Pacific Ocean.
At the place where Gojira fought and defeated the sea serpent there was an entrance to a cave. The cave tunnel was long and passed through the Hollow Earth portal. This is where this cave ended. The snake we knew was licking his wounds and thinking about everything he had seen.
"The world is still the same. Although some of its inhabitants are quite strange."—The Prince of Envy thought to himself. For a while there was silence again. Until he heard the call of his King. The one to whom he is truly loyal.—"Apparently My King wants to see me. It's interesting that so many years have passed, and he just called me."
***
A squad of armed guards armed with automatic weapons accompanied Boyd. The men had the stony expressions and icy eyes of hardened mercenaries or guerrillas. Not the most reassuring of welcoming committees. Serizawa and Graham exchanged worried glances. The presence of weapons and guards was unnerving, but they had come too far to give in to doubt now. Serizawa believed that the soldiers were only on hand to ensure safety, even if the amount of firepower on display seemed excessive to him.
"They discovered a radiation pocket here last month," Boyd said, getting straight to the point. He seemed anxious, awaiting any advice and assistance the scientists could offer. Serizawa understood that Boyd was from the company's headquarters and was not in person nearby when the disaster occurred. He seemed nervous and out of his element. "And everyone was excited, thinking they had a uranium deposit. They started stacking the heavy equipment and..."
As he said this, he led them down the slope to. the nearest ridge. Serizawa walked carefully over the rough, uneven terrain. "The valley floor collapsed into the cave below," Boyd continued.
"He just failed. Now we can assume that about forty miners went with him." He stepped aside to let Serizawa and the others see for themselves. The team found themselves on a rocky outcrop, looking down onto the valley below - or what was left of it. A jagged chasm, at least a hundred feet long, swallowed up the valley floor.
Mangled machinery, shacks, boulders and other debris appeared dimly in a dark rift that seemed to descend deep into the Earth. Serizawa stared at the wreckage for a few moments, taking it all in, before speaking again.
"I need to talk to the survivors." - he said.
***
Atlantic Ocean.
There is an ancient and amazing legend associated with the Atlantic Ocean. This is the legend of a city called Atlantis. They say that there was a castle of Poseidon himself, the god of the seas and oceans. But for unknown reasons, the city was sunk. Scientists think it's the kaiju's fault. Little do they know that the creature that sank the city made it its home and is still there.
In the center of the ruins you can find a huge temple. It is clear why the legend says that this was the castle of the sea god. The building was huge. Like the city, the temple was in the ancient Greek style. He was relatively intact. Only corals and algae covered it, and one column collapsed. The entrance was decorated with huge doors. They were destroyed in the middle.
Walking through the corridors, one could find a bunch of ancient treasures. And among them are human remains. The creature that did this was truly evil. And then there was the throne room. Or what's left of it. The statue of Poseidon was destroyed and lay on the floor. The back of the throne was slightly damaged. And on the throne was that same creature. The creature had the body of a huge snake. Its scales were blue and its fins were ragged. This was Tiamat, the most evil creature. Even Kaiser Ghidorah is a harmless sheep in front of her.
***
A tin-roofed warehouse was converted into a makeshift sorting center. Dozens of wounded and dying workers occupied rows of beds. Serizawa immediately saw that all the men were suffering from severe radiation burns. Blisters, sores and red spots plagued their flesh. Some were still conscious, while the more fortunate were rendered unconscious by morphine drips.
Agonizing moans and sobs echoed from the walls of the building, whose stuffy atmosphere was devoid of any air conditioning. Doctors and nurses, overworked and depressed, moved quickly between the rows of patients, doing what little they could to ease the men's suffering. Unlike their patients, the rescuers wore hazmat suits for their own protection. Gas masks covered their faces.
Serizawa, still wearing his traveling clothes, felt awkward and defenseless. Beside him, Graham inhaled sharply, stunned by the scale of the tragedy. Serizawa shared her horror. From what he could see of the men's burns, few of the miners would last a week, while any survivors would be doomed to years of complications, cancer, and deformities before they finally succumbed to the harmful effects of the radiation. He sympathized with them with all his heart, knowing that at this moment there was little that could be done for them.
Gathering his courage from these heartbreaking sights and sounds, Serizawa approached one of the patients. The man's face was so swollen that he barely looked human. The burned skin peeled and blistered. Hair was falling out. Burns and swelling made it difficult to determine the patient's age, but a look at his medical file showed that the dying miner was only twenty years old.
"So young," Serizawa thought, even forcing himself to concentrate on the task at hand. Now is not the time for sentimentality. He needed accurate data and information if the root cause of this disaster was truly as he suspected. Many more lives could be at stake.
One of his assistants rescued a portable radiation detector from his supplies. The hand-held device included an external wand. Serizawa removed the detector from his shoulder and turned it on. Moving closer to the bed, he pointed the sensor at the patient.
The detector clicked quickly.
The arrow on the monitor rose sharply into the red zone. Serizawa retreated cautiously, alarmed by the results. He stopped one of the busy nurses, whose face was almost completely hidden by a gas mask. He grabbed her by the shoulder of her hazmat suit.
"Can you ask this man what happened?" The nurse nodded. Leaning over the patient, she spoke to him in Tagalog. A hoarse, whispering voice emerged from his cracked and swollen lips, but it was too faint to be heard.
She leaned closer as the man repeated his words, gesturing weakly towards Serizawa with his bandaged hand.
"He says," the nurse translated, "that people like you... you came here, you destroyed the earth. You made holes in her flesh... and now she has given birth to a demon."
The miner slowly turned over in his bunk, using the last of his strength to turn his back on Serizawa and the others. Serizawa made no attempt to refute the man's accusation. He was more concerned about the "demon" the survivor had mentioned. Just the ravings of a dying man... or a warning?
***
She waited. She waited for many years for her betrothed to come back for her and give her food. But he didn't. Instead, he informed her of the location of the food. These strange devices that gave food. She broke out of the chrysalis and headed towards the largest one. She admitted it was delicious. With pleasure, she began to eat more and more. Then she headed towards the mountain.
There was food there too, but she decided to save it for the future. You never know, a hundred things could happen. She began to listen. Great, the "king" is still sleeping. If you succeed, he won't even wake up. She buried herself deep between the metal things. She will still need to decide what will be tastier for her dear future children. She snapped her jaws for the last time before pupating to the end.
Silence reigned in the destroyed military base in America. The soldiers were ordered not to disturb the creature's peace in order to avoid problems.
***
Pacific Ocean.
Many miles from America, Gojira stopped. She felt something. Something familiar and disgusting. With a loud growl, she began to swim towards America. She cared nothing for humans or other kaiju, and with a fury she had never seen before, she sailed to the West Coast of America to eradicate the abomination.
***
Island of Monsters.
Junior, with amusement in her eyes, held a small stick and poked it at the crab. The crab dodged as best it could. However, this did not save it much. Suddenly, the crab felt something and stopped for a moment, then with unprecedented speed, it rushed as far as possible from the hill on which Junior was sitting.
The Monster Princess, feeling the vibrations, stood up and began to turn her head in all directions, trying to determine the source. Unexpectedly for her, the hill began to crack at the seams and fall apart. The girl rolled head over heels down it and sat down on the sand.
Meanwhile, the hill began to rise. The pieces that were rising fell with a crash and formed a curtain of dust. Junior closed her eyes and heard a soft growl. She opened her amber eyes and gaped.
A huge creature stood before her. Bigger than her. Twice as big as her mother. A creature she felt a distant kinship with. She even believed it to be an ancient ancestor of her species. Same dorsal plates, same tail and gills. The creature shook its head slightly before letting out a roar it was familiar with. The roar of a member of the Godzillasaur Royal Family.
SCREEEEEENKK!
She didn't know it, but the world itself greeted this creature as an old friend. The world had met its master. The King of Monsters had returned.
With a low growl, Gozilla headed towards the Lkean, its dorsal plates hovering on the surface of the sea for a long moment before disappearing towards Japan. Soon, humans and kaiju will see great battles that will decide their fate and the fate of this world.
***
Wailing klaxons penetrated the walls of the security van, causing Ford to start in alarm. He knew emergency warnings when he heard them. All hell was breaking loose somewhere.
Desperate to figure out what was happening, he peered out the rear window of the van. He spotted heavy steel cables winding from the base of a towering construction crane, which had just swung into action. He couldn't make out what the cables were attached to.
Radios squawked outside the van. Ford saws guards rushing past.
"Hey!" he shouted, trying to get their attention. Had everyone forgotten that he was handcuffed inside the van? He yelled over the blaring klaxons. "HEY!"
His shouts went unheeded. Whatever crisis was underway clearly took priority over one inconvenient American trespasser. Ford realized he was on his own, right on top of a buried nuclear power plant. He remembered the radiation helmet tucked in his belt and hastily put it back on. He used his free hand to refasten it to the suit.
Better safe than sorry.
***
Serizawa watched from the crow's nest as the tech crews on the lower levels of the pit scrambled out of the way as the huge wire "cage" descended, sealing the cocoon inside, even as another layer of the outer shell shook loose, sloughing onto the floor of the pit with tremendous force. Serizawa offered a silent prayer for the workers below, hoping they would not be crushed by the stony fragments, which were as hard and brittle as volcanic rock.
Agitated voices filled the control room. The pulses, coming faster and faster, were growing steadily in strength. Arguments broke out among the panicky scientists and technicians as they debated the correct response to the escalating crisis.
Emergency measures were hurriedly deployed, but Serizawa got a definite sense that matters were spiraling out of control. Besieged by critical reports and queries from the staff under his command, Dr. Whelan looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. It appeared now that they had all severely underestimated the forces—and the creature—they had sought to contain. Whelan's dreams of solving the world's energy crisis were turning into a nightmare.
"Grid secure!" Jainway called out as the high-tension netting stretched taut above the quivering cocoon. The technician let out a sigh of relief, which Serizawa feared might be premature. After all, the cage had never been tested.
The announcement quieted the tumult inside the control room. Overlapping voices trailed off as all heads turned toward Whelan, who was pacing back and forth before the windows. Everyone present knew what came next. Jainway's hand hovered above a switch. He looked to Whelan for the go-ahead.
"Say the word," the technician said.
Whelan, for his part, appeared overwhelmed by the responsibility that had fallen on him. He looked in turn to Serizawa, who sympathized with the stricken scientist. This was no easy decision.
"So much we still don't know," Whelan moaned, agonizing over the potential loss to science.
Down in the pit, the cocoon shuddered again, shedding yet another layer of shell. Great chunks of the cocoon rained down on the metal flooring, which began to buckle beneath the avalanche. With each layer, more and more of the unearthly effulgence at the core of the cocoon could be seen, although the organism within remained hidden from view.
But for how much longer?
"Kill it." Serizawa said.
Whelan let Serizawa make the call. He nodded to Jainway, who threw the switch.
Thousands of volts electrified the metal grille at the base of the cocoon. Bright blue flashes crackled across the flooring. The cocoon sizzled and convulsed as the electricity arced across its outer shell, jolting it with bolts of artificial lightning. Smoke rose from its cracking outer shell. Floodlights and fuses blew, throwing the entire pit into darkness. Graham gasped, and Whelan looked away from the window. In theory, whatever was growing inside the cocoon had just been electrocuted.
Serizawa prayed they had not waited too long.
On the monitors, the data feeds all went silent. A hush fell over the control room.
"All readings are flat-lining," Jainway reported.
"Is it dead?" Whelan asked.
Serizawa peered down into the murky pit. As nearly as he could tell, the cocoon remained intact, apart from a single long crack splitting its surface. Shadows filled the gap, making it impossible to discern what lay deeper within the cocoon. The bioluminous glow had been extinguished. No sound or motion could be detected from this height.
Jainway sagged back into his seat, looking drained. He clearly thought the crisis had been averted, as did various other technicians throughout the control room. The electricity appeared to have done the trick, but Serizawa remained on edge. There was too much at stake to take any chances.
"Get a visual," he instructed.
***
Down in the pit, a work crew cautiously approached the charred cocoon. The metal grid beneath their feet was no longer electrified, but their hazmats suits included rubber boots regardless. Massive fragments of dislodged shell, the size of boulders, were embedded in the floor, forcing the workers to detour around them. Burnt and shattered scientific equipment further obstructed their path. The grilled flooring was dented and cratered, making it difficult to navigate. It was several minutes before they reached the base of the cocoon, which remained dark and inert.
The leader of the team, Koji Tanaka, ignited a handheld flare. An incandescent red glow cast light on the deep, jagged crack running up the blackened exterior of the looming cocoon. He peered up at the crack, but saw only a still, silent darkness. It appeared that the creature was indeed dead, but perhaps there was yet more they could learn by examining its remains?
The team drew nearer to the cocoon. Tanaka was about to report back to the control room, when he thought he spotted a glimmer of movement through the crack. At first he thought it might be just a trick of the light, but, no, something was definitely shifting deep within the cocoon. He squinted into shadows, while the rest of his team started shouted and pointing excitedly. They could all see it now: Elusive shapes—no, a single shape—stirring inside the cocoon, right before their eyes.
Tanaka's mouth went dry. He began to back away warily.
A deafening howl erupted from the cocoon, echoing off the walls of the pit. Terrified, Tanaka and his team turned and ran frantically for their lives.
They didn't get far.
A bone-rattling shock wave blasted from the cocoon, flinging the fleeing workers across the floor into the ruins and rubble. The concussive force disintegrated what remained of the cocoon, causing it to crumble into dust, even as a tremendous electromagnetic pulse blew through the entire base, shutting everything down. Tumbling through the air, Tanaka was already dead, his organs pulped, before he slammed into a disintegrating pile of debris.
The creature howled again.
***
The van rattled as though a bomb had gone off nearby. The dome-light in the ceiling, which had been flickering and off, went out completely, leaving Ford trapped in the dark. The blaring klaxons ceased abruptly, while a sudden blackout seemed to hit the entire facility. All the lights outside went dark simultaneously, so that only faint starlight illuminated the scene. The motorized cranes whirred to a stop.
What the—?
Ford was still trying to figure out what was happening, and whether he'd been completely forgotten, when the thunderous howl of some unknown creature rang out over the chaos. That was no machine or siren, Ford realized instantly. The ululating cry was unmistakably coming from something alive.
He couldn't believe his ears, and a primordial fear gripped his heart. Bombs and blackouts he understood, and he had seen combat more than once. But the thought of what could have produced that savage wail defied his imagination.
What had his father said before? About some sort of animal...?
***
Joe found himself alone in the improvised interrogation room. Fitzgerald and the guards had run off, distracted by the crisis, which had apparently caught them completely by surprise. He remembered the feeling.
"You should've listened to me" he thought bitterly. "I should've made you listen."
The lights went out, just as they had at the plant years ago. He heard an electronic lock click as the power shorted. He tried the door and found it unlocked. Cautiously sticking out his head out the door, he glanced around but didn't see any more guards in the vicinity. He wasn't surprised. If history was indeed repeating itself, as he feared, then the people here had a lot bigger problems on their hands than one trespassing engineer.
This was his chance, he realized, to find out the truth at last.
***
Along with his fellow scientists, Serizawa stared down into the abyss, which was lit only by the intermittent strobing of the emergency lights. The steel-mesh net over the pit remained intact, further obscuring his view of the creature below, which had obviously survived their attempt to electrocute it. Despite the danger posed by the monster, Serizawa marveled at its obvious strength and endurance. They had sent enough voltage through the grid to fry a great white whale, but the creature was still alive and free from its cocoon.
We waited too long, he realized.
It's grown too strong.
The erratic lighting frustrated him. Straining his eyes, he could make out only the vague impression of some gargantuan form moving below. He caught sporadic glimpses of gigantic red eyes and gleaming fangs. The biologist in him was anxious to see the adult form of the organism, now that it had completed its metamorphosis from the larval stage that had hatched from the Philippine egg sac fifteen years ago, even as he feared for humanity as well.
What exactly had just emerged into the night?
Beside Serizawa, Whelan gasped as the shadowy beast pressed up against the cable netting, testing its cage. The creature heaved upward, shaking the entire pit. Steel scaffolding and support beams began to buckle alarmingly. Tortured metal screamed in protest. The crow's nest bucked beneath Serizawa's beneath feet, and he had to grab onto a window sill to maintain his balance. Graham stumbled against him, her face pale.
"Evenyone out!" Whelan shouted. "Now!"
His palm slammed down on a panic button.
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