Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Long ago, tens of millions of years before humanity ever walked the earth, Titans roamed the planet."

"From the mighty Godzilla to the majestic Mothra, to the kings and queens of the apes, the Kongs. All of these species plus many more lived on earth, and thousands of them existed both above and below the surface. These Titans were capable of great and terrible things. But a great war between the Gojiras and the Kongs caused the end of the Titan's rule over earth. Those that remained were some of the greatest fighters of their respective species, and all of them went into hibernation, to replenish themselves. Some of them, however, may have awakened during points of human history, creating many legends and folklore that modern humans disregard as superstition."

"Although, there was a much more recent Titan created, almost completely by man. A Kaiju born from one of the many side effects of humanities splitting of the atom. The story of how the atomic bomb was made, however, is something that I believe everyone learns in the course of school life, so the abridged version goes like this. A man named Robert Oppenheimer, along with an entire team of scientists, created a device that could level an entire city by harnessing the sheer power of splitting the atom, and in doing so ended World War Two by dropping two of them onto the empire of Japan. Those events started the Cold War, which saw mass armament and testing of ever more powerful atomic weaponry by as many countries as possible. There are all sorts of things I'm skipping over but none of that matters here. What does, is that in the late 1960's, during an atomic bomb test by the French government in French Polynesia, the resulting radiation from the explosion ended up irradiating a certain Marine Iguana egg, and a couple decades after that in New York, in the year 1998, our story begins where that particular story ends."

A taxi sped along a road in a massive metropolis, rain splashing against its windshield as its engine redlined.

Inside the car were a quartet of people, three men and a woman. They had snuck into a restricted area of Manhattan, and near the end of their misadventure, the military destroyed Madison Square Garden, after the group had discovered that something had created a nest inside it. The kind of creature that necessitated blowing up an entire building quickly reared its terrifying head as it broke through the underside of the road. The occupants screamed as the driver spun around, attempting to drive away from the massive beast simply known as Godzilla. But the wet ground worked to their detriment, and they slid straight into its maw.

"You gotta be kiddin' me man! We're in its mouth!" Animal Palotti shouted.

The giant lizard chomped down on the car, attempting to crush it with its jaws, but the concrete slab it had grabbed in its mouth as well was preventing that from happening.

"YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!" Animal yelled as the car screeched backwards.

"Will you shut up, man!" Philippe shouted back.

"Wait, look!" Dr. Nick Tatopoulos exclaimed, pointing at a sparking wire.

"Grab it then!" Audrey Timmonds screamed.

Nick grabbed the wire and jammed it into the gum of the giant lizard. Godzilla screeched in pain, and in a series of extremely lucky events, the car sped out of the creature's mouth, and onto the Brooklyn Bridge out of Manhattan. Unluckily for them, the beast jumped onto the bridge as well, and began to chase them again, like it had been since they destroyed its nest.

Philippe gunned the engine, and the car sped ever faster over the empty bridge, all the while the giant mutated lizard kept trying to bite into it. Due to Godzilla's height and weight, the suspension bridge began to sway and bounce with every step it took. While the taxi drove under one of the suspension towers, the giant was forced to climb over it. The giant lizard jumped off, landing with a crash on the other side, causing some of the cables holding the bridge up to snap. The taxi seemed to gain a second wind, and sped even faster, away from the giant nipping at its back wheels.

The beast got too close at one point, but in its single-minded rage, failed to see the second tower. The giant lizard crashed through the suspension tower, tangling itself in the massive cables and under the collapsed brick and mortar. Nick saw that, and quickly grabbed the taxi's radio.

"O'Neal, O'Neal it worked!" Nick exclaimed into the radio. "He's caught in the suspension cables. Do it! NOW!"

"Roger that!" O'Neal replied.

Jets rocketed towards the trapped titan and unleashed their missiles, their payload digging deep into the creature's sides. The giant cried out in pain with each strike, wailing in anguish as its body was hit with more firepower than its hide could handle. Despite its pain, Godzilla trudged onward. The occupants of the car got out and stared as the jets doubled back and fired again, burying the missiles into the beast's body. The giant cried out in pain less this time, as it knew it was dying. The giant lizard let out one last mournful call as it lurched forward, crushing the now-empty taxi under its jaw.

Nick approached the giant as it weakly crooned for comfort in its dying breaths. In a spur of the moment thought, he placed his hand on the creature's upper jaw, just before its massive eye. He stared into that lightly glowing orb as it stared back at him and listened as its massive heartbeat slowed. The beating slowed even more, until Godzilla let out a death rattle, accompanying its heartbeat finally coming to a stop. Nick stared into that massive eye as its dim glow faded away into nothing.

The first, and presumably last of its kind... had fallen.

Nick slowly pulled his hand away, and walked back to Audrey as the crowd behind the barricade began to cheer. He never really wanted to kill the magnificent creature, but its rage gave him no choice.

"Do you think they got all of them?" Audrey suddenly asked, her voice barely heard over the sound of the rain and the cheering crowd.

"God, I hope so. If humans continue to mess around with nuclear weapons like they have been, we could see another one of them sprout up somewhere, and we could be the last generation of humans to exist." He replied.

'I need to make sure there are no more hatchlings. I should contact Major Hicks.' Nick thought.

Nick and Audrey waded into the sea of reporters, Animal following behind, confused as to where his tape went. Philippe, who had pickpocketed the tape, was busy at a payphone, dialing a certain number.

"Dr. Serizawa? It's agent Philippe." He greeted. "...No, it was not him, it was too small, and it was easily killed with conventional weapons. This got out into the public eye in a big way, we are lucky Monarch has the power to cover up my government's indirect involvement. ...Yes, I'll bring the tape to HQ in the morning. I trust you have the misinformation campaign in place, for all the good that it will do? ...Good. ...Yes, Dr. Niko Tatopoulos, Dr. Elsie Chapman and Dr. Mendel Craven would make a good addition to Monarch's ranks."

After he received his new orders, Philippe hung up the phone and left the booth, intent on never allowing the tape to end up back in their hands again. Meanwhile, back at the ruins of Madison Square Garden, one egg remained, and was beginning to shake.

Dark, wet, and warm.

That was all I felt.

It felt... constricting.

'More to the point, I don't remember something like this being my truck.' I thought.

Memories slowly filtered back into my mind after a moment.

'I had been driving home after work when a truck sideswiped me. Then I rammed into a power pole and died. ...Huh. Weird how I'm not more traumatized by that.' I thought. 'Well, this... whatever it is I'm in needs to go, because it's actually getting a little hard to breathe in here with how tight it is.'

I pushed against the strangely curved walls around me. After a few shoves, a crack formed, and I doubled my efforts. After an entire minute of shoving at the crack, I finally busted out of it, landing in a small pool of water in a heap. When I raised my head and looked behind me, I saw an... EGG?

A very familiar egg, one that I've only seen in a very familiar place in a very familiar movie. I looked around, taking in the small, if comfy burrow I was in. Then I looked down at my hands, or rather, my claws. Four fingers, all ending in a sharp claw at the end. I pulled myself out of the small pool of water and looked at my reflection. Dark colored skin with a lighter tone on my underbelly, large red eyes with orange pupils, and a snout full of small but sharp teeth accompanying a velociraptor type body.

"Oh no... I'm the damned '98 Godzilla!" I exclaimed, my voice a high-pitched screech. After a moment, I calmed myself once I realized my situation.

'Wait. Single lonely egg, laid far away from the others in an area that was saved from Madison Square Garden's destruction... Ah, I'm the offspring of the '98 Godzilla, Godzilla Jr. Thankfully, being the offspring means I'm much more durable than my mother... father? Parent, I'll just go with parent since I was technically created through asexual reproduction. Now if I'm remembering the events of the movie and/or the cartoon show correctly, I would have either bonded with Nick... whatever his last name was, and the HEAT team would eventually be created, and we would go on grand adventures across the world. Or I go on to escape, live in the Australian outback and raise a bunch of teen Zillas, then fight a giant termite or something after the military kills all but one.' I thought while I tried to get the hang of standing like a raptor.

Turns out, even though I had human level intelligence and had essentially replaced whatever was behind the wheel of this guy, the natural instincts were still there. So, after a minute or so of practice, I had gotten the hang of standing and walking. I had even taken a brief jog around the small pool of water I fell into earlier. After I had perfected walking like a theropod, I sat down and considered my options.

'So, what to do? I could hang around and 'imprint' on Nick whenever he falls down here, or I could go on ahead and leave, bypassing the entirety of the fragile post movie canon. On the other hand, leaving immediately means that Nick would assume the worst, and that another Godzilla had been created. Plus, there's no telling what happened after the show ended. Wait a second, isn't the '98 movie canon to GMK or something? What about the Monsterverse, is this canon to that too? This is a US movie after all.'

I closed my eyes and placed my hands on my head to ward off a headache, one I just knew would come around if I kept thinking about continuity in the Godzilla movies. After pacing for a minute or so and considering my options, I had a rough plan of action for the immediate future.

I would destroy my egg and leave no trace of me behind, leaving before Nick ever discovered me. After that, I would make a mad dash for the Hudson River, evading whatever military presence was left, and swim south until I reached the ocean. After that, I would technically be home free, and could go anywhere I wanted. A few locations came to mind as to where I could grow up in peace. Places like Africa, where there would be plentiful food until I got too big to sneak around on the plains. I could also travel to Australia, since the people there mostly live on the coast in about five or so large cities. I shook my head, deciding to wait until I was actually in the ocean before picking a spot to grow.

--

After another minute to plan how I was going to hide my eggshell, I set my plan into motion.

After stomping on my eggshell and reducing it to smaller pieces, I leaped up and grabbed onto the ceiling. With a bestial grunt, I pulled down the already damaged roof onto the pieces of my eggshell, burying it under rubble. With my egg hidden under ceiling tiles, tubing, ventilation shafts, and electrical wiring, I pulled a locker over to a wall and then began burrowing into the concrete. Once I was far enough into my tunnel, I reached back out and pulled the locker until it was leaning against the entrance. I also collapsed said entrance for redundancies sake. Rock, concrete, and dirt was pulled away as I tunneled through the ground, eventually coming out in the ruins of the nest.

The smell of smoke wafted over my snout as I looked around at the destroyed stadium. A few fires still dimly burned as I trudged past the charred and half burnt bodies of my 'brethren', forcing me to breathe through my mouth so I wouldn't vomit on an empty stomach. Hunger gnawed at me as I walked, and I groaned a little bit at the unfamiliar pain. Mercifully, some genius thought to open a KFC very close to the stadium, and since the front of the building was already blown out, I simply trotted through the front door.

The power had been knocked out to the building for quite a while, if the smell of raw chicken was anything to go by. Even luckier was that some fool had left the freezer door open, so the chicken defrosted even faster. I was so relieved at finding food that I had already torn apart and swallowed an entire chicken before realizing it was raw. I froze for a second as I regained my bearings and looked down at the raw chicken that I had torn out of the packaging.

'Wait.' I thought, shaking myself slightly. 'I'm not a human anymore, so salmonella doesn't apply to me. Especially not since I'm a mutated lizard.'

With that, I continued eating. I had probably gone through about half of the whole chickens in the freezer before my stomach finally felt full. I rumbled contently, then froze when I heard helicopters. I crouched down low, thankful that my dorsal spines were underdeveloped, and snuck to the entrance. A trio of Black Hawks were lowering down into the ruins of the Garden, and I spotted Nick with them. Once the rotors disappeared from view, I lunged out of the destroyed restaurant and ran down the road.

I leaped over a familiar looking footprint as I sprinted, and an idle thought told me that I was going to be that massive at some point in the future. After ducking into a bus stop to hide from the searchlight of a helicopter, I crept towards the Hudson River, which was in sight. At the worst possible moment though, I stepped on a wrapper. And there was a single soldier walking down the road, dangerously close to me.

"Huh?"

The soldier turned his light onto me, and I lunged. The man didn't even have time to scream before I slammed into him, taking him to the ground. I held his head in my mouth, and almost bit down, if not for my conscience screaming at me in the back of my head. I froze as the man flailed into my sides; his screams muffled, as he cried for help from anyone. I made a choice when he actually started wailing and crying for his mother.

I released him, and the man flopped onto the ground, covering his face with his arms as he stared at me with fear in his young eyes. He couldn't have been older than twenty-three. I grimaced when I saw a very thin bite mark around his neck, which was slowly leaking blood. He'd be fine and would have a great story to tell, once he got some medical attention. I headbutted him, knocking the poor guy out. I quickly dragged him into the bus station and out of the rain. Using both my arms and my head, I placed him onto the bench in a comfortable position. With that done, I ran back out into the night, and towards the Hudson.

I was so close to the river at that point I could see most of it, and so my excitement grew, along with my nervousness. Just as I was about two hundred or so feet from the water, the worst possible thing imaginable happened. I stepped on a fucking pane of glass, which cracked loudly under my weight.

"Hey, what was that?" A voice said, freezing me in my tracks behind a crushed missile launcher.

Two army grunts walked forward a bit and shined a light close to me, making me curl up and pretend to be rubble. I kept one eye slightly open and pointed directly at them. After a minute or so of them shining their light over everything, including me for a few heart stopping moments, the second one spoke.

"Probably just some rubble falling from a building. That thing came through here, remember?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember. How could I not remember the sight of that massive lizard running at us, bellowing its head off as we threw everything and the kitchen sink at it." The first one replied.

"C'mon, let's get out of this rain, anyway. I heard they're planning on opening the floodgates in about half an hour once Major Hicks and the Worm Guy get done checking the nest. We should probably get back to the base before we're drowning in New Yorkers."

"Definitely. Where did Jacobs go? I thought he was fixing the damned hummer- Wait!"

The first man pointed his flashlight at me, and I could tell he was getting closer.

"What is that?" He asked.

"I don't know man. ...Wait, it's one of the newborns!" The second man shouted.

I uncurled myself and screeched at them, sending both men screaming as they ran back a couple dozen feet. While they fumbled with their rifles, I sprinted towards the river.

"S-Seargent O'Neal! One of the hatchlings survived the bombardment! It's heading towards the Hudson River!" The first man shouted into his radio.

"WHAT!" I heard O'Neal shout back.

I dodged a few rounds of automatic fire as the two soldiers finally gained their bearings. Behind me, I heard the sounds of more hummers approaching and ran faster. Just as the hummers arrived and the occupants opened fire, I hopped over a fence and onto a helipad, complete with a helicopter that had crashed onto it. I took cover behind the wreckage as bullets pelted past me, threatening to take my life so soon after my rebirth. My breaths came in deep gulps as the fire intensified after another two hummers arrived.

"Don't let it escape!" Someone shouted.

As soon as the shooting temporarily stopped, I lunged out of my cover, startling a squad that had come over to check and see if I was dead. Just as the shooting started again, I leaped over a low guardrail, and dived into the river. The salty water brushed through my gills as I sped through the murky water, bullets not even able to reach me thanks to water's incredible resistance. I stayed low to the riverbed as I swam, intensely paranoid about being detected by any submarines that remained in the water. Thanks to being amphibious, I could see remarkably well underwater, and as I passed through a certain section of the river, I spotted two craters in a wall, along with a much larger crater. I quickly swam by that site and dived deeper to avoid a patrol boat.

I risked a look above the surface and immediately regretted it. About twenty-eight Apache attack helicopters were already flying over from the forward base, accompanied by twenty more patrol boats. I dove back down and swam away, desperate to stay alive. After I passed under a bridge, I poked my head above water again. The open ocean was to my left, along with three destroyers.

'Where the hell did all of them come from!?' I exclaimed in my head. 'I don't remember any ships in the movie, just submarines!'

I dove deeper, all the way down to the seabed, which was getting deeper the further out I went. The underside of the ships passed high above me as I quickly swam out into the ocean. I had escaped from New York, and the military.

My rebirth was absolutely a trial by fire, but goddamn did I succeed.

I pointed myself southward, and set off, content with riding a current. I decided to ride the water for a minute or so and contemplate where to go now. I could go almost anywhere I wanted at this point, barring anywhere near US soil. So, after considering how hot North and Central America would be for the time being as they searched for me, I set off across the Atlantic, my destination, the African savannah, and maybe the jungles there as well.

To say Major Hicks was angry was an understatement. One singular hatchling survived the Garden being blown up.

"What do you mean you lost it!?" Hicks bellowed.

"A-after its initial attack on Corporal Kowalski, Private Briggs, and Private Jacobs, the newborn... jumped into the river and... managed to escape." Seargent O'Neal reported.

Major Hicks felt like ripping out his hair. He slammed one of his fists down on the table in front of him, sending a small stack of papers flying off onto the ground.

"How could you have lost it!?" He exclaimed.

"...It was a baby, sir." Nick said.

Major Hicks turned to the man. "Meaning?"

"It couldn't be detected by sonar or the patrol boats because they're only... what, six or so feet tall?" Nick explained, turning to Audrey and Animal, who nodded along.

The fact that the newborns were that small calmed the raging storm of anger in Major Hicks, and he deeply sighed.

"So, Dr. Tatopoulos, Dr. Craven, Dr. Chapman, where do you think it's heading now?" He asked.

Nick and the other two scientists glanced at each other, until Elsie's eyes widened.

"If the parent migrated all the way up here in order to have its children, then its offspring must be returning to its original island in the Pacific." She theorized.

"If this is a migration pattern, we could track it's progress even faster is we used the data from its parent's journey as well." Dr. Craven added.

"Well get on it then." Major Hicks said. "I want this thing found and contained before it escapes completely, grows to the size of its daddy, and causes another international crisis."

Chapter Text

In a secret location nestled in the mountains of Montana, Dr. Serizawa and his assistant, Dr. Vivienne Graham, sat in a conference room as a large presentation flashed across the wall. With them was Nick, Elsie and Mendel, all of which were briefly confused as to why they had been brought here with a military escort. At least, until the slideshow began.

Numerous photos of the damage caused by the Godzilla lookalike flashed by, from carved out subway lines, to a hole right in the middle of a building, to even the remains of its nest in Madison Square Garden. Other images were shown as well, of the deep footprints in the ground from where it walked across Panama and Jamaica.

"As of right now, the misinformation campaign has failed. 'Zilla' has gotten out to the populace at large. As far as we know, only one hatchling survived Major Hicks orders to destroy Madison Square Garden. Said hatchling disappeared shortly after escaping into the Hudson River. So far, we are keeping it under wraps. As far as the public or the media are concerned, the military believes that they have killed every single hatchling that remained. I'm sure you can understand that we don't want people to panic." The man next to the projector said, before clicking to the next slide.

"Thankfully, we managed to recover what was left of the egg and we do have news since it's been tested. Based on what our geneticists could find thanks to a small amount of blood left behind, this creature is different from its parent, physically, at least. While this particular hatchling is more mutated than its brethren, the creature is partially sterile, so we won't need to worry about it asexually reproducing and overwhelming us with its offspring, at least. It won't be able to lay eggs which makes it into a male, at least, but if it finds another mutant with compatible DNA to it then..." He trailed off, before clicking to another slide. "Anyway, these are some images and recreations we managed to gather of the adult's physiology. At least we will know what to look for once the hatchling grows up."

The next few slides showed an artistic representation of the entire creature standing upright, with a projected growth cycle from infant to adult alongside it, and photos taken from where the beast lay on Brooklyn Bridge. Thankfully, the creature has since been pulled onto a barge and dragged off to a Monarch site in Connecticut for study.

"They are remarkably similar, could 'He' have reproduced?" Dr. Vivienne Graham asked.

"Who is 'He'?" Nick asked.

"No. This animal is unique." The man at the projector replied, pulling out a folder labeled 'Top Secret' and placing it in front of the group. Inside were numerous photos from an island in the south Pacific, along with a fairly familiar, if gigantic, silhouette. "Following the aftermath of the Castle Bravo tests, Monarch tracked Godzilla to French Polynesia, where he rested before returning to the deeper ocean. The resulting radiation he gave off while he was there must have introduced mutations in the local wildlife, since we have found some of the normal sized lizards there bear a striking resemblance to him, almost like it was mutating them into smaller versions of Godzilla himself. Our working theory is that exposure to an actual nuclear test must have irradiated the already mutated wildlife, and the two types of radiation mutated one of them even further into the same beast that was killed in New York."

"So, this is a new species?"

"It must be a subspecies based off of Gojira's unique radiation." Dr. Serizawa theorized.

"This new hatchling could have all of its parents and even Godzilla's abilities, and it is possible he may have more that are undeveloped. But as far as the geneticists are concerned, Godzilla and that creature, 'Zilla', are related, DNA-wise." The man at the projector said.

"You mean there's something even bigger than what crashed through Manhattan?" Elise asked, looking at the silhouette in the photos.

"And you didn't think to tell the people that kaiju walked the earth?" Nick added.

"Considering what happened last year in California, you'd think we'd be just a little bit desensitized to this sort of thing." Dr. Craven muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"We've kept them secret for their protection, and for humanities." Vivienne replied. "If knowledge of the Titans ever got out, the results could be catastrophic."

While the others conversed about the existence of Titans, Serizawa stared into the dead eyes of the kaiju in the photo, which stared blankly stared back at him. He didn't ever imagine that Gojira could create a new form of life in such a way. He could only wonder what thoughts were going through its offspring's mind as it swam somewhere off the coast of the US.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep- AUGH I HATE THAT SONG RIGHT NOW!

Turns out, crossing the entire Atlantic Ocean would have been too daunting a task for me at this size, something I found out when a particularly large wave almost knocked me out. So, I decided to change directions and head for South America. The dense jungles, deep rivers, and heavy vegetation would be perfect to hide in until I got too big for the rivers. Until then, I just had to keep swimming.

After swimming for around three days straight, I had done two things. For one, I had traveled quite a long way, going pretty much the entire length of the eastern coast and was about a hundred or so miles out from the northernmost part of what I believed was Miami, Florida. Unfortunately, I was also dead tired from swimming so much, and I did not want to try sleeping underwater until I was at least as big as the juvenile Godzilla in the cartoon show was.

So, once I saw an island ahead slightly to my left, I shot straight for it. After swimming for what felt like hours but in reality, must have only been about twenty minutes, I finally came ashore. The waves gently splashed against the backs of my aching legs as I trudged up the beach, feeling more tired than I had ever felt before in either of my lives.

After walking inland a bit, I finally found the perfect place to sleep. An overturned tree that had its roots sprawled all over the place, making a pseudo shelter. Even though I was dead on my feet, I still gathered up the energy to rip up and drag over a few large ferns, filling in the holes in the roots. I crawled into my makeshift shelter and curled up, content with my little nest. Before I even knew it, I had fallen into a deep sleep. A sleep so deep in fact, that I would effectively be dead to the world for nearly two entire days.

--

The midmorning sun woke me up with a persistent itch on my snout.

Eventually the itch finally annoyed me enough to open my eyes and gaze out at the gentle waves on the beach. I raised my head up and bumped it slightly against the ceiling, scratching the itch on the roots until I was awake. After giving out a jaw-cracking yawn, I crawled out of my nest and stretched like a cat, cracking my back in just the right places, drawing a pleased grumble from me. I got to my feet and shook my head a little bit, flinging off a leaf that stuck to the bottom of my jaw.

Once I was out of my little nest, I started sunbathing. The sun beamed down onto my back, the rays sinking so deep into my flesh that even my bones felt warm. I wanted to just stay like that and soak in the warmth from that giant ball of fire, but my stomach woke up at that point, sending a pang of hunger through me. I needed to hunt, and I stalked inland, ready to find some breakfast.

After a few minutes of walking, I caught the scent of something. The smell was familiar, and after following the scent for a while, tracking it through a dense island jungle, I found myself at a clearing. I crouched down and poked my head out into the low grass, and found my target, suddenly realizing why it smelled familiar. In the center of the clearing was a boar, tusks and all, digging into the ground to hunt for roots. I was downwind of it, and my muscles tightened in anticipation as I coiled up like a snake, ready to strike.

In an instant, I pounced, the boar bolted, and the chase was on. Even though I was faster than the boar, it was smaller, and lower to the ground. While it could slip into the underbrush, quickly gaining ground and prolonging its life, I was forced to crash my way through it, slowing myself considerably. The boar was able to turn faster than I expected as well, turning almost instantly and rocketing off in another direction.

Unfortunately for the boar, it had limited stamina, something that I had ludicrous amounts of. We burst into another clearing, and my superior speed saw to the boar's end. I bit onto the boar's neck, my teeth piercing deep into its flesh. I fought the pig to a standstill, then began clawing at it. I bit down even harder, and I felt bone crunching in my mouth. The boar squealed in pain, thrashing around until it started to slow from blood loss. I finally released it, and the beast fell to the ground, dead.

After glancing around for anything that would try and steal my food, I dipped my head down and feasted. My claws turned out to be very useful when eating, helping to carve out pieces of meat and cut them down to easily swallowable pieces. Have I mentioned that I can't chew yet? Because good lord it was discombobulating to try and chew for the first time and my mouth simply wouldn't work that way.

After a couple minutes, the boar was nothing but a devoured corpse with some bits of inedible meat left over, plus even whatever my claws couldn't get at. With my feast done and my belly full, I set off further inland, intending to come out on the other side and relish just walking for a while. Twigs and leaves on the ground crunched as I passed through the dense jungle of the island, content with my nature walk. I even passed by an old, half rotted, log cabin in the woods.

There was a small pond near the cabin, and I briefly stopped to take a drink and clean myself up a little bit. After quenching my thirst and cleaning the blood off of my face and claws, I took a closer look at my reflection after noticing something. I had grown a small bit over the nearly six days I had been alive. It wasn't very much, only around two or so inches in height and about six inches in length, but I felt bigger, to say the least. I was definitely growing slower than the Godzilla from the cartoon series, to say the least. Now that I'm thinking about it, according to the lore, it took thirty years for the original '98 Zilla to get the size it was, and an indeterminately short amount of time for its offspring in the tv show.

I honestly didn't know what my growth rate would be, considering I had only grown two inches in height. It'd probably take around ten or so years before I even reached kaiju status, let alone get to the same size as my parent. But I honestly didn't know, so I stopped thinking about it. I'd get big when I'd get big. Until then, I was going to enjoy being relatively human sized for the foreseeable future. While I was thinking, a butterfly had landed on my snout. I snorted, causing it to fly away, then I walked off.

Considering the old cabin I had found, and the fact I was fairly sure I was in the Bahamas, it was only natural that I encountered a road. An actual paved road, complete with traffic. Not very much of it, but just enough that I'd need to be careful, or else I'd be discovered. I looked both ways and saw no one, then lunged out of the brush and across the road.

I skidded to a stop, however, when an entire tourist bus rounded the corner. The vehicle squealed to a stop while I lunged back out of the way of it, almost getting run over in the process. Once the vehicle stopped, I felt a multitude of eyes upon me, and turned to see that every single tourist was looking at me.

"What the hell is that thing!?" A man shouted.

"It's one of those Godzilla things from New York!" A woman exclaimed.

'Oh shit.' I mentally cursed.

"Quick! Call 911!" Someone else yelled.

"Did you see what the full-grown version did to New York!? To hell with calling the cops, kill it before it escapes!"

Someone shot at me at that point, the round impacting right next to my foot. I released a screech at the bus as I jumped back, then sprinted into the underbrush, running straight through whatever small obstacles were in my way. A few more shots were fired, hitting either the ground or the trees around me, and for a moment I relished the horrible aim that guy had. But then one bullet hit me right in the arm.

I screeched in pain, cradling the bleeding appendage as I ran. In my panic and adrenaline, I failed to realize that I had turned right at one point. The next thing I knew, I was running straight into a city. Cars swerved off the road, people screamed and ran, stupider people pulled out cameras and snapped photos of me. I was briefly confused as to why people were using actual cameras instead of their phones, but then I remembered that this was 1998, smartphones didn't exist yet.

Someone fired a shot over my head, and I looked behind me to see a squad of police cars heading my way. I internally groaned, as my day was getting even worse. My instincts, combined with my human mind, both worked in unison to ensure I escaped. I jumped onto the roof of a car, then onto the roof of a building and looked around, trying to find the coast.

I finally spotted it, far out in the distance. Just as I was about to jump of the building and run that way someone shot me in the tail. I screeched in pain, jumping off the building and directly onto the offending officer, who tried to sneak up on me in an alley. My conscience screamed at me as I raised my uninjured arm to slash at him. I hesitated, and after a tense moment, lowered my arm.

Then the idiot whipped his pistol across my face. I immediately bit down on the arm that held the gun, and I felt a bone snap in my mouth. The man screamed out in pain, and I noticed the other officers were getting close, guns drawn. I opened my mouth, dropping the man's broken and bleeding arm, and sprinted for the coast.

Gunshots echoed across the land, and bullets hit near me, lodging themselves into trees, walls, and even cars. I sprinted through it all, briefly even hitting my maximum speed of nearly fifty miles an hour. By that point, the shots were becoming fewer in number the farther I ran, and I thought they had finally called off the chase.

I was wrong. On so many levels. And once I heard the spinning of rotor blades, I knew it.

A damned Black Hawk appeared, along with a squad hanging out the side. Automatic fire rained down around me as I crashed through the window of a building. The building turned out to be a bar, filled with patrons who started screaming once I busted through the window. While the bar-goers were busy escaping from me, I was trying to find the back exit.

There wasn't one, and I could hear the helicopter landing outside. I looked down at my arm, which had stopped bleeding, and tested the appendage. The wound was healing well, no doubt because of the advanced healing factor my body contained, but the scales were still missing where the bullet pierced my hide. My tail had even stopped bleeding at that point. I heard the door to the front of the bar open, and at that point I knew that it was fight or die, even my conscience was silent. I glanced to my right, and on the counter of the kitchen, was a lighter.

A plan began to form in my mind, and I grabbed the lighter. I took a deep breath and blew out the gas burners on the stove, which began filling the air with natural gas. Using one arm, I dug down and created a hole I could crouch in.

"Noise from the kitchen." I heard someone mutter, accompanied by the sound of an automatic rifle being cocked.

The air was beginning to smell heavily of gas, and at that point someone opened the door. In an instant, I crouched down in my hole, and clicked the lighter on. The air burst into flames, and the two men at the door started screaming as their clothing was lit on fire. I jumped up and ran for the door, headbutting one of the men out of the way. The man flew into a wall and his grenade detonated, showering the area with shrapnel. Right next to the explosion was one of the unaffected soldiers, who took a side full of shrapnel and fell to the ground. I ran at the closest man, knocking the other burning soldier into his friend.

I pounced, claws digging into the man, and I chomped down on his shoulder, muscle and bone cracking and ripping under my bite. I pulled my head back up, taking the man's arm with me, just as the butt of a rifle was smashed into my face. I squawked in surprise, backpedaling slightly to see the other unaffected soldier with a dawning expression of fear on his face. I leaped at him, claws digging into his abdomen. The man screamed in pain until I bit down on his neck, breaking it.

I let go of the corpse and backed up a bit, shaking slightly. I had just killed five men in quick succession, and the knowledge of what I did had just hit me. I shook slightly harder as I stared at what I had done. I knew that it was life or death for me, and that they would have killed me if given the chance. But that didn't mean I wasn't happy about the act I committed. I stood there for a moment, letting the fact that I had just killed actual human beings sink in.

"I... I need to get out of here." I finally said to myself.

The fire I started in the bar was starting to consume the building, so I sprinted towards the entrance. I burst through the door, sending the helicopter pilot flying back into the side of a car. Mercifully, this was a coastal town, meaning there was a beach I could head towards. I ran hard, weaving through the stopped traffic, and even leaped over a firetruck that was responding to the inferno that the bar was becoming.

Just as the beach came into sight, I heard another set of rotors, and glanced behind me to see another helicopter heading towards me. I ran a bit faster when it flew over me and began to land on the beach. I also saw a patrol boat approaching. I sprinted past it as the soldiers inside opened fire on me. Rounds zipped through the air, and multiple hit me. Two in the leg, three in the tail, and one in the thigh. I leaped into the water despite my pain, and swam as fast as I could, evading the patrol boat.

I had escaped from the military again, but not without being injured this time. Once I was far enough away that the waves would hide me, I broke the surface, groaning in pain as the bullets still inside my body were being pushed out. It was a very weird feeling to have your own body push bullets out of you, sort of like getting shot but in reverse, and almost agonizingly slow. It didn't even happen for the bullet that hit me in the arm, because it went all the way through without hitting bone.

After the bits of lead finally popped out of my body, I dove back below the surface of the water, resuming my course for South America.

--

The helicopter touched down with a dull thump, causing the cabin to shake lightly as it settled onto the beach.

Dr. Serizawa, Dr. Graham, and Nick unbuckled and stepped out onto the sand of the Bahamas. The smoldering ruins of a bar sat in the distance, and there were government vehicles along with emergency services. A man in his thirties was standing out in front of it and turned to Serizawa when he and Vivienne approached.

"Agent Bishop, what have you found?" Serizawa asked.

"Emergency services received a call about a strange dinosaur-like creature almost getting run over by a tourist bus, then running away when it was shot at. Over the next forty-five minutes, similar calls were made leading all the way into the town, where a report of a bar exploding into flames was reported. A Black Hawk was dispatched on suspicions that Zilla had made its way to the Bahamas, the pilot is being treated over there." Agent Bishop explained, gesturing over at the back of an ambulance, where a man in a flight suit was being treated for a head wound.

"So far, there have been eighteen injuries, all minor, as a result of the animal running in traffic. Five deaths are confirmed, all of them being a squad that tried to kill the hatchling in that bar. One of them even had his arm torn off along with his shoulder."

"How did the building catch on fire?" Serizawa asked.

"Not too sure, I was waiting on the firefighters to discover why when you landed."

"A new ability, perhaps?" Vivienne theorized.

"When we were running from its parent, it did exhale some sort of flammable gas that ignited with a single spark." Nick said.

The group went quiet after that, and after a minute or so, one of the firefighters approached.

"Sorry, this took a while. We pinpointed the start of the fire to be in the kitchen. Someone had blown out the gas burners while they were still on. That lizard that jumped on our truck must have accidentally set it off." The fireman explained. "But we also found this lighter next to a hole it dug. Now, call me crazy, but it almost seems like that thing planned it out or something. Those creatures ain't natural anyways."

Vivienne and Serizawa glanced at each other, a worried look on their faces. Nick looked flabbergasted when he noticed their expressions. As soon as the fireman walked away, he spoke.

"It couldn't have... The parent never showed signs of being that smart, just animalistic cunning. Besides, how could the newborn even know how to work a lighter? Only humans have that level of intelligence." Nick exclaimed.

"But some Titans have..." Serizawa muttered, turning towards the ruined bar.

"What do you mean 'some Titans have'? Do you mean to tell me that there are Titans out there with almost human levels of intelligence, and the knowhow to utilize human tools?"

The silence that Serizawa replied with only worsened Nicks fears.

--

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming-AUGH! AGAIN, WHY!?

I shook my head again, annoyed at the same stupid song repeating in my head for the fifth time in a row.

'I swear I'm going to go insane just from that song.' I thought as my swimming rhythm was interrupted again.

After swimming at top speed for around two hours, I had slowed down to a more manageable speed to make sure I wouldn't be dead tired once I reached land again. Thankfully, since I was amphibious, I spent most of the swim underwater to keep the military off my trail.

I also took the time to think about the people that I had... killed. After reasoning with myself for around an hour, I eventually decided that what I did was survival, plain and simple. They were going to kill me either way, so I was forced to defend myself.

I was jolted out of my thoughts when I glanced down and saw strange spikes sticking out of the sea floor. Against my better judgement, I decided to dive down and see what it was. Once I reached the floor, I noticed the spikes sticking out of the ground were all in a line, getting smaller on either end. I reached out with a claw and touched them, then placed my whole paw on it once I felt a jolt of some kind of energy go through me.

Then the whole thing moved. I swam back quite a bit at that point when one end raised up into a truly enormous tail, then I looked to the other end. A giant squarish head pulled out of the sand and opened its jaw in a yawn. My own jaw fell open when I realized what I had just found.

My mind was blown, confused, and horrified as I gazed upon the sleeping form of the Monsterverse Godzilla.

Chapter Text

'...WHAT KIND OF UNIVERSE IS THIS!?' I mentally screamed once I had finally slowed down.

Immediately after seeing that it was Godzilla himself that was sleeping on the sea floor, I bolted.

I turned left once I saw Cuba and became firmly lost at one point. So, I tried sensing the magnetic poles. It wasn't really able to be described how I suddenly just knew which way was north and which was south, I just... knew. So, I headed south, farther away from the literal King of the Monsters.

Legendary Godzilla, as many Monsterverse fans can attest to, is a balancer, only acting if the natural balance of things on earth is upset by things like Muto's, King Ghidorah, idiotic humans creating a false copy of himself, etc. I now suspected that my parent swimming all the way to Manhattan might not have been just a migration. It could have been at least partially because of the big guy hunting them all the way from French Polynesia. He might have sensed it or something when the nest was destroyed and my parent died, called off the hunt, and settled down to sleep for a while.

If my theory was correct, then my mere existence could possibly set him off again, unless I'm sterile like how Zilla Jr was in the cartoon series. Or I am just being paranoid, and Godzilla was simply sleeping on the ocean floor there. I mean, he was almost half buried in the sand. On the other hand, my parent has been dead for nearly an entire week at this point. I'm not sure how the ocean currents shape the sea floor, but I'm fairly sure a Titan settling down to rest would probably displace a lot of sand.

Onto more important things, what kind of universe is this? I'm the 98 Godzilla's offspring, where the events of the movie happened, but the Monsterverse Godzilla is here too. Wouldn't that mean that Gojira and I are related somehow? But I'm an artificially created kaiju. Hmm, maybe Godzilla mutated some of the lizards in French Polynesia or something. Perhaps this is a fusion of the '98 movie, the cartoon show, and the monsterverse.

Ah crap, that means I might have to worry about the Leviathan Aliens from the show at some point.

I was jolted out of my thoughts when I was forced to dive down a bit to avoid a large wave, reminding me to resume my course for South America. Only problem was, even though I had passed between what I believed was Cuba and Haiti a while back, my magnetic detection was only powerful enough to detect north and south. So, I picked a direction and went in a straight line, intending on sneaking around and finding out where the hell I was once I had hit land.

With my course set, I swam off, snaping a slow-moving fish into my mouth as I went.

--

With a great yawn, Godzilla filtered some more seawater through his gills to wake up a bit faster.

He was always slow to wake, and this time was no different. His groggy mind briefly picked up the scent of a familiar presence, and he remembered some rather happy memories he had created with a young Titan around half a year ago. It was a rather oddly familiar looking Titan, if he was being honest. Lean, thin, muscular, had spines running across it's back like he did, and most importantly, female.

He was greatly saddened for a while when he sensed that the female had died after attempting to build a nest in a human city, leaving him to wander the earth alone once again. She was very young, not even past a hundred winters, so she didn't know any better, but by the stars did she know how to move. Those four days were very happy memories indeed. Goji focused on the scent a bit more and he suddenly realized that it was much younger than the female was, and the scent was mixed with...

The saurian's eyes snapped open and he rapidly got to his feet, sand cascading off of his back and into the currents. He rapidly looked around, his lightly glowing eyes darting around the water rapidly as the scent faded. Whatever was near him, he could smell them. He turned his head, and the scent became slightly stronger on one of his spines. The scent had faded far too much for him to reliably track it, but Goji was never one to give up so early.

His tail swished behind him, and Godzilla was off, intent on finding the source.

--

After a day spent swimming in random directions, I slept for the first time underwater.

It was a bit weird, and I panicked slightly once I woke up again, but I got over it soon after, and left to find some breakfast. A short swim later, I had found a reef filled with fish. There were so many, in fact, that I was having a hard time remembering the few fish names I remembered. And that wasn't even counting the multitude of other marine life living at the reef as well.

Turns out, hunting fish is surprisingly easy for me. I mean I figured that it would be easy, considering how I'm a semi-aquatic reptile mutated by radiation. Not to mention that fish actually taste good to me now, which is a plus. Actually, all the food I've tasted so far has been really good, besides the frozen chicken I gorged myself on in New York before escaping. I haven't even had to cook anything; I just eat it raw. It was a bit weird at first, but it's gotten easier over time.

Speaking of my escape from New York, I believed I was somewhere in the Caribbean Sea, probably close to Panama or Costa Rica. So, my plan was to quickly make my way over the smaller parts of the land connecting the two continents, and swim into southern Columbia, avoiding humans as best I could. From there, I'd make my way into Brazil, and find the Amazon River. I'd stay there until I got too big to hide, then make my way out to sea again, and stay there. Not the most exciting plan, but it would keep me alive, to say the least.

I broke the surface and spotted land on the horizon. Hopefully, the news of my survival hasn't spread this far yet, and I can make my way across the land unimpeded. After around an hour, I finally stepped onto the beach. A gentle breeze wafted over my scales as I slowly walked into the jungle. The jungle here was thinner, but I could see that further in the trees grew closer and closer together. At least I was heading the right way.

The jungle here was about the same as the Bahamas, if a bit hotter. There were also a lot more plants, plus more variety in the types of flora I encountered. I figured it was probably because of how close I was to the equator. Ironically, as a radioactive dinosaur lookalike, I had traveled more in my short time here than I ever had as a human. I briefly slowed down a bit as I considered that. What was even more unbelievable was that I had done that much traveling in almost a full week. The last big trip I remembered taking was a school trip to Washington D.C back when I was in 8th grade. Or was it my vacation to the Florida Keys?

I shook my head slightly, banishing the thoughts of either trip, and the inevitable train of thought that would drag me into feeling completely lost in life that would accompany it. I never liked those thoughts.

Twigs cracked and leaves crunched under my weight as I stomped through the jungle, content with not having to worry about stumbling upon any more humans for the time being. I noticed that even the air felt cleaner here, something that I could almost feel in my lungs. Something that I also noticed was the interesting variety of animals that lived here. I saw mostly some of the more common animals I'd see back in my old world like squirrels, mice, possums and armadillos. But there was also some more exotic wildlife, like Tapirs, some monkeys, and I swear I saw a sloth or two in the trees.

Thankfully, being something that they had never seen before, they weren't too disturbed by my presence. Most of them were wary of me, but it was the same wariness they gave to a predator that had recently eaten, which was true. Before I came inland, I had stuffed myself to the gills with fish so I could make the journey with as little stops as possible.

Of course, my luck would run out. I pushed through some shrubs and found myself in farmland. It was disused, but I could tell by the feel of the ground under my feet that someone had plowed this field before. I knew it because my family had a garden that we grew vegetables in. I set off at a reasonable pace, probably around 25-30mph. I felt like I could hold that speed for quite a while, as long as I didn't need to evade anyone shooting at me like last time.

I passed through the farmland, and back into a forested area, but it didn't last very long, because not even a thousand feet later I had walked back into farmland. This time, it actually had crops in it. I walked between the rows of crops, and tried to step lightly so I wouldn't leave any footprints. Eventually, I saw a house and crouched onto all fours. There were people outside, most of them were sitting and talking, while two were working on an old tractor. Thankfully, I was too far away for them to notice me, so I quietly moved back into the crops, and started walking around them.

Even if they didn't have any guns, I'd rather not get hit in the face with a shovel or any other manner of farm tool.

I soon bypassed the people, probably leaving a few footprints for them to scratch their heads in confusion over, as I continued my trek. I soon started running again, and the old fields were perfect for reaching my top speed for small amounts of time. Some animals released noises of terror once they saw me running at them at the speeds I could go, but their fears were unwarranted, since I was fine on food. Soon, however, I hit a snag with my progress.

A road, more specifically, another paved road. Thankfully it was mostly straight, so I could see both ways. Once there was no traffic as far as I could see. I ran across, just barely getting to the other side as a truck rounded the corner on the farthest corner from me. I heard tires squealing as I ran into the foliage, and internally giggled at giving whoever was at the wheel a heart attack. At least I wasn't getting shot at this time.

Eventually, after passing over a couple more roads, plus burrowing under a highway, the terrain started getting more varied, with the hills getting larger and steeper. After reaching the top of a particularly large hill, I realized that I was probably getting close to the other side. I soon found a path that I could follow, once that led into the mountains. While I was making my way through them, I briefly sidetracked myself to hunt a small pig.

Soon, however, even with all my determination, the sun was low in the sky. For a short while, I searched for another overturned tree, but after my search turned up empty handed, I decided to simply burrow into the ground and sleep there. I dug out a small home for myself, about twice my height and length, and dragged in some ferns, large leaves, and small branches to use as bedding. By the time I was finished with my little nest, it was almost dark. So, I settled down on my grassy bed and soon fell asleep.

--

"So, what do we know so far?"

"Well to start, Zilla is an entirely different beast to his mother. He's smart, and he has to have a conscience, if the story told by Private Jacobs is anything to go by." Nick said, scratching his chin.

"He's apparently way more cunning than his mother as well, since he somehow knew to blow out the gas burners on a stove, then light it with an actual lighter. I'm still kind of shocked that he knew how to do that, to be honest." Dr. Craven added.

"But just like his parent, he is very elusive, even more so with his small size hampering search efforts." Dr. Chapman said.

"So, we know almost nothing new then?"

"Not entirely." Dr. Serizawa said from the doorway, a folder in his hand. "Our tracking team for Gojira has reported unusual movement from him." Serizawa walked over to the table and placed the folder down, opening it and pulling out a few photos, along with a paper. "The team was able to take these photos."

Nick picked up one of the photos and nearly dropped it in shock. Godzilla, the big one, was lying on the ocean floor, partially covered in sand. Near his dorsal spines, however, there looked like a small figure that was remarkably familiar. He looked at the other two photos, both taken with an additional zoom. The second photo showed one of Godzilla's dorsal spines lit up, illuminating the figure. The last photo showed Godzilla pulling himself out of the sand slightly, and the small figure swimming away.

"Do we know what Zilla was doing there?" Elsie asked.

"We believe it was entirely accidental that they met each other." Dr. Graham theorized. "It would explain why Zilla swam away so fast once Godzilla started moving."

"Why did one of Godzilla's spines glow though?" Nick wondered aloud, completely missing Vivienne and Serizawa sharing a glance.

"Maybe it's an intimidation display?" Elsie theorized.

"But why did Zilla approach to begin with if it was?"

Mendel pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing. "This guy just keeps getting more confusing the longer we study him." He groaned.

--

Godzilla snorted as the trail went cold again.

The Titan had been tracking the scent for hours now, and he was no closer to finding the source of it than he was when he started. Goji grumbled in frustration, his tail flicked in the deep water, stirring up some of the settled sand. He turned and inhaled the faded scent on his spine again, more determined than he had in the last thirty-four years when he was first awakened by the humans. He would find the source of this scent.

He knew he could.

--

I woke up, feeling refreshed after a long night's sleep, and crawled out of my nest.

I made sure to build my burrow in such a way that leaving it would be pointing me in the right direction straight away. After quenching my thirst in a nearby lake, and sunbathing for a few minutes, I set off again. Rocks crunched under my hand and feet as I scaled the mountain on all fours. My claws came in handy as the loose ground almost sent me crashing back down a couple of the slopes more than once. After it happened one too many times, I started to plan out where to walk, which helped immensely at keeping my footing.

Interestingly, the terrain went from lush jungle to an arid, rocky, and grassy hills at a high enough elevation. The air got thinner, and the tallest thing around was either a lone tree, or me. I did spot some hikers at one point and was unlucky enough to have my picture taken from afar by a few, but most were too busy hiking to even notice me. Internally, I bet that at least most 3/4ths of them were taken just to be sold if I ever did anything like my mother did.

After I had finally scaled the mountain, I made my way down the other side, at a considerably faster pace. The terrain transitioned from arid and dry, to even more lush and green than the other side of the mountain. There was a persistent fog that hung in the air, almost permanently, and it clung to me so much I felt like I was underwater again. I was so high up, that the low hanging clouds were flowing over the mountains like a waterfall. On the bright side, on an area where visibility was very good, I could see the ocean, miles away from me.

After another hour of scaling mountains that were decreasing in size, I finally hit somewhat level ground, and started making good progress once again. And my luck blessed me when I found a river. I jumped in, and relished the feeling of all the built-up grime, dust and anything else clinging to me being cleaned off by the currents of the water around me. After finishing my bath, I felt for the current, and followed it. I knew that most rivers either lead to lakes or the ocean, and this one felt like it was the latter.

Fresh water felt... pretty much the same as salt water on my gills, somehow. I didn't really question it, as it was probably just another mutation in my body. Funnily enough, there was an alligator where I began swimming, and they taste like chicken.

After swimming for a good half an hour, I finally happened upon civilization. It wasn't much, just a road and a few buildings, but it was close enough to the river that I kept myself firmly underwater from then on out, only peeking out when needed. The bits of human settlement only increased the closer I got to the coast, and I eventually found myself passing under a bridge. I peeked my head out above water and nearly roared in happiness when I saw I was extremely close to the ocean. Unfortunately for me, I poked my head just a bit too far out of the water, because someone screamed.

I bolted, the river flattening out so much I was forced to run in the water. There were chaotic noises coming from the town, followed by more shouting, some of it was even legible to me.

"The demons from the island can swim!" Someone screamed.

Hearing that made me skid to a stop and turn to the town. 'Demons from the island'? Wait... if this is Costa Rica, and they mistook me for a 'demon' from some island...

Something passed over me from the sky, and I looked up to see a goddamn Pterodactyl.

"The fuck?" I muttered to myself. "Jurassic Park exists here too? ...How does that even... I am so confused. ...Wait, that's an even better choice than South America. On Isla Nublar or Sorna I don't even have to worry about any humans seeing me. Plus, dinosaur meat."

A gunshot near my foot caused me to jump and turn to see a group of men with shotguns. I lunged toward the water, dodging the poorly aimed shots from the men as I dove into the crashing waves. Shotgun pellets hit the surface of the water above me, and the small bb's slowly fell around me as I swam.

Once I was far enough out at sea, I slowed to a stop to more heavily consider going to the only two islands on earth inhabited by dinosaurs.

On one hand, Isla Nublar and Sorna are patrolled by the Costa Rican government to make sure people stay off the island for their own protection. The islands are uninhabited by humanity, and considering the current year, it would be three years before any human sets foot on either island until Jurassic World starts its initial construction, but that's even farther away. Not to mention, dinosaur meat, something that I have never tasted before in either life for obvious reasons. Also, the islands are closer than the Amazon as well.

And to top it all off, no one would expect me to be there. My previous plan was to head back to French Polynesia, following the reverse path that my mother took to get to New York. But I soon realized that the military -and Monarch, now that I'm thinking about it. Since Legendary Godzilla exists here, then that means they do too- would eventually figure out where I'm going, track me back there, and try to kill me. Since I was partial to living, I changed destinations to South America, to keep them off my trail.

On the other hand, both islands would be potentially dangerous for me until I become the biggest theropod on either landmass. Then there's also the matter of the oversized and very smart -for dinosaurs- Velociraptors, who could open doors. But considering I was already bigger than a 'Raptor, and I would eventually get even bigger, the cons of going to the islands were becoming lesser and lesser.

The only major problems I'd really have would be the Tyrannosaurs on either island or the Spinosaurus on Sorna. Now, I'm not going to kill Rexy, even in self-defense. The Queen of Isla Nublar can stay the queen until she's taken off the island in the late 2010's. The Spino, however... That thing may be a challenge even if I am slightly bigger than it.

If I had atomic breath, it would be easy, but I've been periodically trying over the last week, and nothing has ever happened. I am able to briefly shoot out a bit of 'power breath' now, about two or three seconds worth in fact, but other than that I have no ranged option, which would be necessary to deal with that actual oversized tuna-head. For my power breath to even be useful at this stage of life I'd need a lighter or a torch. As for why I didn't use it when I was in the Bahamas, I didn't want to blow myself up from the gas.

Go to dino islands, or Amazon River. Decisions, decisions...

Eh, fuck it.

The small island chain that contained Isla Nublar and Sorna were somewhere around 120 miles and 200-something miles off the coast of Costa Rica, located in some island chain called the Muertes Archipelago, or something along those lines. They shouldn't be that hard to find, considering there should be buildings all over both islands that could easily be seen from sea.

Wait a second, I just realized that the world probably knows all about both islands at this point. In 1997, or really, last year, which is very weird coming from a guy born in 2002, the T. Rex buck went on a drug induced rampage through a part of San Diego. Man, first that happens in Cali, then New York is besieged by my mother, this world's US can't get a break, huh.

And considering the Monsterverse elements, things are only going to get worse, starting in just a single year.

With my destination set and a swish of my tail, I set off for the twin islands of dinosaurs.

Chapter Text

After searching for either island for nearly three entire days, taking time to rest and sleep at the ocean floor and time to hunt fish which added up to around three and a half days, I finally spotted Isla Sorna on the eve of the third day.

To be honest, I was surprised I missed Isla Nublar, but I expected it was probably not in my search pattern. Said search pattern was just a jig zag of around ten miles in width, and there was also the fact that Nublar is only twenty or so miles in size from what I remember.

My feet thudded with new weight as I walked up the shoreline. Once I realized I was taller, I walked over to a tide pool and looked at my reflection. I had filled out some. I had grown to around eight feet in height, and a brief glance at my tail made me add another two feet to my length. All the travelling in water and gorging myself on fish had filled out the gangly looking parts of my infant body with muscle and flesh as well. I bet I probably weighed in somewhere around a thousand pounds at this point.

My spines had also grown a little bit, looking more like pointed osteoderms than spikes at this point. My skin had also darkened and thickened, taking on a more charcoal color. I guess I hit a growth spurt thanks to the radiation that shot into me from one of Godzilla's spines. My head finally looked proportional to my body now as well, instead of being a bit too big. Don't get me wrong, I still looked like a baby, considering my eyes were still pretty large, but at least I didn't look like a budget velociraptor anymore.

My claws had also changed, becoming more hook-like in appearance, while the dexterity of my fingers had gotten stronger, meaning I now had full use of my hands to do most activities a human can. That was something I could abuse to the absolute limit of my capabilities, since my hands were about the same size as a human's, just bigger.

I walked inland, trying to keep my footsteps light as I moved through the foliage. Already I could hear the distant vocalizations of actual dinosaurs.

"Okay... What's my plan here?" I muttered to myself. "I could try and find the old InGen camp that came through last year and 'commandeer' some things from it. Hmm, I know how to work with mechanics and electronics a bit, so perhaps I could see if that communications station at the workers village or the laboratory still works. Some of the power still worked in the 2001 movie from what I remember. If I can get something running, I can at least try to keep track of where the military thinks I am."

"But first, food. I'm starving."

I let my instincts guide me as I smelled the ground, trying to find any scent. After a few minutes of walking around, I finally caught something, and followed. The scent took me through a dense forest, teeming with birds and small mammals. After a few minutes of tracking by smell, and a few prints I saw on the ground, I finally found my prey, a lone Gallimimus. My muscles coiled, and I crouched very low, using all four limbs to soften my approach. The Gali lifted its head up, a small frog in its mouth, and looked around, its entire neck allowing it to turn its head all the way behind it.

While its head was turned the other way, I pounced, much faster than I thought I could, and my claws sunk into its flesh. The dinosaur squawked and flailed until I bit onto its neck and broke it, and the whole beast fell to the ground. With my prey caught and killed, I sliced it open and dug in. The flesh tasted amazing, if a little off, considering it was technically a clone of a dino with frog DNA mixed in.

On the topic of taste, if you're wondering what human tastes like, you're disgusting. Literally. Human flesh is oily, fatty, and tastes absolutely terrible to me. I don't even understand how some animals eat it, but then again, I have a lot of human memories of good food and a mouth full of about as many taste buds.

--

After finishing my meal and my musings on the horrible taste of human, I set off again.

Since I had landed on the southwest shore, if I kept going inland, I should eventually find the remains of the 'factory floor' as John Hammond once said, the old Laboratory building from the third movie. I passed over a small stream, and briefly stopped to take a drink. Across the stream was a Compy, which I growled at it, sending the little carnivore scampering away. With my thirst quenched, I continued onward, eyes on a swivel for any movement in the trees.

I couldn't really remember when the Spinosaurus was created, since it's only showed up in a single movie, not to mention the fact that Isla Sorna hasn't been visited since 2001 in the movies, so my knowledge of the lore is limited at best.

I froze when I heard the sound of an engine in the distance.

"The fuck? I thought these islands were deserted until 2001?" I wondered aloud.

I sprinted off towards the sound of the engine, my feet thudding on the ground, throwing up dirt and small twigs. I leaped over a fallen log, startling a small group of Compsognathus in the process. I skidded to a stop at the crest of a hill, catching my breath as I stared at the old facility. The building looked almost fully operational, even some of the parking lot lights were on. It was mostly surplus military vehicles that were parked in the area, most of them converted to carry specialized equipment. And there were people. Actual living humans working at the place.

"...How? I thought this place was abandoned after the hurricane..."

Wait... if I'm remembering it correctly... When Masrani bought out InGen in mid to late 1998, some of the employees, probably including that Henry Wu guy, came to Isla Sorna and created a few illegal species not even a hundred days after the buy-out, the Spinosaurus being one of them. I believe after they left, and after the third movie, the Spinosaurus caused a massive die off of species after it was released, due to it being about as aggressive as a Skullcrawler on an empty stomach.

"I must have found that operation then. Maybe I can try to stop them from creating that stupid sail backed menace or kill it before it has the chance to grow too much. ...Unless they released it as an adult somehow, but I doubt it."

I disappeared back into the brush, intent on exploring a bit to find the perfect place to nest. As far as I could tell, their operations were well underway at this point, so it could be quite a while before they ever left the island.

Until then, let's see what's left over from the previous tenants of the island.

A young Iguanodon shuffled on its feet as it lazily grazed on a fern.

It was one of the younger members of its herd, barely out of its teen years, but it thought it was one of the strongest, despite its age. It pulled its head up when it heard a noise to its right, and the young beast stood up on its hind legs as it turned, ready to attack whatever predator was there.

There was nothing, and the young creature was slightly confused, and that was when I struck.

I lunged out of the foliage, near silently thanks to lessons learned, mouth wide open. My jaws closed around the young Iguanodon's neck, and the beast began flailing. Before it could try and attack me with its thumb claw, I clamped down, breaking its windpipe and cracking bones. The beast struggled for a second more, but eventually fell over, almost taking me with it. After taking a few seconds to rest, I dragged the body out of the field and into the woods near it, then began to feast.

It's been about four months since I made landfall on Isla Sorna, and I've done quite a bit in that time.

For starters, the people making illegal dinos in the facility are still there. After a bit of brainstorming, I remembered that they left sometime in 1999, after fears of being discovered got the better of them, or something like that. For the last three months I've been keeping an eye on the facility they're at, and so far, they show no signs of packing up and moving out, but there has been a noticeable decrease in personnel at the lab.

Since arriving, I had taken up residence in an old radio building that was so overgrown and far back into a small hill it was completely hidden from the dirt road about three hundred feet away from it. So well hidden in fact, that I quite literally stumbled into it while exploring. Amazingly, the power still worked, and after looking around inside, I realized it had very high-tech communications equipment inside it, for the late 90's, at least. That being said, the tech from here was more advanced than the 90's tech of my home world, which was nice to learn.

The communications tower its connected to is situated all the way up on one of the mountains, although it was damaged in the hurricane. But thanks to the illegal operations here, they've completely repaired, and upgraded, the tower, which was an unexpected boon for me. So, after some tinkering, accidental shocking via loose wires, reading technical manuals about how it worked and how to fix it, followed by some salvaging from a few other old outposts, I finally got it working after about a month of constant work. It functioned well, despite some lingering static that never went away no matter what I did.

From what I've gathered on the radio, there hasn't been either a mine collapse in the Philippines, or an evacuation of Janjira yet. Since I don't know when the prologue of the 2014 movie happened, I'm just going to assume its sometime in the middle of this year. Other than that, I've also caught some military chatter about me as well. Turns out the tower can pick up military frequencies, something I think the people here did intentionally to ward off a bit of paranoia about being discovered.

The military is still looking for me, with Major Hicks still at the lead. I swear that man has to be a New Yorker to hunt for me so ravenously. I also figured out the date as well, thanks to an old computer in my nest. Apparently, it was October when my mother went to New York, which must have been a really scary early Halloween for the residents of the city.

I have also grown a bit more in my time on the island, hitting another growth spurt just a week ago. I am now nine feet tall and twenty-six feet long, making me around the size of a Baryonyx. My spines now look like shorter versions of the adult ones with sharpness to match, and I am now fully charcoal black, with a lighter underbelly.

Interestingly, my head is a bit squarer than what I remember from the show and movie, and my tail is longer than I remember as well. My teeth also look different as well, with there being more of them and their sharpness being more prominent. My spines are also a bit more jagged than I expected. I've mostly just reasoned that by brief encounter with the radiation from Godzilla has altered my body somewhat. On the downside, my growth is severely slowed without radiation to feed on.

Speaking of radiation, I... still have none.

There are no active or even dormant volcanos on this island, so I can't find a source of radiation unless I go underwater or to Isla Nublar. And considering I now know that there's a giant semi-aquatic dinosaur that breathes atomic fire in the water, I'm not going back out to sea until I can swim much faster than I can now. On a somewhat related note, my power breath has gotten noticeably stronger, with me able to hold it for six whole seconds, and it being able to knock smaller dinosaurs off their feet and stagger the larger ones.

I have experimented with lighting it, with predictable results. I am fairly sure I have a small but growing gas chamber or chambers somewhere inside me, that opens whenever I use my power breath. The contents of the chamber are still somewhat unknown to me, but I've narrowed it down to four different chemicals, those being hydrogen, butane, methane or acetylene. How I naturally make these gasses in my body I still don't know, but I'm calling kaiju magic on it until I can figure out more of my own biology.

The only problem with my power breath is that I can't light it myself, I'm forced to use an external means of doing it. As far as I can tell, and from what I can remember when I learned about Godzilla's inner workings, I believe I know why. The big guy has a biological igniter that lights up the energy in his atomic breath, something that I might not have yet due to being so physically young.

The lack of a biological igniter at infant stage must be a safety measure so that the hatchlings don't burn down the nest or blow themselves up on accident. A smart natural safety measure for infants living in the nest, but for a lone Zilla living on Isla Sorna, which is home to quite a few predators that want to take a bite out of me simply for existing, a roadblock.

Speaking of predators, I still haven't caught the scent of the Spinosaurus, which means they still have it caged up somewhere in that facility. So, I'm still waiting on that front. On the other talon, the sharpness of my spines and claws have come in handy more than once, because I'm apparently in a bitter feud with the local Velociraptor pack.

I have no clue what I did to earn their hatred, but I now sport a few new scars on my sides, plus a prominent one running down my face near my eye from when I fought the alpha, who was the same size as me before I grew up a bit more. On the bright side, after I killed a few of them, they mostly leave me alone now, unless I accidentally intrude on their confusingly shaped territory, or they feel like trying to kill me again.

Let me tell you, it is a big pack, at least thirty adults with seven or eight subadults, and who knows how many juveniles back at their nest. And those numbers are after I took out thirteen of them in our latest fight. I now believe that they are actually two packs that merged together at one point, which worried me slightly when I first thought of it.

Lately, I have been seriously tempted to burn their entire nest to the ground with my power breath and a satchel of Molotov cocktails at one point, because they have seriously begun to get on my nerves lately. I already have the alcohol needed to do it, since I found a stash of vodka and whiskey in my nest. But attacking the nest is not high on my priorities yet. Finding out how to ignite my power breath, however, is high on the list.

After finishing my meal and gathering a few of the bones, I walked off. During my walk along the trail leading back to my nest, I spotted a herd of Brachiosaurs walking along the field near my path. Truly beautiful animals, with their echoing songs cascading over the land in the mornings and evenings. During one of my searches for an old outpost, I came across a nest made by them, complete with eggs. I may or may not have ripped up a few bushes and replanted them closer to the nest for protection.

Soon I arrived at my hidden nest. Of course, it wasn't as hidden anymore. In the last four months, I've built up a bit of my home ever since I began living there. The old door to the place has long since been broken down and widened, with an old tarp I recovered from an abandoned convoy acting as a replacement. A small fire pit sat in a clearing, complete with an old camping pot hung over the ashes, along with a large slab of rock that I lay on when I'm cooking something like Compy Stew, which is surprisingly delicious. A moderately sized pile of... well... dried dung sat under a shed. Turns out, dried dinosaur poop works great for smokeless fires. Just... don't ask how I collect it.

An old partially rusted InGen hunter truck sat near my home; its hood propped open by a cut down broom handle with a few wrenches scattered on its front bumper. How did I drive the damned thing back to my nest? Uncomfortably, that's how. Holding a wrench makes me look ridiculous, by the way. Besides, it was the only solution for gaining all the materials I needed for my nest.

I moved the tarp out of the way with my snout as I walked into my home.

My nest itself was a pile of old couch cushions and mattresses, all arranged for me to sleep in the center. It was comfy enough, but sleeping on a real bed isn't exactly possible for me anymore, not that it bothered me much ever since I found out I didn't get cold like I used to at night. On the far wall a table was pushed up against it, a couple knives along with some assorted fruits with it.

Turns out, Zillas are omnivores, or I am at least, so that meant I could enjoy bananas again. So, every once in a while, I would trek to the old banana plantation and grab a bunch or two to bring home. The plantation is also the same place where I gained the scar near my eye, since that was where I fought the alpha.

I set down the bundle of bones and picked one of the already dry ribs up. After that, I began sharpening it with an old carving knife I found. The Spinosaurus was supposed to be a testbed or something for dinosaurs being used in war or for the Indominus, at least from what I can remember. So, the sail back was meant to be a 'prototype', as much as a living, breathing, animal can be. They are not weapons, damn it.

I growled slightly when I remembered that asshole from the 2015 movie, Hopkins, I think he was called. I placed the sharpened rib on a rack with more of them, then picked up another, beginning to sharpen it as well. Dinosaur bones are extremely strong, and when sharpened, make for very good spears. If the Spino is as tough as I remembered, I'd need more than my own claws and teeth to take it down.

I finished sharpening the rib and tested its point on a strip of leather made of Velociraptor skin. Not the best of cuts, but very good, nonetheless. I was even getting better at carving.

--

The fire crackled lightly, while the contents of the pot bubbled from under the lid.

Compy stew was a fairly simple dish, but given that it contained Compsognathus meat, it would be rather rare until around 2018, when the little scavengers were released into North America. It was fairly simple to create as well, being comprised of Compy meat, a few herbs and spices from the forests, mushrooms, soybeans, and agama beans. Have I mentioned how delicious dinosaur meat is? Even when it tastes slightly like frog meat, the taste is like an explosion going off in my mouth.

I usually let it cook over the fire for around an hour while stirring occasionally, before letting it cool and eating it. Even though I could eat raw meat, I still liked cooking, which I wanted to keep doing until I was too big to hold a spoon properly. Unfortunately, even now the utensils looked a bit comical in my large hands at this point, and eventually I wouldn't be able to use them at all anymore, unless I created my own utensils and cooking pot that were kaiju sized.

I stretched my legs out, the muscles rippling and stretching as I yawned. I curled back up on the heated rock slab as I waited for my dinner to finish. If a person were to walk upon me like this, they'd be so confused at seeing me lying here in front of a fire.

A small beeping from a timer jolted me out of my thoughts, and I pulled the pot off of the fire pit. After letting it cool a bit and stirring, I began to eat, relishing the rich taste on my tongue. After finishing my dinner, I let the fire die down to ashes as I gazed at the starry night. My thoughts drifted from one subject to the next as I picked out constellations I knew.

One thought in particular caught me off guard, however.

What do I do if I'm still on this island when Eric Kirby crash lands here with his mom's boyfriend.

I'm not sure what happened to the adult to where his dehydrated corpse was still in the hang glider, but Eric somehow survived on this island for a little over two months before his parents, Dr. Grant, and his assistant came to 'rescue' him.

"I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it." I quietly said to myself.

With the fire completely gone and no other reason to stay outside, I retreated into my home and slowly went to sleep on my mattress and cushion nest.

--

Nick quietly groaned and rubbed his eyes, trying to ward away the tiredness he felt.

It had been three months since they last saw Zilla. Their last sighting wasn't even theirs, since one of Monarch's agents received a photo of it crossing a mountain in Costa Rica from one of their relatives. Since then, nothing. Not a single sighting from Costa Rica to French Polynesia. They had even done an aerial reconnaissance of Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna and still came up with nothing, besides signs of human habitation in one of the old laboratories there.

Nick massaged his temples lightly as he stared at a small map of the Pacific Ocean. None of Zilla's actions made any sense, and some of them even concerned him about the creature's intelligence. Before he could go back down the hole that he had dug himself into, a pair of slender arms slowly wrapped around him, and a presence pressed onto his back.

"Nick, come to bed, please?" Audrey whispered. "If that thing doesn't want to be found, maybe you should focus on some of the other things Monarch has tried to get you to look into."

Nick sighed, leaning his head back and placing a kiss on Audreys cheek. "Alright, I guess I should get some sleep before midnight."

No way was he going to go against the love of his life. Not when he himself forgot to sleep or eat sometimes.

Audrey giggled lightly. "It's nearly one in the morning, did your clock stop working or have you been so focused you just haven't looked at it?"

Nick looked over at the clock on his desk and saw that it was 12:45 in the morning. He sighed deeper that time, and slowly stood from his chair. Audrey took the initiative and pulled the man to the bedroom, while he tried to unbutton his shirt. After trying repeatedly and failing, Nick looked down and saw he was just wearing a T-shirt.

'Maybe I'm more tired than I thought.' He thought.

Chapter Text

The sun shone high in the sky as I walked along the beach, enjoying life and letting the sun warm me to the bone.

I was on the way to my little testing ground for my monthly power breath test. To ensure that I didn't lose one of my more dangerous attacks, I decided to do monthly tests to test its efficiency, flame length, gas capacity, and a few other things. I was perfectly content to do my tests, then head back home and enjoy some Iguanodon steaks.

I heard a content sigh from my back and glanced back. Eric Kirby was lying between my largest spines, arms behind his head as he soaked in the sun with me.

"Hard to imagine that I was in Costa Rica seven weeks ago, when Ben asked if I wanted to see a real-life dinosaur." He said, slowly twirling the small baton he was holding. "Now I'm riding on the back of one of the most powerful creatures on the planet, on the beaches of Isla Sorna, one of the only places to not only see a real dinosaur but be hunted by them as well. When did my life get so weird?"

I huffed in amusement, as my thoughts went back to when I first found Eric, scared, alone, and being hunted.

To say that Eric Kirby was having a bad couple of days was a severe understatement.

The sick irony of it was his day was going amazingly until now. He and Ben were vacationing in Costa Rica for the week, when Ben told him about a man who owned a parasailing boat. He said that Eric could see the dinosaurs on Isla Sorna if he wanted. He had obviously agreed, because he loved dinosaurs. He had rewatched the San Diego footage no telling how many times trying to see the T Rex.

Eric lunged under the roots of a tree as something big smashed into it, then growled at him. Claws as big as his hands threatening to carve into his flesh.

Then the boat got attacked, and they were forced to release the line. Then they had floated all the way onto the dinosaur infested island. Then Ben died from his injuries in the crash, and Eric was left alone.

Eric mentally slotted Velociraptors even lower on his favorite dinosaur list every time one of them got close to carving him open. He had been running from them for an hour at this point, and he was mentally thanking his dad that he suggested track because of his athleticism.

"Stupid Raptors!" He cursed under his breath.

Eric was starting to get tired at this point, having ran for an hour on adrenaline. Then, the unthinkable happened. Eric tripped, rolled twice, and his back landed against a large tree. While trying to catch his breath after having the wind knocked out of him, his fear multiplied when a Velociraptor burst out into the clearing, its eyes immediately zeroing in on him. He swore the thing licked its lips before it started to slowly and sadistically stalk towards him, its claws outstretched as if to bring him closer to its jaws.

Eric was frozen in fear as more raptors started poking their heads and bodies out into the clearing as well. He was going to be eaten alive, just like Dr. Grant said in his book. Just as he was about to close his eyes and accept the inevitable, something unexpected happened.

A large charcoal black foot crashed down on the raptors head, crushing it into the forest floor. Eric stared at the spasming body of the raptor only three feet away for a moment, then looked up, and up, and up. Above him was a strange looking dinosaur, almost fifteen feet tall and probably thirty or thirty-five feet long. It was charcoal black, with strangely shaped hands, two sets of jagged spines running along its back leading all the way down to its tail, and its eyes glowed a faint reddish orange with a very human emotion.

Anger.

The massive creature inhaled, a massive amount of air going into its lungs as they were filled.

Then it roared.

The roar seemed to last for minutes on end. The noise was so loud that seemed to silence the entire forest around them, nothing made a sound, not even the frogs or the birds vocalized. Eric covered his ears and it still reverberated through him due to how close he was to it. In the back of his mind, Eric suddenly remembered something from when he was younger, of a news report about some giant creature that was killed in New York. An animal that the government itself named. Zilla.

Did he accidentally find the missing hatchling?

He didn't have any more time to think, as the raptors had recovered as well, and pounced at the creature, snarling in anger at the death of one of their kin. Zilla dodged one, hitting it with its tail and letting the smaller spines on it to puncture the raptor. But another two jumped onto him. Zilla grabbed one by the tail and pulled it into his mouth, chomping down on it and killing it. The other he bashed into a nearby tree, crushing it between itself and the trunk.

Zilla lunged its head out, chomping into one raptor, then pulled back up and lifted its right foot. It stomped down, staggering a few of the raptors, then swung its tail around like a whip, gouging its tail spines into the unfortunate raptors that were just getting back to their feet. Zilla let out a short roar as it turned around to face them again, a low growl almost vibrating the ground.

A larger raptor with a crest of feathers jumped out of the foliage at that point and roared. Zilla opened its mouth and returned the roar, some sort of gas escaping from its mouth that blew it back into a tree. The alpha raptor got to its feet and pounced on the larger creature, and Zilla shook roughly, trying to jostle it off of its side. The alpha raptor stubbornly hung on though, to the point that Zilla decided to topple over to try and crush it. The alpha raptor jumped off though and roared at Zilla as it got to its feet.

Zilla seemed to get even angrier, and slammed its hands down on the ground, roaring straight at it. At that point, Eric noticed that Zilla had a small metal pipe in its left hand.

"What?" He whispered from his hiding place.

As if to answer his question, when the alpha raptor ran at him again, Zilla brought up the pipe and in a quick motion, chomped down on it and roared with its breath attack, but the sparks ignited it, sending a literal column of flame at the raptor. The alpha raptor screeched in pain from within the fire as Zilla slowly approached, the flames from its mouth petering out after around twenty seconds. When the flames died down, the alpha raptor was lying on its side, its flesh charred, melting, and blackened so much it was crumbling apart. Zilla stomped on its head, and the body spasmed lightly before falling limp.

Zilla's head drooped, and the large animal took in deep breaths as the remaining raptors retreated into the forest. When Eric tried to move away, he stepped on a particularly crunchy leaf. He turned back around, and his eyes met Zilla's. Eric froze, his blood freezing in his veins. They stared at each other for what felt like minutes. But the longer they looked at each other, the less fear he felt.

Zilla's eyes seemed to hold a lot of intelligence in them, so Eric decided to do something brave. Or extremely stupid, he supposed. He was still in shock from everything that's happened. He slowly stepped out of his hiding place behind a large root and hesitantly approached the fourteen-foot-tall pseudo-dinosaur.

"Um... Thanks for saving me." He said.

The hard look in the creature's eyes somehow softened, and it huffed at him. Eric swore it nodded at him.

"Did... Did you just nod at me?" He asked.

Zilla's eyes seemed to widen for a moment. But after a few seconds they returned to normal, and it nodded again. Eric was thoroughly flabbergasted.

"Um... Can you understand me?"

Another nod.

"Okay..." Eric scratched the back of his neck. "So, you aren't going to hurt me?"

Zilla shook its head, then motioned for him to follow.

After a very long moment of deliberation, the boy hesitantly followed. Eric had to lightly jog to keep up with the much larger creature's gait, which Zilla noticed, and slowed down a bit, allowing him to simply walk alongside it. After a few minutes of walking and studying the giant pseudo-dinosaur next to him, Eric spoke.

"So, are you a girl or a guy?"

Zilla somehow looked at him with a deadpan expression.

"Oh right. Nod if you're a guy, shake your head if you're a girl."

A nod.

"Ok, so guy then. ...Um, where are we going?"

Zilla stopped and seemed to think for a while. It-He glanced at Eric for almost a minute, then used a foot to move away some of the leaves covering the ground. Eric stared in shock as Zilla began to write on the forest floor. In pretty good English.

'My nest. You landed in raptor territory, and dangerously close to the Spinosaurus.'

After reading that and getting over the minor shock of Zilla being able to write in English, he spoke.

"Wait, what do you mean by Spinosaurus? I don't remember John Hammond or InGen saying anything about there being one of them on the island." Eric said, confusion lacing hit tone.

Zilla erased the writing and began carving his words into the ground again.

'When I arrived on the island, humans were already here. In the building about three miles east of here. A laboratory, I believe.' He moved some more leaves and twigs out of the way with his tail. 'They left a few months after I finished my nest, and released a few kinds of dinosaurs, the Spinosaurus being one of them.'

"I thought bringing more species back to life has been illegal for years." Eric muttered.

Suddenly, Zilla shot back up and looked around, sniffing the air. Eric was confused for a moment, because he didn't smell anything. Until far off in the distance, Eric heard another roar, one that made the hairs on the back of his neck stick straight up, not like Zilla's roar, which was just very loud. He froze and turned towards where the sound came from, fight-or-flight absolutely screaming at him to run for all his legs were worth.

He was about to ask Zilla if that was the Spinosaurus, but his words came out as a yelp when Zilla grabbed him and hoisted him up onto his back. Eric grabbed onto his neck and held on tightly as Zilla started running extremely fast.

In the back of his mind, Eric figured he should stay with Zilla, besides, he's the most agreeable animal that he's met so far on this dinosaur infested island. Plus, he never tried eating him, either.

--

SHIT!

That was my only thought as I sprinted through the forest, Erics arms wrapped tightly onto my neck.

The Spino usually stays near the water, but when I roared at the raptors it must have heard me. Hopefully it gets distracted by all the raptor corpses to try and come after me. I have only fought the Spino once before, and that was when I was only eleven feet tall. I probably have a better chance now, but almost getting my neck snapped has made me hesitant to fight it again.

Eventually, I slowed back down to a walking pace, and continued on to my home. Eric stopped gripping onto me so tightly, and soon started looking around at the beauty of Isla Sorna.

"This place is beautiful." The boy said.

I huffed in agreement as I stepped over a fallen log.

"So, I know you're not a dinosaur, your one of those Zilla things like that big one that was New York in 1998. Have you been here since then?"

I kept walking for a moment, gauging his tone. He was just commenting on what I was, so I made a so-so gesture with one hand as we neared my home. Eric went quiet and kept looking around as I walked. Finally, we made it back to my nest and the boy got off of me. The old radio building still stood, just with a larger hole in its side to accommodate my size. In the last three years my home has grown quite a bit. The old InGen hunter truck has long since been torn taken apart, with me using the parts from it to reinforce the radio building.

The fire pit is still there, just a bit larger, and the stone slab I lay on is still there too. Some of the new things I've added are a few cars I dragged from the parking lot of the lab, using them and their parts to create tools. The human sized cooking pot has been put away since I ate too much for it, and I have since created larger one made out of an excavator bucket, something I still mentally giggle about to this day.

"Whoa... This is your home?" Eric asked, shocked at my ingenuity.

I nodded, using a human sized shovel to move some dried dung into the fire pit. I picked up the magnesium rod I had found back at the lab years ago and clacked it against my teeth, using my power breath to light up the smokeless fire. At that point, Erics stomach rumbled.

"Uh, do you have any food?" He asked.

I let out a deep chuckle and pulled out the smaller pot to make some Compy Stew for the kid.

--

The pot gently bubbled as the familiar smell of Compy Stew wafted through the evening air.

After the shock from everything wore off, Eric started crying about everything that happened after the boat attack. Turns out that his mom's boyfriend, Ben, he told me, died from internal injuries after the crash. After that, he had been on the run from raptors for nearly an hour after wandering the forest for most of the day in a daze.

The poor kid had latched onto me emotionally, and physically, bawling his eyes out, and I honestly did not know how to react, since this kind of situation was very unfamiliar to me. So, I just placed one of my hands on his back, mindful of my claws, and slowly rubbed it in circles until he fell asleep. He woke up a few minutes before the stew was done, hunger from not eating all day pulling him out of sleep.

Eric finally started to eat after a little bit of pushing from myself, but he was almost completely silent for the whole afternoon and evening, and the boy had barely moved from my side. At this point, he's a far cry from the survivor he was in the movie, he's just a scared out of his mind kid at this point. He will grow with time, and I guess I'll help him. I mean, I did invite him into my home. And reveal how intelligent I was, like an idiot.

A lot had changed in the nearly three years I've been here, and so have I. Without a source of radiation, I had grown much slower, only reaching fourteen feet tall and thirty-five feet long a month ago. After I passed twelve feet, I figured I wasn't an infant anymore, so I started referring to my growth at this point as juvenile sized. My appearance mostly stayed the same, besides my spines growing out to be proportional to me. I now looked like a miniature fusion of my mother and Godzilla, with my appearance taking more from my mother.

I still had no biological igniter, which was beginning to worry me. What if the complete lack of radiation has stunted my growth? Would I be stuck growing slowly for the next thirty years just like my mother was, just to get killed with conventional weapons?

A shudder went through my frame as I went further down that mental rabbit hole.

I decided to take a cue from Eric, who had fallen asleep on my side, and try to get some sleep myself. After I heard the sound of a dilophosaurus calling into the night, however, I decided it would be best to sleep inside instead. After putting the fire out, I gently picked the boy up and brought him into my nest, slowly setting him down on a spare mattress. I grabbed an old military blanket and draped it over him, then settled down in my nest. I kept an eye on him, and eventually I too, fell asleep.

--

After a week of mourning, Eric seemed to come to terms with Ben's death, along with being stuck on Isla Sorna for the foreseeable future.

He had been almost completely silent for most of the week after getting over his shock, but he started talking a bit more the longer we were together. I guess it helped that he saw the intelligence in my eyes, so he knew that he was talking to something that at least understood him. Unfortunately, the communications equipment in the radio building are beyond repair, and have been for years. Eric nearly had a mental breakdown when he found that he couldn't contact anyone off of the island, and I once again had a sobbing preteen clinging to my side for a few hours.

"Ow!" Eric yelped.

After the second week, he threw himself into survivor mode, and later decided to learn how to defend himself from any dinosaurs his size. After a bit of brainstorming, he started carrying around my magnesium igniter rod. He must have watched some martial arts movies at one point, because he was actually pretty good at swinging it around, when he wasn't hitting himself in the shins on accident.

I huffed good-naturedly at his yelp, and the boy scowled at me as he picked the rod up, but there was no anger behind it.

"Yeah, I'd like to see you not yelp in pain when it hits you in the shin." He taunted, crossing his arms.

'Swing it slower until you're used to the weight of it.' I wrote on the ground.

"Yeah, yeah." He muttered, disappearing into the old lab.

My worries about the Spinosaurus being extremely aggressive were proven true, as the beast had seen fit to chase any predator of any size for no discernable reason, kill it, and not eat the body. Almost like it was trying to become the only predator on Sorna. The only predators that it didn't seem to chase were the Velociraptors, something that still confused me.

"Found something!"

I was drawn out of my thoughts when Eric comes walking out of the side entrance, a small smile on his face. In his hands is an old backpack filled with food from a vending machine, a first aid kit, some smoke grenades, and a flare gun.

I raised an armored eyebrow at the smoke grenades and the flare gun but 'said' nothing as he piled them onto a small trailer we had found.

"There's some more stuff, I'm gonna go back and get it, then we can go."

Eric disappeared back into the old building, and I kept watch for anything that could ruin our otherwise good moods.

--

That night, we were sitting by the fire and taking inventory of all the supplies he had found. After we had finished, Eric asked me a question.

"So, how do you breathe fire like a dragon?" Eric asked, as we sat around the fire.

I froze for a moment, not expecting him to ask that after nearly two and a half weeks of living with me. I glanced at him, then shrugged, beginning to write on the ground.

'I don't really breathe fire; I actually breathe a flammable gas that I ignite by clicking the rod along my teeth.'

"Huh, cool. But why can't you ignite it yourself? Having to use the rod seems kind of dumb."

'Believe me I know. I guess I'm not old enough to be able to ignite it myself yet.'

"You're like fourteen feet tall, how are you not old enough?"

'Only three years ago back in 1998 I was an infant, and apparently my mother, the one who attacked New York, took thirty years to grow to her size.'

"Oh yeah, I remember seeing a few photos of that thing in the news. But even baby dinosaurs have something to defend themselves with."

'My guess is that I was probably supposed to be in the nest until I was bigger than I am now.'

"That must have been some nest."

'I believe it was called Madison Square Garden. I think your government blew it up though.'

"Wait, if you can't breathe fire, but you can ignite it, that means you're half a dragon!"

I leveled a deadpan look at him. The kid just smirked at me. I lightly knocked his legs out from under him with the soft side of my tail, and he yelped as he was knocked onto his back.

"Not fair!" He growled, getting to his feet and jumping on me.

--

"Zilla! Help!"

My movement ground to a halt when Eric shouted, and I immediately shot off towards him. I crashed through the forest, barely dodging a large tree as I smashed through an old sauropod skeleton. I breached into the clearing and skidded to a stop when I saw Eric at the top of an old crane, the Spinosaurus glaring up at him as it tried to knock him off. The larger predator took notice of me and roared in my direction.

With the Spino's attention on me, I roared back at it. The Spino seemed to take offense at something smaller than it attempting to challenge itself, and began moving towards me, a reptilian expression of anger on its face.

I was still too small to deal with it, but as long as I avoided getting its jaws around my neck, I would be fine. I will not let the Spino hurt Eric, not with his family looking for him.

We began circling each other, each of us sizing the other up. The Spino struck first, lunging at me with its jaws wide open. I ducked, and the sail-backs mouth closed over empty air. I slammed my tail into it, staggering the larger creature, then burrowed into the ground. I snuck around behind the Spino, then burst out of the ground behind it, causing the heavier animal to crash through the weakened ground. I pounced onto its back, claws carving through its sail and into its back.

The Spino roared in anger and pain and turned its head around to snap at me. I jumped off of it, whipping it across the face with my tail. The Spino roared in agony, and I turned around to see that my tail had caught it in the eye, and a large gash went across its entire face. I had partially blinded the creature. The larger animal lunged at me, its teeth sinking into my thigh. I screeched in pain and raked my claw across its snout. The Spino countered by raking its claws across my sides, leaving long gashes along my flank. Its claws got close to my neck, aiming to snap it like it tried to do the last time I fought it.

After roaring in pain when its claws fell short and dug into my shoulder, I finally knocked the Spino off and burrowed again, digging deep into the ground and making it extremely unstable. I surfaced and met the enraged creatures gaze with my own cold glare. The larger animal took a step forward, then crashed through the ground again, leaving only its sail above ground.

With the Spino temporarily dealt with, I ran over to the old crane, and tilted up with my arms held out. Eric quickly jumped into my arms, and I took off through the trees, holding the boy close to my uninjured chest. I heard the Spinosaurus screeching in anger and ran faster, my agile frame weaving between trees and over fallen logs.

I crooned softly at the boy once we got to a river, and Eric dropped to the ground. I quickly leaped into the water, washing all the blood, dirt and grime that clung to my scales. After I finished, Eric climbed up onto my back, and I took off down the river, which hopefully would make the larger predator lose my scent.

"Are... Are we far enough yet?" Eric asked.

I crooned, nodding my head. My wounds felt like they were on fire, and I knew that my thigh would be sore for a week. I had officially survived my second encounter with the Spino, but it was a hollow victory at best. I only hoped I could eventually kill it, before it killed me.

"Not really the best birthday, to be honest." The boy muttered.

I looked back at the boy, a wide-eyed expression on my face, and made a mental note to make something special for that night's dinner.

I was drawn out of the 'highlight reel' of my memories over the last seven weeks by a persistent poking on the top of my head. I stopped walking along the beach and tilted my head to look up at Eric.

"Finally, you've been zoned out for like five minutes. What were you thinking about so hard?"

I leaned down, and Eric jumped off of my neck, landing easily and watching as I wrote in the sand.

'I was thinking back on all the memories we've made, good and bad.'

"I feel like there might be more bad memories." Eric muttered, glancing at my thigh.

My last fight with the Spino still showed on my body, with a slight limp in my step still.

'The limp will heal; it just needs more time.'

"I know. I just hope we never run into that Spinosaurus again."

I huffed lightly, the air ruffling the boy's hair.

'While I may have partially blinded that thing, it is still out there. We just need to be vigilant, and always watch out for any heavy footsteps that aren't me.'

"Yeah." Eric stared out at the ocean for a few minutes, then turned back to me. "Alright, let's make sure you're still a half-dragon, huh?"

I huffed at his continual description of me, and lightly bopped him on the head. After he fake-scowled at me, I took a deep breath, brought the magnesium rod up to my mouth, released my power breath, and clicked the rod on my teeth. My breath ignited, and the testing began once again.

Chapter Text

A ray of sun hit my spines in just the right spot, drawing a pleased rumble from me.

Eric lounged next to me, leaning against my side and enjoying my shade as I basked at our little home. His dino-skin cloak sat folded up next to him, along with his spear made from the sharpened magnesium igniter rod I use to 'breathe' fire.

From what I remember in the movie and/or the book, Eric has traveled down quite a different path than he did in either.

He's filled out quite a bit with muscle from riding on my back and climbing through trees, which intrigued me since he was a bit of a scrawny kid when we first met and that kind of muscle definition was a bit unusual to gain so quickly. He also moves much quieter than normal, almost as quiet as I can be when I'm sneaking around.

And he even killed a raptor.

Shortly after my last fight with the spinosaurus, while still healing from the wounds I received, the kid and I were harvesting some bananas at the plantation, when he was attacked by one. Naturally, once I heard him yelling, I limped over to intervene, but by the time I reached them, he already had the raptor on the backfoot. It was actually pretty cool to see the kid dodge under and slash straight through its throat when it tried to pounce on him.

Obviously, we celebrated his first major kill, and with a bit of help from me, we skinned it and turned it into a cloak for him to blend in better with. Turns out it works very well thanks to the natural camouflage that raptors on the island have, and Eric has taken to wearing it all the time whenever we leave the camp. Life on Isla Sorna, while a test of survival for the both of us, had become somewhat enjoyable. But I knew that it would come to an end eventually.

If everything is still going to 'canon', then Eric's parents, the mercenaries, and Dr. Grant and his pupil should be arriving today. They should be, at least. To my knowledge, I haven't interfered with anything pertaining to them. I haven't even left Isla Sorna since my arrival three years ago, due to a certain giant lizard that's out there in the oceans.

Speaking of the big guy, he's apparently still searching for me, along with Monarch and Major Hicks. At this point it feels like the entire world is looking for me. I know that eventually I'm going to get too large for Isla Sorna's ecosystem to sustain me. Since I'm in the Monsterverse, perhaps Skull Island or the hollow earth would be a good idea. Technically both are horrible ideas, considering one has a giant ape on it and the other is supposed to be where Kong's species came from

I hope that Eric and I can reach them before they get eaten by the spinosaurus, mauled by raptors, or trampled by a random stampede. Which brings another problem to mind. In 'canon', Eric saves Dr. Grant from a raptor attack, and if we aren't there to help them, there's a high chance that a good man and my favorite character from the series will die.

I've debated on Eric and I just charging into the fight with the T-rex and Spinosaurus that happens -if it still does happen, at least, butterfly effect and all that jazz- to keep all the humans in one place and away from the ever confusing territory of the raptors. Obviously the plan is complex, and I've tried to plan for hundreds of possibilities that may or may not happen. Eventually I just gave up and came to the conclusion that I'd need to wing it once the movie plot begins.

"Do you think my parents are still looking for me?" Eric suddenly asked, drawing me out of my thoughts.

I raised my head up and looked back at the boy, who still had his eyes closed, but a slightly pained expression flashed across his face.

This… was the first time he had actually talked about his parents ever since he sobbed into my side throughout the first couple of days he was here. He never even talked about Ben, not since we buried him a couple hundred feet from my home.

"I mean, my mom's definitely looking for me, and she probably called my dad as soon as we didn't get back to the dock. They've probably checked half the ocean and most of Central America by now. I know they're still looking for me… they have to be…"

I leaned back and lightly bumped my snout against him. The boy started scratching it with one arm while he looked me in the eye. We sat in silence for a few minutes as the sorrow in his eyes slowly faded.

"Yeah, they're definitely looking for me. Besides, I have to introduce my new best friend to them!" He joked.

I huffed a laugh, ruffling the boy's hair in the process.

I hated seeing him sad since I always had a soft spot for kids, even when I was human. To be separated from his parents for so long made me feel terrible.

"We should go for a supply run. We ran out of Crunch Bars yesterday, and I think I saw some canned food in the complex." Eric said as he stood up.

I huffed an agreement, and we got to our feet. Some custom made saddlebags were attached to my spines, and Eric jumped up onto my neck.

"Alright, let's go."

–

The jungle was dark, yet peaceful as we traversed its depths.

Distant dinosaur calls permeated the air, giving it a surreal feeling to both of us. I was much more used to the southeastern US forests, but three years of living on this island had desensitized me slightly to the wow factor of living dinosaurs. Especially since one of my favorites is a rampaging beast that I was forced to half blind in my last fight with it.

"Hey, what's that?" Eric asked.

I turned to my right to see a small marshy alcove, almost completely hidden from anywhere but my height. Intrigued, Eric and I walked into it, and I was surprised to see a half-sunken truck in a marsh. The same one that Eric and Dr. Grant took cover in, after the raptor attack.

I was somewhat surprised that it took us that long to find this truck, to be honest. But as I looked around, I realized just how secluded the marsh really was, so it was no wonder that we never found this place. If my radio building was ever destroyed, this area would be a good fallback base.

Eric jumped down from my neck and jogged over to the sunken vehicle.

"...The door must be locked from the inside. Maybe I could get in from the top." Eric muttered as I lumbered over.

The boy walked over to the top and crawled onto it. After a few seconds, he jammed his spear into the door frame and pried it open, then gasped after he looked inside.

"Wow! There's tons of good stuff in here!" He exclaimed.

I looked into the back and saw tons of supplies, ranging from food to medical to miscellaneous equipment that a person may need for surviving in the wilderness.

"This place looks pretty good for a second camp. What do you think?" Eric asked.

I nodded after glancing around a bit more.

"Cool. We could turn this into a pretty good base if your home ever got discovered by the Spino."

I turned to glare at the boy, who raised his hands and took a step back.

"Right, right. Don't jinx it."

After around an hour, Eric and I (mostly Eric) had sorted through the supplies in the sunken truck. A few completely sunken vehicles were dredged up and placed in defensible positions. Soon Eric and I were resting and enjoying the peaceful midday sun.

After a particularly warm ray of sunshine beamed onto my spines, I fell asleep.

–

Alan Grant was not having a very good week.

The problem was, it had started out pretty well. Paul and Amanda Kirby of 'Kirby Enterprises' had approached him for a flyover tour of Isla Sorna for quite a hefty price. He and Billy decided to take the chance, and soon found themselves flying over the island.

Things started going wrong, however, when they started to land.

Now, one destroyed plane, two eaten mercenaries, and one enraged spinosaurus later, Alan found out that he wasn't even being paid for this, since there was no such thing as 'Kirby Enterprises'.

Alan kept his head on a swivel as the group walked through the parking lot of a massive laboratory nestled in the jungle. They had happened upon a raptor nest a while ago, and he was concerned that they were still in their territory. He knew that the raptors designed by Ingen were terrifying, he had been up close and personal with them before, years ago on Isla Nublar. Alan was just glad his entire opinion on dinosaurs wasn't ruined by that failed amusement park.

The overgrown lobby greeted them with the crunching of broken glass and the ever present buzzing of a lone light fixture.

"Eric!" Paul called.

"Paul! Don't!" Amanda scolded in a much quieter tone.

After trying an old phone to see if it worked, everyone soon made their way through the facility, breaking into a few vending machines for a snack. They soon came upon an incubator lab, filled with shattered eggs and old equipment. Alan stopped for a moment when he noticed some of the equipment was missing, along with a large hole in the wall.

"Is this how you make dinosaurs?" Amanda asked.

"No. This is how you play god." Alan replied.

They continued onward, walking past incubator after incubator, and even to some capsules of fluid with a few dinosaur fetuses in them. It was almost peaceful, looking at the remains of the facility slowly being reclaimed by nature.

At least, until the screaming started.

Alan jerked his head around to see Amanda scampering away from the tubes, a raptor head peeking between them. Everyone ran out of the room, lungs burning as the screeches of the de-extinct creature echoed through the hallways. The halls soon changed to a holding area, with cages built for smaller dinosaurs to be held in. Everyone skidded to a stop when they saw a dead end.

"This way!" Paul exclaimed as he ran down another caged hallway, everyone following close behind.

The way he ran was also a dead end, a locked door cutting off their means of escape. Everyone turned around to see the raptor skid to a stop at the other end of the hallway. Somehow the group split when they tried to escape the raptor, ending up with Billy and Amanda being pushed into a corner by the raptor behind the cage door.

After a few moments of the raptor trying to reach them, it slowly looked up, then back at them, then began climbing.

"Push!" Amanda exclaimed.

Billy and Amanda pushed the door holding the raptor all the way out of the cage, and into the corner next to it, temporarily trapping the dinosaur. Everyone started running back to the entrance, but Alan stopped and looked back at the raptor when it began making different noises.

"My god…" Alan whispered. "He's calling for help."

They soon all made it out of the complex, the echoing squawks of the raptor far behind. They made it into the treeline just as the raptor stopped at the outside of the building and called for its pack.

"Into the herd!" Alan shouted as they ran out into a clearing.

The dinosaurs in the clearing, upon seeing the humans, called out and began running, coalescing into a stampede. Alan chanced a look behind him, and saw more raptors.

"Into the trees!" He shouted again, stopping briefly to help Udesky back to his feet.

The pair ran into the trees together, taking cover behind a large tree. Alan didn't hear any screaming after a minute of hiding, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"No one's been killed yet." He muttered.

"Thank god for that." Udesky replied.

Alan peeked out over the split tree and looked around. The area he could see was temporarily clear of raptors. He went back down, flashed a thumbs-up at Udesky, then yelped when a raptor was right on the tree.

"Shit!" Udesky cursed as they were slowly surrounded by raptors. "Got a plan?"

Alan stayed quiet, staring at one raptor, then another, flashes of old memories reared back and slashed at the forefront of his mind. Then suddenly, gas grenades landed near the two and started filling the air with tear gas, sending the raptors back a few steps. Alan and Udesky started coughing as the gas invaded their lungs, while the raptors retreated after getting a lungful themselves.

Suddenly, hands grabbed both of theirs, and pulled them out of the gas. Alan kept coughing while they ran through the jungle, and finally got a good look at his savior. It was a boy in a dinosaur-skin cloak, with a hand-made satchel on one side and a metal spear slung over his back. A pair of goggles covered his eyes, and a black bandana covered the rest of his face.

The boy led them into a hidden marshy alcove, where an overturned truck sat, half sunk into the mud. The kid quickly opened the door to the top of it and pulled them inside, where they sat down on an old mattress, still coughing from the gas grenades.

"Thanks." Alan said, coughing a bit more. "Thanks a lot, Eric."

"Yeah, thanks, kid." Udesky added.

The boy stiffened slightly, then looked back at the two men.

"You know who I am?" Eric asked.

"Yeah." Alan replied. "Your parents are here. They're looking for you."

"Together?"

"Together."

"They even hired me and a couple others to protect them, but you see how well that turned out." Udesky commented.

"That's not good. They don't do so well together." Eric said.

"You'd be surprised what people can do when they have to." Alan responded, before coughing a couple times.

Eric changed out an electronic lamp that was dying, then looked at Alan with a contemplative expression.

"You're Alan Grant." He said. "What are you doing here?"

"Your parents uh… 'invited' me along." Alan replied.

Udesky snorted. "That's one way to put it." He remarked.

The three soon settled in for some food in the truck, two of them completely unaware that right behind the overturned vehicle was a rather large charcoal black animal with bluish black spines, dozing away.

"I read both of your books." Eric said, drawing Alan's attention. "I like the first one more. Before you went to Isla Nublar. You liked dinosaurs then."

"Well, back then they hadn't tried to eat me yet." Alan replied.

"...When Ingen cleared out a couple years ago, they left a lot of stuff behind." Eric said, eyes moving over the interior of the truck.

"Any weapons?" Udesky asked. "Rifles, shotguns, things like that?"

"No. Just my spear, two flare guns with fifteen flares, and a half empty crate of tear gas grenades."

"And I appreciate you using them to save us." Alan responded, before picking up a flask with yellow liquid in it.

"Be careful with that. It's from a big dino. I use it to scare off the smaller ones, but it attracts the spinosaurus."

"Is this T-rex pee?" Alan asked.

"Nope."

"How did you get it?"

"You don't want to know."

"That's disgusting." Udesky remarked.

"Dessert?" Eric queried, tossing a Crunch Bar at both of them.

"Eric I have to say, I'm astonished you've lasted eight weeks on this island." Alan said after unwrapping the chocolate.

"It's really only been that long? I swear I've been here for a year at this point."

"You're alive, and that's the important thing. And thanks to you, that's one we have in common."

They went quiet for a moment as they finished their chocolate.

"...Did you read Malcolm's book?" Alan asked.

"Yeah." Eric replied.

"So?"

"I don't know, I mean… It was kind of preachy. And too much chaos. Everything is chaos. It kind of seemed like the guy was high on himself or something."

The three shared a chuckle.

"Well that's two things that we have in common, kid." Udesky said.

The three talked long into the night, until they eventually fell asleep.

--

It was dark.

Darker than it had ever been on the island.

Lightning was the only thing that illuminated the night as I sprinted through the bush. My feet thudded heavily across the soaked ground, mud and water squelched and splashed under my feet as I ran faster than I ever had in my life.

I heard something cackling in the distance, and harsh gusts of wind blew through the jungle. I ran ever harder, desperate to escape whatever I was afraid of. I weaved between trees, over fallen logs, and leaped across streams. Finally, I made it to the coast, and my lungs were burning from my sprint.

Then I heard the cackling again.

Even more wind blew as something flew over me, and hovered maliciously near the coast.

I jerked up when a strike of lightning illuminated a massive silhouette. A very familiar one. Its three heads were locked onto me, and me alone. Its eyes burned with unrestrained hatred and malice, with a simmering undertone of pure rage.

I fell back when it landed on the coast, still staring at me as the heads got ever closer to the point I could easily see them. Lightning struck them, making the golden scales of Ghidorah briefly glow.

"Did you think you could escape us with your pitiful shields, abomination?" The center head asked mockingly.

"I don't think it even has the mental prowess to defend itself." The left head remarked.

"We all know that humans cannot understand us. Why not just enjoy this little snack?" The right head asked.

"We shall."

"He's an embarrassment to all Titans, including us!"

"You couldn't save the boy, what makes you think you could stand against us!"

The three heads striked out at me like a coiled snake, but just as they got close enough for me to see the whites of their eyes, I heard someone shouting my name.

"Zilla!"

"Zilla! Wake up!"

–

"Zilla, wake up!" Eric shouted.

I jolted awake, limbs under me and my body coiled to strike at anything in sight.

"Whoa, easy, Zilla. It's just me." Eric said. "Easy, boy, easy."

I forcibly slowed down my heavy breathing until my heart wasn't thudding against my ribcage.

'What the hell kind of nightmare was that?! Is Ghidorah telepathic or something!?' I thought. 'Wait, was that comment from that conspiracy nut in GvK right about them needing telepathy in order to communicate?'

"Eric! Are you alright?" Another voice asked.

"I'm fine! Just waking up Zilla." He replied.

"Who's Zilla?" The voice asked again, closer this time.

I turned around just in time to see Alan Grant and Udesky staring at me with wide eyes. Both of them immediately backed up a good ten feet before they even thought about speaking.

"Holy shit." Udesky muttered, eyes as wide as dinner plates.

"Eric. Slowly step away from the dinosaur." Alan said, his voice slightly shaky.

"This is Zilla." Eric responded.

"Eric, that thing is dangerous!" Alan said, his voice straining as he stared into my eyes.

Eric looked up at me. "Was this how I was when we first met?" He asked.

I looked down at him, tilted my head in thought for a moment, then raised my hand in a 'so-so' motion, drawing a choked noise from the other two.

"What, he's a lot smarter than the average dinosaur." Eric said.

"Wait a second, that's the missing hatchling from the 98 Incident!" Udesky exclaimed.

"Well yeah. We've been living together ever since he saved me from a raptor attack." Eric explained, a thoughtful look crossing his face. "That was day two, I think."

Eric shook his head slightly and turned back to the two men. "So, shouldn't we start looking for my parents?"

That jolted both of them out of their shocked stupors.

"Uh. Y-yeah. We should look for your parents. We got separated when we escaped from that compound and then the raptors attacked." Alan said, glancing at me every couple of seconds, like he expected me to attack at any moment.

I could clearly see it in both of their postures. Both men were extremely tense, and despite their best efforts, I could almost smell their fear. Well, not really smell, more along the lines of being able to sense it. I'm not sure how it works, but it's almost like I have telepathy developing in my head or something.

Maybe that nightmare awakened something in my mind…

"Well, we're burning daylight. C'mon!" Eric urged.

After a few minutes everyone scraped up some supplies and got ready to move. I noticed Alan twitch when Eric jumped up onto my neck to get a higher look around. A quick quick huff and a look between him and the other two humans made the boy reconsider, and he reluctantly climbed back down to ease the two men's hearts.

I can already tell that it's going to be hard to earn Alan's trust, considering the actual hell that man went through on Isla Nublar. The man glances at me almost fifteen times a minute and I swear that I can actually see the fear in his eyes. Not to mention that he's tried to keep himself facing me at every opportunity. Getting my favorite character to like me is going to be tough.

Udesky is a little more trusting, but he's still a little wary around me since I was obviously a very large dinosaur/Kaiju/Titan that was somehow completely fine with a kid climbing all over it without an ounce of aggression.

With that, we set off into the jungle, heads on a swivel to find the other half of the main cast.

…God I'm not looking forward to being attacked and hunted by that damned Spinosaur. I really regret not killing it back then, but I was worried Eric would fall from that crane given he was barely hanging onto it as it was.

That Spinosaurus will die before I even think about leaving this island.

That I promise.

Chapter Text

To say Godzilla was agitated was an understatement.

He had spent three years searching for his offspring, and after all this time, he was no closer than he was in '98. By the stars he had searched nearly the entire eastern coasts, and even started on the western coasts, and not once did he pick up the scent of his youngling. He knew it would be too young to traverse the great oceans, so it had to be somewhere close.

A less stubborn saurian would have given up by now, but not him, not after what happened to the only other of his kind that he knew of.

During his three-year search, the humans had become a bit more annoying. They had more boats patrolling the oceans of his territory, and now they even had tiny, yellow, metal beasts that followed him. They buzzed around him like the many fish that usually did whenever he was near a reef. But sometimes they weren't fast enough and let out a humorous noise when they were destroyed.

The Titan was brought out of his musing when the scent of blood passed by his snout. It was faint, extremely so, but he recognized it from those couple of years ago. His senses zeroed in on the scent, telling him dozens of things about his youngling. Just over three years old and was the combination of himself and that young female he had mated with. There was also an undercurrent in the scent, and he completely stilled so much that he thought his heart had skipped a beat.

'By the stars… I have a son…' The Titan thought in shock.

--

"Yeah, there's a boat, right alongside the bank. Looks in good shape." Alan said, before giving the binoculars to Eric.

"Rescue boat?" Eric asked, taking a look himself.

"No, no. It's just something… left behind."

"It floats, at least." Udesky commented, looking down at the river with his own set. "I think we could get it running. Depends on how good of a condition it is when we get down there, though."

"Good. Let's keep moving."

I let out a huff that ruffled Eric's hair, and the boy reached back and scratched me on the snout.

The jungle gave off a serene and peaceful feeling as we walked through it. Birds chirped, insects buzzed, and the far-off calls of sauropods echoed in the distance. My feet thudded against the ground as I followed behind my little companion, who was conversing with Dr. Grant. After a while of walking, Eric pulled out his raptor claw.

"You know what this is?" The boy asked.

"Yeah, it's a raptor claw. I used to have one just like it. Mine was a fossil, though." Alan replied.

Eric looked at the man with a smug grin. "Mine's new."

"...So, kid. How much of the island have you and your… friend… explored?" Udesky asked, pausing for a moment as he glanced at me.

"We mostly stayed around Zilla's nest, but we usually hung around the compound, the plantation, and the southern coast. But I'm pretty sure Zilla's been to the northern side where Ingen came through with their hunter vehicles."

"How do you know that?" Dr. Grant asked.

"There's a truck with the old Ingen logo on its door at his nest. That, and he told me."

"T-...Told you?"

"Yeah!"

"Did that kid just say the mutated lizard could speak?" Udesky muttered.

"Oh, no, Zilla can't speak, but he writes pretty well. Actually, he hasn't really been doing that much writing lately, it's kinda like we know what our intentions are, and he doesn't need to spell it out for me." The boy explained, walking backwards as he effortlessly traversed the uneven ground. "But anyway, I figured if anyone came looking for me, that's where they'd start the search."

The whole hike stopped for a moment of rest, and Alan turned back to look at me, a trace of curiosity in his wary gaze. I eyed him for a moment, then slowly reached down and cleared away some leaves on the ground.

'Hello.' I wrote in the dirt.

Both men made a strangled noise as they stared at the words I clawed into the ground.

"Please tell me I'm hallucinating." Udesky muttered.

I reached out and poked the man in the chest as I shook my head slightly, confirming that he wasn't.

"I don't think that the parent… ever showed signs of intelligence like this." Alan remarked, eyeing me even closer now, a bit less fear in his gaze.

"Are you two still afraid he'll eat you?" Eric asked.

"Kid, that thing looks big enough to swallow you whole with no difficulty." Udesky replied.

"Zilla doesn't like the taste of humans. He's explained that to me already."

"While that's a bit of a relief, how exactly does he know what humans taste like in the first place?" Alan asked.

'Forced to defend myself. Island town near mainland. Human oily and fatty, tastes awful. Blood bitter. Nearly puked.' I quickly wrote.

"I remember hearing something about a big lizard in the Bahamas a while back." Udesky remarked as he scratched his chin. "I was wondering what those couple of scouting jobs we got were for. They never were specific on the details."

"So, why did you ask how much I've explored, anyway?" Eric asked.

"Curiosity."

"So, what's the plan anyway, besides 'wander around the jungle?'"

"We need to head for the coast. That was the plan." Alan explained.

"Are you sure, the closer you get to the water, the bigger the dinos get."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The bigger dinosaurs stay closer to the coast because of how thick the jungle gets closer to the center of the island. The only reason Zilla and I are able to move around so well is because I'm small and he's… well… Zilla."

"Well, if we can find our way down into the canyon and get that boat running, we can find our way out to the coast. After we find your parents."

"Then what?"

"One step at a time ,ki-" Udesky tried to say.

"Wait, listen." Eric interrupted, stopping in the middle of the path.

"What is it?" Alan asked.

I could hear what Eric could as well, a familiar ringtone echoing across the forest.

"That's my dad's satellite phone!"

Eric suddenly ran off, Alan and Udesky following behind. I tried to follow, but slammed snout-first into a low hanging branch.

--

"Mom, Dad!" Eric shouted, running as fast as his legs could take him.

"Eric!" Two voices yelled back.

Both groups ran out into the clearing, and once they spotted each other, doubled their efforts to reunite. The two groups nearly leaped onto the fence in their haste to probe that the other was still alive.

"I knew it. My god!" Paul nearly cried as he embraced his son from the other side of the fence.

While the Kirby's were having a tearful reunion, Alan and Billy shook hands.

"Man am I glad to see you." Billy greeted. "Hey, you got my bag."

"Yeah. Lucky strap." Alan replied.

"Want me to carry it?"

"We need to find a gap in the fence." Alan moved back a few feet and looked over the large construct of metal and concrete.

"What, no big greeting for me?" Udesky asked.

"It's great to see you're alive too, Udesky." Billy replied, shaking the mercenary's hand as well.

"How did you know we were here?" Paul asked his son.

"The phone. That stupid jingle from the store, I heard it!" Eric replied.

"My phone?" Paul's smile began to fade.

"Yeah, your satellite phone."

"Where is it?" Amanda asked.

"I don't have it." Paul replied.

"Well, when did you use it last?"

"...On the plane. I got a call on the plane and…" Paul's expression went completely flat, then concerned.

"What? What?"

Paul's expression went from concerned to worried. "I loaned it to Nash. He must have had it when…"

Just then, the jingle played again, along with a familiar roar. A roar that was way too close for comfort.

"Your phone's inside the spinosaurus!" Eric exclaimed.

Suddenly, another familiar roar echoed across the group, followed by the sounds of animalistic combat.

"Zilla?" Eric questioned aloud.

An area of the forest edge nearly exploded as Zilla and the Spino fought their way out into the clearing. The ground trembled as the two giant reptiles traded blow after blow. Zilla slashed the spino in the flank, and the sail-back retaliated by gouging into his hip. Zilla whirled around, the small spines on his tail leaving a massive gash in the Spino's side. Both of them circled each other roaring at the top of their lungs.

The Spino moved to rush at the retreating humans, but Zilla body slammed it, sending the larger beast staggering back with a hiss. Zilla inhaled deeply and used his power breath on the sail-back, sending the Spino staggering back even more as it struggled against the attack.

All the while, the humans were making a mad dash for a gap in the fencing. As soon as they got to the other side, Eric noticed something was off about the Spinosaurus.

"Wait a second…" Eric muttered, squinting his eyes at the sail-back.

"What is it?" Paul asked.

"...The Spino, it has both eyes! How!" Eric suddenly shouted.

Sure enough, both of the eye sockets on the Spinosaurus were full, one with a very noticeable scar right over the left one.

"What do you mean, Eric?" Amanda asked.

"Zilla fought that thing a few weeks ago and clawed one of its eyes out, but now it's completely healed. How!? I saw its eye get destroyed!"

A loud crash made everyone spin around. Both beasts had crashed into the fence and brought down a whole section. The Spino was on top, and Zilla was dodging and blocking its slashes and bites as best he could.

"Get to that building!" Alan commanded, pointing at a building near a cliff.

"No! I can't leave him!" Eric exclaimed, pulling his spear out.

"Eric, no!" Amanda shouted, trying to grab the boy.

Eric was too quick for her, however, and sped towards the fight.

--

'This fight is a lot more intense than last time.' I thought as I narrowly avoided a claw slash.

When I spotted the Spino, I was shocked when I noticed that it had both eyes again. During the fight, I noticed that the other injuries that I had inflicted on it were nothing more than scars as well. Then it hit me harder than Showa Godzilla doing a flying kick on Megalon.

Ingen put Kaiju DNA into the Spinosaurus.

Fuck.

It explains so much about its behavior. The rampant aggression, the constant fighting, how it's somehow healed from getting a goddamn eye gouged out. It's partially a Kaiju, and there's only one Kaiju I know of that Ingen could have had access to.

My mother, the '98 Zilla.

The Spino was on top of me, its jaws dangerously close to my neck as it tried to snap at me. The mangled fence around us dug into my back as the Spino's weight pushed down on me. One of its claws raked across my chest, drawing a pained screech from me. With an enraged roar, I pulled my feet under its chest and shoved it off of me, sending the beast staggering back onto its side. I quickly got to my feet and roared at the Spino.

"Zilla! CATCH!" Eric shouted.

I glanced over at the boy, who was holding his spear out to throw it. He threw it, his aim true as it landed right in front of me. As I snatched up the spear, I glanced at the Spino as it got back to its feet as well, a throaty hiss escaping its maw as it glared at me in pure hatred. Its eyes seemed to focus on me, a gleam of… something malicious… in its gaze.

"...kill…"

I froze, eyes darting to the Spinosaurus. By that point, Eric had jumped up onto my side and clambered up onto my neck.

"What?" I whispered.

"…kill…you…" The spinosaurus forced out, a throaty hiss accompanying every word.

I took a step back, fear coursing through my veins.

"Zilla, what's wrong, boy?" Eric asked.

"What are you?" I muttered.

The Spino didn't respond, instead roaring at me and starting to charge. I quickly inhaled and fired my power breath, igniting it with the spear. Flames erupted from my mouth, scorching the ground and halting the Spino. The creature screeched in fear, and after glaring at me, it ran back into the jungle. I kept up the stream of fire for a full minute until I felt one of my gas chambers go dry, and I quickly stopped to conserve my flames. I quickly moved away from the slowly burning grass, then stumbled onto my hands and knees.

I breathed deeply, taking in huge lungfuls of air as Eric jumped off and placed his hands on my snout. I damn near fell over but managed to lay down on my front and rest. Eric picked his spear back up from where I had dropped it and reattached it to his back. The boy then started rubbing circles on the top of my head.

"You'll be ok, Zilla." Eric said as he patted my head.

Eric!" Amanda shouted as all the humans ran over. The woman immediately hugged her son. "Eric, don't you dare do that again you could have been killed!"

"Mom, I'm fine! Zilla would have protected me like he's done before."

I huffed an agreement, making the woman take a few steps back, finally realizing there was another giant 'dinosaur' near her son.

"Eric," Amanda began, voice wavering. "Who is… 'Zilla?'"

"This is Zilla." Eric replied, walking over and patting me on the snout again, drawing a squawk from the woman.

"Eric, that thing's dangerous." She said, motherly instincts on high.

"This again." Eric muttered. "Mom, he's fine. Zilla's the one who saved me in the first place."

"Eric, it's a dinosaur, we just finished running from that other one with the sail on its back."

Eric put his hands on his mother's shoulders and held her firmly in place. "Mom. I have been here for eight weeks with Zilla by my side since like… day two. If he wanted to eat me, he would have done so by now. He's practically my best friend at this point."

Amanda had a very conflicted expression on her face as Eric let go of her, backpedaled a bit, and leaned against my neck. Everyone went silent for a few moments as they processed what the boy had said.

"So, what got your big friend so worked up?" Udesky eventually asked.

"I don't know, it might be the fact that the Spino somehow has both eyes AGAIN!" Eric nearly growled as he threw his hands in the air.

I let out a grunt, drawing the boy's attention.

'Spino spoke.' I wrote in the dirt.

"He what!?" Eric exclaimed

"Still bothers me that lizard can actually write." Udesky muttered, drawing shocked looks from the Kirby's and Billy. "Oh yeah, you three weren't with us when he did it the first time."

"How could that thing speak to you; you aren't even the same species." Eric said.

'InGen maybe. Mother killed in New York. Maybe got samples before they took body away.'

"Maybe…" Eric muttered. "What happened to the mother, though?"

"Maybe InGen got their hands on some pieces of the big one or one of the other hatchlings." Udesky theorized.

"That still doesn't explain how the Spino has two eyes again, though."

"Alright, look. We'll get nowhere wondering how this spinosaurus regained its bad eye. So, let's just focus on getting off this island, alright?" Alan said.

"Right. So, what's the plan, anyway?" Paul asked.

"We spotted a boat down on the river that I think we can get running. We just need a way to get down there." Udesky explained.

I lifted my head up and let out a rumble as I pointed a claw at the Observatory.

"Over there?" Eric asked.

'Only way for miles. Dangerous though. Filled with fliers.' I wrote.

"You mean pteranodons and things like that?"

I nodded, slowly getting to my feet. Everyone except Eric took a few steps back as I stood.

"Aw, man. One of the saddlebags ripped." Eric whined.

I looked on my left flank, and sure enough, one of the smaller bags -thankfully empty- was ripped open, probably during the brief fight I had with the Spino. I lowered myself down, and Eric climbed up and pulled it off the spine before giving it a look over. He mumbled a few things as the group slowly started moving to the building.

"I think we can fix this back up if I can find some sewing stuff." Eric finally said.

I huffed in amusement, the air ruffling the boy's hair.

Soon we made it to the building, leaving the charred battleground behind. I couldn't exactly fit inside the building itself, so I had to stop at the entrance.

"Have you ever dug that far?" Eric asked as he looked into my eyes.

I shook my head but gave a soft rumble and nudged the boy back into the building.

"You be careful, ok?"

I nodded and turned to burrow into the ground. Rock and dirt were torn away as I tunneled downward. Every fifteen seconds, I used my whole arm to poke a hole on my right to see where I was. The tunnel behind me collapsed every once in a while, due to the size of the hole I was making. After a couple minutes, I finally poked a hole and saw the water. I turned and busted out of the smaller exit, showering rocks and soil into the water.

I let out a brief roar upwards, receiving panicked squawks from the pteranodons above. A burst of flame from a couple sparked rocks ignited some nearby shrubbery, and I briefly pointed my flame upwards to try and get rid of the fog. Surprisingly, it worked a bit, as the fog began to dissipate faster than normal. I looked up at the catwalks above only for my eyes to widen in surprise as I saw Eric swinging his spear at a pteranodon on a catwalk, faint noises coming from the boy as he fought the winged lizard.

Eric was fighting pretty well, and he slashed at one of its wings, then swung the blunt end at its head. The pteranodon fell off the catwalk, taking one of the railings with it. The winged lizard landed roughly in the ground near me, and squawked in anger at the humans above. Before it could try and take off, however, I chomped down on it, breaking a bunch of its hollow bones.

I suddenly heard chirping coming from a pillar near me, and I turned to see a nest. An idea quickly formed in my head, and I hoped it would work. I tossed the carcass to the ground and roared up at the pteranodons above, drawing their anger onto me. The flying lizards, seeing one of their own dead, and me close to one of their nests, squawked angrily at me. They started flying at me, and I let out a brief roar at Eric that he knew meant 'run'.

With the humans quickly making their way down, the pteranodons swooped down at me, angrily squawking and diving at my sides. I turned and snapped to my left, a wing crushed between my jaws. I swiped my tail through the air, slicing into another and sending it spinning into the river. More of them showed up, and they started diving at me, their pointed beaks jabbing into my hide. I grunted in pain with each peck of their beaks, and every slash of their foot claws.

I inhaled deeply, sparked a few rocks, and whipped my head around in every direction, spewing fire at anything with wings. The pteranodons squawked in fear and pain as they started falling from the sky in flames. The remaining lizards backed away as I cut the stream of fire off. I let out a deep growl at the flying lizards, a snarl present on my snout.

"Zilla! This way!" Eric shouted.

I glanced over at the boy, who was waving at me with both arms from beyond the cage. I cast one more look at the pteranodons, then leaped into the river, the current assisting in my quick escape from the Aviary. I dove a bit deeper, my underside lightly scraping the bottom as I passed under the cage. The river started to flatten out at that point, and I hauled myself ashore next to the open Aviary door. One quick latch later, and the winged lizards were resealed within their birdcage, hopefully to never escape.

As soon as I got close to the boat, Eric latched onto my neck and hugged tightly.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

I let out an affectionate rumble as I leaned into the hug. A quick glance at everyone else showed that despite a few cuts and some dunks in the river, everyone was fine. Billy and Udesky were looking over the boat engines, while Paul, Amanda, and Alan were looking at the two of us with varying expressions. Eric's parents were a mix between glad their son had made a new friend, a bit of wariness at their son hugging a giant fire-breathing lizard, and mild acceptance that his new friend was a giant lizard. Alan's expression was more curious at my continued intelligent behavior, with still some slight wariness from what I am.

"Alright, let's get moving people. We'll see if we can get the engines working while we're moving." Udesky said.

The humans soon piled onto the boat, and started trying to push the vessel into the current. I saw their slow progress, and Eric and I glanced at each other. The boy nodded his head at the boat, and let out an amused huff, walked over to the river barge, and pushed the boat out into the river. Eric giggled at the other's gob smacked expressions.

I gave the boat a push forward and waded into the water behind it as it floated downstream.

--

With the boat slowly moving down the river, and me slowly swimming on the surface behind it, the men had started working on the engines as the sun slowly fell to the horizon.

"I think I got it. Try it now." Udesky said.

Paul turned the key, but only a brief click came from the ignition.

"Oh come on!" Billy exclaimed, tossing his wrench onto the deck in frustration.

"Easy, kid." Udesky said as he checked over the engines again. "This thing's been here for over a decade without being worked on. It's bound to have some problems with it."

"Let me know when I should try the ignition again." Paul called back to them.

"Zilla, can you give us another push?" Eric asked.

I nodded, and pushed the boat a little faster with my snout before backing off a bit.

"Billy, can you get me the 3/8th's?" Udesky asked.

"Sure, here." The younger man replied, handing the man the wrench without even glancing at him.

Udesky took the wrench and pulled the spark plug out, held it up to the sky, blew on it, and reattached it to the engine. He did the same thing to the other engine, then turned to Paul.

"Try it now." He said.

Paul turned the key, and with whine and a cough, the engines sputtered to life. Everyone briefly celebrated as the boat picked up a bit of speed.

"We got plenty of gas, but take it easy just in case. We definitely don't want to run out near a carnivore or worse." Udesky said as he checked the gas tank.

"Right." Paul replied, pulling the throttle back a bit.

I took to swimming beside the boat as it trundled along.

"Well, now we just need to make it to the coast, and see if we can make some sort of signal. Build a fire or something. Something that they can see from the air." Paul explained.

"Hopefully before the Spino tries to eat us again." Udesky added.

Normally, Eric and Alan would be having a conversation about Billy, but since he's still around Eric's parents are asking him all sorts of questions about what he's been doing on Isla Sorna instead.

"You know, I think we all deserve to hear about your adventures on this island, kid." Udesky commented.

"Well, I guess I should start from the beginning then." Eric responded, shifting in his seat to get comfortable.

"Ben had found some sort of parasailing thing that he and I were going to do that day, something that mom knew." Eric began. "What she didn't know was that they took us here to Sorna to see a real dinosaur. I'm not sure what happened to the sailors, but after they drove through a patch of fog there was blood on the boat. I think some Pteranodons attacked them, to be honest, but I don't know. The boat was going to run aground, and Ben decided to cut the line and let us glide onto the island itself."

"The landing was pretty rough, and I sprained my wrist from it." Eric continued. "Ben got it worse, though. I think he had some sort of internal injury, because when I came back an hour later with a knife to cut him down, he was dead. I was… lost… after that. I just wandered around, eating what I could find and sleeping in a tree. It wasn't until day two on Sorna that I found Zilla. Really he found me. I was being chased by the island's raptor pack when he saved me from them. You should have seen him, that fight was like something out of a movie or video game."

"Zilla and I started communicating after that, and he brought me to his nest. The rest is history, I guess."

"Oh, Eric." Amanda said, pulling her son into a tight hug.

"So, what's with the spear and the cloak then?" Billy asked.

"Oh that?" Eric responded, pulling away from his mother. "The spear is what Zilla uses to ignite his breath like the half-dragon he is. He and I sharpened one end into a flat spearhead to use as a weapon for myself." He pulled the spear off his back and held it out where everyone could see it better. "The cloak is made out of velociraptor skin."

"Ok, there has to be a story behind that cloak."

"Oh yes there is, I killed it myself."

Amanda choked on her own saliva and coughed, staring at her son with wide eyes.

"You killed a velociraptor on your own?" Alan asked, his eyebrows raised as high as they could go.

"Yep. It was a few days after the last time Zilla fought the spino and he was still healing from his injuries. I was ambushed by one of the older ones who probably saw me as an easy snack. It nearly got me with its claws, but with my spear keeping it away from me, I eventually had it trying to pounce at me when Zilla got to the clearing. He was very impressed with how I slid under its pounce and sliced its throat open. It's actually where I got that claw I showed you, Dr. Grant."

"I don't know whether to be shocked or impressed you took down a raptor on your own." Paul eventually said.

"Well I for one am impressed. Nice job little man." Billy said, holding his fist out to Eric for a fist bump.

"What happened with Ben, though?" Amanda asked.

Eric's gaze dropped to the deck, and his mother wrapped him up in a hug again.

"Well… The first week was the hardest for me to get through, but eventually Zilla and I made our way to the crash site and brought him down. We buried him a couple hundred feet from the nest, next to an old tree."

"He was probably more worried about you surviving on this island than his own health. At least you managed to bury him instead of…" Amanda trailed off."

"Let's talk about something else, huh? You've gotta have some good stories in the time you've been here, anyway?" Billy quickly said.

"...Right. How about the first time we went on a supply run and found some baby sauropods!" Eric responded.

Eric had soon enthralled the group with stories of our escapades, ranging from the sometimes weird and wacky behaviors of the dinosaurs around us, to the terrifying times where I fought raptors or the spino, to the calming supply runs we did.

Eventually, day turned to night, and Eric had exhausted his catalog of stories to tell. That proved to be for the best, because at that point the plot kicked back in with a familiar jingle.

"Listen." Paul suddenly said as he cut the engines.

No one moved in fear of the spinosaurus, but as they got closer, the smell of dung suddenly assaulted my nostrils. I shook my head in disgust as the piles of dino poop came into view.

"Find it before it stops ringing!" Alan exclaimed as everyone piled off the boat.

"It's here!" Eric called out as he approached the farthest pile.

With literally no hesitation, the boy stuck his hand into the dung, and after digging around for a few seconds, pulled out the phone.

"Got it!" He cheered, opening the antenna and answering the call.

"You too can own a timeshare in beautiful Guatemala." The telemarketer said in a monotone voice.

"Damned call scammers. Even in the middle of a dinosaur infested island they still haunt my waking hours." Udesky groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Look out!" Billy suddenly shouted.

Everyone looked up to see a Ceratasaurus slowly walking towards them. I rose out of the water and growled at the dinosaur, my size actually helping, since I was bigger than it by about three feet. The ceratosaurus looked down at the humans, then to the dung when it got the scent of it, then back up at me. It slowly backed up a few feet, before sprinting away.

"Thanks, Zilla." Eric said, moving to give me a pat.

I backed away and glared at him.

"Oh, right. Hands are covered in poop."

"That's gross."

After everyone who dug in the crap thoroughly washed themselves and the phone, a thunderstorm had begun, reducing the visibility by quite a bit with how much rain was coming down.

"Turn off the power." Paul said over the pouring rain. "You've got enough juice for one call, maybe two. Whatever you do, don't call the US embassy. They won't do a damn thing."

"Guys! The fish look spooked and I don't think it's Zilla doing it!" Eric shouted.

I immediately ducked under the water, where my better night vision picked out the large silhouette of the spinosaurus coming towards the boat. I rocketed forwards, rocking the boat as I swam directly under it. I slammed into the spino just as it was about to ram the vessel, sending us both out into the open. My jaws were around its neck as it tried to claw at me. I pulled at its neck, grunting in pain as one of its claws raked across the top of my own.

The humans shouted in fear and tried to get the old engines on the boat going so they could escape. I pulled the spino away from the boat, but its tail crashed through the cabin, destroying the controls. The creature knocked me away from it, a growl escaping its jaws. We roared at each other, my own bellow briefly overtaking the sail-back's. We slammed into each other, both of us trying to gain a hold on each other's neck with our jaws.

The sail-back knocked me away, a roar echoing from its maw.

"...kill you!... make you…dead!" It bellowed at me.

"Zilla!" Eric shouted.

We slammed into each other again, but I lost my footing. The humans barely got out of the way as the spino slammed me down on the boat, sinking it. I flipped all the way over, splashing back down into the water and barely dodging a swipe from its claws. I roared at the sail-back and rammed into it, biting down on its shoulder. The spino hissed in pain and snapped at my neck, attempting to shove me away at the same time. I bit down harder, and with a sickening 'pop', the spino's right arm popped out of its socket.

"KILL...YOU!" The sail-back roared in agony, its right arm now hanging limply by its side.

The spino slammed into me, raking its claws across my side and digging into me. White hot pain coursed through my mind and I slammed my head into its neck, staggering it. I tried getting my jaws around its neck again, but it got to mine first. Fear jolted through me as it forcefully maneuvered me around to face the humans, who were staring in horror. I roared in rage as a hissing laugh escaped the spino's jaws.

It's head twisted.

A crack echoed from my neck.

My vision went fuzzy as it let me go to sink into the river. The last thing I saw was Eric looking into my eyes with a horrified expression.

--

Eric stared at the scene, mind blank.

The sound of the spino breaking Zilla's neck echoed through his ears, overriding every sound. He stared into his best friend's eyes as they dulled and sank below the surface of the water.

No.

NO!

"ZILLA!!!" Eric roared.

The spinosaurus turned to look at the group, and Eric swore it was grinning at him.

It was true.

Ingen used Kaiju DNA to make the spinosaurus, and in doing so, killed his best friend.

A small part in the back of his mind flickered, like something was there, but disappeared.

"Come on, kid. We gotta go!" Udesky shouted, grabbing onto Eric's shoulder and pulling him.

Eric ducked out of the hold, and grabbed the flare gun out of Dr. Grant's hand.

"YOU BASTARD!" Eric screamed as he aimed at the spino and fired.

The sail-back roared back at him, its anger turning to agony as the flare impacted right in the same eye Zilla had clawed out. The creature staggered back, then let out a scream filled with rage as its remaining eye focused on him and him alone. Eric screamed in turn, pulling his spear out and charging into the water to face the sail-back as it slowly approached. Eric ignored the screams from the others as he focused on the source of his anguish.

The spino raised its good arm to strike him down, but stopped and looked behind it, growling. Eric took a chance and glanced at the water, where the surface was starting to… boil?

The thing in the back of his mind flickered again, and this time it grew slightly. Eric nearly dropped his spear when Zilla rose from the water, his spines alight with a green glow as steam escaped from his mouth. He quickly backpedaled when he saw the look in his friend's eye. Eric had only seen that gleam once before, and that was when he first met Zilla.

Anger.

Zilla roared, his mouth glowing with an ethereal green light.

A stream of green fire shot from his mouth and enveloped the spinosaurus, causing the sail-back to release a shriek of agony. After a few seconds, the flames cut off, and the spino looked horrible. Its dislocated arm was charred and cracked, along with the right side of its face and bad eye. Its sail was half gone, and its skin was cracked and blackened.

The spino roared in pure pain, the damage it took too much to continue fighting. The wounded animal tried to run, but Zilla pounced out of the water and into its side, sending them both onto the shore a couple dozen feet from the humans. The spino roared in agony and rage as it thrashed in Zilla's grip. The spines on Zilla's body started glowing again, starting from the tip of his tail up to his neck.

Zilla opened his mouth again, and the stream of fire blasted the spino right in the head. He kept it up for a good ten seconds before cutting it off after they went from green to the regular orange of regular fire, leaving a blackened, flesh stripped skull attached to the spino's body.

Zilla backed away, slammed one foot down on the spino's body, raised his head up, and roared in victory. His victory was soon joined by Eric and the humans cheering and hugging each other.

"Take that you overgrown science experiment!" Billy cheered.

"That'll teach you to try and eat us!" Udesky added.

Paul and Amanda were simply hugging their son as he cried.

--

That was weird.

The almost death thing, not what happened afterwards.

I absolutely knew my neck was snapped.

I felt it.

What was weirder, was when my vision finally returned, and it felt like a fire had been ignited in my belly. I guess that might have been because my biological igniter finally started working though. How else would I finally have the signature attack of a Godzilla. It felt a bit radioactive as well, so I guess I finally had just enough radiation in me to use it. It explains why I feel a bit tired, at least.

I lumbered over to where Eric was and lowered myself down as I crooned at him. The boy looked at me, tears in his eyes. He let go of his parents and latched onto my neck, crying softly into my hide. I gently draped an arm over him and pulled him close as I rumbled affectionately to him.

The storm slowly subsided, and we were finally able to take stock of all the damage. The boat was destroyed, my spines had stabbed through the hull and filled it with water. Thankfully I was able to drag it ashore so the humans could sift through anything that they could scavenge.

There wasn't much they could scavenge from their original supplies, but surprisingly there were two watertight cases with some food, water and medical supplies in the cage. They had to carry it in a couple bags they found in another old boat that had already run aground, but otherwise everything seemed to be smooth sailing from here on out.

The morning sun brought its own problem, however.

What am I going to do once the humans leave?

I could remain on Isla Sorna until it gets too small for me, and I'm forced to go elsewhere. With the spino gone, and my only competition being the tyrannosaurs in the north, I could take over a bunch of the territory the sail-back took from me, plus a bunch of its own territory. I reckon with the spinosaurus gone; the delicate balance of the island will be somewhat restored.

The other two ideas I had, 'leave with Eric' and 'go to skull island' were both a bit idiotic. I am not ready for the human military, or whatever horrors await on Kong's island, even if the big ape is able to deal with them. Considering the military is going to sweep this island, however, perhaps I should head to Nublar for a while. Just in case Major Hicks comes snooping around.

…Yeah. I think I'll head for Nublar for a while to keep Hicks off my quite literal tail.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts when Alan started waking everyone up.

Since we didn't have anything to start a fire, and the smoke from a regular fire could attract the raptors, everyone slept against my side for the night. Eric was curled up at my neck, his parents at my shoulder, and everyone else at my flank. I believe the fear and wariness that everyone had towards me evaporated over their time on the island, especially since I've saved their lives multiple times at this point, and literally almost died for them as well.

"Alright, let's keep moving. With luck we can make it to the coast today." Alan said after everyone got to their feet.

I shook my head to get rid of some sand that was clinging to the bottom of my neck, and slowly followed.

"So, who was that woman you called?" Eric asked.

"Ellie Sattler, a woman who I trust with my life." Alan replied. "Although I don't think I've ever told her that."

"You should."

"Probabl- wait!" Everyone stopped, and I heard the crashing of waves on the shore. "Do you hear that?"

"The ocean!" Eric exclaimed.

Everyone started running, but just as I was about to join them, a bad feeling layered itself over my mind. I let out a call, and Eric skidded to a stop and pulled his spear out just in time, as the raptor pack had just ambushed them.

'Shit, I forgot about the raptors at the end of the movie!' I thought. 'And I don't think Alan ever discovered them either!'

"Why are they following us?" Alan nearly whispered.

I roared as I breached the clearing, sending the raptors back as they hissed and squawked at me. I huffed at Eric, and he turned to the others.

"Climb already!" He exclaimed.

The humans all started climbing up a nearby tree as the raptors and I had a staredown. The whole pack looked to be here, all thirty of the adults, plus the new alpha, who stood over all the others by a few inches. I inhaled deeply, and roared at them in warning. The raptors brandished their claws at me, and I knew that a fight was inevitable.

"Come on Zilla, show these overgrown chickens who's the king of Isla Sorna!" Eric shouted.

I roared, and charged at the raptors, who sprinted at me.

What followed was a bloodbath, as I fought my way through the raptors. My tail became slick with blood as my spines stabbed through their smaller bodies, and my claws and mouth were coated in the red liquid as they clawed and bit at anything in range.I bit down on the alpha, drawing a pained squawk from her. I lifted it up and clenched my jaw, shattering its ribs and breaking its spine. I opened my mouth, and it fell to the forest floor.

Seeing their alpha die in such a way, the remaining raptors seemed to go into a frenzy, desperate to try and kill me. I chomped down on one's tail and threw it into the trunk of a tree, breaking its neck. I spun around whipping two with my tail, before raking my claws across another's side. I roared at another using my power breath to knock it down, before crushing its head underfoot.

"Come on!" Eric yelled from the tree.

The raptor's numbers quickly began to dwindle as the slaughter continued. I had killed at least twenty of them, and the remaining seven grouped up and roared at me. I returned it in kind, my spines aglow in intimidation. The remaining raptors glanced around at the bodies in the clearing, then back at me. The largest one left backed up a few feet and squawked at the others. With one last glare at me, the raptors ran away.

I breathed deeply as I lowered myself onto all fours. I glanced over to see Eric running up to me, the others not far behind.

"Are you alright, Zilla?" Eric asked as he placed his hands on my snout.

I nudged him, and he pulled away after lingering for a moment. Just then I jerked my head up to the sky just in time to hear a familiar sound.

"That's a helicopter!" Paul exclaimed.

Everyone got up and started heading for the coast, but stopped when they didn't hear me following.

"Zilla? What's wrong?" Eric asked.

'I cannot go with you.' I wrote.

"Why not?"

'There is a man looking for me. Military. He won't stop until I'm dead. My mother's fault.'

"You can't come with us then, can you?"

'I must leave Isla Sorna. I'm sorry.'

Eric frowned, then walked over and hugged my neck. I wrapped an arm around him as he hugged tighter.

"Goodbye Zilla. I'll never forget you." Eric whispered.

After a minute or two, Eric reluctantly pulled away from me and walked back to the group.

I watched as they walked away, then crept through the underbrush until my head poked out at the coast. The group was jogging towards a military group on the beach. I waited until the amphibious vehicles and helicopters left, and walked out onto the coast to wash the blood off of myself. Once I was clean, I stood at the coast and watched as the helicopters and armored vehicles got smaller and smaller.

I inhaled deeply, then roared out a mournful noise to the sky.

I knew that this day would come, but damn it if it doesn't hurt to see a friend go away.

After an hour or two I heard more helicopters approaching, I knew it was time to leave. The military had arrived, and were no doubt searching for me after getting the stories from the survivors.

I took one long last look at Isla Sorna, the place I called my home for nearly four years. I was sad to leave, because it was the only home I had ever known in this world.

I dove into the ocean and started swimming.

'Well... set a course for Isla Nublar.' I thought.

Chapter Text

Rain gently fell from the cloudy afternoon sky, letting small droplets of water fall onto the island of Isla Sorna.

Over the sounds of rain hitting the leaves, soaking them and the ground beneath, the usual sounds of croaking frogs were a welcome addition to the ambiance of the wet jungle. But above the sounds of gently falling rain and the vocalizations of amphibians, the distant bellows of dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes echoed over the morning air, giving Isla Sorna's rainy landscape an ethereal and out of time feel.

But if you were to listen even closer, over the distant calls of far-off dinosaurs, you would hear the gentle humming of electronics, the flash of cameras, the rumbling of engines, the patter of rain against plastic canopies, and the chattering of humans.

"Sensei, I think we've found the nest."

Dr. Serizawa looked away from the half-burnt corpse of Ingen's most recent creation, the Spinosaurus, and over to Dr. Brooks, who's eyes momentarily flickered between the giant body, the clipboard and recorder in his hands, and the radio on Serizawa's hip.

When the military was alerted to the fact that there were civilians on Isla Sorna, Monarch thought it best to see if there was any sign of their young elusive Titan near or on the island, and potentially catalog any differences between the 'artificial' wildlife of Isla Sorna, and the natural life on Skull Island. A brief negotiation with the Costa Rican and US governments had all of the survivors from the event turned over into Monarch's custody, and Serizawa was the one who led the debriefing.

What they learned was… unbelievable.

The survivors that were rescued ranged from the famed paleontologist and survivor of the Isla Nublar Incident Dr. Alan Grant, to a boy no younger than twelve, draped in a cloak made of dinosaur skin and wielding a metal spear, named Eric Kirby. All of the survivors were interviewed and had their belongings cataloged, but it was the youngest amongst the group that interested Serizawa, not only because of his unique belongings, but also because of his story.

Eric had been on Isla Sorna for eight long weeks, and he looked noticeably different from the reference photo in his file. Gone was the scrawny, introverted, small child that was overall mediocre in physicality, and in his place was a taller, confident pre-teen who was athletic with visible muscles, more so than a boy his age should normally have after only eight weeks, especially after being stranded on an island like Isla Sorna of all places.

To make matters even more interesting, during all of their examinations, they realized all of the survivors had small traces of Titan radiation in their blood, with Eric having the largest amount inside of him. But to the surprise of the doctors, there were no visible downsides, besides a notable increase in caloric intake, in Eric's case. The boy had said he was hungry when they had landed at the nearest outpost and had eaten four full sized burgers back-to-back, plus two whole servings of fries before he was finally full.

Eric possessed incredible flexibility, shown when a Monarch agent made the mistake of grabbing his shoulder and getting brought to the floor in three seconds flat. Thanks to that, and with his parent's consent, he had a battery of tests conducted to see the differences Zilla's radiation had done to him. The small training center they had was easily beaten in one go by him, when full grown men and women had trouble even after their third try.

His eye-hand coordination was extremely good, and he even demonstrated it by throwing his spear at an apple that was thrown into the air and nailing it to the wall in one try… and then he did it again… and again… and again until the fruit bowl was completely empty, and he had a smug grin on his face as he pocketed over a hundred dollars from a group of grumbling agents and doctors.

The boy was somehow close to the same level as a Monarch agent in stealth as well. With all of his skills, Monarch was heavily considering offering him a job as an agent in the future. Plus, whenever they managed to contain and study Zilla, he could be a massive help in calming the creature, considering how close they seemed to be in his story. One thing was an absolute certainty, however. Eric moved like a predator, one that was well accustomed to bringing down prey much larger than himself.

"Go on, Serizawa. I'll finish up here and join you in a bit. The similarities between this genetically engineered version and the one from Skull Island are almost done being cataloged anyway." Dr. Brooks said as he waved his boss away.

"Be safe." Serizawa replied as he walked off.

"I can't not be safe with nearly twenty guards around here."

Serizawa walked out from under the canopy and into the gently falling rain. He was joined by two of the twenty perimeter guards, all of which were brandishing high-powered semi-auto rifles, to deter any opportunistic carnivore from attacking the scientists. Serizawa and his guards entered a heavily modified Jeep and took off into the jungle on an old maintenance road.

The old trails and service roads had thankfully been cataloged by Ingen, and some heavy-duty equipment had been brought in to carve their way through the dense jungle. After they finished their job on the island, they would simply pull out everything that wasn't nailed down and let the jungle finish reclaiming all the abandoned vehicles, roads, and buildings.

But even with the trails mostly drivable, the travel time was still around an hour, but thankfully there were no attacks from any aggressive dinosaurs. That surprised Serizawa when they first landed and began operations a week ago. Even though the last records from Ingen's last excursion onto the island said there was a very large pack of extremely aggressive Velociraptors on the island, Eric's story -and the recent investigation done by Monarch- told an entirely different story.

Both Eric's tale and the investigation revealed that Zilla had been in a violent territorial war with both the Velociraptor pack and the Spinosaurus at the same time for most of his life on Isla Sorna. It had been so violent, in fact, that most of the raptor pack had been killed at this point due to the repeated skirmishes between them and Zilla.

The new Titan's combat prowess seems to have grown, if the massacred Velociraptor pack they found, and the half-burnt corpse of the Spinosaurus on the bank of the river was anything to go by. Serizawa already knew the mother had a sort of flammable breath that could ignite with a single spark. From what Eric told him, Zilla had used the spear -made of magnesium- to ignite his breath by striking it along his teeth.

However, when questioned on how the Spinosaurus had traces of radiation on its corpse, Eric clammed up, and it took a bit of gentle coaxing to get him to tell Serizawa about what happened. Apparently, it sounded like Zilla had his neck snapped by the Spinosaurus, but somehow managed to come back and breathed a stream of greenish-white fire onto the dinosaur, killing it. Eric said the snap must have stripped a block on Zilla's biological igniter.

He didn't know how Eric knew that, and the boy was surprisingly tight-lipped about anything regarding Zilla's biology or his intelligence. Serizawa already knew that Zilla was more intelligent than his mother, but just how much smarter was still up in the air, since many of his actions spoke of a creature that was smart, but also lacking in some areas of intelligence. That was expected, given his youth, only being three years old.

Perhaps some of the discoveries in the young Kaiju's nest would shine some light on the subject.

The driver slowed down and turned right onto a large worn-down footpath to follow a soldier waving at them. Once the Jeep stopped, Serizawa's eyes widened as he realized they had stopped at what looked like an old radio station. As soon as he got out of the vehicle, his friend and subordinate Dr. Graham approached him.

"Dr. Serizawa, I'm glad you're here. We stumbled upon this site only half an hour ago and I thought you should be here for this." Dr. Graham greeted as she walked up.

"As you can see, much of this looks too large for one young man to build all on his own in eight weeks. I believe Zilla set all of this up over the last three years, and Dr. Chen agrees with me. Claw marks matching Zilla's ranging from his height as an infant to around fifteen feet are scattered all over the place. There is also something inside the building you need to see." Vivienne continued as they walked past an old fire pit, a toothless excavator bucket sitting nearby with a fire-scorched bottom.

The area around the building looked like a makeshift campsite, and with the large fire pit, it looked almost… like a human made it. An old Ingen truck sat near the building, old and rusted, with its hood propped open by a length of pipe. An old shed held together by rope and dried vines stood next to the building, where a moderately sized pile of dried dinosaur dung sat. A large slab of rock, scorched black by fire, sat next to the fire pit, easily large enough for Zilla to lay on even after surpassing twenty feet in height.

A large tarp covered the entrance, which had been propped up so the researchers could enter easily. Once they walked into the building itself, Serizawa's jaw actually dropped a bit in shock. Most of the room's space was taken up by the communication equipment, and a truly massive nest made up of old mattresses and couch cushions. A large table was pushed up against a wall, old pieces of fruit and a couple massive knives made from dinosaur bone were randomly placed across it.

On the wall above it was a drying rack, covered in dinosaur skin. On the left side was what looked like a butcher's table, evidenced by the bloodstains on it. Only a singular decomposing Compsognathus body was lying on it, along with a thinnish slab of old meat. On the right was what looked like a workstation, filled with old knives and a large whetstone, where a young woman stood on top as she cataloged everything on it.

"I see you've noticed the dinosaur scaled furnishings and the communication equipment." Dr. Chen remarked from on top of the Zilla-sized workbench.

"It seems that Zilla may have a… human level intellect." Dr. Graham said from his side.

"How is this possible?" Serizawa muttered.

"The current theory we're throwing around is that the combination of Godzilla's DNA and the Mother's DNA mutated Zilla even further, all the way back at his conception. Some sort of mutation that made Zilla close to or on the same level as a human in intellect."

"Basically, when those two fucked, Zilla got all the benifets of their respective genes and apparently none of the downsides, besides being just a guy now. It also explains how he turned those soldiers into barbecue back in the Bahamas with nothing but a lighter and an old gas stove. Consider us extremely lucky that there's only one of these guys, and the fact that only Zilla is in the public eye right now, as opposed to our entire house of horrors across the globe." Dr. Stanton remarked from where he was studying the communication equipment. "I know for a fact that Dr. Tatopoulos and the HEAT team are going to freak out once they get here from up in New York."

"I guess that young Mr. Kirby didn't say anything about this?" Dr. Chen asked.

"He did not." Serizawa replied.

"Considering how close the boy seemed to be to Zilla, he may believe he was trying to protect him." Dr. Graham theorized.

"I believe so, because we've found hair follicles that match Eric's in Zilla's nest. The two of them were apparently so close that they were even sleeping in the same place." Dr. Chen said, gesturing over at the massive pile of old mattresses.

"Everyone sleeps with their pets at some point in their lives. What bothers me is the writing we found." Dr. Stanton added.

"Writing?" Serizawa queried.

"There are letters carved into the ground in some places outside of the nest, and they're too large for a simple stick and too deep for a human to carve. I… I think Eric may have taught Zilla how to read and write." Dr. Graham slowly said, as if she was having a hard time believing it herself.

Only one thought went through Serizawa's mind at that point.

'How smart is this Titan?'

Serizawa wasn't even able to respond, or do much of anything at that point, because his radio suddenly went off with an alarm. Everyone stilled when they realized the singular reason that particular alarm would sound over Serizawa's personal radio.

One of the Outposts was experiencing a level orange or above alert.

"Serizawa here. Report." He ordered after clicking the alarm off and pressing the response button.

"Outpost-34 here, sir. The Skull Island research center in Panama City is under a red alert."

"Oh, that's not good." Dr. Stanton commented.

"Definitely not." Dr. Chen added.

"What is the situation?" Serizawa asked, ignoring his colleagues for the moment.

"The military seem to have it in their heads that Zilla is somewhere in the Gulf of Panama and are dropping depth charges, torpedoes, and missiles into the water, which he apparently is, according to our scans of the area. Dr. Serizawa, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it, it looks like a damned US invasion force showed up off the coast of Panama City!"

"Lock down the outpost immediately and try to contact the military. I will be there soon to help."

"Yes, sir."

Serizawa put away his radio and turned to the others, who started preparing to leave.

"Well… have fun going to Panama and getting shot at by our own military. I'm staying here so I can see Nick's face once he sees all of this."

"Shut up and come on, Rick."

—

Dr. Reidfold usually enjoyed his job as head researcher, but today was an exception to that.

Ever since Skull Island was discovered back in the waning days of the Vietnam War, Monarch has had an interest in the island's plant and animal life. In 1978, Outpost-34 finished construction off the coast of Panama City, expressly built to contain and study the plant and animal life originating from Skull Island and other biological life originating from Titans.

It had the most advanced security and technology that Monarch's science division had to offer, and that technology and security was retrofitted again and again as the years went by. For additional security, shortly after Outpost-34 was built on Flamenco Island, it was covered up as being a US BMEWS site, and cordoned off from civilians. An actual site was later built on top of Outpost-34 to better assist with the base's cover story.

Like most Monarch Outposts, the majority of the complex was underground. The main difference for this one, however, was that it was underwater. Since the entire complex was built under a rather small island, a majority of the complex was built into the seabed surrounding it. With most of the facility being under the sea, it was easy to pump cool water through the base and use it to lower the temperature of the rooms inside and provide drinking water to the staff and the contained assets, after being triple-desalinated, of course.

The Outpost consisted of the barracks and living quarters for the researchers on the surface levels, while the middle levels were filled with machinery, power rooms, and a whole host of other utilities that ran the complex. Below that, and directly under the sea floor, were five pens, and attached was a massive habitat that housed the five Skullcrawlers that were brought over to be documented and researched by the Outpost's science team.

One floor above the habitat was the main control room, where everyone and everything was monitored and checked by a team of top notch Monarch agents. Security was tight, as expected, and everyone had to register to the main control room's computer to get anywhere in the complex's lower levels.

However, most of the base being underwater was not such a good thing today, since the US military was currently attacking something in the water, and the fight was getting dangerously close to the complex. Which led to why Dr. Reidfold was currently running in a dead sprint down a hallway as the base shook ominously every fifteen to twenty seconds.

Being the Head Researcher of a Monarch Outpost encompassed a lot of things. As a Head Researcher, he was essentially the leader of the entire Outpost, meaning he had to oversee the finances, greenlight any projects, hire security, and a whole host of other things that he was thankfully able to delegate to his four secretaries. He may have been the 'leader' of Outpost-34, but he wasn't the real leader of Monarch; that honor went to Dr. Serizawa and Dr. Graham, since they were the closest things to the heads of their organization.

"Dr. Reidfold!" An assistant shouted.

The middle-aged man quickly moved through the base's control room to the radar console, staggering slightly when another depth charge went off.

"What the hell is the military even shooting at out there?" He asked as soon as he was looking over the young woman's shoulder.

"It looks like there's something around the size of a Skullcrawler out there, sir." The woman reported.

"What!? None of the pens registered a breach. Did they?"

"No sir. No pens have been breached. Whatever it is that the military is chasing, it's biological, just around the size of a Skullcrawler, and it came into the gulf being chased by them."

"It might be that new Titan that Serizawa has been chasing for the last three years. Comms, have we managed to get into contact with the US military fleet? If even one torpedo or missile strikes the sea bed, it could be catastrophic."

"Still no response, sir. It's almost like they're ignoring us. I have gotten into contact with Dr. Serizawa, however, and he should be here in around an hour to assist with everything."

"Good. In the meantime, keep trying to contact the military. And someone put the facility on lockdown until we can get in contact with them."

Dr. Reidfold looked over at a screen, where one of dozens of underwater cameras were displaying distant flashes of light in the water, illuminating a far off silhouette of… something similar to Godzilla.

"Let's just hope nothing bad happens." He muttered worriedly to himself.

Not even two seconds after he said that, a torpedo knocked off course during the chase slammed into a power room and exploded, plunging the control room into darkness and knocking everyone standing to the ground. After ten seconds of the entire base shaking passed, the backup generators rumbled to life, and the emergency lights flickered on just as all the fallen staff were getting back to their feet.

"Status report!" Dr. Reidfold ordered as he held onto a computer until the room stopped spinning. He had hit his head on the floor pretty hard, he'd need to see the Outpost's doctor later.

"A torpedo hit the main breaker room. All five of the pens have lost power, and… Paddocks four, two, and five have been breached, sir!" The man in charge of engineering reported.

"Some of the paddocks have been breached!?"

"T-they have, sir…"

Dr. Reidfold was usually a calm man, even during his training twenty years ago. But with age comes experience, and he knew that a breach this bad would cost potentially hundreds of lives just in the first hour. With shaking hands he collapsed onto a chair and stared at the main screen, which was slowly flashing red as the worst Monarch related accident in decades happened right before his very eyes. And he had only one thing to say.

"...May God have mercy on us all."

Barely fifteen seconds later, the Outpost descended into chaos.

—

My sleek form sliced through the water as I swam as fast as I physically could.

It's been around a week since my self-exile from Isla Sorna to avoid the military. Around two days ago, I started feeling a bit colder than normal, leading me to believe that radiation would be needed for my continued existence and growth. So, I searched around until I found and stayed at the site of a wrecked nuclear submarine that still had quite a bit of juice left in its nuclear engines, which I opened up a bit to absorb. It recharged my radiation, making my spines glow an ethereal greenish tint, and I could feel the small spark of fire that had ignited in my cold-blooded body during my last fight grow, until for the first time since my birth I finally felt warm inside.

Unfortunately, there was a slight problem that occurred with all the radiation I was getting.

Absorbing the radiation from the old sub, and living underwater where I could grow with little resistance from gravity, gave me a pretty big growth spurt over the two days I was there, taking me from fifteen and a half feet tall and thirty-five feet long, all the way up to twenty-five feet tall and fifty feet long. Let me tell you, growing that fast in two days hurt more than I expected even though I spent most of it asleep.

My best guess as to why it hurt so much was because the radiation I was absorbing was human made, instead of natural. Since I'm so young, I can't properly convert normal radiation to my own kind in such high amounts, which led to the intense growth spurt and the growing pains. I'm guessing that offspring are supposed to feed off of radiation from their parents until they're able to process it on their own, or something along those lines.

In other news, not even a full week after leaving Isla Sorna, I happened upon the US military, in the form of an underwater missile exploding way too close for comfort. Apparently there was a fleet of ships and two submarines, patrolling international waters looking for me, which meant that Colonel Hicks -apparently killing my mother got him a promotion- still hadn't given up on trying to kill me. I could only hope that Eric and the other humans were alright after they left Isla Sorna. Maybe they were taken in by Monarch or something since they've been in close contact with a 'Titan'.

So for the next twenty hours I was forced to swim non-stop, dodging patrol boats and missiles, along with torpedoes, depth charges, and focused military sonar pings that severely hampered my ability to sense the magnetic poles, meaning I had no idea where I was going most of the time. I knew I was somewhere close to the mainland, thanks to being able to sense the currents, but other than that, nothing. Who would have thought that sonar would be so damned irritating to listen to underwater.

On a related note, I know how whales feel whenever they get hit with sonar now.

I soon realized that I was being boxed in and potentially out of the water. If that really was their plan, I'd be forced to defend myself, and they'd truly learn why I came to be feared on Isla Sorna.

A clang of flesh on metal resounded through the water as my tail whipped down and broke the propeller off of a torpedo.

'I am so glad I figured out where to hit a torpedo to disable it.' I thought as the explosive quickly began to sink.

Three years of living in a dense jungle has made my body a bit more flexible underwater than what I expected. Not to mention the fact that my tail was a bit more prehensile than before. Even at fifteen and a half feet tall, I was able to almost effortlessly maneuver my way through the dense forests of Isla Sorna. Even more so now that I'm underwater.

I whipped my tail around again, trying to damage the propeller of another torpedo. Unfortunately, all I managed to do with that one was dent its side and knock it off course. I kept an eye on it as it seemed to lose its sense of direction and continue in a straight line. My heart skipped a beat when I noticed that there was a noticeable concrete floor right in its path.

I could do nothing but watch as it slammed into the sea bed and detonated. A chain reaction happened shortly afterwards, and multiple parts of the sea bed collapsed as explosions rocked the water around me.

'What the hell was down there!?' I mentally shouted as I was roughly shoved around in the sea.

I wasn't the only one feeling the effects, either. A glance at the two subs and the warships above showed that they were having just as much if not more trouble than I was. Whatever else I was going to was thrown out the window, however, when I noticed the massive vortex of water spiraling into the hole in the concrete.

'How big is it down there that a vortex this big is happening?' I wondered in the back of my head as I swam away from the ever growing vortex.

I could feel the resistance of the vortex pulling massive amounts of water in as I anchored myself to the sea floor. Eventually, the vortex started to shrink as the massive area under the concrete became completely filled up. But just as I wrenched my talons out of the sea bed, I noticed a large blurry shape and two smaller ones pulling themselves out of the hole and shooting off towards the beach. I quickly turned and focused on it, my vision almost unimpeded by the salty water. I nearly sucked in a mouthful of seawater when I realized what exactly the shape was.

Skullcrawlers.

Amphibious, usually twelve to fifteen feet tall, thirty-five to fifty feet long, and a metabolic system so fast that it leaves them in a state of constant starvation. Usually a grayish hue with bone white coloration covering their skulls and the ridge of their backs, with only two limbs and a prehensile tongue and tail, both capable of latching onto their prey with deadly efficiency. Capable of growing up to immense sizes, evidenced by the Skull Devil Kong fought back in the seventies and the 'test subjects' used by Apex Cybernetics and Mechagodzilla.

And now there was one that was thirty-five feet tall heading straight towards Panama City, with a nineteen foot one and a fifteen foot one following close behind.

Shit.

Before I could swim after them, a torpedo exploded entirely too close for comfort, forcing me to strafe down to the sea bed to avoid the blast wave. My feet and claws scraped up a cloud of sand as I skidded to a stop, eyes already zeroing in on the offending submarine around three hundred feet away.

Oh this ain't good.' I thought. 'Either I escape now and the military follows, leaving potentially no resistance to deal with the Skullcrawler heading towards the city, or I chase after the Skullcrawler and potentially have the military follow me onto land, where I will doubtlessly be peppered with machine gun fire as soon as I get to my feet.'

I glanced between the quickly shrinking forms of the Skullcrawlers and the open ocean.

Freedom, or protection of the innocent.

Courage, or cowardice.

…

Damn my noble stupidness!

With my decision made, I crouched down and pushed off, lashing my tail fiercely as I swam after the Skullcrawlers.

Being amphibious like myself, Skullcrawlers were rather adept at swimming, rocking their entire body side to side like I do to cut through the water. The main difference between myself and the Skullcrawlers, however, was that I was much faster than them. I remember how slippery and difficult the Skull Devil was for Kong to deal with, hopefully I have less difficulty than him in killing these ones. Thankfully, the nineteen foot one had a broken leg, and was unable to swim very fast, so I was able to catch up with it easier than the others.

I caught up with the injured Skullcrawler and slashed it across the back, blood flowing freely into the salty water around us. The creature let out a bubbly screech and turned to face me. I chomped down on its uninjured leg and rolled, simultaneously diving to the sea floor as it happened. The Skullcrawler slammed into the sand and kicked up a massive cloud of it as it thrashed. I slashed at its flank, then bit down on its neck.

The already injured creature thrashed even harder when my jaws got around its neck, almost like it knew what was about to happen. My talons wrapped around its head and the base of its neck, and I prepared to snap its neck just like the Spinosaurus did to me a week ago. Before I could break its neck, however, I noticed a torpedo zooming towards us at an alarming rate of speed. I released the creature and swam off, glancing back just in time to see the Skullcrawler explode in a cloud of blood and guts.

'They tried to take me and that Skullcrawler out at the same time with that thing.' My thoughts supplied as I swam towards the other beasts.

The submarine fired another torpedo at me, but a quick whack from my tail left it with a broken propeller. I glared at the submarine, then darted off towards the beach, where the other two Skullcrawlers were making more headway than myself. The larger one had already made it off the beach and into the city, but the smaller one was wading through the water.

Lashing my tail to gain an extra burst of speed, I pounced out of the water and smashed into the smaller Skullcrawler, sending us both sprawling across the sand until we reached concrete and asphalt. As both of us got to our feet, I noticed that we were right in the middle of a street.

The Skullcrawler shook its head and roared at me. I returned the roar, flexing my claws menacingly as the humans scattered like ants. In a complete role switch from my fight with the Spinosaurus, I was the one fighting a singular smaller opponent. The Skullcrawler was vicious in its attacks, snapping its jaws at anything within reach as we thundered across the pavement.

With a shrill cry, the beast pounced over my swinging tail and clambered onto my back, scratching deep into my sides as I tried to pull it off. The creature chomped down on my neck, but instantly released its hold and howled in pain as my neck spines gouged into its mouth. Instead of biting me again, it settled for clawing into my back, making me bellow in pain as its claws pierced my flesh.

I shook myself roughly, trying to dislodge the smaller creature, but the Skullcrawler dug in deeper into my flesh and stayed hooked onto my back. Thinking quickly, I grabbed a nearby car with both hands and tossed it above me, hitting the beast right in the head. The creature staggered, and I shook myself again, causing it to slide down onto my side, then I slammed into the side of a building, crushing it between myself and the concrete.

The Skullcrawler screeched in pain, and I was finally able to grab one of its legs and pull it off of me. The Skullcrawler immediately tried to escape, desperately trying to fill its constantly empty stomach. In response, I grabbed its tail, and a nearby car, then started bludgeoning it in the head with the vehicle. The Skullcrawler screeched in pain as the car started to crumple and sharp edges began to pierce into its flesh.

An upward strike threw the Skullcrawler into the side of a building. I swung the car again, and the beast was smashed through the wall and into the building. I reared back and threw the car in after it, collapsing part of the building and half-burying the Skullcrawler. The Skullcrawler shook itself as it tried to roll over and free itself, until it stilled and its head craned to look over at me as my spines started to glow.

I adjusted my stance as my eyes began to glow a dull yellow. I could feel the inferno of power inside of me as it grew hotter and hotter, and my dorsal spines heated up and a bright bluish glow traveled up the edges of them. The few droplets of water remaining on me steamed off. I opened my jaws, and released my atomic flamethrower.

The Skullcrawler screeched in agony as the stream of greenish-white flames impacted it, the crumpled car, and the collapsed building. After a few seconds, the gas tank of the car ignited, and a gasoline explosion engulfed the ruined building. I cut the stream of atomic fire off, and the smoke cleared slightly, showing the charred remains of the Skullcrawler underneath the burning wreck of the car.

I roared in victory, then turned my attention to the sounds of distant screaming, where the largest Skullcrawler was no doubt eating as many humans as possible. I clenched my jaw slightly when I heard multiple screams be silenced, and ran off towards the sounds, barely dodging a damned broadside from two of the ships in the fleet that destroyed half the beachside buildings around me.

In my haste, however, I failed to notice the helicopter with a sideways hourglass on its side, and the people inside of it watching me.

—

Serizawa watched in awe and concern as the juvenile Titan and the young Skullcrawler brawled in the city streets.

His sharp mind took in every detail of the young Titan's frame. Charcoal black crocodile-like skin covered most of his body, while a smoother skin that was a lighter color of gray covered his underbelly. Three rows of dark gray dorsal spines ran down his back until they reached the end of its thick tail. His head was the most interesting part of his body, looking more like his father's, rather than his mother's, with the eagle-like structure of his father's face, but with the more blunt snout and dull orange eyes of his mother.

Just like his parents, he had a lipless mouth, but his teeth were much similar to his fathers, with four larger teeth that resembled fangs like his father had. He was stockier than his mother, and no doubt stronger, but he looked to be just as agile, with a semi-prehensile tail, and four fingered hands, lacking the fifth vestigial one his mother had. His overall musculature was a mashup between his parents, with his posture alternating between his father's and mother's at will.

"He looks to be around twenty-three to twenty-five feet in height. Didn't the kid that lived with him say that he was only fifteen when he was on Isla Sorna?" Nick asked.

"Yes, Eric said Zilla was only fifteen feet when we interviewed him." Dr. Graham replied.

"How could he have possibly grown so fast?"

"There is a wrecked nuclear submarine close to here that suffered a catastrophic failure back in '92. Do you think Zilla might have spent his time there?" Dr. Chen theorized.

"We're about to find out." Dr Stanton said from the co-pilot seat. "We've just gotten in contact with the geniuses in the military."

"Put them on." Serizawa said.

Dr. Stanton clicked a button, and an authoritative voice cracked over the radio.

"This is Colonel Hicks, who the hell is this? I'm in the middle of an operation and this is a private military channel." Colonel Hicks demanded.

"Colonel Hicks, this is Dr. Serizawa of Monarch." Serizawa replied.

"Monarch? You're the leader of those 'monster hunters', right?"

"Monarch is a research and containment group. We are not 'monster hunters'."

"Well stay out of our way. This is a military operation and you will be detained if you try to stop us."

"Sir, we are attempting to contain and study Zilla as he grows. Your military actions are potentially altering his perception of humanity."

"I don't care what that monster thinks about us. I am trying to kill it before it gets as big as its damned mother and tries to attack US soil again. Now leave before you're detained for obstructing a military operation."

"Your military actions have indirectly killed more people than Zilla has!" Dr. Stanton exclaimed, cutting off Serizawa before he could respond.

"Excuse me!?"

"Your subs damaged Outpost-34, causing Skullcrawlers to escape. Those things are ravenous, and eat literally everything in sight! There's a reason we only had five of them at the Outpost from its founding."

"Then we'll kill all of them too! It's your own damn fault for building your 'outpost' near a populated area! Now stay out of our way, and stay off of my airwaves or you'll get shot just like your goddamn monsters!"

The connection cut abruptly, leaving the occupants of the helicopter in stunned silence.

"Well… that was unexpected." Dr. Stanton commented. "Do you think Colonel Hicks is from New York with how angry he is at Zilla?"

"Holy crap look at that!" The pilot exclaimed.

Everyone looked out just in time to see Zilla smash the Skullcrawler into a building by swinging a car at it, then throw the car into the structure, causing it to collapse halfway.

"That was brutal." Dr. Stanton remarked.

"That… is how Titans fight." Serizawa said.

Wait, what's he doing now?"

Everyone watched in shock as Zilla's spines lit up and a sort of high-pitched organic-sounding charging noise echoed from him before he shot a stream of greenish-white fire into the collapsed building, blowing it up in a fiery explosion. Zilla roared at the fire, then turned and ran off towards the other Skullcrawler.

"Incredible." Serizawa remarked.

"Did he just breathe fire like a dragon?" Dr. Stanton asked.

"We've known through some old drawings we've found that Godzilla is capable of something similar, but we never knew that Zilla was capable of the same thing.

"Dr. Serizawa, we have incoming attack choppers. We can't stay this close, sir." The pilot asked.

"Raise altitude and switch to camera mode." Serizawa ordered.

"Is there anything we can do, sensei?" Dr. Graham asked.

"...There is nothing we can do until Zilla kills the other Skullcrawler and leaves the city."

Serizawa looked at the camera screen as Zilla made his way into the city, hoping that Zilla was smart enough to escape as soon as he was able.

—

My face twisted into a reptilian grimace as I followed the trail of overturned cars, running and screaming humans, and blood splatters where humans once stood.

'By the inferno this guy is hungry.' I thought as I jogged past a bus with bloody, Skullcrawler-shaped holes in the top.

Bullets suddenly rained down on me, pelting my hide with lead. I yelped and looked up to glare at the two passing helicopters. As they started turning to fire at me again, I ducked into an alley and kept moving towards the distant thuds of the Skullcrawler's feet. Bullets impacted above my head as the choppers tried to flush me out back into their firing line, but I simply powered through the falling bricks and concrete and ran out across the street into another alley.

This continued for another two times, the choppers trying to get a sightline on me to fire their guns and missiles, and me not falling for it. The fourth alley I ran into was barely wide enough to move through, and I had to shimmy through it, breaking the walls as I went. One of the choppers must have gotten impatient, because a missile impacted the building on my right and destabilized it.

I squawked in shock as I lost my footing and fell into the collapsing structure. The two floors above came crashing down onto me, and I was forced to the ground, but otherwise unharmed. After grunting in annoyance, I dug my way out of the rubble and was instantly fired upon by the choppers again. The constant shooting was getting painful, and I knew that I wasn't fast enough to outrun them yet, so I'd need to fight.

I ran down the street, the choppers following close behind as they tried to get a lock on me. My spines began to glow again and I quickly spun around, releasing a quick stream of fire breath, which scorched the tail of one chopper. The attack helicopter began to spin as its tail rotor screeched to a stop under the intense heat of my flames. The other chopper fired its sidewinder missiles at me, but I fired my atomic flamethrower again and shot them out of the sky, scorching the front of the remaining copter in the process.

After dealing with those two annoyances, I turned my attention back to the largest Skullcrawler's path of destruction and kept moving.

The trail became more and more fresh the closer I got to the creature, and I knew that this fight would probably be my hardest one yet. Some humans screamed and scurried back into their homes and shops as I ran through the street, others -probably in shock since they had blood covering parts of their bodies- simply watched me as I ran by them.

I finally caught up with the largest Skullcrawler and skidded to a stop sixty feet from it. It had its head stuck into a building, and I could hear a lot of screaming coming from inside of it. So, I let out a quick roar to get its attention. The beast pulled its head out of a building with a human wrapped in its tongue. In less than a second, its tongue retracted, and the human was swallowed whole. The creature scented the air, then turned to me, a semi-intelligent glint in its eye.

The Skullcrawler stomped one foot forward and roared at me, its tail -ending in a pointed, stinger-like tip- waving menacingly behind it. I slammed my own tail into the ground and bellowed a challenge to it, flexing my talons in its direction as I readied myself for a massive fight.

The Skullcrawler slid its tail across the ground, flinging cars at me, which I quickly dodged. I grabbed a bus and threw it at the creature, striking it in the shoulder. The beast screeched at me and charged, intent on trampling me. I leaped up, landing on its back, then started clawing and biting at everything in reach. The Skullcrawler screeched in pain and thrashed, trying to throw me off of it.

The creature finally tipped backwards and slammed me into a building, sending me sliding off of it and to the ground. I got to all fours, and quickly scuttled away, barely dodging a stomp from the Skullcrawler. I got to my feet and backed up a bit, a growl slipping through my teeth. The creature charged, and this time it slammed into me, pushing me through a small building and onto my back.

The Skullcrawler lunged at me, jaws wide open to snap around my neck. I stopped it with my feet, however, and kicked it in the jaw, sending it stumbling back a bit. I rolled over and burrowed into the ground to destabilize the dirt underneath the beast and trap it, but when I was almost done, the ground collapsed from a heavy stomp, and I was halfway buried under the concrete. I rolled over to slash at the Skullcrawler, but its foot slammed down on my chest, knocking the wind out of me briefly.

Remembering something from a video I watched, I closed my eyes, inhaled as deeply as I could, and roared as loudly as I could physically muster. I could hear the sounds of glass shattering around me, and the pained screeching of the Skullcrawler. It lifted its foot off of me as it staggered back. I opened my eyes and pulled myself out of the ground. One of the Skullcrawler's eyes were injured, but it could still see, thanks to the fact it had its head tilted, keeping one eye safe from the broken glass.

The Skullcrawler roared in rage and agony as it glared at me, then turned and ran away around a corner. I ran after it, but was completely bewildered when it seemed to have disappeared into thin air. I continued moving until I reached a hole in a building. A memory from my old life started ringing alarm bells, and I whipped around, slamming my tail into the Skullcrawler as it tried to ambush me.

My tail slammed into the side of its head, sending it back into the building, and I followed, ramming the top of my head into its chest, digging my claws into its shoulders, and pushing with all my might. I pushed it all the way through the building, and we broke out the other side and went to the ground in a volatile mass of clawing, snapping, and bellowing.

At some point, the Skullcrawler must have gotten its tail around my midsection, because I was suddenly thrown off of the creature and into a building. I grunted in pain, then burrowed into the building, coming out above the beast and pouncing onto its back. The Skullcrawler screeched and started to thrash as my claws dug into its body, tearing deep wounds into its flesh.

Suddenly, we were fired upon by a machine gun, and I glanced over to see a humvee with a .50 cal in front of a military convoy shooting away at us. The military had arrived, and they had come guns blazing. A soldier with a rocket launcher fired at us, and I leaped off of the Skullcrawler, leaving it to be hit by the explosive. The Skullcrawler screeched, then turned to charge at the humans. I threw a car at the beast, but the creature now had its eyes on the humans, and it was desperate to fill its constantly empty stomach.

The Skullcrawler slammed into the military convoy, and with its prehensile tongue, started snapping up the soldiers, who tried desperately to either escape or attack it. I ran up and slashed at its side with my claws, and the Skullcrawler whipped its tail at me, striking me in the snout. I staggered back and held my snout for a moment, then roared in anger at the beast.

My spines began to glow as I charged my atomic flamethrower, then I fired, sending a stream of greenish-white fire into the Skullcrawler's flank just as it was about to lunge at a retreating humvee. The creature screeched in pain, then grabbed a smashed humvee with its tail and threw it at me. The vehicle crashed into my head, knocking my mouth closed and cutting off the stream of fire.

The Skullcrawler turned to me, an enraged glint in its eyes as its blackened skin cracked where my flames hit. It charged me, and I grabbed another car and threw it at the beast. The car hit it on the leg, staggering it, but the creature kept charging at me. I charged as well, and we collided with a minor shockwave. As we started to circle each other, the military opened fire on both of us, peppering our bodies with weapons fire.

When a few .50 cal rounds hit me in the head, I turned away from the spray of bullets and noticed an attack copter heading towards us. I jerked back as the helicopter fired two missiles at us, then I charged up to the Skullcrawler. I chomped down on its neck and pulled it into the path of the missiles just as they reached us. The missiles exploded against the Skullcrawler's side, and the creature screeched in agony as one missile hit the burn I gave it, while the other slammed into the base of its tail.

Blood poured out of its wounds, and the Skullcrawler knocked me off of it and roared in pure rage. It swung its tail around, knocking me into the side of a building, and it charged into the military lines again, tearing through soldiers and vehicles alike. I shakily got to my feet and watched in horror as the creature continued to rampage through the convoy, even as they threw everything including the kitchen sink at it.

'What the hell is it going to take to kill this thing!?' I internally shouted.

A glint caught my eye, and I noticed a jagged I-beam about ten feet long sticking out of the hole in the building we crashed through earlier. Then I turned back to look at the gaping wound in the Skullcrawler's flank. A plan formed in my mind, and I figured it would have better chances of working than continuing to claw and burn away at the beast.

I ran over to the I beam and fired a stream of fire into the connecting beams, slowly turning the metal red hot. I cut the stream of fire off, then ripped the beam out of the building, resulting in a jagged, sharp end that was slowly cooling down. I pushed the hot end into a nearby fountain, quickly cooling the metal the rest of the way. I adjusted my grip on my makeshift spear, then started running back towards the Skullcrawler.

When I reached the beast, it had mostly destroyed the convoy, and was in the middle of trying to tear open an APC with its jaws. I pointed the end of it at the open wound of it, and charged towards it as fast as I could. The creature pulled its jaws out of the small hole it made, and turned its head towards me with a roar. The spear pierced into the wound, and all the way through its body, sticking out the other end splattered with blood.

The Skullcrawler screeched louder than I ever thought one of them could, and slammed into me, knocking me onto my back. The beast leaped onto me and snapped at me, desperately trying to bite me. With one arm I pushed its head back, and clamped my jaws around its neck. The Skullcrawler started thrashing and scratching me, leaving a long gash on my inner thigh.

The pain caused me to clench my teeth even harder, and blood started running down my snout as my teeth sliced into its neck. I gathered my strength and we rolled until I was on top of it.

I braced myself, and pulled… tearing the Skullcrawler's throat out.

The Skullcrawler let out a gurgling roar, blood freely flowing out onto the shattered pavement as I staggered back and coughed due to blood going into my air pipe. I settled onto all fours for a moment and watched as the creature took one last breath, and died.

I slowly raised up to my full height, then tossed my head back and roared in victory. I leaned back on my haunches and just… breathed in the evening air for a moment. My tongue ran over the bit of throat flesh that was in my mouth, and I was pleasantly surprised at the taste of Skullcrawler flesh.

But I needed my mouth clean to tend to my wounds, so I ambled over to a broken hydrant and let the water spray on my jaws and in my mouth, briefly turning the water red as the blood flowed off of me. Without the constant sounds of guns firing and screeching of the Skullcrawler, the city descended into an uncomfortable silence for a few moments, and I started licking the wounds I could reach to start the healing process.

Interesting fact about my -and most animals- saliva, it contains an enzyme that promotes blood coagulation. Being a radioactive creature, however, mine cranks up my healing factor by quite a large margin.

The distant sound of approaching Humvees reached my ears, and I let out a reptilian sigh. I knew the military would still be coming for me, but I hoped that I'd be able to rest for at least a few minutes. I got back to my feet and turned towards the ocean.

'Maybe I should spend some time in the Amazon rainforest. It'll be hell for Colonel Hicks to try and get at me easily there.' I thought.

With my destination set, and the stars just beginning to shine in the sky, I stealthily made my way through the city and back into the ocean.

—

Serizawa looked on as the civilians of Panama City began the process of cleaning up the destroyed sections of their city.

"Is this Monarch's idea of the best outcome possible?" Colonel Hicks asked as he walked up to the man, Major O'Neil in tow.

"No, it is not. I was hoping to leave Panama with Zilla captured and heading to a containment area, not... all of this." Serizawa responded as he stared at a bus that had been turned into a bloodbath by the largest Skullcrawler.

"It's not my fault Monarch never thickened the concrete on those paddocks, Doctor. And… My apologies for how I acted during our brief call earlier. I have been known to get a bit… heated, during high-risk operations."

"Apology accepted. But I do not believe that your superiors will accept such an excuse."

"Dr. Serizawa!" A voice called out.

The two men turned towards the voice and watched as a man in an orange hazmat suit approached, the sideways hourglass insignia of Monarch on his shoulder. The man unzipped and pulled his helmet off, then took a deep breath of fresh air.

"Sir, we've checked the areas where Zilla fired his atomic flamethrower for any sign of radiation, and the largest spots are a match for the same kind that was found in Eric Kirby's blood. Should we go ahead with collecting the irradiated rocks for testing?" He asked.

"Yes." Serizawa replied, and the man put his helmet back on and walked away.

"Dr. Serizawa, I understand that 'Zilla' is young, and his radiation has some sort of beneficial effect on human life forms, but its mother caused a minimum estimate of ten billion dollars in damage to New York alone. I cannot in good conscience allow this thing to stay alive." Col. Hicks explained.

"Colonel, this new animal is different. I do not believe it would be harmful to humanity. There is no danger of him reproducing, either, because his differing DNA has rendered him a complete male of his species. His radiation was documented to be extremely beneficial to the wildlife and plants of Isla Sorna. He spent so much time on that island that his radiation brought it back from the brink of ecological collapse." Serizawa responded.

"Tell me doctor, is Monarch so obsessed with Zilla, that their agents would endanger the majority of the planet by allowing him to live? His radiation may help plants and animals, but the destruction these things cause is… just look at it."

Both men glanced around at the shattered street, where the corpse of the thirty-five-foot Skullcrawler lay in the center of the street, a giant hole in a nearby building, and the annihilated convoy.

"Most of the damage was caused by the Skullcrawler."

"Yeah, about that… 'Skullcrawler'. Dr. Stanton said something about them being ravenous?"

"Skullcrawlers possess such a high metabolism that they are almost constantly in a state of starvation. In our research of them, they have been known to go after any prey, no matter how small… Which includes humans."

"Good god. He killed them all, right?"

"Zilla killed the three that escaped, and the other two were terminated around twenty minutes ago. But Skull Island is where they originate."

"Right, where that big ape lives I read about lives. Those Monarch files have made it a little harder to sleep at night, doc."

Before their conversation could continue, Col. Hicks' radio crackled, and the voice of one of the bridge crew reported.

"Col. Hicks. We just got a massive reading about fifteen miles out. Something big popped up on our scanners." The bridge crewman reported.

"How big are we talking, here?"

"...It's so big that the radar thinks it's a landmass, sir."

Hicks looked over at Serizawa in confusion. "What in the hell would be so big the radar would think it's a landmass?"

Serizawa frowned in thought for a moment, before his eyes widened.

"...Gojira…"

—

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep- AAAAUGH NOT AGAIN!

I shook my head roughly to dispel the repetitive song from that damned Disney fish movie and kept swimming.

About twenty minutes had passed since I escaped the military in Panama City. Hopefully I could lose them for good once I reach Colombia.

I suddenly stilled, when the sensation of being watched washed over me. I swam a few feet up to the surface and looked around, trying to see if there was a nearby ship. Suddenly, the water started to bend upwards before three sets of spines pierced the surface. My heart skipped a beach when I realized what I was looking at.

Godzilla had found me.

His massive head breached the water and shook slightly to dislodge water, and his bright amber eyes focused on me. I was almost frozen in shock as his enormous snout came closer to me, until I could see the yellow-tinted sclera of his eyes. Godzilla was massive. The silver screen does not do his size any justice. I instantly felt as small as a human again as we stared at each other.

Then the massive Titan opened his mouth and spoke.

"I have finally found you." He said, his voice a deep, rumbling baritone.

"M-me?" I whimpered, muscles coiled to bolt at the slightest inclination of an attack.

"Yes. You. For three years you have evaded me, and for three years I have gone out of my way to try and find you."

"How did you even know where to find me?"

"It wasn't hard once you started using your fire breath so much in that city."

I winced. If Godzilla could find me that easily, who knows how quickly I would have been killed if I had the ability since birth.

"B-but why have you searched for me for so long?" I asked.

"Because I made a promise to myself to find you before the humans could. Because it is not safe out here… my pup."

Wait.

"Pup? Why did you call me that?"

Godzilla leaned his massive head down until he was looking me right in the eyes. His giant snout was only a few feet away from me.

"There is no other way to say this, I'm afraid."

His amber eyes stared directly into my soul.

"I... am your father."

.

..

...


WHAT!?

Chapter Text

Date: 8/07/2001
Location: Monarch Main Headquarters
Time: Mid-day

"DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH OF A DISASTER THIS IS SERIZAWA!?" General Glenn Dearing ranted as he paced in Serizawa's office. "THESE ARE LITERALLY DAMN WAR CRIMES HE'S DONE! IT'S AN OUTRAGE!"

"I am aware, General." The leader of Monarch replied patiently as his eyes tracked his friend as he prowled around Serizawa's office like a caged and rabid animal.

General Dearing clenched his fists so hard he could feel his nails cutting into his palms. "I am telling you right now, Major Hicks is gone! Court martial! Dishonorable discharge! Straight to maximum security prison! If the death penalty was still legal, I'd have lobbied for it so hard-"

The general stopped and took a few deep breaths, the tension almost visibly steaming off of his shoulders as he regained control of his emotions. He took one final breath, then opened his sharp blue eyes and looked over at Serizawa, his shoulders visibly sagging as he reached up and let his fingers brush through his short auburn hair.

"He was also directly responsible for damaging Monarch Outpost thirty-four, and partially responsible for unleashing those… Uh… what did you call them? Skullwalkers?"

"Skullcrawlers."

"Yes. Those. He was partially responsible for those Skullcrawler things breaking out as well. By the way, just so you're aware, Serizawa, there won't be any large repercussions for those things escaping. The higher-ups know that the only reason the Skullcrawlers even managed to escape Outpost-34 was because of the damage Hicks did to the facility. There will be a lot of safety briefings done, but thankfully you won't get any funding taken away. No clue how you're going to cover that up, though. It's five times worse than the incident during the final few days of Vietnam."

General Dearing finally sat down with a deep sigh and rubbed at his face.

Serizawa sighed in a small amount of relief, both at Dearing finally calming down after nearly yelling himself hoarse for the last fifteen minutes, and that Monarch wasn't getting any funding cut from it. He quickly checked his computer to see if any reports had come in from Isla Sorna, then looked at the almost exhausted posture of the man in front of his desk and took a small bit of pity on him.

Serizawa leaned down and opened up a drawer in his desk which doubled as a cooler, and pulled out a bottle of scotch, a drink that he found he quite liked from his time at Oxford, and two small glasses. He poured the scotch into both glasses after setting a couple ice cubes in them, then handed one to Dearing, who accepted it and instantly took a large sip, then closed his eyes.

"Thank you, Ishiro." General Dearing muttered as he held the cold glass up to his forehead for a moment, before he pulled it away and looked at the man. "Things have been hectic ever since the incident. I should have known better than to put a New York native in charge of hunting down a creature whose mother rampaged through Manhattan."

"Everyone makes mistakes, Glenn." Serizawa responded after taking a sip of his own scotch.

"Yeah, I guess so. Still, Hicks' actions have made the wider world nervous about these Titans or whatever you're calling the smaller ones. Kaiju, maybe? The President actually asked me earlier this morning if you think it would be a good idea for Monarch to partially come out of the shadows to declare that they're tracking that thing that escaped New York. You guys are calling it Zilla now, right?"

"...No. Monarch must remain secret for now. If the public were to learn of the Titans existence too early, it would cause global panic, far worse than with just Zilla around. For now, let the public be angry at Hicks and his subordinates. Once their bloodlust is sated, and there is no more ire left to direct at Zilla, Dr. Tatopaulos will come forward with the Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team or 'H.E.A.T' and begin tracking the juvenile."

"We can only really hope Zilla stays underwater for the time being then. Although, with how intelligent the little bugger seems to be I don't think that'll be a problem. Speaking of the mini-Godzilla, have you seen him at all since he left Panama?"

In response, Serizawa clicked a few buttons on his computer, and a projector hanging from the ceiling turned on and displayed a constantly updating map of the earth, comprised of thousands of reports allowing a real-time glimpse of the entire world.

"Zilla has not been seen since he escaped Panama City's coastline." Serizawa said with a sigh. "We believe Gojira may have finally found his missing offspring and taken him to deeper waters. He appeared briefly off the coast of Panama and hasn't been seen since."

"Huh. …Did you ever figure out why exactly Zilla was heading south?"

"The main theory is that he was looking for a proper place to grow, and a place that could easily hide him until he was large enough to swim in the open ocean, like the Amazon Rainforest. South America is much less densely populated than one would think. But something pushed him off of his chosen path, and he ended up on Isla Sorna. And based on what we were able to find there, he was on that island from late 1998 until the rescue mission for the Kribys, Dr. Grant, and a few others took place earlier this year. Some theorized that his sense of smell is good enough that he was able to pick up the scent of the large herbivores on the islands."

"I doubt any living being alive has a sense of smell that good. Those islands are, what? A couple hundred miles off the coast of Costa Rica?"

"He is an entirely new species of animal, but it is doubtful. It is likely he followed a pterosaur back to the island instead. Those animals have been becoming bolder in their exploration, it seems."

Glenn leaned back in his seat. "Pretty soon we'll have those flying reptiles in the dang rafters. Speaking of the island that no one's really allowed to go on besides Monarch now, how's Isla Sorna looking?"

Serizawa let a small smile grow on his face. "Healing. The Spinosaurus that was released from the abandoned cloning facility had been wreaking havoc on the ecosystem of the island, and in the process, allowing the local velociraptor pack to grow out of control. Since Zilla killed many of the raptors and the Spinosaurus itself, however, there is a definite uptick in dinosaur sightings from the ground teams. Herbivore and carnivore. We believe that within two years the area where the Spinosaurus had lived will have stabilized. And with some guidance from Monarch, hopefully the whole island."

"That's nice. Hard to believe I'm alive at the same time as literal dinosaurs, to be honest. Even if they are technically 'theme park monsters'. Then again, literal Titans exist as well… Heh, bet my niece would love to work with them if that Jurassic World project ever gets approved."

Serizawa blinked. "Niece?"

"Did I never tell you? I have two nieces. Karen and Claire Dearing. Karen's married and got a little toddler named Zach, and she's thinking about having another kid too. Claire's going into her second year of college this year, she's the one that'd love to work with dinosaurs I think."

"I didn't know you had relatives."

"Eh, I don't talk about them much. My brother always thought that me wanting to be in the military was dumb, so our relationship was a bit strained for a while. He was, and still is, content with the life of a small-town mechanic and beekeeper. Claire is a girl after my own heart to be honest. Our hometown was dying after the mine closed during my high school years. I'm honestly surprised that the town has survived this long."

Serizawa nodded his head absently, then furrowed his brow. "Jurassic World project?"

"Yeah, apparently Masrani Global is applying to build an entirely new park on Isla Nublar. Twice the attractions of the original Jurassic Park, and according to Masrani himself, 'five times safer with modern technology' or something like that."

Serizawa looked down at his desk in thought.

"I see that look, Serizawa." Glenn said. "Do you think Masrani Global was behind that weird Spinosaurus with DNA from Zilla's mother?" He asked.

"It is possible. But it could have just been an experiment by a rogue element from InGen before they were bought out." Serizawa replied. "We are simply unable to tell. Whoever they are, they've covered their tracks very well."

The leader of Monarch turned and stared at the map projected on the wall, and as he stared at it, his eyes narrowed.

"But if they use Titan DNA again… we won't be so lenient." He added grimly.

CNN News 8/09/01: Major Anthony Hicks arrested for treason! Court Martial date set!

In a shocking but not unexpected turn of events, Major Anthony Hicks has been arrested on charges of treason. The charges come in the wake of his ill-advised attack on the Kaiju known as Zilla in Panama City, which inadvertently led to a death toll that is still being counted.

General Glenn Dearing was asked to give his opinion on the developing story, and he had this to say.

"Words cannot describe how I feel towards Hicks right now." The man had admitted. "To say he made a mistake would be the understatement of the last thousand years. I personally oversaw the man's promotion to Major after he killed Zilla's mother, the one that rampaged through Manhattan, but now that memory is forever soured by his recent actions."

For such a betrayal, General Dearing also said that he was going to be going over his other subordinates' actions with a fine-toothed comb over the next few months.

General Dearing is also quoted saying this as well. "Something fishy is going on with Major Hick's actions, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it and find out what the hell is going on."

In the meantime, Anthony Hicks' court martial is set for August the fifteenth, two thousand and one.

For more on Anthony Hicks' charges, see page three.

–

The Wall Street Journal 8/12/01: Panama government demands reparations from the American government! President Bush pays over ten million in first reparation!

The government of Panama, in the wake of Panama City being attacked by Major Anthony Hicks, has demanded reparations from the Bush Administration for being attacked by American military personnel. President Bush recently signed an executive order paying ten million USD to Panama in the first wave of reparations to the country, and he has also offered the assistance of the US in combing the wreckage for survivors or bodies.

President Bush held a press conference, where he said this.

"These actions taken by Major Anthony Hicks are inexcusable. And the US will do everything in its power to help the Panama government rebuild after this tragedy."

Money or not, this is a dark time for the US military. Major Hicks' actions have cast a long shadow over the US military, and that shadow's name is General Glenn Dearing.

For more information on the aid to Panama, see page six.
For more information about General Dearing's shakeup in the Army and Navy, see page eight.

–

New York Times 8/15/01: Over a hundred recorded deaths after Zilla battles strange skull-headed dinosaurs in Panama City. And Zilla: Just an animal? Or something more?

In a somewhat similar tragedy that befell our own city, Zilla, the offspring of the monster that tried to use Manhattan as a nest, was involved in a fight with strange skull-headed dinosaurs in Panama City. However, eyewitness reports state that Zilla was defending pedestrians from the strange creatures and the rogue elements of the US military under Major Hicks' command.

In related news, the newest death toll has been released, eighteen days after the battle that consumed parts of Panama City. The new death toll has reached one hundred and twenty-three. Over a hundred Panama natives have died as a result of Major Hicks' actions. Among the dead are a family of five US tourists, two parents, and three children ranging from seven to sixteen years old.

It is believed they were eaten by the strange creatures and digested by their extreme metabolism before Zilla was able to kill them.

Zilla has also shown incredible intelligence. Eyewitness reports state that Zilla pulled an I-beam out of a crumbling building and somehow melted one end of it into a sharp edge. The Kaiju was then able to pierce the flesh of the larger creature it was fighting. This is beyond any normal intelligence of a large animal, this is beyond the smartest animals on the planet.

Some biologists are theorizing that Zilla's unique circumstances have resulted in almost human-level intellect.

For more information on Zilla's perceived intelligence, see page three.
For more information on the 'skullcrawlers', see page four.

–

Fox News 8/17/01: Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team revealed to the public.

HEAT seekers search for Zilla!

The Humanitarian Environmental Analysis Team, or HEAT, was established just a few days ago. The team, comprised of Dr. Nick Tatopoulos, Dr. Elsie Chapman, Dr. Mendel Craven, Mr. Randy Hernandez, and Ms. Monique Dupre, are the main components of the team.

Dr. Tatopoulos and Dr. Chapman are the lead researchers on Zilla itself; everything biologically related to the animal is their expertise. Dr. Craven and Mr. Hernandez handle the more mechanical and technological aspects of the team, and Ms. Dupre is their head of security.

The team may be small, but they have plenty of funding to track and locate Zilla, the offspring of the larger animal that rampaged through Manhattan in 1998. The team is also responsible for ensuring that any other 'Kaiju' are properly tracked, researched, and contained.

For more information about the HEAT team and their goals, see page five.

–

NBC News 8/20/01: Anthony Hicks sentenced! First American military personnel in US history to receive over three thousand years in a prison sentence! Absolutely no chance for parole!

In the court trial of the century, former Major Anthony Hicks has been sentenced to three thousand years in maximum security.

The trial, which has been closely watched by reporters from all over the US and even the world, is no stranger to anyone. It has been front-page news ever since it began on the fifteenth. Anthony Hicks was dishonorably discharged, had all chances of parole taken from him, and it has been ordered that he will serve his sentence at ADX Florence, the most secure prison in the entire United States.

This verdict comes after a heartbreaking witness testimony, the identity of which has remained anonymous. The unnamed man describes how Hicks disregarded every plea from his subordinates to stop the attack on Zilla and focus on the skullcrawlers (the skull-headed creatures causing all of the damage to people and property), but Hicks refused and ordered the helicopters to continue firing at Zilla.

Anthony Hicks will be moved to ADX Florence tomorrow, and those under his command will either be demoted, heavily scrutinized, or given the choice to leave the military entirely.

For more information about those under Hicks' command, see page three.
For more information about ADX Florence, see page four.

–

Washington Post 8/21/01: Anthony Hicks assassinated! Prison bus attacked while en-route to Washington National Airport to take him to ADX Florence! Twenty-eight bullet wounds just in his torso!

In a shocking turn of events, Anthony Hicks, the Major in charge during the Panama Massacre, has been assassinated!

The prison bus he was on was attacked, while en-route to Washington National Airport. When police arrived at the scene, they described scenes of carnage. Every guard was killed with one to two shots in a vital area. The prison bus itself was totaled and overturned, and a stolen garbage truck was the culprit of the crash. When investigators got to Hicks himself, they found a bloodbath.

Hicks was shot a total of thirty times. Two bullets were in his knees, and the rest of them were in his torso. It is believed this is the work of assassins contracted by someone involved with the Panama Massacre. The assassins were nowhere to be found, with not even a drop of blood or a single spent bullet casing to be seen of them.

Police have issued an APB for anyone who may have information about the attackers.

For more information about the attack, see page two.
For the Bush Administration's response to the attack, see page three.

–

Fox News 8/25/01: Hicks' assassins found and killed! Gunfight consumes Nashville Mcdonalds as assassins and SWAT police exchange gunfire! Ten civilian deaths caused by assassins! Death toll at twenty-five!

The city of Nashville, Tennessee is in mourning today.

Yesterday evening, the three assassins of former Major Anthony Hicks were found. The suspects, Trevor Alexander, Michael Tate, and Franklin DeShawn were all gunned down by the end of the shootout that had consumed a local Mcdonalds. All three of them went down fighting, causing ten civilian and fifteen police deaths in the process. All three of them were heavily armed, with Trevor in particular reportedly utilizing a rocket launcher on police vehicles at one point.

The three men were cornered in a Mcdonalds parking lot, where most of the pedestrian deaths occurred. Most were from restaurant staff trying to evacuate the patrons and being shot by Trevor Alexander. After an hour-long gunfight, the three men were killed one after the other, and the city breathed a small sigh of relief.

For more information about the three assassins, see page two.
For more information about Anthony Hicks and the Panama City Massacre, see page five.

–

CNN News 9/05/01: Final death toll in Panama City Massacre released! A day that will live in infamy!

The final death toll from the Panama City Massacre has been released by the Panama government. One hundred and thirty-four deaths total from Major Hicks actions. Many believe that if Zilla had been able to stop the skullcrawlers unimpeded, the death toll would most likely be under fifty.

Many remember the damage caused by the military under former Major Anthony Hicks' command during that tragedy. Dr. Nick Tatopoulos of HEAT is quoted as saying that Zilla was the best option for dealing with the skullcrawlers, due to the fact that ballistics tests performed on the corpses of the animals were negligible at best. Only high-powered missiles or in Zilla's case, claws and teeth would be able to penetrate the skullcrawler's thick hide.

And to think that the offspring of the monster that rampaged through Manhattan was responsible for protecting dozens of pedestrians.

Truly a day that will live in infamy, for all that were involved.

For more information about the Panama City Massacre, see page three.
For more information about HEAT, see page five.

Chapter Text

Date:7/17/2005
Location: Uninhabited island in the Aleutian Island Chain, Alaska

"Why did you bring me out here?" Randy grumbled as he shivered slightly from the Alaskan cold. "I'm not built for this damn cold."

"How do you think I feel?" Mendel sniffled as he stood wrapped in an electric blanket and two coats. "We've been here for two days now."

"Warmer than me, that's for sure." The younger man sniped back, before turning to Nick, who was still looking out of the binoculars. "Why would Zilla even be out here, chief? Isn't he supposed to be with his daddy, in his territory?"

"We'll know why the Monarch buoy was tripped once Monique and Elsie get back." The biologist replied, glancing back at the darker skinned man, before turning back to the binoculars and looking out at the ocean. "Go rest a bit, Randy. Mendel, take over for Randy with the seismic reader."

Randy sighed in relief, looked out at the wilderness around them, then walked back over to the campfire. Mendel groaned, then shuffled over to the seismic reader.

The HEAT team had been together for over six years now, and things had been mostly quiet ever since 2001. It seemed that after 9/11 happened, most of the world's attention shifted away from Zilla, and turned to the War on Terror in the Middle East. That didn't mean the HEAT team stopped searching for Zilla, though. There had been scattered reports about sightings of Zilla for years at this point, but the young Titan never seemed to hang around in one place for long, and no one ever got a clear look at him.

They didn't even know how big the young Titan was anymore.

Conflicting reports listed him as everything from the size of a city bus to rivaling a skyscraper in height. Nick had theorized that, if Zilla kept growing at a steady rate, he'd match his mother's size by 2028. Elsie, ever the realist, pointed out the kaiju's unpredictable growth spurts whenever exposed to radiation. In truth, none of them knew much at all. Zilla had become a figurative ghost ever since Panama, appearing only in blurry footage or mostly-weathered claw marks, which was a complete enigma in the age of satellites and global surveillance.

Randy sat down and stared into the fire, fiddling with the wedding band on his hand. A habit that he had gained over the last three years.

The whole HEAT team wasn't what it used to be.

Not in a bad way, just… different. Older, wiser, a little more world weary, maybe.

Seven years ago, they were a chaotic crew of misfits from academia and newly-hired Monarch agents, thrown together by circumstance and a towering female mutant lizard. Their early days were spent dodging collapsing buildings, chasing potential and real -but never Titan-sized- mutations through the wilderness, and occasionally bickering over what counted as edible field rations.

Back then, everything felt urgent. Every ping on the radar might've been Zilla, the one they'd been searching for for weeks, then months. Every footprint or sample might've been a breakthrough. They moved fast, laughed louder, and lived like they were racing extinction.

Now?

Things had slowed down. Not by a lot. Just enough to notice.

Nick had grown more reserved. Not cold -never cold, not with Audrey by his side- but quieter, steadier, he'd slowly molded into the natural leader of HEAT. His obsession with tracking Zilla hadn't dimmed; if anything, it had deepened and matured. He no longer chased the Titan like a young man trying to prove something. Now it was more like a long-term vigilance as he watched for the young Titan's return. He kept detailed notes in a scuffed black notebook that he carried with him everywhere. Meticulously charted migration guesses, seismic activity, radiation levels, and a dozen other bits of data.

That notebook was becoming his life's work, in Randy's opinion.

Elsie had drifted in and out over the years. Academia had reclaimed her for a while with guest lectures and white-collar work… And then she had a stint consulting for Monarch that she refused to talk about after returning. She hadn't joined them out in the field in a long time, but she always answered Nick's calls. Her sarcasm had sharpened with age, but underneath it was always the familial concern. She still cared, she always had, but now she mostly showed it in data dumps and passive-aggressive voicemails, as has been usual.

Mendel had, against all odds, toughened up. He still hated the outdoors, still wrapped himself in layers and coats and overdressed for mild breezes, he still complained, still sneezed dramatically and he still took way too many antihistamines to possibly be healthy, but there was a core of grit in him now. He'd stayed with Nick through the lean years, through empty leads and false alarms. He grumbled, yes there was a lot of grumbling, but he showed up. Every time. That had to count for something.

And then there was Randy himself.

Randy, who'd once dodged responsibility like it was a heat-seeking missile, had surprised everyone. He did that by doing the unthinkable and growing up. He still cracked jokes, he still had that spark of mischief in his eye when he was bored, he still played video games as a hobby that had everyone else fondly rolling their eyes, but he wasn't the same immature tech geek he'd been in '98. Somewhere along the way, he'd stopped running. Somewhere along the way he stopped chasing attention and started building something real.

That something was someone, and that someone's name was Monique.

No one had seen it coming at first, least of all any of the HEAT team. Randy and Monique had fought constantly in the early days: her stoic professionalism clashing with his impulsive antics. But somewhere between dodging mutant, human sized ants in South America, and hunting giant rats in the tunnels of Manhattan, friction eventually turned to chemistry. It wasn't sudden, like something from a Tv show. It was slow, stubborn, and somehow undeniable to both of them.

They got married on May the fifteenth, 2002. A quiet ceremony in a villa in the outskirts of Paris. No media, no Monarch agents. Just the core team, and Phillipe, who had all come to see the impossible happen. Nick gave the toast as Randy's Best Man. Mendel cried more than Monique. Elsie showed up fashionably late and asked when Nick and Audrey were going to finally get hitched. It was a good day.

And then a month later Audrey finally got tired of Nick dancing around the subject and proposed to him instead, and soon they were married as well, to Nick's bewilderment.

Now, three whole years later, Randy wasn't just the team's tech whiz. He was Monique's husband. And somehow, they balanced each other out, despite the odds that were stacked against them. Her intensity was softened by his levity, and his recklessness was grounded by her discipline. They were still opposites, but now, they worked in sync. They'd also had a long talk about kids last year, but eventually decided to put a pin in that conversation and come back to it in a few years.

For now, they had the HEAT Seeker, an old cannery refurbished into their headquarters on Staten Island filled with prototype weapons and science equipment thanks to Monarch, and a shared mission between all of them.

The world, meanwhile, had moved on.

After 9/11, the funding dried up a bit for everything not directly military related. Kaiju weren't the thing anymore. Mutants couldn't hijack planes or trigger wars. The HEAT team -and Monarch as a whole, eventually- was quietly shuffled aside, replaced by government contracts and surveillance programs that had nothing to do with giant monsters. Monarch promptly shrugged their shoulders and went deeper underground in the political world, back to where they usually were. They were used to being swept aside like that, and relied on their branches to make the money they needed. And HEAT stayed on the surface, publicly searching for Zilla and keeping the public updated on his whereabouts.

Sightings soon became rumors, then rumors somehow became stories.

Zilla vanished after Panama, and the common man and woman almost forgot that a giant monster had rampaged through Manhattan, barring the memorial to the rampage in the ruins of Madison Square Garden. Zilla's mother, Gino, didn't kill a sixth as many people, and her time in the news was reduced to history afterwards. The fact that most of the mutations encountered were in mostly wild areas or enough away to be out of the public consciousness didn't help much, either.

But Nick never gave up. And somehow, neither did the rest of them.

So when Monarch buoy #177 pinged off the Alaskan coast, Nick called. And they all came.

A gust of icy wind swept over the ridge, rattling the canvas of their portable shelter and sending a flurry of snow across the clearing. Randy glanced toward the tree line, rubbing his gloved hands together and muttering something about frostbite. He glanced towards the ocean again, then did a small double take, before a smile grew on his face. The HEAT Seeker was coming in, its white paint gleaming in the sun like a fast moving iceberg.

"They're back!" He called out to the others.

Monique was back.

The boat slowed to a halt, and the smaller motorboat they kept on its back lowered, and two figures sped towards them until Randy could make out the figures of Elsie and his wife. Once it hit land, the two ladies stepped off, and Monique started making her way towards him. She moved with the same precise, deliberate gait she'd always had, like the terrain never quite touched her. Her rifle was slung across her back, and the familiar half-squint she wore when scanning an area hadn't changed one bit. But Randy spotted the subtle shift right away: the quick flick of her eyes toward him. The slight easing of her shoulders. It wasn't obvious to anyone else, but he knew her well enough now to read the difference.

He walked over to meet her, pulling down his scarf. After a short but sweet kiss, he started walking beside her, gently weaving his arm around her waist as they moved over to the campfire, which Mendel had stacked another couple pieces of wood onto. After a moment, the whole group huddled around the intense warmth of the borderline bonfire that Mendel had created.

"So, ladies, did you find anything?" Nick asked.

"Well, the buoy was triggered, that's for sure." Elsie began, pulling out a small PDA, one of a whole set that Randy and Mendel had built last year. "Thankfully, this one was refurbished just a few months ago, so we were able to get a bigger picture."

Elsie clicked a few buttons on it, and the shortwave wireless connection sent the data to everyone else's PDA, along with the upgraded laptop that Mendel was holding. The data answered a few questions, but it only raised more, one of which Nick voiced.

"These readings suggest something much bigger than what the projected growth level for Zilla to be." Nick commented. "He must have found another source of radiation…"

"Either that or living with his Papa is doing it." Randy remarked.

"That's actually what I believe." Elsie said. "We don't know all that much about Godzilla, but we all know that his patrol routes have noticeably become less traveled ever since the two met. Godzilla and Zilla must obviously be living in the same place, the younger of which is feeding off of his father's radiation and whatever radiation is around them."

"These data points suggest he's more than doubled in mass since 2001," Mendel said, squinting at his screen. "That's a jump in both vertical and horizontal growth. We're talking exponential growth."

"Damn. Imagine doubling your size in four years." Randy chuckled. "That's like a kid hitting ten feet tall before middle school."

"Poor little guy," Mendel muttered, then corrected himself. "Well… not really 'little' anymore, I guess."

Randy shrugged. "Eh, it's the thought that counts."

Elsie scrolled through another chart. "If this rate holds, Zilla might not just match his mother, he could probably exceed her. Potentially even hit the size range of other known Titans Monarch's been tracking." She said.

"Gino was only fifty meters at the head though, wasn't she?" Randy asked.

"Fifty-five meters in total, back spines and all. Are you suggesting that Zilla might get even larger than his mother?" Nick asked.

"I mean…" Randy tilted his head. "His egg had traces of Godzilla's DNA. Not just Gino's. So who knows what he'll become?"

They all went quiet for a moment. The wind picked up, carrying a sharp edge with it. In the distance, a gull cried once, then fell silent. The fire crackled louder, the warmth momentarily at odds with the cold unknown pressing in from the wilderness.

"What about those footprints you found inland?" Elsie asked.

"Large. Deep. Quadrupedal. The stride was wide enough to rule out a bear, or any native wildlife." Nick said, flipping to another page in his notebook.

"How wide?"

"Wider than Gino's, but rounder, like something you'd see from a tortoise."

The footprints appeared on Mendel's laptop screen, and everyone took a long look at it

"So, we're tracking a giant turtle?" Monique asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It is possible that Zilla might be hunting this giant turtle. His mother did need to eat a lot of fish." Nick supplied.

"You mean we might potentially get to see a giant monster fight?" Randy asked, a small bit of giddiness rising in him.

Nick let a small smirk grow on his face. "We might."

"Hopefully from a far enough vantage point that we don't end up in the crossfire." Mendel quickly added with a glance at the two of them.

Nick stood up and stretched with a yawn. "Well we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let's settle down for the night. We'll start the next stage of the search in the morning."

With that, the group slowly drifted to their sleeping arrangements, and a few handfuls of snow were thrown onto the fire to snuff it out.

–

That night, Nick was suddenly awoken by loud noises coming from outside, almost like a whole earthquake was happening right outside the camp site.

"The hell?" he muttered, already reaching for his boots and coat. He shoved his arms through the sleeves as he stumbled out of his tent.

The cold punched him in the face, but he barely noticed it. The entire forest seemed to be groaning, trees rattling, ice creaking from unseen weight, snow sloughing off branches in shuddering waves.

"What's going on!?" Mendel shouted as he emerged in a panic, wrapped in his blankets like a collapsed burrito, an electric lantern bouncing wildly in one hand.

"Is that an earthquake!?" Randy's voice rang out next, as he and Monique burst from their tent, both halfway into jackets, boots be damned. Her sidearm was already in her hand.

Nick's mind raced, old memories slamming into him like cold water: the flash of headlights through rain, the breath of steam rising from cracked pavement, and the unrelenting roar of something impossible.

"No," Nick breathed, staring toward the darkened tree line. "It's not an earthquake."

Suddenly, a crack like thunder shattered the air. A chunk of ice the size of a pickup slammed into the ground just a few yards from them, throwing up a spray of snow and debris. The team screamed, instinctively ducking and shining flashlights toward the source. The rumble grew deeper. Louder. Familiar. Then came the roar. It wasn't just sound—it was pressure. A rising, violent tremor that shook the trees and rolled through their bones. A voice not heard in years.

Nick's blood ran cold. "Zilla," he murmured. "He's here."

But almost as soon as recognition settled, a second sound erupted. It wasn't Zilla. It was something else. It was the roar of something else, deeper and almost… guttural. A bellow from something older, and filled with animalistic hate.

"Run!" Nick shouted, voice cracking with urgency. "NOW!"

The group bolted as one.

Randy grabbed Monique's hand without thinking. Mendel tripped over his own coat and scrambled to his feet. Nick glanced back just once, and what he saw made his heart leap into his throat.

A massive, reptilian foot slammed down where their tents had stood moments before. Snow and canvas exploded upward in a blast of frozen shrapnel.

And just behind it…A shell, massive, armored, and covered with dull spikes. Part of it caught in the flashlight beam for only a second, but long enough to burn into his brain. Something other than Zilla was on this island. The tree line obscured the full view, but the scale was clear. This wasn't a territorial standoff. This was something else entirely. The team dove behind a frozen ridge, hearts hammering, breaths ragged in the thin cold air.

Nick's voice came out low and strained. "He's not alone." He said.

Randy blinked, his eyes wide, face pale in the glow of his flashlight. "Wait… Zilla's fighting something?" He asked.

A second roar split the sky from the massive tortoise, and after nearly a minute of running, everyone jumped into a small trench, out of breath, and terrified. The roaring and rumbling had silenced, and only the second, unfamiliar roar could be heard. Nick felt a drop of something land on his shoulder, and he rubbed it off. But it felt…

"Mendel." Nick whispered.

"Yes?" The scientist replied shakily.

"Turn your lamp on low."

The light illuminated the liquid on his fingers.

The red liquid.

A muffled but loudish thump made everyone look to the left, and Monique shined a light towards the sound. The flashlight beam illuminated a massive charcoal gray and black scaled arm. Everyone froze as Monique shined it higher and higher, until it was directly above them, where they saw the underside of Zilla's head and neck. Then the young Titan tilted his head and glared down at them with one softly glowing orange eye.

A small growl came from between its teeth, and Monique instantly shut the light off. The young Titan huffed, then tilted his head back straight. The sun just barely began to peek over the top of a mountain range, and the pre-dawn light showed a dull picture of what Zilla had been fighting.

It was a massive tortoise with green skin and a lighter underbelly, with a dark green shell covered with dull spikes. The giant turtle had multiple dark green spots all over its body. Its four stumpy legs had five-clawed feet, and it had a long blunt tail with sharper spikes running down it, with the tail ending with a large, spiked club. Blood was splashed on its tail club, and one of its legs had a long gash running down the side.

Nick looked back at Zilla, and now saw a sluggishly bleeding wound on his side, blood dripped from his teeth, and his claws were marked with the red liquid. Nick could see Zilla's muscles tensing in his legs and arms, his talons digging into the ground. He turned and saw the giant turtle was limping forwards, its head swinging all over the place, looking for Zilla. Nick tensed as well, and ducked his head back down.

"Stay low!" He quietly ordered. "Zilla's about to pounce!"

As if waiting for him to say that, as soon as everyone ducked, Zilla leaped off of the hill they were on. The young Titan soared through the air, almost silently. The giant turtle swung its head to the right, and it let out a surprised roar as Zilla slammed into it. His jaws clamped down on the turtle's neck, and Zilla slammed its head to the ground. The two giants struggled, blood flowing freely from the wounds they inflicted on each other.

The giant turtle knocked Zilla away, but the young Titan roared, and its spines began to glow a greenish color.

"Whoa." Randy muttered.

A strange, high pitched whooping noise permeated the air, repeatedly coming from Zilla, until he opened his mouth, and a stream of green and white flames erupted from his open jaws, splashing over the shell of the giant turtle. The giant turtle screamed in pain as the fire licked over its body, and it retreated into its shell. Zilla kept up the stream of fire as he approached the giant turtle, casting half the valley in a green light. A high-pitched warbling noise emanated from Zilla's jaws, almost like something was emptying itself into the stream of fire.

"That's… a lot of fire." Elsie muttered, getting agreements from the rest of the group.

Zilla finally cut off the stream of fire, and the giant turtle immediately pushed its head back out and tried to escape. But Zilla clamped down on its neck again, and began clawing at its face, trying to grab ahold of its head. The giant turtle screeched in pain as an eye was gouged out, and Zilla finally grasped onto its head, and then he twisted. A loud, wet crack echoed from the battleground, and the giant turtle fell limp.

"Ouch." Randy muttered, raising up a hand to massage his own neck.

"Well that was brutal." Elsie added.

Mendel looked green, and he looked away and started taking deep breaths, trying not to puke. Even after seven years, he still had a bit of a weak stomach.

Zilla gave a short roar of victory, then lowered himself down. Nick narrowed his eyes, then widened them when he watched Zilla start to turn the body over, exposing its less armored underbelly.

"This wasn't a fight." He said, realization heavy in his voice. "This was a hunt."

—

My claws pierced into the giant turtle's less armored belly, and with a heave, I started pulling its shell apart.

The bone -or whatever a turtle shell is made of- resisted my efforts, creaking under the strain. But my hands, as dexterous as they are, were able to get in between the plates and pull. And slowly, the plastron slowly started to peel and crack away from its body. Once I had a big enough hole, I slashed the unprotected flesh with one hand, then snapped my jaws into the meat of its body. As I started to enjoy my hard earned meal, my thoughts began to drift.

It's been like… four years or so since Godzilla found me, and my life has taken a drastically altered path. And I mean that in the most literal sense, given the information that I've learned. When I first learned it, it was so mind-boggling that it even eclipsed my rebirth as a Kaiju in this weird fusion universe of Jurassic Park, the 1998 Godzilla movie, and the Monsterverse. And that simple fact is…

…Godzilla is my father.

It seems that my mother was indeed my mother, because she and Godzilla apparently… well they mated, to put it bluntly. Godzilla has apparently been looking for me ever since I encountered his slumbering form back in '98. That's three whole years he'd been travelling the world's oceans and coasts looking for me, not knowing if I was even still alive or not.

Apparently his paternal instincts are very strong. Not to mention that my… father -god that feels weird to think about- barely let me out of his sight the first two years. Sometimes I was only able to go out and explore because he was asleep, and that big saurian sleeps like a literal rock. Given that the first time I saw him, he was half-buried on the seafloor, I'm not surprised he has such a deep sleep cycle.

But the big guy has definitely been a great help to me over the last few years. And communication with him was thankfully just as easy. But…

Titan communication is… a bit odd.

It's a whole language that I was apparently just born unknowingly with the ability to understand and speak, along with my understanding of human languages -which apparently only me, Godzilla, Mothra, and maybe Ghidorah have- but for me it's probably due to my previous life as a human. Actual Titan speak doesn't sound like a real language to an average human, more a collection of sounds, some body language, and 'bioacoustics' as Mark and Emma Russel will eventually coin.

A normal human would probably just wave it off as 'Titan sounds'. A zoologist would probably realize that there was some level of communication between two Titans. But a Monarch scientist -like Dr. Graham or Serizawa- may recognize that it's an actual language being 'spoken' between two skyscraper sized animals. Although, a lot of context would be lost simply because of the sheer number of differences between humans and Titans.

Like, seriously. If I was still a human but I still heard what Godzilla was 'saying', I'd only be able to understand like 34% of anything he actually says, just because of how different Titan-speak is from a human language.

Honestly, I'm rather surprised at how smart Godzilla is. The big guy may have seemed like a 'force of nature' and a bit of a brute in the movies, but when I first met him, I could actually see the gleam of intelligence in his eyes when he looked at me. And he apparently knows a lot of human terms as well, probably from listening to humans screaming at him or Monarch agents talking about him over the years.

And if I had to put a name to his 'voice', I'd say that he sounds a little bit like Keith David, with a bit of James Earl Jones somehow mixed in. I can tell his voice can be extremely menacing when he wants it to sound like that, but there is a definite softness when he speaks to me.

I tore another chunk of meat free and swallowed. It was still hot, steaming even in the freezing dawn light. It was satisfying, in a primal sort of way. The lunge I performed to finally kill the giant turtle was actually something Godzilla taught me. He's taught me a lot of things, actually. I think he was rather lonely before I came into his life. That's probably another reason he searched for me so relentlessly.

He's not just a destroyer, despite what a lot of humans think or will think in the future. He is and always will be a guardian.

A king. The King of the Monsters, if you will.

But it is weird, being his... son.

I still hesitate even thinking about it, sometimes. When I first realized it, I think I hated it a little. It felt like I'd been made into something without my say. I didn't choose to be this. I didn't choose to be born with scales, fire breath, and being able to grow to fifty meters tall. And yet.

I owe Godzilla my life. Literally.

The first winter after he found me, I nearly died. Radiation was and still is scarce on the surface, and I wasn't big enough yet to survive the trip to the temple he lives in. When he realized that, he let me feed off him. His presence alone gave off enough residual energy to keep me alive. He didn't have to do that. But that's the thing about him. When he does talk, it's never complicated. No big speeches or anything, just the wisdom of a being that has been roaming the world for countless years.

A living repository of Titan knowledge, he is.

He taught me a lot of things, but I could tell that the big guy was exhausted from searching for me, and from teaching me. So, once I reached forty-five meters tall, I persuaded him to take a nap at his temple. He didn't want to at first, but I, being the absolute menace that I was, manipulated the poor guy into resting by being worried about his own health. It helped that I actually was worried for his health, so it was rather easy to do so, and the poor guy loves me, his only child, a lot so of course he caved. And now he's in his temple, sleeping like a rock.

I did promise I'd come back every six months and spend time with him though. But that was easy enough to do once I knew the way to his home.

My spines began to glow again, and a small stream of fire dried up and evaporated the blood splattered on the ground. It wouldn't do any good for this turtle corpse to poison the environment around it before I was able to eat my fill.

I had been tracking this giant turtle for nearly a week now, ever since I happened upon it attacking a weakened Kaiju that I was very sure was Komodithrax. Thankfully, I was able to fight it off, but the Komodithrax, who I'm pretty sure is the same one that was from the tv show, was severely weakened. Apparently, her egg had been destroyed and eaten by the giant turtle a few months ago, and she fell into a sort of depression because she lost her unborn child.

But I hunted for both of us, and eventually she perked up a bit at having someone friendly around. She told me that the turtle had been feuding with her for three years at that point, after she had attacked it in defense of her territory.

So, after she went to sleep, I went hunting. And I caught the thing trying to get back onto her island by coming from the opposite direction, the results obviously speak for themselves now, though.

A flash went off on my left, making me blink, quickly followed by a muffled curse. I stopped eating, then looked to my left and down.

Is that… Nick Tatopoulos?

I licked the blood off of my muzzle, then slowly leaned down and tilted my head down. Once I got close, I knew it was him. Interestingly enough, there was a Monarch badge on his coat. My chin touched the ground, and I was about two feet above eye-level with the man. He took a noticeable step back, then slowly raised the camera again and took another picture. The flash made me blink, and jerked my head back a bit, then gave a small growl.

"Nick!" Someone whisper-yelled.

I looked further to my left -I could literally look over my shoulder with both eyes and have no problems- and saw the rest of the cast from the Tv show. They looked suitably freaked out by Nick's boldness.

"Easy, Randy. If Eric's story has any weight to it, Zilla won't harm me." Nick replied at a normal level.

…I feel like it would be funny if I were to attack, but that'd just be in bad taste, no matter how funny it would be in the short term.

So instead, I simply huffed, ruffling Nick's clothes with my breath. I glanced between the group and the man for a few moments, then leaned back and returned to my meal. While I tore another chunk of meat from the giant turtle's corpse, I saw out of the corner of my eye as Nick met back up with the group, and they began talking.

I recognized the rest of them, Mendel Craven, Elsie Chapman, and who I think is Monique Dupre. They looked a little bit older than they would have, but it has been nearly… seven years, I think, since I first hatched.

"Nick, I say this with all possible respect, but are you insane?" Said woman asked with a French accent, so I mentally slotted her in as the female French agent from the show.

Wait…

Is that a wedding ring on her finger?

Chapter Text

7/20/2005

Uninhabited island 

Aleutian Islands, Alaska

Over the next three days, the HEAT team compiled dozens of pages of brand new data on Zilla.

At first, it was only Nick who did all of the close-in work, mostly because he was the only one stubborn (or reckless) enough to approach the massive reptile when it wasn’t eating, because no matter how smart something that big looks, or how docile it seems you definitely don’t approach it while it's eating. He circled Zilla carefully, his boots crunching over the coarse sand and snow, measuring Zilla’s height, length, estimated weight, limb proportions, hide thickness, and dozens of other data points that he found. Every data point went into his battered field notebook, the pencil nearly worn to the metal before he finally replaced it with a new one.

In that whole time where Nick was almost climbing onto him to get accurate data points, Zilla didn’t so much as twitch. He just watched Nick with that direct, intelligent stare of his. His slightly glowing orange eyes followed every movement, flicking every once in a while toward the tape measure or laser rangefinder with an almost unnerving focus. The only real movement was the slow, lazy sweep of his tail across the beach, sending chunks of ice scattering across the ground and smoothing out the sand underneath. Eventually, the rest of the team acclimated enough to help, then even more data was able to be gathered. 

They took turns coming closer with rangefinders and cameras, gathering samples of its integument skin and the scales that he shed, and filling specimen bags with chunks of flesh from the giant turtle carcass Zilla had been feeding on. Even Nigel got involved, trundling across the uneven beach to take surface radiation readings. Zilla let him get close exactly once before lazily toppling the robot with a single claw. Nigel squawked in alarm, its arms flailing, while Zilla rumbled so deeply it shook snow off the nearby trees. It was disturbingly close to laughter. And after a closer examination, they found out that it was in fact laughter, and wasn’t that an interesting point of data to record.

Mendel then spent ten minutes rescuing and rebooting Nigel while grumbling that Zilla “clearly thinks he’s a comedian.”

Zilla also radiated quite a bit of heat from his dorsal plates whenever he fed. Enough that the icy ground melted around him in a wide, slushy ring. The steam was visible even from the HEAT Seeker, rising in thin white columns like tiny geothermal vents from the tips of the spines themselves. Naturally, the team recorded every detail with frantic enthusiasm, because if Zilla was indeed formerly a heavily mutated iguana, this only showed how powerful Titan DNA being introduced changed his entire physical form, since his mother was cold-blooded. But the biggest surprise was the data they got from the turtle itself. When Zilla wasn’t ripping into it and swallowing car-sized chunks of meat, they managed to grab tissue and blood samples from the carcass. 

The readings they found were interesting, to say the absolute least. 

–

Mendel was huddled over the microscope back in the ship’s lab, working almost constantly ever since they’d gotten their hands on samples of the giant turtle.

Elise was close by, working on a growth chart for Zilla, but she stopped when Mendel let out a hum. The readings that he was gathering from the giant turtle were... odd. In that they were unlike anything that Mendel had ever seen in his entire career of running after irradiated monsters.

“Hey, Elsie, come look at this.” Mendel finally said.

“What’s up?” Elsie asked as she moved over to look at the large electronic microscope that Mendel and Nick had built.

Mendel scooted back and gestured at the microscope. “What does this look like to you?”

Elsie raised an eyebrow, but looked down into the lens. What she saw confused her, and she leaned back and looked questioningly at Mendel.

“Did you inject Titan radiation into the turtle flesh to see what would happen?” She asked.

“No.” Mendel replied, before pointing at the small chunk of flesh on the plate. “That sample is one that we got from close to the turtle’s heart, from when Nick and Randy actually suited up and went inside the carcass to collect tissue samples. All the other samples that we’ve observed were from the extremities or far away from the major organs. This is the fifth sample from the upper chest area that I’ve looked at, and all of them show the same thing. I can’t even figure out what kind of turtle or tortoise this thing even is, because of how mutated its original DNA has become. And I’ve already asked Randy to confirm a theory I have, and he agrees.”

“And that theory is?” Elsie asked, fearing the answer as she looked back through the lens at the sample.

“It wasn't just contaminated with Titan radiation, causing its mutation.” Mendel muttered, adjusting the focus ring with steady fingers. “It was starting to produce it.”

Elsie looked up sharply. “You’re sure?”

He nodded, then turned to look at her. “I’m positive. There are specialized cells in the sample with modified mitochondria. That giant turtle out there was starting to internally generate the same radiation that Titans give off when Zilla killed it.”

That just led to more questions than answers. Because if the turtle had started producing its own Titan radiation, that meant that at a certain point of absorbing Titan radiation, the very DNA of an organic creature could mutate to start producing its own. 

Randy soon walked into the HEAT Seeker’s lab with a steaming mug of coffee in hand. He frowned at the clutter of random books and research papers scattered everywhere, and took a sip of the black gold from the mug in his hand. His eyes wandered over to the two resident lab-workers, then he walked over, stepping over an open panel on the floor that he knew Nick and him still needed to fix.

“Hey, Mendel. Any luck figuring out where Gamera out there picked up his nuclear juice?” He asked.

Mendel didn’t even look up from the keyboard as he typed furiously on his personal laptop. “We’re still not calling it Gamera, Randy. We agreed to posthumously name that species Torterra. And no I haven’t, which is mildly infuriating.” He replied. “Titan-based radiation doesn’t just appear in the body of an animal. It accumulates in very specific places, and every one of those places is supposed to be monitored by our superiors at Monarch, because that specific kind of radiation only comes from the Titans themselves.”

Randy leaned against the table in the center of the lab and moved a few papers. “Well, obviously one slipped the net then. Maybe it was the big G himself. He did borderline disappear for about three years between ‘98 and ‘01. He might have accidentally breathed too hard on a crash of sea turtles or something while he was looking for his son.”

Elsie leaned against the counter next to Mendel, her arms folded, watching Dr. Craven’s screen over his shoulder. “Maybe the turtle wasn’t producing the radiation itself at this point.” She suggested. “What if this Torterra was… I don’t know, storing it, maybe? We’ve seen that Godzilla’s unique Titan radiation has taken Zilla away from his mother’s original blueprint. What if this turtle was gathering as much radiation as it could to do something similar, and it was just starting to produce its own Titan radiation when it ran into Zilla?”

Mendel frowned, pushing his reading glasses higher on his nose, a recent addition ever since he noticed it was getting a little bit harder to read from his laptop. 

“Are you suggesting that the Torterra out there was storing enough radiation to try and turn itself into a Titan?” He asked.

“Could explain why Zilla hunted it down, besides the disturbances we’ve been getting from the buoys out here from it.” Randy added, scratching his chin. “He’s been feeding on that thing for days and looking quite pleased as he eats. It’s like… Titan super food.”

Elsie shot him an exasperated look. “Thank you for the culinary insight, Randy.” She remarked.

“I’m serious!” Randy protested with a roll of his eyes. “You guys have seen the readings. The ambient heat output from Zilla’s dorsal spines jumped up thirty-seven percent after he started feeding, and his body temperature has risen at least five degrees as well. Slowly, but it is. Zilla is slowly but surely juicing up off of all that irradiated turtle meat.”

Mendel sighed and typed a bit slower as he finished logging the Turtle’s DNA structure. “We’re logging the data. But it’s not good news. If it isn’t Godzilla -which I’m sure it isn’t, these radiation readings are too recent- that means there’s an unmonitored source of radiation somewhere in the North Pacific. And Monarch isn’t even aware of it.”

Elsie frowned. “Do you think the big guy will bring us to it if we follow him?” She asked.

“Maybe once he finishes his turtle dinner we can ask.” Randy joked.

The other two rolled their eyes and glared at him, but the smirks threatening to break out on their lips told a different story.

–

Outside the HEAT Seeker, Nick flipped the page of his notebook, squinting against the drizzle floating through the air. 

The wind was sharp and cold, carrying the scent of salt and wet earth. A few dozen meters away, Zilla lay in the sand like some enormous reptilian sphinx. His head was resting on crossed forearms, and his legs were splayed out behind him. Contrary to the giant’s relaxed posture, his eyes were open and alert, tracking the team’s movements with passive curiosity, which was mostly just Monique as she walked around the ship checking for anything that needed maintenance.

Nick looked down at the open page of his notebook and jotted down a few more notes, then leaned back and read back over his dossier of Zilla.

Name: Titanus Gojira-Proles / Titanus Zilla

Height at head: 149.6 feet or 45.6 meters. Height varies based on whether his posture is bipedal (sort of like Godzilla himself or old depictions of theropod dinosaurs, either in stop-motion or suit-mation), theropod-like (like a modern dinosaur or his mother, balancing his torso and head with his tail, with his legs at the center of his body), or quadrupedal (on all fours like a crocodile or other types of lizards, which I will personally admit that it was terrifying to watch him crawl around like that when he was hunting the Torterra)

Snout to tail tip length: 295 feet or 90 meters long (not even fully grown and he’s already around as long as his mother was).

Approximate mass: 26,000+ tons (conservative estimate, we do not have any ability to truly weigh him besides the indentations his feet make in the ground when he walks). Will attempt to calculate a closer estimate using theropod models of actual dinosaurs, like what John Hammond created on Sorna and Nublar. (His growth speed seems inconsistent. I need to take a closer look at his sizes between 1998 and now.)

General Morphology: Not as fully grown as his mother was, but definitely denser thanks to Godzilla’s DNA interacting with his own. His body is more muscular and filled out, compared to the data on hand about Gino (the name posthumously given to his mother). His upper body especially is visibly athletic, and the dexterity of his four-fingered hands (I cannot in good consciousness call them paws with how dexterous they are) are highly developed, almost humanlike. Personally, I believe he could even use tools like a human or primate, given this and his intelligence. Nothing more, however, given his size, unless we start making giant weapons for him.

Another interesting point of data is that he’s warm-blooded, instead of being cold-blooded like his mother. I believe his father, Titanus Gojira, may be responsible for that particular quirk of Zilla’s physiology.

Identifying marks: Distinct but quickly fading scar pattern on right thigh, likely a bite wound from a previous encounter with the giant turtle he killed recently at the time I’m writing this.

Atomic Flamethrower: Zilla is able to fire a stream of greenish-white flame from his mouth after his three sets of dorsal spines begin to glow, just like what was seen from eyewitness accounts both on Isla Sorna and in Panama City. Testing has revealed that the fire itself is radiation based somehow, heavily based on Titan radiation, with hints of an acetylene mix. My best theory is that Zilla has regenerating acetylene gas chambers inside his body that allow him to use this flame breath like a dragon from folklore. 

His flame attack was hot enough to warp the turtle’s shell where it hit, along with delivering devastating third to fourth-degree burns to the flesh underneath the shell itself. I have theorized that once he is fully matured, his fire breath will become even hotter, to the point that it could vaporize an unarmored organic target like a human or normal animal, while dealing devastating damage to whatever constructs or Titans he hits with it. And given that his mother didn’t have this beyond her flammable breath that she rarely used, I believe that Godzilla’s is even more volatile. Zilla may however catch up to his father’s level as he grows, however.

An interesting side note to both his atomic flamethrower and his radiation, is that according to Eric Kirby, Zilla had the same flammable breath that his mother did until his final fight with the Spinosaurus, and used his flammable breath attack many times during their time together, even in defense against the carnivores that infested the island. He ignited his breath using the same magnesium spear that Eric has in his possession. 

Radiation Effects: On a related note, Eric’s radiation levels slowly but steadily declined over his time spent away from Zilla, and he lost much of his inhuman agility, but remained a very athletic adolescent. Titan radiation must have some sort of buff to non-irradiated flora and fauna, because the same phenomena was observed on all the plants around Zilla’s former home on Isla Sorna. I have a feeling that if Zilla and Eric had remained together on Sorna for longer than they had, the radiation effects on Eric and the plants around them could have become permanent.

Behavior towards humans: Calm, almost docile when not feeding. Unnervingly intelligent, to the point you can see that he’s thinking if you look close enough. Has allowed us to come right up to him. I was even able to pet him on the snout, much to my team’s terror and my amusement.

Nick lowered his pencil and sat there, watching the giant lizard for a few minutes. 

Zilla tilted his head slightly and looked back at him with that same unnervingly intelligent stare, snorting softly and sending a small plume of sand into the air for a brief moment. Nick sometimes swore that he could literally see Zilla thinking behind those subtly glowing orangish eyes. The rumors of him writing on the ground during his time on Isla Sorna were suppressed to the public, but in Monarch the reports were all but officially confirmed. They knew very well how smart Zilla really was, Nick and the HEAT team included. 

But this whole time, Zilla hasn’t done anything like that, besides look at them with that calculating stare, when he wasn’t feasting upon the radiation-rich flesh of the ‘Torterra’ as Nick had come to call the giant turtle monster. And he wasn’t going to name it ‘Gamera’, despite how much Randy wanted to posthumously name it that. That would just be in bad taste, even if his fondness for the Gamera movies was slightly soured because of his experience with Zilla’s mother. Especially the Heisei era ones, considering how closely they came out before Gino made Manhattan her nesting ground.

He knew others would be a bit miffed at Japan for releasing a monster movie in 1999, but he thought Revenge of Iris was actually a pretty good movie. It certainly matched a lot of emotions he went through back in ‘98.

“You are the biggest mystery the world has ever seen, you know?” Nick mused, smiling slightly when the young Titan’s gaze snapped onto him. “Compared to all the other Titans, we know the absolute most about you, Zilla. But even then, we still know almost absolutely nothing about you compared to even a normal sized animal.”

Zilla snorted and shifted on his belly, the very picture of relaxed and content. Nick shook his head a bit, then returned to his notebook, intent on finishing the shading of the sketch he was drawing of Zilla lying in the sand. 

He had just finished shading Zilla’s spines, which casted long shadows onto the beach, when Elsie walked out onto the deck of the ship.

“Hey, Nick!” Elsie called as she walked over to the leader of their team.

“Yeah, Elsie?” Nick replied, shutting his notebook and standing up.

She pointed her thumb behind her at the lab. “I think you might need to see what Mendel and I have figured out.”

Nick pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh boy, what now?”

The two scientists walked back into the ship, both of them glancing back at some point as they felt Zilla watching them leave.

—

A content sigh left my muzzle as I slowly raised up onto all fours from the sand, which was warmed from my internal fire.

Eating the Gamera knockoff has certainly done something to me. I didn’t really expect it to be so full of Titan radiation. Maybe it hung around Godzi-er, Dad for a while, or one of the other slumbering Titans. Either or. But either way I wasn’t complaining about the warm feeling in my chest, especially out here in the Aleutian Islands.

I slowly moved away from the boat and into the small valley that the giant turtle’s corpse was in, my mind drifting to the delicious meat that the turtle had. As I got to the body though, I suddenly heard rhythmic thuds in the ground, and I could tell that something around my size was approaching. Although, after a moment of listening, I knew exactly what it was, or rather, who it was. I turned around and rose up onto my legs and watched as Komodithrax moved into the valley, her sandy brown scales glistening from the morning mist of rain.

“Komo, good morning!” I greeted with a happy croon.

“Zilla. It is good to see you again.” Komo returned, her tail gently whipping behind her as she walked over to me. 

We greeted each other, nuzzling the other’s necks as we circled each other for a few moments. Our greeting ended, and I went down on all fours as a rumbling purr left me.

Her orange gaze shifted over to the large carcass near me, and a reptilian grin crossed her face. 

“I see you have avenged my unborn youngling.” She said, her voice becoming slightly venomous when she looked at the dead body.

My tail whipped behind me in a dismissive manner. “It was the least I could do. That thing needed to be killed anyway before it became too powerful.” I replied. “My father isn’t supposed to awaken for another week or so, and I’d hate to interrupt his rest… especially since I’m not really supposed to be out of the nest until I reach my mother’s height at least.”

Believe me, having a Godzilla grumpy from being woken up early while he’s sleeping in his temple is not a fun time. His schedule makes it so that he sleeps for around two weeks at a time after patrolling his territory and checking up on a few of the other Titans in hibernation to see if they’ve finally woken up, along with ensuring that Ghidorah is still imprisoned in ice. Not that I know anything about the golden three-headed dragon imprisoned in the Antarctic ice, because the last time I asked, he sternly ordered me to never go to the southern pole for any reason unless it was absolutely necessary. 

Didn’t even mention anything about Ghidorah, beyond an ominous “Some monsters are better left to rot where they lie.”

Unfortunately for dad, I’m a sneaky little youngster who doesn’t exactly like being cooped up all the time. So, I’ve been sneaking out whenever he goes to sleep. I usually just wander around in the oceans, occasionally coming ashore on uninhabited islands to run around and do random things, like testing my atomic flamethrower and my combat skills, which have slowly but steadily improved even without opponents.

Komo snorted and let out a small noise from the back of her throat, then lifted her tail a bit higher and gently whipped it behind her. “You have my thanks in any case, young Zilla. If only you were my age, I’d be ready to try for another egg or two.” I would have blushed as I shifted on my feet while her eyes roamed over me. “But you’re too young for that sort of thing right now. Besides, Goji would have my hide if I tried to be a nest-thief.”

I snorted, then let out a rumbling chuckle as I puffed myself up a bit, my spines flickering a few times down my back and tail in an artistic display. 

“You wouldn’t mind if I come back in a few years then, huh?” I asked semi-jokingly.

Komo let out a reptilian laugh which echoed for a few hundred feet around the valley. “You preening smooth talker! I can see you got your father’s charm, at least! He tried pulling a move on me too when he and I first met.” A teasing glint entered her eyes. “He’s not my type though. He’s too large for me, only in one way though, the other way is pleasantly large.”

My snout pulled up into a grimace and I almost gagged. “Ew! Don’t talk about my dad that way! I’m the one who lives with him.”

“You’re the one who joked about us having a few eggs together, darling.” Komo chuckled, then tossed her snout in the direction of the corpse. “Are you going to eat all of that, or may I have a bit?”

I moved over and sat down on my haunches next to the carcass. “Help yourself. I was actually going to come see if you would like some anyway.”

Komo gleefully tore into the carcass of the giant turtle and swallowed a chunk of its meat, then let out a sigh.

“This tastes better than normal.” She remarked, then continued eating. “Must be the justice of the egg-eater finally meeting his match.”

I snorted, then tore off my own chunk.

At this point, with me eating turtle meat for the last three days now, the carcass was mostly cleaned out, with around three fourths of it eaten. Surprisingly, it’s not even started to rot yet, and probably won't until I finally suck out all the radiation remaining inside of it, or most of the meat is gone, leaving the skeleton to slowly bleed out whatever remained. I did see a small family of foxes gnawing at some of the meat on the tail. I’ll probably come back to this island and see the giant puffballs running around. 

That would be pretty funny, but hopefully I don’t have to fight them if they ever come into existence. Foxes are one of my favorite animals, after all.

The valley is also reacting to the radiation as well, but not exactly like radiation usually does. Everything looks a little bit greener and healthier than when I first arrived on the island. I guess it's both the radiation that I output alongside the freely moving radiation from the corpse doing that. Titan radiation is weird like that. I know that because I have it on good authority that many reptiles, including many of the dinosaurs, owe their existence to Godzilla in some way, just like birds do for Rodan, most of the insects for Mothra, and much of the greenery from Methuselah. It’s… actually pretty interesting to see how many parallels exist between a Titan and the lifeforms they inadvertently create.

“Do you have any idea where this thing came from, anyway?" I asked, glancing over at the giant female lizard. “I don’t think I remember asking you before.”

Komo tilted her head for a moment, then looked over at me. “No, you never did ask. But even if you did I would have replied with the same answer. All I really know is that the egg-thief came from the north. He carried the scent of the pole on him, that’s all I can remember of his scent when he first landed, at least.”

My tail whipped behind me, gently bumping against her flank. “That’s more than I would have figured out on my own. I have a direction to head, now.”

I stood up and shook myself a bit, letting bits of debris from the ground fall back down as I moved to look around the valley.

“Thank you for the information, Komo. I believe I may return in a week or so. You can have the rest of my kill. You deserve it after what the egg-thief did to your youngling.”

A reptilian purring noise came from Komo as she bumped against my side. “You are welcome here any time, Zilla. Just stay your usual charming self.”

A chuckle left my muzzle, and I curled my tail into a wave as I left and moved back towards the shore. 

Just as I was leaving, however, I noticed a small flash go off from the woodline, and looked over to see Monique, who gave a half-wave to me, then walked off back towards the ship. I snorted softly, then continued on my way until I reached the shoreline. 

After taking a deep breath and closing my eyes for a moment, I let it out, then waded into the ocean.

–

Bering Sea

Tracking the path that the giant turtle took turned out to be a bit hard.

I grumbled and lashed my tail as I stood on the cold ocean floor, all four sets of talons dug into the sandy ground beneath me to anchor myself. My three lines of dorsal plates flickered in irritation, casting pale green lights across the murky water.

According to Godzilla, young members of our species were very expressive with our dorsal plates lighting up in time with our emotions, so I was just going to have to deal with my dorsal spines lighting up like a Christmas tree wherever I was ticked off. It’d get better with time and age, to the point that I’d be able to flicker them myself in an artful- ahem... mating display. On the other hand, however, once I’m able to make my dorsal spines light up at will, dad is going to teach me how to communicate with nothing but my dorsal plates. 

But I digress. Now back to my quarry.

Now, normally, when I’m tracking, I could easily pick up the scent in the water, about twice as good as a shark’s ability to smell blood. But since I was tracking something that had already been out of the water for a good few days at this point, I was having a bit of trouble. My father would most likely be much better at this than I am, considering he tracked me for the first three years of my new life. But with me being so young compared to him, it's harder for me to track things, since I lack the experience. It doesn’t help that despite me being in this new body for nearly seven years at this point, there are still new things I’m finding out about myself, like how my dorsal plates can flicker to communicate with Godzilla, and to a lesser extent Mothra, without the need to speak, adding an entirely new language to learn from my dear old scaly dad.

‘But of course my tracking skills have decided to start failing me now!’ I mentally growled as I pushed back off into the water.

My internal grumbling continued as I swam farther north, hoping to find any trace of the giant turtle’s degraded scent.

I did, however, have a tail. 

Not the actual tail attached to my hindquarters. But rather someone, actually multiple someones, were tailing me. It was the HEAT team, obviously. Who else would it be? I had a feeling they’d be following me as much as they could now that they have a heading on where I am. And considering that they’re all working for Monarch as that agency’s public Kaiju tracking team, they’re probably going to relay most of their data back to Monarch. How did I know that? They talked rather freely around me, despite knowing that I was at the very least somewhat sentient. They probably just think I’m a supersmart version of my mother and Godzilla, like many do.

I’d honestly be surprised if anyone believed I was an Isekaied human from another universe, despite it being the truth.

The water grew colder as I swam north, until small chunks of ice began to appear on the surface. The blue-gray gloom of the Bering Sea pressed in around me, heavy and silent except for the distant hum of the ocean.

Then, a sharp ping split the water.

I grimaced in annoyance as a directed sonar ping washed over me. 

While they don’t cause me pain really, they are rather annoying to hear underwater. It’s mostly because the ping itself is very clear underwater, and it goes right into my ears wherever I hear it. If they do that again, I am going to perform a mild amount of tomfoolery to get them to stop, by giving the bottom of their ship a bump with my tail.

I don’t know how whales deal with that, to be honest.

I looked around until I saw a dark shape on the surface, likely a military vessel from how narrow it looked. I did not want to deal with the military even on a good day, so I lashed my tail, speeding up until I was moving at a pretty decent speed. I shot forward through the water, leaving a spiraling wake of bubbles behind me. Another sonar pulse rippled through the sea, but this time it barely brushed my tail before fading into the distance. 

Within minutes, the ship was nothing but a fading smudge of noise behind me. The cold deepened as I cut through the northern Bering Sea, the water shifting from moderately cool to actually rather cold as I swam. Ice drifted overhead like shattered glass, scraping against one another in low groans I could feel even seven-hundred feet down. But I briefly paused when a scent passed through my gills. A scent that carried the echoes of the same radiation that the giant turtle had.

‘Finally, I’ve got the trail again.’ I thought as I turned north-west and darted forward.

I sped through the water, the scent becoming faintly stronger as I went. Eventually the sea floor became visible below me, and it began to gently slope upwards until I began to rise with it.

‘Finally…’ I mentally cheered.

After following the gentle rise of the sea bed, I angled up and broke through the surface with a rolling splash, shaking my head a bit to fling the water off that was clinging to my head and neck. Around a mile ahead, shrouded in mist and the sleet falling from the dark clouds above, a dark mass rose from the sea. Craggy shorelines surrounded it, while low cliffs jutted out above a sparse tundra. My internal navigation sense told me I was somewhere between Russia and Alaska, and pretty close to both of them. I was pretty sure I was somewhere in the Bering strait.

“This is one of those islands between Russia and Alaska.” I mused. “What were they called again? St. Matthew and St. …Larence? No, Lawrence.”

Considering the island was pretty large, and the land to my left felt closer than the one on my right, I was thinking it was the latter of the two. …Whichever one that was.

“Really should have studied geography more.” I grumbled as I waded through the shallow -to me- water.

My first step onto the island almost made me trip, surprisingly enough. But that was unfortunately because of how loose the ground was underneath me. When I pulled my foot out of its print, I noticed that it was almost as deep as the ones that my mother made all those years ago in Jamaica.

“Ah jeez, I’m not even fully grown yet.” I grumbled. “How loose is this ground?”

Tentatively stepping out a bit further, my foot didn’t sink quite as far, and I finally began making my way onto the shore. While I made my way onto the island, I leaned down until I was on all fours, then began crawling around, sniffing the ground while searching for my quarry.

Funnily enough, my sense of taste and arguably my sense of touch were my worst senses now. 

Being reborn into a Kaiju body with Titan radiation mixed in meant that three out of my five senses were “charged up” in a way. Plus I had a few other senses now too. There were the standard five; sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste. But then there were the ones I’d come to know as being specific to my unique biology, like my ability to understand Titan-speak, my Electroreception, which was rather useful when hunting, and my magnetic navigational sense, Magnetoreception. From what I remember, it's an ability a lot of migratory birds have that allows them to tap into the earth’s naturally occurring magnetic field, letting them navigate anywhere they want on the planet, like how they travel south during the winter, then back north in the summer. 

I’m fairly sure that all Titans have that, given how easily they can traverse the planet. Not too sure about the Hollow Earth though.

One of the other abilities I have is a pretty accurate tell on how full the gas chambers within my body are. My “Atomic Flamethrower” which I coined in honor of Eric, considering that’s something he would've come up with, are the green flames I’ve been spewing out in fights. But my flames are actually radioactive in nature, which makes me believe my gas chambers are using my own natural radiation like Godzilla’s does, alongside some copper or zinc compound that makes the fire itself green. It would explain why my mouth feels a little bit spicy after I use it.

I’m fairly sure Godzilla has something similar, but much, much more powerful, since his atomic breath is less of a pillar of flame and more of a beam of pure radioactive energy.

A strange scent entered my snout, and I paused, before inhaling deeply as I rose up off my arms.

“That’s weird…” I muttered as I looked around. “It’s almost like the scent is... layered. Something weird is going on here.”

I began searching, continuously sniffing and getting that same layered scent. 

Minutes passed until I came across old tracks that were a match to the ones the giant turtle made. After a moment to see which way they went, I followed them inland. My sight was a bit obstructed due to the sleet and rain coming down, but going back down on all fours allowed me to follow the trail much easier. I had my doubts that this was where the giant turtle came from, but I soon found the source of the tracks, which turned out to be a cave entrance that was big enough for five of me to enter shoulder-to-shoulder.

“Now this is interesting.” I mused as I looked at the massive cave entrance. “This looks almost recent, but why?”

The inside of the cave was heavy with the stench of death and decay. My snout scrunched up and I snorted at the sudden change in the air. The quality of the air was borderline insulting to my sense of smell, but I soldiered onward into the cavern. The cave swallowed me almost immediately. The light from outside faded behind me, replaced by a dim greenish glow deeper within. The walls were jagged and slick with condensation, sloping down at a gentle incline that only grew steeper the further I walked.

The cave grew larger the farther down I went, until it finally opened up into a massive chamber, filled with luminescent crystals. My jaw actually dropped when I saw the beauty of the cavern. There were half a multitude of crystals all over the place, all giving off different colors of light. Blue, green, red, purple, but a majority were a sun yellow color, and given how when I got close to one I actually felt the sun on my scales, I figured there was Titan radiation magic at work, similar to the Hollow Earth, which I’ve yet to explore. 

However, considering the threats that exist down there, Skar King, the literal army of Kongs, those Warbat things, and a literal entire ecosystem of hungry mega-fauna, I think I’ll stay up here until I’m much older... and bigger.

“This might be an entrance to it though.” I quietly mused as I gazed at the colorful crystals on the ceiling.

The fact that this cave system might be an entrance to the Hollow Earth did make me stop completely, but the questions in my mind as to why the giant turtle would even come up here for food propelled me further into the massive cavern. But what I started to see would not be fun.

A massive grimace crossed my face when I saw the first body.

It was a giant turtle, just like the one I had fought and killed, but this one was stripped bare and halfway to a skeleton. But this one was quite a bit bigger than the one I fought on that nameless island. I was also picking up that same layered scent around it under the stench of death.

“Again with that layered scent.” I rumbled. “I swear it's almost like-”

The ground suddenly shook, and I turned to my left too late. A much larger giant turtle rammed into me, knocking me rolling a few times before my back hit the wall. I flared my dorsal plates, brightening the area around me as I got to my feet, then looked out at the three giant turtles staring at me in mindless hunger.

“Ow... -like there’s more than one.” I finished.

The three giant turtles were larger than the one I had previously fought, maybe 60-65 meters tall at the top of their shells, instead of the 50 meters that the other one was. But these ones almost looked skinnier. It was hard to tell with the giant shells, but their limbs looked skinnier, and even in the lower level of light in the cavern, their colors looked visibly washed out, like they were malnourished. Then it hit me. They were malnourished. That was why the skeleton I found looked so fresh but was completely stripped bare.

I jerked out of my thoughts and leaped over a swinging tail, the club passing mere feet from my paws as I jumped over the turtle and roared in challenge. The giant turtles returned the roar with raspier versions of their own, and the fight truly began.

“Three on one.” I muttered, my tail lashing slowly behind me. “Yeah, alright. It would've been nice to have a warm-up first, but sure. I’ve done this before.”

Granted, when I fought those Skullcrawlers, I only fought them one at a time. 

This... was not going to be fun.