters and planes filled the air. The helicopters carried tanks and missile launchers. Jim was wondering what the hell was going on when he saw a man he never wanted to see again. With his cold glare and mustache, Franklin Robertson marched to the scientists. He said “so I see you have a monster problem. We can fix it.”
Jim snarled “you’ve helped enough with setting Gillas of, haven’t you?”
Franklin recognized Jim and said “I thought you were dead, scum.”
“Who’s the bigger scum, you freaking’ warmonger” said Jim.
One scientist hushed Jim and said to Franklin “can get rid of this monster?”
Franklin said “it’s a small one, so it shouldn’t be hard.” And then Robertson went of to get base camp set up and gets the artillery ready. Jim got to the head scientist and said “you can’t trust this guy. He loathes all monsters and he’s done no good at all.”
“I don’t have a choice Jim” said the scientist. “Right now, we need to kill this monster, but we can’t communicate with the outside world. I need you to hop in your jet and fly to Japan. We need help.”
Jim arrived at base and was greeted by Catherine. Jim quickly summarized and Catherine began to run for the chopper. Jim said “what are you doing Catherine?”
“If Gillas kills Venus,” said Catherine, “then he’ll kill the scientists.”
Catherine’s UV tracker quickly picked up Gillas. He was definitely heading for Kahoolawe, and Catherine needed to be there, because if she wasn’t there, that would mean every person would lose there life.
General Robertson’s forces were now in place. But the hours of preparation meant that Venus had now grown to 70 meters. The artillery was prepared. Tanks and missile launchers awaited his order, along with battle choppers and jets. He glared at the monstrosity that now grew from the island, like a giant tree. Robertson grabbed his radio and said “all units begin the attack.” The artillery began firing at the mutated plant while the planes and choppers attacked from the air. The artillery nailed square hits while the air force pulled ace shots. But Venus screeched and fired balls of plasma and blew away the artillery on the west side. It then turned its attention on the aircrafts. General Robertson realized he just couldn’t kill it. As he went to grab his radio, vines sprouted and grabbed his arms and legs. He saw as not only soldiers, but artillery was covered by vines. The Plain Warriors were helpless. It was there end.
Then a sound so familiar fell upon Robertson’s ears: the roar of Gillas. He looked to the coast and, sure enough, the monitor broke out of the coast. Venus saw Gillas too and withdrew the vines. Gillas charged at Venus, but was stopped when vines sprouted out of the ground. Gillas fired a blast of his solar flame at Venus and Venus screeched in pain but retaliated with a barrage of plasma bolts. Gillas roared and fired his solar flames at the vines, letting him free. Gillas charged and slammed into Venus. The two’s claws began to rip at each other. Venus bit into Gillas and began to drain the power from Gillas. But Gillas scratched Venus’ head and forced Venus to let go. Then suddenly six smaller versions of Venus sprouted from the ground. The smaller Venus fired bolts of plasma at Gillas while the main Venus shot Gillas with plasma point-blank range and toppled Gillas. Vines sprouted out of the ground and began to entangle Gillas, while both the true Venus and the smaller replicas fired bolts of plasma at the downed monitor.
General Robertson was so enticed by the battle he barely noticed the helicopter land. Catherine ran over and yelled “General, order your forces to fire on the replicas!”
Robertson looked at Catherine disgusted and said “why should I help the monster that destroyed my home?”
Catherine glared and said “Robertson, look past your prejudice.” She pointed at the battle and said “if this monster has the power has the power to kill Gillas, what do you think will kill it? Gillas is fighting this monster, and if Venus wins, it will kill of all of humanity. We won’t be able to stop it. You don’t have to forgive Gillas, but think of something other than vengeance.”
Robertson looked at her, with that cold stare, and said “very well, but only this time.” He grabbed his radio and ordered “all units open fire on the smaller Venus replicas.” He turned to Catherine and said “but next time, we’re enemies.”
The Plain Warriors opened fire on the replicas, artillery and air force. Luckily, these smaller replicas weren’t made like the main Venus, and they combusted from the fire. Venus shrieked in pain, giving Gillas an opening. Gillas fired a blast of solar flame at Venus’ base. Venus shrieked in pain, and the vines receded into the earth. Gillas once again fire at the base, causing an even louder shriek from Venus. Gillas then charged up his solar flame and let it loose at the base. Venus toppled over like a giant tree. Gillas charged his solar flame and let loose the energy, setting Venus ablaze.
Gillas left the island before Robertson could organize an attack against him. All the scientists packed there supplies and would be shipped on ferries. As Catherine climbed into her chopper, she looked back, and Robertson was standing right behind her. He just looked at her with that piercing gaze and said “I don’t understand, Doctor. How can you protect these monsters? These abominations of nature that threaten human civilization?”
Catherine looked at him and said “because these monsters are created or awakened by man. We can’t always fight them, but there are some good monsters out there. Gillas is one of them.” Then Catherine’s chopper took off, back to base in Tokyo.
