(New York City, New York: 5:25 pm: May 25th, 1998)

Cars honking, people screaming. The entire city was in chaos to get out of New York. Nobody had issued an evacuation yet, but the constant disappearances of boats, and the sludge that was seen crawling up the shores, was enough of a warning to some. Others merely went back to their homes. There were even a few who went to the bay out of sheer curiosity. The citizens of New York had no idea what lay ahead.

The wind picked up, and everyone looked to the sky as Mothra flew overhead. Everyone pointed and began taking pictures as the giant moth flew over the skyline, passing between twin towers and coming to the roof of a small apartment.

John watched from the window of the hotel room he'd rented for the night. He knew why Mothra was here, and he could only guess that the worse was yet to come. Down below, the busy streets were piled with frightened New Yorkers. Most of them were probably at his speech.

He chugged his whiskey, tears running down his face. His beloved city had no hope, and the military was not taking action yet. He feared it would be too late. Kenji had promised, though. He promised there would be action, and all John could do was sit back and watch. At this point in his life, it didn't matter what prize or medals or honored status he would get in society. All he wanted was for the world to be at peace.

That wouldn't happen. At least not now.

As Mothra landed softly, Miki lowered herself to the roof.

From the roof door came Kenji and Sho. Kenji couldn't get his eyes off the daikaiju that was just feet above his head.

"Glad you could make it," Sho said, smiling.

"I'm glad your flight was safe," Miki said. "You two must have been researching the past few hours, I hope."

"Oh, we have," Sho said, looking over to Kenji who was still fixated on Mothra. Mothra drew a claw down, brushing it by Kenji's head as a greeting. "We've come up with some theories on Hedorah's biological make up, and it might help us determine a weak spot."

"That's good news! But we have to get to the military if we're going to do anything about it," she said.

Sho nodded. "Everything is at Kenji's place on the seventh floor. Let's go get our stuff together and phone the military." He turned to Kenji. "What do you say?"

Kenji looked over. "Yeah," he said. He looked back up at Mothra, mouthed the word "wow," and turned to the door. "Let's get moving, guys!"

John lay the whiskey bottle by his bedstand. He leaned back on the bed, looking at his turned off television screen. His reflection seemed so small compared to the space around him, like a void he was being sucked into and he couldn't escape.

He sighed, waiting for when the sirens would go off and the choppers and jets could be heard flying overhead to attack whatever demonic monstrosity came out of the bay. If something wasn't done soon, well, John didn't know what he would do. He couldn't live with himself if his own beloved city perished, knowing that he hadn't even told his people about the danger they faced.

He opened his dresser drawer. A black 6mm handgun lay on top of the hotel's Holy Bible. He picked it up, the steel was cold. It rested in his left hand as he lay on the bed, waiting for what would come. Waiting to see if, by some chance of a miracle, a ray of hope would shine down.

It took Sho, Kenji and Miki about half an hour to reach command troops, which Kenji was thankful had been sent to New York just in case of an emergency. Kenji made his way to the front, where a general was drinking his coffee in a small tent.

"General," Kenji said, saluting. "I'm here on behalf of the-

"I know why you're here," the general said. "What news do you have? I'll take any, good or bad."

Kenji pulled out a manila folder, and a flash drive. "Here I have enough evidence to give you a field day about what we're dealing with out in the bay, but I think you'd like me to cut the crap and get to point."

The general didn't say anything.

"Well," Kenji continued, "my cousin Sho and I have been doing some heavy collaborating of data from past records of this thing, which we call 'Hedorah.'"

The general raised an eyebrow. "Hedorah?"

"It's Japanese for sludge."

"Ah."

"Yes, so as I was saying, Hedorah is a pile of sludge that has been building up for the past couple decades, and somehow this sludge has taken a life of its own and-

The general raised a hand. "Listen, I don't know why you called us out here but if this has to do with the incident back in the eighties with that brother Kaito of yours…"

"General, this is serious."

"I don't have the time to listen to this."

"You don't have time to waste not listening."

After being escorted away, Kenji didn't know what to do.

"I can't believe he blew you off like that," Miki said in frustration. "Doesn't he know what's going on here could be dangerous?"

"It won't matter soon enough," Kenji said. "One way or another, he's going to have to take our advice. That is, if he wants to save this city."

Sho looked at his watch. "It's getting dark," he said. "Any news on what Hedorah's doing now?"

The sky was growing dark, heavy clouds covering up the sunset. The water had been unnervingly calm for the past hour.

"Mommy, look!" one little boy said, pointing toward the edge of the water. The sludge that had crept up on land was now sliding back into the water. All over the bay, the sludge was receding. People began taking last minute pictures just as the sludge disappeared back into the water.

The woman held her boy close. "I think it's time we go, sweetie." They got into their car and began to drive off.

One man leaned up to get a good look at the bay. "Hey! What's that over by Brooklyn Bridge?" Everyone turned to see something black creeping up the bridge and out of the water.

Little by little, inch by inch, the many were spreading themselves up the bridge and over the road. They had been waiting for orders, and now orders were here. Following their genetic code, the many began to ascend. Banding together, forming into a solid mass, they spiraled up out of the water to taste the air. Like a giant tower of blackness erecting itself from its watery grave, the massive form shot up into the sky. People began to panic as two more towers grew upward from the bay. One leaned out of the water, several stories high, and tilted to one side, wrapping itself around the Brooklyn Bridge. It squeezed, and the bridge fell apart in seconds.

A helicopter flew over the black tower of sludge, but was suddenly swallowed up as the tower leaned and reached out to grab at it, pulling the chopper in. The tower began to broaden, as if taking on an eerily human form. Shoulders began to appear, then split into humongous arms. The head leaned forward, sagging. The other two towers followed the same pattern, and each took on a humanoid shape. The three large black piles of sludge crept toward each other, and fused. They had done it. The many had become One.

Trudging slower than the dead, Hedorah dripped and oozed with acidic muck as he crawled ashore. Hundreds were screaming and running for their lives. Hedorah noticed this, could sense it. He could see without eyes, feel without hands. A shot of sludge spat out from Hedorah's body, knocking down several people and smothering them. They burned alive. Another group of people got into a car to drive away, but Hedorah grew an opening in his side and out poured a pitch-black ooze that leaked down the road and stopped a horde of cars in the parking lot. Nobody could move their cars in the sticky tar, which began burning away the rubber and metal. Anyone in their cars would be cooked inside like a turkey in the oven.

The hunched form of Hedorah leaned up, towering higher and higher in the sky until dwarfing even the twin towers. Hedorah's chest opened to reveal a red and yellow orb, which moved around like an eye. A few tubes truncated out of Hedorah's head and shoulders, and fumes were pouring out. The black gas snaked its way to the clouds, and within minutes the gas had spread over much of the sky, polluting New York City with smog.

His arms split into many arms, which slithered and whipped around like octopus tentacles. They smacked against buildings, wrapped around cars and swallowing them up in its massive form. Hedorah was swallowing everything in sight as it made its way out of the ocean and into the city.

He sprayed a fine green mist to the people below, and their skin began to burn and boil. The mist was acidic, killing anything it came into contact with. Buildings began to peel away their paint, and buildings were cracking and crumbling under the weight of sludge.

Coming up to the Empire State Building, Hedorah grabbed hold of the building and walked right into it, engulfing it with his body. Then, using the building to add more to Hedorah's body mass, the sludge monster ascended itself to the skies, letting out a bone-chilling cry from deep within its core. Hedorah had taken a bite out of the Big Apple.

(Atlantic Ocean: 9:30 pm: May 25th, 1998)

For most of the swim, the waters had been calm. Godzilla was set on his course, his destiny realized. Never had Godzilla been aware of the presence of humans like this since he was only a baby Godzillasaur. Now, after all the mutating and maturing from dinosaur to monster over the years, it was all coming back to him. Godzilla had a purpose, and it filled him with emotions he'd never had before. Pride, dignity, and most importantly and shockingly of all…reason.

The waters grew dark and ghostly as night came. Storm clouds gathered overhead, yet they were strangely black. Godzilla followed the trail of black to his destination, and knew what it meant. If he slowed down any, his destiny would be failed.

Lightning! Thunder! It gave Godzilla the courage to push forward, the lightning bolts striking his fins and sending a surge of power through his body. He roared defiantly at the heavens above, ready for any challenge that awaited.

And a challenge did come.

The waters were no longer calm, but forceful and vicious as they grew to tsunami size. Godzilla felt a rush of water pass his body, as if something large had just swam by. He looked around in confusion.

Several hundred meters away, a fin broke the surface of the water and headed straight toward the King of the monsters. Godzilla saw this, and he leaned down in the water for a better look at his challenger.

Something large and blue was swimming like a torpedo straight at Godzilla. About to blast his atomic ray, the thing sped out of the way and passed Godzilla.

Turning around, Godzilla watched as what looked like a gigantic kitchen knife exploded out of the water, which was attached on the front of an ugly, angler fish-like head. The monster roared and thrashed about, then stared Godzilla in the eyes. A large tail, also flat and sharp like a knife but very slithery in its movement, splashed on the surface. The newcomer was ready for battle.

This was a water daikaiju, and their location only gave this monster the upper hand. As it dived into the water, Godzilla watched its shark fin on its back to see where it was going. Godzilla felt like a sitting duck.

The monster charged forward, opening its mouth and aiming its knife horn for Godzilla's face. Godzilla ducked into the water, but was grabbed by the blue beast. This thing had massive forearms, much like a gorilla's. It clung to Godzilla as it took him for a ride through the violent sea. Squinting, Godzilla picked out where the head was, and saw two tiny eyes staring at Godzilla. He bit down on the monster's throat, and it screamed.

Once free of the monster's grasp, Godzilla began to swim like a monitor lizard after his prey. Under the water, the monster moved like a dolphin, though it looked like the cross between a shark and a gorilla. The thing had short little hind legs, and enormous forearms with what looked like giant fish fins protruding from the elbows, probably to help it with agility. Godzilla was catching up on it, when suddenly the monster slowed down and swiped his tail, cutting Godzilla's face.

Godzilla resurfaced, touching his face where a giant scar ran down. The damn thing had almost cut his eye out. Looking around with one good eye, Godzilla saw his enemy resurface, and then it did something that Godzilla wasn't expecting.

It leaped! Like a frog, it leaped out of the water, stretching its muscular forearms out for Godzilla's throat. Godzilla had no time to react, and the beast grabbed Godzilla and knocked him into the ocean. Swimming and struggling, the two daikaiju sank below until their forms were no longer visible.

The storm passed, and the water grew calm.