Godzilla Against All: Part 1

Chapter 1: Introduction

September, 1998

Manhattan, New York

Monarch was founded in the 1950s to study a creature code-named "Gojira" or "Godzilla," a beast that would later go on to be classified as a MUTO. MUTO's technical definition is that of a "Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism" however the term was later adapted to a more specific meaning, that of an abnormally large creature whose diet consists of mainly radioactive energy rather than a solid food source. Godzilla disappeared in 1956, but he was only the first of the many great trials humanity would soon face.

The MUTOs, were not the only enormous creatures to live on the earth. In 1998, the first Non-MUTO monster was discovered. Monarch created a new classification for this type of organism, it was simply called a "Kaiju," and this earliest Kaiju was given the code-name "Zilla" for its striking similarities to the MUTO Godzilla.

DNA testing of Zilla revealed striking similarities to that of the marine iguana and thus it is believed that the hydrogen bombs used to attack Godzilla in the 1950s may have mutated a member of that species. The creature was likely born from a naturally sized egg but DNA errors from the radiation could explain Zilla's large size. The fact that the creature had failed to appear for almost half a century was probably also a result of natural birth size, where the creature spent most of those fifty years feeding and growing deep in the Pacific.

Monarch first began tracking Zilla when it was discovered moving from the Pacific Ocean toward Central America in 1998. The creature made its way across Panama before swimming up the east coast and eventually making landfall in Manhattan, New York. Despite the highly populated area that Zilla had made landfall in, it made no attempt to feed on them, and in fact the monster seemed to avoid attacking so Monarch determined it must have come to New York for another reason. Scientists at Monarch tried to persuade the government to allow them access to the beast, to study it, but were denied. The military took over and it was decided the beast should be killed. There were some protests against the killing of Zilla, as attacking him seemed to be the only thing triggering his destructive behavior but they were ignored.

It was soon discovered that the reason Zilla had traveled to New York was to lay a clutch of eggs. The area's large fishing industry and plentiful native fish population proved a great place to hatch young, who could eat as many fish as they wanted when they were born. The military was determined to destroy the eggs and Monarch did not oppose this, the number of eggs was overwhelming and could easily threaten the large city once hatched.

The nest was destroyed and eventually Zilla was killed as well. Monarch scientists were quick to move into New York before the corpse could be disposed of so that they could learn as much as they could about this new monster. Initially, scientists believed there to be some sort of correlation between Zilla and the earlier discovered Godzilla. Events however seemed to be a complete coincidence. Studies revealed that Zilla was not a MUTO and thus did not have to feed on nuclear energy like Godzilla. Zilla was not a MUTO, Zilla was merely an animal and so the classification of Kaiju was created to specify this.

A storm of controversy came after the killing of Zilla, many argued that since he and his eggs were the only ones of his species known he should have been treated as endangered species and protected. Despite this claim, most claimed that since Zilla was a man-made creation he held none of the rights that a natural species did and so his killing was justified. What those people, including most of the government, don't know however, is that the species, no matter its rights, is not extinct. The destruction of the eggs was incomplete, one survived. The hatchling, named Zilla Junior, initially was discovered by Doctor Niko Tatopoulos, who worked to help destroy Zilla. Tatopoulos, knowing the military would kill Junior if they knew about him, came to Monarch for help. Monarch hired him immediately and took Zilla Jr. to an undisclosed location in order to raise the creature and study it without risk to any human population. Junior remains there to this day, though his birth size is, according to the theories, much larger than his parent's, his growth is still rather slow and has not yet fully matured.