Disclaimer: I do not own Godzilla: the series, or any of the characters there from. Siseir is my idea though.

Dr. Niko Tatopoulos stepped off the plane in the damp yet warm air of Nigeria with the rest of his team and was greeted by a young officer.

"HEAT I presume." The young man said crisply, looking over each of them in turn. "I am sorry to have to ask this, but where is the sixth member of your team?"

Sixth member? Who the… Oh… Oh no, he couldn't possibly mean… "Excuse my ignorance, but you do not happen to mean Godzilla do you?" Nick asked.

The man looked at him appraisingly, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do."

Well this was unexpected. Nick moved to the edge of the water and stared out, "Monique, how long has it been since Godzilla surfaced to breathe?"

"He will resurface in two minutes or sooner." Monique said dryly, "In the mean time, where is the nearest coffeemaker?" she turned to a one-armed soldier and was led away, pulling a packet of imported French coffee out of her jacket.

"So Randy, what's the brew of the week?" Elsie asked.

"Well chica, the label said 'Tales of the Dead'." Randy stared after Monique and shrugged.

"Really?" Elsie looked up from her book, "Is it any good?"

Randy shrugged, "I'm no brave enough to try it."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. She went into her 'office' with a cup and came out smiling." Randy shuddered at the memory.

That raised eyebrows around the group. Monique coming out of her office smiling was as rare as Mendel dancing around in a small pink skirt.

The sound of falling water and a gusting breath caught Nick's attention and he grabbed his air horn out of his pocket, giving it a good push. The gigantic head and upper body surfaced completely and eyes of lambent orange surveyed Nick with an interested rumble.

"Godzilla! Want scratch?" Nick yelled.

The interested ruble became almost a purr and he massive jaw lowered. Nick dug his fingers into the softer skin at the corner of the mouth, where human fingers could actually be felt. Godzilla's tail twitched happily, sending small waves rolling to either side. As soon as Nick stopped scratching he was enveloped in warm wet muscle.

Slurp

"Oh yay. Lizard slobber." Nick muttered, and then gave his foster son an affectionate thump with a closed fist, "Stay close, and stay safe." He said.

Godzilla turned to leave, then froze and began sniffing the air curiously. Nick dug out a towel from his bag and began trying to dry off, so he didn't notice until Godzilla gave a roar and leapt over them, sprinting inland toward the familiar mangrove swamp.

HEAT loaded into a car quickly and took off after Godzilla, Monique sipping at a large thermos of dark black coffee and grumbling to herself.

They arrived on the scene of a battle, one that had apparently been going on for hours between the two Nigerian mutations. Now Godzilla was fighting something that looked like a cross between a wasp and a rat on steroids, while lying sprawled on the other side of the battlefield was…

Oh wow… That mail wasn't lying when it said one of the mutations looked like Godzilla. Nick thought. The creature was of the same body shape as Godzilla, but looked more slender. The scales weren't greenish-black but bluish-black, and the most startling feature was the feathered crest and wings that adorned the head and back. The feathers were mostly completely covered with mud, but the few bare patches revealed that they were blue-streaked-black. It didn't have the spiky ridges either.

"Nick, look. It is wounded." Elsie said, pointing to the large stingers along one flank, and the fact that it was unconscious.

Monique capped her thermos and put it down, watching Godzilla's battle with the rat-wasp. "We still do not know which mutation is the man-eater." She reminded them.

"Driver, can you identify which mutation hunts humans?" Elsie was glancing rapidly between both.

"Yes." The driver pointed to the rat-wasp, "Far as we can tell the other one eats deer and fish."

"You mean you've studied it?" Craven finally piped up from his tinkering with MiniNigel.

"Aye. We've watched 'er. She lets small groups near 'er for the daylight hours." The driver said tonelessly, then pulled out a small flip pad, "There was supposed to be another group watching' 'er today."

"How much do you want to bet that's what started this fight?" Nick said.

"What'cha talking about jefe?"

Elsie caught on immediately, "You mean that you think that rat-wasp came after the watchers and started a fight with the other mutation?"

Monique blinked slowly, "It invaded the others territory."

"Nah lady, Siseir there don't have a set territory. She wanders." The driver corrected.

"Siseir?" came the question from five throats.

"That's what we watchers have named 'er."

"You keep calling it a her, why?"

"Because, she's female." The driver said.

"How do you know?" Randy cut in.

"We don't."

"Everyone! Hit the seats!" Mendel screamed as the rat-wasp flew overhead and away, launched by a blast of green fire. Godzilla roared in triumph and moved to the one the natives had named Siseir. HEAT watched in amazement as Godzilla carefully removed several stingers from blue-black hide.

"Well team, we need to go find the other mutation and bring it down. Only one question: How do we do that?" Nick looked over at Godzilla as he picked up Siseir's limp form and carried her back toward the sea.

Okay, chapter two's done. Now on to Aftermath: Return Home.