>"So, that's why you're getting scuba-diving classes. Any questions?"
>You stared at the screen, eyes tracing along recorded footage while you sat alongside Dr. Geiszler in his laboratory.
>The room was dusty and crammed with various tables, a few nondescript machines and instruments tucked away on trays that haven't been used in some time.
>Currently, you were looking at the only actual full view of the full-sized kaiju pony you've ever seen.
>Caught in a weird, almost half-assed combination of horse, dolphin, deep sea fish, and good old city-mashing monster
>Was she always that weird shade of dark-grey-blue or is that just the underwater camera?.
>The thing that you found yourself honing in on immediately was towards her rear.
>Alongside her flank was a set of glowing patches, a fair contrast from her otherwise muted coloration and something you honestly hadn't seen before.
>Unlike her other sources of bio luminescence: the tail, the horn, antennae, the eyes, and whatever was down her throat to cause her mouth to glow, these were simply there on the upper outer thigh.
>Not a protrusion, and not some sort of hole into the body.
>The design was simply there.
>Your eyes started drifting towards the tail but stopped suddenly at the rounded edge of her rear.
"Wait... if she was like your daughter... did you ever have to... you know."
>Behind the thick glasses that had probably seen far too many computer screens, the scientist looked confused.
"The talk. Did you have to give her the talk?"
>"Oh!"
>The man reclined back in his chair, grinning as he pushed the glasses further up the bridge of his nose.
>"Hahaha, so my new star is wondering about those things, huh?"
"Wuhl-hey, I-"
>"Looking to break some 'other' kinds of world records, are you?"
>Did the room suddenly get warmer?
"It was just a thought!"
>His smarmy remained for some agonizing seconds before he finally replied.
>"I'm afraid that no, I haven't."
"You haven't?"
>He didn't seem to like your surprise.
"Does she need it? She's not an adult yet, is she?"
>"Okay, okay, look, calm down."
"No? So she's still a kid?"
>The man shook his head.
>"That isn't entirely accurate. "
>Your unamused stare seemed to haunt him as for the first time, he suddenly looked uncomfortable talking about his prized creation.
>That wasn't very reassuring.
>"Okay, I just don't think it'll come up, alright?"
>"It's not like she gets moody from hormones. It shouldn't come up."
"Are you sure?"
>"Well, not exactly."
>He squirmed in his seat for a moment, like a kid who thinks he might receive a failing grade for the science project he had worked on all semester.
>"Look, I know it'll probably have to happen some day, but my funding was drying up. I wasn't sure if I could deal with any repercussions. Most people don't want any kaijus on Earth, period. After the breach was closed, I had to turn back to human tissue research. Which sucks!"
>He groans.
>"So I did what I did last time I had a breakthrough that saved the world. I did something most would call crazy."
"But she still needs to know, right?"
>"I'm not that worried about her doing anything too drastic. Look, what most people don't know, is that she was tiny when she started out."
"Tiny?"
>"Yeah, she was about the size of a chapstick. She couldn't hurt a thing."
>He turned back towards his computer and drew up a picture from a folder you didn't get to catch the name of.
>The kaiju pony's eyes do not match at all, instead of that pale blue, they are a vibrant orange color, matched by her short, but still spiraling horn.
>The body and hairs are a greenish teal while the antenna's bulbs are barely there, stringy and delicate.
>Orchid is paused in the middle of smiling and waving at something off screen and unless this nerd is a professional photoshopper on the side, she is no bigger than the  graham cracker animal beside her.
>The hand was holding the cracker so it looked like she was standing beside the cracker.
>The teacup-sized horse kaiju looked so happy.
"What happened?"
>"She got found out. And, well, sure, people were shocked."
>He flailed his hands around in mock anguish.
"You haven't?"
"Does she need it? She's not an adult yet, is she?"
>"Okay, okay, look, calm down."
"No? So she's still a kid?"
>The man shook his head.
>"That isn't entirely accurate. "
>Your unamused stare seemed to haunt him as for the first time, he suddenly looked uncomfortable talking about his prized creation.
>That wasn't very reassuring.
>"Okay, I just don't think it'll come up, alright?"
>"It's not like she gets moody from hormones. It shouldn't come up."
"Are you sure?"
>"Well, not exactly."
>He squirmed in his seat for a moment, like a kid who thinks he might receive a failing grade for his science project he worked all semester on.
>"Look, I know it'll probably have to happen some day, but my funding was drying up. Most people don't want any kaijus on Earth, period. After the breach was closed, I had to turn back to human tissue research. Which sucks!"
>He groans.
>"So I did what I did last time I had a breakthrough that saved the world. I did something most would call crazy."
>"Look, what most people don't know, is that she was tiny when she started out."
"Tiny?"
>"Yeah, she was about the size of a chapstick. She couldn't hurt a thing."
>He turned back towards his computer and quickly drew up a picture.
>The kaiju pony's eyes do not match at all, instead of that pale blue, they are a vibrant orange color, matched by her short, but still spiraling horn.
>The body and hairs are a greenish teal while the antenna's bulbs are barely there, stringy and delicate.
>Orchid is paused in the middle of smiling and waving at something off screen and unless this nerd is a professional photoshopper on the side, she is no bigger than the graham cracker animal beside her.
>The hand was holding the cracker so it looked like she was standing beside the cracker.
>The teacup-sized horse kaiju looked so happy.
"What happened?"
>"She got found out. And, well, sure, people were shocked."
>He flailed his hands around in mock anguish.
>"It's always oh no, what if it destroys a city, what if it brings the pacific war back, what if it rips a whole through space-time and makes another breach? I almost lost her, you know. But as it turns out, it is really hard to dispose of something that can hug you, look you in the eye, and say, 'I love you daddy'."
"She could do that as a baby?"
>"Of course not! With a genius like me, of course it didn't long for me to figure out her intelligence, and from there it was just teaching her words and the alphabet like any other kid."
>You couldn't stop staring at the picture.
"How did she go from that to taking up a room?"
>"Funny story. When I was putting the genes together, I threw in lots of other animals, you know, really mixed it up."
"But wasn't it kind of... reckless?"
>"Like you would know, mister 'I got kissed by a kaiju.' Sometimes some recklessness is just what we need. That's why you still have a job."
>He puffed up his chest and stood up a little straighter.
>"I like to take a few chances, get a little messy for science. Sure there were some screwups along the way, but the result can't be denied!"
"Doctor, you might want to sit back down in your chair."
>"Yeah. Anyway, the remarkable thing about kaiju genetic material is how resilient it is, and at the same time, how easily it changes. It's like genetic sculpting puddy! You just play with it. The kaiju all have the same base, but how their makers change them is what I need to find out. We just don't know how they pull it off... yet."
>He began to scroll through other pictures, quickly as he continued to excitedly retell what he already put in more than a few reports.
>"So instead, I had to use other DNA sources to try and remove the genes responsible for the hivemind link and replace it with something else!"
>There was a picture of the kaiju horse monster with a tennis ball in her mouth, pleadingly looking up past the camera.
>"It was kind of a crapshoot, but hey, it worked."
>An image depicting her hopping around with a pair of headphones over her ears.
>She hasn't talked to any kaiju and and there's no new breaches."
>A picture of what you assumed must be Easter with her wearing a set of goofy bunny ears in front of her real ears while she chomps down on a chocolate bunny, silvery tinfoil wrapping and all, its big blue eyes almost as luminescent as her own.
>You get a chill before Geiszler starts talking again.
>"Either we killed them off when Gypsy Danger blew itself up, or, she can't establish the link!"
>He stopped suddenly, on a picture of the kaiju with her head buried in a birthday cake.
>"And best of all, she's totally docile! That is, until you came along."
>Finally, a chance to get a word in.
>All that you manage is a nervous.
"R-really?"
>"Somehow you've made her more emotional in the last couple of months than she's been in over a year."
>"Your damage to submersible bay 2 was-"
"We have submarines?"
>"We almost did."
>The screen flips to a schematic you quickly recognize as the Kaiju Den, only, the label simply reads "Submersible Bay 2."
>"Ever wonder what the other doors in that hallway lead to?"
>You look away a little guiltily.
"My card won't let me in those."
>"Well yeah, they're sealed shut."
>The good doctor just looks at you like that was supposed to be super obvious.
>"There were originally going to be submarine pens to quickly launch rescue and recovery operations."
>"Then the coastal wall project took all the funding and we had to shut down the other bases. You know how well that turned out."
>It was true.
>The famous coastal wall project to create a massive line of fortifications to keep the kaiju out had failed spectacularly on its first real kaiju attack, a category four called Mutavore.
>The mark five jaeger, Striker Eureka had saved Sydney, and thereby the majority of Australia, from being savaged.
>Still, you weren't sure the brooding glare of the doctor was really warranted, unless...
"They took most of your funding, right?"
>"You have no idea how much they grabbed! They hadn't even gotten to finishing the designs for the defensive weaponry, based on jaeger developments, of course."
>He looked back at the picture of the monsterhorse, the happy, sunshiny kaiju picture.of before she was big enough to step on a car like it was a model toy.
>Doctor Geiszler shifted just enough to stare hard into your eyes.
>Now you know where Orchid picked up her unsettling, attentive glare.
>"But."
"But?"
>"With what's happened in the last couple of months, we're getting scientific attention again."
>"Now everyone's wondering the same thing I've been thinking about since I got to dissect my first sample; what if kaiju aren't all bad?"
>He held up his hands, a smirk on his face like he was sharing some great secret.
>"In all your crazy accidents, you've saved this project. I had to just scrape by with the bare minimum needed to keep her under care, but now we're going to take it to the next step."
"And that is?"
>"The real reason you're getting that diving training. You're going to take her on a trip to the beach while we repair the Den. She likes you. A lot."
"She likes everyone."
>"But she listens to you. If we're going to show the world how friendly she can be, she needs to be seen hanging out with you."
"This is just a big PR move, isn't it?"
>"You bet! After the controversy from the boat incident and the rumors of her being a kind soul after all, she couldn't have destroyed her habitat at a better time!"
>He manages to frown for only a second.
>"Hey, a lot of people out there think she's just an emotional time bomb. We need some way to show them that she's not. You going out there will be the perfect opportunity for that. Show her around on the beach a bit."
>The man clapped his hands together with a sense of finality, like this was all going to his plan.
>"So, we already have you signed up for the course in addition to your normal duties."
>He started to usher you out of your seat with one last glance to the screen.
>"See you in a week."
"A week?!"
>"Hey, diving's not that hard... probably."
>You quickly found yourself pushed outside of the threshold and in the suddenly very empty hallway.
"Er..."
>From behind the door, you could hear the creak of his chair before one last, muffled shout reached you.
>"Just try not to drown, that'll make her really sad!"