Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As children, we are told by our parents that monsters don’t exist. There is nothing under your bed, there is no creature waiting inside your closet. Myths are simply that- myths. Legends. Not real, only a fantasy. Creatures like dragons, unicorns, griffons, and centaurs… they don’t exist.

Or so we thought.

In the year 2009, a gargantuan creature attacked the city of New York. It was given the name of “Ganimes,” and it was almost unstoppable. Ganimes went on a rampage through the city, destroying buildings and causing hundreds of deaths. The creature began to move towards the capital of Washington, D.C, and the military launched everything they had at it. After several miles of destruction and even more deaths, Ganimes was killed. We didn’t think much of the attack- we cleaned up, honored those who died, and moved on. We thought it would be the only one.

In 2012, we were proven wrong when a massive avian creature attacked the city of Paris. Nicknamed “Condor,” it was just as unstoppable as Ganimes, taking hundreds of lives and costing billions of dollars in property damage. The military was eventually able to shoot the creature out of the sky, killing it. Once again, we memorialized the incident, rebuilt, and left it behind us.

Once more, in 2019, the city of Tokyo was attacked by a monstrous, hydra-like creature called Orochi. It was far larger and more powerful than both of the previous ones, with eight heads that could breathe fire. The military’s weapons were no use against it, and it seemed that nothing could stop the creature. Then, another one emerged from the ocean to fight Orochi- a creature known as Godzilla. With the power of his heat ray and immense strength, he single-handedly slew Orochi, before retreating into the ocean. We didn’t know what to think, we had never seen monsters fight before, let alone witness one not attack a city.

Humanity’s relief was short-lived, as in the very next year, many more monsters emerged seemingly from nowhere. Some of them attacked cities, while others defended them. Seeing that these monsters weren’t going away anytime soon, many of the countries in the UN pooled their militaries, resources, and scientific minds to create the KRRA; Kaiju Research and Response Association. They developed defense systems, capable of repelling Kaiju attacks, made new weapons and vehicles for anti-Kaiju warfare, and began studying them to determine which of the Kaiju were hostile, and which were peaceful.

For a time, the world was in a state of relative peace. Many of the hostile Kaiju refrained from attacking cities, and the KRRA continued to recruit cadets from various fields of study, from biologists to engineers. However, in 2023, things would take a turn for the unexpected…

Chapter Text

The city of Baltimore was bustling with activity. It reminded Jay a lot of New Jersey, where he was born. While the brick pathways that made up the harbor couldn’t compare to the sandy beaches and wooden boardwalks of Jersey Beach, the sound of the ocean, and the salty breeze made him feel at home. Jay Abbot, twenty-one years old, was a Cryptozoologist recruit working for the KRRA. He was currently living in Baltimore city, as the KRRA had a research lab there, allowing him to work. However, he hadn’t been doing much work lately- the world’s Kaiju had become alarmingly absent in recent months, and many people felt like a storm was coming.

With his work halted by the Kaiju’s absence, Jay was taking some time to himself by going for a walk in the early afternoon. He was going to visit the city’s aquarium, something he did fairly often. Before he became a cryptozoologist for the KRRA, Jay had been a Marine Biologist, and was always fascinated by aquatic life. The inner harbor area was crowded around midday, forcing Jay to navigate uncomfortably through groups of pedestrians. He walked past the “Top of the World” observation tower, and was headed towards the aquarium, when he noticed something.

The waters of the harbor were still today, but far off in the distance, Jay could see waves crashing violently; something big was moving under the water. He began to back up as whatever it was drew closer, until it was right on top of the inner harbor. The water began rumbling, and Jay ran a safe distance away, before turning around to witness whatever was happening.

An enormous splash erupted from the water, and the crowds of people packing the inner harbor turned to see what it was. Suddenly, a massive, amphibian creature began emerging from the ocean, causing onlookers to scream in terror and begin running away. The creature rose to over eighty meters in height, with pebbly, dark red skin. Its stomach was a yellowish color, and it had a trio of bright orange, webbed fins on the top of its head. Its back had a similar fin, albeit much larger and more sail-like. Its neck was elongated, with a set of gills on the sides. The creature also had two long arms that ended in claws, and a long, reptilian snout. Jay had seen this Kaiju before, on images in the KRRA’s archive; Titanosaurus.

The massive Kaiju let out a trumpeting roar, before he began to climb out of the water and onto dry land, seawater dripping from his body. As he did so, his tail was revealed- it was fairly long, ending in a large fin akin to the one on his back. Once he had gotten his massive feet onto the solid ground of the harbor, he remained on all fours for a moment, before shifting back into a bipedal stance.

Alarms began going off all around the city as Titanosaurus made his way through the harbor, roaring like an elephant. Jay took cover near the aquarium, behind the path the creature seemed to be taking. He pulled out his phone, and began recording it, hoping to document footage of the newer Kaiju. Titanosaurus had only emerged late into the previous year, and not much was known about him. As his phone’s camera began to capture a video of the enormous creature, he began to notice some things.

Firstly, Titanosaurus hadn’t begun attacking anything or anyone. As far as Jay knew, Titanosaurus was more hostile in nature, as when he first emerged in 2022, he attacked the city of Pensacola in Florida. The KRRA’s forces were able to deter him, but not before he managed to destroy some buildings on the coastline. Right now, Titanosaurus wasn’t doing much of anything, rather, he seemed to be roaring only to keep people away from him.

Jay watched as Titanosaurs swung his head to either side, looking around, before beginning to lean forwards. The Kaiju abruptly crashed down onto the ground, lying flat on his stomach like an alligator. Jay then noticed that the right side of the creature’s neck was covered in a set of nasty bite marks. They weren’t bleeding, but also hadn’t fully healed either. Something had attacked Titanosaurus, most likely in the past few days. Jay focused his camera on the creature’s neck, and zoomed in as much as he could on the bite marks. They were hard to see, but when he held the phone steady for long enough, the bites came into focus.

Suddenly, Titanosaurus shifted his neck to the side, and noticed Jay standing there. While he was a safe distance away from the creature, Titanosaurus’ eyes were clearly locked on him. Jay cursed under his breath, and stopped the recording, pocketing his phone. He began to back up, but Titanosaurus merely acknowledged him with a half-hearted snort, and closed his eyes. Jay stopped in his tracks, and after a few minutes, Titanosaurus began to make a soft rumbling sound, almost like purring. Was he taking a nap?

“Incredible,” Jay muttered.

Much like the more passionate of the KRRA’s scientists, Jay admired the Kaiju. After all, they were basically just big animals, not monsters. They were sharing the planet with humans as much as humans were sharing it with other wildlife. Never once did Jay think he would get to witness a Kaiju taking a power nap in person, let alone this close. He pulled his phone back out, and snapped several pictures of the sleeping Kaiju.

Suddenly, Titanosaurus’ eyes shot open, and he perked his head up. Jay continued backing up into a hidden position, and watched as the Kaiju rose to stand on all fours. Jay was confused as to the reason for this sudden change in the Kaiju’s behavior, before he heard what was causing it- the distant sounds of engines humming, and the whirring of rotors.

Peeking out from behind his hiding spot, Jay saw, in the distance, the cause of the noise; a fleet of small attack gunships, accompanied by a massive warplane that Jay recognized as the USS Eclair. Out of all the warplanes the KRRA had manufactured, the Eclair was the smallest, but had the heaviest armament. It was 40 meters long, with a bulky frame held aloft by four large rotors on each corner of the craft. The cockpit was embedded into the front of the craft, heavily defended by several point-defense gatling guns, and two missile launchers. Two large exhaust engines sat at the back of the vehicle, and the entire front was decorated with an array of missile launchers, high caliber AA guns, and various other weapons.

Jay watched Titanosaurus stand up onto his hind legs as the Eclair and its escort of gunships grew closer, growling at his apparent attackers. The fleet of aircraft came to a stop less than fifty meters from the Kaiju, hovering in the air. Jay then heard the sound of car engines and the rattling of treaded wheels, and he looked to see a squad of military land vehicles move into place not far from where Titanosaurus stood. There were a few tanks, and several other vehicles adorned with heavy weaponry, all aimed at the massive beast before them. Jay also saw squads of soldiers disembark from their transports, rifles aimed at the Kaiju.

Titanosaurus’ attention snapped to the ground forces that had just moved into position, growling. Almost immediately after, the Eclair and its escort unleashed a payload of missiles at the Kaiju, striking him directly in the gills. The Kaiju let out a pained roar as his neck was engulfed in explosions. When the smoke cleared, Titanosaurus was very much still alive, and he turned to look at the warplane that was opposing him. Shortly after, the ground forces opened fire with their tanks and mounted guns. Titanosaurus merely glanced at them, before turning around and heading back towards the ocean, his footsteps shaking the ground.

Really? Jay thought in confusion. That’s all it took?

Titanosaurus reached the edge of the harbor and did a head-first dive into the water, creating a giant splash that almost drenched Jay. The ground forces held their fire, understandably confused. After a moment, Titanosaurus re-emerged, sticking the upper half of his body out of the water, facing the military’s forces. His throat was bulging, and before Jay could wonder why, the Kaiju opened his mouth, and began to spew water directly from his maw. Jay realized that the water was steaming, and the ground forces had no time to react before they were drenched in scalding water. It seemed to have somewhat of an effect, as the ground forces began to back up away from the creature. The air forces launched another salvo of missiles at the giant creature, hitting him in the gills once more. This time, Titanosaurus backed away, and, with great reluctance, retreated back into the ocean.

Jay was still shocked by everything that had just happened. Not only had he never seen a Kaiju up close before, but this was the first time he- or maybe anyone for that matter- had ever seen a Kaiju enter a city without being destructive, besides Godzilla himself. Also, Titanosaurus was a fairly new Kaiju, and the first one spotted being active in the past year. This had to mean something.

Jay was in luck, because the KRRA board called a meeting early the next day. Representatives from all across the globe met at UN headquarters in New York, whether in person or broadcast digitally using screens. Jay was among the few lesser recruits in attendance, and also one of the only ones who was able to attend on such short notice. Many of the other scientists in the audience were chatting, waiting for the meeting to begin. Jay didn’t have many friends in the KRRA- work didn’t leave much time for mingling among his colleagues- so he sat in silence, going over the notes he had taken on the Titanosaurus encounter.

After a while, Jay saw the heads of the KRRA step onto the stage- namely, Doctor Kenji Serizawa, who was the head of the KRRA’s science department. Serizawa stepped up to the microphone on the podium, and cleared his throat into it, letting out a piercing wail of feedback. That caught everyone’s attention, and even Serizawa jumped slightly at the sound it had produced.

“Apologies,” he said, chuckling. “This meeting is now in session. I respectfully ask that everyone be silent.”

The audience members didn’t say anything, and Serizwa began his speech.

“As many of you are aware, an incident occurred yesterday, involving the first Kaiju sighting since November of last year,” he explained. “Luckily, the Kaiju in question, identified as Titanosaurus, caused no property damage, before he was deterred by the USS Eclair.”

“However, our ground forces suffered injuries.” This came from a man standing far to the left side of Serizawa. He had short, grey hair, and was dressed in a ceremonial military outfit. Jay recognized him as Admiral Ridley Palmer, the head of the KRRA’s military sect. “The creature used some sort of… natural defense, and caused many of my men third-degree burns.”

“It seems that the Kaiju have returned,” said a woman standing on the stage, standing on Serizwa’s right. Jay knew her as Mariette Brown, the KRRA’s representative in the UN. “I do believe it is only a matter of time before they begin to attack and destroy more cities than before.”

The room began to erupt into a discussion between the three on the stage and some of the foreign representatives being broadcast on their screens. Eventually, Jay found the courage to speak up.

“Uh,” he said, loud enough to get the attention of some people. “I may have some theories.”

The room fell dead silent and all eyes fell on him now. Oh, damnit, what did I just do? Jay thought to himself, feeling the color drain from his face in embarrassment. After a few minutes, Serizawa gestured for him to come down to the stage. Jay’s legs were shaky as he did so, and he could feel stage fright kicking in. Serizawa approached the podium to introduce him.

“We now recognize…” he turned to Jay. “Sorry, what’s your name?”

“Uh, Jay Abbot,” Jay responded timidly. “Cryptozoologist.”

There were a few murmurs in the crowd, but Serizawa stepped aside to let Jay take the podium. Looking at the notes in his hand, Jay gulped, before beginning to speak.

“I do not believe that Titanosaurus’ goal was to attack the city,” he explained. “I was present when the attack occurred, and he caused no damage to the city. He didn’t act out of aggression at all.”

“He attacked our men,” Palmer butted in.

Jay glanced sideways at the admiral. “Only when they attacked him first,” he turned back to face the audience. “I believe that something else is to blame for Titanosaurus’ appearance in Baltimore.”

“You’re saying something drew him out?” asked a voice.

“I’m saying something FORCED him out,” Jay shuffled the papers in his hands, before holding up a printed copy of the picture he captured, depicting the bite marks on Titanosaurus’ neck. After a moment, the large screen behind the stage lit up, showing that someone had a camera trained on the picture he was holding.

Good, Jay thought. Now everyone’s seen it.

“For a while, many of us in the KRRA have theorized that not all the Kaiju are destructive by nature- some of them are protective, like Godzilla, who arrived to defend Tokyo from Orochi.”

“That was an abnormal occurrence!” someone in the audience shouted.

“It was a catalyst,” Jay said sternly. “Shortly after Godzilla’s appearance, other monsters began to surface, too. I believe that something else is surfacing, something aggressive enough to attack other Kaiju unprovoked- Titanosaurus was running.”

A murmur ran through the crowd once more, and Jay put down the picture of the bite marks, prompting the screen behind him to turn off. After a while, Serizawa ushered him aside, and stepped back up to the microphone. After going back to his seat, Jay didn’t pay attention to the rest of the meeting, he had made his statement, now it was up to the rest of the KRRA to listen to him.

It turns out, only Serizawa had attempted to advocate for his theory. Everyone else seemed to agree that the Kaiju were destructive, and that Titanosaurus had attacked the city. With the meeting adjourned, Jay left the auditorium, storming through the hallways with frustration. As he was walking, he saw a girl around his age catch a glimpse of him, and her eyes widened. She had medium-length black hair, toned skin, and was dressed in a white lab coat that looked too big for her. She began rushing towards him, and Jay tried to hurry his pace.

“Doctor Abbot!” she said excitedly. “Doctor Abbot, wait!”

Jay groaned, and turned around. “What.”

“I- uh, I’m Chloe,” she said, before suddenly sticking out her hand to shake. “Chloe Singh. Mythologist.”

“I’m not interested in myths,” Jay started to turn around and walk away.

“I believe you!” she suddenly said, causing him to stop. “I believe what you said in the meeting.”

“Thanks, I guess…” Jay replied. “What did you want?”

“I have some theories of my own,” she said. “Some of which, I believe, prove your theories right. And vice versa.”

She took him to a secluded area of the hallway, before she went on to explain; according to some of the myths she had uncovered, people who worshiped the Kaiju divided them into three groups: The protectors, the dwellers, and the destroyers. The dwellers were more animalistic, attacking out of confusion or fear. From the way she described it, Orochi had been part of the destroyers group, and had chased Ganimes and Condor out of hiding. Godzilla was a part of the protectors, many of whom had yet to surface.

“Look at this,” she held up a tablet, which was displaying an image of a cave painting. “Many of the creatures depicted on this match the descriptions of Kaiju we’ve seen.” she pointed at several of them that were in the middle, and named some of them off; Ganimes, Condor, Kamoebas, Gezora, Titanosaurus, and Ebirah. She then pointed at the group to the right, which were the protectors, and named three; Baragon, Varan, and of course, Godzilla.

“These other ones haven’t been seen yet,” she pointed at the other three monsters on the protector's side; one that looked like a quadruped creature with a spiked back, another which resembled a bird, one resembling a serpent-like dragon, and the final one looked like a butterfly. “And of the destroyers, only Orochi has been seen.” she pointed at the destroyer’s side of the painting. Sure enough, a creature with eight, snake-like heads was displayed prominently, and the others looked unfamiliar to Jay; a creature that looked like a horned beetle, another that resembled a reptilian with wings and scorpion-like pincers, another that also looked like a butterfly, and finally one odd, bipedal creature.

“Do you know any of their names?” Jay asked her.

“Well,” Chloe’s excited tone quickly faded. “Not exactly. I’d have to do more digging in order to narrow down their exact names.”

Suddenly, the hallways were filled with a blaring alarm, followed by a voice over the P.A.
“Kaiju presence detected. All vital personnel, report to the command center. Repeat, all vital personnel, report to the command center.”

People roaming the hallways began hurrying to their stations, and the vital personnel began rushing in the direction of the command center. Jay watched for a while, before he took off in the same direction.

“Doctor Abbot!” Chloe called. “Doctor Abbot, they said VITAL personnel! Are you really allowed-”

“Oh, please, who’s going to stop me?” Jay retorted as Chloe began to chase after him  “Besides. I need to see who it is, and if I’m right.”

With Chloe on his tail, Jay made his way through the crowd of people and towards the facility’s command center. The inside of the command center looked very similar to a monitor station for space shuttle launches- several rows of desks manned by operators on small computer screens, with a massive monitor screen on the back wall of the room. At the front of the room, near the entrance, stood Doctor Serizawa, and Admiral Palmer. As more personnel gathered in the room, the large screen on the back wall lit up, showing an aerial view of a beach, with a jungle rainforest.

“Where is this happening?” Serizawa asked.

“Itaquitanduva Beach, Brazil.” one of the operators responded. The monitor screen continued to display the beach, as a massive, quadrupedal creature began to rise out of the water and onto the thin strip of sand. It shook the water off like a dog, and Jay could see its back was covered in a spiked carapace. Its head ended in a reptilian snout, and it had a crown of curved horns on the back of its head. On the very end of its snout was a singular horn, and it had a long tail that was covered in spikes.

“We’ve never seen this one before…” Palmer stated.

Next to Jay, Chloe started shifting through the piles of notes she was carrying, before she found what she was looking for. Suddenly, she spoke up.
“Anguirus!” she said aloud, and flinched slightly when both Serizawa and Palmer turned to look at her. “Um… the creature’s name is Anguirus.”

Serizawa nodded, and Palmer simply returned his gaze to the creature on the screen. “There’s a city on the other side of that mountain. We need to issue an evacuation order now.” the admiral turned to one of the operators. “Contact the USS Garuda. Tell them to get their asses to Praia Grande.”

“They’ll never get there in time!” the operator refuted.

“Do it!”

The operator nodded, before contacting the vessel using a communications array.

“Why isn’t he doing anything?” Jay whispered to Chloe.
“Anguirus is one of the protectors,” Chloe explained. “He’s not hostile in nature.”
“Then why did he come ashore?”

“Sir!” one of the operators yelled. “We’ve got a second Kaiju signature! It’s moving fast!”

All eyes turned to the monitor screen as the waters next to Anguirus suddenly erupted, followed by a massive bipedal creature. It was covered in deep green, pebbled skin, with a large mane of bright orange hair around its neck. A trio of crooked horns jutted out of the top of its head, and it had long, muscular arms with claws. It landed on the beach next to Anguirus, and roared angrily. Chloe quickly shifted through her notes once more, before finding what she was looking for;

“Gabara.” She said, “That’s Gabara.”

Chapter Text

Gabara flexed his claws, and gazed at Anguirus with a rabid look in his eyes. Anguirus formed himself into a battle pose, slamming his tail on the ground and growling at the opposing Kaiju. Gabara roared in response, before pounding the ground with both hands and bounding across the beach on all fours. Anguirus was ready for him, swinging his tail in a wide arc and catching Gabara on the side of the face, batting aside the green-skinned monster. Gabara tumbled aside, plunging into the shallows of the water face-down. Anguirus roared triumphantly as Gabara slowly rose back up, revealing that the spikes on Anguirus’ tail had left cuts on the side of his face, which were bleeding. 

Back in the KRRA command center, the gathered personnel were watching in awe as the two Kaiju clashed with one another.
“They’re… fighting?” Palmer said in confusion. “Why are they fighting?”

“It seems that Doctor Abbot’s theory was correct,” Serizawa mused. “Speaking of which, I don’t believe you have clearance to be in here.” The doctor then turned to look at Jay and Chloe, who were still standing by the exit door.

“Uh… Sorry, Doctor Serizawa.”

Serizawa smiled and shook his head. “Don’t worry. Your insight has proven valuable, so you will stay.” He then focused his gaze on Chloe. “Both of you.” He then beckoned for the two of them to come closer, before turning his attention to the monitor screen, where Anguirus and Gabara were clashing. “What do we know about these two?”

Jay elbowed Chloe, and she spoke up. “W-well, Anguirus is depicted as being a member of the ‘protector’ faction. He’s here to protect all life on this planet- which includes us.”

“And what of Gabara?”

“Gabara is… he’s a member of the destroyers.” Chloe swallowed hard. “He aims to cause death and destruction. It’s believed he inspired the Oni of Japanese mythology.”

“I think that Anguirus arrived here to stop Gabara from destroying the city,” Jay butted in. “As long as Anguirus keeps Gabara on that side of the mountain, the city is safe.”

“If the turtle can keep the Oni occupied long enough, the Garuda will arrive to finish the job.” Palmer said.

“Make sure they don’t shoot Anguirus,” Jay stated.
“And he’s an Ankylosaurus, not a turtle!” Chloe added.

Meanwhile, Anguirus and Gabara continued to battle it out on the beachside, their battle making an impact on the sparse jungle that lay across the mountainside. Anguirus pounced at his opponent, jabbing Gabara in the chest with his front legs. Gabara was thrown backwards and into the mountainside, sending chunks of rock and uprooted trees flying in a cloud of debris. Anguirus then grasped one of Gabara’s legs in his jaws, and began dragging the Kaiju across the ground, kicking up dirt, sand, and foliage in the process. Eventually, Anguirus released Gabara’s legs, before raising up his front legs. The armored Kaiju began to stomp his legs repeatedly into Gabara’s chest, causing the green-skinned monster to whine in pain. 

Suddenly, one of Gabara’s claws shot up, and grasped Anguirus’ neck. Before the Ankylosaur could react, a surge of electricity was suddenly discharged from Gabara’s palm, electrocuting his opponent. Anguirus shrieked in response, backing away from his enemy in stunned confusion. Gabara got back to his feet, and began to circle around Anguirus, grabbing a hold of his opponent’s tail. Anguirus growled in confusion, before Gabara, with a heave of effort, swung Anguirus like a flail, and released. Anguirus was sent sailing over the mountain, crashing into the city streets on the other side.

In the KRRA command center, everyone gasped in horror. This is exactly what they were hoping wouldn’t happen- the fight had made its way into a populated city. Praia Grande was more of a town than a city, it had no large buildings, but it was populated nonetheless. Clouds of dust billowed from the spot where Anguirus had landed, and the aerial cam panned to show Gabara climbing over the mountain, entering the city himself. Admiral Palmer turned to one of the operators.

“How close is the Garuda?” He asked.
The operator turned to respond. “ETA in seven minutes, sir.”

The admiral sighed. “That’s not soon enough…”

Anguirus began to emerge from the dust cloud, growling in frustration. Across from him, Gabara made a high-pitched cackling sound, almost like he was laughing. The green Kaiju then roared, and began charging at his opponent. Anguirus snorted, before turning his body around, and lunging back-first at Gabara. The other Kaiju had no time to react, and collided with Anguirus’ spiked carapace. Both monsters fell to the ground, destroying an entire block of buildings in a cloud of dust. Anguirus started to get back up, but Gabara was faster. He grabbed Anguirus by the throat, and slammed the Ankylosaur into the ground, pinning him down.

An alarm suddenly began blaring in the KRRA command center, alerting the operators to the presence of a new monster approaching.

“There’s a third Kaiju signature rising! It’s approaching from the ocean!” one of the operators called. Jay peered at the operator’s screen, and saw a familiar shape on the radar.

“Is that-?” Jay started

Before he could finish his sentence, a blue flash suddenly filled the large monitor screen. A thick column of blue flames pierced the air, striking Gabara on the side of the face. Gabara was forced off of Anguirus, tumbling to the ground. The beam dissipated, leaving a scorch mark on Gabara’s face. All eyes turned to see where the beam had come from. A massive, hundred-meter, bipedal Kaiju trudged up the shore. It was covered in dark grey scales, with a long tail. It had a set of muscular arms and legs, and rows of jagged dorsal plates ran down the length of its back. It had a flat, reptile-like snout, and a pair of amber eyes. The Kaiju opened its mouth, and a deep, screeching roar emanated from its throat.

It was Godzilla.

The King of the Monsters made his way towards the pair of Kaiju, trudging up the shore and into the city. With every footstep, buildings were destroyed, and his tail dragged sand up behind him. Smoke billowed from his jaws, and he growled while staring directly at the slumped form of Gabara, which had begun moving. The green Kaiju got back to its feet, and looked at the new challenger with anger in his eyes. Anguirus, too, got to his feet, and took up position next to Godzilla. The three Kaiju all stared at each other for several minutes, before all three of them roared, and charged into battle.

As Anguirus bounded forwards, he suddenly contorted his body inwards, using his spiked carapace to curl himself into a ball. Suddenly, Godzilla swung his tail to the side, hitting Anguirus like a massive kickball and sending his ally flying towards Gabara. The opposing Kaiju had no time to react before he was pummeled in the face with the full force of Anguirus’ body weight and spikes, leaving several gashes on Gabara’s chest. Anguirus and Gabara fell to the ground, sending up a cloud of dust and smoke, while Godzilla continued to charge towards his enemy.

As Gabara tried to get back up, Godzilla planted a foot firmly on Gabara’s chest, and roared into the Kaiju’s face. Gabara growled in protest, grabbing Godzilla’s ankle and discharging a jolt of electricity. Godzilla recoiled in confusion, but wasn’t completely deterred. He stomped hard on Gabara’s chest, who roared in pain. The giant lizard’s dorsal plates began to light up with a bright blue light, indicating he was preparing to fire his signature atomic breath. Gabara looked around in a panic, before leaning forwards and lunging at Godzilla’s ankle with teeth bared. The green-skinned Kaiju sunk his teeth directly into Godzilla’s ankles, drawing blood. Godzilla roared in pain, and let loose a stray blast of atomic breath, which trailed explosions down an entire city block. Gabara forced Godzilla off him, and squared up to continue fighting.

All KRRA personnel monitoring the fight were shocked. They had never seen a Kaiju ever wound Godzilla. Orochi had put up a fight when the two of them fought in the past, but the eight-headed Hydra was never able to leave a mark on the massive lizard.

“How did it do that?” Serizawa said aloud. “From our studies of Godzilla, we figured his hide was practically impenetrable… and his cells have a regenerative factor!”

“Most Kaiju are impenetrable…” Jay muttered, until he realized something- the bite marks on Titanosaurus’ neck. “Doctor Serizawa! I have a theory!”

“Yes, Doctor Abbot?” Serizawa turned.

“Gabara’s fangs,” he explained. “They must have some sort of paralyzing agent that nullifies the Kaiju’s regenerative factors. He must’ve been what attacked Titanosaurus, and that must be why he was able to injure Godzilla!”

“Admiral Palmer!” one of the operatives shouted. “The USS Garuda has arrived!”

The USS Garuda was another one of the KRRA’s war vessels. It was much larger than the USS Eclair, but not as heavily armed. The Garuda’s shape resembled that of a manta ray, with a streamlined body, and two large wings that jutted out on an angle to either side. The tail of the vessel was adorned with smaller wings, and four massive propellor turbines rose from the back of the body. The Garuda was the KRRA’s one and only amphibious craft, possessing a body that allowed it to float and move on water, but had the engine power to allow it to fly at least forty meters off the ground.

“Better late than never,” Palmer muttered. “Order them to target the Kaiju.”

“Which ones?”
“All of them!” Palmer yelled.

The Garuda was primarily a transport vessel, but it carried the firepower to confront a Kaiju. Several missile turrets sat along the sides of the vessel’s body, and at Palmer’s command they all rotated towards the three Kaiju inside the city, and fired their payloads. Gabara was hit first, holding up his hand to shield him from the barrage of missiles. Godzilla got hit second, and several of the missiles struck the gills on his neck, causing him to groan in pain and back away. Anguirus was prepared, turning so that his carapace protected him from the brunt of the attack.

“Admiral, what are you doing?” Serizawa asked in a panic.

“These Kaiju are already destroying an entire municipality, Doctor,” Palmer gave Serizawa a sideways glance. “We can’t afford to make exceptions.”

“Are you crazy!?” Jay shouted. “If you attack Godzilla, he’ll destroy that ship!”

“Not if we kill him first.” Palmer growled. “Hit them again!”

The Garuda continued to fire volley after volley of missiles at the Kaiju, causing an enormous cloud of smoke to engulf all three of them. As the craft continued to fire, a blue glow began to shine from out of the smoke, before a beam of atomic breath was unleashed. The attack struck the Garuda directly on the side, causing a small ripple of explosions, and the craft buckled from the force of the impact.

“We’ve been hit!” came a voice from the Garuda’s comm channel. “The hull’s suffered major damage, we have to retreat!”

“Negative, stand your ground!” Palmer refuted.

“Admiral, sir!” Jay shouted. “With all due respect, if the Garuda keeps attacking Godzilla, everyone on board is going to die! We have to let him finish the job!”

There was a pause as the older man stared daggers at Jay, contemplating what he had just said. Finally, the admiral sighed, stepping forwards to contact the Garuda.

“USS Garuda, this is Admiral Palmer,” he said. “Retreat.”

“Copy that, Admiral.”

The Garuda’s engines began powering up, and the craft picked up speed away from the coastline. As it continued to travel, it eventually began to rise out of the water, and took flight. Meanwhile, Godzilla and Gabara had emerged from the cloud of smoke, the both of them still fighting. Anguirus, however, was nowhere to be seen. Gabara threw a punch at the atomic lizard, who caught it with both hands, and bit into the green monster’s forearm. Gabara growled in pain, and was then pulled forward as Godzilla began moving with Gabara’s arm still caught in his maw. He then swung his head violently to the size, throwing Gabara to the ground. 

The Oni Kaiju was heavily injured- deep cuts littered his chest from Anguirus’ spikes, and his forearm was now bleeding significantly from Godzilla’s bite. Additionally, the side of his face was still covered in scorch marks and cuts from Godzilla’s atomic breath and Anguirus’ tail respectively. Godzilla was not without his injuries, however; Gabara’s venom was preventing the wound on his ankle from fully healing, and there were small trickles of blood on the side of his neck where the missiles had struck his gills. Despite this, both Kaiju were still intent on finishing the fight.

Both monsters roared in unison before charging at each other, and clashing once more. Gabara went to bite Godzilla’s shoulder, but the King of the Monsters dodged the attack, bashing Gabara on the head with the bottom of his fist. As Gabara attempted to get back up, Godzilla firmly grasped the creature’s left horn, and pulled violently. Gabara cried in anguish, before the horn was ripped from his head, blood gushing from the wound. Godzilla threw the broken piece aside, and roared at his enemy. The green Kaiju got to his feet, breathing heavily from fear and exhaustion. He began to back up, before spitting out blood and charging at Godzilla with wild abandon. The King of the Monsters angled his body to the side, and when Gabara was close enough, swung his tail at an incredible speed. Gabara had no time to react, and the tail struck him hard on the cheek.

Gabara’s head turned violently to the side from the force of the impact, with an audible cracking sound- the blow had snapped Gabara’s neck. The Kaiju’s face was frozen in an expression of pain as he suddenly fell backwards, crashing to the ground in a cloud of dust. Godzilla turned back to examine the body of his kill, before roaring triumphantly. The giant Lizard then turned towards the cloud of smoke from the missile attack, which had all but cleared by now. Anguirus was gone, but in his place was a giant hole dug into the ground- he had escaped. Godzilla snorted, content that his ally was still alive. With thundering footsteps, Godzilla trudged back through the city, and into the ocean, swimming away.

Back at the KRRA command center, everyone was shocked at the outcome of the battle. A great deal of the city had been destroyed in the attack, two new Kaiju were seen for the first time, and one of them had been immediately killed. Admiral Palmer turned to Serizawa.

“Looks like we’re gonna have another meeting soon,” he said.

Only a day after the incident in Praia Grande, the KRRA board called another meeting. Luckily, many of the representatives who had come from overseas were still there, however many of them were upset about having to cancel their travel plans for another meeting. This time, Jay and Chloe sat closer to the front of the room, as Serizawa had deemed them vital personnel that had been involved with the incident. Also, he said that both Jay and Chloe’s insight in the matter of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Kaiju would be helpful.

“The Kaiju must be eliminated!” yelled one of the representatives from France. “The destruction they cause is too much to go unpunished!”

“And what would you have us do?” retorted a Japanese board member. “It’s not like we can just kill them!”

“The KRRA was created to help rid the world of these monsters,” said a Russian member of the board. “And yet we allow some of them to roam freely?”

“With respect, ministers,” Jay piped up. “The Kaiju aren’t just giant monsters. They’re animals, with feelings, instincts, and emotions.”

“And not all of them are bad!” Chloe found the courage to speak. “Some of the Kaiju actually want to protect humanity- and Godzilla is one of them!”

“Godzilla attacked the USS Garuda,” said a military officer, who was sitting next to Admiral Palmer. “He caused extensive damage to the vessel, and several of the crewmates were injured.”

“Because the Garuda attacked him FIRST,” Jay made eye contact with Palmer when he said that. “He was defending himself.”

“Not to mention the damage he caused to the city,” Mariette Brown. “He AND the other new monsters. We’ve gotten reports of at least forty dead, and over a hundred injured.”

“Gabara attacked the city,” Jay refuted. “Godzilla and Anguirus were there to defend it. If they hadn’t been there, there wouldn’t be anything left of Praia Grande.”

“And let us not forget that Godzilla killed Gabara,” Serizawa finally stepped in to back up Jay and Chloe. “Which marks the second time he’s defended a city from an opposing Kaiju.”

“You refer to the Tokyo incident in 2019,” said Brown.

“We have reason to believe that the Kaiju are more complicated than we think,” Serizawa nodded towards Chloe.

The girl swallowed hard, and turned to Jay for encouragement. He nodded, and she eyed the speech she had written down before speaking.

“There are many ancient myths surrounding these Kaiju. They’ve existed on this planet for far longer than we have. However, much like humans, the Kaiju had factions; the protectors, the dwellers, and the destroyers. The dwellers remained neutral to the conflict, whilst the destroyers sought to wreak havoc and destruction wherever they went. The protectors aim to stop the destroyers from their rampage, and protect life on this planet- including us. If we want to survive, we must ally ourselves with the protectors.”

There was a pause of silence, before someone in the audience spoke up.
“Myths? You mean fairy tales! Do you expect us to believe any of that!?”

“The proof has already been presented to us,” Chloe stated, flinching at the insult. “Both Godzilla and Anguirus are members of the protector faction. They defended the cities of Tokyo and Praia Grande. Gabara and Orochi were members of the destroyers faction, hence why the others arrived to stop them.”

“You bring up good points,” Brown butted in. “But this begs the question- how many more Kaiju are there? And which ones can we trust?”

Chloe gulped. “Th-there are a lot of myths, and we can’t be certain how many of them are real. All I know is that we can positively identify the Kaiju as they appear.”

Silence fell throughout the entire room. Chloe turned to Jay, and he gave her a subtle thumbs up. Finally, one of the military leaders stood, and spoke. Jay recognized him as Admiral David Rhode, who was in charge of the KRRA’s weapon development program. He was much younger than Admiral Palmer, but still older than Jay, with short-cropped, brunette hair.

“We could listen to this,” he said. “Or, I have a better, more reliable plan.”

“Proceed, Admiral Rhode.” Mariette said.

Rhode shot a glance in Jay and Chloe’s direction before continuing. “There’s a plan for two new weapons that have been in development for some time. It’ll take a while for them to be fully finished, but I can assure you they will be integral to the elimination of Kaiju- ALL Kaiju.” The tiniest hint of a smirk curled at his lips. “I propose we go forward with Project Mecha.”

Instantly, Palmer shot up from his seat, and addressed the younger admiral. “You can’t be serious. The Mecha program has never been tested, we don’t know how reliable they are. And besides, it’ll take too long to finish the first one!”

“Calm down, Admiral,” Rhode waved a hand dismissively. “With the board’s permission, we can pull government funding and manpower. The project will be done in under a month.”

There was a murmur of voices throughout the room as Palmer and Rhode took their seats. After a moment or two, Brown held up her hand to silence the room. “We’ll put it to a vote. All not in favor of the program?”
Jay, Chloe, Serizawa, and a few others raised their hands. To Jay’s surprise, Admiral Palmer raised his hand. Maybe I figured him wrong, Jay thought. Everyone lowered their hand, and Brown spoke again.
“All in favor?” Nearly the entire room, including Rhode and Brown raised their hands. Mariette cleared her throat, and all hands were lowered. “That settles it. I’ll move to authorize Project Mecha, and make sure it receives the proper funding and resources to complete. Meeting adjourned.”

Next to Jay, Chloe sighed. He went to give her a reassuring pat on the back, when his eyes caught a glimpse of Admiral Palmer storming through the crowd, heading for the exit.

“I’ll be right back,” he said to Chloe, before rushing after the admiral.

“Admiral Palmer!” Jay called. “Admiral, wait!”

“Not now, Doctor Abbot,” Palmer growled. “Can’t you see I’m not in the mood?”

“Sir, please, just wait!” Jay pleaded. “We got off on the wrong foot! I’m sorry.”

The admiral slowed down a bit, and turned to face Jay. The young doctor caught up, catching his breath.

“There’s a first,” Palmer said, his tone full of bewilderment. “Normally you science types and us military guys never get along.”

“I thought… you and Serizawa were friends?”

Palmer barked a laugh. “Serizawa and I are a lot of things, kid, but we’re certainly not friends. We’ll work together on a project or an operation, but we don’t exactly see eye-to-eye.”

Jay sighed. “You don’t really hate Kaiju, do you?”

Palmer hesitated, before shaking his head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… I agree with you kid. These things aren’t monsters. They’re just animals.” He then launched into a story. “When I was a kid, my dad taught me how to hunt animals. First it was birds, then rabbits, then foxes. Before I knew it, my dad had me taking down fully grown bucks at the age of ten.”

Jay cocked his head. “There’s a catch, isn’t there?”

Palmer nodded. “I could kill ‘em from a distance, yeah, but… the worst part was missing the sweet spots, and wounding them. There’s nothing more traumatizing to a kid than having to look a bunny rabbit square in the eyes while you slit its throat. I could see their fear, their pain… still haunts me to this day.”

“And yet here you are,” Jay questioned. “How’d you do it?”

“I got over it,” Palmer shrugged his shoulders. “Now, something tells me you didn’t come out here to share touchy-feely stories. Spill it, kid.”

Jay nodded. “What is Project Mecha?”

The admiral sighed. “I was afraid of this…” he hesitated, before explaining in a hushed voice. “Project Mecha was a plan that was proposed a year ago by our very own Admiral Rhode. He presented the board with blueprints for two giant machines, ones that would be capable of taking down any Kaiju- even the big G himself.”

“Did they have names?” Jay asked.

Palmer shook his head. “At least, I wasn’t told. The board denied the project funding, and Rhode could never get it off the ground. But it isn’t the machines that scares me, kid. It’s how they’d be controlled- artificial intelligence.”

“AI?” Jay shouted aloud, and Palmer motioned for him to lower his tone. “That isn’t possible, we haven’t developed AI capable enough to control complex machines!”

“There’s a KRRA scientist, named Alex Simmons,” Palmer continued. “He’s developed an AI that can do it, but-”

“It’s too volatile.” Jay finished his thought. “You’re afraid that it’ll gain sentience. It’d be just like SkyNet.”

“ The Terminator, ” The admiral nodded. “Only imagine that Arnold Schwarzenegger is three hundred feet tall.”

“So what do we do?” Jay asked.

“I do have an idea,” Palmer smirked. “At least, from my military-guy standpoint.”

“Go ahead.”

“There’s gotta be a way to find more of these ‘protector’ Kaiju, before the bad ones surface,” Palmer explained. “I bet you and your girlfriend can come up with something. A location, maybe?”

“Chloe’s not my girlfriend!” Jay’s face went red. “But, yeah… we might be able to dig up something like that.”

“Then you’d best get to it, kid,” Palmer said. “I’m counting on you.”

Chapter Text

Chloe’s office was a mess. Nearly everything was covered in scattered papers and manilla folders, from her desk, to the walls, and even the floor. A corkboard hung from a wall, with a map of the Earth’s continents taped to it. Several red thumbtacks had been jabbed into the map in various places. In the corner of the room was a dusty, ancient-looking vase, and next to it was an old framed photograph, hanging from the wall. Jay squinted at the photo and recognized Doctor Serizawa- or at least, a much younger Serizawa. He was standing with two women Jay didn’t recognize, and all three of them were holding up peace signs.

“This is Doctor Serizawa,” Jay said. “But who are these two with him?”

“Those are his sisters,” Chloe said. “One of whom happens to be my mother.”

Jay was dumbfounded. “You’re Serizawa’s niece? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t think of it,” Chloe replied. “Besides, we’re here for something else. Check out the map.”

Jay turned to the map, eyeing the different thumbtacks. They each had tiny slips of paper impaled on them, but the handwriting was too small for him to read.

“What are these for?” he asked.

“Each of them marks an important location,” Chloe said. “Incidents, mythological sites, possible Kaiju resting locations. There’s a lot, because I can’t ever be sure.” Jay watched as she approached her desk, removing a small slip of paper from a stack of minuscule sticky notes. She jotted something down on the note, before plucking a red thumbtack from a bowl of identical ones. Chloe stuck the paper on the point of the tack, before pinning it on the board, right on the coast of South America.

“The Praia Grande incident,” Jay observed.

“I didn’t get a chance to put it there,” Chloe said shyly. “I spent most of the day after thinking of what I was going to say at the meeting.”

Jay nodded. “Palmer wants us to find more of the protectors. If we can release enough of them, I suppose he thinks they’ll stand a chance against any of the destroyers that come their way.”

“Release them?” Chloe sounded shocked.

“I figure if they’re protectors, waking them up shouldn’t cause problems.”

Chloe nodded, before grabbing a folder off of her desk. “I have all the protectors documented here. The ones I could find, at least.” She opened the folder, and Jay leaned over her shoulder to look as she flipped through pages of notes and images of carvings and paintings.

“Who’s our first pick?” Jay asked her.

“If we REALLY want a protector…” Chloe finally stopped on a page depicting a carving that resembled a butterfly. “She should be our first pick.”

“Who’s she?”

“Mothra,” Chloe explained. “She was worshiped by many civilizations as the ‘Goddess of Light.’ Many of them believed she had the power to bend the light of the sun.”

“Probably an exaggeration,” Jay said. “Right?”
Chloe didn’t answer him, approaching the corkboard map. “It’s believed by many civilizations that she came from a place known as Infant Island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, along the equator.” Chloe’s finger searched the map, until she rested it on one of the thumbtacks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. “Here.”

“Are you sure?” Jay asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Alright, then.” he nodded. “I’ll contact Palmer and Serizawa, and let them know. Get your stuff packed, we’re going on a trip.”

The USS Argo was the KRRA’s go-to vehicle when it came to overseas missions. The vessel greatly resembled a stealth bomber, albeit an incredibly scaled up one, with two massive rocket engines to propel it. The craft had a wingspan of at least 120 meters, and had a large hangar that stored several transport crafts. Its wings were adorned with a handful of swiveling, point-defense turrets, and several missile launchers.

The research team had been gathered in the craft’s bridge, consisting of Jay, Chloe, Serizawa, Palmer, and the Argo’s captain, Elliot Connors. Elliot was tall, with short blonde hair that had a dyed silver streak in it. The bridge was equipped with a planning table, across which Chloe had scattered all her notes on Mothra and the Infant Island.

“So we’re looking for… a giant bug?” Elliot asked.

“A giant moth,” Palmer commented. “Now I’ve seen everything…”

“According to legends, Infant Island is tropical in climate,” Chloe explained. “It’s covered in a rainforest, and Mothra’s temple sits in the center.”

“So we fly over the temple, drop in on Phoenix gunships, and sha-bang.” Connors clapped for effect.

“It’s not that simple,” Chloe added. “The legends also say that the Temple of the Moth is only accessible through a series of underground catacombs. Supposedly, there’s a tribe of natives who worship Mothra, but they either didn’t exist or have long since died off.”

“Hopefully there is a map of these catacombs?” Serizawa offered. Chloe simply shook her head.

“Outstanding.” Palmer said sarcastically.

“Captain,” the head pilot of the Argo called. “We’re approaching… land?”

“This far out?” Elliot asked. “Are you sure?”

“I think so,” the pilot replied. “It’s not on any of our charts, but radar’s picking it up crystal clear.”

“That has to be it,” Serizawa stated.

“Take us to it, Captain.” Palmer added.

“Full speed, Fujima.” Elliot directed the pilot. She nodded, and pushed down on the speed throttle. “Admiral, get the research team to your transport crafts. This’ll have to be a fly-by drop.”

“Roger that, captain.” Palmer replied, motioning for them to head to the hangar. “I’ll contact you when we’re ready for pickup.”

“I will stay here,” Serizawa said, and Palmer simply nodded in understanding.

The hangar of the Argo consisted of several catwalk platforms, providing access to a variety of aircraft that hung from racks on the ceiling. Below the catwalks and racks were several sets of doors along the bottom of the Argo’s hull, allowing the vehicles to be dropped out like a bomb payload. Jay, Chloe, and Palmer gathered into one of the Phoenix gunships, an aerial vehicle that looked like a combination of a Black Hawk helicopter, and an Osprey gunship. They were accompanied by a few armed soldiers, and another group of armed soldiers loaded into a separate craft.

The doors of the Phoenix slid shut, and a few seconds later the vehicle was dropped out of the Argo’s hangar, dual rotors spinning to keep it aloft. A minute later, the second craft dropped, following behind the lead vehicle. Both vehicles made their way towards the island, which Jay could see now. It was almost perfectly circular, and covered completely by a thick rainforest. At the very center, the tip of a stone structure peeked out, which Jay assumed was the Temple of the Moth.

“Admiral Palmer!” the pilot’s voice sounded through the headset Jay was wearing. “There’s a wide strip of beach on the east end of the island. I’m gonna set her down there, you all will have to go forward from there!”

“Copy that.” came Palmer’s voice.

The two gunships approached the large patch of sand that made up the beach, and touched down, opening the doors. The group piled out of the vehicle- Jay, Chloe, Palmer, and the three soldiers that had accompanied them. The other six soldiers emerged from the second Phoenix, and the group made headway towards the jungle, where they began their search.

The rainforest was disgustingly humid, and no matter how much Jay waved his hands there always seemed to be a fly buzzing in his ears. As the group moved they could hear the chirping of wild birds, or the hooting and cackling of other forest creatures. The jungle foliage crunched under Jay’s boots, and he swore he felt something tiny move past his foot.

“Admiral, look at this,” one of the soldiers said, drawing their attention. The man was standing next to a tree that had a strange symbol carved into it. “This island’s been inhabited.”

“I did mention the tribe that worshiped Mothra, didn’t I?” Chloe asked.

“Indeed you did, Doctor Singh,” Palmer stated. “Any idea what this means?”

Chloe stepped forward, and examined the symbol carved into the trunk of the tree. It was shaped like an O, with a square-shaped swirl in the center. A horizontal line was drawn through the center of the symbol. Chloe cocked her head, peering at the strange symbol with curiosity.

“I have no idea,” she said after a moment. “Maybe if I…” she reached forward, and pressed a finger to the symbol. “Hey, wait a minute, this… it’s a separate piece, like a button.”

“Chloe,” Jay urged. “I don’t think it’s-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Chloe pushed on the symbol, and it retracted into the tree trunk like a button. Almost immediately, the ground underneath the group caved in, and they all fell down into an underground pocket. After regaining their senses, the group realized the pocket they fell into was part of an underground tunnel system. They had found the ancient catacombs.

“Flashlights on,” Palmer said, pulling a maglite off his belt and turning it on. “And keep your fingers on the trigger. We don’t know what’s gonna be down here.”

The other soldiers raised their rifles, activating their flashlights. Palmer led the way, with two other soldiers behind him. Jay and Chloe were behind those two, and the rest of the group followed in the back. The group was traveling for what felt like hours, when finally the tunnel opened up into a large, underground chamber. Several other tunnels connected to the chamber, going off in other directions. The group gathered in the room, and Palmer glanced at the floor.

“Doctors,” he said, pointing at the floor. “Look familiar?”

Jay and Chloe looked to see that the floor was covered in a stylistic painting of a giant moth- unmistakable as art of the temple’s namesake.

“Alright, head count,” Palmer ordered, before he began counting each of them. When he got to Chloe and Jay, he frowned suddenly. “Wait a minute,” he said. “We’re one man short. Where’s Henderson?” The group began looking around, but nobody knew. “Yancy, you were next to him. What happened?”

The soldier stepped forward. “I… I didn’t see,” he explained. “I just thought he had fallen in behind me, and… I didn’t notice he was gone until now.”

“We need to find him,” Palmer said. “We’ll have to retrace our steps. Everyone split up! Nobody stops until we find him.” He gestured for Jay and Chloe to follow him and one other soldier. Palmer drew the sidearm that was holstered on his belt, and held the maglite in his other hand. The four of them moved out into the tunnels, looking around.

“Keep your heads on a swivel, gentlemen,” Palmer said into his radio. “We don’t know what happened to Henderson. There could be something down here with us.”

“You really think so?” the soldier that accompanied them asked.

“I don’t care if it’s people or monsters or the goddamn boogeyman,” Palmer said matter-of-factly. “Henderson didn’t just disappear.”

Suddenly, they heard gunfire ring out in the distance, followed by a pair of screams. Palmer’s head shot in the direction of the sound, and he began running. Jay, Chloe, and the other soldier followed him, finding themselves going through a maze of intersecting tunnels. Eventually, Palmer stopped, looking at the ground. They followed his gaze, and saw what he was looking at- a pair of assault rifles lay discarded on the ground, flashlights flickering. A puddle of blood accompanied the abandoned weapons, staining the rock floor.

“Yancy and Khvostov,” Palmer muttered.

“Something’s hunting us,” Jay said.

“Agreed,” the Admiral said. “Barnes, we need to-”

The soldier that had accompanied them was missing. Jay and Chloe looked around in a panic, and Palmer did likewise. Out of caution, Jay picked one of the rifles up off the ground, wiping the blood off it with his shirt.

“Where the hell’d he go?” the Admiral growled.

Suddenly, they heard more distant screams, followed by more gunfire. Palmer ran in the direction of the sound, prompting Jay and Chloe to follow close behind. Eventually, they came across a single soldier leaning against a wall, clutching his arm. There was a nasty wound on his elbow that was leaking blood, and the man’s rifle was missing.

“Hobbes!” Palmer said, rushing to help the man. “What happened?”

“Something… attacked us…” the man managed to say. “It… it took Walters. Killed him.”

“What was it?” Jay asked. “Did you see it?”

“Some… some kind of bug.”

There were more echoes of gunfire, followed by a shriek- but not from any person. It was unnatural, like some kind of starved, rabid creature.

“Doctor Singh,” Palmer instructed. “I need you to help Hobbes walk. Doctor Abbot, you watch our six.”

Jay nodded, and the four of them moved towards the source of the noise. Eventually, they stumbled into two of the other men, who nearly shot them in surprise.

“Admiral!” said the man in front.

“Reynolds! Maverick!” Palmer shouted. “What the hell’s going on?”

“We were attacked, sir,” Reynolds explained. “Some kind of… giant bugs. Big as a horse.”

“We need to get out of here,” Palmer said. “If we stay here, we die.”

“But what about the mission?” Chloe protested. “We need to find Mothra!”

“We NEED to stay alive!” Palmer argued. “There’s no point in searching aimlessly-”

Suddenly, Maverick screamed, and fell to the ground, the group watched helplessly as he was dragged screaming into the dark, followed by a sickening crunch, which cut off his yells of pain abruptly. Jay aimed the rifle he had picked up off the ground, and the flashlight shone on two hulking shapes. He nearly screamed from what he saw.

They were at least twice the size of a human, and looked almost like some sort of giant mutant cockroach. Their bodies were covered in reddish-brown, armored chitin, and they had a pair of bulging yellow eyes set on either side of their head. The two creatures were feasting on the bloody corpse of Maverick, but when the light shone on them, they both turned to look at the newcomers, and shrieked angrily.

“OPEN FIRE!” Palmer shouted. “SHOOT IT, SHOOT IT!”

Reynolds began unleashing volleys of gunfire at the two creatures, which impacted on the bug’s exoskeleton but seemed to do nothing. Palmer opened fire with his sidearm, and Jay tried to shoot with his retrieved rifle, but the recoil was like nothing he’d ever experienced, and he dropped the gun.

“Fall back, fall back!” Palmer shouted, and the group began retreating back through the tunnels. They made a turn, but stopped when they saw several more of the creatures heading straight for them. The group kept moving through the tunnels, narrowly avoiding the insectoid creatures that were chasing them. Reynolds’ rifle clicked empty, and he swapped the magazine out, reloading his weapon. Suddenly, they made a turn, and found themselves at a dead end.

“SHIT!” Palmer shouted. “No!”

The five of them turned to look as the creatures began turning the corner, approaching them. One of the bugs made a step forwards, and looked like it was about to pounce. Suddenly, a noise like a horn echoed through the tunnels. The bugs backed up in confusion, before the one in the front was suddenly impaled through the head by a spear-like object. Several silhouetted figures filed into the tunnel hallway, holding sticks with fires blazing at the tips. This seemed to repel the creatures, as they backed away, screeching in protest. Soon enough, all of the creatures were gone, and the group was left confused as to what just happened.

Before any of them could react, the figures that had chased off the bugs filled the hallways, their spears poised to strike. The flashlights of the weapons illuminated their attackers- they all had tanned skin, and were covered in white and cyan colored tattoos. They were also garbed in red and blue strands of cloth, adorned with bird feathers.

“Woah!” Palmer shouted. “Stand down!”

The admiral put his hands in the air, holstering his sidearm. Reynolds, looking panicked, kept his rifle aimed. The attackers kept their weapons pointed at the group, and began talking amongst themselves in an unknown language.

“Please, don’t hurt us!” Chloe begged, still helping to support Hobbes. “We’re looking for Mothra!”

This seemed to catch the people’s attention. They continued to talk amongst themselves, now occasionally throwing in the word ‘Mosura.’ After a minute, they quieted down, and parted their ranks to reveal two female figures. They were at least a foot shorter than Chloe, and were clothed in simple, blue-and-red pieces of cloth. Their hair was a bluish-white color, and cropped at chin-length. The two girls approached the group in unison, and then spoke in the same manner.

“Greetings, outsiders,” they spoke at the same time. “We understand that you have come seeking the aid of Mothra?”

“That’s right,” Jay found the courage to speak. “Who are you?”

“I am Miana.” Said the one on the right.
“I am Maina.” Said the one on the left.
“We are the Shobijin.” They spoke in unison.

“Can you… take us to Mothra?” Chloe asked.

The Shobijin nodded. “Bring your wounded with you, but tell those two to leave their weapons behind.” They pointed at Palmer and Reynolds.

Palmer nodded, drawing his sidearm and dropping it on the floor. “Drop the gun, Reynolds.”

Reynolds, still shaking, eyed Palmer. “S-sir?”

“Drop it.”

Reluctantly, Reynolds dropped his rifle.

“Follow us closely,” the Shobijin instructed. “We will keep you safe, but if you stray too far behind, they will come back.”

“What were those things?” Jay asked as the entire group began to move, now being escorted by the Shobijin’s spear-bearing companions.

“They are called Meganulon,” the girls answered. “They are not native to Infant Island. They are a plague, brought about by a creature from outside of our society.”

“What is it?”

“It is known as Megaguirus,” they continued. “It has burrowed far beneath Infant Island, where it laid its eggs to spawn the Meganulon. Mothra placed a magic seal to keep Megaguirus in place, but the Meganulon are free to roam the catacombs.” The Shobijin then addressed Palmer. “We are truly sorry about the deaths of your companions.”

“Thank you,” The admiral said.

The Shobijin explained that their people were called the Houtua, and they came to Infant Island long before North America was ever colonized. They managed to keep themselves hidden for thousands of years, and that they worshiped Mothra as their guardian deity.

“What do you know of Godzilla?” Chloe asked them.

“Godzilla is one of Mothra’s allies,” the Shobijin answered. “Many, many years ago, the two of them protected the Earth together, alongside a third named King Caesar, and the other guardian Kaiju. Mothra defended the skies, and Godzilla, the depths of the oceans, while King Caesar held dominion over the land. But alas, with the dawn of mankind’s civilization, the Kaiju had to hide themselves.”

“But why now?” Jay asked. “Why are the Kaiju re-emerging now?”

“There are two answers to your question,” said the Shobijin. “The first answer is one you will not want to hear; mankind itself. While some of you may take care of this planet as best you can, others are more destructive in nature. Plundering its resources, polluting its waters, destroying its forests. These actions may very well have released some of the Kaiju you see today.”

Jay winced. “Okay… what’s the second answer?”

“An enemy from long ago,” the Shobijin continued. “In ancient times, he descended from the sky, and decimated civilizations. Many of the civilizations he destroyed seemingly disappeared from history without explanation, like the Mayans. Only the combined power of all Earth’s Kaiju was able to stop him, and even then, they were barely able to succeed.”

“Who is he?”

“We do not speak his name,” both girls said. “We have only ever referred to him as The One Who is Many.”

“And that’s why we need Mothra’s help,” Chloe interjected. “If The One Who is Many has returned, we’re going to need the help of all the Earth’s Kaiju.”

“That decision is up to Mothra herself,” the Shobijin said. “She will help you, but only if she chooses to do so herself.”

The group continued to travel the tunnels in silence, until a light began shining in the corridors ahead. The Houtua warriors escorting the group parted, marking an entrance into a massive underground cavern. Jay and the others followed the Shobijin through, and then all gasped in collective awe when they saw what was on the other side. The cavern was an enormous, wide funnel that went up, and a hole at the top let sunlight in. There were primitive huts and tents set up all around the cavern, along with staircases and platforms carved into the walls of the cavern, marking other areas of the village. Dozens of Houtua tribe members milled about the area, carrying out daily activities. The sunlight coming through the hole in the ceiling illuminated a small, circular platform in the center of the cavern, which was decorated with ornate carvings. There were torch sticks dotting the entire village, but the main source of the light was from two enormous, oval-spheres that sat in the very back of the cave.

Sitting atop the spheres was a massive Kaiju, unmistakable as Mothra.

As her name suggested, Mothra was a massive Moth-like creature, with a wingspan of at least 240 meters. Her body was covered in orange and white fur, and two enormous blue eyes sat on either side of her head, alongside two long, white, feather-like antennae. Her wings were covered in various elegant patterns that looked like a mix of eyes, feathers, and leaves. They were multicolored, seeming to switch color between orange, violet, green, and blue.

The Shobijin stopped several meters away from the platform, turning to the group.

“Admiral,” They addressed Palmer. “Take your wounded and your other man down the right hallway. There, you will find our healer, Melenia. She will assist you.”

Palmer nodded, and took Hobbes from Chloe. He motioned for Reynolds to follow him, and all three of them headed in the direction Miana and Maina had told him. The two girls then addressed Jay and Chloe.

“As for you two, step onto the platform in the middle of the room,” they parted, gesturing at the platform in the center of the room. “As we said, if Mothra deems you worthy, she will speak to you.”

“Speak?” Jay and Chloe said in unison.

The Shobijin merely nodded.

Reluctantly, Jay and Chloe stepped forward, each of them standing on either side of the platform. When they had entered the room, Mothra had been so still one could’ve thought her to be dead. But as soon as Jay and Chloe stepped foot on the platform, Mothra’s antenna perked up, and she looked at the two of them, chittering like an insect. While her eyes had no pupils, Jay could feel her gaze shifting from him to Chloe, and then back again. After a moment, a completely unfamiliar voice filled his head.

Welcome.
The voice was unquestionably feminine. It was deep and booming, filling his entire consciousness, but at the same time it felt gentle and calming, like it was soothing his brain so as to not drive him insane.
It was Mothra talking to them.

Chloe Singh, Jay Abbot. The voice continued. I welcome you to my home.

“You can talk?” Both Chloe and Jay said in unison, dumbstruck.

Only to those I deem worthy, Mothra said. The stone you two currently stand on, it is one of several, each of which allow me to communicate with my people.

Jay briefly glanced behind him, only now noticing the matching necklaces the Shobijin were wearing. They were both small stones, round and smooth, but they were decorated with a carving of the same Moth symbol that he had seen on the floor of the catacombs. He then glanced down at the stone platform he and Chloe were standing on, and saw that it, too, had the Moth symbol carved into it.

My people refer to them as ‘Talismans of the Moth,’ Mothra’s voice said. However, I can tell you did not come here to speak of my history, as enriching as it may be.

“I’m afraid not, your grace,” Chloe said.

Please, call me Mothra.

“Mothra,” she corrected herself. “We’ve come with unfortunate news. The destroyer Kaiju- you know who they are, right?”

Mothra nodded.

“They’ve begun surfacing again,” Chloe explained. “Four years ago, Orochi emerged, and just two days ago, Gabara emerged as well.”

Where are they now?

“Well-” Jay started. “They’re dead. Godzilla killed them both, and Anguirus helped to kill Gabara.”

Then it is under control, is it not?

“Well, yes, but no!” Chloe protested. “I feel like more of them are going to start coming out of hiding, but that’s not the only reason we need your help!”

You need my help, Mothra’s voice sounded almost exhausted. Proceed.

“Some of our people are building a weapon,” Jay explained. “One that they think they can control. It has the power to kill Kaiju- even Godzilla. Once it's finished, they plan to use it to destroy every Kaiju on the planet, which will include you.”

“We need your help,” Chloe interjected. “Not just with the weapon, or against the other destroyers; we need you to prove to our people that not all Kaiju are as destructive as they think!”

There was a long pause of silence, and Mothra closed her eyes in thought. After a minute or two, she re-opened them.

Child, she began. It has been a very long time since I fought in a battle. And even so, I have duties that are keeping me here- my duty to protect my people, and to protect my future offspring. Mothra looked down at the giant spheres she was sitting on, and Jay realized that they must be eggs. I must also remain here to keep Megaguirus contained below the caverns- but also, if I were to leave, I would be unleashing something far worse than Megaguirus.

“What?” Jay asked. “Who?”

There is another creature, much like me, Mothra explained. My counterpart. He is known as Battra, and unlike me, he has no love for humanity. He sees you as a blight on the Earth, something that must be eliminated. He is in hibernation, just like many of the other Kaiju. However, I fear if I leave here and make my presence known, he will sense me. He will emerge to fight against me, and unleash his fury on mankind.

“You can’t beat him?” Chloe pleaded.

I’m afraid not, Mothra hung her head in shame. I tried to, many years ago, but I was nearly killed in the process. It was a miracle that he was defeated, and buried underground many miles from here.

“You can’t just turn your back on us!” Chloe protested, stomping her foot. Mothra’s antennae arched. “We need your help! At least give us something!”

There was another pause, and it seemed like Mothra made a sound akin to sighing. Finally, she spoke.

I can give you two gifts, Mothra said. The first being a Talisman, one for each of you. When your situation turns truly dire, or a threat that cannot be overcome emerges, contact me. Mothra nodded towards Miana and Maina, and the two Shobijin stepped forward, retrieving two stones from a pouch slung around each of their waists, Miana handed her stone to Chloe, while Maina handed her stone to Jay. The second will be a map of your world. I will mark the locations of the Kaiju whom I trust the most, and allow you to continue your quest to free them. Allow my priestesses some time to make it for you.

Chloe nodded, looking humbled. Jay, too, felt incredibly humbled. “Thank you, Mothra.”

Mothra nodded. Go, now.

Chapter Text

Jay and Chloe met with Palmer in the healer’s cave. Reynolds was there with him, along with Melenia the healer. She had tanned skin like the other Houtua, however her hair was much longer, falling past her shoulders, and she wore thick robes that revealed less of her body. She was kneeling over the unconscious form of Hobbes, who had been stripped of his tactical gear and was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt. He was laying on a giant leaf that Melenia seemed to be using as a mat.

“How is he?” Jay asked.

Melenia looked up at them, and spoke in a soft voice. “His injuries are not too great,” she explained. “However, the Meganulon’s jaws secrete a venomous substance that renders the body’s defense mechanisms useless. His wound would have surely gotten infected, had you not brought him to me when you did.”

“He’s not gonna be leaving anytime soon,” Palmer commented. “What’ve you two been up to?”

Jay shrugged. “Having a chat with a Kaiju.”

Palmer raised an eyebrow. “The bug can talk? Now I HAVE seen everything. What’d she say?”

“She can’t help us,” Chloe said sadly. “For our own good. However, the Shobijin are bringing us a map marking the location of every Kaiju that can help us. They’ll be here soon… I hope.”

“So what’re we gonna do about Hobbes?” Palmer asked. “We can’t leave him here alone.”

“I’ll stay with him, Admiral.” Reynolds stepped in. “I’ll take responsibility.”

Palmer scoffed. “Permission denied. You’re not staying behind.”

“Respectfully, sir,” Reynolds replied. “But I’m not asking. Hobbes is my teammate, AND my friend. I’m not leaving him behind.”

Palmer considered this for a moment, before nodding. “Good luck, marine.” he saluted Reynolds, who saluted back. After that, Palmer followed Jay and Chloe back into the main cavern, where they were met by the Shobijin, who were carrying a large, leather bound piece of parchment. They handed it to Chloe, bowing.

“We will take you to the secret exit,” they both said. “It is used only for leaving. Once you walk through it, you will not be able to come back without braving the catacombs.”

Jay gulped. “Got it. Lead the way.”

The Shobijin nodded, before leading the trio up a lone staircase laid into the leftmost wall of the cavern. It continued up for a very long time, eventually delving into the cavern ceiling and becoming very narrow. Palmer lit his maglite, using it to light the way ahead of them. Eventually, the passage widened out into a small chamber, with a carved stone wall at the back. The two priestesses approached the wall, and Maina pressed a button that was laid into the stone. Part of the wall slid open, and they were blinded by sunlight bursting through. When their eyes adjusted, they saw the edge of the jungle just outside the Temple of the Moth. The two girls gestured at the exit, prompting Palmer to walk through without hesitation. Chloe stepped through next, bowing politely at the Shobijin, who bowed back. Jay was the last one through, pausing to address the Shobijin.

“Um… take care of yourselves.” He said.

Miana and Maina cocked their heads in confusion. “Why would we do otherwise?”

“Huh?” Jay asked. “Oh, no, it’s a phrase you use to… say goodbye, basically.”

The Shobijin looked at each other, and giggled briefly, something that made Jay feel slightly uncomfortable, but also content. They turned back to him, and bowed politely. “Take care of yourself, Jay Abbot,” they said. “And farewell.”

Jay bowed back, before walking through the door. The stone slab slid shut behind them, sealing the trio outside the temple. He found Palmer contacting the USS Argo on his radio, and Chloe eyeing the rolled up piece of parchment she had been given. Her expression showed content, but her eyes said otherwise.

“Something’s up with you,” Jay sidled up next to her. “What’s on your mind?”

“I just…” she sighed. “Everything in my notes made me think that Mothra would jump at the opportunity to help us. I didn’t expect her to turn us down… not like that, at least.”

“At least she gave us a good reason,” Jay offered.

“Yeah, but…” Chloe looked off into space. “I don’t know. I really just wanted to be right for once. Mothra would have been the Kaiju to prove to those… asshats on the board that the Kaiju are not giant, destructive monsters.”

Jay put a hand on her shoulder. “You will, eventually. Something tells me Mothra can’t stay cooped up in that cave forever.”

The loud hum of an engine sounded above them, and the trio looked up to see the USS Argo flying overhead, deploying a Phoenix gunship to pick them up.

“Come on,” Jay said. “We’ve got a map to read.”

Once the Argo dropped them off at the KRRA headquarters, Jay, Chloe, and Dr. Serizawa hurried to Chloe’s office to look at the map. Chloe unrolled the parchment to find a very accurate (if ancient-looking) map of the world, practically identical to the one she had on her corkboard. There were X’s marked in various locations of the map, each of them labeled in elegant handwriting. Chloe held it out in front of her corkboard, her eyes glancing back and forth between the two, before she suddenly started jumping up and down.

“I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!” She said gleefully. “I knew I got some of these right!”

“What?” Jay stepped forwards to look over her shoulder.

“I got some of their locations right!” Chloe beamed. “Look, that’s Baragon!” she pointed at one of the X’s, in the middle of the Egyptian desert. “And there’s Varan!” she then pointed at another X, in the Himalayan mountains. “Oh, and that must be Rodan!” she placed her finger on an X that sat atop Mount Fuji, in Japan. “I can’t believe it, all the protectors… they’re all on this map! Mothra really did help us!”

Jay grinned. “I had a feeling she wouldn’t leave us with nothing.”

“Which one should we aim for first?” Serizawa asked.

“Hmmm…” Chloe looked over the map, before briefly folding it up and grabbing the folder listing the protectors. She flipped through it, pausing on each Kaiju’s file. “I’d say we tackle the one who will be the hardest to get to… Manda.” she pointed at a blank spot in the middle of the south Atlantic Ocean. “We’ll need to go underwater. Do we have something for that?”

Serizawa nodded. “There is one vessel.”

The USS Gotengo was the one-and-only KRRA vessel capable of underwater travel. It was nearly a hundred meters in length, almost rivaling Godzilla’s size. It had an extremely thick hull that allowed it to travel deeper underwater than any other vessel, almost as deep as the Mariana trench. It was propelled by three massive turbines that sat in a row at the Gotengo’s rear, and was equipped with underwater point-defense turrets, along with several torpedo tubes. The bridge was set inside of a massive glass sphere at the front of the ship, where the crew was currently gathered.

Doctor Serizawa and Admiral Palmer elected to stay behind for the mission to awaken Manda, so Jay and Chloe were accompanied by Douglas Gordon, the captain of the USS Gotengo. He was a stout man with a bushy mustache, but he held himself in a way that radiated both wisdom and authority. The three of them were standing around a planning table, much like the one that had been on board the USS Argo. Chloe’s map was resting on the table, alongside note sheets on Manda.

“So he’s a serpent,” Gordon said, eyeing the two of them. “Like the Loch Ness Monster?”

“Manda may have very well inspired that tale,” Chloe replied. “That is, if the legends are to be believed.”

Gordon waved his hand dismissively. “Let’s just hope we don’t run into anything unsavory down here. The ocean is chock-full of Kaiju these days.”

Jay nodded, recalling how both Gezora, the giant squid, and Ebirah, the lobster Kaiju, were creatures that dwelled primarily underwater. Due to that fact, and how recent they technically were, the KRRA lacked much archive footage of them. However, as far as Jay knew, they were outside both Ebirah and Gezora’s territory, so he was sure they wouldn’t run into too much opposition.

“We’re approaching the lower depths, sir,” one of the crewmen called to captain Gordon.

“Alright then,” Gordon replied. “Let’s have a look around.”

“Aye, captain,” the crewmate replied. “Fifteen degrees down-angle on the bow planes. Come right, two-four-zero.”

“Alright, miss Singh,” Douglas addressed the doctor. “Wanna tell me what it is we’re looking for?”

“I’m not entirely certain,” Chloe said. “It could be anything… probably a temple, or an ancient ruin of some kind. Anything that could indicate the resting place of something very sacred.”

“...Right.” Gordon sounded confused. “Okay. Give me exterior lights.” 

One of the crewmates at the helm flipped a switch on their control panel, and two enormous flood lights illuminated the sea floor in front of them. They were greeted with the terrifying image of a giant whale skeleton, looming out of the darkness towards them. Everyone gasped briefly in fear, before realizing it was just a skeleton. The Gotengo plowed through the creature’s husk, breaking the bones in a shower of dust. Beyond the whale skeleton, the flood lights illuminated glimpses of an entire graveyard. They saw everything, from other whale skeletons of similar size, to the destroyed hulls of old wooden galleons, and even the dented husks of steam-driven ocean liners. The Gotengo continued on through the graveyard, eventually finding a spot where the ocean floor emptied out into a massive canyon. The flood lights scanned the walls of the canyon, seeing what looked like massive carvings engraved into the sides.

“Looks like we found your ruin, alright.” Douglas said. “How long does this go on for?”

“The sonar can’t map it out at this depth, sir,” a crewmate responded. “But, also, we’re picking up something else, on the hydrophone.”

“Well, put it on speaker.”

The crewmate flipped a switch, and instantly the bridge was assaulted with an ear-piercing, droning screech. It raised and lowered in pitch randomly, and sounded almost completely unnatural.

“What is it?” Douglas leaned over the crewmate’s shoulder. “A pod of whales?”

“No…” the crewmate replied. “It’s bigger, much bigger.”

“Maybe an echo off one of the wrecks?” Jay suggested.

“Can’t be,” Douglas retorted. “We’re too far from there for the sound to be this clear.”

The droning sound continued for what seemed like another four minutes, before fading out. Everyone looked around nervously, before sighing in relief.

“Whatever it was, it’s gone now.” Gordon said. “Helmsman. Bring us about. Tighten our search pattern, and slow us-”

He was cut off by a deafening WHAM, and the entire vessel buckled from the force of an impact. Some crewmates were thrown off the railing of the bridge as everyone lost their footing, and Douglas held onto one of the control stations to hold his balance. Chloe’s notes and map were thrown from the table, and she scrambled to pick them back up. Jay looked out the globe windows of the bridge to see a massive, crustacean shape move past, shrieking loudly. The Gotengo righted itself, and the crew of the bridge began to get back to their feet, all of them dazed and confused. Chloe hugged her scrambled notes tight to her chest, trying to keep all the papers together.

“What the hell just hit us?” Gordon lurched forward, peering at the radar himself. “Turn on ALL the exterior lights! Switch to full search mode, I want this ship lit up like a Christmas tree!”

“Yes sir!” one of the crewmates responded, flipping several switches. Additional flood lights began to activate on the exterior of the Gotengo, lighting up the entire body of the craft. They all looked forward through the bridge’s window to see a massive, dark shape crashing through the pillars ahead of them. It turned around in a wide arc, and began heading straight for the Gotengo at full speed. When it was at least thirty meters from the submarine, the floodlights lit up its body, revealing the orange-tinted chitin of an enormous lobster-like creature, which screeched at them. It dived down, slamming into the Gotengo as it passed underneath.

“That’s Ebirah!” Chloe shouted between panicked breaths.

Douglas nodded, before stepping back to the captain’s chair, and activating his microphone to broadcast across the entire vessel. “All hands, battle stations! Load the torpedo pods! Melt the butter and bring out the bibbs, I want this lobster served up on a silver platter!” As he spoke, his voice echoed throughout the bridge. Gordon then moved to one of the other control stations. “Get me exterior camera views! I want a visual of this thing!”

Several monitor screens dropped down around the edges of the bridge, showing camera views from different angles of the ship. Jay watched alongside Douglas as one of the cameras caught Ebirah moving behind the ship, turning around for another attack.

“Tailgunners, watch it!” Gordon shouted into his radio. “He’s coming back for another pass!”

The turret guns placed on the rear of the ship spun around targeting the massive lobster. They fired off rounds of underwater-type explosive ammunition, which struck Ebirah in the face, causing the crustacean to turn away, and pass by the Gotengo without hitting it. The lobster screeched in anger, but was not deterred.

“Launch Piranhas,” Gordon ordered. “Get those sub-pods in the water!”

The Gotengo was equipped with a host of different underwater crafts, many of which were small, Piranha-class submersible pods designed for underwater combat. While the small, streamlined crafts weren’t large enough to do much damage alone, a large swarm of them could repel weaker Kaiju. Dozens of the pods were launched into the water from the sides of the Gotengo, and they began to make their way towards Ebirah. Arming their payloads of torpedoes, they fired, sending a serenade of undersea missiles towards the Kaiju. Each one of them made their mark, and Ebirah screeched angrily, waving his claws in front of his face.

“Arm torpedo tubes!” Gordon yelled. “Give him the full course!”

The Gotengo had torpedo-launching tubes located near the front, and at the captain’s command, they were launched, assaulting the Kaiju with yet another swarm of missiles. Ebirah shrieked in rage, and began charging through the water towards the Gotengo.

“Evasive maneuvers, quick!” the captain shouted. The helmsman spun the wheel rapidly, and the giant submarine was able to narrowly avoid the lobster’s attack. “Piranhas, get after him!”

The tiny pods followed close behind the massive Lobster, firing volley after volley of missiles. Ebirah, having had enough, abruptly turned around, headed right for the swarm of sub pods. With a swing of his larger claw, he decimated over a dozen of the pods in a series of explosions.

“We just lost eight of the pods!” yelled one of the crew members on the bridge.

“Blast it!” Gordon cursed. “If we can’t beat him, we’ll have to lose ‘em. Full speed ahead!”

“Aye, captain!” The helmsman said, before pushing down on the throttle. The Gotengo shot forward at speeds incredible compared to its size, and the Piranha pods swam back alongside the larger vessel to dock. A few of them lagged behind, and Ebirah crushed them with his claws. The Gotengo sped ahead of the massive lobster, who shrieked in frustration and began rushing to try and catch up. As the Gotengo kept moving, the canyon continued into a roofed cavern ahead of them. Jay spotted this, and pointed it out to the captain.

“Captain!” he pointed at the roof. “Shoot the rocks!”

“Good thinking, Doctor,” he nodded. “All turrets, fire on that cavern roof!”

The outer turrets of the Gotengo took aim at the entrance of the cavern roof, and fired. The missiles exploded against the rock roof, which began to slowly rain down in a cloud of debris. The Gotengo made it through, only getting scraped by a few rocks, but by the time Ebirah got there, the debris cloud was already too heavy. The lobster was pummeled by falling rocks, and forced to withdraw, screeching angrily. 

Now, the Gotengo was completely in the dark, the inside of the cavern limiting visibility even with all of the exterior lights on. The submarine kept going forwards, and eventually the cavern opened up into a much larger chamber, with more markings carved into the walls. There were more details, now, too; columns, small statues on pedestals, almost as if the cavern was some sort of pantheon. The very back wall of the chamber was decorated the most, and in the middle of the wall was a massive, circular carving that took up an entire section of the wall. Running the inner length of the circle indent was a carving of a snake-like creature with horns, and four legs that were spaced out along its body. Chloe took the moment to place her bundle of notes back on the table, and rifled through them to find a picture of a similar, but smaller carving.

“This is it,” she said. “This is where Manda is resting. If I had to guess, he’s probably been sealed behind that symbol.”

“So, what do we do now?” Jay turned to her.

“We free him, of course!” she said. “Shoot it!”

“Uh,” Gordon interjected. “Are you sure? What, we’re just gonna shoot the thing keeping the giant monster in?”

Chloe sighed. “Manda is one of the protectors. If we free him- and DON’T attack him afterwards- he’ll leave us be.”

Gordon inhaled sharply. “Well, here goes nothing.” he tuned his radio. “Load all torpedoes. Maximum firepower. Aim for the center of the circle, like this is target practice.”

Every torpedo tube on the Gotengo was loaded, and at Douglas’ word, all of them fired at the enormous circle. It took several volleys, but finally, the wall cracked, and the entire circle began to collapse, revealing a tunnel that led off into the darkness. Everyone sat there in anticipation, waiting for something to happen. Suddenly, the hydrophone began to pick up a noise growing closer- but it wasn’t the sound Ebirah had been making. It was much lower, more akin to a growl than a droning screech. It got louder and louder, until the entire chamber began to shake. Then, they saw him- Manda himself emerged from the hole.

He was a massive serpent-like creature, at least over 230 meters in length. His entire body was a deep blue-green color, and he was covered in scales. He had two sets of legs that were spaced out across the length of his body, with one set closer to his neck, and the other closer to his tail. He had a long snout, and the back of his head was adorned with two sets of horns, like a dragon. He had slitted, reptilian eyes, with bright blue pupils. When he entered the chamber, he coiled into a circle so his whole body could fit, and he peered at the Gotengo. The crew waited, not daring to make a move. After a while Manda looked away from them, and dashed down the tunnel they had come through.

“Quick!” Chloe urged. “Follow him!”

There was a pause, before Gordon followed up her statement. “What are you waiting for? After him!”

The helmsman nodded, and the Gotengo turned all the way around, before following full speed in the direction Manda had gone. When they arrived at the entrance to the underwater cavern, they could see Manda had plowed through the fallen rocks, leaving it wide open for the Gotengo to go through. They looked up into the distance, and could see Manda swimming off towards the surface of the ocean, doing loops and circles, as if he hadn’t stretched his body in centuries (which was probably true.)

“It’s done…” Chloe said, beaming. “Manda’s free.”

Chapter Text

The day after Manda had been freed, Jay and Chloe were milling about in her office, looking over notes. Well, Chloe was looking over her notes, Jay was pacing back and forth, contemplating recent events. Yes, they had released Manda, and yes, they had been proven right when he didn’t immediately attack them, or anything else he came across. But what Jay really questioned was Ebirah’s appearance in the canyon. The giant lobster’s territory was the mid-Atlantic, not the south. Why had he been there?

“Ugh, it doesn’t make any sense!” Jay said aloud, prompting Chloe to look up from her notes. “Why was Ebirah there? That was way outside his territory!”

“I don’t know,” Chloe shrugged. “Maybe he got bored and decided to explore outside his territory?”

“But why would he have done so there, that deep underwater?” Jay said. “There was nothing to hunt down there, aside from… us…” a thought hit him, but he suppressed it. He had no other evidence to prove it. But then, a second thought hit him. “Wait… what if Ebirah was there… because something had chased him out?”

“What do you mean?” Chloe cocked her head.

“Think about it,” Jay explained. “When Ganimes and Condor attacked New York and Paris, it wasn’t out of their own volition-”

“-It was because Orochi had chased them out.” Chloe finished for him, and began following his train of thought. “And then when Titanosaurus showed up in Baltimore last week-”

“It was because Gabara had chased HIM out.” Jay said. “So that means…”

“There’s another Destroyer on the loose.” Chloe said. “But which one? Orochi and Gabara are dead, Battra is asleep and Mothra’s keeping Megaguirus contained.”

“I don’t know,” Jay replied. “But we need to let Doctor Serizawa and Admiral Palmer know that there might be a new threat in town.”

“A new threat?” Serizawa adjusted his glasses. “Are you certain?”
“Positive,” Jay assured him. “And it could be anything, since the only destroyer that we haven’t seen yet is definitely a land dweller.”

“You’re sure?” Palmer insisted.

Jay nodded. “We’ve seen the same pattern in behavior, with Ganimes, Condor, and then Titanosaurus. Orochi chased out the first two, and then Gabara attacked Titanosaurus and drove him to land.”

“And you're certain this isn’t the beetle monster?” Serizawa recalled the cave painting depicting all of the Earth’s monsters.

“Fairly certain.”

“Admiral,” A KRRA officer stepped into the briefing room that Serizawa, Palmer, and Jay were inside of. The officer saluted the admiral, before speaking. “You, uh, might want to turn the TV on, sir. We’ve got a lead.”

Palmer nodded, grabbing a remote off the briefing table and turning on the room’s TV. Instantly, it began showing a news broadcast, and the voice of a newscaster came through the TV.

“-Not entirely clear what’s happened here. But one thing is without a doubt- an oil rig not far off the Gulf of Mexico was mysteriously attacked and partially destroyed by someone or something. News chopper fifteen bringing you life footage now.” The channel began displaying an aerial view of the oil rig, which was partially destroyed, and smoking. “I’m not sure if you can see it, but, bizarrely, there seems to be no leakage from the rig itself. The explanation for this occurrence is still under investigation.”

“That’s gotta be our monster,” Palmer said, turning to the officer who had entered the room. “Contact the captains of the Garuda and the Eclair. We’re going all out on whatever this thing is.”

“Yes sir.” The officer saluted, before leaving.

“Any idea what we might be going up against, Doctor?” Palmer cocked his head towards Jay, who simply shrugged.

“After seeing that,” Jay gestured at the TV “I’m not sure at all. This is definitely some new kind of monster.”

“Well,” Ridley gestured at the door. “Let’s get to the command center and find out.”

The trio exited the room, and headed through the hallways towards the monitoring room. On the way there, they ran into Chloe, and Jay beckoned for her to follow them. They arrived in the command center, where the monitor screen was currently split three ways; one camera was placed within the cockpit of the Garuda, and the other cockpit was placed within the cockpit of the Eclair. The third screen was displaying an aerial view of the fleet that had just mobilized.

The Garuda was using the waters to travel, whilst the Eclair traveled overhead. The amphibious vessel was being escorted by a group of five Basilisk-class Destroyers, which were a modified and updated version of older naval destroyers used by the US Military. Meanwhile, the Eclair was being followed by a fleet of multiple Wyvern-class Gunships. The Wyverns were a much smaller, one-man version of the Phoenix Gunships, designed more for speed and firepower, rather than the carrying of troops.

“We’re getting a reading, sir,” one of the operators said to Palmer. “A heat signature. Not far from the site of the oil rig incident.”

“Send the coordinates to the attack force,” Palmer instructed, and the operator nodded, before turning back and pressing several keys on the panel of his station. All of the ships in the fleet picked up speed, heading towards the marked location. The aerial camera began to fly ahead of them, and after an hour, the fleet was arriving at the location of the Kaiju signature. There didn’t seem to be anything there, until a black cloud suddenly began forming in the water, far ahead of the moving vehicles.

“There!” Palmer said, pointing at it, and activating his radio. “Garuda, Eclair, halt your course.”

The group of vessels stopped, observing the dark cloud in the water. Suddenly, the water began to bubble and steam as a black, sludge-like substance began to form. The sludge continued to grow larger and larger, until it towered at least fifty meters above the ocean’s surface. The giant mound of sludge began to shift and move, forming two thick legs, long, drooping arms, and what seemed to be a tail. Suddenly, two large, bulbous red eyes poked out of the front of its head, and the newly-formed creature let out a gurgling roar.

“What the hell is that?” Palmer raised an eyebrow.

“I…” Jay was at a loss for words. All of Earth’s Kaiju looked different from one another, but this creature looked completely alien. “I have no idea.”

“Admiral Palmer?” Came the voice of the Eclair’s captain. “Orders, sir?”

“Um,” Palmer regained his composure. “Open fire.”

“Yes, sir.”

On the monitor screen, all of the vessels opened fire on the new creature. Every single weapon on the front of the Eclair fired off, and the swarms of Wyverns unleashed their salvos of rockets. The Garuda’s swiveling turrets fired, and the five Basilisk destroyers fired their cannons. The sludge monster was engulfed in explosions, shrieking in pain. Eventually, its entire body became shrouded in smoke, and all the vehicles ceased fire.

“Is it… dead?” Jay wondered. Deep down, he figured it probably wasn’t dead, but as this was a brand-new Kaiju, he couldn’t be certain.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, there was a red flash from inside the smoke cloud, and a thin, bright red laser that resembled a lightning bolt was fired from inside. It shot straight at one of the destroyers, blowing a hole straight through the vessel and destroying it, the broken pieces sinking underwater. It then traced upwards into the sky, taking out several of the Wyvern gunships that were in its path. The smoke began to clear as the creature lurched forward, seemingly walking along the surface of the water. It lunged at two of the other Basilisk Destroyers, slamming into them with its long arms. The ships were crushed by the impact, and the creature then swung its arm in a wide arc, sending chunks of sludge from its body flying everywhere. Most of the chunks landed on the air vehicles, including parts of the Eclair. The Wyverns that had been hit by the sludge soon started to drop out of the sky, and it looked like their frames had been dissolving.

“Command, this is the Eclair,” said a voice from the comm channel. “We’ve been hit by some type of acidic substance.”

“Garuda, Eclair, retreat,” Palmer responded. “Get out of there!”

The ships complied, turning and fleeing from the new monster, which let out another gurgling roar. As the two remaining Basilisk Destroyers went to follow, the Kaiju unleashed another red bolt, which seemed to come from its eyes. The laser struck one of the Destroyers on an angle, igniting the boiler and causing the entire ship to explode in a fiery inferno. The only vessels that escaped were the remaining Basilisk, the Garuda, Eclair, and what was left of the Wyverns.

In the command center, the occupants exchanged horrified glances.
“This is a problem…” Palmer muttered.

They named the creature “Hedorah,” but everyone just called him the Smog Monster.
Over the next several weeks, Hedorah made landfall at the Gulf of Mexico, and proceeded to rampage through the city of Houston, Texas. As the creature trudged through the desert, they realized that he fed off of oil and pollution- as Hedorah traveled, he began to uproot oil wells from the desert, consuming their contents and growing bigger. He destroyed industrial factories, and fed off of the exhaust fumes that came from inside, becoming more powerful.

The military sent another force to attack him- this time, from the ground and the air. Hedorah remained indestructible, seeming to absorb heat from their weapons to power his thermal beam attack. Within hours, Hedorah decimated the entire force, and caused extensive damage to the USS Eclair, causing it to retreat. They also learned he could change form- at one point, Hedorah shifted his entire body into a different form, and began to fly northwest across the country by exhaling a toxic gas. The gas had a devastating effect on the states he flew over, leaving a suffocating and nausea-inducing haze in his wake. The gas inflicted a horrible illness on everyone who had breathed it, which was nicknamed “Smog Sickness.”

In a single week, he left clouds in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Oregon, before he shifted back into his terrestrial form, and began to trudge through the ocean. However, the KRRA was in luck, as someone had been waiting for Hedorah to arrive- the King of the Monsters himself. Godzilla, ever the elite swimmer, had taken Hedorah seven hundred miles away from the shore, and begun to battle the smog creature underwater.

The KRRA was already monitoring the fight from the command center. As usual, Admiral Palmer, Dr. Serizawa, Jay, and Chloe were all present. An aerial camera drone was providing them a view of the fight, allowing them to see what was happening. Godzilla had Hedorah under the water, and was attempting to rip chunks out of the Smog Monster’s body. Hedorah suddenly dissolved into a cloud of sludge-filled liquid, surrounding Godzilla and pulling him up to the surface. Hedorah began to reform, and fired a thermal beam from his eyes.

Godzilla’s chest was hit by an explosion, and he roared angrily, swiping a claw at Hedorah’s throat. Hedorah gurgled in agony, however the attack had also worked against Godzilla, as his hand was covered in the acidic residue from Hedorah’s body. The acid seemed to be dissolving Godzilla’s scales, and the giant lizard gazed at his talons in confusion. Suddenly, Hedorah swung an arm, and struck Godzilla across the chest, leaving a spot of acid there as well. The King of the Monsters roared in pain, backing away from his foe while Hedorah was still recovering. Suddenly, his dorsal plates began to light up blue, and a quick burst of atomic breath shot out of Godzilla’s mouth, setting Hedorah’s chest ablaze.

While everyone watched, the door to the command center suddenly opened. Everyone turned to see a small group of military officers walk through the door, followed by none other than Admiral David Rhode. A smug grin was already plastered on his face as he surveyed the room, and he locked eyes with Jay. Jay glared at him, and Rhode shifted his gaze to Palmer.

“Admiral Palmer.” Rhode said.

“Admiral Rhode,” Palmer spat. “What are you doing here? I was already given authority over this operation.”

“I would hardly consider this an operation,” Rhode waved a hand dismissively. “All you desk jockeys are doing is sitting here and watching TV. Godzilla’s doing all the real work for you, isn’t he?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Serizawa interjected. “Our task has been to observe the Kaiju, and that is what we are doing.”

Rhode jabbed a finger at the screen. “Those two are currently the biggest threats to humanity’s safety. The Smog Monster has already taken hundreds of American lives, and caused a pandemic across the western side of the country,” he shifted his finger to point at Godzilla. “And HE has caused more damage to the military’s equipment than any other monster on the planet.”

“Indirectly,” Chloe piped up, but a death glare from Rhode made her back down.

“Fortunately,” Rhode straightened his uniform, the smug look returning to his face. “We have a solution. Something that will solve both problems in one fell swoop.” He stepped forward, toward Palmer’s station. “Step aside, Admiral.”

“You have no jurisdiction here,” Palmer refuted.

“Actually, I do,” Rhode reached into his pocket, withdrawing a folded up piece of paper, and handing it to the older man. “Both the UN and the board have shifted command of these “observations” to me. You’re on the bench, Admiral.”

Palmer unfolded the paper, and began reading it, his eyes widening. Rhode took his opportunity, lightly shoving the admiral out of the way. Serizawa moved towards Rhode, but was deterred by two officers that stepped in front of him. Rhode snapped his fingers, and several other officers moved through the control stations in the room, forcing the operators out of their stations. Rhode then cleared his throat, and began to speak.

“When Hedorah began his rampage, we briefly halted work on Project Mecha in favor of a more immediate solution to our current problem,” he explained. “A specialized bomb, designed to kill Kaiju. Even Godzilla. We call it the Oxygen Destroyer, a device capable of eliminating all oxygen atoms within a two-mile radius, causing anything caught inside… to suffocate.”

“You’re crazy!” Jay shouted, when he was suddenly restrained by one of Rhode’s officers.

“I would say allowing a monster to terrorize one third of the United States is crazy,” Rhode retorted, before nodding to one of the officers that had taken a station. “Launch the weapon.”

The officer nodded, and began to press several buttons on the station she was seated at. “Ten minutes until impact, Admiral.” She said, and all eyes turned to the screen.
“Admiral, stop this!” Chloe had found her words. “Godzilla is our ally, and the strongest monster on this planet! If he dies-”

“Silence, girl!” Rhode yelled at her. “I’ve heard enough from you science types. Always so compassionate towards the very things that threaten our existence. You need to get a grip on reality.”

“Admiral Palmer, do something!” Jay shouted across the room, but Palmer was standing in a corner, his expression shameful.
“Sorry, kid…” Palmer sighed. “There’s nothing I can do.”
“Five minutes until impact,” the officer stated.
“You bastard!” Jay tried to break free from the officer that was restraining him, but the man’s grip on him was tight. “You-”
Rhode simply gave him an indifferent glance, rolling his eyes. “Misguided.” He muttered.
“One minute until impact.”

Jay’s eyes darted to the screen, where Godzilla and Hedorah were still locked in combat, unaware of what was headed their way. Godzilla delivered a devastating punch to the side of Hedorah’s face, and the Smog Monster retaliated with a shot of his thermal beam. The King of the Monsters spun around in the water, whacking Hedorah with his tail and throwing the monster off balance.

“Ten seconds.” The officer said.

On the screen, a small object suddenly shot down from the sky, landing directly between the two Kaiju. They didn’t have any time to react.

“One.”

A bright burst of light came from where the missile had landed, the flash engulfing both Kaiju. A giant wave of bright light began to shoot out, getting closer and closer to the aerial camera drone’s position. Suddenly, the screen went completely white, before cutting to black, followed by the text “NO SIGNAL.”

“Get a visual,” Rhode said immediately. “Now.” The officers at their stations began scrambling at the controls, trying to contact an available drone to get a signal. “You!” Rhode then pointed at an operator who was still manning her station. “You can track their vitals, right? Get me status!”

“Y-yes sir!” she stuttered, and began tapping away at the buttons on her station. After a minute or so, the screen on her station began to display two heart rate monitors above each other. The top one was labeled “GODZILLA,” and the bottom one “HEDORAH.” they were both completely flat.

“Th-they’re both… dead.” The operator said. Palmer continued to look shameful in the corner, while Serizawa exhaled sharply, and held a hand to his forehead. Chloe almost fell to her knees, and Jay was simply shocked.

“Well,” Rhode broke the silence. “That’s that. Now-”
“Wait!” The operator interrupted him. “I’m getting something.”

On the monitors, Godzilla’s heart rate slowly, but gradually began beating. For a horrifying moment, it looked like he flatlined once more, until it picked up, resuming a steady beating pace. Serizawa, Jay, and Chloe all sighed in relief.
“He’s alive,” the operator said.

Rhode looked like he was on the verge of losing his temper, before he composed himself once more. He snapped his fingers, and the officers that had followed him stopped what they were doing. They stood up from their stations, and wordlessly began to walk out the door. The officer restraining Jay let go of him, and also proceeded out of the room. Admiral Rhode was the last one out, pausing in the doorway to look at everyone in the room, before focusing on doctor Serizawa. “This isn’t over, Doctor.” He said, before walking through, and shutting the door.

Chapter Text

Hedorah was destroyed. In the wake of the Smog Monster’s death, the clouds of toxic gas began to dissipate from the states that they were hanging over. Godzilla had survived the Oxygen Destroyer, however, he didn’t seem to be happy about it. In the days following the bomb, he arrived at San Francisco briefly. While he did no damage to the city, many of the KRRA’s members believed he did it as a threat display- a warning that they should not do that to him again.

The Oxygen Destroyer also had a lasting effect on the area where it had been dropped- corpses of undersea creatures were found floating on the ocean’s surface, and the area seemed to be perpetually void of breathable air. Much to Jay, Serizawa, and Palmer’s dismay, Rhode was not reprimanded for the damage inflicted by the Oxygen Destroyer, and work on Project Mecha had resumed.

Supposedly, the project was nearing completion, putting Jay, Chloe, Serizawa, and Palmer on edge. The admiral in particular had begun to raise more and more suspicions as to what Admiral Rhode and Alex Simmons were actually building. After doing some digging, Palmer was able to locate where the project construction was actually taking place- A massive complex the KRRA had stationed in Saitama city, north of Tokyo in Japan. It was incredibly large, as it was originally used to construct all five of the KRRA’s most powerful war vessels. It was perfect for hiding, or at least concealing, the construction of a giant, sentient weapon.

In an unexpected turn, Palmer recruited Jay and Chloe to try and infiltrate the facility, and give him information about what was going on inside. While they refuted that they were scientists, and not spies, he argued that they were two of the only four people he trusted enough to do this, and Serizawa was in no shape to be spying. To their luck, the two of them would be accompanied by someone skilled enough to help them in their mission.

Shinobu Fujima, three years older than Jay and Chloe, was primarily a pilot for the KRRA, however her skills included much more than just being a pilot. Before becoming part of the KRRA, she had been part of an elite task force that ran missions in other countries. She also wasn’t just any pilot- while she had originally started behind the controls of a fighter jet and a gunship, her skills earned her praise from Palmer himself, and she eventually became the head pilot of the USS Argo itself. She would be an integral part of their mission.

Before they had left, Chloe tasked Serizawa and Palmer with something incredibly important- freeing one of the protector Kaiju, whom they had come to learn was named King Caesar. According to the map they had been given by the Shobijin, King Caesar was hidden somewhere on the island of Okinawa, near Japan itself. All five of them flew out to Japan on the USS Argo, before Shinobu, Jay, and Chloe loaded into an Osprey Gunship, which flew them to the city of Saitama. Jay and Chloe sat in the passenger’s quarter, while Shinobu herself flew the gunship, dressed in tactical gear with a pistol at her hip.

“We’re going to land away from the facility,” Shinobu called to them. “If we land directly at the facility, it’ll raise suspicion.”

“Right,” Jay replied. “Where are we landing, then?”

“There’s an empty lot in the shadow of some skyscrapers,” she explained. “Hopefully we’ll get out of there before anyone questions why a gunship is landing in the city!”

After a few minutes, Jay felt the gunship begin to descend out of the sky, before it buckled, indicating it had landed. Instantly, Shinobu shut off the rotors, and got out of her seat, gesturing for them to move. She slid open one of the side exit doors, and stepped out, followed by Jay and Chloe. They followed Shinobu as she moved quickly out of the lot, and through some alleys. Jay could see the massive, hulking facility not far from them, casting a shadow over the buildings the group was passing between. Eventually, Shinobu led them through an alley and into a large parking lot that seemed to be part of the facility. The lot looked like it was about half the size of the facility itself, filled mostly with black SUVs, white sedans, olive green army jeeps, and dark grey vans. Far across the parking lot, there was a single door, which had a security guard standing next to it.

“That’s the back door,” Shinobu said. “That’s our way in. Make sure you have your IDs ready.”

She began to lead them across the parking lot, which took them at least two full minutes to reach the door, maneuvering between cars that had been parked there. Eventually, they reached the door and the security guard, who was dressed in a grey uniform with a dark grey baseball cap, and a sidearm was strapped to his belt. He gave them all a glance, before stepping aside to reveal a keycard scanner. Shinobu stepped forwards, producing her ID from a pocket on her vest. She swiped it through a slot on the scanner, and it beeped with a positive tone. Jay followed suit, scanning his own ID in the slot, getting the same tone. Chloe did as well, swiping her ID card through the scanner. When all three of them were done, the security guard stepped aside, unlocking and opening the door for them, gesturing for the group to proceed inside. Shinobu nodded, and walked in first, with Jay and Chloe following behind her. After heading inside, Shinobu paused for a second, looking back and forth between the walls around them.

“What are you doing?” Jay asked.

“Remembering,” Shinobu answered. “I’ve been here before, I just need to remember… right. Construction labs are this way.” She pointed down one of the hallways, and began to head in that direction. Chloe and Jay exchanged glances, before following her.

“You’ve been here before?” Jay asked.

“Yes,” The pilot replied. “I was present for the construction of the USS Valkyrie. I used the back door to get in all the time.”

The two continued to follow Shinobu through the hallways of the facility, eventually stumbling across a set of double doors, with a keycode scanner on it. Shinobu held her hand up for them to stop, and stepped forward to scan her ID in the slot. The scanner beeped, and there was an audible CLICK from the doors as they unlocked. Shinobu pushed them open, sticking her head through and looking around. After a second or two, she fully stepped through the doors, holding it open for Jay and Chloe to follow her. Once they were inside, Shinobu shut the door behind them.

The door they had entered through led onto a wide, metal catwalk, which ran along the side of a massive chamber that greatly resembled an airplane hangar. The chamber itself was over a hundred meters tall, with several catwalks that sat at intervals every so often. The room was completely unoccupied, and extremely dark, so it was hard to see. As Jay, Chloe, and Shinobu walked across the catwalk, Jay saw a circuit breaker board on the wall, and approached it. Each of the switches was labeled, and the one at the very top was designated CEILING LIGHTS. Jay flipped it, and a loud CLACK echoed throughout the entire chamber, followed by lights on the ceiling illuminating the entire room. Jay then turned around, and came face-to-face with an enormous, robotic head.

He freaked out momentarily, before realizing it was deactivated. The head was hanging from the ceiling by chains, suspended in the air with platforms around it. It was big, big enough to be part of a Kaiju-sized robot, with two wide, diamond-shaped eyes on either side of a large, metal cone that had spiraling ridges around it, like a drill. The entire thing was a shiny metal color, glinting in the light.

“Shinobu, Chloe,” Jay whispered to them, but his voice still echoed throughout the quietness of the massive room. “Check this out.” The two walked over to him, and looked at the giant head. “Is this… Project Mecha?”

“It would seem so,” Shinobu replied. “I expected it to appear… different? And it doesn’t look very complete.”

“Maybe Palmer’s information was wrong?” Chloe suggested.

“Perhaps…” Shinobu said. “But this can’t be all. We need to keep looking. Simmons’ AI has got to be somewhere here, in this building.”

Jay nodded, and the three of them continued across the catwalk, where a door led to the rest of the facility. As they roamed the halls, Jay took note of how empty the place seemed. They hadn’t run into any KRRA operatives; scientists, military agents, or any others. Wait, Jay suddenly thought. If there’s nobody here… why was the security guard at the back door? It didn’t add up. Eventually, they found a stairwell, which they descended, leading them further into the lower levels of the complex. As they exited the stairwell, Shinobu’s arm suddenly shot out, preventing Jay and Chloe from walking past her. The pilot held a finger to her lips, indicating for them to be silent.

“What is it?” Jay whispered.

“There’s an elevator further down this hallway,” She whispered back. “It wasn’t there the last time I was here. And it’s being guarded, look.”

Jay peeked past her, and saw the elevator door she was referring to, embedded into a wall further down the hallway. A guard stood there, dressed identically to the one that was standing outside the building. He didn’t see them, but Jay quickly ducked back into the stairwell, just in case he looked in their direction.

“Why would they need to guard an elevator?” Chloe asked.

“It’s gotta lead to something,” Shinobu answered. “There’s something they don’t want people to just stumble across, even KRRA employees.”

“There’s nobody here, though,” Jay pointed out. “Why would they need to guard it?”

“All the more suspicious,” Shinobu approached the door. “I have a plan. Follow my lead.” With that, she opened the door to the stairwell, and proceeded into the hallway.

“Shinobu!” Jay hissed. “Wait!”

He hurried to catch up to her, grabbing Chloe’s hand and pulling her behind him. The two of them quickly caught up to Shinobu, who was walking towards the elevator door and the guard at a brisk pace. He quickly noticed them, and his right hand briefly hovered over the holster on his belt, before he instead held it up towards them with an open palm, motioning for them to stop.

“Woah, woah,” the guard said. “This area is restricted. You can’t be here.”

“Lieutenant Shinobu Fujima,” Shinobu held up her ID card briefly. “I’m escorting these doctors to the lower levels.”

“I wasn’t notified,” The guard refuted.

“It was last-minute notice,” Shinobu quickly retorted. “We need to get inside. Admiral Rhode requested them himself.”

“Wait…” the guard paused. “How did you know Admiral Rhode is here? That information is classified.”

Shinobu opened her mouth, and paused, realizing she had been beaten. “Oh, screw it.” In a quick motion, she swung a vicious punch at the guard, socking him in the jaw. The guard grunted, and in his daze he reached for the sidearm at his belt. Shinobu immediately followed up with a punch to his gut, causing him to keel over. While he was bent over, she delivered an elbow to the back of his head, causing him to fall to the floor, unconscious. Shinobu readjusted her hair while Jay and Chloe stood there with shocked expressions.

“Shinobu!” Jay shouted. “What-”

“He’ll be fine,” Shinobu knelt down, retrieving a pair of handcuffs off the guard’s own belt, and binding his hands behind his back.

“But-” Jay stuttered. “You- you just-”

“Oh, calm down, doctor,” she said dismissively. “Sometimes, when spying, you gotta get your hands dirty. Let’s move.”

Shinobu plucked the guard’s ID from his uniform, and approached the elevator door, which had an ID scanner just like all the other doors they’d seen. She swiped the card through the scanner, which beeped a positive tone, prompting the elevator doors to slide open with a DING sound.
“Into the elevator,” Shinobu stepped in, gesturing for them to follow her. “Unless you want the investigation to end here.”

Jay and Chloe quickly hurried into the elevator alongside her, as the doors were closing. The elevator was surprisingly large, large enough to fit two sedans side-by-side. The floor controls had only two buttons- the floor they were currently on, and a second floor that was far below it. Naturally, Shinobu pressed the button for the lower floor, causing the elevator to buckle lightly, before beginning to descend. The three of them stood there silently, and Jay could see Shinobu undo the safety clip on her belt holster. The elevator continued to travel for over five minutes, until it buckled again, and the doors slid open with another DING.

“You first,” Jay said to Shinobu, who rolled her eyes and stepped out of the elevator.
The floor the elevator had stopped on had a hallway similar to the one they had just been on, except the concrete of the hallways was a much darker shade of grey. The elevator was at the end of a hallway, and down the hallway was a single door in the wall. Shinobu headed for the door, followed by Jay and Chloe. Shinobu paused at the door, cracking it open and peeking through. After a couple seconds, she opened it all the way, gesturing for the other two to follow her.

They entered into a much wider room, which had large, metal crates piled against the right side. Across the room was another door, and on the left side was a thin, narrow window. The three began to wander about the room, and Jay approached the window, peering through it.

“Guys,” he said. “Look at this.”

The other two hurried over to the window, looking through to what was on the other side. The window looked into a massive room, much larger than any of the rooms they had seen so far. It was at least 200 meters tall, and 400 meters wide, shaped like a hexagon. Across the room from them, on four sides of the hexagon shape, were massive doors, labeled 01, 02, 03, and 04 respectively. The room was somewhat dark, only lit by yellow lights that lined the floor and walls.

“What is this place?” Shinobu muttered. “Some kind of Kaiju fighting ring? Why would they have that here?”

“I don’t think that’s what it is…” Jay replied. “There has to be something more.”
Suddenly, the ear-piercing sound of microphone feedback echoed through the larger chamber, before fading out, followed by a female voice from a loudspeaker.
“Initiating startup sequence. Test number, five-seven.”

The entire chamber shook, and the three of them watched as a section of the floor center began to slide open gradually with a metallic scraping sound. Once it was fully open, they heard a metallic whirring, followed by a massive silhouette rising from the floor, presumably on an elevator platform. For a brief moment, nothing happened. Then, the chamber was flooded by a blinding light in the ceiling, illuminating what had risen out of the floor.

It was a giant robot.
The thing was at least a hundred meters tall, and greatly resembled Godzilla himself. Jay realized that was intentional- this was a robotic recreation of Godzilla. It had a long, segmented tail just like him, and sharp, angled fins on its back in place of dorsal plates. Its arms were significantly longer and more articulated, and its legs were wide with clawed feet. Its head was similar to Godzilla’s, however with blank, yellow eyes, and an angled spike sticking out of its forehead like a crest or crown. The entire machine was made out of the same shiny, silver metal as the head they saw earlier. Suddenly, the mech began to move, unfolding its body and uncurling its tail. The robot raised its head to the sky, and let out an echoing, metallic recreation of Godzilla’s roar.

“What on Earth is that?” Shinobu questioned. “There is no way… how did they build something this big?”

“I don’t know…” Jay replied. “But that has to be Project Mecha.”

“Releasing subject zero-three.” The voice announced.

Immediately after, one of the four metal doors began to slowly open, until a massive, brown, insectoid pincer emerged from the dark inside, gripping and denting the metal of the door. With an aggressive motion, the claw slid the door all the way open with the screeching of metal and sparks flying. What emerged afterwards greatly resembled a massive, fifty-meter-tall praying mantis. It was brown and green, with translucent, yellow wings. It had two bulging, bright yellow eyes, and two long antennae jutting out of the front of its head. Jay recognized it immediately; Kamacuras, an actual species of multiple Kaiju.

Kamacuras shrieked, and charged at the metal giant. The robo-Godzilla hadn’t been facing Kamacuras, but when the giant insect collided with it, the machine didn’t even react, barely budging when Kamacuras slammed into the side of it. A minute passed, before the mecha began to turn around with surprising speed, swinging in the mantis’ direction. Kamacuras was quick enough to dodge the attack, but was not ready for the mecha’s follow-up attack; a tail swing. The giant insect was knocked aside by the robot, falling to the floor.

Kamacuras was only half the mecha’s size, and was bound to lose this fight regardless. As Kamacuras attempted to get back up, the mecha stepped down hard on one of the creature’s legs, crushing it with a sickening CRUNCH. The mecha reached down, grabbing both of the mantis’ front claws, hoisting it into the air. Kamacuras shrieked and screeched angrily as the robot held it in place. A humming sound filled the room, and the dorsal spines on the mecha’s back began to gradually light up bright red as the humming raised in pitch. The robot opened its mouth, showing a red light emanating from it. A thick, red beam, similar to Godzilla’s atomic breath, suddenly shot out of the robot’s mouth, piercing directly through Kamacuras’ chest. The insect stopped moving instantly, and the mecha continued to fire the beam, gradually moving up, until it completely incinerated Kamacuras’ head. The beam dissipated, and the machine let go of Kamacuras’ scorched body, dropping it to the floor, splattering it with green, insectoid blood.

“Weapons test… complete.” The voice announced. “Power levels… normal. Test… successful.”

“They must be testing its power consumption,” Shinobu observed. “A machine that big, with that kind of capabilities… it’d need more power than an entire country.”

“It seems like they’ve found a way to power it,” Jay commented. “Let’s move. We still haven’t found the AI hub.”

The group proceeded to the door they hadn’t come through, which led to a stairwell. They continued up the stairwell, and through a hallway that seemed to curve around the hexagonal room in the center. They were so preoccupied with moving through the hallways, that they forgot to worry about getting caught. Shinobu opened a door, and the three of them stepped into a room that was filled with desks and monitors, similar to the KRRA’s command center. From where they walked in, the entire left side of the room was made of a giant glass window, which looked into the massive center chamber where the robo-Godzilla was. Far to the back of the room, on the right side, was a window that looked into a much, much smaller chamber, which contained a large, hexagonal prism shape. It was suspended by metal rods and cables, and occasionally pulsed with a red light.

All of the desks of the room were occupied by operatives, and security guards stood at various positions along the room’s perimeter. All heads turned towards them when they entered the room, and the three of them froze. After a minute of staring, Shinobu bolted for the door they had gone through, prompting the security guards to head in their direction.

“Stop!” one of them yelled.

“Go, go!” Shinobu shouted, ushering them out the door. “I’ll hold them off, you two get out of here!”

“No, not without you!” Jay refuted.

One of the security guards reached Shinobu putting a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around aggressively, delivering a hard punch to the guard’s face, knocking him to the floor. “GO!” she shouted, as two more approached her. Shinobu continued to fight them off, but was unable to overcome all of them. Jay and Chloe escaped through the door, leaving their ally behind.

The two continued to run through the hallway, getting closer and closer to the elevator that took them down. When they finally reached it, Jay frantically and continuously pressed the button to call the elevator, hearing the sounds of the other security guards approaching. When the doors finally opened, Jay and Chloe moved to get in, but stopped in their tracks.

Standing inside the elevator was Admiral Rhode, accompanied by two security guards.
“Now,” he said, a smug grin crossing his lips. “Where were you two going?”

Chapter Text

Jay, Chloe, and Shinobu were all brought back to the control room, where the window looked out on the chamber containing the robot Godzilla. Currently, it stood inactive, the yellow lights of its eyes dimmed, head slumped forwards in deactivation. While the three weren’t cuffed or restrained, dozens of armed security guards stood around the room to deter them from escaping. The group stood facing the window, and Rhode stood in front of them. Next to him stood a short man in a lab coat, with ruffled brunette hair and glasses.

“I’d like you three to meet Alex Simmons,” Rhode said, gesturing to the doctor. “The genius who programmed the MFS-3 AI system, which controls Mechagodzilla.”

“ Mechagodzilla ?” Shinobu scoffed. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“What name would be more fitting?” Rhode shot. “A mechanical doppelganger to the atomic lizard himself, but better in every way. More powerful, more durable, and smarter. He can kill Godzilla.”

“I wouldn’t be so certain of that,” Jay said. “Godzilla’s stronger than you give him credit for.”

Rhode rolled his eyes. “Yes, the failure of the Oxygen Destroyer was an unforeseen setback. However, this time, I can assure Mechagodzilla’s success. Allow me to present Mechagodzilla’s capabilities.” he turned to Simmons. “Doctor, if you please.”

Alex nodded, and stepped forwards to an unoccupied computer station, where he began to press several buttons on the terminal. After a few short minutes, Mechagodzilla’s eyes blazed with a yellow light, and the mecha rose to attention, growling with a metallic echo. Simmons began to speak.

“Mechagodzilla’s primary weapon is his charged subatomic particle ray, or as we have shortened it to, the proton scream. A laser fired from the mouth, capable of scarring and even killing the toughest monsters.”
To demonstrate, Mechagodzilla opened its mouth, eyes and dorsal spines glowing with a red hue, before flickering out.

“His other weapons and tools include talon-tipped missile launchers, rocket thrusters, and superheated wrist blades.” Simmons continued. “Its entire body is covered in plates of Duranium armor, a rare metal found near the earth’s core, which is capable of withstanding heat levels comparable to Godzilla’s atomic breath.”

“How is it powered?” Jay asked genuinely. “Something with this many weapons, it’d take more power than we’re capable of generating.”

“A fortunate bonus of our mining expeditions for Duranium,” Rhode butted in. “We call it ‘Hades’ Diamond’ because of how deep underground we found it.”

“It’s a sort of crystal, or gemstone,” Simmons took over. “It constantly creates a self-sustaining electrical field around itself, which we use to power the mecha, and its most powerful weapon; the Absolute Zero Cannon.” Mechagodzilla stood straight, and its chest panels began to open up, revealing a glowing blue light that crackled with electricity. “It launches an attack that instantly freezes anything that it touches to negative 273 degrees celsius, even organic matter like Kaiju.” Simmons then sighed. “The only downside being it takes a long time to charge the weapon, and an even longer time to recharge.”

“A ‘hail mary pass’, if you will.” Rhode interjected. “As you can see, our weapon is more than capable of destroying Godzilla.” The Admiral then stepped towards the three of them, looking Jay in the eyes with a smug expression. “It’ll put your precious King of the Monsters to shame.”

Before Jay could even react, Shinobu was there in a heartbeat, punching Rhode in the face in an almost comedic manner. Rhode grunted, stepping backwards, and the security guards standing around the three of them were quick to restrain Shinobu. Rhode turned back to them, touching a hand to his face. It was bruised, and a trickle of blood ran down from his nose.

“Insubordination, Lieutenant Fujima,” Rhode grinned slightly. “That’s a court marshall.” He then looked at the security guards. “Cuff them. All of them.”

The security guards were quick to respond, restraining Jay, Chloe, and Shinobu’s hands behind their backs with pairs of metal cuffs. Rhode wiped his nose on his sleeve, before directing his attention back to the group.

“You can’t do this!” Chloe protested. “There are Kaiju on this planet- GOOD Kaiju, who will protect both the Earth and Humanity! If you kill all of them, there will be nothing stopping the ones that are ACTUALLY evil from destroying us!”

“Then Mechagodzilla will kill them, too,” Rhode refuted. “Please, Doctor Singh. Your sympathy for the monsters is honestly pathetic.”

“HEY!” Jay shouted. “Don’t talk to her like that!”

Rhode’s eyes darted between Jay and Chloe briefly, before he continued. “You KRRA science types, always so quick to side with NATURE, or believe any evidence coming from literal MYTHS. You need to wake up.”

“You’re insane!” Jay yelled.

“We’ve already done this,” Rhode rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Humanity will triumph over nature, we always do and we always will. Godzilla will be put down, like the monster he is.”

Suddenly, an alarm tone went off briefly, before a display screen dropped from the ceiling next to Rhode, and flickered on to display a live footage broadcast- Godzilla was in Tokyo, and headed for Saitama.

“And there he is,” Rhode chuckled. “Simmons, prepare Mechagodzilla for full combat. I want all his systems running at maximum capacity.”
“Yes, admiral,” Simmons nodded, before going back to the keyboard.

The USS Argo hovered over the coast of Okinawa island. Doctor Serizawa and Admiral Palmer stood in the cockpit bridge, watching a display screen that rested on the back wall. It was displaying live footage of Godzilla entering Tokyo from the bay, marching through the city and leaving destruction in his wake. They predicted his course, and saw that he was headed right for the KRRA facility in Saitama.

“We might be too late,” Serizawa said. “If Godzilla is headed for the facility, Project Mecha must already be completed.”

“Well, we still have a job to do,” Palmer replied. “Singh tasked us with freeing this beast, and that’s what we need to do. We have to find him.”

Serizawa nodded. “According to the map, he should be hidden somewhere inside Cape Manzamo… that’s odd. I would’ve thought he’d have been found by now.”

The Argo moved in circles around the coast of Cape Manzamo, trying to get different angles on the large cliff face. Then, Serizawa spotted it- there was the slightest trace of ancient carvings on the side of the cliff. King Caesar is inside the cliff face, Serizawa realized.

“There,” the doctor pointed at the carvings, prompting the pilot of the Argo to stop and hover facing the cliff. “King Caesar is buried in the cliff face. We need to crack it open.”

“How?” Palmer asked.
Serizawa turned to look at the admiral slightly. “How much firepower does this craft have?”
Palmer grinned. He was starting to like Serizawa more and more with every passing day.

Godzilla continued to stomp through the city of Tokyo, gradually getting closer and closer to Saitama. The Japanese military was doing its best to keep the lizard at bay, but their weapons were no match for the King of the Monsters. As they knew Godzilla would do more damage to the city if provoked, the military held off on their attack and let Godzilla pass.

Inside the control room for Mechagodzilla, the operators were working on preparing the robot’s systems for combat against Godzilla himself. Alex Simmons stood at the station that sat in front of all the others, and Admiral Rhode was simply gazing out the window panel at the giant machine. Jay, Chloe, and Shinobu were still cuffed and being held in place by security guards, directly behind Simmons’ computer. Mechagodzilla was standing completely still in its chamber, the only indication that it was still active being the glowing yellow eyes.

“Godzilla is getting closer, admiral,” one of the operators said.
“How long until Mechagodzilla is battle-ready?” Rhode turned around before asking.
“Five minutes, sir.”

“Perfect,” Rhode smiled wickedly. “Today will be the day that humanity is finally safe from Kaiju for good. First, we kill Godzilla, and then all the rest. After that, we hunt down the ones that are still dormant,” Rhode then fixed his gaze on Chloe. “Who we will have no problem locating, thanks to your research. Looks like fairy tales were finally useful for something.”

“No!” Chloe shouted, struggling against the grip of the security guard. “You can’t do this!”

“I already am,” Rhode said flatly. “Status?”
“Three minutes until combat ready, sir.”

“Rhode,” Jay begged. “Listen. Mechagodzilla’s AI is unstable. If you don’t stop it, it’ll realize that it doesn’t need to listen to you, and it will destroy us all!”

“Please,” Rhode scoffed. “That only happens in movies.”
“Besides,” Simmons turned to look at them. “I took extensive measures to make sure that the AI can self-learn, but to a point. It’s designed so that it can analyze and adapt to counter the combat styles of any Kaiju, but it can’t become sentient…” He then spoke quietly. “...I think.”

“What?” Rhode asked.
“Sir,” an operator interrupted him. “Mechagodzilla is ready.”

“Finally…” Rhode smiled. “Prep the elevator to carry it, and-”

“Wait,” the operator cut him off again. “Something’s wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mechagodzilla isn’t responding,” the operator said in a panic. “No… its protocols are being overridden!”

“Impossible!” Rhode turned to Simmons. “You said it couldn’t override its own programming!”

“There’s no way!” Simmons ran over to the monitor of the operator who had been speaking. “It can’t be the AI… someone or something else is trying to take over!”

“It IS the AI…” Jay muttered. “This is exactly what Palmer said would happen.”

Behind Rhode, inside the chamber, Mechagodzilla suddenly began moving. It turned to look towards the command center, and took one heavy step towards it. The robot slowly raised one of its arms into the air, extending its sharp, metal claws. Everyone in the room noticed it, and began to back away, gasping in surprise. Rhode was the only one not facing the window, but by the time he turned around, it was too late.

“No-” was all he managed to say, before Mechagodzilla brought its enormous claw down, breaking through the wall and crashing through the ceiling in one swipe. Rhode was crushed underneath its robotic hand, completely disappearing from their sight in an instant as broken metal, concrete, and shattered glass rained down where he had once been. Fortunately for the rest of the room, Mechagodzilla didn’t seem interested in killing everyone, as it promptly turned to face the very back wall of its holding chamber. A humming sound filled the air as Mechagodzilla’s dorsal spines lit up red, and he fired his proton scream into the wall, breaking through the concrete and metal of the facility’s chamber. The mecha began to push forward, completely destroying the back wall as daylight began shining through.

Mechagodzilla was breaking out of the complex.

Outside, Godzilla had just arrived inside the city of Saitama, and was headed towards the KRRA construction facility. He faltered when a bright red laser bursted through the walls, frantically moving about as it completely tore apart the building’s exterior and producing a thick cloud of smoke. Godzilla growled, knowing he had found the opponent he had been searching for. Concrete and rubble flew everywhere as a giant shape began to emerge from the giant hole in the side of the facility, obscured by the smoke. Then, it took a step forward, revealing Mechagodzilla. The robot let out a metallic, echoing roar as it stepped into the city, crushing small buildings under its feet. Godzilla eyed his new opponent with bewilderment- he had never seen anything like this.

Mechagodzilla stood straight, staring across the city at Godzilla, who simply stared back. Finally, the two of them roared, before they began to charge towards one another. The ground shook and rubble went flying as the two behemoths plowed through smaller buildings and destroyed roads in their paths. Godzilla was moving at a surprisingly brisk pace for his size, however Mechagodzilla was moving almost impossibly fast- undoubtedly the AI program testing its limits. As it ran, jets of fire suddenly shot out of the backs of its heels and shoulders, propelling it forward. With one fist extended, Mechagodzilla flew through the air towards Godzilla, delivering a devastating punch to the lizard’s face. Godzilla was knocked to the ground by the impact, roaring in pain and anger. Mechagodzilla slammed its feet into the ground as the rocket boosters shut off, kicking up a huge cloud of dust and debris. As Godzilla started to get back up, Mechagodzilla delivered another punch to the side of his head, causing the lizard to fall back to the ground. Mechagodzilla then leaned down, wrapping its metallic claws around Godzilla’s tail. The boosters on its shoulders activated, and the robot spun in a circle, throwing Godzilla through the air as the lizard growled in pain. The giant reptile crashed through several buildings in a shower of debris, before coming to a stop next to a railway station.

Mechagodzilla outstretched one of its hands, and the tips of its talons were suddenly shot out like missiles, flying through the air towards Godzilla’s fallen body. As Godzilla got back up, the missiles collided with his side in a series of explosions. Mechagodzilla held out its other hand, and the tips of those talons were fired as well, heading for their target. Godzilla’s dorsal plates began to glow bright blue, and he quickly turned to fire a beam of his atomic breath, destroying the rockets before they could reach him. The blast struck Mechagodzilla across the chest, but the robot barely reacted to it, its Duranium armor protecting it from the attack. The robot’s dorsal spines began to glow red, and it retaliated with a blast of its proton scream, striking Godzilla in his chest. Godzilla roared in agony as the blast left scorch marks on his chest, and he growled in the direction of his opponent before charging angrily.

Back in the KRRA facility, the entire room watched in horror as Mechagodzilla battled Godzilla. Many of the personnel and operators had begun to evacuate the building, leaving Jay, Chloe, Shinobu, Alex, and the three security guards holding the group prisoner. Shinobu seized her opportunity, raising her leg into the air before kicking backwards with all her might, striking her guard in the foot. The guard buckled in agony, and Shinobu swung her head backwards, slamming the back of her head into his nose, knocking him unconscious. The other two guards had begun turning to restrain her, but Jay did his best to assist the pilot, shoving all his weight backwards into his guard, sending the two of them to the floor. Shinobu spun around, assaulting Chloe’s guard with a violent roundhouse kick that knocked him down instantly. Jay finished off his guard, slamming his head into the floor and knocking him out.

“Good job,” Shinobu said, before reaching into one of the back pockets of her pants. She produced a hairpin, which she quickly used to pick the lock on her own handcuffs, before moving to free Jay and Chloe, helping the former up from the floor. Now that they were free, Jay turned to Alex Simmons, who hadn’t reacted at all to the ordeal, completely transfixed on the battle between Godzilla and the robot.

“How do we stop it?” Jay asked.

“We can’t…” Simmons sighed. “It has its own power source, and now that it’s broken free of its protocols, a shutdown order won’t work.”

“There has to be another way,” Jay said, hurrying over to look at the control stations. “Chloe, help me with these! We need to find a way to disconnect the body from the AI.”

Mechagodzilla charged towards its opponent, using its shoulder boosters to quicken its attack. Godzilla suddenly lunged to the side, and Mechagodzilla went flying past him. As soon as Mechagodzilla stopped in place, its entire head suddenly spun all the way around, and fired a proton scream at Godzilla’s back, forcing the King of the Monsters to the ground. The mecha’s head snapped back into place, and it turned around to confront its opponent once more.

The mecha stuck out its arms, and two long, sharp blades shot out its wrists. The blades began glowing a warm, orange color, indicating that they were being heated. Godzilla got to his feet, eyeing the blades cautiously, before growling. Mechagodzilla charged, swinging the blades at Godzilla, who attempted to dodge. One of the blades caught his shoulder, and Godzilla recoiled as the blade actually cut through his scales- something no opponent had been able to do. Because of the blade’s superheated state, the wound was cauterized, drawing no blood. Godzilla eyed the cut on his shoulder, before roaring at lunging at Mechagodzilla, grabbing its wrists and holding the blades away. Mechagodzilla let out a metallic growl, and charged up to fire a proton scream into Godzilla’s face. Godzilla retaliated, thrusting his snout forwards and headbutting Mechagodzilla, stunning the robot. The King of the Monsters threw Mechagodzilla to the ground, kicking up rubble and dust.

The mecha retracted its blades, and used its rocket boosters to form a distance between it and its opponent. Godzilla roared, and his dorsal plates began glowing before he fired a beam of atomic breath at Mechagodzilla. Mechagodzilla returned fire with a proton scream, and the two beams locked in a burst of energy. Both opponents attempted to overpower the lock, and Godzilla started to win, pushing the lock point towards the robot. Mechagodzilla’s spines began to hum louder, before overcharging his beam, pushing the point all the way back to Godzilla. The lizard let out a high-pitched roar of pain, and was thrown to the ground as the proton scream bore into him.

Mechagodzilla approached the fallen Godzilla, and extended one of its blades. As Godzilla attempted to get up, the mecha swung its blade across his chest, causing Godzilla to cry out in agony as a deep cut was sliced across his chest. Mechagodzilla calmly walked back away from its fallen opponent, before turning back to face him. The mecha’s chest opened up, revealing the glowing blue light of the Absolute Zero Cannon. The cannon began to gradually charge up, preparing to fire at Godzilla. The weapon was almost completely charged, and Godzilla watched helplessly as the cannon was almost charged. It was about to fire, when-

A large, mammalian Kaiju leaped onto Mechagodzilla’s back, and pulled him away. For a brief moment, the cannon faced skyward, and fired into the air, sending a giant blast of icy air into the sky, eventually dissipating. The creature looked like a bipedal cross between a dog and a lion, with pale yellow and dark brown fur. His eyes were a blank amber color, and the Kaiju roared triumphantly.

It was King Caesar.

Godzilla looked at his savior, who began to bash Mechagodzilla in the side of the head with his fists. The King of the Monsters got back to his feet, and moved towards the two as Mechagodzilla swung its tail through the air, smacking Caesar off of its back. The mammal fell to the ground, and went to get back up as the robot whirled around, claws ready to slash at the Kaiju. Before it could, Godzilla jumped in, grabbing the mecha’s arm and holding it back. King Caesar took the opportunity, grabbing Mechagodzilla’s other arm, and the two threw Mechagodzilla to the ground, running it through a building. Godzilla pulled the robot back up, roaring as the mech attempted to fight back. Caesar was there in an instant, holding the robot’s fist back and kicking it in the side of its head. Mechagodzilla fired the talon missiles from the arm Godzilla was holding, forcing him off, before grabbing Caesar with both hands and throwing him to the ground. The robot then whirled around, punching Godzilla as he went to attack.

Mechagodzilla grabbed Godzilla by the throat, and used its rocket boosters to fly through the air, slamming the lizard’s back into a building, before kicking him in the stomach. One of its blades was unsheathed, and it went to stab Godzilla in the head. King Caesar lunged, grabbing its arm and forcing it away from Godzilla, who fell to the ground. Mechagodzilla fought off Caesar, before thrusting the blade towards the mammal’s face, which Caesar caught, holding it away from his eyes and roaring angrily.

Back in the facility, Jay slammed his hand onto the monitor of a terminal in anger. “Ugh, this isn’t working!” he shouted. “How do we stop it?”

Shinobu growled impatiently. “Oh, screw this!” She said, and grabbed a chair from next to a desk, hefting it over her shoulder as she stormed up to the glass-sealed chamber in the back of the room, where the AI brain was. Without warning, she threw the chair at the glass, shattering it.

“No!” Simmons shouted. “Stop!”

Shinobu ignored him, picking up a discarded handgun off the ground, and aiming at the brain. She fired several shots at it, breaking through wires and destroying parts of the metal. Sparks flew as the brain began to malfunction, and the glowing red lights on it began to flicker out.

Mechagodzilla suddenly drew back, its body twitching awkwardly as it short-circuited. Caesar looked on as the spines on the robot’s back began to glow red, and it opened its mouth to fire a proton scream. It did, but the beam was inexplicably absorbed into Caesar’s eyes, which glowed brighter as the energy from the beam was seemingly consumed. When the beam dissipated, Caesar roared, and fired smaller versions of the beam out of his eyes, severing Mechagodzilla’s arm that had the blade on it. The robot recoiled, whirring and roaring metallically in pain.

Caesar flipped the arm, holding it so he could use the extended blade as a weapon. The mecha charged him, unsheathing the blade on its remaining arm. It swung, but Caesar dodged it, and sliced, severing that arm as well. Mechagodzilla roared angrily, and Caesar roared back, slicing at the mecha’s chest, destroying the firing mechanism of the Absolute Zero Cannon. King Caesar then sliced one of the mech’s legs, causing it to fall over. Caesar held the blade over his head, roaring, and brought it down on the robot’s neck, completely severing its head. 

Mechagodzilla’s red eyes flickered out, and it powered down, dead.
King Caesar threw the dismembered arm and blade aside, before roaring triumphantly.
In the facility, the three humans cheered, and Chloe ran over to embrace Jay in a hug. Simmons simply fell to his knees, staring longingly at the destroyed husk of his creation.
His life’s work was gone.

Chapter Text

In the wake of Mechagodzilla’s destruction, the injured Godzilla returned to the ocean, and King Caesar ran off into the mountains, where the KRRA lost track of him. As Admiral Rhode had been killed by his own creation, the board pinned the blame on Alex Simmons, as he had created the robot’s AI programming. The mech’s remains, along with the half-constructed husk of the unnamed robot, were gathered, and stashed inside a KRRA-owned facility in Nevada. Admiral Palmer regained control of the KRRA’s military operations, and the board collectively agreed to have what remained of the Saitama facility demolished.

A few days after the incident in Saitama, Jay returned to his office in Baltimore, where he had stashed the talisman given to him by the Shobijin. He flipped it over in his hands, looking at the carved symbol of a moth. Jay sighed, before taking the string that was tied to it, and wrapping it around his neck, wearing the talisman like a necklace. He waited a few moments, before speaking in the hopes that the goddess would hear him.

“Hey…” he said. “I don’t know if you can hear this, but… I’m gonna talk anyway.”

There was no response.

“Alright,” Jay continued. “The weapon that we had told you about a while back? It was finished, and it went exactly the way I thought it would. The thing broke loose, destroyed most of a city, and almost killed Godzilla. Luckily, King Caesar came to help, and the two of them defeated it.” He paused again, waiting for a response, but there was none. “Now that I think about it, I don’t know why I’m really telling you this,” Jay sighed. “I guess I just… I don’t know, wanted to update you on the situation? I mean, there’s a bit to talk about; we’ve freed most of the other protectors, and there was this new monster…”

Jay gazed at the stone. There was still no response.

He groaned. “What am I even doing, you probably don’t even hear me.”

I hear you, child.

Jay nearly jumped out of his skin at the booming, female voice that entered his head. He remembered what Mothra’s voice had sounded like, but it had been weeks since he last heard it, and forgotten the effect it had on his mind.

“Y-you can hear me?” he asked.

Yes, Mothra replied. Forgive my initial unresponsiveness, I was… resting.

“That’s fine,” Jay reassured her. “I’m just glad this thing works… after the mission to Infant Island, I never got the chance to see if it did.”

The weapon you speak of, Mothra said. How did it turn?

“It was controlled by an AI program- basically a self-thinking computer,” Jay explained. “The AI figured out how to override its restraint protocols, and it went haywire, destroying everything.”

Interesting… The goddess mused. But something seems suspicious about that. Perhaps… No, never mind.

“Huh?”

Nothing, do not worry about it. Mothra replied. However, the emergence of a new monster… that is concerning. I wish to hear of it.

Jay explained to Mothra what Hedorah was, and its powers, detailing the acidic sludge, the thermal beam attack, its ability to morph into different forms, and how it spread the Smog Sickness. He also explained how it had chased Ebirah out of his territory, leading the lobster to attack the USS Gotengo. He told her how its origins were completely unknown, but they did know that it absorbed oil and pollution to grow larger and more powerful.

Odd, Mothra commented when he was finished. I have never heard of this creature… However, I have a theory on its origins, or, at least, its intentions.

“What?” Jay asked. “What was it?”

You are not yet ready to know, Mothra said dismissively. But, the appearance of a new and destructive Kaiju has terrible implications. The last time a new Kaiju appeared was when the One Who is Many attacked.

“And the Earth was almost destroyed,” Jay finished. “You think it may be happening again?”

The One Who is Many suffered a humiliating defeat thousands of years ago, the moth explained. Perhaps he was waiting for an opportunity to return.

“How can you be sure it’s him?”

I do not know. However, it is a possibility. Until then, we cannot assume that he has returned.

Jay sat back in his chair, and sighed. “Something feels… off. Like, we won, but I know in the back of my head that this isn’t over. There’s something bigger coming.” he placed a hand on his chin thoughtfully. “I get the feeling it’ll be another new monster, we’ve been getting a few of those lately.”

Suddenly, his phone began ringing, loudly vibrating the table.

“I’ll have to, uh… call you back,” Jay said. “Talk to you again?”

I suppose.

He nodded, and carefully removed the talisman from around his neck, stashing it back inside his deck. Jay then picked up his phone from off the table, looking to see who was calling him. The caller ID was unknown, but he decided to answer it anyway.

“Doctor Abbot?” Asked the voice on the phone.

“Yes,” Jay replied. “Who is this?”

“I’m with the KRRA research facility in San Francisco,” they continued. “We’ve found something that you’re going to want to look at.”

Jay thought for a moment. “San Francisco is on the other side of the country,” he stated.

“We’ve spoken to some of the higher ups and have arranged for transportation to get you here in under twenty-four hours.”

Great, Jay thought. Guess I’m going on a field trip. “I’ll let Doctor Serizawa know.”

Jay arrived at San Francisco early the next day, and was shuttled to the KRRA facility in the city. Upon arriving outside, he was met by another scientist around his age, with messy blonde hair and glasses. The man held out his hand for Jay to shake, which he accepted.

“Oliver Grey, Biologist,” the scientist said, raising his voice so Jay could hear him over the bustle of the city streets. “We spoke over the phone yesterday! Nice to finally meet you!”

“Same to you,” Jay responded.

“This way, I’ll take you to the lab!” Oliver motioned for Jay to follow him inside the facility, which sat right next to the edge of San Francisco bay. The building was large and circular, and looked even different on the inside. Oliver guided Jay through a long, curved hallway, which ran along the edges of the facility, with a window wall on the outer side.

“Much like the facility in Baltimore, our facility’s primary purpose is to survey the waters on this side of the continent,” Grey explained. “We haven’t had anything too interesting happen here since Godzilla gave us a brief visit a while ago. That is, until today.”

“What exactly did you find?” Jay inquired.

“It’s not like anything I’ve ever seen,” the scientist said in excitement. “You’ll have to look at it to understand.”

As they continued through the hallway, the window eventually stopped at a wall, where the hallway became smaller. It kept going through the facility, eventually branching out into many different hallways. Jay followed Oliver as he eventually reached a door that was labeled “LAB 4A” Grey scanned his ID card on the door lock, and the two of them stepped inside. The lab was fairly simple, with white, sterile walls and floor, fluorescent ceiling lights, and numerous tables with various pieces of lab equipment resting on top of them. There were many other scientists in the room as well, each of whom Oliver greeted by name as he passed by. Finally, they reached a table where a scientist with dark skin and brown hair was standing over a microscope, which sat next to a small cylinder full of water.

“Maurice,” Oliver greeted the other scientist as he and Jay arrived. “Let’s see it.”

Maurice nodded, standing aside for Oliver to look into the microscope. He did so briefly, before stepping away and motioning for Jay to look in. Hesitantly, Jay approached the microscope, and peered in to see what they were looking at. At first, it looked like a cluster of tiny cells in the shape of a spiky blob. Then, his vision adjusted, and he saw that it was actually a microscopic creature. It looked almost like a Trilobite, but it couldn’t be, as it was far too small, and Trilobites were extinct.

“We call it ‘Microorganism J7,” Oliver said. “Or, J-MO7 for short.”

It was clearly alive somehow, as it would occasionally struggle against the glass slide that kept it trapped. Jay stopped looking through the microscope, and peered at the small, glass cylinder that was filled with water. Inside it, he saw dozens upon dozens of tiny specks, which floated aimlessly through the liquid. “Are those other specimens?”

Oliver nodded. “We found nearly over a hundred of them in the bay. These were the ones we were able to catch.”

“What is it?”

“We’re not exactly sure,” Grey answered. “But we’ve gathered enough information to come up with a few hypotheses.”

Oliver ushered Jay over to another table, where several large, printed pictures sat. The woman there stepped aside to give Oliver and Jay room to look at the table’s contents. Jay picked up a few of the picture papers, and saw that they were various micro-scans of the creature’s body, including x-rays and infrared images.

“We’ve discovered a lot about its biology since we began studying it,” Oliver explained. “It’s cold-blooded, and possesses an exoskeleton, like insects or crustaceans. What’s really bizarre, though, is that it doesn’t seem to breathe oxygen at all!”

“What?” Jay said in confusion, looking in confusion at one of the scans of the creature’s body. “How?”

“We don’t know,” Oliver shrugged. “But here’s the thing- some microorganisms breathe nitrogen instead of oxygen, but this one doesn’t seem to do that either. It breathes HYDROGEN.”

“Hydrogen? How’s that even possible?”

“Once again, we don’t know,” Grey tapped his finger on the picture that Jay was peering at. “But, we do have a theory on where it came from.”

Jay nodded, setting the picture back down on the table. Oliver guided him back over to the table where the J-MO7 specimens were, and began talking.

“The specimens were found in the bay a day after the Saitama incident,” the scientist explained. “However, we don’t think they actually came from the bay. We evaluated the ocean currents from the previous week, and determined that they had originally come from further up north, a few miles west of the coastline.”

“The Oxygen Destroyer detonation site,” Jay’s eyes widened in realization. “That would explain why it doesn’t need to breathe oxygen.”

Oliver nodded. “Also, we tried radiocarbon dating the specimens, and… our closest estimate is that they’re from the Cambrian era.”

Jay’s jaw nearly dropped in shock. “What? No, no, that’s impossible! How could it have survived for that long?”

“That’s another thing we still don’t know,” Grey said. “But our current hypothesis is that they were present when the missile detonated, and were exposed to the chemicals from the missile’s area of effect.”

“The Destroyer sapped all the oxygen from inside the blast radius,” Jay followed along. “Which would have included the water.”

“Leaving nothing but hydrogen,” Oliver continued. “We believe that it somehow adapted its biology to that lack of oxygen, which is why it breathes hydrogen.”

“It makes sense, but none of that should be possible,” Jay furrowed his brow in confusion. “But, then again, we’re studying and defending against giant monsters, so, how weirder could it get?”

“I don’t know, monsters from space?” Oliver joked. “But, yeah, it shouldn’t be possible. These things shouldn’t have been even alive to get hit by the Oxygen Destroyer in the first place. I was hoping that maybe you could stay here for a couple weeks and help us study it?”

“I don’t know, I…” Jay thought for a while. There WAS nothing going on currently, with all of the protector Kaiju freed, and all of the destroyers either dead or in hibernation. This was the most interesting thing that had happened in the wake of the Saitama incident. “Alright, I’ll stay.”

“Great!” Oliver exclaimed. “We can arrange for you to stay in a hotel nearby.”

That evening, Jay had finally gotten settled into the hotel room that the KRRA provided him with. He was on the sixth story, and the building was just across the street from the facility. Jay had also called the Baltimore facility and arranged for some of his office things to be brought to San Francisco for his temporary stay. They had just arrived when Jay finished getting situated, so he was able to quickly unpack his things. Among the belongings he had delivered, two of them were of note: Firstly, a small, pocket-size notebook, which had the words “KAIJU FIELD GUIDE” Written in sharpie on the front. Chloe had made this for him, so that he could positively identify any Kaiju if she were not with him. Second was Mothra’s talisman, which he held briefly in his hands, before stowing it in the nightstand. Jay sat down on the bed, and decided to call Chloe, to catch her up on what was happening. After the Saitama incident began to die down, the two of them had fallen out of contact for a little while.

He entered her number into the phone app, and then waited. The phone rang for several minutes, before she finally picked up. “Jay?”

“Hey Chloe,” he said tenderly. “How’ve you been?”

“Oh, uh…” She sounded a bit surprised, as if she hadn’t been expecting him to call. “I’m doing fine, I guess? I’ve been pretty busy with some research. I’m trying to gather information on the destroyers we haven’t seen yet, starting with Mothra’s counterpart.”

“That’s cool,” Jay replied. “I just wanted to let you know… I’m in San Francisco right now. The KRRA facility here discovered some kind of microorganism that was mutated by the Oxygen Destroyer’s detonation. They called me yesterday to come in and take a look at it.”

“Hmm,” Chloe gave a curious response. “That’s weird. I thought the Oxygen Destroyer was supposed to eliminate life.”

“Well, these things are a bit of an odd occurrence.”

There was an awkward pause, before Chloe broke the silence. “Well, I gotta go now, I have research to get done.”

“Alright, I won’t keep you from it,” Jay replied. “But hey, let me know what you find, alright? We need all the leads we can get.”

“I know that,” Chloe said. “But I’ll try and remember to call you. Bye!”

“Bye,” Jay hung up, and then sighed. He set the phone on the bed next to him, and began looking around the room aimlessly, lost in thought. Eventually his eyes fell on the nightstand where he had stowed the Talisman of the Moth. He continued to stare at it, before he sighed again, and opened the drawer. He withdrew the necklace, and held it out in front of him. He paused for a few minutes, almost wanting to change his mind and put it back. Jay decided to go for it, and placed the talisman around his neck, holding the stone in one hand. He paused again, before finally speaking.

“Um… hi?” He announced. “Mothra? Are you there?”

There was a moment of silence, before the booming, feminine voice filled his head. I hear you, she said. It has been a very short time since you last spoke to me. I presume you have important news?

“Kind of,” Jay responded. “It’s not exactly Kaiju-related, but it does involve ancient creatures.”

Speak.

Jay explained to her what the J-MO7 specimens were, and how they were discovered. He made sure to include the fact that they were from the Cambrian era, meaning they could very well be older than any Kaiju they had seen thus far. If anyone could tell him about the creature and its existence, it would be Mothra.

This does not sound too familiar, Mothra told him. Due to my size, I often pay no mind to creatures that small.

“But you must have SOME idea,” Jay pleaded. “How could something that small live for that long?”

That, I am uncertain of. The goddess replied. It should not have had the lifespan that it did. Perhaps you should investigate further, and then contact me.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Jay agreed. “I was just hoping that you might have known something about this creature.”

I apologize. This is beyond my knowledge.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.” He reassured her. “Well, if that’s all, I’m gonna go now. I should get some sleep.”

Very well, then. Mothra replied. Rest well, Jay Abbot.

Jay removed the necklace, and placed it back in the nightstand. After that, he got ready for bed, and laid down for some much-needed rest.

Chapter Text

It was extremely early in the morning when Jay was woken up. He heard his phone vibrating loudly on the nightstand next to the bed, and looked at the digital clock resting next to it: “4:35.” He groaned in exhaustion, and retrieved the device, seeing he was getting a call from an unknown number. Jay had a feeling he already knew who was on the other end of the line, and answered the call.

“Oliver, that had better not be you,” he said.

“Doctor Abbot!” Came the excited voice of the biologist. “We’ve had an incredible breakthrough with the J-MO7 specimens!”

“It’s four in the morning,” Jay replied. “Can’t this wait?”

“It’s four thirty-five, so technically it’s closer to five in the morning than four-”

“It’s too early, is what it is.”

“Please, could you just come over to the lab? I assure you, this is worth seeing.”

Jay let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. I’ll be there in five.”

After hanging up, he quickly got dressed, packed what he would need for the lab, and exited the hotel building. Soon enough, he was making his way back through the facility towards the lab holding J-MO7. Upon entering, he found a few of the same scientists that were there the previous day, including Maurice and the other woman. She and Oliver were standing next to the table upon which the small tank of J-MO7 specimens had been resting. It took him a while to notice, but when he reached the table, he saw that the specimens were no longer in the container.

“Where’d they go?” Jay said.

Oliver was grinning ear to ear, and beckoned for Jay to follow him. He did so, making their way through the lab, until they reached a much larger tank that was embedded into the wall. It was filled with water, and inside the water he could see three medium-sized creatures. They almost looked like horseshoe crabs, but they were only slightly smaller, with a wider shell that curved into sharp points. Additionally, the ends of their tails split into two curved prongs.

“Are those… the J-MO7?” He asked.

Grey nodded. “We had no idea what was going on until they’d finished.” He gazed at the creatures in the tank. “It was like they’d fused their bodies together to create a larger creature, like a superorganism!”

“But how did those little tiny things become… these?” Jay gestured at the crab-like lifeforms.

“How did they get bigger? I don’t know,” Oliver replied. “However, it seems as if they can be combined in groups of five microscopic ones to create one large one.”

“I wonder if the larger ones can fuse together, too…” In his mind, Jay formed a theory. “And if those could combine too, and then combine again, and then…” Oh no, he realized. They could create an entire Kaiju.

“I doubt they could get any bigger than this,” Oliver pointed at the tank. “Based on their origins, they’re just a colony of microorganisms, nothing more.”

“A colony of microorganisms that survived for over two billion years,” Jay pointed out.

“We’re still trying to figure that part out. Which, by the way, you could help us with.”

Jay spent the next couple hours with Oliver and the woman scientist, who he learned was named Dana Williams. He quickly noticed that Oliver seemed interested in her, and probably in a more intimate way than just lab partners. Jay rolled his eyes at that- as a KRRA scientist, he didn’t have much time to mingle among his colleagues. There were three J-MO7 specimens that had not been able to combine into one of the crabs- two left in the tank, and the one trapped under the microscope. Two hours later, they were still studying the microscopic specimens, when another scientist in the room alerted them.

“Um… Doctor Grey?” The scientist called. “The larger ones are doing… something.”

“Let me see,” Oliver walked over to take a look, and Jay followed him. They peered at the crustaceans in the tank, which had begun to move towards each other. As they grew closer, their bodies began to grow misshapen and melted, like they were clay being molded together. They began to fuse together into a mess of red crustacean chitin and deep pink flesh, which pulsed and twitched disgustingly. It slowly grew bigger and bigger, until it was pressing against and cracking the glass of the tank. Soon enough it was over six feet in height, and the tank was struggling to hold together.

The group of observers began to back up, watching as the blob began forming into a shape, sprouting limbs and growing plates of chitin. From the bottom sprouted six segmented, crab-like legs, which ended in sharp points and were covered in spikes. Its body formed larger at the bottom, with a plated crest in the center like a chestpiece. Large spikes of chitin formed into shoulders, and an incredibly elongated, thick neck stuck out, with plates of chitin lining the front, and spiked ridges lining down the back. It formed a head as well, with fans of plated chitin forming frills on either side. A crest of spikes sat on its forehead, and a mouth jutted out at the bottom, filled with uneven teeth like a squid. Bright orange, pupil-less eyes sat below the crest, facing forwards. As the new creature finished forming, the glass shattered, causing the scientists in the room to yelp in panic and back away.

Oliver’s eyes were glued to this new creature, which crawled slowly out of the broken tank, seeming to observe the room around it. Jay backed up cautiously, and placed a hand on the biologist’s shoulder, urging him to step back.

“Incredible…” Oliver whispered in awe. “It only took three of the larger ones to make… an even larger one.”

Suddenly, the creature let out a horrible shriek, and charged forwards at one of the scientists with incredible speed. The man had no time to react before it was already on top of him, knocking him to the floor. The room erupted into panic as it leaned over him, and, in a lightning-fast movement, a secondary, inner jaw shot out of its mouth, stabbing directly into the man’s face. His screams were cut off short by a sickening CRUNCH, followed by a spray of blood. The other scientists began rushing for the door as the creature quickly moved away from its first victim, tackling another to the ground as they attempted to flee and biting them in the back.

“Get security down here!” Jay shouted at Oliver as the biologist rushed for the exit. Jay stood next to the door, helping the rest of the scientists out, until he spotted Dana being pinned to the ground underneath the crustacean monster. He looked around, and hefted one of the lab chairs over his shoulder, charging at the creature and tossing it with all his might. By no means was it a good throw, he more or less pushed it through the air towards the thing, but the chair successfully made contact with the creature’s side. It buckled, and staggered sideways, allowing Dana to get back to her feet. Jay ushered her towards the exit, before following her. On his way out, he slammed his hand against a fire alarm box on the wall, triggering it.

Sirens blared through the entire facility as red lightly began to blink rapidly on the ceiling. Inside the lab, the sprinkler system activated, spraying water from nozzles on the ceiling and drenching the creature in water. It let out a frustrated hiss, and began charging at the door. Quickly as he could, Jay exited the room and slammed the door shut, holding it closed with his body. Only seconds afterwards he felt the full force of the monster’s weight slamming into the other side of the door, and he struggled to keep it closed. He could hear it shrieking and hissing, and the sound of its chitin plates scraping against the door.

“Move!” He heard a gruff voice from behind him, and turned his head to see a squad of security guards rushing down the hall. They were carrying automatic rifles, and some of them were also carrying stun prods.

“It’s in the lab!” Jay shouted in response. “We need to keep it in there!”

The guard in the lead stowed his rifle, and approached to help Jay keep the door closed. “Help him!” The guard shouted, prompting another to drop his weapon and help. “Get the containment locks engaged!”

One of the other guards approached the keycard lock on the door, and withdrew a special card from his vest, which was red in color. He swiped it through the reader, which was adorned with a loud, blaring beep. Jay and the two guards stepped back as rows of thick, metal bars jutted out of the door frame, sealing the door closed.

Jay let out a sigh of relief, stepping back as the security guards moved into position with their rifles pointed at the door, and stun prods crackling with electricity. On the other side of the door, all of them could hear the scraping of chitin, and the enraged shrieks of the creature. It continued for a while longer, before it suddenly stopped. Jay could hear its crab-like legs silently tapping the ground as it stepped away from the door.

Suddenly, the pointed ends of one of its legs was jabbed through the metal of the door, followed by a metallic screech as the claw began to tear through it. A few of the bars sealing it closed were broken as it cut downwards, before it stopped, withdrawing the claw. It then poked its head into the hole, and shrieked.

The guards opened fire, riddling both the door and the creature’s head with bullets. It seemed to have little effect, as the rounds bounced off the monster’s chitin harmlessly. However, it also flinched from the impacts, letting out a low, menacing shriek. The thing extended its mouth through the door, and began making a continuous hissing sound as a clear, white gas began to spray out of its maw.

Hydrogen, Jay realized. “Stop shooting! Stop-”

His warning came too late, as the gunfire from the guards ignited the gas, causing a large explosion in the doorway. The force of the combustion pushed all of them off their feet, and Jay was momentarily blinded by the flash. It was different from any of the perils he had experienced thus far; his head was throbbing, ears were ringing, and his vision was blurred. As his eyesight returned, he found the hallway filled with smoke, causing him to cough. Slowly, the smoke began to clear and his ears stopped ringing, allowing him to hear the grunts and coughs of the security guards getting to their feet. The explosion had blown a sizable hole in the wall where the door had once been, but there was no sign of the creature.

That is, until he heard the telltale shriek, followed by the silhouette of the monster emerging from the hole in the wall. The security guards were slow to react, still recovering from the explosion, but several of them retrieved their guns and began shooting at it in terror. The creature all but ignored the gunfire, approached the closest guard, who was still attempting to get back up. Its inner jaw shot out, and the man was dead in an instant. Jay realized that this wasn’t going to end well, and began to sprint away from the firefight, and towards the building’s exit. Finally, he burst through the front doors of the facility, momentarily blinded by the daylight. He found the crowded streets had been blocked off by a swarm of police and fire department vehicles. The police had likely been called by one of the fleeing scientists, and the fire department was probably responding to the triggered alarm.

“What’s going on in there?” Asked one of the police officers as Jay approached them.

“A specimen breached containment,” Jay told her, panting.

“What does that mean?”

“There’s a freaking monster in the building!” He shouted. “It’s already killed people!”

The officer nodded, and spoke into her radio. “All units, we have a situation in the lab on third and sixteenth street. Possible casualties, better bring riot control.”

Jay stepped through the blockade of vehicles to the other side of the street, finding Oliver, Dana, and the rest of the surviving scientists. Oliver had his arm over Dana’s shoulders, and she looked tearful, probably in shock from her brush with death. Jay retrieved his phone from his pocket, and called the one person he knew would be able to help handle this. The phone rang for a few minutes, before the call was answered.

“Doctor Abbot?” Came the gruff voice of Admiral Palmer.

“Admiral,” Jay said. “We have a problem in San Francisco.”

It took several hours for the USS Eclair to arrive in the city, meaning it was mid-evening when the warplane arrived. The police blockade was still in place, but the J-MO7 creature had not emerged from the building yet. Unfortunately, neither had the security team, and Jay was starting to think that they were most likely dead. The Eclair moved into a hovering position over the bay, and began deploying several Osprey and Phoenix Gunships into the city. The aircrafts landed and immediately began deploying swarms of troops into the compound. A Phoenix landed near where Jay was standing, and Palmer stepped out alongside another squad of soldiers.

“Doctor Abbot!” He called, and Jay quickly jogged over to him. “What’s the situation?”

“I think it’s still inside the facility!” Jay shouted over the whirring of the Phoenix’s rotors.

“Let’s move in!” Palmer shouted to the squad that was with him, motioning for Jay to follow him. As they stepped through the building, Palmer drew a sidearm from the holster on his belt, switching off the safety. The troopers that had arrived in the other gunships were already securing the interior of the facility, however the squad that accompanied Palmer remained with him and Jay. The power to the building must have been cut somehow, because all of the lights were out. Eventually, they came across the security team that had been facing the creature- or, at least, their bodies.

The entire team was dead, with wounds on their bodies that looked like the handiwork of the J-MO7. Palmer eyed the bodies with a grim expression, before shifting his gaze towards the door to the lab it had come from. The large crater that had been blown into both the wall and floor was still there, and the smoke from the blast had long since cleared. Palmer turned his head to look at Jay.

“What happened here?” He jabbed a thumb at the crater.

“The creature that broke out was able to exhale this hydrogen gas,” Jay explained. “It sprayed a stream through the door, and the guards ignited it accidentally by shooting at the creature.”

Palmer nodded, and made several hand motions at the soldiers around him. They all nodded, and began to approach the crater with rifles aimed and flashlights pointing. The admiral raised his sidearm as well, and began to walk towards the crater slowly. When they finally reached the crater, Palmer and the other soldiers peered down into it, illuminating the basin. The admiral threw a sideways glance at Jay. “Was that always there?” he asked.

Jay gazed at the crater to see whatever he meant, and quickly noticed what Palmer was referring to. At the base of the crater was a wide, haphazardly-carved hole that went straight through the ground, and into darkness. That was definitely NOT caused by the crater, Jay thought, shaking his head at the admiral.

Palmer activated his radio, and leaned into it. “Bring me a ReCon-ED.” What he had said was clearly an acronym, but he said it like ‘Reconned.’ Several minutes passed before a soldier came down the hallway, carrying what looked like a screen attached to a folded-up mess of mechanical parts. When he reached them, the soldier detached the screen from the other thing, and set the object on the ground. Jay realized that it was actually a drone; ReCon-ED stood for ‘Remotely-Controlled Exploration Drone.’ The man pressed several buttons that were on the side of the screen, and the drone came to life, unfolding its legs and projecting a small beam of light out of its head. It looked like a large, robotic spider, and was about the size of Jay’s foot. The screen the soldier was holding came on, showing a view from the drone’s perspective. He began moving the control yolk with his thumb, causing the drone to begin scuttling forwards, down the basin of the crater, and into the hole.

Palmer and Jay stood on either side of the soldier controlling the ReCon-ED, watching what the feed was showing them. Right now, all it could see were the walls of the hole, just barely illuminated by the machine’s tiny spotlight. Suddenly, the bottom of the hole came into view- it was flooded by a small stream of water that practically filled it up to the top. The steam in question was coming from a tunnel that went in one direction, however it continued going down a tunnel in the opposite direction.

“Which way, sir?” The soldier asked.

Palmer paused for a moment. “Follow where the stream is going,” he answered.

The soldier nodded, and had the drone crawl down until it latched itself to the ceiling of the tunnel, following the stream of water. It didn’t go very far before reaching the end of the tunnel, which emptied out into a large, tall, and circular chamber that was likely underneath the facility itself. The walls of the chamber were lined with grated maintenance platforms and metal ladders, and the stream from the tunnel was running down the wall towards the bottom of the chamber. The drone angled the camera towards the bottom, seeing a large generator in the middle, which was currently half-submerged in water and inoperational.

“I guess that’s what killed the lights,” Palmer observed. “Head back and check out the other tunnel.”

The soldier obliged, and the drone turned itself back around, retracing its path back through the tunnel, before continuing along the wall and onto the ceiling of the other tunnel. This tunnel went on for considerably longer, before it started slanting upwards. Eventually, the water level was almost reaching the ceiling, and the drone couldn’t go any further.

“Damn,” Palmer cursed under his breath. “Now we’ll never know where the thing could be.”

“Well, based on the water, I think it may have escaped into the bay,” Jay pointed out, before a realization hit him. Wait, he thought. Oliver said that there were hundreds of the micro ones in the bay. The puzzle pieces began to assemble in his head, and his heart sank. Palmer must have noticed Jay’s disturbed expression, as he put a hand on his shoulder, shaking Jay out of his trance.

“Doctor Abbot,” Palmer’s voice sounded genuinely concerned. “Are you alright?”

Jay turned to the admiral. “We need to call reinforcements,” he said in a panicked frenzy. “Evacuate the city, get everyone as far away from the bay as we-”

“Doctor Abbot!” Palmer raised his voice slightly. “What’s happening!?”

“There are more of those things,” Jay said with urgency. “HUNDREDS more. In the bay. That thing wasn’t escaping… it was regrouping.”

Palmer’s eyes widened briefly, before he began rushing out of the building. Jay followed him, with the squad of soldiers in tow. As he ran, the admiral activated his radio again. “All units, this is Admiral Palmer. Begin an evacuation of the city- clear every sector close to the bay.” He then quickly switched channels, contacting the captain of the Eclair. “Navarro, alert HQ. Tell them to send heavy artillery units here now, we’re about to be up to our necks in Kaiju.”

“Copy that, Admiral.”

Once they exited the building, Palmer rushed up to the police officer who had been captaining the blockade. “Clear these civilians out,” He instructed. “Then start evacuating these blocks. Get everyone away from the bay.”

“Um,” the officer looked confused at first, before she nodded in agreement. She then turned to the other officers and began barking orders, and the whole blockade began to move, evacuating the civilians.

Suddenly, there was a loud splashing sound from behind them, prompting Palmer and Jay to turn and look at the bay. They watched in horror as massive, red-skinned crustacean limbs began to emerge from the waters, followed by larger creatures. When the first one emerged, Jay saw that it was nearly identical to its previous form, however they were now forty meters in height, and had two massive pincers sprouting from their backs which arched over their heads like a scorpion’s tail.

Palmer leaned into his radio. “We’re gonna need backup… and we needed it yesterday.”

Chapter Text

The aggregate creatures made their way into the city as it was evacuated. There were about fifteen of them, all forty meters in height and causing destruction in their wake. One of them approached the KRRA facility, and began to exhale a cloud of hydrogen gas through the shattered windows. The soldiers still inside began to flee, but the creature then produced a spark with its mouth, igniting the gas and causing a massive explosion. The inferno consumed the fleeing soldiers, and destroyed most of the building’s exterior. The police blockade and other soldiers had managed to get all the civilians out of the area, so they were able to engage the creatures.

The USS Eclair, which was still hovering over the bay, moved into position over the city, aiming its weapons at the creatures. The gatling guns began to fire away, tearing into the creatures with high-caliber rounds. It didn’t seem to have any effect, as the creatures barely flinched as the bullets ricocheted off their chitin plating. On the ground, Jay and Palmer began to retreat as the creatures grew closer to the line of soldiers. Palmer ushered Jay on board one of the Phoenix Gunships, and the admiral patted the pilot’s shoulder, getting his attention.

“Get us out of here!” He shouted.

“Yes sir!” The pilot responded.

Jay and Palmer strapped themselves in as the gunship began to take off, heading away from the conflict. As the gunship was flying off, one of the giant creatures noticed it, and began tearing across the block to catch up, trampling soldiers and destroying buildings in its wake. The admiral saw it making for their aircraft, and patted the back of the pilot’s seat aggressively, shouting for him to pull up. The Phoenix began to gain altitude, but not fast enough. With a leap and a mighty swing of its pincer, the aggregate creature took off one of the gunship’s turbine engines in a shower of flames. The gunship began spiraling out of control, plummeting to the ground.

“Brace for impact!” The pilot shouted.

The craft smashed into the ground, and the force of the crash shook the passengers in their seats. Dust clouded the interior of the cabin as the windows were shattered, and Jay’s vision blurred. His ears were ringing, and his head was in a world of pain. He leaned forwards, running a hand over the back of his skull, and found that it felt… wet. As his vision began to come back, he looked at his hand, and saw it stained with red liquid- blood. The force of the crash had smacked the back of his head against the wall of the cabin, enough to leave a wound of some kind. Suddenly, someone put their hands on his shoulders, and his vision came into focus, seeing Admiral Palmer.

“Doctor Abbot?” He was saying, sounding distressed. “Kid, are you okay?”

“I… I think so…” Jay answered groggily.

The moment was interrupted by a thunderous, shrieking roar from outside of the Phoenix, followed by footsteps that shook the ground.

“Come on, we need to move.” Palmer helped him by unstrapping the safety belts, and allowed Jay to lean on his shoulder. They approached one of the cabin doors, which was sealed closed, and Palmer began kicking it with all of his might. Miraculously, the door began to budge, before becoming dislodged and falling off. The two stumbled out of the craft, and started moving away from it as quickly as they could. Suddenly, there was a shout from behind them, and they turned to see the Phoenix’s pilot struggling to climb out of the cockpit window.

“Keller!” Palmer shouted, abruptly letting go of Jay, and sprinting towards the ship to help the soldier. Before he could even make it halfway, the massive pincer of an aggregate J-MO7 came down on top of the wrecked gunship, stabbing directly into the side. The Phoenix exploded, taking the pilot with it and sending Palmer flying backwards, landing on the asphalt next to Jay. The doctor helped the admiral back to his feet, and the two of them looked to see the aggregate creature turn its attention to them. It took a step forward, screeching. Before it could take another, the ground began shaking and rumbling, causing the massive crustacean to pause in confusion. Suddenly, the ground around it erupted in a shower of debris and rubble, followed by a gurgling roar. Palmer and Jay ran for it, getting out of the way as chunks of pavement rained down where they had been standing. They turned back around to see the cause of the destruction was a massive, quadrupedal Kaiju, with dark red skin, elephant-like ears, and a long horn on the crest of its head. The creature crawled out of the hole it had created, and growled.

“What the heck is that thing?” Palmer shouted.

Jay quickly withdrew Chloe’s field guide from his pocket, and flipped through the pages to try and identify this new monster. He found it, and read out the creature’s name; “Baragon.”

“And he’s on our side… right?”

“He’s a protector,” Jay nodded.

Baragon let out a wailing roar, which caught the attention of the other J-MO7s that were down the block. They began scuttling towards the larger Kaiju in a massive group, shrieking angrily at the new monster that dared challenge them. Baragon reared up on his hind legs, and roared at the smaller creatures, before bounding towards them on all fours, shaking the ground as he ran towards them like a wolf. Palmer gave Jay a sideways glance. “I think we’d better get out of the way.”

“I think you’re right,” Jay replied.

The two humans quickly hurried out of the streets, taking refuge between two large buildings. Jay peeked out from behind their shelter so that he could watch the fight between the Kaiju. One of the aggregate crustaceans pulled ahead of the others, and pounced at Baragon as he was running towards them. The Kaiju abruptly dug his paws into the ground, coming to a halt with his horn pointed forwards. The aggregate creature had no time to shift its momentum, and skewered itself on Baragon’s horn. The sharp bone tore directly through the J-MO7’s midsection, poking out the other side with a spray of green blood. The creature thrashed violently as it wailed cries of anguish, until it eventually stopped moving and went limp. Baragon swung his head to the side, dislodging the crustacean’s corpse from his horn and sending it flying. He then turned to glare at the other J-MO7s, which were swarming down the block towards him.

As the creatures approached, Baragon lifted himself onto two legs, and roared threateningly at his opponents. One of them lunged at him, and he batted the creature aside with a swipe of his paw, sending it flying over rooftops and into the bay. Another one pounced, and Baragon swung his other paw, sending the crustacean barreling across the ground and into a building. Two of the creatures scuttled right up in front of him, and the Kaiju dropped back on all fours, crushing both of the creatures with his front paws. An entire line of them charged towards Baragon, and he spun his entire body around, knocking them aside with a tail swipe. The Kaiju turned back to the swarm of opponents approaching him, seeing that there were many, many more left. Baragon narrowed his eyes at the swarm of crustaceans, and opened his mouth slightly. His throat was sucked inwards, and he contorted his face in a vicious snarl. Jay realized that the massive creature was taking a very, very deep breath.

Deep breath, he thought. That usually means-

Suddenly, Baragon exhaled violently, shooting a column of orange flames out of his maw. The attack burned through the hordes of aggregate J-MO7s, engulfing them in fire as they let out pained squeals. When the flames dispersed, Jay could see that the creatures had been almost completely unaffected, with most of them suffering only scorch marks on their bodies. Baragon tilted his head and let out a confused growl, before the horde continued approaching him. As they got closer, they all began hissing, exhaling streams of their hydrogen gas at the larger Kaiju.Baragon took a few steps back, standing up on his hind legs and roaring in confusion. He stomped one of the creatures with his back leg, and knocked three of them aside with a swing of his tail. This didn’t seem to deter the J-MO7s, as they continued breathing out the hydrogen gas, until Baragon was almost completely engulfed in the cloud. The Kaiju swung his front paws around in an attempt to disperse it, but the creatures surrounding him merely released more. Baragon scowled, and opened his mouth to take a short breath.

“Oh no,” Jay realized what he was about to do. “Move, move!”

Palmer and Jay fled from the battle just as Baragon released his breath in a short burst. The fireball he produced had barely left his mouth when the entire cloud surrounding him was ignited in a deafening explosion. The entire block and a few of the surrounding buildings were torn apart by the blast, resulting in a massive cloud of smoke and rubble that the two humans continued to flee from. Jay and Palmer made it through the door of an apartment complex, and quickly rushed to the rooftop door, curious as to the outcome of the explosion. Very slowly, the smoke began to clear, and the two could see the buildings they had been using as cover were almost completely destroyed, allowing them to see the street where Baragon had been. They heard a pitiful wailing, and the smoke began to disperse, revealing Baragon lying on his side. His body was covered in ash and soot, and parts of his body were bleeding.

The moment was interrupted by a cacophony of shrieking roars, and the two humans looked to see more of the J-MO7 creatures approaching the wounded Baragon, seemingly to finish the job. As they approached him with their pincers raised, the waters of the bay suddenly began to churn, followed by a low, rumbling growl. In an enormous splash, a massive green-blue serpent emerged from the waters, crashing down onto the land and swatting aside several of the crustaceans approaching Baragon. The creature let out a ferocious growl, and Jay recognized him instantly- Manda.
The sea serpent began to tear into the horde of aggregate creatures, sending green blood and chunks of torn chitin everywhere. His body curled and twisted in quick and snake-like movements, and his fighting style seemed to be significantly more vicious than Baragon’s. The giant snake let out another vicious growl, swinging his body in a full circle and sending a line of the crustaceans into the air. Baragon slowly rolled back onto his feet, and turned to look at his savior, who was still tearing into the ranks of the J-MO7. A toothy grin crossed the red-skinned Kaiju’s face, before he charged forwards and joined Manda in his fight against the Aggregate creatures. With the sea Kaiju now assisting Baragon, the crustacean J-MO7 looked like they were losing the battle.

Suddenly, the creatures began to fall back. Swarms of them began to flee their battle with the larger Kaiju, and the ones that had been antagonizing the military forces pulled back. They began to group up, and retreated into the waters they had come out of. The two protector Kaiju watched in confusion as all of the aggregate beasts made their way back into the waters of the bay, until all of them were gone.

“What just happened?” Palmer said, equally confused. “Did they give up?”

The creatures can combine, Jay realized with a start. “Oh, no, this is gonna be bad…”

The waters of the bay suddenly erupted, followed by a monstrous, shrieking roar. A massive Kaiju began to rise out of the water, climbing out of the bay and onto land. The creature stood on two legs, and was covered in plates of bright red and maroon chitin. Its head looked drastically different from the aggregate forms; it retained the frill-like plates, but the insect-like mouth had been replaced by a short, almost reptilian snout that was filled with sharp, crooked teeth, and flanked by pairs of large, curved fangs. It also retained the bright orange, pupiless eyes, which were narrowed viciously. There was a long, crooked horn sprouting from the crest of its head, which pulsed with an eerie, red light. The Kaiju’s segmented, crab-like legs had been replaced with two thick, armored ones, with large spikes forming talons at the ends of its feet. Its arms were now longer, with three large claws that served as fingers. Its shoulders were adorned with large plates of spiked chitin, and there were plates of chitin arranged in a floral-like pattern on its chest. It also had a long tail, which was tipped with a pair of scorpion-like pincers. Most bizarrely, it had two pairs of bat-like wings on its back, a large pair on the backs of its shoulders, and a smaller pair on its lower back.

“What in the hell is that…” Palmer said.

“A creature born of the Oxygen Destroyer…” Jay mused. “...Destoroyah.”

The massive Kaiju, now dubbed Destoroyah, towered over the two protector Kaiju. Even with how long Manda’s snake-like body was, the sheer size of the crustacean Kaiju made him look much larger. He flared his wings outwards, and roared at his opponents. Baragon backed up slightly, baring his teeth defensively, while Manda hissed. Suddenly, the larger creature attacked, lunging towards the other Kaiju. Baragon dashed out of the way, and Manda tried to do the same, but his neck was grasped by the claws of the larger monster. Destoroyah began to strangle Manda with both his hands, but the serpent responded by curling himself out of the larger creature’s grip, and biting into his arm. Destoroyah roared, more out of anger than pain, and swung his other hand to strike at Manda. The serpent was too fast, quickly wrapping his tail around the arm and holding it in place. Manda began to constrict around Destoroyah’s body, attempting to strangle him.

Baragon attacked from behind, teeth bared to bite into Destoroyah’s back. However, the creature was smarter than the two Kaiju had given him credit for, and his tail shot up to catch the quadruped, holding his neck in between the pincers. Baragon struggled to free himself while Destoroyah dug his claws into Manda’s body, partially prying him off. Destoroyah opened his mouth, and began to breathe in. Then, he fired a bright magenta beam of energy out of his maw, which struck Manda’s outstretched midsection. The giant serpent immediately loosened his grip on the monster entirely, prompting Destoroyah to grasp him firmly with both hands, and slam him into the ground.

“What the heck was that!?” Palmer shouted.

“His ability to breathe hydrogen gas must have been severely upgraded,” Jay figured. “It looks like he can now fire it in an already-combusting state.”

“English!”
“He can shoot exploding gas out of his mouth!” Jay shouted.

With Manda seemingly down for the count, Destoroyah turned his head slightly, side eyeing Baragon’s struggling form. The Kaiju growled, and with a violent movement, flung Baragon through the air. The red-skinned kaiju sailed over the city, eventually colliding with a building and going limp. Destoroyah, content with his handiwork, roared triumphantly. Then, his eyes became fixed on the humans that were observing from their far-off rooftop position.

“Shit!” Palmer shouted, “He sees us!”

The two began to flee, but Destoroyah was already breathing in to unleash another blast of his hydrogen beam. Before he could, there was a rumbling from the bay, and Destoroyah closed his mouth, before turning to look in confusion. The waters slowly became illuminated by a bright, blue glow, before a reptilian Kaiju began to emerge from the water, roaring at Destoroyah.

Godzilla had arrived.

“We need to get out of here,” Palmer ushered Jay towards the stairwell entrance. “Those two are definitely gonna destroy this entire part of the city with their fighting.” As the two began to descend the stairs of the apartment complex, Palmer contacted the captain of the Eclair. “Navarro, we need a pickup at these coordinates. And make it quick.” The two exited the apartment complex, with a Phoenix gunship descending to meet them soon after. They boarded it, and it began to carry them to safety.

Meanwhile, Godzilla had begun to grapple with this new foe. While Destoroyah was taller than Godzilla by several feet, the creature didn’t seem to be prepared for the King of the Monsters’ strength. The lizard delivered a devastating punch to Destoroyah’s chest, causing the larger monster to stumble. With a swing of his tail, Godzilla knocked Destoroyah to the side, and the larger Kaiju collapsed to the ground in a big cloud of dust and debris. Godzilla’s dorsal plates began to glow with a deep humming sound, and he unleashed a blast of atomic breath onto the fallen Destoroyah. Screeching roars pierced the air as Destoroyah experienced the fury of Godzilla’s signature attack, before he suddenly rolled across the ground, out of the way of the attack. Godzilla’s breath dissipated, and it was Destoroyah’s turn to retaliate with his hydrogen beam, hitting Godzilla in the gills.

The attack caused Godzilla to let out a high-pitched roar of pain, stumbling backwards as smoke engulfed his face. Destoroyah began to get back to his feet, a rumbling sound emanating from his throat, almost like laughter. The smoke surrounding Godzilla’s head dispersed, revealing he was bleeding from where Destoroyah’s beam had hit him. The King of the Monsters was still recovering when his opponent charged at him, the horn on his head glowing brightly. He swung his head in a quick arc, and the horn inexplicably passed through Godzilla’s body in a shower of sparks. Godzilla let out a cry of anguish, falling onto his back in pain. There were no wounds on his body from where the horn had sliced him, yet still the lizard writhed in pain.

Destoroyah approached Godzilla’s fallen body, and his tail shot forwards, the pincers closing around the lizard’s neck. Slowly, Destoroyah lifted his tail, holding Godzilla up by the neck. A malicious grin seemed to cross the monster’s face as Godzilla clawed at the pincers in a futile attempt to escape. Destoroyah opened his mouth, and began to breathe in to fire his beam.

Suddenly, a column of flame shot through the air, striking Destoroyah on the side of the face. Both Godzilla and his opponent turned to see a bruised and battered Baragon, standing defiantly atop the rubble of the building he had been thrown into. The quadruped let out a wailing roar, before shooting another blast of flame at the large Kaiju. Destoroyah barely flinched as the fireball struck him in the chest, and he whipped his tail to the side, sending Godzilla tumbling to the ground, crashing into the ruins of the KRRA facility. The ground underneath him buckled, and collapsed, causing Godzilla to fall into a shallow pit of rubble, his body becoming obscured by dust and smoke. Meanwhile, Baragon was struggling to hold his own against Destoroyah, who had begun stomping towards him. Baragon was small and fast, but Destoroyah was much larger and considerably stronger. All it would take was one false move from the red-skinned Kaiju, and it would be all over for him.

Baragon ducked underneath a swing of Destoroyah’s claws, but was unprepared for when the larger Kaiju’s tail came swinging towards him. Baragon was struck in the face, collapsing to the ground. Destoroyah looked down at the collapsed form of the smaller Kaiju, grinning as he opened his mouth to fire a hydrogen beam, which would surely finish off the monster.

A low, screeching roar caught Destoroyah’s attention, and he turned to see Godzilla emerging from the rubble of the KRRA facility. In his claws, the lizard was holding a large object, which turned out to be the facility’s power generator. Godzilla was sapping the energy from it, and his dorsal plates began to pulse with a blue light. Once he had drained the generator’s energy, he dropped it to the ground, and began to charge at his opponent. Destoroyah, seemingly fed up with the resilience of his opponent, fired his hydrogen beam at Godzilla. Godzilla roared angrily as the beam struck him in the chest, but he continued moving, powering through the force of the beam. Destoroyah looked startled, continuing to fire his beam as the King of the Monsters got closer and closer. Godzilla was right in front of him when his dorsal plates glowed brighter than ever, and his body suddenly exploded.

He didn’t actually explode, however. It was an energy attack, like his atomic breath, released outwards from his body in a spherical shockwave. Destoroyah was thrown off his feet by the attack, shrieking and wailing as smoke rose from his body, covered in scorch marks. The larger Kaiju attempted to get back to his feet, when something wrapped around his neck suddenly- Manda was back up and moving, and he restrained Destoroyah as Godzilla stomped towards him. From where he had fallen, Baragon got back to his feet wearily, before bowing his head in loyalty as Godzilla walked past. Destoroyah writhed and struggled against the body of the serpent, but couldn’t break free. The King of the Monsters charged up again, and began firing his atomic breath relentlessly into the chest of Destoroyah, who’s shrieking roars of pain pierced the air like nothing else.

Destoroyah suddenly unfurled his wings, and began to thrash violently against his captor. Manda was unable to keep his grip, and Destoroyah broke free, flapping his wings and kicking up dust. The Kaiju flew past Godzilla, who ceased his atomic breath and turned to watch the monster fly past him. Destoroyah began to gain altitude, and for a moment, it looked like he would escape. Godzilla opened his mouth, and took in a deep breath. His dorsal plates glowed as bright as when he had unleashed the shockwave, and a blue light emanated from his mouth. Then, he fired a blast of atomic breath, larger and more powerful than ever before, taking the form of a spiral-shaped beam. It struck Destoroyah mid-air, and the creature let out one last shrieking roar as he plummeted towards the ocean. With a mighty splash and an explosion, the creature vanished beneath the waves.

Godzilla paused for a moment, growling, before he let out a deafening and triumphant roar. Destoroyah had been vanquished.

Chapter Text

After Destoroyah was defeated, Godzilla and Manda retreated into the ocean, while Baragon crawled back into the hole he had emerged from. Unfortunately for the KRRA, nothing was found of Destoroyah’s remains, and all the other J-MO7 specimens inside the San Francisco facility had been lost when the facility was destroyed. However, the week following the incident was rather tame, allowing Jay to return to his office in Baltimore and relax from the string of Kaiju-related events that had all happened recently.

However, he had not been expecting to get a visitor the following week. Or rather, two visitors.

Jay was sitting at his desk, typing up a report on Kaiju behavior, when he heard footsteps behind him, in the entrance to his cubicle. He sighed, annoyed at the interruption, and turned around in his office chair, expecting to find one of his co-workers, asking for a firsthand account of his experiences in the field. Practically the entire office was constantly begging to hear his stories. He was both shocked and startled to instead see Miana and Maina, the Shobijin, standing in the entrance to his office cubicle.

He yelped in surprise, before covering his own mouth. The two girls simply stood there and stared at him with neutral expressions. “Hello again, Jay Abbot.” They said in unison.

“What the hell are you doing here?” He whisper-hissed at them. “How did you even get here?”

“Mothra has her ways,” they answered. “As her messengers, we go wherever she wishes us to go.”

“Alright…” Jay replied, still confused. “Why are you here?”

“We bring unfortunate news,” the Shobijin explained. “Mothra believes that Battra’s awakening draws nearer.”

“But…” Jay said. “I thought that she said Battra wouldn’t wake up unless he sensed her?”

“This is true,” They replied, “However, just as Battra is Mothra’s counterpart, so too does Battra have his own priestesses that serve him. They are known as the Kurabijin.”

“That doesn’t sound good…”

“Indeed. They have remained in hiding for a long time, but Mothra sensed their re-emergence, and is requesting your help to find them.”

“My help?”

“Yes. As well as Chloe Singh.”

“Chloe’s still in New York,” Jay said, sighing. “But, I don’t think it’d take a lot of convincing for her to come with me.”

“With us,” The Shobijin corrected him. “Mothra insisted that we accompany the two of you.”

Jay nodded in agreement.

It only took half a day for the three of them to arrive at the KRRA headquarters in New York City. Once they were there, they headed for Chloe’s office, with the Shobijin getting many confused looks from the personnel wandering the hallways. When they finally arrived, Jay found Chloe hunched over numerous stacks of papers and ancient-looking books. He rapped a fist gently on the wall of her cubicle, getting her attention. She turned around, and Jay saw that her hair had gotten a bit longer since he had last seen her. Her eyebrows raised when she saw him, and she blushed slightly.

“Jay?” She said, confused. “What are you doing here?”

“I got a special request from a certain Moth goddess,” he said, stepping aside so that the Shobijin could walk into Chloe’s view. Her eyes widened when she saw them, and became ecstatic.

“Oh my god! You two?!”

“Greetings, Chloe Singh,” The Shobijin said in unison. Jay went on to explain why they were here, telling Chloe about Mothra’s message and the Kurabijin. He told her that they would need to find Battra’s resting place if they were to stop his priestess from awakening him.

“Unfortunately, Mothra’s map didn’t mark the locations of any of the destroyer Kaiju.” Chloe explained, “I assumed her reasoning was, if the map fell into the wrong hands, they wouldn’t be able to locate any of the Kaiju that posed a threat.”

“Is there any way you can find it yourself?” Jay asked. “I mean, like, through your research.”

“I already have,” Chloe said. “All myths and legends about Battra point to his origin being here, in the Yunnan Rainforest of China.” She rested her finger on the top of a thumbtack that was sitting in the middle of the Asian continent, near the southern tip of China. “The Temple of the Dark Moth.”

“That is where we must go,” the Shobijin said in unison.

“How are we supposed to get there?” Chloe asked. “I’m pretty sure the KRRA aren’t going to allow us to run off on a mission at the behest of a giant Moth.”

Jay had an idea. “I think I know someone who can get us there.”

Osprey Gunships weren’t built for traveling long distances, but the KRRA had developed a special variation of it that had both the fuel reserves and speed for long-range missions. Shinobu Fujima sat in the pilot’s seat, flying them over the forested, mountainous landscape of southern China. Jay, Chloe, and the Shobijin were seated in the cabin compartment, dressed for the humidity of the rainforest. The Shobijin were also garbed in sleeveless vests and shorts, to avoid the more revealing outfits they wore underneath. Chloe also had a bag slung over her shoulder.

“There’s no room to land in the rainforest,” Shinobu shouted from the cockpit. “There’s a village nearby with a civillian airport, I’m gonna set us down there!”

“Copy that!” Jay replied.

Chloe peered out her window, and could see the large village below them, which rested in the middle of a valley between two mountain ranges. The Osprey began to slowly descend into the town, eventually touching down on the helipad of an airport. The cabin door slid open, and Shinobu powered down the engines.

“I’ll stay here,” The pilot said. “When you guys are finished, head back here and we’ll leave.”

“Got it,” Jay nodded. The four of them disembarked from the Osprey, immediately being assaulted by the dry humidity of the rainforest village. They exited the airport yard through a chain link fence, finding the streets crowded with people. Jay then turned to the Shobijin. “What exactly do the Kurabijin look like?”

“Like us, they are twins,” the Shobijin explained. “However, their hair is darker, in contrast to ours.”

“Alright,” Jay looked at the crowd of people. “With any luck, we won’t have to run into them.”

“It would be unwise to confront them, yes,” They replied. “Battra gifted his priestesses with a portion of his dark energy, giving them psychokinetic abilities.”

“We’ll need to find transportation that can get us into the jungle,” Chloe spoke up, retrieving a folded-up piece of paper from her bag. She unfolded it, revealing it to be a copy of the map in her office, cropped down so that it was only the area they were in. “Maybe we can rent a vehicle?”

“I’ll look around to see if they have those,” Jay said. “You guys keep an eye out.”

They split up, with Jay walking off to search for a vehicle they could rent, while Chloe stayed with Miana and Maina. He walked around the streets for quite a while, making his way through the swarms of people crowding the streets. The heat of the sun was starting to make him sweat, and he was growing exhausted from walking around in the weather. Suddenly, something caught his eye- he saw two women walking side-by-side, facing away from him. He could only see the backs of their heads, but they were about his height, with short, raven hair. They were walking through the street ahead of him, their movements almost synchronized.

The Kurabijin, He realized. Miana and Maina said not to confront them, but… I could follow them to see where they’re going. Against his better judgement, Jay decided to tail them. The girls continued to walk through the streets, unaware that they were being followed. Eventually, they turned a corner and went down an alleyway. Jay approached the corner with caution- this was definitely suspicious. He wasn’t sure if they had just happened to go down the alley, or if they had known he was following them, and led him into a trap. With a frustrated groan, he turned the corner, heading down the alley that the twins had. It eventually opened into a small lot, with trash and papers scattered across the ground, and a large green dumpster in a corner. He stepped into the middle of the lot, and looked back and forth… but he couldn’t see them anywhere. It was as if they’d disappeared through a wall.

Suddenly, Jay was thrown through the air, as if he had been slammed by an invisible force. His body was flung against a wall, where he became pinned down, unable to move. He looked ahead of him, and saw his attackers emerge from the shadows. They began to slowly approach him, but Jay already knew exactly who they were- the Kurabijin.

They were identical twins, with short black hair and pale skin. Their clothes were identical as well, wearing short-sleeved grey shirts with black shorts. They had skinny frames, both of them holding a hand out towards Jay. Their eyes were pupiless, and glowing with a faint blue light. They stopped about three feet away from him, arms still outstretched.

“We are going to release you now,” The girl on the left said.
“But do not run, or we will be VERY upset.” Said the girl on the right.

The girls lowered their hands, and the blue glow in their eyes faded out, revealing them to be pale white with no pupils. Seconds later, the invisible force holding Jay against the wall eased away, causing him to drop to the ground on his rear. Immediately, he attempted to scramble to his feet, only for the girls’ hands to shoot forwards. Jay was struck full force by another invisible blast, and thrown against the wall violently. The wind was nearly knocked out of him when he hit the wall, and he fell to the pavement groaning in pain.

“I had a feeling he would try to run,” The girl on the left spoke first once again.
“As if there was any chance he could escape us.” The other replied.

“Who… who are you?” Jay grunted.

This time, the girl on the right spoke first. “Don’t play coy,”
“You know who we are.” Her sister said soon after.

“You’re the Kurabijin,” He said.

“Indeed.” They said in unison.
“My name is Mallory,” Said the girl on the right.
“And my name is Minette.” Said the girl on the left.

Jay was starting to notice how these girls really were the true opposites of the Shobijin. While the Shobijin had darker skin and white hair, these girls were deathly pale and had black hair. Additionally, while Miana and Maina almost always spoke in unison, Mallory and Minette were doing the opposite; they spoke in turns, starting and completing each other’s sentences, like they had a mental link.

“We thought that Mothra might send one of her lackeys to stop us,” said Mallory.
“However, the fool has once again severely overestimated the capabilities of you humans.” Minette added.
“She should have known better than to think any of you would be a match for us.”
“And, she unwisely sent her own priestesses, as well.”

“Don’t you dare lay a finger on them,” Jay growled.

“Threatening us, boy?” Mallory’s emotionless expression quickly contorted into a sadistic grin.
“A foolish decision.” Minette grinned as well.

“Mallory! Minette!” The two familiar voices of the Shobijin called out in unison, and the Kurabijin turned around to see the girls standing in the entrance to the alley, with Chloe behind them.

“Ah, come to join us, sisters?” Minette said with a mocking tone.
“We were just about to start playtime.” Mallory added.

“There will be no play time, sisters ,” The Shobijin spat out the word ‘sisters,’ as though the idea of the Kurabijin being their siblings disgusted them. “Cease this, now.”

“But we’ve only just gotten started,” Minette whined.
“You should know better than to try and take our toys.” Mallory growled.

“Jay Abbot, Chloe Singh, cover your eyes!” The Shobijin shouted. Mallory and Minette began to quickly stalk towards the priestesses. He could see the two tan-skinned girls press their hands together over their heads, and a bright light began to emanate from where their palms touched. Jay quickly covered his eyes with his hands, and moments later a bright white flash was able to barely pierce the gaps between his fingers. He heard the Kurabijin growling in frustration, and uncovered his eyes to see the dark-haired girls backing away, covering their eyes and groaning.

“Jay!” He heard Chloe’s voice and turned to see her running towards him. She grabbed his hand, and began pulling him towards the exit of the alleyway. The Shobijin were close behind them, the angered growls of the blinded Kurabijin still echoing out of the lot area. The four of them escaped into the streets, maneuvering through crowds of people, until they reached an emptier area. On the side of the road, they saw a man open the door of a green van, about to get in.

“There!” Jay pointed at the van.

“We’re going to steal the car!?” Chloe shouted.

“You got a better idea?”

They reached the vehicle, and Jay put a hand on the man’s shoulder, stopping him from getting in the car. The man began to shout questioningly in Mandarin, but Jay didn’t understand a word of what he was saying.

“Um, sorry buddy,” Jay quickly reached into his pocket, withdrawing a ten dollar bill. He handed the bill to the man, who stopped yelling to look at it in a mixture of confusion and amazement. “I don’t know how much that is in your currency, but you’re gonna have to take it!” He proceeded to climb into the van, closing the driver’s seat door. Chloe got into the passenger seat, and Jay looked behind him to see Miana and Maina getting into the back seats. While he was looking over his shoulder, he could see the Kurabijin emerging from the crowd of people behind them. They looked around, before Minette spotted the van, and shook her sister’s shoulder, pointing at the vehicle. The two began to sprint towards them, their faces full of rage.

“Hold on!” Jay shouted, before flooring the gas pedal. The van tore forwards, making its way towards the edge of the rainforest ahead of them. In the rear view mirror, he could see Mallory and Minette falling behind as the vehicle picked up speed. The van tore through the entrance to the forest, and eventually disappeared into the jungle.

Seeing that they had lost their pursuers, Jay laughed with excitement. "Well, that was exhilarating!" He shouted.

The Shobijin didn't seem to share his sentiment. "We instructed you to not confront them, Jay Abbot," they calmly scolded him. "Now they know we are here, and our mission may be compromised."

“Unless they can teleport, I don’t think they’ll be catching up to us anytime soon,” Jay remarked, peering into the rear view mirror where the village entrance was fading from his line of sight. “Anyways, where are we headed?”

In the passenger seat, Chloe opened her bag, and withdrew the map. She unfolded it, before examining the map. “We should be on the right track for now,” She said. “Half a mile down this road, there’s a dirt path that branches off to the right. Take that into the jungle.”

Jay followed her instructions, continuing to take their current road for another half mile. The dirt path she had described was there, albeit very hard to see. It was almost completely overgrown with foliage, and long grass had started to reclaim the terrain. The van broke through the underbrush, and into the jungle-covered path. While they drove, Jay decided to break the silence.

“So,” He started. “Why did Mallory and Minette call you their sisters?”

In the back seats, the Shobijin perked up. “They are not our sisters. They have long since proven they do not see us that way.”

“What do you mean?” Chloe asked, now interested in the conversation.

The Shobijin took a deep breath, before explaining. “We have lived for a very long time, far longer than you humans could comprehend. Because of our divine link to Mothra, we do not age, hence our appearance. Long ago, there was a time when Mothra and Battra were not enemies. They saw each other as siblings, as did the Kurabijin and us. We were… friends.” The Shobijin sounded almost wistful at that, as if they wished they could still be friends.

“So what happened?” Jay asked.

“As humanity began to rise, Battra’s views began to differ from Mothra’s,” The Shobijin continued. “While Mothra sought to continue protecting your kind no matter what, Battra thought it would only be a matter of time before humans killed the planet. Their constant warring, their greed… that was all he saw. And so when he attempted to purge your kind from the Earth, Mothra was forced to turn on her own brother, and us on our sisters.”

“That’s… unfortunate.”

“There is no use in dwelling on the past,” The Shobijin said. “We must continue forward. To the future.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Jay nodded. “How much further, Chloe?”

“We’re not far,” Chloe peered at the map. “It should be just around this bend.”

The road curved wide around a large hill, and into a tree covered valley. When they reached the end of the road, Jay could see it; the Temple of the Dark Moth. It was almost identical to Mothra’s temple on Infant Island, but made out of a much darker stone. Additionally, there was a clear entranceway at the front of the structure, with a symbol carved at the peak of the arch. It looked similar to the symbol for Mothra they had seen multiple times, however this one was different. The four of them exited the van, and made their way to the entrance. The ground around the temple was laden with stones, almost like the structure was sitting on a dais. They approached the border of this platform, inspecting the carving. The wings depicted were more triangular, while Mothra’s had been circular in shape. Also, the abdomen of the depicted creature was much larger, with what looked like a two-tipped pincer on the end.

“Let me guess, Battra?” Jay asked, while Chloe used her phone to take pictures of the temple.

“Yes,” The Shobijin replied.

“Well, we’ve found the temple, now what?” Chloe said in between taking pictures.

“We prevent the Kurabijin from ever getting inside,” the twins explained. “We must collapse the entrance, so that none may ever enter.”

“Collapse the entrance?” Chloe sounded dismayed. “But… this is a find of incredibly historical significance! Just think about what we’ll find inside!” She stepped onto the stone dais, and began jogging towards the entrance.

“Chloe, get back here!” Jay began to chase after her, and the Shobijin followed behind him. “Chloe, come on!”

“Just a few pictures, and then we can do it!” Chloe entered the temple, and became obscured in darkness. Jay could barely see into the temple, it was so dark inside. He turned back to the Shobijin, and gave a questioning look.

“She may take her pictures, but urge her to be quick,” the Shobijin said. “We feel that Battra’s priestesses draw nearer.”

Jay nodded, walking into the temple. Inside, it was far too dark to see anything, but in the very center, light shone in through a hole in the ceiling. There was a massive stone circle in the middle, with a podium in front of it. Jay approached the circle, seeing that it partially collapsed in the middle. Sitting in the collapsed structure was an incredibly massive, black-and-green spherical object, which looked eerily similar to the eggs in Mothra’s cavern. Remembering what he went into the temple for, he called out Chloe’s name.

“Over here!” Chloe’s voice came out of the darkness to his right, followed by a camera flash. “There’s all kinds of picture carvings on the walls!”

“Well, hurry up,” Jay said. “Miana and Maina say that the ‘sisters grimm’ are catching up.”

“Just a few more,” Chloe’s voice came from further down the wall this time, followed by another camera flash. Jay sighed audibly, watching the darkness as he heard Chloe’s echoing footsteps moving, before her camera flash came from a different location. “It’s fascinating,” Her voice said. “All these murals seem to suggest there was a tribe that worshiped Battra, like how the Hotua worship Mothra. But it makes me wonder… what happened to them?” Chloe’s camera flashed once again.

“Maybe they died off,” Jay suggested. “Or maybe they ended up assimilating into the surrounding population. This place is in the middle of Asia, which would have been a hotspot for a bunch of different civilizations hundreds of years ago. Who knows? Maybe they-” He suddenly realized that he didn’t hear Chloe’s footsteps, nor had he seen her camera flash. “Chloe?”

Suddenly, arms wrapped around him. A hand covered his mouth, and another pinned his own hands behind his back. He felt breath down the nape of his neck, before hearing a familiar voice directly in his ear.

“They’re dead,” Mallory said.

“Battra killed them,” Minette’s voice came from further away, and Jay looked to see her coming out of the darkness, holding a restrained Chloe.

“Why?” Chloe’s voice was muffled by Minette’s hand, but her voice sounded both fearful, yet curious. The mythologist in her wanted to know the story.

“Because they were human,” Minette sneered.

“And Battra hates humans.” Mallory added.

“We presume our sisters told you the story of Battra and Mothra?”

“And how Battra made it his goal to wipe humanity from the world?”

Jay nodded.

“The Yunnan tribe were the first to feel his wrath,” Jay couldn’t see her, but he could hear by her voice that Mallory was wearing the same wicked grin as her twin.

“All their worship couldn’t change the fact that they were human.” Minette finished.

“So that’s what you want?” Jay strained against Mallory’s tight grip. She was unusually strong, despite her thin frame. “Kill all humans? Won’t that include you?”

“We are a special case,” Mallory mused.

“We’re not entirely human, as you can see.” Minette indicated her pale eyes.

“Enough talk,” Mallory stated. “I think it’s time we invite our sisters to this little playdate. What do you think, Minette?”

“Of course, Mallory,” Minette grinned, before shouting. “Oh sisters! Won’t you join us?”

Jay heard rushing footsteps, and Mallory forced him to turn around to face the entrance. He saw the Shobijin running in through the archway, looks of anger on their faces. “ Sisters, ” They spat. “How did you-”

“Just as you go wherever your goddess wishes,” Minette started.

“We go wherever our god wishes.” Mallory finished.

The Shobijin scowled, and clasped their hands together as light began to emulate from them.

“Nuh uh,” Mallory clicked her tongue, and Jay could see Minette bringing Chloe up alongside him. “You wouldn’t want to harm your precious humans, would you?”

“So terribly fragile, are they not?” Minette teased.

Hesitantly, the Shobijin lowered their hands, and the light extinguished.

“Here is what will happen,” Mallory explained.

“We are going to awaken Battra,” Minette continued.

“And if you try to stop us,”

“Your human friends will die.” The twins suddenly tightened their grip on Jay and Chloe’s heads, and Jay could tell that with their strength, the two could easily snap both of their necks.

“We… cannot allow you to do that!” The Shobijin sounded distressed.

“You do not have any other choice,” Said Minette.

“If you play nice, we will give them back.” Said Mallory.

After what seemed like an eternity of hesitation, the Shobijin stepped back. Mallory and Minette began to drag Jay and Chloe along with them as they stepped towards the podium, which sat in front of the massive stone circle. The two stepped onto the podium, and the whole time they remained facing Miana and Maina, ensuring the Shobijin did not move. Once they were on the podium, the sisters tightened their grip on Jay and Chloe’s wrists, before uncovering their mouths.

“Do not struggle,” Mallory spoke into Jay’s ear.

“Or we will make it very painful for you.” Minette said.

Content that the two would not cause any fuss, the Kurabijin pressed their hands together, holding them in the air over their heads. The two began to chant in a language Jay did not recognize, and he saw that Minette’s eyes were glowing blue, meaning Mallory’s were likely glowing as well. The air began to vibrate, just like the moments before a lightning strike. He could feel a current moving through the sister’s bodies, like a jolt of static electricity. As the volume of their chanting increased, so did the intensity of the vibrations in the air.

Finally, at the peak of their ritual, the sisters released Jay and Chloe, before whirling around to face the massive egg that sat within the collapsed circle. They placed their joined hands onto the surface of the egg, which was suddenly encompassed by a blinding flash of red and purple light. He felt a touch on his shoulder, and turned to see the worried face of Maina, ushering him to get out of the temple. The ground began to rumble, and Jay could see the temple itself beginning to shake, with a gentle rain of rubble coming from the ceiling. The four made it out of the temple in time as the light coming from the egg began to subside, and the shaking of the ground grew still. For a moment, it felt as if the sisters had been unsuccessful. The air was calm, the ground was still, the temple was still standing.

Then, the rumbling started again, more intense than before. A massive shape burst from the roof of the temple, sending chunks of stone flying in every direction. The first thing that became visible was a massive horn, like that of a rhino beetle. It was a yellowish-white color, like bone. Then, the rest of its body came forth. It was covered completely in a black exoskeleton, and looked like a massive caterpillar. It had large mandibles over its mouth, and piercing, blank red eyes. Two large tusks, like those of a boar, jutted from either side of its jaws, and multiple sets of prolegs ran the length of its underbelly. Its back was covered in a pattern of yellow lines and red dots, and at the end of its body, was a three-tipped pincer, with the middle point shorter than the others.

“Is that…?” Jay asked.

“It is,” The Shobijin nodded. “The Dark Moth. Battra.”

Chapter Text

Battra raised his insect-like head to the sky, and let out a shrieking roar. The temple he had burst from lay in ruins around him, with very little of its original structure remaining intact. Jay, Chloe, and the Shobijin watched in horror as the Kaiju continued to shriek and roar, a cloud of dust rising from the collapsed structure he sat in.

“He doesn’t… look like a moth?” Jay questioned.

“Much like his sibling, Battra has three stages of his life cycle,” the Shobijin explained. “He starts as an egg, before hatching into a larva. The larva will eventually cocoon itself, before he emerges an imago.”

“Like a butterfly,” He remarked, and he felt Chloe tap his shoulder. He looked to see her holding her phone, displaying one of the pictures she had taken of the temple murals. The carving depicted a large circle, cracked in half, with a creature resembling the larval Battra emerging from it.

“What are we going to do?” Chloe asked, placing her phone back into her pocket.

“There is nothing we can do,” The Shobijin said solemnly. “Our best option is to flee.”

“Yeah, I can agree with that,” Jay began to back up towards the van they had arrived in. “Get in, get in!”

As Chloe got into the passenger seat, and the Shobijin got in the back, Jay fumbled with the keys, trying to start the vehicle. Finally, the engine hummed to life, and Jay let out a sound of glee. Suddenly, Battra’s head shot in their direction, his red eyes glowing. Jay’s face fell, and he immediately threw the van into gear, backing up before turning it around and flooring the gas away from the large Kaiju. In the rear view mirror, Jay saw the shape of Battra beginning to surge forwards, kicking up trees and dirt. The van wasn’t nearly fast enough to outrun the Kaiju, as he was already gaining on them.

“Step on it, Jay!” Chloe shouted, looking behind them. “Faster!”

“I’m trying! I’m trying!” Jay was giving the van as much gas as he could, but it didn’t seem to be enough. “We’re not going fast enough!”

Battra let out a vicious shriek, and his horn began to crackle with crimson electricity, before a massive arc of red lightning shot forth, tearing up the ground behind the van. An explosion shook the road, and the vehicle was thrown off its wheels. Jay, Chloe, and the Shobijin collectively screamed as the van tumbled across the ground, before coming to a stop on its side. It took the occupants a while to regain their senses, but the thunderous footsteps and deafening shrieks of the rapidly approaching Battra was enough to force Jay to start moving.

“Chloe!” Jay shouted, undoing his seatbelt and crawling over to her. She was slumped over, her eyes closed, but she was still breathing. Jay unbuckled her seatbelt, and held her in his arms. He looked into the back, where the Shobijin were sitting. They seemed battered and shooken up, but otherwise were fine. “Help me with her.”

The smaller girls helped Jay move Chloe over the front seats and into the rear area of the van, before Jay himself climbed over and began trying to open the back doors. The ground shook again, and he could hear the angry shrieks of Battra growing closer by the minute. Jay grunted, and began kicking the back doors. Eventually, they began to budge, before they swung open. “Let’s go!” He urged.

Miana and Maina helped him carry Chloe out of the rear doors, and ran off into the jungle. With any luck, the tree cover would help to hide them from Battra. The four of them hid in a brush, and Jay peeked out from behind a tree to see one of the massive larva’s prolegs puncture the ground next to the van, before he leaned down and began to inspect the crash. The group held their breath as Battra growled, prodding the vehicle with his tusks. Suddenly, Battra let out a shrieking roar, and slammed both his tusks into the overturned van, flattening it. He smashed it again, before his horn emitted another beam of lightning, striking the destroyed vehicle and causing it to explode. Content with his handiwork, Battra shrieked, before beginning to trudge away.

Suddenly, Chloe groaned, and began to regain consciousness. Jay quickly clamped a hand over her mouth, but the damage was already done. Battra had heard, and quickly swung his head in their direction, letting out a confused growl. The four hid themselves in the brush as Battra leaned down in their direction, growling as he attempted to search the foliage for the source of the noise. Chloe began to wake up in Jay’s arms, and her eyes quickly went wide as she realized the situation they were in. Battra continued to search the underbrush for them, letting out a low growl. The four of them held their breath and waited for what felt like an eternity, before Battra gave up. He began to turn away, before he stopped at the sound of a distant roar. The giant larva paused, and they could hear thundering footsteps, growing closer.

“Is that-” Jay asked, but he already knew the answer.

There was a vicious roar, and in a flash of brown and yellow fur, Battra was hit hard by a savage punch. He shrieked angrily, before his attacker grabbed the larva’s tail, and swung him in a wide arc, sending him careening into the side of a mountain. Jay looked to see who had attacked Battra, and was surprised to see none other than King Caesar standing there. The massive mammal growled, before roaring at Battra.

The giant larva shrieked angrily in response, before his eyes began to glow purple. Bright beams of purple light suddenly shot out of Battra’s eyes, aiming right for his opponent. Caesar quickly dodged out of the way, before jumping off the side of a hill and pouncing on the larva. Battra appeared to be smaller than King Caesar, though not by a lot, and the giant mammal also seemed to be more skilled in combat.

“You know, for all the doom and gloom Battra’s awakening would supposedly cause,” Jay said, turning to the Shobijin. “He sure is getting his ass kicked.”

“He is still a larva,” Miana and Maina said. “Once he becomes fully developed, few Kaiju will be able to stop him.”

“What’s to stop him from being killed by King Caesar here and now?” Chloe chimed in, still seeming shaken from the car crash.

“Battra is smart. He knows his limits, just as Mothra knows her own,” The Shobijin answered. “If he sees that he is losing, he will retreat.”

The four then began hearing the sound of bladed turbines, and looked to see an Osprey gunship descending near them. One of the side doors opened up, prompting them to begin hurrying towards it. The four of them boarded the Osprey, seeing Shinobu in the pilot’s seat.

“I figured that the distant sounds of a Kaiju meant you’d need a ride!” She shouted over the roar of the turbines.

“Things didn’t exactly go as planned!” Jay replied.

Shinobu chuckled. “I assume that’s why there’s a building-sized caterpillar getting the shit kicked out of it by a giant dog?”

Jay nodded. “We need to contact HQ!”

Shinobu pointed at the console in front of her. “Radio.”

Jay climbed into the cockpit and strapped himself into the copilot’s seat, while Chloe and the Shobijin got situated in the cabin. The gunship began to take off as Jay switched on the radio, contacting the KRRA headquarters. “This is Doctor Jay Abbot, calling for KRRA HQ, do you read me?” There was no response. “I repeat, this is Jay Abbot, do you read me HQ?”

After a while, the radio crackled to life, and the voice of an operator came through. “We read you, Doctor Abbot. Go ahead.”

“I need to speak to Admiral Ridley Palmer immediately,” Jay requested. “It’s urgent!”

“Stand by.” There was a pause, before the familiar voice of Admiral Palmer came through the radio. “Palmer here. What’s going on, Abbot?”

“We’ve got a situation in the Yunnan Rainforest,” Jay explained. “A new hostile Kaiju has emerged, designated Battra.”

There was a short pause, before Palmer spoke again. “Doctor Abbot, what are you doing in China?”

Oh shoot. Jay thought. He had been so eager to help the Shobijin, he had forgotten to think of the consequences if the higher-ups learned he had run an unsanctioned investigation overseas. “It’s a… It’s a long story.”

Palmer sighed, before continuing. “What’s the Kaiju’s current status?”

Jay looked out the viewport of the Osprey’s cockpit, seeing Battra was still engaging in a fight with King Caesar. The mammal had put some distance between himself and the larva, and as Jay watched, Battra fired the purple beams out of his eyes once more. King Caesar roared, and the beams were absorbed into his eyes, before being reflected back towards Battra, engulfing the larva in an explosion.

“He’s fighting with King Caesar,” Jay informed the admiral. “There are no populated areas endangered by their current battle.”

“Is King Caesar winning?”

Jay looked, and saw the smoke beginning to clear around Battra. The creature shrieked angrily, and King Caesar roared in response. After a moment, Battra growled, and began to burrow into the ground. Within minutes, he was gone, and King Caesar snorted in contempt.

“Yes, but Battra has retreated.”
“Return to HQ. We need to have a talk.”
“Affirmative.” Jay hung up the radio, and in the pilot’s seat, Shinobu grimaced.
“I’ve known Palmer long enough to know that he’s not going to be happy about this,” She pointed out.

“This is an international research and response administration, Doctors,” Palmer said in a stern voice. “We can’t just go off on overseas field trips because two fairies asked you to.”

Jay, Chloe, and Shinobu were inside Palmer’s office, sitting across from him at his desk. Serizawa stood next to them, looking perturbed.

“If we hadn’t done anything, the Kurabijin would’ve released him without us even knowing!” Chloe argued.

“And look at that, you did do something, but the bastard still got loose.” He then turned to Shinobu. “And you-” The pilot’s face remained stoic. “Actually, I’m gonna let you off the hook.”

“What matters is that we still tried,” Jay interjected. “And we know that Battra is active.”

“And tell me, Doctor Abbot, do you have any idea where he is now?” Palmer raised an eyebrow. Defeated, Jay shook his head silently. “Look, I appreciate you two wanting to get things done without waiting for the board to give you the go ahead. If I had been in your position, I probably would’ve done the same thing. But the bottom line is, we now have a new Destroyer out and about, and we don’t know where he is. That’s what the board is mad about.” Palmer signed, and sat back in his chair with a solemn expression. “They want you two out of the KRRA.”

“What!?” Jay and Chloe said at the same time.

“They’re worried that keeping you around wouldn’t be in the KRRA’s best interest.”

“But-” Chloe was angry. “Without us, they wouldn’t have HALF the information they do about Kaiju!”

“They’re giving you one last chance to change their minds,” Serizawa explained, his voice solemn. “If you can successfully locate Battra, they will reconsider their decision.”

Jay thought for a moment. “I think I might know who we can ask for help,” he said. “But we’re going to need to pay Infant Island a visit.”

An Osprey Gunship landed on the shoreline of Infant Island, unloading Admiral Palmer, Jay, Chloe, and the Shobijin, along with a dozen men carrying flamethrowers. Since they had learned from the Hotua that the Meganulon were repelled by fire, they would be prepared for their journey through the catacombs this time. The group moved through the jungle, finding their previous entrance to the catacombs had been partially covered by a buildup of mud and dirt.

“Alright men, bring the shovels,” Palmer ordered. “Looks like we’re gonna have to dig.” Several men stowed their flamethrowers, and retrieved tactical shovels off their belts. They climbed down into the ditch, and began to shovel out the debris covering the entrance.

“This is unwise,” The Shobijin warned. “Confronting Mothra is a reckless choice.”

“I’m not feeling so great about it either,” Jay assured them. “But if we don’t get some help to deal with Battra, the KRRA will get rid of us, and then they’ll be in deeper trouble. Like it or not, we’re they’re best link to the Kaiju.”

“The board sees anyone who’s not with them as being against them,” Chloe added. “There’s a good chance they’d attack Mothra for choosing not to help.”

“It is still not the best course of action to take,” The Shobijin replied.

After several more minutes, the soldiers finished clearing the entranceway, and the group proceeded into the catacombs. This time, the Shobijin would be guiding them through, and with any luck, they wouldn’t run into any of the Meganulon. After traveling for a while, the group came across a familiar sight; it was the circular chamber with the carving of Mothra in the center of the floor. They all paused for a moment to peer at it, before they continued on. As the corridors got darker and darker, they eventually began to hear the echoing screeches and scuttling of something very large coming their way.

“Meganulon,” Jay said.

“Alright men, get the torches ready,” Palmer instructed, as the men prepped their flamethrowers, forming a defensive wall on either side of the group. “Let’s roast these bugs.”

Gradually, the sounds of the Meganulon grew closer and closer, until a swarm of the giant bugs suddenly filled the corridor ahead of them, their yellow eyes reflecting the light of the group’s flashlights. Instantly, the soldiers ignited their flamethrowers, filling the tunnel with roaring flames. The creatures were engulfed in the fury of the flamethrowers, screeching in pain as the fire seared their exoskeletons. Instantly, the Meganulon began to withdraw, paving the way for the group to continue through. The creatures seemed to refrain from attacking the humans any further, having seen what they were capable of. After traveling for a while longer, they finally came across the entrance to the Hotua’s underground village. Upon arriving, the Shobijin turned around to face them.

“The men with their weapons must stay outside of the village,” They demanded. “Only Jay Abbot and Chloe Singh may come.”

“Not so fast,” Palmer was quick to draw his sidearm and hand if off to one of the men. “I’m coming too.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” came a voice, and they all turned to see a man dressed in Hotua tribe clothes approaching them. However, this man clearly wasn’t a member of the Hotua. They then realized that it was Reynolds, the soldier who had stayed behind on their first visit to Infant Island.

“Reynolds,” Palmer said, smiling. The two saluted each other, and shook hands. “Where’s Hobbes?”

“In the healer’s chamber,” Reynolds smirked. “I think him and Melenia are getting along a little too well.”

“And how’ve you been doing?”

“I’ve been well,” He replied. “The months I’ve spent living here have changed my perspective on a lot of things… especially the Kaiju. Both me and Hobbes, we’re practically part of the tribe now.” Reynolds then put his hands on his hips. “So, what brings you back to Infant Island?”

Palmer sighed. “We need to speak to Mothra.”

Reynolds chuckled. “Well, good luck with that. She’s really picky about who she’ll see.”

“Jay Abbot and Chloe Singh should be the ones to speak with her,” the Shobijin interjected, drawing their attention. “She trusts them as one of her own. She values their judgement.”

“Alright then,” Palmer nodded. “It’s all on you, doctors.”

Nodding, Jay gestured for Chloe to follow him, and together they walked towards the large talisman in the center of the room. Mothra still sat atop her eggs in the back of the room, her eyes closed. As the two stepped onto the large stone circle, her eyes slowly opened, and focused on the two humans standing before her. It wasn’t long before the echoing voice of Mothra entered their heads.

Greetings, Jay Abbot. Chloe Singh. She spoke softly. I ask why you have come before me?

Jay sighed. “Battra is awake.”

“It was the Kurabijin,” Chloe added. “We tried to stop them, but they ambushed us. He’s awake, and we don’t know where he is.”

I know.

“You do?” Chloe sounded shocked.

Yes. I sensed when he awoke.

“Then why haven’t you done anything?” Jay tried his best not to shout at the goddess Kaiju. “If we don’t find him, the KRRA are going to fire us, and humanity won’t be prepared for the next Kaiju that comes their way!”

I cannot abandon my people, Mothra said. Leaving them would seal their fate at the hands of Megaguirus and her spawn.

“But what about the rest of the world?” Chloe’s voice began to tremble, and Jay could tell she was upset. “I thought you were a protector! You’re supposed to help defend the entire world! Don’t you care what happens to us?”

I do care, child, Mothra spoke. More than you realize. But I have a duty to my people, one that I cannot throw to the wind for your sakes.

“Goddess,” The Shobijin suddenly interrupted, startling Jay and Chloe. The two girls stepped forwards, and the giant Moth shifted her attention to them. “If we may speak freely, Jay Abbot and Chloe Singh have proven themselves to be valuable allies. In the grand scheme of things, it would be detrimental to us if we allow their superiors to do away with them.”

Mothra paused for a very long moment as Jay turned to look at the Shobijin, who gave him a warm, affirming smile. The goddess Kaiju seemed to be very deep in thought, her eyes closing briefly. After a while, she reopened them, and Jay could tell something was different.

I will see what I can do, Mothra spoke. For now, however, all I can do is help you prepare for Battra’s return.

“I thought you said that Battra was too strong to be defeated?” Chloe asked.

Too strong for me alone, yes, Mothra continued. When I first attempted to fight him, I did so alone. I was younger and more foolish, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could beat him.

“So, we need a Kaiju to help us,” Chloe could see the direction Mothra was going. “What if we try to recruit Godzilla?”

Mothra let out a sound that was almost akin to laughter. Godzilla has only ever done things according to his own agenda. Besides, he has never been good at fighting foes who are quick in the air. To fight Battra in his Imago state, we will need to seek the help of one who knows the sky better than even I do. He is currently resting within the mountain you humans know as Mount Fuji, and I believe he has slept for long enough.

“Rodan!?” Chloe shouted excitedly. “We’re going to free Rodan?”

“Wait, I think I’m missing something here,” Jay interjected. “Who’s Rodan?”

“‘Who’s Rodan?’” Chloe turned to Jay with a dumbfounded expression. “He’s only one of the coolest Kaiju I’ve ever read about! The great firebird? The phoenix of the sky? The titan of winged fury?”

“Okay, I get it,” Jay said. “But why him? What’s so special about Rodan?”

Rodan is the fastest Kaiju to ever grace the skies. If we ever hope to defeat Battra once he gains his full power, Rodan will need to be at our side.

“Hold on,” Jay said nervously. “As much as I’d like to go and release another Kaiju that’ll be on our side… we’re still on thin ice with the board. If they find out we don’t know where Battra is, AND we go off to wake up another Kaiju without their permission… it’ll be bad.”

“What’s this about releasing another Kaiju?” Palmer butted in. “Yeah, I agree with the kid, doing that won’t make the board very happy.”

I understand. But trust me when I say that I will make sure things do not go badly for you.

“What’s she saying?” Palmer inquired.

“She says that she can make sure we don’t get in trouble… Whatever that means.” Jay replied.

“Make sure?” The admiral suddenly stepped forwards, causing Mothra to arch her antenna inquisitively. “Alright, listen Moth lady, as much as I would appreciate your help, we need you to find Battra, nothing more. It’s not like you can change the board’s mind-”

Suddenly, Mothra flared her wings, causing them all to step back in surprise. Her voice spoke in their heads once more, but this time it boomed with power, and Jay could tell she wasn’t just speaking to him, Chloe, and the Shobijin; Mothra was speaking to everyone that was standing in front of her.

You listen to me, Ridley Palmer, She said. When I speak, people will listen. They will do what I ask, or they will live to sorely regret their decisions. Jay Abbot and Chloe Singh hold valuable insight that they would do well to listen to.

Palmer swallowed hard. “So… we’re going to wake up Rodan?”

Jay nodded, not taking his eyes off Mothra. “Yeah.”

Chapter Text

The USS Argo hovered near Mount Fuji in Japan. This is where their saving grace against Battra was buried- Rodan. The Argo was accompanied by a small group of B-2 Spirit bombers. Jay, Chloe, as well as Serizawa and Admiral Palmer, were gathered in the Argo’s bridge, standing around the planning table. A screen was currently displaying drone footage of the volcano peak, giving them a bird's eye view for when Rodan would emerge. Elliot Connors was there with them, as the captain of the Argo.

“You’re sure about this, Admiral?” They asked. “I don’t wanna catch flak for helping to set a Kaiju loose on the world.”
“Don’t worry, Connors. I’ll take the heat,” Palmer reassured them.
“What prompted this, anyways?” Connors inquired. “Last time I checked, you weren’t one to make these types of rash decisions without board approval.”
Palmer swallowed. “Let’s just say I had a little encouragement from a giant butterfly.”

“How are we going to do this, anyways?” Chloe asked, her eyes transfixed on the drone camera.

“The bombers are carrying specialized seismic charges,” Serizawa explained. “They’ll send a shockwave into the core of the mountain. If Rodan is hibernating inside of it, he’ll be woken by the tremors.”

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” Palmer said, before leaning into his radio. “Bomber squadron, begin.”

“Copy that, Admiral,” The voice of a B-2 pilot came through the radio. “Dropping the payloads in t-minus three, two…”

The group watched as the bombers could be seen flying over Mt. Fuji, dropping their payloads of charges in the process. The bombs fell towards the mountain peak below, embedding themselves into the terrain. Moments afterwards, they exploded, shaking the ground and sending a tremor through the mountain itself. The ground continued to shake, and the peak of the mountain spewed and burbled out thick blobs of magma.

For a few minutes, nothing happened.
Then, the ground shook even harder. Mount Fuji itself was rocking back and forth, and the peak of the volcano became a raging inferno of fiery lava and rock. With a great explosion, the top of the mountain collapsed, giving way to something that emerged from inside. Through the ash, smoke, and fiery rock, two massive wings began to emerge. They looked almost like the wings of an eagle, but rather than feathers, they were covered in an array of scales, glowing orange at the tips as if they were volcanic in their own right. The wings were deep orange in color, like the color of terracotta. As the cloud of ash billowing out of the mountaintop gradually began to clear, a head emerged from it. He had a long, curved beak, like a bird of prey, and two great horns sprouted from the back of his head. His eyes were black with brown pupils, blinking in a confused manner as the sunlight grazed them for the first time in thousands of years. The rest of his body slowly revealed itself, built like a great eagle, with long, raptor-like legs, and a wide tail that was shaped like a diamond.

Rodan took a big step forwards, before raising his head to the sky and letting out a mighty screech, like that of a falcon.

“He’s… incredible.” Chloe said, her eyes wide in utter awe. The rest of them watched in similar states of fascination as Rodan spread his wings as wide as he could, before swinging them downwards. With a burst of wind, Rodan took flight, soaring into the skies above. As he passed by the Argo, the entire craft buckled from the force of his speed. Before long, Rodan disappeared into the clouds above them, his bird-like calls fading into the distance.

Palmer broke the silence. “Now, we just have to confront the board…”

The UN Council chambers were fairly empty, save for the members of the KRRA board, several security personnel, along with Jay, Chloe, Palmer, and Serizawa. A few high-ranking KRRA officials were gathered in the audience seats, likely there to witness the example that was to be made of the offenders.

“Doctors Abbot and Singh, I’m sure you realize that there’s only one clear course of action the board can take regarding your recent shortcomings.” That was Mariette Brown, the KRRA’s representative in the UN. “Your actions have put both the KRRA and the world itself at risk.”

“With all due respect, ma’am, you’re wrong,” Jay said sternly. Chloe tugged at his sleeve lightly, but he didn’t stop. He was going to stand up for himself. “Chloe and I have provided more insight for this organization than anyone else. We helped to stop Mechagodzilla and shut down Project Mecha. I was there to help when Destoroyah threatened San Francisco." He then gestured to Chloe standing next to him. “And without Chloe’s research, the KRRA wouldn’t know half of the things they do about Kaiju.”

“Your contributions are commendable,” one of the other board members spoke. “But you must be held accountable for your negligence as well.”

“Negligence?” Jay asked, dumbfounded.

“The Smog Monster,” the board member continued. “Saitama City. J-M07. You’ve been present for all of these incidents, and yet you did nothing to stop them.”

“You can’t seriously blame me for-”

“Now there are two more Kaiju on the loose, airborne, no less,” a different board member said. “We have no idea where they are, and you’re to blame for that.”

“We cannot allow you to remain a part of this organization any longer,” Mariette Brown continued. “As of this moment, you two are-”

“You will not.” Two voices spoke unanimously from the entrance of the room, causing all heads to turn. Jay looked over his shoulder to see Miana and Maina entering the room. Though they were often soft-spoken, this time the Shobijin’s voices echoed throughout the room, giving a level of authority to them he didn’t know the girls had.

“Who are you?” Mariette asked in sheer confusion.

“We are the Shobijin,” the girls answered, as they began to proceed down the middle aisle towards the center of the room. “Priestesses of the divine goddess, Mothra.”

“Who?” asked one of the board members quietly.
“For god’s sake,” another one muttered.
“Security,” Mariette said swiftly. “Escort them out of here!”

Two security guards began to walk towards the girls, but as one of them reached out to grab Miana’s shoulder, a flash of light emanated from her body, and he recoiled in confusion. The guards didn’t move to stop them any further.

“We bring a message,” the Shobijin said. “From our goddess herself.” With that, the two girls raised two of their hands, clasping them together as they had done before. A light began to shine from where the girls’ hands touched, and Jay thought he knew what they were doing.

“Miana, Maina!” He called. “Don’t!”

His warning came too late, and the entire room was blinded by a quick flash of light. It didn’t last as long, and also did not have the effect Jay was expecting it to. He was able to recover fairly quickly, and saw that everyone else in the room had as well. Bizarrely, all the lights in the room had gone out. The only source of light, which bathed the room in an almost heavenly glow, was coming from where Miana and Maina’s hands met. What Jay could only describe as some sort of reflection began to project itself from their hands, forming a giant, shimmering image in the air above them. The projection gradually took shape, until it became a large, fuzzy head with two blue, compound eyes, and large antennae.

Mothra, Jay recognized immediately.

You will listen to me, Mothra’s voice echoed in Jay’s head, and he knew once again that she was directing her voice at everyone in the room. I am the divine goddess Mothra, protector of the Earth and of Humanity. The humans Jay Abbot and Chloe Singh… you are NOT to dispose of them. To do so would be unwise for your cause.

The board members all looked shocked, not knowing how to respond. Mariette Brown unwisely spoke up. “We do not take orders from spirits… or divine gods, whatever you call yourself,” though she was trying to sound authoritative, Brown’s voice trembled with fear. “The board does not compromise with… talking bugs!”

BE SEATED. Mothra’s voice boomed, and Mariette’s legs buckled, her rear end falling back into her seat. The woman looked utterly shaken to her core. The Earth was never humanity’s world to conquer and control as you saw fit. She paused, before continuing Nor does that privilege fall to the Kaiju, either. This world belongs to the both of us. We must share it. We must help one another. Jay Abbot and Chloe Singh have already proven themselves more capable of coexistence than any of you.

After Mothra finished speaking, silence fell on the room. The weight of her words was sinking in, and the board members still looked shaken. They began to mutter amongst each other, before Mariette finally spoke again. “What do you want of us?”

Jay Abbot and Chloe Singh are to remain a part of your organization, Mothra spoke. They will continue to aid in studying the Earth’s Kaiju as they have been. As for Kaiju who seek to bring humanity harm… they can only be dealt with by the Kaiju of Earth themselves. Your best course of action is to let them fight.

Another long swathe of silence fell on the room as the board members considered Mothra’s words. Her message had been as clear as ever, and there was only one decision the board could make. It was clear that nobody wanted to anger the light goddess.

“Very well then,” Mariette Brown said, swallowing hard. “Jay Abbot, Chloe Singh… you will remain a part of the KRRA for the foreseeable future.”

The group would soon reconvene at the KRRA monitoring room, where a team of operators already had the place up and running again. Shinobu was there as well, and seemed to be having a conversation with one of the technicians. She gave Jay and Chloe a friendly wave as they entered the room, before she continued her chat with the tech girl. The large monitoring screen soon flickered to life, before displaying a digital map of the world.

“Okay, people, tell me we’ve got something on either of these two,” Palmer announced. “Sattelites, air surveillance, hell, I’d even take the word of a Raven if it gets us a lock on our airborne monsters.”

“We were able to get a lock on Rodan,” the technician who was talking to Shinobu answered. “He emits a heat signature unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Using this, I’ve been able to track him through that.” A bright orange blip appeared on the monitor screen, labeled ‘RODAN.’ “After leaving Japan, he flew northwest over the Asian continent. Seems like he might be searching for Battra.”

“What’s your name?” Palmer asked the girl.

The technician paused for a moment. “Um… Pentecost. Sierra Pentecost, sir.”

Palmer nodded. “Good work, Pentecost.” The girl smiled, before Palmer continued. “Do we have anything on Battra?”

“We’ve got seismic disturbances in places all over Asia and Africa, but those could be anyone,” one of the other technicians spoke. “Anguirus, Baragon, King Caesar… It’s impossible for us to investigate all of them.”

“Here’s something,” Sierra spoke up. She tapped away at her keyboard a few times, before the map zoomed in on a large peninsula off the eastern coast of Asia. “We’ve got something moving quickly in the Kamchatka peninsula. Looks to be heaving towards the water.”

“Calculate the course trajectory,” Serizawa replied.

After a few more presses of the keys, an array of different lines appeared on the map, all tracing from the peninsula to a blank spot in the middle of the Pacific ocean. “All paths have it going straight here.” Pentecost turned to look at the doctors in confusion. “Why would it be going to the middle of the ocean?”

“Infant Island is there,” Jay realized. “Battra is going straight for Mothra.”

“We have to help,” Chloe urged them. “Evacuate the island, or something! Before Battra gets there!”

Palmer nodded, before leaning into his radio. “Contact the crews of the Valkyrie and the Garuda. Tell him we leave in ten.” Pentecost turned to the doctors. “Let’s go, doctors. We’ve got an island to save.”

Chapter Text

The USS Valkyrie was an enormous aircraft shuttle, almost similar in design to a space shuttle. It was equipped with a large cargo hold that could transport many land vehicles into battle. Or, in this case, it could be used to assist in the evacuation of an entire tribe. The wings were equipped with rotating VTOL engines, which allowed it to easily land on the beach of Infant Island. The USS Garuda sat waiting in the ocean nearby, swiveling gun turrets ready to deal with Battra should he arrive.

Jay, Chloe, and Admiral Palmer made their way through the catacombs, escorted by several soldiers wielding flamethrowers. The Shobijin accompanied them as well, guiding them through the maze of tunnels and to the location of the Hotua village. Upon arriving at the village, Mothra was already awake, seeming to sense something was amiss. Reynolds was there to greet them as well, looking confused.

“Admiral?” He asked. “What’s going on?”

“We need to evacuate the village,” Palmer informed him. “Let Hobbes know, we’ve got to get these people out of here.”

Reynolds cocked his head in confusion, not clearly understanding. “What do you mean?”
Mothra’s antennae arched, and she tilted her head upwards. Battra is coming, She said. Her voice echoing through their head without the use of the talisman told Jay that she understood the gravity of the situation. How foolish I was… I should have known he would come for me and my people.

“We’ve brought a shuttle to evacuate the tribe, but we need to move NOW.” Palmer said. “Sound the alarm. Do whatever it is you need to do, just help us get your people out of here.”

Mothra nodded her head, before flaring her wings. My people- you must flee. Battra is coming for us. Take the secret exit, and take only what you need. Her voice boomed with urgency, and seconds after her message was sent, the village erupted into activity. The Hotua were leaving their homes, heading for stairs leading to the secret exit.

“Abbot, Singh, go with them,” Palmer insisted. “Ensure they make it to the Valkyrie.”
“What are you gonna do?” Reynolds asked.
“I’m gonna stay here and make sure we get the city evacuated,” Palmer said. “You should go, too. Take Hobbes with you.”
Reynolds smirked. “Not a chance, Admiral. I’m staying with you.”

“Hurry,” The voices of the Shobijin urged, and Jay looked to see the two girls ushering people up the stairs. “We must move quickly. Battra is not far!”

Jay and Chloe followed the two girls up the stairs and into the secret passageway, with a crowd of Hotua villagers following behind them. They eventually reached the chamber where the secret exit was located, and Maina pressed the stone button to open the door. Sunlight blinded them briefly as the stone blocks slid open, and the crowd of villagers began to file out and into the jungle.

“We must be careful,” the Shobijin said, turning to Jay and Chloe. “If Battra is coming for the Hotua, his priestesses may be with him.
“I thought they were crushed by the temple?” Chloe asked.
Miana and Maina shook their heads. “They cannot be killed, not unless their connection to Battra himself is severed. We can only hope to slow them down.”

Jay, Chloe, and the Shobijin continued out the exit door, leaving it open as they began to guide the Hotua villagers to where the Valkyrie had landed on the beach. The cargo bay door opened, allowing for the tribe members to begin loading onto the shuttle. The steady stream of villagers continued filing out of the temple and towards the Valkyrie, until soon they had more than half of the Hotua successfully loaded into the cargo hold. Their evacuation was almost finished, when suddenly a deep rumbling shook the ground.

“He is here,” The Shobijin said in unison, their voices full of terror.

Jay looked, and could see Palmer, Reynolds, and Hobbes, along with the last of the Hotua, exiting the temple. “That’s everyone,” Palmer said, ushering Jay, Chloe, and the Shobijin to get in the cargo hold as well. “Just in the nick of time, too.”

The Valkyrie began to take off, slowly rising into the air with the Hotua tribe safely on board. Jay and the others watched out of the Valkyrie’s cargo bay door as the ocean on the coastline began to churn, the waters themselves rumbling viciously. Suddenly, in a shower of sand, rock, and water, Battra emerged, letting out a shrieking roar as he did. Battra’s eyes turned skyward, locking onto the craft that was retreating from the island. Seeming to recognize what the humans had done, he roared angrily, before his horn began to crackle with red electricity.

Suddenly, the side of Mothra’s temple exploded in a shower of stone bricks and a cloud of rubble, before a shape shot directly out of it. It collided with Battra, knocking him to the ground and sending up a cloud of sand in his wake. It was Mothra, a light shone through the dust cloud, illuminating the pattern of two great, butterfly-like wings. A squealing roar pierced the air, and as the dust cleared they could see the divine Moth herself hovering in place with her wings.

“It’s Mothra!” Chloe shouted gleefully. “She’s taking the initiative to fight Battra!”
“Battra was foolish to go after her before reaching the peak of his power,” the Shobijin mused. “He must have overestimated and assumed she would be out of practice from all these years out of combat.”
“Well, let’s hope she can hold her own,” Palmer said.

Battra was recovering from Mothra’s initial attack, shrieking furiously. His horn crackled with red electricity once more as he began to turn around to face his sister. Mothra began to flap her wings vigorously, shaking off what looked like small chips of golden dust. They permeated the air around her, creating a hazy cloud of dust. When Battra fired the blast of electricity from his horn, it became caught in the cloud, before it was reflected back at him, striking him in the face and causing Battra to squeal in pain. Mothra chittered as the cloud dissipated, and she turned her head to look at the humans on board the Valkyrie.

I will keep Battra distracted, She spoke into their heads. You must get my eggs out of here!

“Mothra’s eggs,” Chloe said. “They’re still inside the temple!”

Palmer nodded, before activating his radio. “Garuda, open up the top deck. Get those Skycranes in the air, we’ve got some precious cargo to move!”

The Skycranes were special helicopters used for transporting heavy cargo. At Palmer’s command, four of them took off from the deck of the Garuda and began heading for the ruins of the Moth Temple. As Battra was recovering, he spotted the helicopters and began to crawl his way towards them. Mothra stopped him with two of her claws, striking him across his face. When that didn’t deter him, she opened her mouth and fired a shotgun-like blast of white, translucent silk, which wrapped around Battra’s face and momentarily pinned him to the ground. Battra roared angrily as Mothra descended on her brother, letting out a squealing roar.

The Skycranes were now hovering over the ruins of the temple, dropping down the cargo clamps to retrieve their packages. With some difficulty, the cranes were able to latch onto the eggs, and began to lift them out of the temple ruins. It took two helicopters to lift each egg, but they were successfully lifted out of the temple, the giant oval-spheres glowing a soft blue color. Battra’s eyes lit up in fury at seeing this, and began to glow a bright purple color. Suddenly, two purple beams shot out of them, cutting through the silk pinning him down and narrowly missing the helicopters and their cargo.

Upon seeing this, Palmer leaned into his radio again. “Garuda, why don’t we give our Moth friend a little assistance?” Upon hearing this, the swiveling turrets atop the Garuda began to target Battra, firing upon him as Mothra continued to engage her foe. The Skycranes were able to deposit their cargo onto the deck of the Garuda where the roof of the deck then closed over top of them to keep the eggs safe. Meanwhile, Mothra continued to fight against Battra, using her many insect-like claws to pummel him.

Battra’s eyes began to glow purple once more, and he fired his beams out of them, which Mothra narrowly dodged. Her antennae suddenly began glowing an orange color, and two blasts of energy fired out of them, striking Battra and causing him to shriek angrily. Mothra let out another squealing roar, before the membranes of her wings began to glow bright with light. Battra, recovering from his daze, looked up at Mothra in confusion.

“Look away!” The Shobijin suddenly shouted. “Do not look at Mothra!”

Everyone on board the Valkyrie averted their gaze as Mothra’s wings became glaringly bright, and she let out a triumphant squeal as a flash of light shone throughout the entire area. Battra shrieked angrily, and when the light dissipated they were able to look back and see him recoiling from the attack, blinking his eyes in frustration. With a roar of anger, Battra began to retreat, burrowing back into the coastline and disappearing in a shower of sand and dust. Mothra roared triumphantly, before turning her gaze to the inhabitants of the Valkyrie.

Thank you, she said, her voice tender and sincere. Thank you for keeping my people safe.

“Don’t mention it,” Palmer grinned, before leaning into his radio. “Valkyrie, Garuda, set course for the outpost in Hawaii. Let’s get these people somewhere safe.”

It didn’t take long for the Garuda and the Valkyrie to arrive at the island of O’ahu in Hawaii, where a KRRA outpost was situated. The Valkyrie landed at the Honolulu airport, where they would ferry the Hotua tribe to the nearby rainforest reserve. Mothra’s eggs were there as well, and the divine goddess herself hovered over the deck of the Garuda, watching over them.

“It may not be Infant Island, but it’s just as beautiful,” Jay said to the Shobijin after they had unloaded from the Valkyrie. “The tribe can start a new village in the rainforest- the KRRA will see to it that the reserve remains undisturbed.”

“Thank you, Jay Abbot,” Miana and Maina smiled at him. “Your kindness knows no bounds.”

“Ah, well,” Jay sighed, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. “It’s the least we could do. With Mothra out and about, the Meganulon have got to be crawling all over that island by now.”

As the Hotua continued to unload from the cargo bay of the Valkyrie, Palmer approached Hobbes and Reynolds. “You know, now that this ordeal’s over… you two are welcome to come back to the KRRA.” He said. “I could really use you two on my team again.”

Reynolds nodded. “I appreciate the offer, but… we’re part of the tribe now. I want to help them start a new life here. It’s the least we can do to repay them for saving our lives, right Hobbes?”
Hobbes nodded in agreement.

With the Hotua unloaded from the Valkyrie, the Skycranes began helping to move Mothra’s eggs to a designated spot in the rainforest, where the Hotua tribe could start a new village in the reserve. Mothra landed atop a nearby hill, laying out her wings so she could rest. Meanwhile, Jay, Chloe, and Palmer reconvened in the cockpit of the Valkyrie, where they used the planning table to discuss their next course of action.

“We had a couple aerial drones tail Battra’s trajectory after leaving Infant Island,” Palmer said, tapping the surface of the table. A screen appeared on the surface, showing a map with lines predicting Battra’s movement. “Seems like after leaving, he headed back to the Kamchatka peninsula. He made landfall fifteen minutes ago, after which he cocooned himself on the side of a nearby mountain.” The screen on the table switched, showing an aerial camera view of a mountain on the aforementioned peninsula. An enormous mass of dark grey silk was stuck to the side of it, unmistakable as the shape of Battra’s body.

“He’s evolving,” Chloe said. “He got too eager and attacked Mothra before reaching his Imago stage.”
“Looks like he won’t be making that mistake again,” Jay said. “We just have to hope that Mothra and Rodan will be able to defeat him when he makes his next move.” He then turned back to Palmer. “What about Infant Island? Any sign of Megaguirus?”

The admiral shook his head. “Scans are showing that the Meganulon are more active than ever, but no sign of the queen bitch herself.”

“It’ll only be a matter of time,” Chloe added. “With Mothra gone from the island, there’s nothing to keep Megaguirus contained. We have to be ready.”

“We’ll be keeping aerial surveillance on the island around the clock, and the Eclair will be on standby,” Palmer reassured her. “If anything moves on that island, we’ll be sure to deal with it quickly.” He then tapped several times on the screen, switching it back to the map. “In the meantime, there’s another matter that might require our attention. A meteorite of some kind landed in Siberia. It was discovered by KRRA operatives earlier today.” The map changed, placing a red dot in the Russian province of Siberia. “Definitely no ordinary meteorite, either. The crew who found it reported all kinds of electronic disturbances while near it. Also, get this- it’s got a radioactive signature that’s off the charts. The only thing we’ve ever seen with this kind of signature is…”

“Godzilla,” Jay said. “What do you think?”

“After everything I’ve seen, I’m not sure what I think,” Palmer chuckled dryly. “But this thing, it’s something else. Best we find out sooner rather than later, eh?”

“Do you really think it’s wise to pursue another lead, while Battra is still on the loose?” Chloe asked. “Shouldn’t we worry about him first?”

“Until he emerges in his Imago stage, there’s not much we can do,” Jay told her. “Palmer is right. We should figure out whatever this thing is before it becomes a threat.”

“Alright, then.” Palmer snapped his fingers. “Next stop- Siberia. Hope you two brought coats.”