Old Birth Island, Late 1994, approximately one week after Xenilla's attack
Godzilla Junior or "Little Godzilla" as Major Yuki called him, boredly paced across the island. Around 30 meters tall he was going through quite the growth spurt, though still retained a lot of his youngster appearance of a toddler with some baby fat. The trauma of Xenilla's incursion was still there, but a young and optimistic mind had helped blot out the strain. Junior hadn't been forced to grow up just yet. And like most youngsters the number one agenda on his itinerary today was playtime, be it an after effect of his year at the Kyoto Institute or such behavior being natural to many animals his age as play and imitation often taught skills of an adult.
The only problem, as he waddled back and forth across the island, was there wasn't anyone to play with. The grouchy veteran Junior took for a silly and nice man, Major Yuki, had left the island months ago so Junior couldn't unintentionally hound him like he used to. And the second option, Godzilla Senior, was far out at sea at the moment. Junior pondered the second option and stood on the shore as the waves rolled over his toes.
He could swim really good and had gone out to sea before. There was that time he buzzed those silly people at Odo Island before his father came back to collect him. Godzilla Junior grunted happily at the memories. Those villagers were weird but so nice, they even gave him a boat to play with! The only problem was one of them got lost and tied up on it and wouldn't stop screaming when he picked it up. Then there was the happy memories back at the institute with the psychic children, Miki, the G-Force teams, nice mister Kazuma; and of course his mother Azusa! Humans were so nice, in the youngster's mind there was nothing they'd ever do to try and hurt him, except maybe that one monster who looked like a human, Katagiri! Junior shook uneasily at the memory of his shock treatments, eased by the follow up recollection of his mother swooping in the rescue.
There weren't any humans on Birth Island and his father wasn't on Birth Island either. Little Junior liked humans and he liked his father. There were humans out past the sea and his father was out there somewhere. So the logic was simple and made perfect sense to the him as he waddled off into the surf and started tirelessly swimming. If he was here and they were there, he'd just have to go find them!
A young mind has little concept of time. Junior didn't know how long he'd been alternatingly swimming or walking on the bottom, but unbeknownst to him he was going on anything but a straight path. The kaiju was easily distracted, investigating every reef or sea creature he came across as well as being towed along by multiple currents. And after wolfing down half a kelp forest he slipped into a food coma, already tired because of all that swimming. Caught in a current a dozen meters below the surface, he rolled to place his back down to look at the sunbeams high above, and fell into a deep nap. It was fortunate he was under the surface, as it spared him getting tossed around by waves or potentially struck by lightning from the storm he drifted under. Godzilla Junior slept peacefully through the entire journey under a band of clouds, mists, and storms; only finally waking up after coming into the clear and bopping his head on a pillar of rocks jutting out of the water.
Yipping as he awoke and rubbing his head, Junior's eyes widened after he surfaced and beheld what was before him. A massive, mountainous island surrounded by rocky protrusions. Eager to explore this new realm, he righted himself and swam from the sea to the mouth of a very deep river; heading inland to Skull Island.
Skull Island was in many respects like Birth Island. The landscapes were huge, the trees so tall Junior could even find some shade, and skies often clear. The differences though stacked up fast. For one the altitudes could scale much higher. Birth Island's highest peak was perhaps sixty meters, whereas Skull Island's was easily fifteen times that. The waterways were also much more extensive, as Junior had managed to swim all the way to the interior by river alone. And whereas Birth Island's fauna was relegated to the norm of the south pacific, mostly birds and small reptiles; Skull Island's fauna was of a much larger scale. Nothing that quite equaled or even rivaled Junior's size yet, but still said something when the smallest creature he'd noticed thus far was a deer and the largest was an elephant sized ceratopsian dinosaur, a ferrucutus. Scores of birds, pterosaurs, large bats, and other winged creatures flew across the sky and above the amazed youngster; many roosting at a large set of caves at the central mountain peak which resembled a skull in arrangement. Though the record for the largest was soon broken when something stirred to his left as Junior waded down the river heading north. A set of almost wood-like horns and a foliage covered back emerged from the water and soon Junior found himself looking at the largest buffalo he'd ever seen. Easily four times the size of an elephant, the sker buffalo which had been sleeping on the river bottom was still much smaller than the young kaiju. The buffalo snorted, pitching its head up as Junior squatted down to have a better look at it. They sniffed at each other for a moment, tilting heads and making no sudden moments. The buffalo suddenly stopped short and looked over to the right, Junior following its vision. While he heard no voices the little kaiju was soon filled with delight at a certain sight. Sitting in a long canoe and paddling towards a large wall of some sort downstream were several humans!
Godzilla Junior laughed with a saurian cackle, turning around and eagerly wading towards the stoic islanders who were quick to increase the pace of their rowing. Giving chase it took Junior a moment to hear the panicked bellows behind him and glimpse the sker buffalo running full tilt away from the river and across the plains.
Tilting his head further back, he only had time to widen his eyes and screech in surprise when the hideous form of an adult skullcrawler pounced down at him from a peak bordering the shore. Godzilla Junior shrieked an alarm call and tumbled into the river, a lucky tail smack from him spinning around throwing the skullcrawler off. Godzilla Junior scrambled up to his feet and tried to face the skullcrawler. While the two were of near equal size, it was like comparing a baby lion to a fully grown jackal. Lacking experience or instinct to attack, the youngster scared easily like he had against Xenilla and tried to flee after managing to throw the skullcrawler off when it opened up several cuts on his arm. On instinct he ran to what he considered good, the human village's wall downstream to try and get help. But in his panic to run away Junior almost overturned the canoe in his wake. Spying the boat out of the corner of his eye and knowing the monster was hot on their heels, Junior did the first thing that came to mind. Grab the humans and run for it. Clutching the canoe and the bewildered islanders in his little arms, Junior only made it another fifty meters before the crackling hiss of the skullcrawler heralded another pounce. Struck from behind he stumbled over, tossing the boat downstream and doubling head over tail with the predator on top of him. The skullcralwer swiped and snapped at Junior's face, the terrified saurian screaming in panic as he flailed to try and bat it away.
Just as it pinned his head down and began to spread jaws filled with too many teeth, a massive form closed down on the predator's torso and neck like a vice. At first Junior thought what pried the skullcrawler away was his father come to rescue him, but as his swirling vision locked on to the towering figure that lifted the skullcrawler over itself, he saw fur, large canine teeth; and a simian form instead of the visage of Godzilla Senior. King Kong roared with thunder, prying open the skullcrawler's jaws beyond their breaking point and crushing the top jaw in until it's body went limp.
Kong sneered with a visibly disgusted look, dropping the corpse aside and glancing down at the little kaiju. The twenty years since his encounter with the 1970s MONARCH expedition had only greatened Skull Island's god king. Grew he still did, at his current stature of over sixty meters he would have towered over his younger self. The giant ape regarded Junior for a moment before grumbling, turning, and walking downstream. Junior turned himself around on his hands and knees, watching in awe as Kong crouched down next to the river and gently scooped up the canoe and the waiting, remarkably calm islanders; before depositing them onto the shore. The villagers bowed their heads solemnly while their god rolled his shoulders and walked off towards the interior of the island. An elated smile formed over Junior's face. He chirped and got to his feet, crawling up onto the shore. While his wounds did bleed some and ached, he was far too excited to care. This entity may have been huge, but he seemed nice enough after saving him and the humans from that monster. Plus Kong looked like a human, somewhat, and almost all humans Junior knew were good. So by process of association, that meant this Kong character was good! And if he was good and very strong, of course Junior would be plenty safe around him while he explored. In truth Kong was mostly just killing the skullcrawler given their voraciousness and his personal hatred of the species, but caring for the humans was an intention and he'd left the peculiarly odd dinosaur unharmed due to seeing Junior try to save the humans in the boat.
Giggling, the future King of the Monsters eagerly waddled after the way the King of Skull Island had went; trying mostly in vain to catch up. In many cases, he was literally following in King Kong's footsteps.