This is going to be a very different Godzilla story. No city-smashing, no monster-vs-monster fights… you'll see. Hopefully, very much unlike most, or any, other Godzilla stories on the web.
Godzilla is © Toho
This story's original character is © Me.
GODZILLA:
FERAL
CHAPTER ONE
Monster Island, South Pacific Ocean, formerly Ogasawara Island
I must be more tired than I thought, Dr. Akiba Sasaki thought to himself as he tapped the monitor in front of him. And of course, he was. Of course he was. He was about to finish a sixteen-hour shift; how could he not be tired? Yes, that explained it. Of course it did. Yet it wasn't at all a satisfying explanation. At first, he wanted to dismiss the very idea.
But just in case… after all, what if there was something new on the island?
Of course, bizarre fauna would be nothing new to Monster Island, Akiba reminded himself as he rewound the tape. A grand total of fourteen giant monsters, or kaiju, had taken up residence on this island over the years. Some, such as the mammoth lobster Ebirah, the monstrous insects Kamacuras and Megaguirus, and Kumonga, a spider the size of Times Square, had been forcefully corralled by the specialised UN Armed Organisation, G-Force. If they couldn't destroy these creatures, at least they could keep them all in one place. Others, such as Rodan the massive pterosaur, Titanosaurus, an aquatic reptile, Gorosaurus, a skyscraper-sized dinosaur, Manda, an enormous serpent, the Godzilla-like Zilla, and the burrowing Baragon, had come to the island of their own accord. Then there were those such as the spiky Anguirus, the vicious Varan and, of course, the alpha male-Godzilla. G-Force couldn't forcefully contain them if they tried. A more recent addition, a few years ago, had been Godzilla's adopted offspring. All of them were routinely monitored from this offshore facility, which outwardly was not dissimilar to an oil platform. The monsters had never attacked it, and similarly, G-Force troops rarely, if ever, set foot on the island. Sort of an uneasy truce.
Megaguirus, though, was the newest arrival, and she'd been a problem from day one. That insect couldn't go five minutes without getting into a fight either Rodan or Godzilla.
But what Akiba had just spied was definitely not one of the island's 'regular' inhabitants.
Once again, he scrutinised the computer image in front of him.
There.
He hit 'pause', focusing on the single, tiny space that was moving past the foot of a tree. Despite the motion and distance, the new camera- one of several installed over the past few weeks- captured the image in perfect detail, even if only a small part of it could be viewed.
Whatever it was, it was certainly nowhere near as massive as the rest of the menagerie that called the island home. It couldn't have been taller than about five feet, maybe six at the most. From what he could see- the shape was mostly obscured by vegetation- its body was the colour of tanned skin, but its head was a black mass, scraggly and deformed.
There were extremely few kaiju this small on record- a Meganula, a juvenile Destroyah- but none that fit such a description. For a moment, he considered the possibility that it could be a newborn, but he doubted that any infant kaiju would be quite this small.
"Saeko," he called to the other side of the observation room. "Take a look at this."
The younger, female kaijuologist turned to regard him. "What is it?"
"I have no idea," Akiba confessed.
"Hmm, I don't recall you saying that often," Saeko teased gently. "What is it? Did Kumonga get into another scrap?"
"I wish," Akiba pointed to the screen. "What do you make of this?"
Saeko narrowed her eyes. "What on earth is that?" She asked, sincerely perplexed.
"No idea. It can't be bigger than six foot at the outside."
"A spike?" Saeko offered weakly.
"A spike?" Akiba repeated sardonically.
"Anguirus burrows, doesn't he? So do Zilla and Baragon."
"Not the way it was moving," Akiba replied seriously. "Saeko, do you realise what this means? This is something completely new. Something unidentified."
"So what do we do about it?"
"What else can we do?" Akiba shrugged. "We report this to the Commander."
Monster Island Research Facility, Observation Deck
With a slight chuckle of satisfaction, Base Commander Tagaki set down his cup of coffee and watched Rodan making lazy circles around the island's volcano. A career military man, he had seen his fair share of action involving these creatures, but it would be incorrect to say that he harboured any ill will toward them. In fact, in 1972 he had led the counterattack against the Nebulan Invasion, and he had seen first-hand how Godzilla and Anguirus worked together to fend off the aliens' monsters.
There may have been those who wished the monsters dead, but for now, Tagaki was content in the knowledge that this collection wasn't causing any trouble.
As Rodan descended into the crater of the long-extinct volcano, Ebirah turned over underwater nearby, curiously examining the research centre before turning away to chase a school of tuna. Behind Tagaki, the door in from the observation deck swished open.
"Doctors," Tagaki greeting Akiba and Saeko. "Anything to report?"
"Well, sir…" Akiba started, "Permission to speak frankly, sir?"
"Granted," Tagaki nodded, somewhat perplexed.
"Sir… you're not going to believe this."
Thus it begins. The chapters of this story will probably be fairly short, and so will the story itself, probably. Hopefully, though, this will end up as one of my best. Also, this story will take place solely on Monster Island and the Research Facility. So what does everyone think of the characters we've met so far (they're intended to be fairly conventional), the roster of monsters present on the island and how they're portrayed, and… Quiz Time: Anyone who can correctly guess what it is on the island gets a name mention later on in the story; one guess per reader. The title is a hint. All I'm saying.
All Reviews Welcome!
