"Cover!"

Ford and the others dove behind whatever corner, debris, or object was nearest to them as they felt the ground rumbling around them. Ford peeked out from behind the back end of a destroyed minivan and saw a pair of glowing red eyes through the dusty haze further up the road. And looking to the squad leader he gave the "eyes on" signal.

"Everyone stay tight to each other and tight to the building walls. We can't give away our position!"

The order came in a loud whisper, and everyone responded with a nod or a hushed "yessir!"

Everyone glued themselves to the man in front of them and hugged the walls of the buildings as they advanced on the Female's position. But the thick layer of dust still hovering about the area made it difficult to see her unless she lifted her head for them to see the glow of her eyes. But closer they moved. Closer. Closer. Closer. And finally, they were within about 100 yards when they spied the glowing orange sack on her stomach which was almost done pushing out eggs into the nest beneath her.

The squad leader checked back with everyone and gave a signal for someone to use their binoculars to check the nest from where they were, as they couldn't risk getting much closer just yet. Ford brought his out first and showed them to everyone, then used them to look ahead. The orange sack was emptied just as he looked, and seemed to pop free of the Female's stomach once the last egg was deposited. Doing so left behind a gunky, slime-like residue on her underside which made Ford's lips curl back as he muttered an "ugh."

Suddenly, a tremor shook the ground and the Female looked in their direction.

Everyone froze except Ford who turned his head to look behind.

Through the smoky haze of the cityscape behind them emerged a massive shadow. And from the shadow a tail slowly whipped through the air in a wide arc around and over their position. As it passed by, they all heard a sound similar to a hurricane following it and were struck by a moderate gust of wind as it sailed by. A flash of lightning illuminated Godzilla's form within the haze before going out, enshrouding him in darkness once again before he lumbered forward through it and leaned down to inspect what was ahead of him.

Behind Ford, the Female grumbled which caught his attention. Glancing towards her he saw that she'd lowered her head and looked away while sporting a rather sluggish posture.

Probably tired from laying the eggs, he thought.

No time for that now though. Ford looked back just in time to see Godzilla taking in a breath and rearing back, and immediately shouted "EARS!"

Everyone covered their ears as quickly as they good before Godzilla lurched forward delivering a massive roar of challenge to the Female. The force of his breath alone knocked most of them off their feet and sent them rolling across the ground before it came to a stop and they were able to shake off the shock of it all and stand up. The Female, meanwhile, was woken from her half-awake state and the glow of her eyes intensified as she looked to Godzilla and roared in acceptance of his challenge. Her front hooked legs slammed into the ground as she began running towards him at full speed, and her large wide shoulders destroyed several buildings in her way as she did so forcing Ford and the others to flee for cover from the falling debris. Several in the group weren't lucky enough to escape and were crushed under the falling rubble while Ford and the rest managed to find safety inside the surrounding buildings.

Godzilla snarled and planted his tail against the ground, dug his toenails into the concrete, and leaned forward with both claws ready. The female slammed into him causing him to slide back a short distance before her charge was brought to a grinding halt and she found herself being lifted off the ground and thrown back the way she'd come. Her gargantuan body spiraled down and crushed a low-tier skyscraper which promptly fell on top of her as Godzilla huffed and roared before charging at her.

"Let's move! We won't get another chance!" Ford shouted.

The soldiers all took off towards the nest as fast as their legs could carry them. And when they reached the edge and looked down they were both disgusted and horrified by how many eggs there were surrounding the nuke. The orange orbs, each of which was about the size of your average dishwashing machine, pulsed with light and were covered in a mucus-like layer making them shiny and slimy to the touch.

"Eugh." One soldier grumbled.

"Let's get down there! C'mon!" Ford shouted.

Following Ford's lead they began descending into the slimy, egg-filled nest.

The Female found herself pulled from the rubble of the building by her rear left leg before seeing and feeling her body lift off the ground as Godzilla spun her around in a half circle before releasing her to fly head first into another nearby skyscraper. She flew straight through it, causing the half above her to fall to the ground and crumble while she crashed into a residential area a few blocks away. Skidding to a halt she shook her head and pushed herself up halfway before feeling a pair of jaws clamping down on her left shoulder. Godzilla pulled her up and back and began lifting her off the ground with her legs flailing trying to get a hit in to make him let go. But with her joints situated for sideways or forward motion, reaching back to attack behind her wasn't something she was able to accomplish.

Godzilla's eyes began flashing blue, and a light filled his spines along with steam rising from them in the cold night air. However, before he could release his attack he was struck by an EMP which emerged from the heart of the city. Suffering yet another coughing fit he released the Female who promptly turned on him and slammed both her front legs, claws out, into his chest slicing into his flesh. Catching her claws just above the lowest joint to prevent worse injury, he forcefully coughed up the last of the gas escaping his throat directly into her face to blind her while he pulled her claws away and then yanked her to his right which pulled her off her feet.

Godzilla raised his right leg into the air and slammed it down on her rear right arm, and a sickening "crunch" erupted before spurts of dark blood shot out from beneath him. The Female roared in agony as he lifted his foot revealing the leg had been severed completely, leaving her three left frontal "arms" to balance with instead of four. He raised his leg to stomp the other, but paused when his ears picked up a high pitched whistling noise. Looking left he was met by the Male MUTO's claws with slammed into his face at full speed as it raced by like a fighter jet cracking the speed of sound and bringing a sonic boom after it passed by.

Godzilla screeched as he stumbled back reaching up to his face as blood trickled down his nose and jaw from beneath his hands. The Male quickly stopped his progress by opening his wings and flattening them, causing the rush of wind and sound to whoosh past him leveling small buildings beneath and ahead of him, and turned on a dime to glide down to the Female as he did his best to help her rise to her feet.

Godzilla hunched forward clutching at his head and shaking it several times as blood continued pouring down to the ground and buildings below. The smallest drop to hit the ground was the size of a basketball, and the largest the size of a Volkswagen Beetle car.

… Back in the nest, Ford and the others had reached the nuke and were busy trying to clear off eggs that were covering it. They shot the eggs (and the embryo's within), pulled at them to throw them aside, and tried to use their guns as levers to lift and push them away. All in all it took around five minutes to actually reach the nuke through the mess of MUTO spawn. And once they got to it they fought to remove the mucus and slime from it so they could work on getting Ford access to it.

"C'mon. C'mon!" Ford growled as he tried to swipe away the muck.

"Lieutenant. How long till you can deactivate it?"

"If we can open the housing on the controls I can deactivate it in 60 seconds."

"Roger. Keep us covered up top you two! Everyone else, help us clear this crap!"

With both the Male and Female MUTO's now combining their attacks against him, and his vision impaired from the blood pouring down his face, Godzilla could do little else but flail in the direction the most recent attack came from.

Taking a whack to the side of the head from the Male as it flew by at top speed, nearly toppling him, he felt his stomach stabbed by the Female's front two claws which pierced his hide much deeper than the previous slash and hack attempts they'd used before. Godzilla gasped a breath and doubled forward as the Female lurched forward to bite his neck. Her sharp upper beak-like maw dug into the soft flesh around his gills, nearly slicing one of them open, before Godzilla's right claw came up to grip her lower jaw and pull her head to the side and away from his neck. Her front legs were pulled free of his stomach, and, despite not being able to see well, he head-butted the Female before releasing her lower jaw before it could clamp shut over his claws.

The Female fell to the ground with Godzilla taking a few steps back before turning his head and hearing the Male flying faster and faster in the distance. His lips pulled back in a snarl as he tracked the sound trailing behind the Male as he recalled it moving faster than the sound generated. When the sound stopped moving and then began growing louder, he quickly bent down touching the ground with his front claws and arching his back upwards. The Male attempted to turn away but did so too late to stop the longest of Godzilla's spines from taking off the tip of its right front arm. The pain and impact was enough to disrupt its flight pattern and send it head-first into the nearest skyscraper which seemed to knock it unconscious as it went limp and stayed that way.

Godzilla sniffed the air and realized the fight had drawn them all closer to the water of San Francisco Bay. Making his way towards the smell he heard the Female rising from the head butt and coming after him. Large and heavy as he was, he couldn't do more than amble a bit more quickly as she raced as fast as she could and leaped onto his back before he made it to the water's edge.

Struggling through her attempts to jab her arms into his sides he stumbled and fell to his knees with her flailing wildly like a spider using all its legs in place of webbing and biting at his spines and neck. Unable to keep up with her flailing he rolled to the side hoping to crush her. But as he did the leg he'd stomped off before was the only one in danger of getting caught beneath him. As such, she was able to retract it and leap to the opposing side as he went down and continue her assault against his side and front. He quickly rolled back towards her to which she managed to leap up and over his legs and tail using a building to push herself even higher before letting herself fall on top of him and slamming all three remaining front arms and their claws down into him creating spurts of blood as they pierced his hide.

"Fuck!"

"What?!" The squad leader asked.

"We can't clear this crap off the nuke, sir!"

"Lieutenant, can't you force it open?"

"I've tried. This muck made it too slippery to grip any of the latches or press the digital buttons on the panel."

"Fine. Let's haul this piece of shit outta here and send it out to sea."

Lifting the housing unit off the ground on their shoulders, minus Ford who helped clear the way, the group managed to get it out of the nest before looking up to see the Male starting to wake up and pull itself free of the building it was stuck in. As the Male flew off and the others hauled the nuke through the street Ford paused and looked back at the nest. The pulsing orange light coming from them slowly faded without the nuke to draw energy from, but they were clearly still alive with no signs of life fading given how much they were all still squirming inside.

Ford huffed and turned back to the nest with his gun up and ready. Sliding down like a snowboarder without a board along its slippery surface, he located a gas pipe and knocked off the hatch with the butt of his gun before scrambling back out and taking aim.

Meanwhile, Godzilla had just managed to get up and push away the Female before the Male slammed into the back of his head before he could react to the sound of its approach. With all the stabs and gashes from her flailing arms, as well as the headache from the Male hitting his head over and over, Godzilla's reddened vision from the blood leaking into his eyes began to fade in and out as he lumbered into the Bay and collapsed. The waters turned red around him and his body went still.

The Male landed next to the Female, both breathing hard from the energy expended, before an explosion behind them shook the ground and drew both of their attention.