11:03 PM, February 28th, 1954 – Bikini Atoll
BANG!
Multiple explosions erupted against a mountain of gray before fizzling to nothing but smoke and scattered remnants of what was once a barrage of M16 rockets.
"What the fuck is that thing?!" Crackled a voice on comms.
"I don't know! Just keep firing!" Came another voice.
American P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft launched volley after volley of rockets at a reptilian colossus as it waded waist deep through the waters about two miles Southeast of the atoll. Ships also situated in the waters nearby launched missile after missile at the head and neck, to no avail.
"We can't let it land on the atoll! The bomb's not in place yet!" Came the voice of one of the ship's captains.
"Sheesh! They really expect us to stop this thing?!" One pilot mumbled.
"Shut yer trap, Johnson! Just keep firing at the big lizard!" Shouted another.
"Whatever Miller!" Johnson shouted back.
"Hey… Did you guys see that?" Asked another pilot.
"See what, Ray?" Johnson asked.
"In the water. I thought I saw something moving." Ray replied.
"You mean the big fuckin' lizard? Hard to miss! Stay focused Ray!" Miller yelled.
Was it his imagination?
No.
A shadow slithered through the dark waters leaving a subtle mound of water in its wake. Several ships gently started rocking as their missiles were thrown off course.
"What was that?" Asked a crewman on deck of a US Destroyer.
"I dunno! We just gotta hope those missiles take that thing down somehow!" Shouted another.
The massive reptilian's head turned left, following something out ahead of the moving mound as it veered left of its present course to follow.
"Hey! There! It's leaving!" Miller shouted.
"Why, though?" Ray asked.
"Who cares?! We did it!" Johnson cheered.
"I don't know." Ray mused quietly.
The missiles came to a stop, and all planes began reforming and circling overhead.
"What's it doing?" Came the distorted voice of another Ship Captain over the comms.
"He's hunting." Came a new voice.
"What the-Who are you? How'd you get on this frequency?" Miller demanded.
A large plane suddenly emerged from the light cloud cover and descended upon the scene to join the fighter pilots in circling the air space.
"My name is Eiji Serizawa. Pleasure to meet-"
"Never mind, seri-what's your name. More important than what it's doing is what the hell are you doing here? This is a war zone! Civilians aren't allowed here!"
"I'm not a civilian. I'm-"
"He's with us." Came a second voice.
"And who's us?" Johnson interrupted.
"We are MONARCH. A special government unit assigned to track and study these creatures. Doctor Serizawa here is our chief scientists."
"Greeeeat. So you're suits. Perfect." Miller rolled his eyes.
"So what the hell are these things, doc?" Ray asked.
"We call them Titans. Massive creatures thought to have been extinct for millennia."
"Not so extinct now is it?"
"Not it, young man. Them."
"What do you mean them?"
"Watch." Serizawa replied calmly.
The reptilian came to a stop and turned its head to the left and right, seemingly following something in the water. A few on the ships thought they could see the hints of the water's surface being disturbed against the stars on the horizon being slowly blocked from right to left, then left to right. Almost as if something was either moving back and forth or circling the reptilian.
"What's it doing?" Miller asked again.
"I told you. He's hunting."
"Who's he?"
"We call him Gojira. And the creature he's hunting is called the Shinomura. It's name means-"
"Right. Whatever. So this Gojila thing is hunting some Shinumara thing. Great. What do we do about it?"
"Nothing. Let nature take its course."
"The fuck?!"
A small cloud of steam rose out of the corners of the Gojira's mouth before he suddenly threw his head back and roared to the heavens. The force of the roar being ejected from such a massive set of lungs sent a pressure wave slamming into the chest of every human being within a nearly half-mile radius. But the shock of this paled in comparison to the sheer decibel levels the creature unleashed which instantly had everyone covering their ears causing several planes immediately began losing control and spun out before crashing into the waters below.
Moments later the waters to his right side burst unveiling the Shinomura which immediately took to the skies on black wings with a deep blue body lit only by the light of the moon. Its shriek wasn't as deafening as the Gojira's, but it didn't need to be. Something about it shook everyone watching to their core as the insectoid-like appearance of the beast reminded them all of what now looked like a massive flying scorpion complete with the massive spike on the end of its tail.
The appearance of this beast, however, was the least of the ships' worries. The waves it produced upon exiting the water had sent numerous massive walls towards them which they all scrambled desperately to escape from.
"Turn into it! Turn into it!" The Captain of a Destroyer shouted as the ship creaked and groaned on its way to facing the oncoming rush of water.
Several ships were made to capsize while others barely escaped. Getting back on comms, everyone agreed to stay the hell away from these creatures as they faced one another roaring and growling back and forth like two bears over territory.
Gojira's tail rose high into the air before slamming down onto the water's surface. And just like that, the fight began.
Shinomura rose higher into the air and swooped down head first into Gojira's chest forcing him back and sending both tumbling into the depths of the water. All ships scrambled to escape the combat zone while all planes retreated to a safe distance to observe.
"You said the Shinomura's name meant something, right doc?" Ray asked.
"Yes. It means "swarm of death"." Dr. Serizawa replied.
"You serious? Swarm of death? That's the best you could come up with?" Miller chuckled.
"Why "swarm," doc?" Ray asked.
"You will see soon enough." Dr. Serizawa replied.
Underwater, the beasts had become entangled. The wings of the insectoid wrapped the reptilian's arms tight against its body so it couldn't use its claws, and its tail spike had jammed into the flesh of the reptilian's tail pinning it down on the ocean floor as a plume of sand spread beneath and around them. The two creature's faces were so close. But only one of them was in an attacking position. The insectoid leaned back and attempted to lurch forward with a bite to the snout of the reptilian, but was met by a sudden flash of blue light vaporizing its head and causing the body to go slack. It wasn't so for long, but it was long enough for the reptilian to dislodge its tail and swim away to gain some distance before the insectoid's head miraculously reappeared as if nothing had happened.
"What was the light just then?" Asked Ray.
"It was Gojira's primary weapon."
"So this Gojila thing's a lighting engineer now?" Miller snapped.
"Not just light. It's a-"
"Spare me the science doc. Just help us keep an eye out so we can nuke these things once the bomb arrives." Miller interrupted.
The two creatures slammed into one another causing a wall of water to erupt on the ocean's surface. Both began biting and clawing at one another. With every bite Gojira's jaws took a chunk of the insectoid only to see it all reform once again. He snarled as the two came face to face once again.
Moments later Gojira screeched in agony as the barb on the end of Shinomura's tail was jammed into his lower stomach sending a cascade of blood pouring out from around the barb as the tail was whipped this way and that in an attempt to tear the wound open. And tear it did. The barb managed to slice Gojira's hide as it was yanked to the right one last time opening a canyon of a gash in its wake.
Dozens, if not hundreds of gallons of blood erupted from the wound as Gojira turned around and retreated into the depths.
The blood became just visible on the surface as everyone watched the churning waters. The light of the moon highlighting the red amongst the darkness before the Shinomura emerged flying into the air once again before turning and landing on the beach of the atoll.
"What just happened? Did it kill that Gojila thing?" Johnson asked.
"I hope so." Miller replied.
"What's Shinomura doing?" Ray asked.
As everyone looked to where it landed, they saw it beginning to tremble before suddenly splitting almost perfectly down the middle into two identical, albeit slightly smaller, versions of the original.
"What… The… Fuck…" Miller gawked.
"That's why it's called the swarm of death. It's made of millions, perhaps billions of much smaller creatures which can combine into one larger form. Depending on the situation, it can split into multiple forms which all communicate with one another to coordinate attacks."
"No wonder that Gojila thing bit the dust. How do you fight something like that?" Johnson thought out loud.
"I wouldn't count Gojira out just yet." Serizawa said.
"With that much blood? Sorry doc. It's dead meat." Miller rebutted.
"What a horrible death." Johnson cringed.
"Just watch." Serizawa replied.
The two Shinomura rose into the skies, seemingly talking to one another before turning towards the circling planes.
"Oh… Shit." Johnson said breathlessly.
The Shinomura began rising higher into the air keeping their eyes on the planes before a bright blue light caught their attention. As everyone turned their heads to look, a massive stream of what looked like blue fire burst from the water streaking through the air before blasting a hole through one of the two Shinomura as the other flapped frantically to back away from the stream.
Following the stream, everyone watched with awe as Gojira's head rose out of the water followed by his neck and shoulders. He unleashed another ear-shattering roar before letting fly once again with the stream from his mouth, eyes and spines along his back flashing along with it.
"How the hell is it doing that?!" Johnson yelled.
"Gojira, and many of the Titans like him, feed on radiation for food and fuel. Gojira's also able to concentrate that radiation into a tight beam, as you just saw."
"Presumably he can only do this as long as there's fuel in the tank?" Miller asked.
"Yes."
"How do we tell how much he's got?" Miller asked again.
"The beam reflects his stores of power. The weaker the beam, the weaker he is."
"So much for your "it's dead meat" theory, eh?" Ray chuckled.
"Fuck off, Ray." Miller barked.
"Hey! We have the bomb carrier on radar!" Johnson interjected.
True to his word, a naval plan carrying the bomb known as Castle Bravo was now inbound and prepped to land on the sole aircraft carrier in the fleet. It was scheduled to be delivered to the shore before being prepped and detonated in an attempt to kill Gojira, complete with a picture of his likeness with a red circle and a line through it on the side.
Gojira raced towards shore. And as his body exited the waters the wound had already stopped bleeding.
"Wait, what?! No way that gaping hole in its stomach just stopped bleeding already!" Miller cried.
"That's the power of Gojira's radiation. It greatly accelerates his natural healing ability." Serizawa replied.
"What a creature." Johnson added.
The two Shinomura surrounded Gojira following the blasted one's reformation. Gojira began charging the beam again, evidenced by the flickering light in the spines along his back and in his eyes. They were not keen on being blasted again, so both dove towards him. But as they came in closer the light faded and Gojira's body rapidly spun as his tail came up and slammed into both knocking them both to the ground. The impact caused them to split into a total of four creatures, each one slightly smaller than Gojira himself in total mass.
All four immediately took to the skies and circled like vultures as the inbound ship carrying the nuke landed on the carrier.
Within minutes, those four had split into eight and were now swarming Gojira. Despite his power and efforts to even the playing field with his breath, Gojira couldn't keep up with the far faster and more nimble Shinomuras.
As this was happening the nuke was loaded onto a smaller vessel and now inbound for the atoll.
Gojira began to grow sluggish as the fight dragged on. Each new swipe of his claws or sweep of his tail resulted in him nearly losing balance or being forced to stop and catch his breath. The Shinomuras, meanwhile, remained fresh as ever as they continued circling and striking with coordinated hit and run tactics to exhaust their enemy until the final strike could be dealt.
The nuke reached the shore, and was soon rushed through the detonation setup and analysis process by those on shore.
As they rushed to finish, the sound and sudden rush of tremors in the grounds nearly toppled the nuke's stand. As they looked over, Gojira had fallen to the ground onto his stomach. Arms at his sides, eyes closed, and breathing erratic.
The Shinomuras gathered together into their largest form once again and landed beside him. One eye opened, gazing at the Shinomura as it leaned down to look him in the eye with the edges of its multi-part mouth seeming to curve into a smile.
Gojira's mouth curled downward into a snarl with lips pulled back revealing his teeth. But it was the flash in Gojira's eyes which caused Shinomura to lunge backward and lift its tail in preparation to strike at his foe's neck.
Too late.
Gojira's head turned, jaw opened, and just as the barb was about to strike the gills along his neck the blue beam erupted from within his throat blasting a hole through the Shinomura's stomach region. This stopped its tail and gave Gojira just enough time to push himself up onto his hands and knees while continuing to unleash the beam across its entire body despite its desperate attempts to flee and reform. The longer the beam was held, the weaker the light became and the more inconsistent the beam's integrity seemed to be until, at last, it all came to an end when his mouth closed. What was left of the beam seemed flickered into nothing like a dying candle, and Gojira once again collapsed onto the shore of the atoll.
Silence.
"Now's our chance!" The MONARCH member with Serizawa spoke into comms. "Finish preparing the nuke. Detonation is at 0645."
"Sir." Replied another MONARCH member who'd previously remained silent.
Johnson, Miller, and Ray all joined their squadrons and began a return to base.
"Okay… That was fucked up." Miller said.
"No kidding. Giant monsters. Are we living a fairy tale?" Johnson asked.
"No. This is real." Ray replied.
"Ever the optimist, aren't you?" Miller laughed.
"I try to be." Ray laughed back.
"Let's go home… I need a drink. A strong one, too." Johnson said.
Meanwhile, on the MONARCH plane Dr. Serizawa was approached in his seat by one of the other scientists.
"You think this will fail, don't you?" He asked.
"You heard what I said about Gojira feeding off radiation, didn't you? We know nukes release radiation during detonation. It will only serve to sate his hunger and return him to full power." Serizawa replied.
"We'll see. Less than 5% of the energy released on detonation is radiation. The rest is heat and concussive force. At this range, and weak as he is, he won't survive."
"I guess we will see." Serizawa replied with a sigh.
"Indeed we will."
The following morning, at exactly 6:45am, Castle Bravo was detonated turning night into day and irradiating the atoll and much of the surrounding region. Officially, it was deemed nothing more than a nuclear test. And all those witness to the battle between Gojira and the Shinomura were given gag orders for life.
Serizawa, meanwhile, would return to MONARCH and continue his studies…
"Father. What happened to Gojira?" Asked a young Ichiro Serizawa.
"I don't know, my son. By I know he's still out there somewhere." Eiji replied.
"How do you know?"
"We didn't find any corpse. And as powerful as Castle Bravo was, it couldn't just obliterate him without a trace. He's alive."
"Think he'll come back?"
"I know he will, son. I know he will."
Eiji patted Ichiro on the head and urged him to lean in and take a look at the blueprints for some new MONARCH tech he was working on. And as time passed the incident of Castle Bravo all but faded from the world's memory.
Meanwhile, deep beneath the ocean's surface a blue light flickered to life within a pair of massive eyes and along a row of jagged spines in the gloom of the ocean floor.