If you know Shin Godzilla, you'll know there's a period after Godzilla's attack where they have space to figure things out before he reawakens. This chapter's going to be the equivalent of that. It's talky-talky rather than fighty-fighty. A fair bit of exposition.

Thanks to the people who left comments since the last update: seakard, Wolfx1120, GodzillaMaster, keotaka, Cimar of Turalis WildeHopps, djpj7652

And thanks to Dancou-Maryuu for proofreading!

Musical notes: Shin Godzilla OST track 14 "SS_103_GZM (Famously)" and 15 "EM20_Godzilla", as well as Godzilla Singular Point OST track 29 "Godzilla Appearance Theme -Singular Point-" are recommended listening.

After The Attack

ZNN News report

"This is Peter Moosebridge, reporting live from the rescue centre set up in the aftermath of the colossal battle and destruction of most of central Zootopia. A Government-sanctioned organization named Monarch has begun efforts to aid the displaced. The Animalian Military has also been deployed and is attempting to find a solution to what has been dubbed the 'Titan Crisis'. Meanwhile, displaced residents of Zootopia are currently being treated for shock, and in some cases have been diagnosed with mild radiation sickness. The future of Zootopia has never been this uncertain before, but one thing is clear: this day will be remembered as the day that the world found out that monsters are real."

Tri-Burrow County Emergency Monarch Monitoring Station

Serizawa had called in a few favours. By the time the evacuees had reached the Tri-Burrows, Monarch had set up a monitoring station and emergency aid facilities to help the displaced. Nearby towns were offering up aid and temporary accommodation where they could.

Shin Godzilla had fallen silent after its barrage of atomic energy decimated Zootopia, destroyed three B-2 bombers carrying nuclear warheads, and forced Titanus Gojira into a retreat in order to allow its wounds to heal.

"What do we know so far?" Doctor Serizawa asked Jack, who was sat analysing data gathered since the decimation of Zootopia.

"We sent a drone in to survey Shin Godzilla," Jack answered.

"And?"

"Well… it's probably better for you to see it."

Jack turned back to the monitor. Serizawa leaned in close as Jack pressed play. The monitor showed drone footage as it flew between ruined buildings towards the location where Shin Godzilla had fallen silent. As it rounded the corner, and Shin Godzilla came into view, the screen flared briefly, and the feed cut out. 'No signal' flashed on the screen.

"Say goodnight, Gracie," Jack remarked.

Serizawa turned to Sora.

"Kimi wa dō omou?" he asked.

"Hmm…" Sora thought for a moment. "Fēzudoareirēdā?"

"Excuse me?" one of the Monarch attendants who had been watching asked.

"A phased array radar," Jack clarified. "Shin Godzilla must have some way of detecting threats that it can't see. It can then respond to them… well, you saw how. It might even perceive small objects like drones as threats now."

"Could it take down a missile fired from a sub?" another attendant asked. This particular attendant, a lion, was from the military, tasked with finding a way to stop both creatures from causing more damage.

"Considering it also started taking down our observation drones at the shorelines, it's a possibility," Jack answered. "We don't know how far its phased array radar detects threats, but we do know it takes them down quickly and efficiently, even on low power."

There was a lengthy silence before Jack continued.

"We have tapped into the radiation monitoring system in Zootopia. Shin Godzilla clearly depleted the entirety of its radioactive energy during its attack, and is currently in a dormant state. Having said that, it is slowly rebuilding its energy."

"How long before Shin Godzilla becomes active?" another military attendant asked.

"We don't know," Jack admitted. "Our current projections put full energy regeneration at fourteen days. However, it's possible that Shin Godzilla could reawaken before it reaches that. That's where we need military assistance. We need samples from Shin Godzilla to figure out exactly what it is and how we can combat it, either with Gojira or without. During their fight, Gojira succeeded in blowing one of Shin Godzilla's dorsal plates off. We aren't asking for a total retrieval of that dorsal plate, but we do need genetic material from it."

"What about the radioactivity in Zootopia?" the lion military attendant asked.

"There is no doubt you will need hazmat suits to enter Zootopia, but it seems the radioactivity is not as potent as it would have been had the nuclear warhead been successful in its task. Regardless, we need that genetic material in order to come up with an effective plan to neutralize Shin Godzilla."

The Hopps Warren, Bunnyburrow

"Here we are," Nick remarked as the car pulled up outside the Hopps Warren. Judy stared glumly out of the window, before moving to get out.

"I can't believe Bogo sent us here," Judy said. Within an hour of safely evacuating Zootopia, Bogo had found Judy and Nick, and had ordered them to take refuge in Bunnyburrow. Judy had, of course, refused and instead demanded to help with the relief efforts, but Bogo had insisted.

"Are you going to suspend me if I don't?" Judy had argued.

"We may be without jurisdiction now, but: yes, I could still suspend you," Bogo had answered. Without a Zootopia to police, the ZPD was finished, but Bogo still held some authority. Furthermore, Judy was still recovering from her injury, and Bogo was concerned she might be more hindrance than help. He didn't tell Judy that, but she knew that'swhat he was thinking. Nick agreed, and suggested they could bring Viola with them. Judy was outnumbered.

"Look, Carrots, I know you wanted to help, but this isn't something you can just ticket two hundred times before noon or drag out in pawcuffs," Nick had pointed out. "You did everything you could, and because you did, mammals are alive that might not have been. Besides, we'll be back in Zootopia once these things have been cleared out, and we'll be able to help then."

"But…" Judy had tried to argue back.

"But nothing, unless you have some sort of Mecha-Godzilla parked up somewhere."

Judy hated to admit it, but Nick was right.

"Need a paw?" Nick asked as he got out with his backpack.

"I can manage, I only have this," Judy indicated to her own bag. The pair entered the burrow, to almost immediately be accosted by worried family members. It was impossible to make out what was being said.

"Enough!" came a voice over the top of the kerfuffle. The assembled bunnies turned towards Bonnie Hopps.

"Mom!" Judy called out. The assembled bunnies parted to allow Judy to get to Bonnie, and when she reached her, she threw her arms round her.

"I'm so glad you're safe," Bonnie said. "When we saw the news… we feared you would be caught up in the evacuation."

"I tried to help, Mom…"

"I know, but unless you have a giant robot, you did all you could. You helped mammals escape before that… monster got there."

Judy chuckled.

"Nick said the same thing."

"You should listen to him sometimes, you know."

"Mom… what do we do now? Our home… it's gone. Everything we fought for…"

"Zootopia will survive because of your actions. It's not just a city. It's an idea. You taught us that. And as for your home… you're more than welcome to stay here until you get back on your paws when this is all over."

Savanna Central ruins, Zootopia

While the Monarch scientists were trying to figure out exactly what Shin Godzilla was, and whether it could be defeated, the military had gone in with orders to retrieve whatever they could from the site where the two Titans had clashed. They knew that Titanus Gojira had blown off one of Shin Godzilla's dorsal plates, so if biological samples could be taken, they were ordered to do so.

Zootopia was completely deserted. It made for an eery journey for the soldiers chosen for the mission. The soldiers had all been equipped with hazmat suits to protect them from the radiation emitted during the Titans' fight.

"G-Team One to G-Base, we are at the location," the tiger squadron leader checked in. "We are beginning the search now."

"Roger," came the reply.

As the team advanced forward through the wreckage of buildings, something fell from above, landing with a dull thud on the ground. The squadron leader jumped, startled. His torch pointed towards the direction of the sound, finding a chunk of what looked like raw meat.

The squadron leader stared blankly at it… and it looked like it stared back. Dotted across it were what appeared to be eyes and spiny growths that resembled teeth. Torches raised up, highlighting what looked like a giant web made of flesh, eyes, and teeth. At the very top was the dorsal plate blown off Shin Godzilla's back.

It was as if the flesh blown off was starting to grow new Godzillas.

"Damn, looks like something out of a horror movie!" a rhino squad member remarked.

"Shut your beak, Horner, and start collecting samples," the squadron leader ordered. "Burn what's left. We don't want to know if this thing can reproduce."

ZSS Nautilus

One of the many submarines in the Animalian Navy, the ZSS Nautilus was an older-generation Nautilus-II-class submarine. The Nautilus had been drafted in to chase down Titanus Gojira after it fled into the seas. The Nautilus had been armed with a nuclear warhead with specific instructions: should they find Titanus Gojira, they were to launch the warhead at it.

Captain Thomas Otterson had deep misgivings. Maybe it was the fact that the other creature still in Zootopia had successfully destroyed the first nuclear warheads used in the ill-fated attempt to destroy both Titans. Maybe it that Titanus Gojira had survived a similar attempt in the Fifties. Or maybe Otterson didn't like the thought of pissing off the gigantic nuclear lizard to the point where it might turn its atomic breath upon the Nautilus. So far, Titanus Gojira had not seen mammals as a threat, and Otterson was not keen on changing that.

"Captain, we are picking up a bio-acoustic signal on the radar," the radar technician, a fellow otter, piped up. Otterson went over to examine the radar himself. Something pinged ahead.

"Arm the warhead and prepare to fire on my mark," Otterson said. He moved back to his position on the centre of the control room and nodded to his Commander, who moved to the periscope and pulled it down to peer through it. Newer classes of submarines had photonics masts that rendered periscopes obsolete, but on an older submarine such as the Nautilus, periscopes were still in use.

The Commander gazed through the periscope. He spotted their target, straight ahead. Titanus Gojira. In fact, it was headed straight for the Nautilus.

"Sir, target is approaching," the Commander reported.

"Full stop, prepare to reverse on my mark," Otterson ordered. The Nautilus stopped. Otterson nodded to his tactical officer.

"Fire!"

As Titanus Gojira moved closer to the Nautilus, the submarine launched a warhead at it. The warhead sped towards Titanus Gojira, which tried to bank to avoid it.

The warhead detonated as it passed over Titanus Gojira's dorsal plates, and it was engulfed in the explosion. The Nautilus had already begun to reverse away from the detonation.

"Direct hit, sir!" the tactical officer remarked.

"I want eyes on that thing," Otterson said. "I want confirmation that the target was destroyed."

The Commander returned to the periscope and peered through it.

Within a minute, he had let it go, with a horrified look on his face. He turned to Otterson.

"Target… remains, sir."

Otterson stood completely still, the revelation sinking in.

"Sir… target is approaching again, this time at speed!" the Tactical Officer said, pointing to the bioacoustics signal on the radar.

Suddenly, the submarine rocked. A loud roar echoed through the control room.

"Damage report!" Otterson ordered.

"Ventral hull breach!" another officer confirmed. "We're taking in water, sir!"

"Sir, it's coming for another pass!" the Tactical Officer reported.

Titanus Gojira approached the strange object that had attacked it with a nuclear missile. Its dorsal spines glowed a bright, incandescent blue light. It had already scored a slash into the ventral region of the object, and it intended to destroy the strange object altogether. Gathering atomic energy in its stomach, its dorsal spines grew brighter, its gills and eyes lit up.

With a snarl, Titanus Gojira unleashed its atomic breath on the object. Within moments, it exploded, sending a shockwave of such force that it shredded everything in its radius.

Everything, that was, except Titanus Gojira. It turned towards the direction it had come from and made its way back there.

Tri-Burrow County Emergency Monarch Monitoring Station

Data came in from the military excursion into Zootopia. Serizawa looked upon it with fascination.

"Look here," Sora pointed to the screen, which displayed a molecular array. "See those? They are very similar to samples taken from Gojira."

"Perhaps Shin Gojira is a descendant species reverting to a previous form," Serizawa hypothesized.

"You mean, like if a bird reverted into a dinosaur?" Jack asked.

"Hai," Serizawa answered. "Perhaps… we are witnessing mutation in reverse. It would be fascinating to observe in a controlled environment. Looking at this… Shin Gojira can create its own radioactive isotopes so long as it exists in an environment containing oxygen and air… it doesn't need to feed on radioactive material in the same manner as Gojira does."

"Why would it be drawn to Zootopia's climate wall if that's the case?" Sora asked.

"It could be that it requires a larger amount of radiation to evolve to its next stage than it could produce in its current form," Serizawa hypothesized. "That may also explain why Gojira continues to pursue it. If Gojira is the guardian of the natural order, then Shin Gojira is its perversion. Even if they are related, Shin Gojira has become a threat to balance."

"Wouldn't the radiation it absorbed from the nuclear warhead it destroyed be enough?"

"The radiation was partially absorbed by Gojira when it escaped to the ocean to recover, so it may not be sufficient. Or it may require a certain type of radiation that the climate wall itself generates."

"What about these?" Jack pressed a button, bringing up photographs taken by the excursion force showing the fleshy growths.

"We may be observing the manner in which Shin Gojira intends to propagate. Gojira itself has a healing factor that is tied to the radioactive material it consumes."

Serizawa put a paw to his chin in contemplation.

"Shin Gojira wa hontōni kowai ikimonodesu."

Two military attendants joined Serizawa, Jack and Sora.

"We've lost contact with the Nautilus," the lion military attendant said.

"The Nautilus?" Serizawa repeated.

"You didn't…" Jack began.

"We thought that a successful nuclear strike would solve that problem, and we could then create a plan to deal with the one in Zootopia," the lion attendant attempted to explain.

"You idiots…" Jack shook his head. "Now Gojira is on his way to Zootopia, and thanks to you he's on a nuclear 'roid rage."

"I thought you wanted to let them fight!"

"Gojira can defeat Shin Gojira, but the types of warheads submarines are armed with these days could overload him! He'd be a walking thermonuclear disaster!"

An alarm sounded. Serizawa looked up from the monitor as Monarch personnel ran around. Jack, Serizawa and Sora moved over to a computer terminal.

"Checking the bioacoustics…" Jack began working. The screen displayed a radar, and something large pinged on the display.

"Gojira is heading back for Zootopia," Serizawa remarked.

"And it's probably powered right back up if the Nautilus fired a nuke at it," Jack noted.

"Kami-sama…" Sora added.

Titanus Gojira is heading for Zootopia again, and this time he's threatening to go thermonuclear and take out what is left of the city! Can he destroy Shin Godzilla before that happens? You'll have to tune in to the next chapter to find out!

Translations: I don't know if these are 100% accurate, but I tried to write the English in a manner that couldn't be confusing to the auto-translation and thus result in something totally different to what I intended.

Kimi wa dō omou? – 'What do you think?'

Shin Gojira wa hontōni kowai ikimonodesu – 'Shin Godzilla is a really scary creature'.

Kami-sama – an invocation similar to 'Oh my God'.