(AN: Yet another alternate canon for these characters. Six of them are within, and this is from Zaiden's point of view once again. He's the character I personally created, so I prefer to be inside his head. This is my Halloween offering, this year. Hopefully it is acceptable. Dedicated to the RP crew. )

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ON THE SET: A MONSTER MOVIE ADVENTURE

--by: lira-chan--

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They were on the set. It was an important day for about two reasons, but Zaiden was really only concerned with the first. Analise and Luke were setting up the film equipment, but Zaiden never knew what the fuck they were doing with any of that shit. He just wanted them to get everything in order, fast, so he didn't have to stand around waiting and trying to socialize with complete morons. Most of the people they filmed and interviewed were complete morons. That was why they filmed them, of course; it got damn good ratings.

Zaiden was glad this wasn't a live shoot. Not a lot was going on. Luke would probably have to do a lot of editing, a lot of snipping and cutting and weaving back together. The art of television broadcast sure as hell wasn't accurate reporting, Zaiden knew that for sure.

In the middle of the set, someone who appeared to be a woman was waving their arms about, hissing in irritation. Zaiden was a bit impressed that they weren't screaming; the actors performing this piece of absolute dreck were about as talented as wet paper bags. The person was wearing what appeared to be a red Japanese kimono, with a delicate, intricate pattern on the fabric. Their hair was done up quite fancily. For all appearances, it was a fine lady.

Zaiden knew otherwise. It was part of the scandal he wanted to break. He had found himself wondering once or twice in the course of the day whether or not Kohaku Pardis still had his original bits, because the whole get-up was really quite convincing. The reason Zaiden wondered this so persistently was the fact that Kohaku had been quite the high-priced prostitute for several years. Zaiden was trying to figure out how such a person would translate into the filming industry.

"Are we fucking ready yet, or what?" Zaiden called over to Luke and Analise. They looked up from whatever esoteric equipment they were fiddling with, and shot him twin dirty looks. He supposed not.

There was other film equipment strewn around, but the movie wasn't actively filming that day. The actors were just rehearsing, and Kohaku had agreed to the interview. Zaiden knew it was because today was also the day the big investor Kohaku wanted to hook would come by. Kohaku probably thought that the investor would be more likely to fund his movie if the investor knew a big time news broadcaster would be filming his rejection.

Zaiden walked over to Kohaku, not really caring that the male was working. Zaiden was working, too. He tapped Kohaku gently on the shoulder; he did have impeccable manners in some situations, despite the borderline slanderous things he said on national television.

"Show time?" Zaiden suggested.

This show was a big deal for Zaiden for one other reason. Zaiden had discovered, quite by accident, that Kohaku Pardis was actually the cousin to a one Kisho Sakusenjo. The same Kisho Sakusenjo who happened to be Zaiden's mortal enemy. If that damn bitch criticized him one more time in her column... He knew she had some sort of vendetta, and he would figure it out, and then he would ruin her. And their combined adoring public would watch.

"We're still waiting--" Kohaku began, glancing at one of the actors. The man was wearing what appeared to be a lime green fursuit. He was some sort of monster.

At that exact moment, something large and weighty crashed through the ceiling and part of the wall on the other side of the large room. Zaiden realized then that the dull, eardrum-shaking thuds he'd been hearing that whole time had not been sound effects. The thing intersecting the building began to lift up, looming dark and greenish in the shadows on that part of the set. It swung forward, demolishing more of the wall.

"Oh, hell," Zaiden said softly.

"We're getting out of here," Luke said, somehow appearing right behind Zaiden. Analise was on his other side, a camera firmly grasped under her arm.

"This isn't worth any amount of money," Analise added. "Or any amount of vengeance, or whatever it is you will be able to one-up Sakusenjo with."

"Oh dear lord," a voice called out quietly. Everyone turned towards the door, which fortunately was far away from the damage.

"Shit," Kohaku breathed, the word coming out mostly under his breath. "Levaios."

"That's the investor," Zaiden realized aloud. He had not known that Kohaku's prospective investor had been Levaios Adeleston. The day was turning into a complete clusterfuck. "Film this," he commanded Analise.

With a long-suffering sigh, Analise moved to aim her camera. Zaiden didn't even have to tell her what to aim it at. There was another crash from the side of the building being knocked in.

All of the actors had fled.

Levaios walked over, in a bit of a daze. "Is this part of the movie?" he asked, directing his question towards Kohaku. "Because if it is, I'm not sure if you need my funding. That is a pretty impressive special effect."

"That's no special effect," Kohaku said grimly.

"Then what is it?" Levaios asked, his expression creasing in puzzlement.

"I don't rightly know," Kohaku admitted.

Analise was filming Kohaku and Levaios as they spoke, but she had positioned herself so that the camera got a bit of the pistoning column of whatever-it-was wrecking the building in the background.

"We should probably get out of here," Levaios decided with a gulp.

"Kohaku probably just forgot to actually pay the lease on this place," Zaiden suggested, even though he didn't actually believe that. "It's the demolition crew coming to tear this shithole down."

"I don't think most demolition crews are covered in scaly green hide," Luke commented. Zaiden was sure the remark had been intended for him only, but everyone else heard it perfectly clearly as well.

"This is supposed to be some sort of monster movie, right?" Levaios asked Kohaku.

"Yes," Kohaku agreed, tersely. "The monster movie as art."

"I think the monster from your movie is right outside," Levaios said flatly. "And I think it wants something."

"That's impossible," Kohaku said, but the conviction wasn't quite in his voice.

"Well, we can go find out," Zaiden decided, beckoning for Analise and Luke to follow. Analise trained the camera briefly on Zaiden. "Come on."

Zaiden walked over to the side entrance, which was nearer to the now completely destroyed wall and almost half of the set room than the main entrance, but far enough away that they wouldn't get pummeled. All five of them filed out onto the back alley, and then looked up.

The creature was at least thirty feet tall. It's hide was indeed green and scaled, but closely so, with very tiny scales that were not circles. They were ellipses, arranged lengthwise. It's body was much more lithe than Godzilla's, heavily muscled and with small, stunted wings sprouting from its shoulder blades. The wings were not scaled, but were leathery, like bat wings. The tail was long and sinewy, and appeared to be prehensile, judging by the lamp post held firmly in its grasp. They could see the side of it's head, which included a long, narrow muzzle, with teeth that were obvious even from the ground. It's forearms appeared more powerful than Godzilla's as well, with more joints than human arms had, almost like tentacles. It was presently laying into the building next door to the film studio with said arms.

Analise was catching the whole process on film.

"It's going to destroy the whole city," Levaios said, voice faint.

"Maybe," Zaiden agreed, ever the pessimist. "So now would be a good time to get done with any unfinished business. We probably won't die, and money is pretty safe these days, but you never know."

Levaios looked at Zaiden, uncomprehending. Zaiden wondered if Levaios even had anything he would consider unfinished business. Zaiden had more than one bone that he would like to pick before meeting his end. Not the least of it being the matter of finding out what surgeries Kohaku might or might not have had.

"Are you still worried about your movie?" Zaiden asked Kohaku. Kohaku hadn't seemed worried, of course, it was just a good question for the camera. Insinuating where Kohaku might place his loyalty. If this even made it to the news. Zaiden was discouraged by the fact that the monster had just started spitting acid.

"No," Kohaku said, subdued. "I'm worried about my cousin."

"But she's all the way--" Zaiden started, before considering what Kohaku was saying. Kisho. The bitch. She was probably in her office, which was within walking distance – perhaps the reason Kohaku had purchased this particular property – and if everything was going to go to shit, he wanted to level. Or really, he wanted to call her a lot of petty names and spit in her face. He didn't have time to think of a more sophisticated revenge.

"She's in her office," Kohaku confirmed. Zaiden was sure then that Kohaku knew that Zaiden's obsession with Kisho was even more potent than the one Kisho seemed to have with him.

"Let's walk," Zaiden told Analise and Luke. The monster was heading the same way; it meant Analise and Luke could continue filming, but it also meant Kisho's building might be reduced to nothing by lurid orange acid. Zaiden wondered what that stuff felt like eating through skin, through bone.

They all walked swiftly. Levaios had long legs and could keep up easily, but it somehow felt as if he was trailing behind. Levaios was also related to Kisho, so of course he would come with them instead of going somewhere safer. The trip was quick; they practically ran to keep pace with the monster. Four and a half city blocks were destroyed in the process.

The building loomed ahead. The inside lobby looked so every day, and yet so foreign. Zaiden had been here before. They deliberated over the elevators, but decided it really didn't matter, and ascended to Kisho's floor. Zaiden practically kicked in her door before Kohaku or Levaios could stop him.

"Bitch!" he called out, striding in.

Kisho was behind her desk, at her computer. Luke and Analise scrambled to get a good shot of her, to make sure the footage was useful. She looked up, only the mildest of irritation evident on her face.

"What is the problem?" she asked.

"There's a fucking acid-spitting monster outside, who will probably dissolve your building within the next five minutes. If you don't want to die, you should probably get the fuck out."

Zaiden hated being helpful like that. And he didn't have much spit after the walk. Kisho rose from her desk, not seeming to believe the truth of the words Zaiden spoke. Kohaku and Levaios both detected this.

"It's true," Kohaku said evenly. "It moves fairly fast, and dissolves and tramples everything in its path. The only way to stop it would be to bring in the military; ordinary guns probably would not pierce it's hide. Half of the city will probably be destroyed before anyone of use arrives."

Kisho frowned, just slightly. It meant she believed them. She went to her window, looked out. Fortunately, it was facing the side with the monster, and then they all felt a low rumble. Felt, because the very floor of the room was vibrating. The monster had set in on their building.

"Out," Levaios decided. "We have to get out."

With that, they all rushed for the door and somehow managed not to cause a bottleneck. This time, they took the stairs. The elevator was far to great a risk. They burst out of the building in time to see the monster at work on the side of it, with the building collapsing backwards across the street on its other side. They all looked around, really looked, for the first time. There was nothing standing within a perimeter, and considerably less rubble than one would expect. It was probably the corrosive acid.

"We need a car," Kisho said. "We're leaving. As fast as we can."

It was then that Zaiden realized that there were no other panicking journalists fleeing Kisho's building, no mob of terrified city dwellers in the streets, fighting to get away from the locus of destruction. Where was everyone? Where had the population gone? Zaiden remembered them on the streets on the way to the job, and he knew there had been actors on the set. All of the people were missing.

"Shit, everyone is gone," was what Zaiden said out loud.

"The monster obviously does something more than we can observe with our eyes." Kohaku suggested. He spoke as if it were not mere suggestion, but fact. "For some strange reason, we were spared. We can question it later. For now, we need to leave the area. We need to get away before whatever happened to them happens to us, and before the monster merely tramples us or spits acid on us."

"A car," Kisho said again. Zaiden knew the bitch didn't like repeating herself.

"Okay, a car," Kohaku agreed. There were, of course, none in sight. There were a few shiny spots on the road, pocked with deep gouges, which had probably been cars before they had been introduced to the creature's acid.

"We have to walk," Zaiden said, striding off back the way they had come.

"Why are we going that way?" Levaios asked. "That's where it came from. Everything will have been destroyed."

"We're not going to outpace it," Zaiden pointed out. "Which means we detour back, and then head into an area it hasn't hit yet. Does anyone know how to hotwire a car?"

"I do," Luke volunteered. Zaiden looked at him for a second, but then, he wasn't really surprised.

The hike was unpleasant and seemed much longer than it was, but eventually they reached the non-demolished buildings, and were among them. There were a good number of cars to choose from, but there were six of them, and Luke wanted to pick wisely. Eventually, Luke settled on a bright red minivan, which he insisted was "sporty." They broke the driver's side window with a rock, unlocked the door, and Luke sat down in the driver's seat.

It took approximately sixty seconds for Luke to hotwire the car. Zaiden was impressed.

Everyone piled in, and they started to drive off down the road. They continued away from where the monster had been, heading for the city limits. Zaiden was half waiting to disappear at any moment, and wondering with a sort of paranoid fear where all of the other city-dwellers had been sent. Were they dead? Was that what happened? Was it less painful than being burned to death by acid?

"How's the footage?" Zaiden finally asked Analise, not liking the quiet in the car. Luke was driving, so Zaiden wasn't going to bother him.

"It's probably good," Analise said. There was nothing to film at the present, so Zaiden had allowed her to turn her camera off.

"I never did get to spit in Kisho's face..." Zaiden said wistfully.

"What?" Kisho asked, only needing one word to convey the sheer magnitude of how much she disapproved of that idea.

"Spit in your face," Zaiden said, turning and speaking directly to her. "I didn't have time for something cunning, so I was going to spit on you. It still conveys the message."

"You're only angry because I revealed the fifteen separate places where you spliced your last news story together," Kisho returned.

"I'm angry because you're doing your damn best to ruin my reputation, and ruining reputations is what I do!" Zaiden yelled back.

"I enjoy my job," Kisho shrugged. "That doesn't mean I got the position for the sole purpose of tormenting you."

"No, it's only your primary purpose, tormenting me," Zaiden said. "I'm willing to believe you have a few other purposes rattling around. You're fucking good at time management, you stupid bitch."

"You tormented me at the last news media gathering," Kisho said. "But I didn't expect more than that from a negative broadcaster like you."

"Tormented you?" Zaiden echoed incredulously. "What, do you mean because I wouldn't dance with you? I hate your guts. Why the hell would I dance with you?"

"Not this again," Luke muttered, almost under his breath, from the driver's seat.

"We're the only ones he complains to about those events," Analise, who was in the passenger's seat, reminded Luke. "It'll do him some good to unload on her."

Zaiden heard this exchange, and ignored it.

"You would dance with me because it is polite and courteous," Kisho suggested. "Two things you are not, and never will be."

"I can and I have," Zaiden insisted. "I fucking know how to work a room of those guys, okay? But it's like business and pleasure or something. Being polite like that is the wrong kind of attitude with the people I interview, and it's the wrong damn kind of attitude with you. You were a bitch from the start."

"At the start, I was perfectly civil," Kisho said. "We met at another one of those get-togethers. I'd never written a thing about you. I think you were just upset because you thought Kohaku was prettier than me, and then you found out Kohaku was a man."

From behind the two of them, Kohaku laughed quietly into his hand.

"That has nothing to do with anything," Zaiden said. "Business and pleasure."

"You're deluded," Kisho said. "This obsession of yours isn't getting either of us anywhere. We're just giving the both of us bad press. You need to get your priorities straight. The city is half destroyed, and those people are gone. We don't know how many. Try and focus."

"We're almost out of the city," Luke cut in, still not enjoying the argument.

Together, everyone – except Luke – looked back out the window panel in the rear of the car. The view of the city was astonishing. Nearly two thirds of it was just gone, and it looked like a ghost town, even in miniature, even as a backdrop to their escape. There was no going back. There was nothing to get back to. They had to call the military and stop the monster, before it moved somewhere else.

A few moments later, when they were on the interstate and officially out of the city, a cell phone began to ring. Kisho produced it from a pocket or hell knew where, and held it to her ear.

"Hello?" she greeted whoever was on the other line.

Kisho was quiet for a long time. Finally, she said "Thank you" and hung up her phone.

"Who was it?" Kohaku asked, being the one who had the most right to voice that question.

"It was the insurance company," Kisho returned. "Someone died."

"Who?" Levaios asked, concerned.

"No one important," Kisho said. "I didn't recognize the name, and if it was important, I would have recognized the name."

"Why are they calling you?" Kohaku asked.

"I was the heir. I have an inheritance," Kisho said.

"What is it?" Zaiden asked, not liking this one bit. This was just about the worst time for his enemy to receive some sort of unexpected windfall.

"I just inherited the city of Silver Spring. I'm not sure how," Kisho said.

Silver Spring was the city they had just left. Zaiden began to laugh, and didn't stop even when everyone else looked at him strangely. Luke darted one quick black glance at him before returning his attention to the road. Oh, hell. That was rich.

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(AN: Now, I just want to know. Did anyone notice what I was doing, with Zaiden and Kisho's big exchange? Come on, give me your thoughts on that dialogue. Also, I grew up in a town called Silver Spring. I thought it was strangely appropriate, even though no one made movies there.)