Good morning, Tokyo.

Masuka turned off the alarm with the laser and rolled over to face the window. The kid in the apartment below had parked his mech in front of the balconies again, obscuring the best view of the local skyline. Masuka sat up, shaking off sleep as the sounds of pterodactyls and helicopters faded from overhead, into the mechanical pulse of the city.

Masuka shuffled to the kitchen. He took the "hatcher" off the counter and tossed it to the floor. An inch before impact, the hatcher froze into glowing ball of light and released a "yubikin," a cyber-genetic hybrid looking something like a chipmunk crossed with a squid. Masuka set out a water dish and the yubikin scampered over to drop it's tentacles in the bowl.

Taking a canned orange juice from the fridge, Masuka looked at the yubikin. "We're late. You better jump in the bag."

Masuka left the building, pausing only to feed the magnetized aluminum into the recycle tube. He marveled at the brilliance of whoever figured out how to magnetize aluminum for mass production. In another five years, everyone would think it had always existed.

Yubikin squirmed in the messenger bag as Masuka's scooter hummed to life. He dodged a couple old ladies, took the alleyway shortcut, then pulled out into the nightmare river of machines. Mini jets, mechs, hydro-cycles, rocket cars, and bike messengers all dived for every open space as they raced to long days in front of their glow boxes.

Musuka hated wearing a helmet, but listened to his email as he rode. He used to soak in the city, but like everything else in his lonely life, that had grown too familiar. It became part of the chaos that he constantly struggled to tune out.

Masuka took his seat beside Tiko Timiko in their shared office. Tiko was a pretty girl behind her glasses. She designed electrical systems for tall buildings and the Downtown Renovations Initiative, a project that promised to keep the company busy for the next fifty years. They could turn to each other any time they wanted, but Masuka and Tiko had not spoken to each other in months--not without communicating through their consoles.

Masuka's glow box came to life and brought up a rendering of a city block. "Run rigidity and fire test, sealant six, existing architecture."

The screen shook. Masuka felt the vibrations in his seat. He glanced over at Tiko. She didn't even pause. She kept tracing circuits on the screen like a cyber doc going over capillaries of a "dead" robot. The dampeners blocked out everything.

Masuka stared at the rendered city as the earthquake subsided. A wind blew through the street and everything went completely quiet. Then, the world broke apart as a huge wave rushed through the streets, carrying digital people and tiny cars away in it's fury. Chunks of concrete flew out from one of the buildings at the end of the block. A hand curled around the edge of the building--a hideous, green hand, covered in scales.

Zilla-X.

The monster stepped into the street, drawing to its full height, its eyes glowing with rage. Even when awakened as part of a computer simulation, Zilla-X was not a "morning person."

Gunshots sounded from one of the windows, which only succeeded in angering the creature more. Masuka tapped his fingers impatiently. The kids who wrote these things always built unnecessary theatrics into the sims. A mini jet flew overhead and was batted down by Zilla-X.

The monster turned his attention to the buildings. He roared and breathed blue fire at the windows. He swung his head, wrapping three buildings in the inferno of his bad breath. Concrete crumbled and windows melted. Towers atop the buildings turned into molten puddles and dripped onto the tsunami-soaked streets.

Steam rose from each drop. Masuka could hear screams from the people trampling over each other to escape the terrible monster. So unnecessary. He shook his head. "Reset all."

Masuka leaned back in his chair, staring at the sunny morning that bathed frame one of the rendered block. He rubbed his face in frustration. He'd told the bosses the new formula wouldn't stand up to rigidity and flame tests. In trying to cheap out on the budget, renovations were being compromised. The higher-ups would rather use weak, alternative sealant than do a proper job of monster-proofing small buildings in older sections. After all, only poor people worked in buildings smaller than twenty stories.

"This is so stupid!"

"What?"

Masuka turned to Tiko. "Sorry. Nothing."

"You want to get a snack?"

The question was funny, but not. Masuka looked into her pretty eyes, behind the glasses. Nobody wore glasses except to dress up. She was trying to be cute, but no one ever noticed. Masuka smiled and nodded. "Yeah. Let's get a snack." He turned back to the glow box, "Build formula and render Old Tokyo for sealant seven rigidity and new gen monster flame test."

They waved off their glow boxes and Masuka put on his messenger bag. Tiko looked surprised when it moved. "Oooh! You've got a yubikin!!!" He fished it out and handed it to her. She kissed it on the top if it's tenticles and smiled. "I love it!"

Masuka looked at his feet, embarrassed as they boarded the lift tube. He glanced back up at her, trying to think of something to say. "I like your glasses."

Tiko smiled. "Thanks."

The rest of the way down, they couldn't stop blushing. The lift was silent except for the friendly purring of the yubikin as it lie curled up in Tiko's arms.