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Description
From the Desk of Frank Womack

Kaiju File # 021

Fleurex

First and Last Seen: Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Possible sighting at Site Xibalba, unconfirmed)

Primary Range: N/A

Dietary Preference: All

Description: A horrific amalgamation of all manner of plants, especially flowers, the beast known as Fleurex was the final foe of the Syyd incursion, but just saying that puts a bit of the limiter to the beast, a bookend to a massive invasion. In reality, we had never encountered something quite like this beast, and never would again for many, many years. Each part of it's body bears a superficial resemblance to a flower of some kind, each with a nasty chemical surprise of it's own, and at the top of this was a shockingly human-like face, armed with an intelligence I think we only were witnessing the beginnings of. Had it lived longer we might have been outcompeted as the supreme lifeform on this or any world. By it's 'demise' (unknown) it had truly surpassed being called a Syyd at all. It was something entirely new and entirely devoted to destroying all around it.

Defense Protocols: I normally would list all destroyed kaiju that haven't appeared since as deceased, such as Umbara's decades of absence, but with Fleurex, I feel like ticking that box will only increase chances of it returning through some dark miracle. And I don't want people caught unprepared. If it should come back, I am not exaggerating when I say drop everything and get as far away as you can as fast as you can. Hit it from orbit, as many times as it takes. Do not get close. Do not look back.

Noteworthy Abilities:

-Plant Control: All Syyd, with a few exceptions, were basically eusocial, obeying the chemical commands of their respective Stalk. These chemical commands were often programmed into their alien nervous system equivalents to where they could even follow them hundreds of miles away. Their programming varied based on caste and the situation. Fleurex, the final gamble of the Hive-Mind that would prove its undoing, took control of this and was able to wield all Syyd, no matter how torn to shreds, as expendable weapons and extensions of itself.

-Genetic Acid: Each Syyd is capable of producing a strange, quite difficult to classify substance, a bright green liquid that functions similarly to an acid, capable of dissolving organic matter into a liquid state. However, it stopped short of total destruction and only broke down the victim into a pool of DNA, and promptly stopped breaking it down and began preserving it. We lack the technology to properly observe what exactly happens here at the genetic level, the liquid seemed to do nothing once separated from its Syyd propagator. It's almost as if it was just as much a Syyd itself and operated with the same level of eusocial intelligence and discrimination. But again, we can't know for sure, and likely never will. Syyd aren't exactly being made anymore, their creators went extinct some time ago, turns out. Fleurex, however, did more than wield it. It experimented, concocting new versions of this acid on the fly. It even managed to weaponize kaiju cells, much as Doctor Gaither had before, and used them as a sapient swarm to counter the regenerative powers of the kaiju it battled.

-Genius Intellect: Fleurex's defining attribute, what made it so scary, was more than it's genes, more than it's alien motive. It had a little more. Something that has proven multiple times to be a volatile mix when mixing genetic material together. It's brain, or whatever equivalent, emanated enormous amounts of the specific waves our own minds shed. This was more than a thinking creature, it was truly sapient, and incredibly intelligent and perceptive. Combining that with the rapid regenerative power of kaiju cells has proven, quite painfully, to be a deadly mix, often resulting in mania and immense sensory pain as the brain only continues to grow and expand itself, not to mention the immense energy costs such brainpower requires. It also allows for godlike abilities to dodge and counter in physical combat as the nervous system likewise grows. It got very Akira by the end.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The final stage, the pulverized ruins of Amsterdam and the legions of dead Syyd all scattered about, only one large... thing of some kind remained. A massive green cauldron that now was roiling and convulsing more than ever before. The remaining two kaiju standing, Stormback the thunderlizard with a near perfect record for destruction, and Giganuuk , the colossal bear that had brought the world's largest nations to their knees at the start of this whole nightmare a decade past, were an uneasy alliance at best, each seemed quite eager for the fight to be over so they could tear into one another. Were it not for Rigel bringing a bit of heroism to the table, the situation might have seemed less hopeful and more a contest to see what way we would eventually be destroyed when one apocalypse destroyed the other.

The pair of kaiju roared in defiance of this last enemy to conquer. Giganuuk had already harmed it's exterior quite severely when it made a shrapnel cyclone over the city, and it was bleeding and oozing out the dangerous DNA manipulating acid the Syyd used so well. But as the storm generated by these two titans' presence raged on, the massive plant just... popped, and began to shrivel down. And from within it, stretched out on an enormous tendril like a naga from green hell, was a colorful, harlequin face no one could ever forget. The final ace in the hole, their last ditch effort to carry out their directive to alter the earth, was born. Or, more accurately, Fleurex, the king of plants, was born.

The creature's floral umbilical cord was severed quite quickly by Rigel, bringing it to the ground before it could grow further. It stood shorter than all of it's challengers, only topping at about 75 meters, but that hardly mattered. The fight that followed was more than enough for all of us.

Fleurex had every weapon of the Syyd at it's disposal, and I mean that literally. All of the fallen Syyd were beginning to stir, fighting at it's command with an utter lack of self-preservation, and nothing short of complete disintegration could keep them from coming right back. This distraction proved enough to keep the kaiju pair occupied, but Rigel saw the ruse, and the pilot, Rafael Santo, thought for sure he was looking the Hive-Mind itself in the eyes, and charged in effort to Phantom Menace the problem to death. The first blows were deadly and effective, the ancient technology proving lethal to it's quite hardy skin, but quite quickly it became apparent that Fleurex wasn't taking the blows out of a lack of skill, it was only a lack of concern for it's own well-being. And it didn't take long before it began countering and dodging each swing of the mech's blades with ease, as though it saw the blows coming from miles away and returning fire itself. Fortunately, it lacked the power to pierce the machine's skin at first, and was thus occupied with finding a solution to this roadblock.

As it contemplated, it's weakness began to show as the Syyd cadavers, many taking on entirely new shapes never seen before or since, began to slow and wilt, as though being consumed from within. This strategizing cost a lot more than it could sustain on its own, but unfortunately it didn't take long before it grew the enormous red claws that tore Rigel's chassis to ribbons, putting the mech out of commission for years. It was around then that Giganuuk and Stormback had run out of things to attack and returned to the real battle. Fleurex, standing triumphantly over its shining foe, turned around just in time to get bulldozed by a charging bear the size of an old football stadium, with lethal projectile support from Stormback keeping it from moving anywhere it shouldn't. Each blow from these feral beasts took less strategy to dodge, but that didn't stop it from being effectively pinned down by raw, sheer power and long metal claws that only seemed to get sharper and sharper. Giganuuk's fury kicked up another typhoon of sharp metal as well, which even it's best strategy couldn't fight. And when Stormback responded by using her ion breath to superheat said cyclone, well that hurt. A lot.

Fleurex stood bleeding, wounded severely, and began to convulse as it's body began to produce great amounts of green ooze, which flowed out like a tidal wave in the largely aquatic city ruins. All the remaining Syyd bits began to converge on it's body, attaching and stitching itself back together, and it answered the pair in kind with an onslaught of roots and razor sharp petals. Stormback, famously, lost an arm and half of her tail, and Giganuuk was stricken blind as it's eyes were pierced. And thanks to the ooze, mostly made up of repurposed kaiju cells, the regeneration that safeguarded them for so long was being halted entirely. The pair of pained beasts were then ravaged on all sides, still quite capable of causing damage but it was clear the tide of the fight was changing away from their favor. But then something unexpected happened, and the beast was contacted by something we had scarcely heard speak.

Rigel's AI, a Precursor relic known for speaking in cryptic threats, began to converse with the being in binary, overloading it's brain with too much information and forcing it to use its precious energy reserves to compensate for this new information. Strangely, Fleurex began to speak in tongues, including fully formed English, and two words in particular kept being uttered. Okutan and Otonuum. And the voice was a terrified one. My guess? It was told a dark, bordering on Lovecraftian truth. But it might have been worse. Either way, it fell on deaf ears for the pair of ravaged kaiju, who began to slowly regrow as Fleurex's ooze faded to dust around them and the roots it attacked with dessicated down to nothing. Giganuuk, breathing heavily, turned to look at its companion as it's eyes slowly regrew, and with a sigh, the metal of the city began to coalesce on them both, forming over their wounded bodies in a protective shell of armor. And their final charge against Fleurex, who was now bordering on gibbering, feral madness, was the stuff of legends. The pair tore him apart, using every weapon at their disposal. With a final shot from the downed Rigel, the plant king began to wither and wilt down to nothing. All that remained was a massive red growth coming out of the back of it's head that never seemed to stop growing, eventually it was like a massive tree with a brain instead of leaves, and it was visible from space! But it too fell to Stormback and Giganuuk's respective powers, exploding in a violent, beautiful golden cloud of spores that scattered into the atmosphere, never to be seen again.

Giganuuk immediately collapsed, entering a state of torpor that would last for years as the floating metal of the city remains all collapsed to the earth. Stormback lingered, roaring in victory, but turned to look at her fallen comrade, who could now be so easily bested, but huffed quietly and trudged into the ocean and disappeared. The remaining kaiju slowly regained consciousness and went their separate ways. The battle, the Syyd invasion, was ended.

Well, sort of. There were remaining relicts of the various castes to be found worldwide, but their behavior was changing. They lost their higher calling, as it were, and began to behave as most kaiju do, and the threat seemed to die off, and slowly but surely, peace returned to the world. Kaiju attacks went down in frequency by a large margin, Precursor technology was revealed to the world and used to start the repairs of our broken civilization, and, for the first time in ten years, I had nothing to talk about.

It was a good time.

Was.

---------------------------------

Well, I don't know about you guys, but man, these past two years since I really started this project (Four years counting my first attempt with Raygar back in late 2014) have just been crazy. So much has changed for me. I've lost a laptop, moved twice, changed jobs four times, and even became a father. But this series, these Fathom Files, have been a good constant in all of that, an amazing creative exercise and a wonderful escape when things weren't going so good for me. I'm super proud of what I've managed to put together here, so thank you for sticking around and joining me on this wacky ride I've made.

But don't by any means think I'm done. No sir. This is just the first part of many. Granted, it's the only one I've concretely laid out and planned from start to finish. So anything from here on will likely be in a more haphazard order, or lack thereof, until I can get a better plan together. So don't worry, I've got a LOT more kaiju planned for the future. Including quite a few from my past. As for who, well you'll see.

And on the note of kaiju, Fleurex, right? One of the weirdest and most visually complex concepts I've ever had, this floral colossus was born from an image I once saw of a monkey-faced orchid, which led to a massive rabbit hole of research into weird plants of the world. In fact, there's not a single part of this guy that isn't directly lifted from a real plant. Look it all up sometime, there's some amazing stuff out there, way more fodder for creature designs than just venus flytraps! All that said, as with (I think) most of my kaiju, I don't really think I can truly portray Fleurex at my current level of skill. This is just my best approximation, and while I'm very satisfied with it, I no doubt will attempt it again one day. Same goes for a lot of my designs, really, they're all a work in progress in some fashion or other!

But either way, I hope you enjoyed this, whether you're starting now or have been around since the beginning! Expect more to come in the new year! Thanks for Watching!

Description
From the Desk of Frank Womack

Kaiju File # 021

Fleurex

First and Last Seen: Amsterdam, the Netherlands (Possible sighting at Site Xibalba, unconfirmed)

Primary Range: N/A

Dietary Preference: All

Description: A horrific amalgamation of all manner of plants, especially flowers, the beast known as Fleurex was the final foe of the Syyd incursion, but just saying that puts a bit of the limiter to the beast, a bookend to a massive invasion. In reality, we had never encountered something quite like this beast, and never would again for many, many years. Each part of it's body bears a superficial resemblance to a flower of some kind, each with a nasty chemical surprise of it's own, and at the top of this was a shockingly human-like face, armed with an intelligence I think we only were witnessing the beginnings of. Had it lived longer we might have been outcompeted as the supreme lifeform on this or any world. By it's 'demise' (unknown) it had truly surpassed being called a Syyd at all. It was something entirely new and entirely devoted to destroying all around it.

Defense Protocols: I normally would list all destroyed kaiju that haven't appeared since as deceased, such as Umbara's decades of absence, but with Fleurex, I feel like ticking that box will only increase chances of it returning through some dark miracle. And I don't want people caught unprepared. If it should come back, I am not exaggerating when I say drop everything and get as far away as you can as fast as you can. Hit it from orbit, as many times as it takes. Do not get close. Do not look back.

Noteworthy Abilities:

-Plant Control: All Syyd, with a few exceptions, were basically eusocial, obeying the chemical commands of their respective Stalk. These chemical commands were often programmed into their alien nervous system equivalents to where they could even follow them hundreds of miles away. Their programming varied based on caste and the situation. Fleurex, the final gamble of the Hive-Mind that would prove its undoing, took control of this and was able to wield all Syyd, no matter how torn to shreds, as expendable weapons and extensions of itself.

-Genetic Acid: Each Syyd is capable of producing a strange, quite difficult to classify substance, a bright green liquid that functions similarly to an acid, capable of dissolving organic matter into a liquid state. However, it stopped short of total destruction and only broke down the victim into a pool of DNA, and promptly stopped breaking it down and began preserving it. We lack the technology to properly observe what exactly happens here at the genetic level, the liquid seemed to do nothing once separated from its Syyd propagator. It's almost as if it was just as much a Syyd itself and operated with the same level of eusocial intelligence and discrimination. But again, we can't know for sure, and likely never will. Syyd aren't exactly being made anymore, their creators went extinct some time ago, turns out. Fleurex, however, did more than wield it. It experimented, concocting new versions of this acid on the fly. It even managed to weaponize kaiju cells, much as Doctor Gaither had before, and used them as a sapient swarm to counter the regenerative powers of the kaiju it battled.

-Genius Intellect: Fleurex's defining attribute, what made it so scary, was more than it's genes, more than it's alien motive. It had a little more. Something that has proven multiple times to be a volatile mix when mixing genetic material together. It's brain, or whatever equivalent, emanated enormous amounts of the specific waves our own minds shed. This was more than a thinking creature, it was truly sapient, and incredibly intelligent and perceptive. Combining that with the rapid regenerative power of kaiju cells has proven, quite painfully, to be a deadly mix, often resulting in mania and immense sensory pain as the brain only continues to grow and expand itself, not to mention the immense energy costs such brainpower requires. It also allows for godlike abilities to dodge and counter in physical combat as the nervous system likewise grows. It got very Akira by the end.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: The final stage, the pulverized ruins of Amsterdam and the legions of dead Syyd all scattered about, only one large... thing of some kind remained. A massive green cauldron that now was roiling and convulsing more than ever before. The remaining two kaiju standing, Stormback the thunderlizard with a near perfect record for destruction, and Giganuuk , the colossal bear that had brought the world's largest nations to their knees at the start of this whole nightmare a decade past, were an uneasy alliance at best, each seemed quite eager for the fight to be over so they could tear into one another. Were it not for Rigel bringing a bit of heroism to the table, the situation might have seemed less hopeful and more a contest to see what way we would eventually be destroyed when one apocalypse destroyed the other.

The pair of kaiju roared in defiance of this last enemy to conquer. Giganuuk had already harmed it's exterior quite severely when it made a shrapnel cyclone over the city, and it was bleeding and oozing out the dangerous DNA manipulating acid the Syyd used so well. But as the storm generated by these two titans' presence raged on, the massive plant just... popped, and began to shrivel down. And from within it, stretched out on an enormous tendril like a naga from green hell, was a colorful, harlequin face no one could ever forget. The final ace in the hole, their last ditch effort to carry out their directive to alter the earth, was born. Or, more accurately, Fleurex, the king of plants, was born.

The creature's floral umbilical cord was severed quite quickly by Rigel, bringing it to the ground before it could grow further. It stood shorter than all of it's challengers, only topping at about 75 meters, but that hardly mattered. The fight that followed was more than enough for all of us.

Fleurex had every weapon of the Syyd at it's disposal, and I mean that literally. All of the fallen Syyd were beginning to stir, fighting at it's command with an utter lack of self-preservation, and nothing short of complete disintegration could keep them from coming right back. This distraction proved enough to keep the kaiju pair occupied, but Rigel saw the ruse, and the pilot, Rafael Santo, thought for sure he was looking the Hive-Mind itself in the eyes, and charged in effort to Phantom Menace the problem to death. The first blows were deadly and effective, the ancient technology proving lethal to it's quite hardy skin, but quite quickly it became apparent that Fleurex wasn't taking the blows out of a lack of skill, it was only a lack of concern for it's own well-being. And it didn't take long before it began countering and dodging each swing of the mech's blades with ease, as though it saw the blows coming from miles away and returning fire itself. Fortunately, it lacked the power to pierce the machine's skin at first, and was thus occupied with finding a solution to this roadblock.

As it contemplated, it's weakness began to show as the Syyd cadavers, many taking on entirely new shapes never seen before or since, began to slow and wilt, as though being consumed from within. This strategizing cost a lot more than it could sustain on its own, but unfortunately it didn't take long before it grew the enormous red claws that tore Rigel's chassis to ribbons, putting the mech out of commission for years. It was around then that Giganuuk and Stormback had run out of things to attack and returned to the real battle. Fleurex, standing triumphantly over its shining foe, turned around just in time to get bulldozed by a charging bear the size of an old football stadium, with lethal projectile support from Stormback keeping it from moving anywhere it shouldn't. Each blow from these feral beasts took less strategy to dodge, but that didn't stop it from being effectively pinned down by raw, sheer power and long metal claws that only seemed to get sharper and sharper. Giganuuk's fury kicked up another typhoon of sharp metal as well, which even it's best strategy couldn't fight. And when Stormback responded by using her ion breath to superheat said cyclone, well that hurt. A lot.

Fleurex stood bleeding, wounded severely, and began to convulse as it's body began to produce great amounts of green ooze, which flowed out like a tidal wave in the largely aquatic city ruins. All the remaining Syyd bits began to converge on it's body, attaching and stitching itself back together, and it answered the pair in kind with an onslaught of roots and razor sharp petals. Stormback, famously, lost an arm and half of her tail, and Giganuuk was stricken blind as it's eyes were pierced. And thanks to the ooze, mostly made up of repurposed kaiju cells, the regeneration that safeguarded them for so long was being halted entirely. The pair of pained beasts were then ravaged on all sides, still quite capable of causing damage but it was clear the tide of the fight was changing away from their favor. But then something unexpected happened, and the beast was contacted by something we had scarcely heard speak.

Rigel's AI, a Precursor relic known for speaking in cryptic threats, began to converse with the being in binary, overloading it's brain with too much information and forcing it to use its precious energy reserves to compensate for this new information. Strangely, Fleurex began to speak in tongues, including fully formed English, and two words in particular kept being uttered. Okutan and Otonuum. And the voice was a terrified one. My guess? It was told a dark, bordering on Lovecraftian truth. But it might have been worse. Either way, it fell on deaf ears for the pair of ravaged kaiju, who began to slowly regrow as Fleurex's ooze faded to dust around them and the roots it attacked with dessicated down to nothing. Giganuuk, breathing heavily, turned to look at its companion as it's eyes slowly regrew, and with a sigh, the metal of the city began to coalesce on them both, forming over their wounded bodies in a protective shell of armor. And their final charge against Fleurex, who was now bordering on gibbering, feral madness, was the stuff of legends. The pair tore him apart, using every weapon at their disposal. With a final shot from the downed Rigel, the plant king began to wither and wilt down to nothing. All that remained was a massive red growth coming out of the back of it's head that never seemed to stop growing, eventually it was like a massive tree with a brain instead of leaves, and it was visible from space! But it too fell to Stormback and Giganuuk's respective powers, exploding in a violent, beautiful golden cloud of spores that scattered into the atmosphere, never to be seen again.

Giganuuk immediately collapsed, entering a state of torpor that would last for years as the floating metal of the city remains all collapsed to the earth. Stormback lingered, roaring in victory, but turned to look at her fallen comrade, who could now be so easily bested, but huffed quietly and trudged into the ocean and disappeared. The remaining kaiju slowly regained consciousness and went their separate ways. The battle, the Syyd invasion, was ended.

Well, sort of. There were remaining relicts of the various castes to be found worldwide, but their behavior was changing. They lost their higher calling, as it were, and began to behave as most kaiju do, and the threat seemed to die off, and slowly but surely, peace returned to the world. Kaiju attacks went down in frequency by a large margin, Precursor technology was revealed to the world and used to start the repairs of our broken civilization, and, for the first time in ten years, I had nothing to talk about.

It was a good time.

Was.

---------------------------------

Well, I don't know about you guys, but man, these past two years since I really started this project (Four years counting my first attempt with Raygar back in late 2014) have just been crazy. So much has changed for me. I've lost a laptop, moved twice, changed jobs four times, and even became a father. But this series, these Fathom Files, have been a good constant in all of that, an amazing creative exercise and a wonderful escape when things weren't going so good for me. I'm super proud of what I've managed to put together here, so thank you for sticking around and joining me on this wacky ride I've made.

But don't by any means think I'm done. No sir. This is just the first part of many. Granted, it's the only one I've concretely laid out and planned from start to finish. So anything from here on will likely be in a more haphazard order, or lack thereof, until I can get a better plan together. So don't worry, I've got a LOT more kaiju planned for the future. Including quite a few from my past. As for who, well you'll see.

And on the note of kaiju, Fleurex, right? One of the weirdest and most visually complex concepts I've ever had, this floral colossus was born from an image I once saw of a monkey-faced orchid, which led to a massive rabbit hole of research into weird plants of the world. In fact, there's not a single part of this guy that isn't directly lifted from a real plant. Look it all up sometime, there's some amazing stuff out there, way more fodder for creature designs than just venus flytraps! All that said, as with (I think) most of my kaiju, I don't really think I can truly portray Fleurex at my current level of skill. This is just my best approximation, and while I'm very satisfied with it, I no doubt will attempt it again one day. Same goes for a lot of my designs, really, they're all a work in progress in some fashion or other!

But either way, I hope you enjoyed this, whether you're starting now or have been around since the beginning! Expect more to come in the new year! Thanks for Watching!