June, 2018
Unnamed Pacific Island
On a small equatorial island in the western Pacific, Mothra, still in the form of a brown worm, though grown to about the size of a 747 airliner, crawls alongside Godzilla, who is basking in the summer heat.
"Goji." She says, crawling up onto his head. The King of the Monsters doesn't respond so Mothra pokes his face with her tail a few times. Still not eliciting any reaction she again attempts to awaken him by moving down onto his snout, and using her tail to lift one of his eyelids. "Nap time's over." She says looking into the eye.
Finally Godzilla stirs, opening his other eye and releasing a massive yawn from his jaw. "Hm?" He grumbles.
"We've got work to do." The insect replies.
"Don't tell me we have more testing to do for Monarch."
"No, I think the Ghidrah is back though."
The lizard king's sleepy and disinterested eyes suddenly change to full attention, a fire clearly igniting within them. "Where?" He asks.
"To the south, the Australian continent." Mothra replies. "I can sense one Kaiju I haven't felt before but I can also feel...something else. It's difficult to describe the feeling extra-terrestrials give off, but it is very different from any Earth creature, and Ghidorah reeked of it when we last met."
"Then it's time for me to finish this."
"And I'm coming with you."
"Out of the question." He says turning toward the vast and open ocean.
"I wasn't asking." Mothra replies as she clamps down on the end of his tail with her mouth.
"You can't be serious...you're tiny, the Ghidrah would have to do nothing besides step on you."
"I need to be there, to protect you."
Gojira laughs, "Protect me? I can handle the space dragon and you certainly aren't ready to fight again."
"I didn't say I needed to protect you from the Ghidrah. I need to protect you from yourself." The tiny worm MUTO says. Then in a more in a more worried tone, "Imagine what would have happened last time if I had not been present."
Godzilla's posture sinks slightly, staring at the ground with a look of shame. He sighs, "Climb on."
Mothra releases his tail and scales up his back until coming to rest on the top of his head. Once she settles, Godzilla steps into the sea, careful not to dip his head too low into the water, and begins the swim to the land down under.
"I've asked Battra to go in ahead of us." Mothra says, "I told him to keep his distance until we arrive however, I don't want him taking on the Ghidrah alone."
"Good." Godzilla replies, "And the humans? Have you told the Doctor about this?"
"If Monarch doesn't already know it won't hurt them if we don't tell them right away. I don't want them doing something stupid like trying to attack with their pointless explosive weapons and needlessly getting themselves killed."
"That's probably for the best."
Mothra rolls her eyes, "They'll find out soon enough though, I just hope we can end it before they put themselves in harm's way."
Great Sandy Desert, Australia
Battra arrives in the Australian outback, picking up on the psychic signatures of two enormous beasts battling nearby, though his passive psychic powers are nowhere near a powerful as his sister's, he can still pick up on the mental stamp of living things within a relatively close area, and now, within a few hundred miles of two giant monsters battling it out, he can sense their presence easily and makes for their location.
As Mothra asked, he does not directly approach when he reaches the site of the battle which is luckily a large swath of uninhabited desert. Settling down a few miles from the fight, Battra immediately notices that something is off. The Ghidrah is not here. In the sky he sees a giant pterosaur the likes of which his eyes have not seen in millions of years, and on the ground is something else entirely, something strange and foreign even to his vast memory.
Bipedal and with greenish-gray skin, the monster has patches of dull silver metal on parts of its body. On it's back; large sails pulse dark red, and on it's belly are sharp metallic teeth like a sawblade. Fighting the pterosaur it uses two large scythes where its hands should be, slicing through the air with speed and precision.
"Mothra." Battra connects with his sibling, "It's not the Ghidrah, this is something new."
"...I suppose I'm both relieved and concerned about that." Mothra says, "Though short term this may prove better, if it's not the Ghidrah perhaps we can reason with it. We'll be there shortly, stay put until then."
"Right." Battra replies with a slight grumble of disappointment.
***
The pterosaur, high above the blade handed monster dives at a near ninety degree angle, its wings folded in. The green beast readies himself for the coming attack, taking a defensive posture and waiting to slice with his scythes as soon as the flying reptile comes close enough. The pterosaur however, does not come within striking distance, while still hundreds of feet above he unfurls his massive wings as an airbrake and opens his mouth. A audible click sounds before a blast of flame spouts from his mouth and surrounds his foe. The unknown beast recoils, stumbling backwards and the pterosaur glides away before turning around again. The beast regains its composure and faces the oncoming pterosaur, the distance between the two monsters closes rapidly, but before they can reach other to attack, a solid beam of blue plasma and radiation fires between them.
Standing a few hundred yards away is the King of the Monsters, with the tiny worm Mothra on his head he blows a puff of smoke from his nostrils. "Now then." He speaks, "What do we have here?"
"Hell, I just can't get a break today." The Pterosaur says, "This beast destroyed my home, I don't need another destructive monster rampaging around, much less a damn Gojira."
"So you know of my kind?" Godzilla asks.
"My mother taught me all about your kind, and I know when I'm outmatched, if you want this territory take it, if you want my life, I won't go easily."
"We wish for neither of those Rado." Mothra speaks up.
"Ah, it seems you have a friend there Gojira, I didn't see you before worm." The pterosaur says, head cocked "You know, Rado's are one of the only Kaiju species that ever preyed upon MUTOs? Specifically hatchling Mosura." He smiles.
Gojira bellows, "Silence your tongue you featherless bird! We are not here to fight. We're here for him." He points the the beast. "Stand aside and let us speak with...whatever it is."
Godzilla walks forward, he begins to place himself between the Rado and the beast, but the pterosaur opens his mouth, the click sounds again, and fire envelops the King's body. Luckily he manages to snap Mothra off his head, turn his back to the flames and shield her from the blast. In an instant he whips his tail into the flying reptile, sending his body into the air and crashing into the ground a good distance away.
Turning to face the collapsed Rado he roars, his spines flashing blue, "If you try that again, I will not hesitate to turn you into a pile of cinders!"
Godzilla turns back to the beast, who has been standing still with it's head tilted in a confused posture since the King of the Monsters showed up. Battra flies in behind the beast, surrounding it in case it attempts an attack.
"Battra." Mothra says, "Please go watch the Rado, he's rather...brash."
"Of course." The moth replies, flying over to the fire breather who is still lying on the ground in pain, and falling unconscious.
"Can you speak?" Mothra asks the beast.
"Why did you attack the Rado?" Gojira asks in follow up.
After a few moments pass with no reaction from this new creature, "Do you understand us?" Mothra asks.
Godzilla shrugs, assuming that the beast cannot hear them. "I don't understand," He says, "It attacks the Rado, then we show up and it just stands here silently." He walks closer, taking short, careful steps until he's right next to it. "Hello?" He says, and taps it on the head cautiously.
The beast twitches and Gojira takes a defensive step back.
"Planetary wireless network scan complete..." It suddenly says in a very deep and robotic voice. "Language downloaded...error: multiple languages detected, local area primary language assigned: english...Beginning vocal diagnostics testing...testing language download corruption...5,629 errors detected...running repair sequence...5,620 errors repaired, 9 errors remaining, bypassing...testing vocal software corruption...851 errors detected...running repair sequence...851 errors repaired, 0 errors remaining...testing vocal hardware integrity...3 hardware errors detected...transmitting maintenance request...estimated maintenance crew arrival time: 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9...error, irrational number calculation detected, emergency abort...local language setup complete, applying changes and beginning system reboot..."
All three MUTOs exchange confused looks as the beast collapses to the ground.
"Mothra," Gojira asks, "Was it just speaking human?"
"Indeed," the moth replies, "It seems to be some sort of robot and I suppose it was learning the local language, in this case human english."
"Yeah pretty much." The beast says, still in english but in a much more natural voice. It stands up and stretches.
"Mothra can you translate for us?" Battra asks.
"Yes, I'm translating now."
"Oh." The beast says, "Sorry, did I pick the wrong language? I could have sworn the majority of the people around here used english. I can change it if you want, won't take more than a few minutes."
"No, that's alright." Mothra replies, "I can translate directly through your minds, you should be able to understand each other. I'm more interested in you...so what exactly are you?"
"Oh, right, I'm Gigan. I'm a cyborg alien from quite a ways away, but you probably already assumed that."
"Okay, Gigan...before, you were saying something about language setup?"
"Oh, yes." Gigan replies, "Well, obviously I don't know all the languages in the universe so when I go to new planets I have to learn. The internet made that pretty easy, just gave it a quick read and you know the rest."
"I understand, but why now?" Mothra asks, "I'm guessing you just got here recently, but you still waited until we arrived to learn the language and communicate. You're acting peaceful now, but you attacked the Rado before, why?"
Gigan laughs, "Yeah, that escalated quickly. You're right in assuming I've only just arrived. As for the Rado as you call it, I crashed into his house when I came in. He attacked before I finished my boot cycle and triggered...not like Tumblr triggered, you know what I mean, he triggered my emergency combat system. In case I'm attacked before my whole operating system can load I have a backup combat AI on a super fast SSD, and praise Gaben that SSD speed has saved my ass more than once, but in this case there was just a bit of a misunderstanding and I can see why the Rado would jump to attack like that."
"Mothra, even with translation I don't understand what this guy is talking about." Battra says.
"He seems to have picked up some of the human's speech traits other than the pure language," Mothra replies, "but he's saying the fight was mainly self defense on his part and that the Rado attacked him after he accidentally crashed through it's house."
"Yeah, you got it." Gigan replies.
"But why'd you come here in the first place?" Battra asks.
"Hm, I don't know." The beast replies, "I must have deleted it from my RAM and stored it on my hard drives. Let me look for the file...oh, hey!" he exclaims, "You're a Gojira! You must be him then! Oh...ha, that awkward moment when you're having a friendly chat with the people you're supposed to be killing."
"Excuse me?" Godzilla says.
"Mmm, I know when I'm outnumbered, we'll do this later." Gigan says as he starts to slowly back away.
"Wait a minute!" Gojira shouts, he starts to follow but is suddenly hit with a blast of fire from behind.
Battra is wrestling the Rado on the ground who has started flailing around, breathing fire in all directions. Gojira looks between the alien and the pterosaur, trying to decide whether to chase Gigan or help subdue the Rado, ultimately he gives up on Gigan and chooses to help Battra, mainly not wanting Mothra's brother to get lit on fire...again.
Godzilla grabs the Rado and pulls it away from Battra. It struggles against his grip and tries to blast him with his fire breath but is unsuccessful, Gojira's grip is too strong and his scales tolerate the heat very well.
"Would you stop freaking out!" The King of Monsters says. "I'd rather not kill you!"
"What do you people want?" The pterosaur squawks, "First I get some ass smashing through my home, now I'm fighting a Gojira and two Mosura!"
"The beast that crashed through your home did so on accident!" Gojira yells, "And we're here to keep the peace! So if you would just calm down!"
Godzilla pushes the Rado to the ground, pinning him to the ground and bringing their faces close together. The Rado responds by spitting fire into Gojira's face, Mothra just barely makes it off his head and behind his neck to avoid the flame.
"Just kill me and get it over with!" The flying reptile says.
"Have you even been listening?" Gojira says, clearly restraining quite a lot of anger, "We don't want to kill you!" He pauses, "Mothra, this thing is testing my patience. The Titanosaurus didn't get nearly as much lenience from me."
"I know," The worm replies, "but I'd rather we kept this one alive, he's young, I can feel it, young and scared."
"I'll keep you pinned here all day if I have to hatchling." Gojira says.
Slowly the Rado's struggling weakens and fades. "Fine, what do you want?"
"We just have a few questions." Mothra says crawling back up to Goji's head and looking down.
"Alright, I'll tell you what you want." It replies, "Just let me up."
Gojira hesitates.
"Go ahead Goji." Mothra says.
The lizard king gets up, releasing his grip on the Rado's wings. It stands up and stretches, taking a few steps around and breathing deeply.
"Right then." Mothra says happily, "Much better. I am Mothra, that is my brother Battra, the last of the Mosura species, and this is Godzilla, last of the Gojira. And you are?"
"Rodan."
"Rodan, last of the Rado then." Mothra replies, "We seem to be forming quite the team of extinct species."
"Last?" Rodan asks, "What do you mean last of Rado?"
"I'm sorry." Mothra replies, "Of course you don't know what happened, you're only recently hatched."
"Am I actually the last Rado?"
"As far as we know yes. The rest of your species died out a least 65 million years ago."
Rodan is silent for a moment, "My mother said there were so many of us though, she always told me that."
"When was that?" Mothra asks.
"I'm not sure. She laid my egg on the side of a mountain, but at some point I think we collapsed into a chamber below and were buried..."
"Well, um, there aren't any mountains here." Godzilla says.
"Thanks I hadn't noticed that." Radon says sarcastically.
"Did you ever actually get to see your mother?" Mothra asks.
"No, she spoke to me through the eggshell before I hatched, but died before I hatched as well."
"Hm, I believe you had a similar experience to one of our other Kaiju friends." Mothra says thoughtfully, "Your mother must have laid your egg tens of millions of years ago. You were buried underground for ages, eventually your mother died, but somehow your egg kept you safe and alive for a very long time. How long have you been hatched for?"
"A few years I think." The Rado replies.
"But why now...? It's just like Titanosaurus Goji, survived in an egg for millions of years, then seemingly randomly, hatches now. It doesn't make sense...How does an egg keep the baby alive for so long, and why would it hatch now?"
Gojira shrugs and Rodan is just staring at Mothra with a look of confusion.
"Damn, I know it felt like I was in that egg for a while, but millions of years huh?"
"Hey wait a second," Battra says, "If you hatched years ago, why have you only just come to the surface now? Surely you tried to escape."
"Yeah no shit I tried to escape. But millions of years of rock is hard to move and I have a very lightweight body. I guess that monster from before actually freed me, maybe I should have thanked him rather than assumed he was trying to kill me..."
"Speaking of your fight." Mothra says, "How do you breath fire? That's not a normal Rado ability."
"Yeah I know, for the years we spent underground, my mother spoke to me at length about our species and never once did she mention fire breathing, but when I hatched I just...could. Happened on accident at first, I coughed a small flame. The whole chamber exploded in blast for a second after that too."
"Interesting. Goji, bring me closer to his mouth."
"You sure about that?" Godzilla asks, still wary of the Rado.
"Yes Goji, he's trustworthy enough."
"Alright. Don't try anything Rado." He says as he leans in close to the mouth of Rodan.
"I thought so." Mothra says after a moment, "Natural gas. The chamber you were trapped in was filled with it. Gojira, remember the rapid evolution the Doctor told us about after Monarch tested Anguirus? I think the same happened to Rodan, but with different results. His body incorporated the flammable gas, and I think he has flint lodged in the back of his throat to ignite it. Rodan, why do you have rocks wedged in your throat?"
"Well hey, there wasn't much to eat down there you know, some of the rocks were edible enough, made of fossilized dead stuff or salt, but it took a bit of trial and error to figure out which was which."
Mothra laughs, "Well I guess it worked out for you anyway, gaining the ability to breath fire. Eating coal and salt for years must have been pretty terrible though. Why don't you come to our home, Gojira will catch something more...normal."
Rodan looks skeptical at first but seems very attracted to the idea of real food so he agrees and soon Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan are making their way to the unnamed Pacific Island that they live on. Battra meanwhile, spirals outward from the area for a while, searching for Gigan, but he has no luck and soon returns to Manhattan.
July, 2018
Unnamed Pacific Island
Three weeks after Gigan fled, Rodan lands on the unnamed island where Gojira and Mothra live.
"So, how did it go?" Mothra, now grown to the length of Godzilla's arm, asks.
"Good," The Rado replies, "Ishiro's a pretty cool guy, I have to say, these humans aren't half bad. Monarch confirmed what you already had guessed about my fire breathing, Rapid Singular Evolution, just like Anguirus."
"Precisely." Serizawa says, stepping down from a helicopter. James Alta, William Stenz, and Vivienne Graham follow him.
"It's good to see all of you." Mothra says.
"You as well Mothra." The Doctor replies, "Where is Gojira?"
After a brief moment Godzilla breaks the surface of the water, a large tsunami rushing over the beach. Luckily the helicopter had chosen to land on a raised rock outcropping and the four humans avoid the raging wave. Behind him, Anguirus and Zilla Junior also step out of the water, all three creatures are carrying giant squid in their mouths, which they quickly swallow before saying hello to the newly arrived Serizawa and company.
"There you go." Mothra says with a smiles, "That just leaves one more, my brother."
The humans and monsters alike wait for a good twenty minutes, making small talk with each other while they wait for Battra to arrive. Finally his figure bursts over the horizon, flying faster than the speed of sound. He slows as he approaches the island and lands gracefully next to his sister.
"You're late." Mothra says.
"Yeah, I know, I got...sidetracked." He replies.
"You were sleeping."
"...Yes, I was sleeping."
"Well, at least you're here now." Mothra says, "Everyone is. Good."
Godzilla, Mothra, Zilla Junior, Battra, Anguirus, Rodan, Serizawa, Stenz, Alta, and Graham. MUTO, Kaiju, and human. After the run in with Gigan, and the mysterious and inexplicable appearance of Rodan (not to mention the other various monsters who had previously appeared), Mothra organized this meeting. To assemble their greatest allies, and discuss the next step.
"So," Mothra says, "I'm sure you all know why you're here. You are the greatest allies we have at this time, and I fear that now we need a team like this more than ever. It's no secret that in the past two decades alone numerous hostile creatures have threatened us. Zilla, HokMUTO, Clover, FeMUTO, Megalon, Titanosaurus, Ghidorah, Gabara, and Gigan. For millions of years I've watched over the planet and I have not seen anything like this since the days when MUTOs and Kaiju roamed naturally. This, is not natural, something is operating in shadows. We've been relatively lucky so far, and it may seem odd to say so; Janjira, New York, San Francisco, all have suffered heavily, but many of the attacks have so far been in unpopulated areas. I fear though that things will only get worse unless we act. We must confront this mystery before it threatens humankind and the natural balance of the planet as a whole. To this end, I am going to create a psychic web between us all. Previously linking with me and having me translate for you has been enough, but if we are going to work together properly, we need to be able to communicate with each other individually. I've only created a psychic web once before, but I think this situation calls for it. It will allow each and every one of you to communicate with each other privately over any distance and without need for translation. Once the web is in place we begin our investigation. Is there anybody here who does not wish to be a part of this? If so that is okay."
Everybody shakes their head.
"We're ready to do whatever it takes if it means protecting the people we love most." Admiral Stenz replies.
"Very well." Mothra says, "This will only a take a moment then."
The larva closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Soon there are thin, wispy tendrils, almost like smoke, streaming from her head, ten in all fly out towards each ally gathered on the island. The tendrils touch the back of each person and monster's head, at the base of the skull. They feel nothing, and the process is soon over, with nobody feeling very different.
"For those of you who have already linked with me you will find this very similar, for the rest of you, it may seem difficult at first but practice talking amongst yourselves and you will get the hang of it. You can choose to speak to whomever you please through this web, if you experiment a bit you'll be able to pinpoint the contacts for each member in your mind and access them whenever you please. Make use of it, be vigilant, and we can win this. I believe in all of you, I believe in the alliance we've created."