Kumi Honda shot upright in bed, raised from her slumber by a wailing siren. She was in her room at the Iwato Island base. Before she had time to properly react, a guard threw open her door and stepped inside.

"You're on call, Doc."

Honda rubbed the sleep from her eyes and jumped out of bed. Duty was calling! "Where?"

"Hawaii. Colonel says he'll debrief you en route. He wants you on the jet – now!"

A short time earlier, residents in the community of Waikiki in Honolulu were awakened in the early morning hours by a deafening crash. Many raced outside to see what was happening. Lying on its side in the shallows of the harbor was a large ship smashed in half. Wary yet curious, some walked slowly toward the site, hoping to get a closer look.

Suddenly, a huge creature loomed up from out of the sea. It was a crab the size of a blue whale, with pincers that were each nearly the size of its torso; its left pincer was missing its smaller claw, but still looked formidable. With its craggy body making a harsh crackling sound as it moved, the crab climbed out of the water and advanced on the city.

This was the first time a monster had come ashore in Hawaii and the first encounter for most of Honolulu's residents. In the face of disaster, they forgot what they had been instructed to do by the authorities and panicked. They scampered back into their homes, jumped into their cars, or ran screaming in the opposite direction. The streets were cluttered within seconds, making escape difficult – and feeding easy for the crab.

With a single snap of its pincer, the loathsome creature snatched up dozens of fleeing civilians, impaling them on the serrations of its claws, and raised them to its mandibles so it could devour them one at a time. The crab repeated this process several times, smashing through buildings to get to the biggest clusters of people. After nearly twenty minutes of feasting, the monster turned and retreated to the sea, clacking its strong pincer in satisfaction. Those at the head of the crowd did not know that the danger was gone; many ran until they collapsed and were trampled by those with the strength to keep going.

It was believed that Iwato Island had never been inhabited by anything but bacteria. The island was solid rock with scarcely a trace of loose soil, so no vegetation grew. No plants, no herbivores; no prey animals, no predators. It was, by any definition, a dead island.

Yet it was useful to Project G for a few reasons. First, no inhabitants meant nobody would trouble to stake a claim on the territory, nor was there any need for concern about conservation. The second was its immense, naturally-occurring underground cave system, into which the base was built, saving time and money that would otherwise have gone towards raising buildings. Finally, there was its location, which placed them equidistant from the most frequent targets of monster attacks – Japan, coastal Asia, and the Philippines – while still allowing for a reasonable response time to each.

Hawaii was a different matter.

Honda took Colonel Omori's call to urgency with complete seriousness. Still in her pajamas, she paused only to grab a pair of boots and a trench coat before sprinting down the hall toward the hangar. Waiting for her was the AC-3 Shirasagi, an advanced, nuclear-powered VTOL built for fast long-distance travel and designed specifically to transport Honda on missions. Her pilot, Commander Takashima, had already started up the engines and lowered the ramp; no sooner had Honda scampered up inside then the ramp was closed and the Shirasagi ascended the vertical shaft leading out of the hangar.

Honda donned a headset and tested her microphone. "Honda reporting. Colonel, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Doctor. Takashima, proceed to the pool."

"Roger," said Takashima. "Proceeding to pool."

The huge pool of water at one end of the island was actually a crater, formed by a meteorite impact millions of years earlier that left a permanent lining of radioactive minerals. Later, when Project G took over the island, the seaward portion of the crater wall was blasted out and a solid gate built in its place leading directly into the sea. The radioactive pool now served as the home of Project G's greatest asset.

The gate parted slowly, allowing water to pour out of the pool and into the ocean. A bright flash danced across the pool as its sole living resident emerged with a feisty growl. Godzilla, the king of the monsters, had awoken!

Honda's telepathic connection to Godzilla had become so strong that she no longer required intense concentration to communicate with him, and after numerous missions, he knew the drill when the gate opened. He waded into open water and dutifully nodded toward the Shirasagi. Takashima turned the ship to the southeast and sped away from the island. Godzilla plunged beneath the surface of the waves and followed, his powerful limbs and tail granting him speed unmatched by another creature in the water. The only question was, would it be enough?

"Big G is clear and away," reported Takashima.

"Alright, Omori," said Honda, stifling a yawn. "How about you fill us in now?"

"We just received word of giant crab attacking Honolulu before retreating into the sea."

"A crab?" Honda replied excitedly. "Did they say anything about an injured chela?"

"A what?"

"Its claws. Was one of them broken?"

"Hmm…Yes, I think they did say something about that."

"It's Ganimes," Honda said with a scowl. "We almost had him once before and he escaped…but not before Godzilla gave him something to remember us by." She cracked her knuckles loudly, her lips turning up at one end in a mischievous sneer. "Maybe this time we can put him out of our misery for good!"

"Slow down there, Lady Hangaku. According to the report. Ganimes returned to the sea right away. By the time you get there, it may be long gone."

"I know that. Still, we can always track him down! Isn't that right, G?"

Godzilla reared his head up from the water and roared with anticipation.

Honda's sneer became a bold grin. "Hear that?"

"I sure did. We'll keep you posted on any further updates. In the meantime, maybe you should get some sleep. It's a long way to Hawaii, after all, and you'll need to be ready when you get there."

"I'll give it a try. Honda out."

Meanwhile, five hundred kilometers north of Midway, famed inventor and military advisor Harvey J. Nicholson sat in a bathysphere, ready to dive beneath the waves. As the submersible was raised over the water, the captain of the ship carrying it spoke to Nicholson over their radio.

"Mister Nicholson, are you sure you want to do this yourself?"

Nicholson rolled his eyes as he answered, "Yes, for the hundredth time, I'm sure! If this turns out to be what we've been looking for, I want to be the one to identify it. Now, I'm ready if you are. Put me in!"

"Roger that."

The bathysphere was lowered into the water on a cable, gradually descending farther and farther down. Nicholson looked out through the porthole, watching impatiently as he saw only fish, fish, and more fish. After about a minute, he asked impatiently, "Can't this damn thing go down any faster?"

"I'll see what I can do," replied the captain.

Nicholson felt only a mild increase in speed and resigned himself to wait it out. With the natural light growing dim, he turned on the vessel's external lights to better observe his surroundings. However, the lights flickered and went out as he approached the seafloor. Further aggravated, Nicholson barked into the radio transmitter, "I thought I told you to have your men double check the lights! How am I supposed-?" His voice trailed off as he realized there was only static coming through. The lights inside the vessel began to blink. "Oh, wonderful!" he muttered, fiddling with the controls to see if he could find the source of the problem.

Suddenly, the radio began to crackle and whine, with the captain's voice barely making it through in a garbled message. "Power fail-electri-isturbance-bort mission-pull up!"

"No!" shouted Nicholson. "Keep lowering me! This might be our only chance to find the-"

Nicholson noticed something in the water outside, some sort of glowing red object. "It's here!" he murmured. "The Xilien power core!"

The external lights kicked back on. Nicholson looked beyond the glowing object and saw a huge horned figure looking right back at him.

The bathysphere was suddenly ripped free from its towline, plummeting toward the seafloor. As Nicholson was tossed about inside the submersible, he could just barely see the monster shooting upward toward the ship. The bathysphere crashed onto the seafloor with sufficient force to obliterate the glass of the porthole and knock out all of the lights. Nicholson spent his final moments cold, alone, and in complete darkness.

Honda had only just found slumber with the approach of dawn when it was ripped away from her yet again.

"Doctor Honda," said Takashima, nudging her awake. "More news coming in."

Omori's voice came over the radio. "Doc, we just got word of another attack north of Midway."

"Ganimes again?"

"Unidentified. A US Navy research vessel was destroyed by an electrical attack, possibly from a creature. We've been ordered to change course and check it out."

Honda was flabbergasted. "Now wait a minute! For all we know, Ganimes could still be near Honolulu, waiting to attack again. We can't afford to go off on a wild goose chase when there are still lives in danger!"

"I agree but it's not my call. General Martin has given the order and says this takes precedent."

"What's so important about this boat, anyway?"

"Nicholson was onboard, trying to recover an important resource."

"Important to whom?"

Omori sighed. "Doc, we don't have any choice. Go! Ganimes disappears for weeks or months after every attack. We can go after him another day."

No less flustered, Honda leaned back in her seat. "Roger that. Takashima, get us to Midway."

Daybreak found the people of Honolulu in despair. In minutes, Ganimes had laid waste to the beachfront, toppling buildings and killing hundreds. Residents swarmed the streets, many of them searching for their loved ones. Fire and medical crews struggled to do their jobs with so much chaos and congestion. Amidst the confusion, there was one question on everyone's mind:

Where was Godzilla?

For most of them, this was their first experience with a monster attack; hearing about these incidents from far away, it was easy to get the impression that Godzilla always popped up just in time to save the day, when in reality Project G spent more time attempting to catch monsters after the fact, owing to time and distance. In this particular case, Hawaii was simply too far from Iwato for a timely intervention. Nevertheless, all the people of Honolulu knew at that moment was that the help they had hoped for had yet to come. Grief became anxiety, and from anxiety, doubt began to grow.

The airport was flooded with people hoping to escape the city, making it difficult for those who had already planned to leave that day to reach their flights. A ticket booth worker found herself completely overwhelmed as dozens tried to get her attention at once. "Please," she begged them, "one at a time!" However, they continued to shout over her and each other.

"I've got to get out of here now!"

"What if that thing is still in the harbor?"

"Please, my children back home must be worried!"

"It could come back at any time!"

"We shouldn't even have to buy tickets! We're refugees now!"

The aircrew of one departing flight were having no better luck keeping passengers calm. The anxiety was intense and felt like a physical force aboard the plane, as though a mind-altering gas had been let lose. Children and old folk wept inconsolably. Flight attendants nervously stayed out of arm's reach as passengers tried to grab them and insist that they needed assistance before everyone else. A fight broke out between two men over a window seat.

The captain turned on his intercom and tried to ease the situation with an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, I understand that many of you are grieving and in shock, still putting the pieces together after the tragedy of last night. However, that's behind us now and we can't let those feelings erupt into…" He stopped abruptly as he looked down at the water. Forgetting the intercom was still on, he muttered in horror, "Oh my God, it's coming back."

The passengers forgot their momentary concerns and flew to the windows to see for themselves. Sure enough, Ganimes had reappeared and was advancing on the same point it had attacked before, where there were many people still unable to flee to safety.

Takashima had just switched on the automatic pilot and was getting out some rice balls to snack on when the call came through.

"Come in Shirasagi! This is the Honolulu Coast Guard."

"Shirasagi here. We read you."

"The giant crab monster has resurfaced and is coming back for another attack!"

Before Takashima could respond, Honda replied for him. "Roger, Honolulu. We are headed your way with Godzilla."

Takashima looked at her in surprise. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"No, I'm not. Ganimes is the immediate threat. Anything else can wait."

"But our orders-"

"Screw our orders," said Honda. "You put us back on course to Hawaii this instant or I'll tell Godzilla to blow us out of the sky!"

Takashima swallowed hard. "Yes, Doctor!"

No sooner had they changed course then Colonel Omori began to shout at them over the radio. "Honda! What are you doing? Your orders are to investigate the missing research vessel and eliminate the culprit!"

"Sorry, Colonel," said Honda. "Those people in Honolulu are sitting ducks. Ganimes must have realized we weren't coming and decided to take a second crack, and this time he might not settle for a quick snack run."

"Honda, don't do this! You'll jeopardize our entire operation!"

"Tell the general if he wants to have me court martialed for saving his favorite resort town, he can go right ahead!"

Ganimes had, just as Honda guessed, become overconfident after the lack of reprisal for his first attack. For nearly an hour, he terrorized Honolulu once again, killing and eating more than a thousand people while toppling buildings left and right. Fighter jets bombarded the monster, but his shell was so thick that their missiles only chipped away bit by bit.

Undaunted, Ganimes moved south toward Diamond Head, but as he neared the volcanic cone, he heard a familiar roar and whirled around to face the sea. Godzilla had arrived and was wading ashore, eyes fixed on his quarry like lasers. Ganimes reared up as high as his legs would let him go and stood eye to eye with his old enemy. Godzilla leaned forward with his tail straight out behind him and charged. Ganimes scurried backwards until his back was against the Diamond Head cone. Feeling cornered, he raised out both pincers, snapping his good one, but the gesture did not dissuade Godzilla in the least; he pushed right through the claws and smashed into Ganimes, the force of the impact plowing them both through the wall of the cone. Godzilla remained in the opening of the wall, blocking Ganimes from escaping. The crab tried to climb the walls, but Godzilla blasted him with his atomic breath, knocking him back to the valley floor.

As the Shirasagi hovered over the battlefield, Takashima commented, "Why doesn't Godzilla just pin him down and fry him?"

"It's the shell," said Honda. "The heat can't get through. The concussive force of the blast is just enough to throw him temporarily off balance."

Ganimes righted himself and charged, both claws raised high over his head. Godzilla planted his feet and held his stance, arms outstretched. When they collided again, Godzilla was nearly pushed through the hole in the wall, but stood his ground even as the crab's claws pelted his head. As he tried to push back, the good pincer ensnared his neck and dug into his flesh. Godzilla cried out in pain but continued to push. Ganimes pulled Godzilla's face toward his mouth, but before he could take a bite, Godzilla leaned his head to the left and bit down on Ganimes' eye stock, crushing it. Agonized, the crab released his grip and pulled back, only for Godzilla to incinerate his other eye.

Blinded, Ganimes shuffled awkwardly around, tripping and bumping into the walls of the cone. When at one point he fell over on his back, Godzilla seized the chance and lifted him up over his head. He then carried Ganimes to the top of the cone wall and dropped him back down to the valley floor. Ganimes landed on his back, rupturing his shell, but he continued to squirm. Godzilla flexed his legs and jumped, landing atop the crab and smashing him into the ground with a horrible squishing sound. The good pincer continued to twitch and flail about even as life ebbed away, until Godzilla ripped the entire arm from its socket and held it aloft with a roar of triumph.

Honda applauded his victory and leaned back with a sigh of relief. "I knew he wouldn't get away this time! Well, what do you say, Takashima? Shall we stay here and get some rest before heading back to Iwato?"

"Sounds like a plan to me." The pilot switched on his radio and called their headquarters. "Shiarasagi to Iwato. Target destroyed. Request permission to stay the evening for R&R."

Omori's voice was sharp and urgent as he replied, "Negative! Turn around and get back here immediately!"

Takashima groaned and rubbed at his eyes. "Sir, I'm exhausted! I don't know if I can make the flight back today."

"Then we'll send a carrier for you to land and swap out with another pilot. I need Doctor Honda back here ASAP."

Honda and Takashima exchanged a concerned glance. "Affirmative," said Takashima after a moment of silence. "Heading your way."