Nothing but silence filled the halls of the now empty office complex. On a chilly winter evening such as this, especially one with snowfall, many office workers would be lounging in the comfort of their warm homes spending time with family and preparing for the holidays. The night guards working their shifts this evening are hoping to go home as well, hopefully within an hour or so, to get some extra sleep and keep warm. One such guard was situated at his station next to the front gates, reading the newspaper trying to stay warm in his thick winter coat. He would periodically check his wrist watch to see if it's time for him to head home. This in turn made the hour he had remaining feel like an eternity, especially when he has to sit in a tiny booth on such a freezing night.
"Only 11:23? Can't time move any damn faster? I gotta get home and get some shut eye." the night guard muttered to himself. He continued reading through an article about this year's best Christmas tree illumination arts and skimmed through a survey on the hottest new Christmas gifts this year. The night guard picked up a black sharpie from his desk and circled an image of a stuffed Hello Kitty toy wearing a winter dress. "I bet she'll love this." he said to himself, smiling at the thought of her daughter's joyous reactions when she wakes up to her new Hello Kitty toy. He continued reading onto the last page and picked up a second paper from KYODO NEWS. Right off the bat, the article on the front page caught his attention. UNGCC and Newly Established G-Force Discusses "Operation: New Years" the headline read. A large image of Chairman Katashi Okada of G-Force in a board meeting with the staff for "Operation: New Years" is plastered beneath the bold black headline. Curious, the night guard read on through the article to see what Chairman Okada had to say about the operation. "I've heard mentions here and there from my buds about this so called 'Operation: New Years.' I wonder what's all the fuss about it? I swear if it's just some big New Years party-" the night guard said, before he stumbled upon a particular sentence that made him even more curious. Chairman Katashi Okada commented that Operation: New Years was "guaranteed to change the world we live in forever," and that the UNGCC and G-Force will not rest until they ensure the operation will be a success. "Guaranteed to change the world forever huh? Yeah, alright then. Start with lowering income taxes then." he commented in a mocking manner. The night guard checked his wrist watch once more before reading on further. He sighed as he saw the watch read 11:31. At least his shift was half way done. He spun around a little in the chair he was sat in, or at least spun as much as he could within the cramped booth he was in, to pass the time. As he turned towards the office building, he noticed that all but one room was pitch black. Light still shone through the windows of a room on the fifth floor, and he thought he could make out the figure of someone leaning against the window. "What the hell? I thought everyone drove back home by this time. Who could possibly still be here at this time?" he asked himself. A security vehicle drove from around the left side of the office building to the front for a late night inspection around the area. The vehicle proceeded towards the front gates and stopped just short for the guard to exit his vehicle.
"How's patrolling?" he asked.
"Ah nothing special really. No signs of giant radioactive lizards around here, so that's always good."
"Very funny, wise guy."
"Oh lighten up. You take things way too seriously." the guard said, "Anything happen with you?"
"Does it look like anything interesting has been happening here?" he asked tiredly.
"Haha, yeah well, you just got half an hour or so left on the shift. So don't feel so glum pal."
"Yeah yeah. Hey, do you know who's still up on the fifth floor?" he asked, pointing to the lit room. The second guard looked up to where he was pointing.
"Huh? Oh yeah, a researcher approached me earlier this evening and told me that they'd be staying here kinda late. Don't know why though." he explained.
"I see. Well whatever they're doing they better get leaving soon. I'd rather leave my shift early tonight."
"Come to think of it too… another guy came through the back entrance not too long ago. I think he said he's with the guy up there."
"Oh yeah? Geez, these damn eggheads never rest don't they?"
Within the dark halls of the building on the fifth floor, light shone brightly through the glass walls of the boardroom at the end of the hall. Papers and files were scattered all across the table, and the whiteboard on the far left wall from the door was covered in scribbles, equations, diagrams, and various other statistics. Crudely drawn marks making "X" shapes and overlapping arrows plagued almost the entirety of the information written down except for a select few that seemed to be connected to each other. Leaning against the cold snow littered window was a tired middle aged man anxiously tapping his pen in hand against the wall. His sleeves were rolled up despite the cold temperatures and his white buttoned shirt was completely undone. In fact, the man broke into an intense nervous sweat. He reached for his white mug on the desk to take a drink of his warm hot coffee. Reaching for his mug, he took notice to the dark coffee stains that have soiled the papers under the mug. He rushed over to the table in a panic to pick up his mug, only to find that the papers beneath the mug had stuck to the bottom for a brief moment before slowly detaching and falling onto the table. The stain on the document was of a deep black within the center, skewering a few sentences from being read properly. In a tired fit of rage, the man put his palm over his face and shook his head in frustration, ready to curse out loud to the ceiling. He then proceeded to knock over some papers onto the dark blue carpeted floor. As the papers scattered all over the floor, the glass door slightly pushed open, followed by footsteps entering the room and stomping over one of the papers. A hand reached for the now wrinkled paper and was slowly picked up and analyzed.
"Up so late, Dr. Yamane?" the man asked holding the document up to his face for better viewing. The frustrated man let out an irritated sigh and fell back on a wheeled office chair.
"What are you doing here, Serizawa? Shouldn't you be back at home or something?" Yamane asked.
"Well, I would have nothing much to do other than go home wasted. But how would I be able to help you finish finalizing these statistics if I were piss drunk eh?"
"Go home Serizawa. You already did your part in the project, now it's my turn." he said standing back up from his chair and desperately taking another sip of his coffee, "I-I just need to make sure everything is correct. I've kept warning the team of the potential risk we're running with this operation, b-but did anyone listen? Of course not! Everyone just looked at me and said, 'You worry too much Yamane, just take it easy.' Well I know damn well of the catastrophes that could arise from this!" Dr. Yamane continued rambling while walking through the glass room, picking up random papers and giving them quick looks before throwing them onto the table once more in an irritated manner. Dr. Serizawa simply watched as the coffee drunken man circled the table and angrily yelled out to the ceilings as if there were anyone listening to him on the snow covered roof. "You know what pisses me off the most about this?" he asked.
"What would that be Yamane?"
"It's the fact that no matter how many times I look at these statistics, no matter how many times I rewrite them or redo the equations or double check the diagrams and numbers, they all seem so perfect! Yet, they seem so imperfect!" Yamane exclaimed while running his hands through his hair frantically, dropping his coffee onto the table in the process which spilled any remaining coffee within the mug. Yamane scrambled to get the remaining dry papers away from the splashed area as to not lose anymore precious information. Fatigue was clearly getting the best of the doctor, despite all the coffee he drank, which actually made his current condition far worse. All the documents he rushed to retrieve are now being held tightly in a messy bunch within his jittery arms. Yamane continued to ramble, "Anything can happen Serizawa! ANYTHING! These people can't just stand idly by and hope for this to work when there are clear risks! Even the slightest, slightest calculation can-!" Serizawa cut his rambling short before his behavior became too unstable. He put his hand on his shoulder firmly as to get his attention and signaled him to calm down.
"Dr. Yamane please. You need rest. And if you're not going to rest, then you need someone to help you with these." he explained calmly, "If I help you double check whatever erm… data you have left, would that help you feel better? It may not look good to you, but perhaps if you got a second opinion on your analysis, would that ease your tension?" Dr. Yamane stared at the floor for a brief moment, whole body jittering from the caffeine in his system. Eventually, he dropped his documents onto the opposite side of the table and rubbed his face with both hands. The dark rings around his eyes grew more apparent as he stared up at the headlights just above them. Nevertheless, Dr. Yamane took a deep breath and let out a deep sigh, finally calming down and thinking slightly straight. He looked over to Serizawa slightly and nodded, feeling embarrassed now that he acted in such a way in front of him.
"A-apologies, Serizawa… please excuse my… rash behavior. It's just… what if this doesn't work…? What will happen then? Would we even stand a chance? Do we even have a plan B?" he asked, looking at Serizawa with concerned eyes.
"I understand where you're coming from, don't worry. I thought that after all our time researching together you'd know this by now." he said trying to lighten up his mood even slightly, "You're right when you say anything can happen Yamane. And to tell you the truth… I'm not sure what we'll do if this plan backfires." Serizawa walked over to the window with Yamane by his side, and the two watched as tiny snowflakes lightly fell from the clear night sky above, slowly stacking up onto the powdered white surface down below on the streets and parking lot. Tokyo Tower could be seen in the distance, shining brightly amongst the millions of tiny lights within the city and illuminating the sky above proudly. "But we are humans. And although we are not perfect, we are willing to take risks in life, no matter how big those risks may be." Serizawa explained, "We couldn't have made the world such a beautiful place for us humans to live in without taking such leaps of faith. This is no different Yamane, I hope you understand that." Dr. Yamane continued to gaze into the distance of Tokyo while listening to Serizawa's words. Suddenly, it's as if whatever parts of his brain that were not clouded up by pure anxiousness and exhaustion had managed to clear the way for the rest of his brain to think properly. He could finally rationalize the source of all his worries, and with that knowledge in mind, he looked to Dr. Serizawa and turned back around to his documents on the table behind them.
"Thank you for clearing that up with me, Serizawa." Yamane said with utmost content, "Now please, do me a favor and see if these look correct to you." A small smile cracked on Dr. Serizawa's face as he was relieved his friend finally became level headed. He nodded and looked over the papers Yamane handed to him.
The clock read 2:54 AM. The office had finally been deserted and everyone, including Dr. Yamane and Dr. Serizawa, had returned to the comfort of their homes. Dr. Serizawa, although far past his normal bedtime, felt much sharper after deep analysis of all the papers Dr. Yamane had handed him at the office. He stood facing the uncovered balcony window and continually stared at Tokyo Tower within the distance. Although the snowfall had slightly thickened, the lustrous glow of the tower shone through, brightening up the entire city. He took a sip of black tea from his mug to warm himself up. A young couple with a child, presumably returning home from a celebration of sorts, walked close together as to keep warm from the snowfall. Thoughts about the fortunate families out there in the world being together and celebrating the holidays together struck his mind, which filled him with a warm sense of relief and comfort. These thoughts however were unfortunately plagued by hidden bitterness and sorrow. He took another sip of his black tea and noticed the words that were being covered by both of his hands. Uncovering the text revealed it to say, World's Best Dad! Once more, a thought filled with strong bitter sweetness flowed through his mind. Bitterness he thought he was so accustomed to filled his mouth moments after his sip of tea, filling him with displeasure. He placed the mug down onto his coffee table behind him and walked over to a bookshelf to the left of him against the wall. The bright light of Tokyo Tower was more than enough to illuminate portions of his living room.
"The world has been through far too much as of recently." Serizawa remarked to himself, "We all may be celebrating the holidays and spending time with family, but deep within all of our hearts, fear still resides strongly." Serizawa reached for the top of the shelf and pulled down a picture frame. Using the light emitted from the tower, he gazed down at the photo within the frame now lit up. It contained his family photo from seven years ago. His hand grazed against the surface of the chilly glass across the entirety of the photo. "You've always tried to play it safe. Safety does not always wield the best results. You must learn to take risks in your life. Only then will fruitful discoveries be made." he muttered to himself, "I'm afraid I will have to go down a different road, father. Please rest easy." He places back the photo atop the bookshelf, takes one last sip of his bitter tea, and heads into his bedroom to call it a night.
And thus, a new game has begun.
A/N
I hope you enjoyed the prologue to my very first Godzilla fanfiction, GODZILLA City! GODZILLA City's concept was heavily inspired by Shin Gojira, specifically the ending to the movie which had numerous fans theory crafting and such. This story also is considered technically an alternate universe of the Heisei series of Godzilla films, however elements from all three major eras of films are used within this story (mainly the Showa era). Of course, all monsters and characters from the films do not belong to me, and are rightfully owned by Toho Co., Ltd. All original characters I invented for the story, however, do belong to me. In terms of scheduling for this story, I plan to possibly post a chapter every month. However, posting schedule is destined to change at certain points, for some chapters may take longer to write, along with the occasional writer's block and everyday life to go through. I thank you for your understanding, and I absolutely cannot wait to post more of this story to the Godzilla community!
P.S.: Chapter 1 is already currently in the making and nearly halfway done! Ideas for chapter 2 and onward are currently under development as well. I have so many ideas for the future of this story, so be prepared!