Author's Notes: In the words of the great Mushu: "I LI-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-IVE!" Yes, readers, I am still here; I've just been…busy with university, and this semester is shaping up to be a tough one. Hopefully I can get through this one like the last one with good grades. My attention's also been drawn from Godzilla to some other places before settling on Digimon, and I've got the start of something brewed up that will reach you guys soon. In the meantime, two birthdays have occurred: my good friend DJ Rodriguez on March 8th and one of my favorite voice actors Rob Paulsen on March 11th; both are now 39 and 67 respectively! Happy birthday, guys! :D And just in case I miss it, happy 65th birthday on this upcoming March 30th Maurice LaMarche! May you, Rob, and all others in your field continue to amaze and enchant us with your work.

Now for why we are here: To continue this story, of course!

As per the rules, I do not own the characters of the 1978-79 Hanna-Barbera series Godzilla: The Original Animated Series, Hanna-Barbera does, or should I say Warner Bros. does. This incarnation of Godzilla is owned by H-B and Toho. The only character I own is Vicky, my self-insert. I also do not own the story that is based on the fifth episode of this cartoon series. Also, anything in bold when a kaiju character is speaking/thinking means that they are speaking/thinking in their native language. Also, I do not own the comic "Marvel Team-Up #21", which features Spiderman and Doctor Strange; that's Marvel property. I also got the intro for that comic online via a video by SpiderManComicBooks3, so hope they don't mind. Oh yeah, I also don't own the movie "Jaws", that's owned by Universal Pictures.

Recap: A normal day of exploration turns into a nightmare when a Seaweed Monster shows up. Godzilla battles the creature and wins, but not without some close calls on the part of the Calico crew as they had found themselves getting entangled by the Seaweed Monster's tendrils. However, everyone came out of the battle unharmed and now the worst is behind them. Or is it?

CHAPTER 3

Some miles south of the Sargasso Sea, 14:23 hours

It had taken a while, but after a few rounds of 'Roll-the-Ball', Pete started feeling a bit peckish, so he decided that it was now was a good time to start making lunch. Vicky volunteered to put the ball away, with Zooky accompanying her so that she knew where to put it. When the two got back up to the top deck, Zooky made his way to the galley, following the smells emanating from there.

"Wow, Pete," Vicky said once she and Zooky had arrived at the door and Pete had taken a brief pause between one thing and another, the latter thing being a dessert. "I've gotta say, you're doin' a great job; it smells delicious."

"Thanks," Pete responded as he returned his attention to the dessert, which looked like a cake. "I gotta say it's a bit tricky, but I think I'm managing."

"You're certainly doing better than I would've," Vicky admitted.

"You need a hand with anything?" Godzooky asked.

"No thanks, Zooky. I don't think I need any help," Pete answered as he picked up the cake.

"You sure there isn't something I can do?" Zooky asked.

"No," Pete said, a little firmer this time; he had told his aunt that he could get it done, and he was going to. Besides, there was one other thing. "I promised Aunt Quinn that I'd make lunch up for all of us, and honestly, there's barely enough room for me in the galley."

Vicky looked between the room itself and just how much space Zooky took up in the doorway and had to admit Pete was right.

Reminds me of how we'd keep running into each other in the kitchen back home, Vicky thought, remembering how when her parents, her younger brother, and herself would have trouble getting around when they were all in the kitchen; stuff would eventually get done, but not without a lot of "pardon me's" and making sure you weren't directly behind someone so that they wouldn't step on your foot.

"Good point," Vicky conceded. "And giving that I don't know how a lot of the stuff on the ship works yet, I'd just be throwing a monkey wrench in the works. We'll get out of your way and…go take a nap in the hold or something," she suggested right off the top of her head.

"Sounds good to me," Pete said.

"Let's go, Zooky," Vicky beckoned.

The youngling saurian nodded in agreement and began to say "See you later" to Pete, but he forgot to control the force of his breath, so the cake flew off the plate and right smack into Pete's face. It would have been quite a funny moment…if anyone was laughing, that is.

Zooky just barely managed to get an apology out before Pete said his name in a tone that meant that the young, winged saurian was in big trouble, which forced him and Vicky to make a hasty retreat to the hold.

"I didn't mean to do that; really," Godzooky explained to Vicky once the two had stopped running.

"I know, Zooky," Vicky responded between breaths.

"Why'd you run? Pete was yelling at me, not you."

"I know, but do you think Pete would want anyone in his space after that?"

"Good point."

"Well, since we're in the hold, I guess we might as well take that nap," Vicky said. "Lead the way."

Calico Lab

Quinn had been looking over the piece of seaweed she had found after the battle for a few hours now, and what she and Brock had found was rather surprising.

"There seems to be some sort of mutation in the cells, Brock," the lady scientist observed as she looked at a piece under her microscope. "Each cell is highly energized."

True enough, when looking at the cells in the sample, they seemed to be moving faster than ordinary cells in an ordinary piece of seaweed would.

"And, when all that energy is pulled together…" Brock began.

"Exactly; it becomes that Seaweed Monster," Quinn finished.

"But…wha-what can stop it?" Brock asked.

"We'll have to run some additional tests and hope that something can," Dr. Darien stated seriously.

A good thought, but if Dr. Darien had done a little more looking, she would have found that with all that energy, the cells reproduced much faster, and with every production of two new cells, more energy came into the mix and the seaweed grew and grew, which was what was happening to the piece she had found in the jar on the counter.

Meanwhile, at around the same time, Vicky and Godzooky were making their way to Godzooky's nest where they would stay until lunch was ready or Pete had cooled off, whichever came first. They had been quiet for the past couple of minutes now, and Zooky was now debating on whether or not he should ask about what Vicky had been going to say earlier once the fight with the Seaweed Monster had been over.

"Penny for your thoughts, Zuke?" Vicky asked gently, ready to tread lightly into the upcoming conversation if the youngling kaiju was starting to slip into a flashback. "Do you wanna talk about it?" she asked when there wasn't an immediate response.

Frankly, it wasn't a matter of if he wanted to talk about it; he just wasn't sure how to.

Finally, he decided to just rip the proverbial Band-Aid off: "Do you think I can't take care of myself?"

The question took Vicky by surprise. What on Earth could have brought this on?

"What do you mean? Just so that I have an idea," the girl asked for clarity's sake.

"Well, earlier, after Uncle Goji had taken care of the Seaweed Monster and Quinn was talking to us, you started to say something but you said that it was nothing."

Vicky had to do a mental rewind before she remembered the conversation.

"What were you gonna say?" Zooky asked.

Now it was Vicky's turn to hit a mental roadblock. Sighing heavily, she walked towards the wall, leaned back against it, and slid down so that she was seated.

Man, what a time to bring up that conversation, she thought. I gotta think carefully about this. But I can't think too long on it, either, or my mind will drift off and I'll end up hurting his feelings anyway.

"I'm gonna have to be truthful, Zooky; I don't know if I explain it without hurting your feelings in the process," Vicky admitted.

Zooky sat down in front of her, waiting for what she had to say.

"Physically, you're still growing up and have yet to gain any of the abilities other Gojirans have, not to mention you still got some growing in the height department to do before you can take on something as big as the Seaweed Monster or any of the other kaiju you and the crew have seen so far. In that area, you still need some protection. But we also have to consider the mental aspects as well," Vicky continued. "And if we go there, because of what had happened in…in San Francisco, your mind has…made a…a jump; a big jump that was supposed to take time," she said, trying to put things in terms that Godzooky could understand. At least, she hoped he would.

"Do you remember if you were ever told about what happened to Godzilla Jr when Birth Island exploded?" Vicky asked.

Godzooky thought for a minute, but ultimately shook his head when it didn't come up right away.

"Well, when that happened, a lot of radiation got thrown out and Junior had a tremendous growth spurt, making him almost a grown-up in a short time. That's kinda like what happened to you; what happened was so frightening that it made your mind have a growth spurt of sorts. And because it happened so fast and the decisions you're making are so…so grown-up, we're all having a difficult time trying to understand without pushing you away. We love you, Zooky, and we're scared of losing you, either to the fact of you're not physically old enough to battle and you could get seriously hurt in the process or you feel like we're holding you back."

There was a pause as Vicky took a few breaths to steady herself, feeling scared to look at Godzooky for fear of his reaction.

"I just hope everything I've said makes some sense, because at this point I'm not even sure if it made sense to me," she sighed, lowering her head so that her chin rested on her knees. "But I suppose the short answer is that I do believe that you can take care of yourself, but no matter what, I'll still worry about you when something like a kaiju attack arises. It's all part of caring for you, that's all."

In the silence that ensued, Godzooky tried absorb and understand what Vicky had told him. He could certainly understand that the crew, Vicky, and his uncle loved him and that he still had to learn a lot of the abilities his uncle had, but the part about his mind jumping to grown-up was something he still had to think about. It hadn't felt like his mind had grown up at all; what had happened was that he had gained a new fear that kept trying to get at him whenever he saw something that reminded of him of it or when he least expected it. It was a lot for him to handle at his current age. And, apparently, it was a lot for the others to handle, too if what Vicky said was anything to go by. The crew certainly seemed to be making an effort to being mindful about what they said and what they showed him lately. Who knew such a bad nightmare could cause such a fuss?

Zooky wasn't hurt by the explanation, just a bit confused, but seeing Vicky look so down after she tried so hard didn't sit well with him. He had to find some way to cheer her up.

He stood up and walked a-ways until he spotted what looked like a clump of leaves on a stalk on the floor. Zooky began sweeping it with his tail.

"Zooky? Whatcha got there?" Vicky called, having gotten up to follow Zooky a few seconds after the youngling had walked off.

A lightbulb went off in the young, winged saurian's head. He hit the leafy clump with his tail then took off after it, shuffling his feet on the floor as if he was wearing ice skates.

This surprised and amused the blonde-haired preteen girl quite a bit, and amidst the giggles that bubbled out she made a note to ask one of the crew members just who introduced Godzooky to hockey.

"This is it; one more goal and the game is won," Vicky announced, playing along with Zooky's antics. "Godzooky gets ahead of the puck, he swings—off it goes! Uh-oh, he'd better move fast; here comes the opposition!" Now she got in on the action as the "opposing team". She got close to the "puck", but Zooky was faster and stole it away. Vicky then looked behind her and spotted two crates with a space between them; the perfect goalposts. Leaping back to the boxes in the manner of a ballet dancer—an effect of taking ballet lessons at a young age—she now became the goalie.

"In an amazing play, Godzooky's managed to outrun the opposing team and now it's just the goalie between him and victory," Vicky said, making her voice sound like one of those sports commentators on TV. "The crowd is buzzing with anticipation! He gets ready…he swings… WHOA!" she yelped, having to duck suddenly. In truth, the "puck" would have missed her by a foot if she remained standing, but her brain had decided that it was safer to get down. "Right between the posts!" Vicky cheered once she had straightened up, raising her arms in the air. "It's a win!" She then cupped her hands to her mouth and mimicked a large crowd cheering before clapping and giggling as Godzooky took a bow for his performance.

"Whoo! That was great," Vicky said between breaths as she smiled widely. She then gave Zooky a little kiss on the cheek before saying, "Thanks".

Zooky giggled bashfully at the affection he received before reciprocating with a nuzzle.

"Now, I hope you don't mind, but after that, a nap sure sounds good about now. Oh, there's your nest," Vicky noticed, walking towards the circle of straw that had a pillow and a blanket on it, and at arm's length was the dial for the nightlight that was plugged into the wall.

"Looks pretty cozy," Vicky said as Godzooky settled down.

Zooky nodded in agreement.

"Hey, Vicky?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you read me something? Pete sometimes reads to me a bit before he goes to bed."

"Really?" Vicky asked, fascinated by this new information. "I wish I could, but I don't think I have anything on me to read," she admitted with a contrite shrug.

"Oh. Oh, wait; I think Pete might've left something." Zooky peeked under his pillow then carefully moved the straw around until he found something and brought it out.

Vicky had to grin; it was a comic book, of course, but what a comic! The title was "Marvel Team-Up Featuring Spider-Man and Doctor Strange" which featured three people on the cover; there was a the head and hands of a rather evil-looking man hovering in the background looking like he was manipulating two characters in the foreground—the one on the left Vicky knew had to be Spider-Man and the one on the right the girl had to guess was this "Dr. Strange"—like puppets as the two battled each other. "The Spider and the Sorcerer!" read one text box on the cover. "He's back from the dead! XANDU the Unspeakable!" read another.

Vicky took the offered comic but couldn't help but glance between the cover and her kaiju friend; why'd he have this comic on hand? A comic that featured Spider-Man, no less?

"You sure about this, Zuke?" Vicky asked.

The response was a pleading whine and the biggest puppy-dog eyes the New Jersey native had ever seen.

"D'oh! OK! OK! Just…turn those things off!" Vicky laughed. "May I?" she then asked once she had gotten her giggles under control, wanting to sit next to him so that Zooky could see the pictures.

Zooky nodded and the girl seated herself near his right shoulder.

"Did you guys leave off anywhere or do you want me to start over?"

"I don't mind," Zooky answered.

"All right then…" Vicky then opened the comic and began reading in a dramatic voice: "'Trapped in a world of a madman's making! Helpless to use their awesome powers to defend themselves! This is the unimaginable peril confronting a certain web-slinging wonder and the Master of the Mystic Arts! Can our teamed titans overcome this staggering menace without their super-powers? Can they escape the clutches of the world-shaking Wand of Watoomb? Read on, tiger—and discover for yourself! We promise you won't be disappointed…'"

As Vicky and Zooky were diving into the world of comic-book heroes, Dr. Darien and Brock were leaving the lab after having decided to take a break.

"Well, what did you find out, Quinn?" Captain Majors asked, having arrived just as the lady scientist closed the lab door.

"Not much, Carl," Quinn admitted. "But we'll know more after this last series of tests," she added hopefully.

"What are you trying to do?" Carl asked.

"At this point, we're trying to break down the cells of the seaweed to isolate the source of its power."

"What would that tell us?" Captain Majors queried.

"Where that creature came from and what created it, I hope. Although I do have some theories."

"Why don't we discuss them over lunch? I have a feeling that Vicky might be interested in this."

"Yeah," Brock said. "Speaking of lunch, who's making it?"

"Pete volunteered," Quinn answered. "He should be almost done by now."

Once the lab door was closed, the seaweed's growth seemed to accelerate, as if it knew that the coast was clear. It kept growing until it filled the jar it was contained in, then tendrils began growing out of the jar and onto the floor.

"All hands on deck for lunch! Lunch is ready!" Pete called as he rang a bell to get everyone's attention.

Down in the hold, the sound of the bell reached the ears of Godzooky, who stirred himself, and his nap buddy, awake.

"Huh? Hey, what—? Oh," Vicky mumbled sleepily as Zooky's movements bumped her awake, not sure what was going on until she heard the bell. "Oh, it's lunch? Well, we'd better get movin', then," she said, unconsciously putting the comic book inside the storage compartment of her watch. And just in time, too, because Zooky practically took off like a shot, forcing her to hang on tight.

Unbeknownst to the departing duo, that leafy clump Zooky had been playing with earlier—which was actually another piece of seaweed that had fallen into the hold during the fight—began growing, just like the piece in the lab.

"Wonder where Vicky and Godzooky are," Captain Majors said as he sat down at the table with the others.

Following the sound of bounding footfalls, Godzooky stuck his head in the doorway, with Vicky still hanging on to his neck and trying to get her breath back.

"You OK there?" Quinn chuckled.

"That must've been quite a ride," Brock added.

"Eh, I think he's just hungry," Vicky answered, leaning against the wall inside the room after having let go of the youngling kaiju.

As if to prove her point, Zooky licked his lips as he eyed a large bowl of salad.

Pete chuckled. "OK, Zooky, I got your bowl. But I don't think there's room for you in here," he added, picking up the bowl.

"You need any help with that?" Vicky asked.

"Normally, no. But in this case, sure," Pete said; he was a bit tired from making the lunch and was a bit hungry himself.

"Brock, what results do you have so far on that seaweed?" Captain Majors asked as the two preteens began carrying the bowl out.

"Our lab tests so far indicate that it's some kind of mutation," Brock began.

"Uh, could you all hold that thought? I'll be right back," Vicky said as she continued to help carry the salad bowl, wanting to hear the conversation.

The two children put the bowl down in front of Godzooky, who was looking pretty eager to dig in; his tail was practically wagging.

"Easy, kiddo, easy," Vicky giggled. "And don't worry; these greens are safe. I checked," she added.

Zooky giggled, remembering the comment his uncle had made earlier.

"And, remember: If you want your dessert, you have to clean your bowl," Pete said.

Godzooky nodded eagerly, then proceeded to eat…and ended up eating the bowl in the process.

"I said 'clean your bowl', Godzooky, not 'eat your bowl'!" Pete scolded.

"Sorry," Zooky apologized. "I guess I was hungrier than I thought."

"Well, either you need bigger bowls, or Zooky's getting too big for 'em," Vicky said. "And the latter means that someone's going to have to start learning to get food for himself."

"You mean like hunting?" Pete guessed.

"Bingo," Vicky confirmed. "Luckily, we happen to have the best teacher on hand. Well, close by, anyway."

Zooky still felt a bit bad about the bowl, and the prospect of not being on the Calico with his friends during mealtimes was a slight downer, but at least there was a sweet consolation: He'd be able to spend time with his uncle and be able to learn more from him than just how to swim.

"But in the meantime…" Pete began before going back into the room where the others were currently having their own lunch and reappearing with another bowl, this one not just having various vegetables, but there was also some pieces of fish thrown in as well. "…At least I remembered to make another helping," he finished.

Godzooky beamed once more as the new bowl was put down. There was a slight apprehension that there was going to be a repeat, but this time the youngling kaiju decided to take his time so that he wouldn't end up eating this bowl, too.

"Think he's earned it now?" Vicky whispered to Pete, referring to the "dessert" that the boy had mentioned earlier.

"I think so," Pete answered.

"What would it be, anyway?" Vicky asked, curious.

"Why do you think I was making that cake?" Pete asked back. "It was on one of my birthdays after we had met Godzooky and Godzilla; Zooky got curious about my birthday cake and got some of the icing on his nose after sniffing too close. One lick and the rest was history. Once that had happened, Aunt Quinn did some investigating to see what he liked; vanilla and chocolate was an easy guess, strawberry's another of his favorites; he adores coconut, and he's slightly iffy on lemon."

"I don't blame him," Vicky smiled, knowing her own tastes and utterly fascinated by how much new information about Zooky she was taking in in one day. "And let me guess: Does he go for the frosting first?"

"How'd you know?" Pete asked.

"That's what I do," Vicky giggled.

"So do I!" Pete said.

"How about that?" Vicky laughed. "Man, I'm starting to realize that I never knew we had certain things in common!"

"Yeah. Hey, speaking of which, I think we'd better get to our own lunch," Pete reminded.

"Oh, right!" Vicky exclaimed. "Be back soon, Zuke. Don't eat too fast, now," she added in parting as the two children left.

"Been learning a few things, huh?" Captain Majors grinned as the children sat down, having heard the conversation.

"Oh, yes," Vicky smiled. "Which leads me to bring up who's responsible for showing Godzooky hockey? Him and I got into a little pretend hockey match a couple hours ago."

"'Fraid that's my fault," Brock confessed. "Pete and I were watching a game one time and Zooky kinda snuck in on us. Didn't know he had been sitting with us until near the end of the game when we heard him cheering behind us."

"Simple curiosity; figures," Vicky chuckled. "Man, first the hockey stuff, then the comic book, then the cake. Talk about coming in threes!"

"'Comic book'?" Pete parroted after swallowing a bite of his lunch.

"Yeah; it was a Spider-Man and Doctor Strange comic. I had no idea Zooky was into that stuff until now," Vicky answered.

"I was wondering where that went," Pete commented. "I guess I left it behind and forgot it. But I guess you can pin the comics on me. And the cartoons."

That caught Vicky's attention. "Which ones?" she asked, a smile on her face.

"The ones with superheroes in them and ones that have a lot of funny stuff, like 'Yogi Bear', 'Tom and Jerry', and 'Looney Tunes'."

"Well, that explains why he was so keen on Brock's idea when we were facing off the Megavolt Monsters," Vicky remembered, knowing the slapstick antics that occurred in "Yogi Bear" cartoons.

"Zooky has certainly been finding new ways to surprise us," Captain Majors grinned.

"I have to say sometimes 'Godzooky surprises' are often easier to keep up with than 'big world surprises'," Quinn spoke up.

"I think I know what you mean," Vicky said, adjusting her glasses. "Speaking of which, what were you guys saying about that seaweed that you were looking at? That it was a mutation of some kind?"

Dr. Darien nodded. "I've never seen anything like it. The composition of the cells is very strange; possibly some exposure to radioactivity."

"But the Atlantic Ocean area was never subjected to nuclear testing. At least, as far as I know," Vicky said. "All that happened in Pacific Island area. And Nevada," she added.

"True," Quinn nodded.

"Then if that seaweed had been exposed to radioactivity, how did it end up in the Sargasso?" Captain Majors asked.

"One answer could be ocean currents," Quinn said. "They could have carried seeds from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Same with any seafaring animals."

"That's true," Brock nodded.

"It's a little hard to believe; seaweed seeds being carried from a nuclear testing area by ocean currents and unsuspecting marine animals only to grow in a new place," Captain Majors said.

"Yeah, and cause trouble for us in the present day," Brock added.

"But if seeds had been carried around by currents and animals, then wouldn't there have been any news of similar occurrences before the one we had?" Vicky pointed out.

"The thought had occurred to me," Quinn said.

"We checked what records we could; up until our encounter there haven't been any other reports of any other Seaweed Monsters running around," Brock added.

"Not to sound suspicious, but would you want news of a Seaweed Monster to be publicized? The coastal cities of the world would be in a panic," Vicky said.

"Yeah, it'd be as scary as 'Jaws'!" Pete said. "Well, without the man-eating shark."

"I wouldn't know about 'Jaws', but Vicky is right about a creature like that causing problems for coastal cities," Quinn said. "And if that seaweed is radioactive in nature, then it could cause some serious health problems for those who consume it."

Vicky felt a tightness in her chest at that; to think she might have given Godzooky some of that seaweed! And he was nowhere near ready enough to handle radiation at the level a grown Gojiran could.

"Is there anything that could be done to take care of it, Aunt Quinn?" Pete asked, looking a bit concerned himself.

"I don't know, Pete; if what we're speculating is true, it's out of our hands at the global scale. The only thing we can do right now is keep an eye on the seaweed we have and see if we can find out anything more."

Despite the rather grim subject matter, lunch proceeded regularly. Well, as "regular" could be defined for a group of oceanographic researchers, a girl from New Jersey, and a young, winged saurian kaiju.

In due course, dessert rolled around and Vicky helped Pete carry Zooky's out to him; it was a coconut cake with chocolate sprinkles. Needing a break from the conversation that had taken place, Vicky decided to be a bit random; she took her right pointer and middle fingers together, scooped some of the icing off, and put it on the end of an unsuspecting Zooky's nose. The result was five minutes of watching a cross-eyed Godzooky trying to lick the dab of icing off and a lot of giggles.

"Pete, lunch was terrific," Captain Majors told Pete as the boy was gathering the grownups' plates.

"Thanks, Captain Majors," Pete said. "The only trick is getting it all done at the same time."

"Time. Oh, no!" Quinn exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Vicky asked, looking concerned.

"I forgot to set the laboratory timer," Quinn answered.

"What's that?" Vicky asked, glad that it wasn't an emergency, but curious as to what the item in question was.

"It's kind of like an alarm that controls other alarms in the lab; it helps keep tabs on any experiments I'm working on," Quinn answered.

"I'll set it for you, Aunt Quinn," Pete offered. "Godzooky and I are going down that way, anyway."

"Mind if I come with? Just to see what it looks like and how you set it?" Vicky asked.

"Sure. Come on," Pete beckoned as he took half the dishes with him.

Vicky picked up the other half and followed, with Zooky taking his bowl and plate and following them to the galley. Once the dishes were cleaned and put away, the kids made their way to the lab.

"Here we are, guys," Pete announced as he began to open the door. "I'll just set the timer and—"

"Yikes!"

Vicky shrieked in fear.

"YEOW!"

What made the children exclaim like that was that they had found the lab overrun with living seaweed, with a familiar, ugly face in the middle of the mess right where the jar holding the used-to-be tiny piece of seaweed had been.

"It-It's alive!" Pete exclaimed.

The children were so stunned by the discovery that by the time Vicky and Pete had felt an arm of seaweed around themselves, it was too late to react and they were pulled in.

"Hey! Let go of them!" Godzooky growled.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!" Pete and Vicky yelled, with the young girl letting out shrill screams as well.

Vicky's first impulse was to get her watch ready, but a seaweed tendril wrapped around each of her arms and seemed determined to keep them apart. She continued to scream and shout as the fear of being vulnerable sunk in.

Godzooky growled at the new Seaweed Monster and made ready to face it.

"NO, GODZOOKY! NO!" Vicky screamed.

Not heeding Vicky's words, the youngling kaiju grabbed handfuls of the monster's body and tried to pull it apart so that his friends would get loose. Unfortunately, it was slow going, and finally—to Vicky's horror—the winged saurian bit into the creature and began trying to tear it apart with his teeth as well as his hands. As expected, a problem arose with that tactic and Zooky found himself getting stuck. Luckily, he managed to pull enough of himself away so that his head and feet were free, the latter for backing up as the Seaweed Monster moved out of the lab and up to the main deck, and the former for adding his voice to the calls for help.

Further out in the Atlantic at the same time

As the chaos on the Calico was beginning, Godzilla was tracking multiple groups of seaweed as they were pulled towards something, many of them coming together to form other Seaweed Monsters. Godzilla didn't engage these small fry; compared to what these could become, they were nothing. Besides, he needed the element of surprise on his side.

Not exactly easy when you get blindsided by multiple glops of living kelp.

I'm getting the feeling that someone's trying to tell me something, Godzilla thought sarcastically as he swat a number of smaller Seaweed Monsters away.

This was quite a cycle Godzilla was stuck in; the more he swat away, the more that the Seaweed Monsters swarmed. And to top it all off, a few of their more larger brethren decided to come in as reinforcements. They couldn't bite, but they could potentially smother him if he didn't think fast enough. So Godzilla had to resort to a combination of flame breath attacks, laser-beam eye attacks, claw-and-teeth attacks, and some rather impressive and fast underwater acrobatics to try to get them off.

At one point, Godzilla noticed a few of the Seaweed Monsters break off their attack; they were likely being drawn by the instincts that had drawn them out here.

And if that instinct was coming in faster than ever, that meant that these things would not stop for anything.

…Oh no.

Godzilla's lasers were going full blast as he rocketed through the water to the Calico, the many Seaweed Monsters still clinging on only to get blown off by the speed or sliced by the lasers. He had to get there fast, before it was too late.

But was it already too late?

And done! Whew! I am really sorry about the long wait, but when life calls, you gotta answer it. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this. I'm actually close to finishing the fourth and final chapter of this story, so hopefully I can get those final details put on digital paper and finish up this story soon so that I can move on to the stuff that I want to get working on. Which of course is not going to be easy considering my current fixation, but more on that later.

Very much like in the original material, this picks things up from after the battle, with the kids doing their own thing and Quinn trying to examine the piece of seaweed she had found earlier. I had to admit, I found the scene with Zooky playing with the seaweed like he was playing a one-kaiju game of hockey and then taking a bow for the performance was just adorable, and hopefully the scene with Vicky added was uplifting after that rather heavy scene of her trying to explain something to Zooky which she had stopped herself from saying earlier. I have to admit I'm a little worried about that part because I'm not sure if it's coherent enough and I have a feeling that by now people are going to start accusing me of sounding like a broken record because of the whole "need to be aware of this trauma" thing. But I think what you need to realize is that despite months having gone by, everyone's still trying to feel their way through this thing; this isn't exactly something where you can spot certain things and then you have a clear-cut set of instructions on how to deal with it. Now, granted, I've never had experience with anyone going through this sort of thing, so maybe how I'm having it dealt with here is incorrect, and if so, I deeply apologize. I guess, in a way, I'm sort of feeling my way through the subject as well.

I really liked adding these new tidbits about Zooky that Vicky keeps finding out, like how he likes comics and cartoons, which, I'm not gonna lie, are pretty much foreshadowing things that are going to happen or be revealed later; the biggest one being the fact he had a comic book on hand that featured Spiderman. If you've read another story of mine, then I think you know the history of how Zooky came to like that character despite having a slight case of arachnophobia. The bit with the cake was a sweet plus because there's the line where Pete tells Zooky to clean his bowl if he wants dessert, which kinda took me back to the scene with Pete in the kitchen and the cake accidentally gets blown into his face, so that got me thinking if that was it, which then led to creating this backstory of why Zooky likes it. It was also a great chance to give the three kids something in common, even if it was something as silly as eating the frosting off the cake first.

When it came to the scene where Quinn started theorizing on the Seaweed Monster's origins, it felt a little disappointing that just one interesting tidbit was given and then everything else was just left up in the air. However, whenever radioactivity is mentioned, along with the fact that any Godzilla fan worth their salt knows Godzilla's origin story, it can be drawn that the Seaweed Monster probably came about the same way. And since a solid location isn't brought up, then one could look to "Godzilla: The Series" from 1998 (since it seems that every malevolent mutation can be traced back to the nuclear bomb test that brought Zilla) or other natural occurrences to think about how the contaminated seaweed could have gotten to the Sargasso. And yes, this is something that will be brought up later: Younger saurian kaiju cannot tolerate high radiation levels unlike their older, bigger brethren. It's not just a matter of acclimating to it like the pressure of deeper ocean levels, it's more of their body's capacity to absorb it, store it, and contain it; that's why Vicky's been able to get so close to Goji multiple times without showing signs of radiation poisoning (even before she found the watch), because through some random mutation or maybe a matter of willpower or whatever (any way that's not cartoon logic), the saurian kaiju of this particular generation can keep their radioactive aura contained.

But now things are really starting to heat up as Quinn's sample has grown into a problem of "Biollante-trashing-the-lab" proportions and the kids find themselves facing more than they can handle. Meanwhile, Godzilla's investigation has taken on a bit of a bad turn as well and he realizes that with more of these things coming, the Calico is in danger, although he has no idea of in how much danger his friends are currently in.

And all this is leading up to the final battle which will occur in the next chapter…if I can ever get back around to it.

And now the questions:

Do you have anything to add to what Vicky said in response to Zooky's question or a better way of wording the answer?

What are some theories you would make about where the Seaweed Monster came from?

Why do you think there was no word on any other Seaweed Monsters that might have shown up (if there had been any)?

Not many, I know, but these seem to be the ones that cover the important points of the chapter.

The next chapter of this story will be the last one for it which will feature the final battle between Godzilla and the Seaweed Monster. However, before then, you may be getting some other material that I hope will scratch that fanfiction-reading itch until I can get back on track (AKA my current fixation has been ridden out and I actually have time to focus on this).

In the meantime, please read and review. Thank you!