Disclaimer: All rights to Godzilla and its characters, names and places belong to Toho Studios. All rights to Godzilla (2014) and its characters, names and places belong to Legendary Entertainment. The author of this story owns nothing; this story was written for entertainment purposes, not money or profit of any kind.

Chapter 7

USS Saratoga

The command deck was still abuzz with activity as the massive carrier sailed eastward. Serizawa was writing in his notebook, while comparing notes with Joe and Emiko. Meanwhile, Vivienne was conferring with the Navy officers.

"The MUTO must have a sensory organ that allows it to locate sources of radiation from long distance," Joe said. "Like a built in Geiger counter. But there are other nuclear plants in Japan. China, Russia; all across Asia. Why would it fly east out to sea?"

"Perhaps it was disoriented by the level of electricity from the cities," Serizawa theorized. "These creatures have never encountered modern technology."

"That could explain the EMP pulses," Emiko nodded in agreement. "It might have a natural aversion to electricity. Perhaps there were other predators in ancient times that harnessed electricity as a means of attack, like an electric eel, and the MUTO's developed the EMP as a defense?"

"Maybe, but I don't think so," Joe shook his head. "I think those pulses serve some other purpose than a simple attack. No, it headed east almost immediately after letting loose that last pulse when it escaped."

"What if we are unable to find it in time, let alone stop it?" Emiko asked, worry in her voice.

Serizawa closed his notebook and regarded his colleagues. "When mankind falls into conflict with nature, monsters are born. Nature falls out of balance. Nature adapts. Nature responds. Sometimes, violently. Gojira represents the balance of nature given form. And he may be our only hope."

'This, again?' Joe thought.

"You keep bringing up that Go- God- Godzilla creature and waxing poetic," the nuclear physicist scowled. "But you said it yourself. They dropped a nuke on it in the 50's. It's dead."

"Mr. Brody, Gojira is like a hurricane, or a tidal wave," Serizawa said evenly. "We must approach both him and the MUTO as we would a force of nature. We must understand them. Deal with them. Perhaps even try to communicate with them."

The Japanese scientist exhaled through his nose as he pulled out his old pocket watch and ran his thumb across it's face. "And just for the record, sixty years ago they never found any corpse."

While the scientists continued theorizing, Admiral Stenz walked across his command deck taking reports from his officers. He had no problem whatsoever allowing Monarch point the way. He was the vanguard; the men and women under his command were his weapons. They would not let him down, and he would not let them down.

There were lives on the line, and he would use whatever information he could get that could save as many people as he possibly could. But as they headed closer to Hawaii, he grew more anxious. He had hoped to find and stop the creature long before they reached the American mainland.

"Admiral, we've received an intel report," Captain Hampton announced to his superior. "We lost track on a nuclear Akula fifty nautical miles northwest of Hawaii. Could be the MUTO."

The news made the Admiral scowl. The last thing they needed was to involve yet another country, let alone a rival nuclear power who, even at the best of times, was politically tenuous. But at the moment he could really not care less about any political fallout. Let the diplomats in Washington deal with the politicians.

He made his way to the Monarch team, who had overheard his Captains report.

"Just got word of a missing Russian sub, Doctor," he said to Dr. Serizawa. Turning to his crew, he asked for confirmation.

"Aye, sir," Lieutenant Martinez replied. She brought up the live feed of the nightvision body cams from a team of soldiers. "Special Forces team Sparta One is picking up a distress call northwest of Diamond Head on the island of Oahu."

Oahu, Hawaii

The team of soldiers dispatched to respond to the distress call of a Russian sub slowly made their way through the dense tropical forest. Birds and insects were chirping loudly and the serene sounds of far-off waterfalls gave the night a tranquil feel.

"Anyone wanna tell me why we're looking for an Akula in the middle of the jungle?" one of the soldiers asked as he scanned the foliage around him with the flashlight of his assault rifle. It had been an odd series of orders, but it had been made clear to the men that it was not a drill or a training exercise.

"Probably a glitch," one of his fellow soldiers remarked. "Russians said they got a ping from this location."

The squad leader announced that they had picked up a reading up ahead. Up above, a military helicopter scanned the jungle below with a massive search light. The pilot radioed they had received the same ping from their transponder within a range of thirty meters.

The soldiers were surprised when they came upon a warped piece of metal laying on the jungle floor. The nearest soldier investigated the wreckage and was even more confused by a thick layer of viscous white foam coating the metal. He ran his hand across it, wiping away the slime which revealed the universal black and yellow symbol for hazardous material with Russian lettering around it.

Another stream of the disgusting ooze dripped down from above and the soldiers raised their lights up to the canopy to see the massive propeller of a submarine, equally coated in the slime. The helicopters circling above shone their search lights around the area to reveal the entire submarine laying on its side against a cliff over a small waterfall.

The steel submersible had numerous holes ripped through it like paper. The soldiers called in the discovery as they discovered several dead Russian sailors nearby. Some were hanging from the trees while others lay strewn about the scene. The dead soldiers had lay in awkward positions, some with cracked skulls and contorted limbs. It looked as though the men had died from being thrown from the ship as a result of the hull being torn into.

A deep, loud croak-like rumbling echoed across the scene and the sudden noise drowned out the soldiers voices on the ground.

From the opposite side of the huge sub rose the MUTO, who had been digging through the guts of the submarine. The sound of the helicopter blades and the bright search lights had not distracted the creature from its task.

In its hooked jaws sat a nuclear missile, torn from its secure hold in the sub. The creature worked the missile until it was able to gulp the entire thing down with a wet slurp. Still ignoring the military around it, the MUTO stuck its head back into the torn hull of the Akula-class sub, using its smaller arms to assist in rummaging through the wreckage as it searched for its next meal.

Back aboard the Saratoga, everyone watched the scene unfold on the large monitors as the voices of the shocked soldiers reported what they were seeing.

"It appears to be rising approximately twenty to thirty meters above the tree line," the soldier reported. "We can't tell how wide it is."

Admiral Stenz sighed and turned to Dr. Serizawa.

"Secret's out, Doctor," he said gravely. "Our highest priority now is safety. There's close to a million people on that island."

Serizawa lowered his head in concern as the Admiral turned to bark orders at his men, ordering the fighter jets to take off ASAP and engage the MUTO while it was still outside the city. He also ordered a squadron of choppers to take squads of soldiers to the rooftops of the taller buildings in the event the jets weren't enough to take down the MUTO, as well as to organize potential evacuations of the civilians.

Nearby, Joe Brody paled at the situation. The MUTO was on the island. Ford had left on a helicopter for Hawaii. He had no way of contacting him; and all he could do was pray that his son was already on a plane for the mainland. A dozen different scenarios ran through his mind; a dozen different catastrophes.

He was drawn from his worry as a crewman loudly announced they had picked up another signal coming from the Pacific. All eyes shot up and over to the crewman in question.

"Thought it was a pod of whales, but-" the crewman said, confused.

"But?" Stenze repeated flatly, having no patience for his crewman's hesitation.

"It's a single, massive signal, sir," the crewman reaffirmed. "It came out of nowhere, currently moving at 40-knots and picking up speed, closing in on our position."

As Admiral Stenz ordered General Quarters, Graham noticed Serizawa heading for the corridor. Brody noticed as well, and the two followed him as the alarms sounded across the carrier. When Vivienne questioned where Serizawa was going, he replied that he was headed to the flight deck.

"I have to see this," Serizawa explained. "I think he's coming!"

On the beach, party-goers were enjoying a pleasant evening luau when people began to notice a group of helicopters hovering above the large luxury hotel and groups of soldiers exiting them. As more people began to take notice of the unexpected display of military personnel, they all turned their backs to the ocean.

Upon hearing the roar of the Naval F-18 Hornet engines flying overhead, the MUTO, which had been attempting to swallow another missile from the Akula, shrieked in response. Sensing an unknown threat, the creature dropped it's meal, startling and nearly crushing the soldiers scattered around its feet.

The choppers kept their lights trained on the creature, who had turned away from the wrecked Akula, loudly chittering and growling. As the F-18's swung around with the intent to attack, the MUTO raised one of it's massive primary limbs, its hooked appendage glowing a bright orange.

It slammed its appendage into the ground below, and a huge almost invisible shockwave blasted out in all directions.

As the EMP cascaded, it struck the Hornets and choppers and their electronic equipment immediately cut out, causing them to careen out of the sky. In an instant, the flying war machines slammed into the ground causing large fireballs, killing several of the soldiers on the ground at the creatures feet, while snarled victoriously.

The bright orange plume of fire caused by the crashes on the mountainside could be seen in Honolulu, right as the EMP swept across the city. Every light went out and the city and its residents were plunged into darkness.

The metro Ford Brody lurched to an immediate stop as the passengers were plunged into darkness. Gasps of fright and surprise filled the tram as people began to question what had just happened. People tried to pull out their phones, but they too were completely unresponsive.

Ford leaned to the young boy he had been looking after, and not surprisingly, the boy seemed frightened.

"Give you ten seconds, all the lights will come back on," he tried to reassure the boy. Truthfully, Ford felt a great deal of concern. He had seen the F-18's roar past, heading past the city. After the lights went out, Ford pretty much had all the proof he needed to conclude the MUTO was nearby; either on the island or close by.

On the beach, the party-goers noticed the bright fire out on the mountainside as well as sudden power outage. One young girl heard a sound she had never heard before behind her. Turning around, she saw the ocean leaving. She had never seen the ocean move backwards before.

She called for her father, who upon turning around, felt his heart almost seize as he saw the tides rushing away from the shore. As he grabbed her, the tsunami warning sirens blared across the island, and chaos ensued as people began stampeding away from the beach to get to higher ground.

On the noisy flight deck, Serizawa and Brody looked out across the open ocean. Even in the pitch black of night, a disturbance could be seen far out in the dark waters, due east from their position.

A large hump was forming far out in the water, signaling something large was fast approaching. A number of choppers were shining their lights at the disturbance as it continued to approach at high speed.

Serizawa frowned as he brought a pair of binoculars to his eyes. Brody squinted as he tried to make out what was coming. As Serizawa adjusted the binoculars, her realized a huge jagged dorsal plate had breached the surface, tearing through the waters like paper. He then noticed two slightly smaller plates break the surface on either side of the middle row.

"God in Heaven," Brody muttered, slack-jawed as even without binoculars, the gargantuan rows of mountain-like dorsal plates broke the surface. The sheer size of the unseen creature was unfathomable. Even from so far away, he felt an unearthly sense of primal fear that kept him frozen like a statue.

Serizawa was similarly rooted in place, as were every member of the crew who witnessed what was happening.

For a moment, every soul on the carrier braced for impact, believing the creature was going to ram straight through the Saratoga, but the fins immediately sank below the surface as the creature swam beneath the carrier. The choppers continued shining their lights on the ocean, following the shape as it suddenly rose unimpeded on the other side of the vessel.

Every soul watched as a tsunami of massive size formed around the creature as it approached the shoreline, distorting the view of the huge titan as it made landfall like a living waterfall, seemingly dragging the ocean with it as a tidal wave formed around the creature.

Chaos continued to unfold as the tsunami washed through the streets, sweeping away people, animals, trees, vehicles and anything else in its wake without mercy. The few who were lucky to have made it up to the rooftops could see next to nothing in the pitch black night.

Several flares were shot into the sky by soldiers on rooftops, lighting the area in an eerie red glow. What the people saw boggled every sense. An eldritch bipedal creature that looked like a dinosaur taller than could be imagined was moving through the streets, each step causing a huge boom. A deep and unearthly growl rumbled through the area.

The sound of gunfire shook the terrified people out of their stupor as the soldiers on nearby rooftops unloaded their clips into the creature. The effort was futile, as the living mountain did not respond, and merely continued it slow march through the dark city, bringing the merciless fury of the ocean with it.

Meanwhile, on the metro at the airport, people sighed in relief as the lights finally came back on and the car started moving again. For the briefest moments, Ford almost tricked himself into thinking that he had been mistaken and it had just been a hiccup in the power, until screams brought his attention out the window.

The MUTO was walking along the rail-line leading to the terminal, dwarfing everything around it. The giant insect growled as a group of helicopters opened fire on the creature, hoping to lure it away from the airport.

The passengers began to scream in terror as the car headed straight toward the MUTO, which caused the creature to snarl at its approach. In response, it used its huge limbs to demolish the metro track, tearing away part of the car, and causing it to half hang over the edge.

Acting on instinct, Ford grabbed the terrified young boy with one arm and grabbed onto the seats with the other. Other passengers were thrown about like rag dolls, trying in vain to grab onto something stable. Ford looked down in horror as those less fortunate were thrown screaming out of the gaping hole and plummeting to the asphalt and twisted debris below.

Seemingly satisfied that the now derailed metro car wasn't a threat, the MUTO continued walking through the airport tarmac. It acted almost confused, looking from side to side as though it could sense something both familiar and foreign slowly approaching. It could hear the large distinctive booms of approaching footfalls but the noise of the tiny, flying metal insects continued to distract it with their noise and fire.

On the ground, workers on the tarmac were attempting to flee from the giant black nightmare as it screeched and bellowed. Most barely registered the shallow rush of sea water that flooded the tarmac around their ankles, and the slow, deep booms similar to giant footfalls, likely crediting the noise to the MUTO.

A military chopper swung around and opened fire again on the MUTO, but the pilot lost control as a line of jagged structures that looked like a line of mountains suddenly rose in its path. The chopper pilot fought to regain control but instead careened into the side of the MUTO.

The fiery wreck collided into one of the planes on the tarmac that had been in the middle of being fueled when the MUTO attacked. The resulting fireball soared high into the sky and soon other nearby planes were ignited. Within seconds, the entire airport tarmac was lit by an orange-red inferno, as though hell itself had made residence on earth.

Inside the terminal, hundreds of people were cowering in an attempt to evacuate and find safety. The screams of terror reached a crescendo when the helicopter crashed and caused the initial explosion but were completely silenced as a huge reptilian foot attached to an equally huge elephantine leg slammed to the ground with a deafening boom.

The MUTO whirled around and gave a loud chortling bellow as the smoke cleared and saw the form illuminated in fire. Its challenger had arrived.

The ancient one.

Dark gray skin covered in rough scales and scars wrapped over powerful muscles. The huge dinosaur-like titan stood tall on its two hind legs. A long thick crocodilian tail swung behind it on the ground, with three rows of eighty-nine massive dorsal plates ran up its back its head to the tip of its tail.

The core of its body was well muscled and its bear-like arms were clearly built for raw power. Huge, clawed hands with three fingers and opposable thumbs flexed in rage. Upon a broad neck lined with closed shark-like gills sat its head. Boxy and large, its appearance gave the impression of ancient power. Its yellow eyes glowed with fierce rage. Scaled lips pulled back into a deep snarl revealed its sixty sharp teeth.

Godzilla stood wreathed in fire and smoke like a vengeful god, mighty and steadfast.

Inhaling sharply, Godzilla let loose a roar that could be heard miles away. A sound unheard in generations rolled across the land and sea, alerting the world its apex predator had returned from a long-felt absence. The long bellow invoked a sense of pure dominance, demanding all that heard it to submit before him or be destroyed without mercy.

The MUTO shrieked in response. It was dwarfed by Godzilla, but stood tall regardless, willing to match its challenger. Rearing up, it unfurled its wings above its head, the tips flashing a dangerous reddish-orange color, giving the appearance of eyes. The display was intended to make it appear much larger than it really was.

Godzilla gave a low growl and narrowed his eyes, unmoved as he took in the display with the calculating gaze of an experienced hunter. Time stood still for the briefest moment as the two titans stared at one another.

Sensing its rival would not be swayed by its intimidation display, the MUTO chittered angrily and flapped its wings and soared into the air as Godzilla all but charged his rival. The far more agile MUTO was able to flank its much larger opponent and landed on Godzilla's back, grasping its dorsal plates and latching its hooked mouth on Godzilla's neck. Using its large wings, the MUTO tried to pull the titan off his feet.

Godzilla, however, planted his feet and managed to turn his head around and bite his enemy on its forelimb. The MUTO shrieked in pain and Godzilla swung his head and body, his teeth firmly latched onto his opponent. Tearing the MUTO from his back, he threw it across the tarmac.

As the MUTO struggled to right itself, Godzilla slammed its tail on the ground and slowly stood up straighter. The MUTO rose to its feet and stared as the dorsal plates on its opponents tail began to emit a bright bluish-white glow.

Slowly, the blue light began moving up Godzilla's back, one jagged plate at a time emitting a growing vroom-sound that increased in pitch as each plate began to glow. A blueish mist began to form around the titans mouth as the light reached the back of Godzilla's throat.

The MUTO sensed danger and managed to leap into the air as a bright blue steam of napalm-like flame spewed from Godzilla's mouth with a loud roar. The blue fire melted and ignited everything it touched, as Godzilla swung his head to track its target. Asphalt, concrete, metal and glass all were reduced to glowing puddles as the irradiated fire ran across them like a beam of plasma.

The huge insectoid barely escaped Godzilla's fire and soared into the night and out to sea. Godzilla snapped his jaws closed, ceasing the stream of fire. He reared back and bellowed once more, angry that his quarry had eluded him. Wasting no time, the titan tucked its arms to its side and dove into the ocean in pursuit, leaving a devastated island behind.