A/N: This is an idea I'd been throwing around for awhile. It was based off a scene in the Return of Godzilla novel which said that the movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters was a dramatization of the actual events of Godzilla destroying Tokyo in 1954. This is similar in nature in that it is a story taking place in a universe where the events of Godzilla 1998 movie were based on an actual event that occurred in New York City in 1998. It also takes place in a universe one-step removed from a considerable other amount of kaiju films also. The above may not make much sense, but hopefully it will still be enjoyable.
Present Day, New York University: At one of the most prestigious research universities in the country, students filed into their classrooms on the first day of class grumbling about how unfair it was to not be enjoying the late summer/early fall air. They should be outside throwing Frisbees in the park, going out for hot dogs, enjoying a local game, not listening to boring professors in stuffy lecture halls.
It was into this environment that Dr. Niko "Nick" Tatopoulos strode into the hall, ready to give his first class lecture of the semester for Kaiju 101. As he looked around the rising seats, he could see all sorts of faces in the crowd, the nerds, the jocks, the girl next doors, the fashionistas, the focused, the slackers, the knowledgeable, the clueless…
Internally, he sighed. It had been a big argument alongside his fellow colleagues Elsie Chapman, and Mendel Craven-basically composing the entire faculty of the NYU Kaiju Sciences Division, not including research assistants like Randy Hernandez and Monique Dupree-to convince the administration to make a kaiju class part of the general education curriculum. Part of the reason had been because of an idealistic desire on all three of them to pass on their knowledge to the younger generations. But more importantly, the second reason was the continued survival of their program amongst the others in the College of Arts and Science.
The truth was that despite Hollywood constantly churning out kaiju movies since the 1950s that still made big bucks at the box office; that had never seemed to successfully translate into young minds wanting to seriously consider pursuing kaijuology as a career path. Abroad, more specifically in the east-Asian countries, the study of kaijus was a booming field what with the constant threat of giant monster attacks. But in America where monster attacks were few and far between, even the most scientifically inclined minds tended to view the news reports with detached interest as something happening worlds away that didn't personally affect them. That Kaiju was a Japanese word didn't work against the impression that giant monsters were somebody else's problem and not theirs.
Without making the course a gen-ed, it was very difficult to increase registration in the otherwise dwindling attendance in Kaiju-classes. And without students plus increased interest in their research, it meant the Kaiju Sciences Division had a much harder time making the case for increasing or even maintaining the current budget NYU allotted them. Before the administration had bowed down to their demands, the unfortunate truth was that attendance only tended to spike if there was a local giant monster attack. One of the most recent local events, the 2008 Cloverfield incident, had seen a dramatic attendance spike in the second semester of the 2007-2008 academic year. But when the attendance numbers started to fall again in the Fall of 2009, that had prompted the three colleagues to argue for the general education requirement.
The trio had hoped the new status of the course might attract those who would not otherwise consider Kaijuology into the fold. And to a certain extent it had succeeded as entrance into the Kaiju graduate program for Masters and was up since 2009. But truthfully, it also meant a number of students were taking the class thinking it was an easy three credit course to fulfill the gen-ed requirement and had no interest in the field and this class would do nothing to change that.
But as Nick reflected, there was no time to dwell on those things now as the bell had just rung. He looked at the students and saw that some of them had now focused their attention on him but still others were continuing to chat amongst themselves. Smiling softly, he took out his a/v remote.
RRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!
A loud if not nearly ear splitting monster roar shook the room startling students and causing some to shriek in terror.
As soon as the roar concluded, Nick finally spoke his first words of the semester.
"Whoever is the first one who can tell me what creature made that roar gets extra credit," he informed them. Immediately, random monster names were shouted out. The more well known names came first, followed by lesser known names, and then some that were just made up. Until finally…
"Titanosaurus!" shouted a student finally and Nick snapped his fingers and pointed at the student.
"Very good," he said, pleased that someone had recognized the name sooner than most other classes had gone. "Come see me later at my office so I can get your name. That was Titanosaurus, a kaiju discovered by Dr. Shinji Mafune in the early 1960s."
He pressed a different button on his remote and an image from the overhead projector appeared displaying the giant monster in question. It was a tall, bipedal creature featuring a collapsible fin as a tail.
"For a show of hands-and please be honest with me-who here has either heard or this monster or can recognize this photo?" he asked. Some hands went up. "Now who here is this the first time encountering this creature?" More hands went up than the previous question.
Nick then asked who in the audience knew what a kaiju was and who didn't and was unsurprised that the hand ratio tended to be the same as the Titanosaurus question. But he refused to get discouraged by this. He wasn't here to preach to the choir, he was here to inform and enlighten these minds to the wonders of giant monsters…or at least do his best in that regard.
Nick asked for audience participation for a question and got the following response from an eager student: "Kaijus are monsters and kaijuology is the study of them," the student replied. Nick nodded his head.
"That's a good place to start," he said as he wrote the word Kaiju in English on the board and then wrote the same word in Japanese.
"Kaiju is a Japanese term basically translating to 'strange creature'. What that means in theory is that any creature that seemingly defies scientific explanation would classify. However, in practice kaiju tends to refer to Daikaiju meaning 'giant monster' and kaijuology referring to the study of those giant creatures," he explained further.
A hand went up. "But what exactly is 'giant'?" a student had to ask.
"Good question," said Nick with a tip of his head. "Those in the field tend to define it as creatures thirty feet tall and up. But with all things there is give and take on that."
He paused briefly as he took a sip of his water and then called up a slide featuring a height chart with various giant monsters positioned against it along with various monuments and buildings giving a sense of scale. That some of these monsters were taller than the Statue of Liberty got the usual gasp of shock.
"But let me start at the beginning," he said. "My name is Dr. Niko Tatopoulos. You can either call me Nick, Dr. Nick, or Dr. Tatopoulos, it's up to you." He said by means of introduction as he leaned against the desk in the room and crossed his arms. "This as I'm hope you're aware is Kaiju 101, an introductory course to kaijus and kaijuology," he continued. "My focus of research is mainly kaiju biology but I also work in other areas as well. Dr. Elsie Chapman also does some work in biology but her primary interest is kaiju behavioral studies. There's Dr. Mendel Craven and Randy Hernandez who focus on everything electronic as it relates to kaijus. And lastly Monique Dupree whose research is in kaiju countermeasures," said Nick concluding his introduction of his colleagues.
He then noticed some desperate faces wanting to ask a burning question and he knew immediately what it was. "And yes, for those of you familiar with the Godzilla cartoon show of the late 1990s, N.I.G.E.L. is definitely real and you will have a chance to meet him in a future lecture," he said in reference to the yellow analysis robot Dr. Craven had built to assist him in his work.
"But back to more serious business," said Nick intentionally given NIGEL's often erratic personality as he progressed to the next slide of his lecture. "Kaijuology is actually not a new field of study. Those in the field increasingly believe that kaijus have been around for centuries and that cave paintings, statues, and mythical tales of creatures such as snakes, dragons, and other seemingly fantastical tales may in fact be referring to early encounters with them.
Now for the longest time, kaijuology was not its own specific area of research. It was considered to be a branch of cryptozoology, which studies cryptids, the study of 'hidden animals'. Going back to the size chart, cryptozoology tended to focus on more human and dinosaur sized creatures and kaijuology distinguished itself by going for the more larger ones," he clarified. "So if you want to know more about Bigfoot, yetis, wendigos, etc., go find a cryptozoologist."
Nick wasn't surprised to hear some snickers in the audience and mumbles of disbelief about such creatures actually existing and he shook his head lightly at the student's reactions.
"I personally think it's unfortunate that crytozoology is often treated as pseudoscience," he confessed honestly as he put his hands in his pants pockets. "But the truth is, is that kaijuology was much the same until it was finally considered to be more a legitimate area of scientific research following an incident in 1933," Nick told the group. Understandably a hand shot up.
"What happened in 1933?" asked a student who seemed interested by the tale but apparently knew little of New York history.
"In 1933 a forty-foot ape appeared in New York City, climbed the Empire State Building, and then was attacked by the military before falling to his death all in the same night," the Kaijuologist responded as the next slide showed a scan of the New York Times article complete with an infamous quote from famed filmmaker Carl Denham. It then began fading in and out various historical photos of the evening that had rocked the world.
"Still, despite this suddenly legitimacy, kaijuology failed to gain much traction in terms of national recognition. The island King Kong had come from with its wide variety of dinosaurs and other monsters was just about impossible to find since those who went there and managed to return refused to give up its location. Nine months later when a boat crew finally did manage to voyage to Skull Island, they later reported that the entire island had been destroyed in a tsunami that swallowed the entire place," said Nick disappointed by that turn of events.
"For the next couple of decades attention was more focused on the Great Depression and World War II and then the atomic age than a one-off monster that appeared and then disappeared so quickly some wondered whether the event had happened at all," Tatopoulos said, giving history that was of no surprise to the students.
"There was some brief renewed interest in 1949 when a giant gorilla called Mighty Joe Young appeared in stage shows in Hollywood. But there was nothing really that fantastical about Joe, he was a giant gorilla sure but not outside the realm of the unexplained," said Nick hoping he wasn't sounding too harsh about the subject.
"But then four years later a mutated 33-foot tall Rhedosaurs attacked the eastern seaboard before finally being killed on Coney Island," said the scientist as images of the attack appeared on the screen behind him. "The U.S. government began to take more an interest in learning about these types of creatures, especially since this was the first creature to be conclusively connected with atomic fallout. The following year gigantic mutated ants, also connected to radioactivity appeared in the American Southwest. But since these creatures were also killed by conventional means, interest in kaijuology again dipped. Sure the animals were fantastical and hard to believe existed, but given their limited area of destruction and that they were killed by conventional means meant they were more a nuisance and not a threat."
Nick then took another intentional pause as he readied for the highlight of the day's lecture.
"Then on November 3rd, 1954 everything changed," he said dramatically as he pressed a button and a black and white image appeared on the screen behind him. All eyes were riveted on the image of a charcoal-grey bipedal creature with a dorsal spines protruding out its back and a menacing glare on its face standing in a large area of debris from wrecked buildings. This was one of the most recognized creatures in modern existence no matter where you lived. And often was also one of the most feared.
"That was the day the daikaiju named Godzilla, or as the Japanese refer to him Gojira, emerged from the Pacific Ocean and turned Tokyo City into a graveyard," Nick told the class as he showed images of the creature's rampage and then before and after pictures of the rampage that had leveled nearly the entire city.
"And I'm not joking when I say everything changed. For starters, Godzilla caused a level of death and destruction that had never been seen before in a monster attack," Nick began. And while the slides continued to show the devastation he had intentionally left off images of the dead and dying. There would be plenty of time for that later in the semester and he didn't want to scare off anyone on the first day of class, he'd already made that mistake once.
"The other important fact was that unlike previous monsters, Godzilla shrugged off all conventional weaponry. Tanks, aircrafts, rockets only confused and antagonized him. And so Tokyo was left as a smoldering memorial to the unknown," Nick quoted of famed journalist, Stephen Martin, who had been in Tokyo during Godzilla's attack and had written extensively on what had happened. His book "This is Tokyo" was one of the required readings for the class.
"In the end, the only weapon that killed the creature had its secrets taken to the grave by the man who invented it," Nick concluded on that particular event as images of Dr. Daisuke Serizawa and the Oxygen Destroyer came up and then a video image taken from a ship of the water bubbling furiously as Godzilla emerged from the water in extreme pain with lumps of flesh falling off of it before sinking once more below the waves.
Hands immediately went up and shouts of disbelief came from the audience.
"What do you mean Godzilla was killed, I thought…," the voices claimed as they always did each semester. Nick couldn't help but laugh to himself about their lack of knowledge.
"Here's your first lesson of the class, the creature we genetically refer to as Godzilla has been around for sixty years now, but over those sixty years by our estimates there have been at least four of them," he told the group. "The first Godzilla appeared in 1954 and was disintegrated. The second Godzilla appeared shortly thereafter in 1955 and was consistently sighted up until 1975. What happened to that Godzilla we don't know, but in 1984 a third Godzilla appeared before undergoing a nuclear meltdown in 1995. Then a fourth Godzilla appeared in 1999 and then disappeared in 2004. Meaning that we have been without a verifiable Godzilla sighting in 10 years, although plenty of rumors have popped up since then," he said as images of the various Godzillas appeared on the screen. They each looked generally similar although there were noticeable distinctions between them to tell them apart.
"So which was the one you fought in '98?" asked a student curious, unintentionally asking a question that Nick loathed having to constantly hear and explain.
"None of them," he answered as bewildered looks were seen across virtually the entire class. "We will definitely be discussing the events of 1998 in series of lectures later on in the semester and how the Hollywood movie decided to portray those events. But let me tell you right now that the creature that emerged and terrorized New York that week and still is a subject of my research was definitely not Godzilla."
More hands went up and Nick raised his to try and calm the class down.
"What happened was the United States military intelligence was not as knowledgeable as they should've been on kaijus and so they thought the creature was Godzilla," he began before becoming aggravated at what had happened next. "I was then later misquoted by the media that the creature was also the same monster. What I had discovered by doing a genetic analysis was that the creature that attacked New York did share some genetic markers with Godzilla and also had some physical similarities. But there was a considerable enough variance that they were definitely not the same creature. But by that point it was too late to change minds and the creature was thereafter referred to as Godzilla.
It wasn't until 2004 that my colleagues and I finally managed to change the creature's official designation to just plain 'Zilla' after the creature reappeared in Sydney and was attacked by the real Godzilla who very nearly killed it," said Nick still frustrated that it took the total destruction of the Sydney Opera House before anyone would take him seriously on the subject.
"Again, this will all be discussed in much further detail in the future but just also know that Zilla did not lay eggs in Madison Square Garden, it was not killed on the Brooklyn Bridge, and it was also fighting a second monster that never made it into the movie called the Gryphon," said Nick as pictures were seen of Zilla fighting a lion-like beast in Central Park while both were being fired upon by the military.
"To return to where I was before, after Godzilla's appearance, there was a record spike in kaijus. In the 1950s to 1970s in Japan, there was Anguirus, Varan, another King Kong, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Gigan, Megalon, etc. etc. etc. Elsewhere in Japan there was Gamera, Gyaos, Viras, Guiron, Barugon, and more. You also had other kaiju in Asia such as Gappa, Guilala, Yonggary, Pulgasari, the list goes on. In England you had Gorgo who notoriously destroyed the Thames River Bridge. In Denmark there was Reptilicus.
Back in America there were kaijus, a giant Octopus attacked San Francisco in 1955. Later that decade a giant gila monster also did some damage before being destroyed. Starting in the 1960s the kaijus in America tended to dwindle and instead America was occasionally attacked by Japanese based Kaiju like King Ghidorah and also Godzilla who blew up the U.N. building in 1968. A still different King Kong appeared in the United States in 1976. Then starting in the mid-1980s and on more Asian-based kaiju appeared like Biollante, Battra, Destoroyah, and more. The 2000s brought us even more monsters like Megaguirus and still others. And don't forget that only a few years ago, the Cloverfield monster attacked New York.
Nick could begin seeing eyes start to become glossed over from information overload. "Don't worry if you're feeling overwhelmed with all these names I've just given you now. I promise you by the end of the semester you'll be able identify all of these monsters and know what your best options are in the event of a daikaiju attack," he promised them with a reassuring grin. "Remember that 'you have you fears which might become reality; and you have Godzilla, which is reality'," he told them.
A hand went up and Nick called on the student.
"So have you ever encountered the real Godzilla?" the student had to know and every student was focused intently on him wondering what his response would be. Nick looked down at the floor briefly before standing to full attention and nodded his head affirmatively.
"I have, yes, and on more that one occasion. I have also lost a number of colleagues to that creature and others. Because make no mistake about it, we kaijuologists work in a dangerous field.
In 1984 when I was in my early 20s, not much older than many of you are now, I was in Tokyo interviewing with noted kaijuologist Dr. Makoto Hayashida trying to decide if studying kaiju was something I wanted to devote the rest of my life to. It was during winter break of my senior year of college that I spoke with him. The week or so prior there was a lot of international tension in the air because a series of fishing trawlers and other boats had gone missing followed by an American nuclear submarine. The Americans blamed the Soviets and vice-versa. It was then revealed by the Japanese Prime Minister that a third Godzilla was responsible for what had happened.
There was a lot of uneasy tension in the air and I was told by many people not to go to Tokyo to have my meeting with Dr. Hayashida; that I should stay in the United States and not have to worry about Godzilla potentially attacking. Needless to say I didn't listen to them. If I wanted to seriously consider kaijuology then I had to go where my studies were and in those days I thought myself invincible, that a kaiju threat would never directly impact me. So I went anyway and spoke with a man who would become very much my mentor in this area. He convinced me to stick around for a few days to get some hands on kaiju experience by acting as one of his research assistants.
It was quite an honor and I learned a lot. But my visa was only for a short time and I couldn't stick around for long. I was going to fly back in the early morning of December 16th, 1984 even as sightings of Godzilla were reported in Tokyo Bay only a day or so prior," he told the group who was quickly becoming more and more riveted by the tale.
"I will never forget what happened on December 15th, 1984 because that was the day the third Godzilla made landfall in Tokyo and followed in his predecessor's footsteps by nearly leveling all of Tokyo into the ground," Nick said, his voice reflecting the fear and terror he had experienced that day. "That was in many ways the worst day of my life with everything that happened, but without being there I don't think I would be where I am today.
Godzilla was the first kaiju I ever saw with my own eyes. The creature was terrifying, deadly, regal, majestic, the list goes on. Seeing that creature alive and being able to do what it could would change my whole perspective on life. By all rights kaijus should not exist. They violate every law of nature known to man. Creatures cannot be as tall as Godzilla and still be able to stand. Rodan should not be able to fly, let alone at supersonic speeds. And don't get me started on Hedorah which is for all intents and purposes a living sludge monster," Nick stated with his arms stretched out incredulously.
"But they do exist, and by studying them and learning all we can about them we can not only save lives but more importantly unlock secrets of the universe we can only dream of," he opined mythically. Dead silence was heard in the room as everyone contemplated what he had to say and then it was shattered when the bell rang and the students got up to leave.
"Okay, that's it for today. There're no readings or homework for next time, but be sure to go online and watch and some kaiju videos if you can," Nick requested. After a few moments the students were gone leaving an empty lecture hall. Nick was packing up his stuff to return to his office when his fellow professor, Elsie Chapman strode in. She walked down the steps and then hopped up onto the desk and began swinging her legs on it.
"Hey Nicky," she said with her customary greeting. "How were the new recruits? Dumb and ugly?" she asked sarcastically. Elsie usually had a dim view of most of the students they got each year and so she did her best to torture them as best she could.
"I think they were a better group than most," Nick admitted as he shut his briefcase. "What about you, did you display some of your jars from the chamber of horrors?"
Elsie laughed at that as she absently curled a lock of hair around her finger.
"Not this time. But I did nearly get one of them to pass out when I showed them video of my autopsy of that Legion creature," she told him, a little disappointed that it hadn't been a full fainting spell. Nick nodded his head and the two headed up the stairs to the hallway above.
"Anything new on the kaiju front?" he asked hopeful. Elsie shrugged lightly.
"I got a friendly call from Shinoda this morning," she did tell him. Shinoda referred to Yuji Shinoda in Japan who was the head of the Godzilla Prediction Network. That organization specialized in tracking Gojira but when he vanished they devoted their attention to tracking any other kaijus that were out there.
"That's nice of him to call, what'd he have to say?" the male scientist asked.
"Just that he's getting more and more frequent unconfirmed sightings of what might be Monster 01, or possibly a new Monster 01, getting closer and closer to our western seaboard and he thinks America is overdue for a kaiju attack," she informed him. Nick digested that information with high interest.
"Does he know where?" he had to ask.
"San Francisco is his best guess," Elsie reported. "Say, Nick, how about we go on a vacation to the City by the Bay? I hear it's beautiful this time of year…"
Nick snorted at that. "I doubt the university would cover the expenses. It's hard enough to convince them to pay to keep the HEAT Seeker maintained," he reminded her of the division's scientific research boat. "Plus there's the costs covering the maintenance and repair of…"
VRRROOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMM!
Both heads turned and they barely darted back into the safety of the room as NIGEL rocketed past through the hallway.
"No more teachers, no more rules, school's out forever!" the robot sang as it crashed out the front doors into the quad. A moment later Mendel Craven and Randy Hernandez appeared, completely out of breath.
"I'll get you for this," Mendel swore to his companion.
"Hey, it's not my fault that thing has great taste in music!" Randy protested before noticing who was watching them.
"Hey Nick, hey Elsie, how about lending us a hand?" he asked. Nick tried to think of a rebuttal as Elsie calmly consulted her watch.
"Sorry, no can do I have a brunch date with Monique in the Union," she remarked, lying or truthfully no one knew, before she patted Nick on the shoulder. "Go get 'em tiger."
Nick sputtered at that. "What did I do?" he demanded to know why he was being volunteered.
"Should've taken me up on that offer to go to California," Chapman replied with a light grin as she walked off.
Randy spoke up sympathetically. "Hey, Dr. T, hell hath no fury like…,"
"Don't make me hurt you, Hernandez," Elsie promised from down the hall. Nick watched her go exasperated before turning to the others mildly amused by the situation.
"C'mon, you guys, let's go get him before he escapes to midtown," he ordered. The trio raced out the door, grateful that today they were chasing wayward robots and not monstrous kaijus.
…
Somewhere in the deep Pacific Ocean, a leviathan awoke and headed east.
End.