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Description
From the Files of Frank Womack, Kaiju Expert*

Kaiju File # 008

T'zakka (Tuh-Zah-Ka)

First Seen: Lesser Antilles islands, Caribbean Sea
Last Seen: Precursor Site Xibalba (Currently Located)

Primary Range: Central and South America

Dietary Preference: Thermal/Electrical Energy

Description: A kaiju very easily spotted, T'zakka is an enormous avian creature resembling many outdated artistic depictions of the long extinct family Pterosauria, with a neon green, scaly hide running down its entire length and a gigantic, leathery wingspan. Accentuating this are patches of bright yellow and a magenta stripe running down its flank, though its color has changed depending on the mood of the organism. Unlike pterosaurs, however, this creature walks with an exclusively bipedal gait, and its wings support very little weight at all. Despite this, it can engage in powered flight, utilizing compressed air and the energy of the sun to somehow lift its gargantuan bulk off of the ground. With enough exposure to the sun beforehand, it can fly for many, many miles, across entire countries if prompted. Physicists collectively threw up their arms and stormed out of their offices when shown the sight in a recording.

While we're still on that subject, T'zakka is very easily prompted. Unlike many kaiju that had appeared at that point, which prefer solitude 9 times out of 10, T'zakka has a mean streak. It seems to experience joy from wrecking things, and its months long rampage targeting many prominent central and south american cities have earned it a nasty reputation. As for why, it seems to have to do with the reflective metals on the buildings, which attract its attention. When flying in, the damage it does resembles the manner that the kaiju Uthegar uses, creating shockwaves by flying low overhead, only with less speed and much more intentional behavior. When grounded, its wings can be used as blunt force weapons capable of surprising amounts of damage and pain, and its beak, coupled with powerful neck muscles, can break through solid steel with no effort at all. It even seems to recognize individual humans, despite our minuscule size, as a target, and will go out of its way to step on groups of them. When engaging other monsters, which it seems to also enjoy, it fights dirty, often targeting soft parts such as the eyes and throat with its sharp beak before they can react, and then proceed to knock them around whilst blinded or otherwise incapacitated.

Interestingly enough, there is a flipside to T'zakka's personality. After the official UNDER investigation into its home territory, it was discovered that T'zakka was part of the first known case of kaiju cohabitation. The amphibious monster Doradon inhabits the same area it calls home, and though the two are far from friendly, they seem to tolerate one another, a lesson T'zakka likely learned the hard way, given Doradon's scaly golden hide well fits into what T'zakka typically targets. Some wonder if its destructive tendencies reflect the frustration at not being able to best its flatmate, as though its taking its own anger out on us instead, but this is a pretty contested hypothesis. Personally, I think these experts have never had to share a room with someone they didn't like.

Defense Protocols: T'zakka has proven to be a difficult target for armed response forces. The rainforest it inhabits is a dangerous enough area to traverse, and getting a proper army through it is almost impossible. It stays inland mostly, putting it squarely out of range for UNDER's attack carriers, and the sheer volume of the amazon make airstrikes too fuel-consuming to attempt in most cases. But, it does have a weakness you can exploit from the safety of your own home! T'zakka loves shiny things. Stereotypical, yes. But it works. In one instance, the creature entirely avoided attacking the city of Lima in favor of going for a solar farm outside its limits. As such, setting several reflective surfaces such as mirrors, glass panels and the like away from cities can cause it to fly to those instead, sating its destructive needs and returning home, or possibly just buying time for people to evacuate, as T'zakka can appear with little warning.

Should it be close enough to warrant a response, standard measures can work at driving it away. Its too fast for the SOL and too quick to retreat for a mecha to be a viable option, but a few airstrikes or artillery rounds typically can send it a fitting message. If another monster is nearby, this additional pestering can work even faster to drive it away.

Noteworthy Abilities:

-Compressed Air: T'zakka, through unknown means, is able to produce several gases lighter than oxygen in its body, as well as some heavier. It uses these to aid in takeoffs and landings when flying, and in the event of being attacked by an opponent it would rather not face, it can create a distraction by blasting them with a sharp blast from its mouth or several of its vents on its underside. These blasts can be a lot deadlier than they sound, people unfortunate enough to be near it can be killed from the force of the wave alone, if not the distance it throws their bodies.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: As I mentioned a couple of entries ago, the rise of Grorn facilitated a sudden paradigm shift on earth. Over a span of six years, only five kaiju had appeared, and only two of them weren't killed within 36 hours of their appearance. After Grorn, however, the sightings began to increase. What started with a sighting every other year became a sighting every six months or so. And they seemed to enjoy finding new ways to test the patience of the world and those who defended it.

Enter T'zakka. It wasn't the first confirmed kaiju sighting post-Grorn, but I do believe it to be the first one active. The reptavian creature had unconfirmed sightings within months of the battle in Dubai, with villagers from remote parts of south america all telling the same story about an enormous green creature flying overhead, toppling trees and screeching as though it came from the bowels of the earth. Attempts at photographing it only resulted in blurs, leading to a lot of cryptid jokes among the more cynical of my community. Months of this passed, but some of us kaiju spotters, myself included, noticed a pattern emerging from these stories, each one came from a place further and further northeast from the last. The thing was moving in an almost straight line for the coast of Venezuela. I sent word to the people of UNDER, and though at first I was met with deaf ears, one of my unnamed contacts decided to contact the OVER board and see if they could give them some eyes in that area with a satellite. Sure enough, there it was. Basking in the Caribbean sea, a sinuous, leathery green island with a world's worth of attitude, we had been introduced to T'zakka. What forces could be assembled were deployed within the hour, and the creature's reverie was broken quickly by several Arak missiles, a new design OVER had approved as an anti-kaiju measure. Unlike the disastrous incident with Takraw, these succeeded in driving the creature back inland, far out of the reach of their longest ranged weapons. Its reign of terror over the people of these rainforest-covered nations had only just begun, however, flying in and out before anyone could do much of anything about it. It moved too quickly for the SOL, and after Takraw very few were willing to put the weapon on the table of discussion at all.

Fortunately, T'zakka was far from the most dangerous kaiju we had seen, and could be distracted by reflective surfaces enough to prevent people from dying unnecessarily. But the question ultimately was, where did it rest after a raid. All accounts pointed that it flew in the direction of the central Andes mountains, and so an UNDER strike team was deployed, tagging the creature during its attack on Lima and following its trail to a place that would change the way we saw the world forever. Site X, or Xibalba as its codenamed, an ancient ruin older than any known human one, and on the wrong side of the globe to boot. Bones of nine foot tall giants were strewn about, as well as the iconic obsidian remains of several kaiju skeletons. And underneath all of that, they encountered technology so mysterious and ancient no one could decipher its meaning. It resembled the battery used by the Order of Saint George to lure Uthegar into the Russian mine, but served no discernible function. But, before they could study more, T'zakka attempted to bring the roof down on their heads. The neighboring kaiju Doradon, possessing a much more relaxed demeanor, came to investigate, and the two squabbled while the team escaped. They had little to share with the rest of the bureau, but they knew they one thing, they had not seen the last of that place. Or others like it.
---------------------------------

*These files are in no representative of nor indicating the opinions and/or facts concerning various government bureaus, including but not limited to: The United Nations, UNDER, etc. These are unofficial productions by a private citizen determined to aid the concerned public in the event of a kaiju or extraterrestrial incursion and are in no way to be considered authoritative reports on the aforementioned dangers.

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

Hey again everyone! Next entry is up, and I have to admit I'm a little proud of how this one turned out. As stated above, Grorn marks a new chapter of the fathom series, and the kaiju that begin to emerge will be a bit less singularly important for the time being until we get to the next important turning point in the narrative. My goal is notsomuch to give you all simple filler monsters, however. I'm trying to make these concepts as fun as I can, the kind of monster designs I would enjoy seeing in a series someone else made.

Now, T'zakka's initial origin is actually pretty great for me. If you ever feel creatively in a slump, I recommend staying up late doing something creative like writing or art and trying to sleep immediately after. I don't know if it works for everyone, but for me, its like my subconscious turns itself onto overdrive when I'm exhausted. I see dream-like images in my head while still awake, and I do my best to surrender to the current and remember what I saw afterwards. It's not the most productive way to work, in fact its not productive at all, but every once in a while I do it for the surge of inspiration that comes to me. And, quite frequently, what I see are monsters, fully formed and moving around, engaging in different things. T'zakka, and another monster you'll be seeing soon, both came from the same waking dream from last year. Seeing a bright green tapejara-esque creature with spines on its neck wasn't what I was expecting, but the feeling I got watching it move really got my creative juices flowing, and the next day I attempted to draw what I had seen. This is as close as I can get it, and I really enjoyed drawing it out. This was a fun coloring experiment too.

As for roles, we're starting to get to the point where monsters don't have specific analogues for every case. Many serve an almost monster of the week purpose, like an Ultra kaiju. T'zakka fights a lot like the showa rodan after its origin film, the big, burly flyer that can be a lot more physically dangerous than you'd think, but its character is almost more starscream-esque. He's an ass that only thinks of himself and will only pick fights it knows it can win.

Anyway, I have another entry planned for this week, but jury's out for whether or not I get it done in time. If not, it'll likely be up next week like I did with Grorn. Until then, enjoy.

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

Updated for the new template! Unfortunately most of my other oldies are probably going to need to be redrawn, if not for spacing issues then for changes in tastes of lackluster execution. Personally, I think the new looks will be much better received, so stay tuned!

Description
From the Files of Frank Womack, Kaiju Expert*

Kaiju File # 008

T'zakka (Tuh-Zah-Ka)

First Seen: Lesser Antilles islands, Caribbean Sea
Last Seen: Precursor Site Xibalba (Currently Located)

Primary Range: Central and South America

Dietary Preference: Thermal/Electrical Energy

Description: A kaiju very easily spotted, T'zakka is an enormous avian creature resembling many outdated artistic depictions of the long extinct family Pterosauria, with a neon green, scaly hide running down its entire length and a gigantic, leathery wingspan. Accentuating this are patches of bright yellow and a magenta stripe running down its flank, though its color has changed depending on the mood of the organism. Unlike pterosaurs, however, this creature walks with an exclusively bipedal gait, and its wings support very little weight at all. Despite this, it can engage in powered flight, utilizing compressed air and the energy of the sun to somehow lift its gargantuan bulk off of the ground. With enough exposure to the sun beforehand, it can fly for many, many miles, across entire countries if prompted. Physicists collectively threw up their arms and stormed out of their offices when shown the sight in a recording.

While we're still on that subject, T'zakka is very easily prompted. Unlike many kaiju that had appeared at that point, which prefer solitude 9 times out of 10, T'zakka has a mean streak. It seems to experience joy from wrecking things, and its months long rampage targeting many prominent central and south american cities have earned it a nasty reputation. As for why, it seems to have to do with the reflective metals on the buildings, which attract its attention. When flying in, the damage it does resembles the manner that the kaiju Uthegar uses, creating shockwaves by flying low overhead, only with less speed and much more intentional behavior. When grounded, its wings can be used as blunt force weapons capable of surprising amounts of damage and pain, and its beak, coupled with powerful neck muscles, can break through solid steel with no effort at all. It even seems to recognize individual humans, despite our minuscule size, as a target, and will go out of its way to step on groups of them. When engaging other monsters, which it seems to also enjoy, it fights dirty, often targeting soft parts such as the eyes and throat with its sharp beak before they can react, and then proceed to knock them around whilst blinded or otherwise incapacitated.

Interestingly enough, there is a flipside to T'zakka's personality. After the official UNDER investigation into its home territory, it was discovered that T'zakka was part of the first known case of kaiju cohabitation. The amphibious monster Doradon inhabits the same area it calls home, and though the two are far from friendly, they seem to tolerate one another, a lesson T'zakka likely learned the hard way, given Doradon's scaly golden hide well fits into what T'zakka typically targets. Some wonder if its destructive tendencies reflect the frustration at not being able to best its flatmate, as though its taking its own anger out on us instead, but this is a pretty contested hypothesis. Personally, I think these experts have never had to share a room with someone they didn't like.

Defense Protocols: T'zakka has proven to be a difficult target for armed response forces. The rainforest it inhabits is a dangerous enough area to traverse, and getting a proper army through it is almost impossible. It stays inland mostly, putting it squarely out of range for UNDER's attack carriers, and the sheer volume of the amazon make airstrikes too fuel-consuming to attempt in most cases. But, it does have a weakness you can exploit from the safety of your own home! T'zakka loves shiny things. Stereotypical, yes. But it works. In one instance, the creature entirely avoided attacking the city of Lima in favor of going for a solar farm outside its limits. As such, setting several reflective surfaces such as mirrors, glass panels and the like away from cities can cause it to fly to those instead, sating its destructive needs and returning home, or possibly just buying time for people to evacuate, as T'zakka can appear with little warning.

Should it be close enough to warrant a response, standard measures can work at driving it away. Its too fast for the SOL and too quick to retreat for a mecha to be a viable option, but a few airstrikes or artillery rounds typically can send it a fitting message. If another monster is nearby, this additional pestering can work even faster to drive it away.

Noteworthy Abilities:

-Compressed Air: T'zakka, through unknown means, is able to produce several gases lighter than oxygen in its body, as well as some heavier. It uses these to aid in takeoffs and landings when flying, and in the event of being attacked by an opponent it would rather not face, it can create a distraction by blasting them with a sharp blast from its mouth or several of its vents on its underside. These blasts can be a lot deadlier than they sound, people unfortunate enough to be near it can be killed from the force of the wave alone, if not the distance it throws their bodies.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: As I mentioned a couple of entries ago, the rise of Grorn facilitated a sudden paradigm shift on earth. Over a span of six years, only five kaiju had appeared, and only two of them weren't killed within 36 hours of their appearance. After Grorn, however, the sightings began to increase. What started with a sighting every other year became a sighting every six months or so. And they seemed to enjoy finding new ways to test the patience of the world and those who defended it.

Enter T'zakka. It wasn't the first confirmed kaiju sighting post-Grorn, but I do believe it to be the first one active. The reptavian creature had unconfirmed sightings within months of the battle in Dubai, with villagers from remote parts of south america all telling the same story about an enormous green creature flying overhead, toppling trees and screeching as though it came from the bowels of the earth. Attempts at photographing it only resulted in blurs, leading to a lot of cryptid jokes among the more cynical of my community. Months of this passed, but some of us kaiju spotters, myself included, noticed a pattern emerging from these stories, each one came from a place further and further northeast from the last. The thing was moving in an almost straight line for the coast of Venezuela. I sent word to the people of UNDER, and though at first I was met with deaf ears, one of my unnamed contacts decided to contact the OVER board and see if they could give them some eyes in that area with a satellite. Sure enough, there it was. Basking in the Caribbean sea, a sinuous, leathery green island with a world's worth of attitude, we had been introduced to T'zakka. What forces could be assembled were deployed within the hour, and the creature's reverie was broken quickly by several Arak missiles, a new design OVER had approved as an anti-kaiju measure. Unlike the disastrous incident with Takraw, these succeeded in driving the creature back inland, far out of the reach of their longest ranged weapons. Its reign of terror over the people of these rainforest-covered nations had only just begun, however, flying in and out before anyone could do much of anything about it. It moved too quickly for the SOL, and after Takraw very few were willing to put the weapon on the table of discussion at all.

Fortunately, T'zakka was far from the most dangerous kaiju we had seen, and could be distracted by reflective surfaces enough to prevent people from dying unnecessarily. But the question ultimately was, where did it rest after a raid. All accounts pointed that it flew in the direction of the central Andes mountains, and so an UNDER strike team was deployed, tagging the creature during its attack on Lima and following its trail to a place that would change the way we saw the world forever. Site X, or Xibalba as its codenamed, an ancient ruin older than any known human one, and on the wrong side of the globe to boot. Bones of nine foot tall giants were strewn about, as well as the iconic obsidian remains of several kaiju skeletons. And underneath all of that, they encountered technology so mysterious and ancient no one could decipher its meaning. It resembled the battery used by the Order of Saint George to lure Uthegar into the Russian mine, but served no discernible function. But, before they could study more, T'zakka attempted to bring the roof down on their heads. The neighboring kaiju Doradon, possessing a much more relaxed demeanor, came to investigate, and the two squabbled while the team escaped. They had little to share with the rest of the bureau, but they knew they one thing, they had not seen the last of that place. Or others like it.
---------------------------------

*These files are in no representative of nor indicating the opinions and/or facts concerning various government bureaus, including but not limited to: The United Nations, UNDER, etc. These are unofficial productions by a private citizen determined to aid the concerned public in the event of a kaiju or extraterrestrial incursion and are in no way to be considered authoritative reports on the aforementioned dangers.

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

Hey again everyone! Next entry is up, and I have to admit I'm a little proud of how this one turned out. As stated above, Grorn marks a new chapter of the fathom series, and the kaiju that begin to emerge will be a bit less singularly important for the time being until we get to the next important turning point in the narrative. My goal is notsomuch to give you all simple filler monsters, however. I'm trying to make these concepts as fun as I can, the kind of monster designs I would enjoy seeing in a series someone else made.

Now, T'zakka's initial origin is actually pretty great for me. If you ever feel creatively in a slump, I recommend staying up late doing something creative like writing or art and trying to sleep immediately after. I don't know if it works for everyone, but for me, its like my subconscious turns itself onto overdrive when I'm exhausted. I see dream-like images in my head while still awake, and I do my best to surrender to the current and remember what I saw afterwards. It's not the most productive way to work, in fact its not productive at all, but every once in a while I do it for the surge of inspiration that comes to me. And, quite frequently, what I see are monsters, fully formed and moving around, engaging in different things. T'zakka, and another monster you'll be seeing soon, both came from the same waking dream from last year. Seeing a bright green tapejara-esque creature with spines on its neck wasn't what I was expecting, but the feeling I got watching it move really got my creative juices flowing, and the next day I attempted to draw what I had seen. This is as close as I can get it, and I really enjoyed drawing it out. This was a fun coloring experiment too.

As for roles, we're starting to get to the point where monsters don't have specific analogues for every case. Many serve an almost monster of the week purpose, like an Ultra kaiju. T'zakka fights a lot like the showa rodan after its origin film, the big, burly flyer that can be a lot more physically dangerous than you'd think, but its character is almost more starscream-esque. He's an ass that only thinks of himself and will only pick fights it knows it can win.

Anyway, I have another entry planned for this week, but jury's out for whether or not I get it done in time. If not, it'll likely be up next week like I did with Grorn. Until then, enjoy.

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

Updated for the new template! Unfortunately most of my other oldies are probably going to need to be redrawn, if not for spacing issues then for changes in tastes of lackluster execution. Personally, I think the new looks will be much better received, so stay tuned!