Kaiju City: Tartaruga Town, page 1
Contents
Kaiju City: Tartaruga Town
Chapter 1: The Great Turtle
Chapter 2: Home Again
Chapter 3: The Price of Friendship
Chapter 4: Tartaruga Ranger Division
Chapter 5: A Fight for Acceptance
Chapter 6: A Portentous Choice
Chapter 7: Boot Camp Blues
Chapter 8: Ranger Training
Chapter 10: Magical Training
Chapter 11: Mantis Lunch, Monster Food
Chapter 12: Practical Training
Chapter 14: A New Arm
Chapter 15: Footprints and Pitfalls
Chapter 16: On Patrol
Chapter 17: Mining Town
Chapter 18: A Founder’s Temple
Chapter 19: Final Room
Chapter 20: The Spoils of Victory
Chapter 21: Strategy Meeting
Chapter 22: Tournament Day
Chapter 23: Disappointing Results
Chapter 24: Growing Pains
Chapter 25: Bitter Relations
Chapter 26: Game Changer
Chapter 27: Loot
Chapter 28: Big Green Blobs
Chapter 29: Trojan Bait
Chapter 30: The One That Walks Away
Chapter 31: Path to the Bear
Chapter 32: Business Dealings
Chapter 33: Unpleasant Revelations
Chapter 34: Abhorrent Artifact
Chapter 35: Victorville
Chapter 36: Founder Outpost
Chapter 37: Experimental Apparatus
Chapter 38: The Games We Play
Chapter 39: Cash for Cache
Chapter 40: The Path to Power
Chapter 41: Pain and Regret
Chapter 42: New Solutions to Old Problems
Chapter 43: Information Network
Chapter 44: Religion and Politics
Chapter 45: Jailbreak Squared
Chapter 46: A Plan Comes Together
Chapter 47: Allies and Adversaries
Chapter 48: Getting the Gang Back Together
Chapter 49: The Best Laid Plans
Chapter 50: Twilight of the Longest Night
Chapter 51: Cell Warfare
Chapter 52: The Siege
Chapter 53: Several Brave Hearts
Chapter 54: Useful Magics
Chapter 55: Destination Unknown
Chapter 56: Pyrrhic Victory
Chapter 57: Instincts
Chapter 58: How Do You Want to Die?
Chapter 59: Manifold Preparations
Chapter 60: The Legacies We Leave Behind
Chapter 61: The Illusion of Choice
Chapter 62: Impending Doom
Chapter 63: Kaiju Battle Part I
Chapter 64: Kaiju Battle Part II
Chapter 65: Kaiju Battle Part III
Chapter 66: Hungry Kaiju
Chapter 67: The Long Walk Home
Chapter 68: You Can Never Step in the Same River Twice
Chapter 69: Nice
Kaiju City: Tartaruga Town
by Adam Sampson
To my son Porter.
Thanks for always pushing me to be a better writer.
Copyright © 2024 Adam Sampson
All rights reserved.
Chapter 1: The Great Turtle
A spectral horse almost killed Matteo. Things only got worse after that. Matteo had just finished a mural and was discussing it with the restaurant owner. The mural was a detailed portrait of their kaiju, a faithful representation of the enormous turtle they rode. The painting sparkled slightly in the light of the crystal streetlamps.
"Thanks. You got done faster than I expected. Especially what with the, uh..." Emmanuel trailed off, looking at Matteo’s right arm. Or lack thereof.
People never know how to act around someone disabled. Sure, he had lost an arm, but they didn’t need to make a big deal about it. Emmanuel was particularly awkward about it.
"Well, this is what I do for a living," Matteo said. "I wouldn’t last long as a painter if I let a prosthetic arm hold me back."
He demonstrated by swinging his wooden arm around in a few complex movements. The wires connecting his shoulder to the forearm of his prosthetic arm allowed him to open and close his hand, and the gears within made all of his movements seem fluid. It looked impressive. It wasn’t nearly as good as a real arm, but Matteo had plenty of experience at this point.
"Certainly. I wasn’t trying to imply anything else," the restaurant owner said awkwardly. "Anyway, let me pay you. Eight rings, right?"
"We said ten rings. One gold stater," Matteo said firmly.
As he spoke, the ground tilted to the side. Matteo easily kept his feet, but Emmanuel stumbled slightly. Matteo had grown up here, used to the city tilting every half hour or so. The restaurant owner had only lived here a year, however, and wasn’t used to it yet.
"A stater. Yeah, sure. Let me go get your money," Emmanuel said.
Matteo wasn’t sure why the man was being so stingy. He knew for a fact that most of the customers visiting the restaurant paid at least a ring for a full meal. Just the basic stew and rice started at five silvers.
Before the restaurateur could get far, a racket started up behind them. They both turned to see a green spectral horse galloping down the street. Clouds of steam puffed up into the night air from the horse’s labored breath. Trailing behind the specter was a large shield, large enough for three Wardens to sit on it. They whooped and yelled as the shield scraped and bumped along the stone road.
Matteo and Emmanuel stood on the corner of one of the great turtle’s scutes. Each hexagonal plate had a major road built along its edges. These young men were joyriding down the street, just barely missing the other people on the road. In many cases, people had to jump out of the way of the magical horse.
"Idiots," Matteo said under his breath.
The restaurateur stepped back from the road. Matteo slowly followed, watching their approach. Despite the Wardens’ recklessness, he knew from personal experience that they had perfect control of the magical horse. It was Anthony’s bound artifact, after all. The shield they were riding on was an artifact, too - one that was preternaturally strong and healed itself if it was ever broken. It could have been his. Matteo was so close that day. His heart ached with longing. He shook his head and shut down that line of thinking.
The spectral horse turned the corner at speed, the joyriders trailing behind. The long rope swung them off the street and into the grass nearby. Matteo jumped back farther, the enormous shield missing him by inches. If he hadn't been paying attention, it would have killed him. The shield continued on, crashing into the corner of the kebab restaurant.
A green dome flickered out, protecting the three Wardens sitting on the shield. A moment later, they emerged from a cloud of dust unscathed. The restaurant... didn’t fare so well. The stone corner of the building was completely obliterated. Matteo could hear laughter in the distance as the Wardens sped away, but he ignored it. He dropped his painting supplies and raced toward the restaurant. If anyone had been sitting near that corner when the shield hit...
Thankfully, his worry was unfounded. The few patrons inside the kebab restaurant were able to run out of the front door under their own power. However, one of the chefs had been hit by a shard of stone and his shoulder was bleeding. Everyone else was still in shock, so Matteo took it upon himself to help the man out.
Matteo ducked into the restaurant to get a cloth and some water to clean the wound. He carefully bandaged the man’s shoulder, using skills he thought he would never need again. Apparently, life as a civilian was still dangerous.
"Make sure you see a medic or a healer before you return to work," Matteo said. "If you let it heal without the proper care, things won’t go well." He held up his wooden hand. "Trust me."
The chef nodded seriously. Matteo wandered back to where Emmanuel was talking to someone in front of the restaurant. He still needed to get paid for the mural.
Emmanuel gestured as he spoke to her. "Look, all I am saying is that this is the second time you have fixed my store. The second time someone could have died. I am trying to save lives here. A stone railing around the bend of the corner isn’t too much to ask, is it?"
The woman he was talking to was dressed in long ornate robes, green with gold filigree. A district chief. She walked up to the building as she spoke. "And all I am saying is these kids are giving me a busy night. I don’t have the time to put up a railing right now. Make a request with the mayor’s office tomorrow."
"The mayor’s grandson is the whole reason you are out here tonight. If they cared enough about safety in the first place, they wouldn’t be drunk and careening through the streets," Emmanuel said.
She didn’t reply, focused on her work. She drew an ornate trowel from her robes and touched it to the edge of the building. Stone slowly grew under the trowel, filling up the corner that had been destroyed. The three of them stood there in silence as the artifact did its work. If Matteo had a choice, he would love to bond to an artifact like that. He loved crafting and creating things. She might just be repairing buildings right now, but the district chief could just as easily create grand works of art with that trowel. He shook his head. He needed to stop worrying about things out of his reach.
Once the kebab shop was repaired, she turned to Emmanuel and said, "I can make a small ramp. Maybe next time they will aim for it instead of your building."
"I would appreciate it," Emmanuel said graciously.
While she was raising a curved ramp on the corner of the road, Matteo said, "Does this happen often? The Wardens joyriding like that?"
"Eh, maybe once every few months. This was the fifth time I have seen them since I moved here. Usually they manage to miss the buildings. Speaking of which, are you going to get to the turtle’s head tonight, or in the morning?" Emmanuel said and pointed back to the kebab restaurant.
Matteo turned to see what he was talking about. The corner of the building had been repaired, but not the mural. The destruction had taken out half of the great turtle’s head. He frowned. "Tomorrow, I guess. I need to meet my girlfriend for her birthday dinner in an hour."
"Alright, see you in the morning," Emmanuel said.
"No, wait, I need the money tonight," Matteo said. "I have to pay for this gift I bought her."
"I’m not paying until the job is done," he said.
"The job was done. You saw it yourself. It’s not my fault it got destroyed. Besides, you know I will return tomorrow. I can’t leave it unfinished with my name on the wall," Matteo said.
"Look, kid. I just want the work done so I can move on. I will pay you eleven rings if you get it done tonight. It’s more than you deserve, but I saw how you helped out my chef, Charalampos," Emmanuel said.
Matteo clenched and unclenched his left hand. A single extra ring wasn’t enough for the amount of work he was going to do. But he needed the money today. He didn’t have a single silver to his name right now.
"Fine. But you better send some business my way if anyone asks about the mural," Matteo said. He angrily opened up his painting case and got to work.
An hour later, he was finished again. Emmanuel was kind enough to be ready to pay as soon as Matteo packed up his art supplies. He strung the eleven rings on a small cord and stuffed them into his pocket. Most of those rings wouldn’t make it home.
Matteo hurried through the city, knowing that he was already late. He had promised Eleni that tonight wouldn’t be another late night. Not on her birthday. He half jogged, half speed-walked along the main road. He had been painting on the hex near Tartaruga’s lower left leg. He needed to get to her apartment on the upper left hex. The sun had set more than an hour ago, but the street lamps were powered by the turtle shell. There was plenty of light to see by.
He wished that he could afford the services of an artifact messenger. Then he could send payment for her gift and word that he was on his way. It was just too expensive. Technically, he could afford the rings to send the messages, but Eleni was already getting on him about wasting money. It just wouldn’t be worth it. He would just have to be late. Forty-five minutes wasn’t that late, in his opinion.
Sometimes when he got home on time, she wasn’t even ready. He kept telling himself things would be fine. His anxiety kept disagreeing. Still, there was nothing for it. He was already late at this point, he might as well proceed as planned. He was a full hour late by the time he had everything ready.
Their apartment building was one of the few non-stone buildings on the turtle shell. It was a three story treehouse, and one of the few wooden apartment buildings in town. Most of the city was stone, with thick walls that were cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Their apartment, built high in the tree, was neither. It had a nice view, but then again, everyone had a nice view. The curved shell gave everyone a view of the landscape hundreds of feet below.
Matteo started rehearsing an apology as he walked up the wooden stairs circling the main trunk. Once he got to the third floor, he saw something that caused him to lose his train of thought. He stopped walking, the apology forgotten.
Chapter 2: Home Again
Eleni stood outside the apartment door. A half dozen hemp bags lay at her feet. She had her arms folded, looking out into the distance. She didn’t turn to look at him as he walked up to her.
"Happy birthday, Eleni," Matteo said.
"You are an hour late. You promised to be on time. For my birthday," Eleni said.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I..."
She cut him off and said, "It was your last chance. You blew it. I have been standing here for an hour, waiting for you to show up. After a half hour, I started packing for you." She gestured to the bags lining the stairway. "I promised myself I would forgive you if you returned before I was done. You were too late. We need to break up."
"Eleni, I am sorry. Today wasn’t my fault. There were these town Wardens, they destroyed my mural, and the owner wouldn’t pay me until I repainted it," Matteo said. He was interrupted when the turtle finished another step and everything tilted. The bags slid to hit him in the shins.
She sighed. "This isn’t about today, Matteo. I should have done this a while ago. Look. We are both different people from who we were when we started dating. I am not some hopeless romantic anymore, and you aren’t the swashbuckling hero I tried to force on you."
"Is this about my arm? Am I not enough of a man anymore?" Matteo said, pained.
It always came down to the arm these days. He was handsome and fit. His wavy brown hair was the envy of men and women. When Eleni started dating him, she often said his hazel eyes were piercingly beautiful. No one saw that anymore. They just saw the prosthetic.
"Yes. But not for the reasons you are thinking. I don’t care about your arm. I care about who you are. You used to be brave. You used to fight for what you wanted. Now you hide behind your art. You gave up on the life you wanted. I am sick of paying all the rent while you play with paints," she said, turning her face away from him.
"This isn’t playing, Eleni. I am building a career. We talked about how that takes time. I got eleven rings from this one job. If I can develop enough interest, get enough paying gigs, I can help with the rent. I just need time," Matteo said, despite knowing it was a lie.
"I think we both know this town isn’t big enough to make art your career," she said softly.
"Who cares about my career? If I get a different job, would you agree to stay together?" Matteo said. He stepped into her line of sight.
"It’s over, Matteo," she said. She went back into her apartment and softly shut the door.
He stared at the six bags sitting on the stairs. His whole life was in those cheap hemp bags: one bag of rolled up canvases, two of paint supplies, two bags of clothing, and one bag of parts for the mechanical arm he was working on. There was nothing left inside, nothing keeping him here. After tying the bags together, he swung them over his right shoulder. It was heavy, but Matteo was strong. He used to be in peak physical condition. You didn’t lose that kind of fitness in a year. Not completely.
He turned and started walking tailward. Towards the only place where he could count on someone taking him in: his parents’ house. They had a nice house, built when shell space was still cheap. They might be using his old room for something else these days, but he was confident they would make space for him. His mother still loved him, despite how she had basically kicked him out two years ago. His father did whatever his mother said.
It took a solid hour to walk all the way to his parent’s house, all the way up the shell and down the other side. There were a lot of reasons he had left his childhood home. He was growing up, his parents wanted the space, he wanted to move in with his girlfriend. He was reminded of another reason as he got to his parent’s hex.
The smell.
This close to the tail always smelled slightly bad. It wasn’t overpowering. Even on days the kaiju did its business, the smell wasn’t that objectionable. But it was always there, like a high-pitched sound that never went away. Most people could ignore it, but it was a constant annoyance to Matteo.
He made a mental note to buy some pot-pourri for his room. He still had six rings left. That should last him a few weeks. Longer if his parents didn’t make him pay for food. He was regretting spending the five rings on the gift for Eleni. Not that he could do anything about it now. No refunds on that kind of gift.
She would be finding out what he got her right about now. He smiled slightly when he thought about her answering the door to a dimotiki band. They would be playing her favorite song, the one that had been playing during their first date. Then the bandleader would hand her a sbrisolona, her favorite food. Both of them loved the crumbly almond cake. Matteo thought the gift had been incredibly romantic. She would be receiving it all alone after she kicked him out.
