Chapter 1
Awakening
A blinding flash of lightning reveals a dark island in the distance. Thunder roars across the blackened sky. The rain is heavy and the waves are harsh. Another bolt strikes the island, then another, and then one greater than its predecessors. The lightning halts, but the thunder sings on.
There is not a single ounce of light. For a long time, pitch black is the only view. Far away in the distance, a bright blue light illuminates from the dreaded island. It grows ever brighter. A faint electrical-like hum can be heard.
A full silhouette of the island can be seen. The storm still rages, but there is still no sign of lighting or thunder, as if the heavens were fearful of striking in the presence of the source of this great blue light.
A sound comes from the island, a faint groan, like an alligator's growl. Then there is another growl, but louder this time. After a brief pause, there is a deafening roar, louder than the thunder itself. It can only be described as an elephant cry crossed with that of an enormous dinosaur. It was the roar of the monster that the entire world had come to fear. It was the cry of Godzilla.
The shock wave of the cry formed ripples in the water as it spread in all directions.
*
Vincent Martin's eyes shot open. He rose from his bed, soon realizing that he was covered in a cold sweat.
Vincent thought at times that something must be horribly wrong with a thirty five year old man who still has so very much shaken by bad dreams. He had had nightmares of this sort before, but this one in particular felt incredibly real.
When he was a child, he would have extensive night terrors about the monster. He loved staying at his Grandpa Steve's house, but he didn't like it when his grandfather would go off on to one of his rants about the time he encountered Godzilla back in 1956. This was the main source of his night terrors as a child.
Little Vincent's horrible nightmares of Godzilla had subsided when his grandfather died. That was the end of the worst of it, that is. Vincent still had such nightmares occasionally.
Vincent made his way to the shower in his studio style living quarters.
He lived in a scientific research base funded by the United Nations. Designated G-Base, it was located in Antarctica. Vincent was one of the head researchers at G-Base. The research base was underground for the most part. Vincent seldom saw sunlight even though the sun was out for several months at a time. The base was where it was and had who it had for a very specific and a top secret reason.
He was lucky enough to have hot water in the shower today. Five days out of the week, the water is lukewarm. As the hot water washed over his body, it washed away the details of the nightmare until it was but a vague memory. But such nightmares continued to bother him even long after he had forgotten the dreams themselves. When he was a child, the threats within the nightmares went away as soon as he woke up. Now, when he awoke, the threat did not remain locked away in his mind. The threat was always no more than a mile away. That fear that had haunted Vincent both in and out of his dreams was Godzilla.
That was partly the purpose of the base. That was why Vincent was here. He was here to study the great monster as it lay dormant under the surface.
Vincent had gotten dressed in heavy cloths and a lab coat. He then headed towards the monorail station. The living quarters, offices, meeting rooms, and other facilities were located roughly a mile away from Site-G, the resting place of the monster. The research facilities were located at Site-G. This is where Vincent worked and where he was headed today. He sat on a bench at the station waiting for the train to arrive.
He had noticed his friend and work associate Douglas Gordon walking towards him. He was a well-built man in his late twenties with a mustache. He was the head engineer for the base. He desperately wanted to work at the base soon after it was constructed. The reason was the same as Vincent's: he had a fascination with Godzilla. And being onboard the Gotengo I during its last mission had the perk of getting any job one desired.
Gordon sat next to Vincent and started an idle conversation. "How you doin', Vince?"
"Big day today. We've got more cells last night. Hopefully we can test our regenerative cell hypothesis."
"Man, I don't even want to think about something like that. I don't want to fight something that heals as fast as you say." Gordon leaned back against the wall, and put his hands behind his head leisurely.
"Oh, so you're just afraid of losing a fight?" Vincent joked. But then he grew serious. "He's alive and he's right there. From what my grandfather told me about him, he should have the strength to burst clear through the ice effortlessly. People fear the unknown. And not knowing what exactly is keeping him in hibernation terrifies me.
Gordon grew a grin on his face. "You know, I'd actually like to see that lizard get up so the Gotengo II can kick his ass. The full metal missiles she's equipped with would go through Godzilla like crap through a goose!" he said proudly.
Vincent only raised an eyebrow and cracked half a smile at the comment.
*
The mysterious beast floated motionlessly through the darkness of space. With a powerful and sure posture, the monster had its gaze upon Earth with lust and desire. From within its grey bone like helm, insidious red eyes peered through.
This alien menace, this Monster X, had an almost humanoid figure. Beneath sections of bony armor was what looked like black skin. It had a long tail that forked into two at the end. Its head was long and almost resembled that of a dragon's in shape with two vertically placed horns in the center of its forehead. On each of its shoulders rested a half, less developed head. And on the back of its head and neck was a flowing golden mane that floated eerily in the zero gravity.
The monster hovered hundreds of miles above the continent of Antarctica. It felt the smallest pulse of energy come from the area. With exposed pointed teeth, the monster snarled angrily. With unseen propulsion, it rocketed towards the tiny unsuspecting planet. At this point in its scheme, only one objective was important: eliminate the one and only thing that could stop it.
*
The girls gasped. They could sense him approaching. They knew he would come and they knew what he was bringing with him. They also knew that there was nothing they could do to fully prepare. All they could do was pray.
These two young girls, identical twins, ran out of their meditation area and yelled for their servant. "Servant!" they yelled in unison. As soon as their address was heard, a man came forth. He was pacific islander with not much more than a loin cloth around his waist. The man towered over the girls. He was five times their size. The man was only a bit over five feet. The twins stood a mere twelve inches.
They were the Shobijin. The miniature identical twins were the guardians of Infant Island, a small island in the south Pacific. The island was lush and thick with vegetation. It was home to the most beautiful and rarest of flowers, delicious fruit, and the natives who worshiped the Shobijin and the great being they communicated with.
It would be inappropriate to call the Shobijin "them" or "the two girls" since they were two halves of a single conciseness; a single being. The natives always referred to the Shobijin formally even out of their presence.
The servant lowered a small cushioned pad to the ground and the tiny girls climbed on. "Take us to the Great Chamber at once!" the girls demanded with urgency. They were usually very kind and polite to their servants and worshipers, treating them almost as equals, but there was no time for polite gestures or comments with such a grave terror approaching. The servant ran as he was ordered with the Shobijin in hands. He entered the Great Chamber, an enormous cave with a huge opening in the top. He lowered his head in respect for what sat resting on a plateau in the middle of the cave.
What sat peacefully in the chamber was the great being Mothra. It was an immense insect with the most beautifully colored wings of red, orange, yellow, and black.
Mothra was the Earth's goddess of peace. She had existed long before the Earth was born. Her exact origins were vague and mostly unknown even to the Shobijin.
Mothra looked down at her correspondents as they knelt before her. They looked up in panic and with their hands together in prayer. By telepathic means, the Shobijin communicated with the great moth.
"So, you feel him too?" Mothra asked.
"Yes!" the Shobijin replied. "The people can sense it too. They claim to have vivid dreams of our island glowing bright blue."
"I see. I've been expecting this day. It was all a matter of time."
"What are we going to do?"
"We have an ally, my dear. I expect him to be reluctant, but all of us will be part of this looming war whether we want to or not."
*
He rested in the ice, hibernating. He dreamt of a time long ago when he was young. He remembered those peaceful times when he could dive faster and deeper than any of his relatives. He was never alone. His pod was always by his side.
Then a voice interrupted his bliss.
"Gojira…," an elderly feminine voice rang in his head. "Gojira…"
His mind became alert in response to the beckoning.
"You must awaken, Gojira. We both know you can easily escape your icy tomb. Why do you lie dormant?"
He did not wish to be in that cruel world anymore. He could never go onto land without being attacked. He only wanted to hibernate here until he needed to feed again.
"You are needed. Your world is in danger."
He did not care about the rest of a world he was not part of anymore.
"An invader approaches. It lusts for the Earth and first intends to kill the one thing capable of stopping it! That is you! It is on its way here right now to destroy you… and the one you call your son."
*
Douglas Gordon was standing by a water cooler hitting on a young female Japanese researcher. "How did a cute lil' thing like you get a position here at the base? You must be pretty bright."
"Top of my class at the University of Tokyo," the girl replied in fairly well English.
"Nice. You got any family or a boyfriend waitin' on you back home?"
"My only family are my parents and a sister. No boyfriend. I have not had any relations for a long time. I get a little lonely at times," she said an alluring tone.
"Oh really? Well I haven't really wanted to get to know many of the other dorks here. Maybe you and I should… hang out more often."
The woman giggled cheerfully. Gordon gave a small smile with easy eyes. Just as he was about to propose a time to meet his lovely new friend, his communicator buzzed. He gave an aggravated grunt and answered it.
"This is Gordon. What is it?"
The voice on the other end was that of younger subordinate of Gordon's. "Mr. Gorgon, it's Eric, I think there's some interference with some of the equipment over here in the observation room. Are you able to come and check it out?"
"Yah, I'll be over in a few minutes. Out." He headed out of the room, but not before turning to the woman and saying "I'll catch you later, hun'," and threw her a wink before leaving.
In the observation room, Gordon and his assistant, Eric, examined the Geiger counter equipment. A few of the researchers eyed them curiously. After looking over the system repeatedly, Gordon found no problems with the equipment.
"Kid, this equipment is running fine," Gordon grew concerned. "Go get Doctor Martin."
Vincent Martin arrived shortly.
"How long ago did it start picking up?" Vincent asked sternly.
"Ten minutes, maybe," Gordon answered.
Vincent addressed the entire room. "Attention all personnel! We are now on full alert. I want everyone at their stations. I want every bit of information documented. It is of the utmost importance that we all remain calm." He turned back to Gordon. "Gordon, can you take care of radioing the UN? Tell them to simply be on alert. No action is necessary at this time. Got that?"
"Sure do." And Gordon promptly left. On his way out, he turned to Eric and said "Yu' weren't expecting shit like this to be goin' down, were you, kid?" with a grin on his face.
Vincent has seen Gordon under pressure before. He wondered how and why he smiles and seems to be happy in dire situations. He thought Gordon would be a much better leader than he could be. While he thought he was doing a fine job so far, there was still a lack in self-confidence subtly present in his voice.
Thirty minutes passed. The Geiger counter was still crackling wildly. Heat signatures had also risen slightly.
Then the whole base was hit with a small tremor. Everyone froze, awaiting some other kind of event. An event is what they would receive.
"Sir, we have an extreme radiation spike! It's not stopping!" yelled one of the men monitoring the subject.
"Heat signatures are increasing as well!" yelled another.
"Give me a visual of the subject from the surface," commanded Vincent. A video feed appeared on the massive monitor before the scientists. The area of ice that imprisoned the giant, under a football stadium style dome, began to crack and melt from the heat building up from underneath.
Blue lights a burst out from the ice and the hum of power grew strong. Upon seeing this nightmare unfold, Vincent stepped backwards in fear until he was against the wall.
With a deafening explosion, a blue stream of radioactive fire erupted up from the ground. The ice surrounding the blast was instantly melted or blown away. The beam then took out the side of the cliff which the radio antenna was mounted on. Many of the people witnessing this on the display ran out of the room.
"Remain calm and return to your positions!" demanded Vincent in vain, "We're safe right here!" Any faith in what he had just said was erased by the engulfing cry that was Godzilla's. Within a few seconds, the observation room was empty.
He bolted for the door and sprinted down the hallway. He saw Gordon making his way back.
"Vincent, I couldn't get a signal out. What the hell is going on?!" Gordon frantically asked.
"Just run!" answered Vincent. Gordon immediately followed. They saw people trying to cram into the monorail. "Don't take the rail, you idiots, take the tunnel!" Vincent tried to tell the others.
Outside, a monstrous hand reached out and grabbed the edge of the hole in the ice. The monster pulled itself up into the sunlight. It's great dorsal spines glistened with beauty. Its charcoal grey, rocky skin contrasted the white ice and snow of the landscape. He stood nearly three hundred and twenty feet tall. The beast released another roar, announcing his return to the world. Godzilla had awakened.
Vincent could hear footsteps from the surface. The ground and the subterranean structure buckled under the tremendous weight of the fifty-five thousand ton beast. The observation room that Vincent was in just a moment ago could be heard collapsing underneath a gargantuan foot. Fissures formed in the ceiling over Vincent and Gordon's heads.
Godzilla's foot came down and broke through the ground. He then felt something strike his heel, causing him minor pain, but still angering him due to his mood after just waking up. After turning and plunging his hand into the ground, he pulled up a monorail with screaming passengers aboard. The passenger car went into Godzilla's maw where he bit down and tore it from the other cars.
Like a piece of trash, the monorail cars in the beast's grasp were tossed away, killing all onboard. The car in beast's bite was thrown aside as well.
Godzilla then inhaled the cold Antarctic air and calmed down. After taking a second to think, he turned his head and began walking in that direction, away from the rest of the research base.
Vincent, Gordon, and a few other researchers and workers had stopped running after they heard the monster leave the area. The ceiling was now open to the sky. This quickly made the whole base freezing cold, making it hard for the group to catch their breath.
"Is anyone here hurt?" Vincent asked, being sure to include the word "here" as to not sound stupid since he knew that the majority of the base's staff was most likely dead.
A female researcher tried to stand up right, "Ah!" Gordon caught her before she fell to the ground, "I twisted my ankle."
"You can hold onto me until we find something to make you a brace," Gordon proposed.
The woman looked up at Gordon. She was the one he had talked to before he got the call to go check out the Geiger equipment. A grin appeared on his face.
"Thank you very much." She replied, wanting to smile, but still somewhat in shock.
Vincent then formed a loose course of action. "First thing we need to do is get somewhere warm. This part of the base is open to the outside air. We can't stop moving. Let's go."