Sitting in an empty class right now was Lincoln, who was trying to study in solitude after being treated like a celebrity by everyone in school...and in the city. After everything that's recently happened, he couldn't get his mind off Lily, or any of his sister. Have they really survived and become half-kaiju-like creatures? Was it because McCoy, or whoever's behind these recent Kaiju attacks? Did they experiment on his family? What if the next Kaiju they end up fighting is one of his own sisters? Such questions left him distracted and unable to continue studying.

Lincoln:"(sighs)...Maybe...Maybe...I don't know...Maybe Akimi can actually find a cure. There's got to be...something. My sisters don't deserve this. The last thing we did was fight, and I know they meant well, but..."

Groaning in frustration, Lincoln lays his head on the desk, not wanting to think too much about all this. It was happening too fast and it made his head hurt. He wanted to say to himself "Don't hold onto hope", but things have been changing, and not for the better of it. He wished that there was something to take his mind off of all this.

Lincoln:"I wonder what things are like back home now."

Back in Royal Woods, Lincoln's friends have been desperately trying to raise money in one casual way or another. Lemonade stands, garage sales, selling random stuff, and even got Stella trying to do a kissing booth, much to the girl's dismay. After a little while, Clyde, Rusty, Liam, and Stella banded together to see how much they had made.

Clyde:"Alright, it's been exactly three since we started. How much do we got?"

Rusty:"Let's see..."

They put their money and counted...

Liam:"18 dollars, 2 cents...and a note that says "Don't try to sell anything ever again.", from Mr. Grouse."

Stella:"Hey! Who does he think he is, telling us what we should do?"

Rusty:"According to this, he's speaking for the homeowners' association."

Clyde:"Ugh! We're never gonna get enough money for Japan. We gotta help Lincoln in some way!"

Liam:"Well, we all contributed!"

Rusty:"Yeah. Except for Zach. I don't think I've seen him at all today."

Stella:"He told me he wanted to look in on something important."

Clyde:"Let's go check him out."

A short walk to Zach's house later, the kids let themselves in and found Zach in his room. They were quite surprised to see their friend's bedroom covered in papers, having a chalkboard by his bed, and the boy in particular on a desktop computer, looking a little sleep-deprived as he was watching something on the screen. His friends were looking a little concerned since it appeared as if he hadn't moved from that spot in a while.

Clyde:"Uh...Zach?"

Zach:"Huh? Eh? Wha-?"

Rusty:"Dude, how long have you been in here?"

Zach:"Oh, since last night. I've been looking into all the stuff we could expect to see if we make it to Japan..."

Stella:"And...what's with the rest of this stuff? The papers? The notes?"

Zach:"Well, when I looked a little further in, I found some interesting stuff that might concern Lincoln."

Getting up from his seat, the redhead took some papers from his seat and brings them over to the chalkboard. The board itself had a chalk picture of Japan, with a few markings entitled around certain areas. The pictures he began putting up showed some sketches of Kaiju-like monsters, which Zach obviously drew himself. Clyde and the others weren't entirely sure where he was going, but they were willing to listen since they were aware of what was going on in that country, and it include their white-haired friend.

Zach:"I've looked up several different articles, and some may be true or not, I can't confirm. But, each has been saying that have been monster attacks around this country for a couple of years already. But, every one of them was not exactly a random attack. The creatures, the Kaiju, they attacking specific areas around Japan, clear space before burrowing into the ground. Each one disappears soon after, and then another different one shows up later."

Rusty:"Okay...but what does it all mean?"

Zach:"They're looking for something. Any yet none of them returned. Why?"

Clyde:"Well...I'm not sure if it's true, but I have heard about how some Kaiju are subterranean, in some way. They come from the underground. Couldn't they have just...gone home?"

Zach:"I thought so too. But looking back, I noticed that every area seemed to have been close, or was a mining area in the country. Places that had substances, ores, chemical elements, and other stuff. And it seems as if wherever they were attacking, there seemed to be an increase of temperate and radiation."

Clyde:"Kaiju are known for being atomic beings, and if they ingest too much of the stuff, they...meltdown."

Zach:"...They were mining for something. and the closer they got, the more whatever it was that they were looking for hurt them before it eventually killed them. It's like pure energy!"

Stella:"Zach, as interesting as that sounds, it's crazy. Where did you even hear about all this?"

Zach:"Let me show you."

And that is when Zach headed back to the computer to pull up where he got most of his information. A video was on, showing archeological digs happening around Japan. Seems as if a lot of sites were finding bones...big, TITAN-sized bones. And fossilized remains of such as well.

News Reporter:"(translated English) ...And even though some recent attacks have smaller towns in disarray, a few humanitarian companies are offering aid as their archeological work continues in places such as Yagamguchi, Kosaka, and many others. Recent activity shows that some mines that were recently decommissioned are now becoming reopened as new ore deposits are being discovered in places that were once thought to be currently unreachable.

The kids could see miners working relentlessly, cutting away stone walls in the mines and uncovering what appeared to be glowing areas. Albeit, with the footage they're seeing starts to flicker.

News Reporter:"But some reports that the mining operations are becoming increasingly more challenging and dangerous as some footage has been recovered, showing a few workers perishing from exhaustion, exposure to substances like asbestos, and even unearthing areas that are claimed to be so hot, that this video shows one working getting caught on fire."

Footage of such an event underground shows a well-unearthed area that is glowing, possibly from magma, as the silhouette of a person can be seen spontaneously combusting, bursting into flames, to which the kids reacted with horror in their widened eyes, wanting to look away. Zach then typed away on his keyboard and clicked on another article, regarding some of the companies in Japan that are practically all in on the mining operations. One, in particular, was having greater success and fewer casualties with what had been going on, regarding the excavations.

Zach:"Okay. So, it seems like not only are they mining the remains of the ancient monster, but it seems like they are trying to uncover something. Like a substance of some sort. This may be what the other Kaiju had been mining themselves for years."

Stella:"But what exactly is it? And how does it relate to them?"

This left the kids thinking about it all, as while heading to Japan was still their top priority, they were beginning to realize that there was a conspiracy behind this that goes much deeper than those mines as they thought...

The Ichinokawa Mine, said to be the main mine used for finding Antimony, was decommissioned years ago and was left as sort of a tourist spot. Until a few weeks ago, when the mine was reopened by the company with greater success in the excavations all over Japan, known as the Tera Corporation. But it was front for such a bigger operation, the very same connections that recruited Emil McCoy after the most recent monster attacks. As of right now, within the caves, a shadowy figure was looking over the mining operations as big excavating machines burrowed away at the walls inside the tunnels. As he does so, he pulls out a recording device and speaks into it.

?:"Element X-34 is here, buried deep below the earth within this corner of the Eastern Continent. The Titans had done their best to hide it, but I can feel it, sense it. I will claim and have it fulfill its purpose, to bring this planet to its true, primordial form, where only the Gods live. It will be done...as I have done with many others."

One of the excavators might have ended up drilling too hard and hit a tight spot, getting stuck in the crack it dug into the walls. This forced a few engineers to get it looked at while the shadowy figure scowled at this little setback.

?:"This could be going faster with the help of our mass-produced Kaiju, but the majority of them have proven to be unable to handle the exposure to the extremely volatile radiation or energy bursts that comes with unearthing the element, forcing them to go under a spontaneous breakdown at a molecular level. Our experiments with the human test subjects and manipulation of the Kaiju DNA should be able to remedy the problems when the next batch is ready to grow. Unfortunately, our progress has been hindered by the interruption of the Kaiju Fighting Mech belonging to the scientist, Akimi Nagamaki, and her young pilot, Lincoln Loud. It was almost hard to imagine that the very test subjects we worked on were siblings of that boy. Soon enough...he may be fighting against his own blood."

He brings up a tablet, that shows video footage of his scientists keeping an eye on the Loud Sisters, still trapped in stasis and slowly going through their metamorphosis.

?:"But I wish for this problem to be eliminated as soon as possible. And since the city's criminal underground didn't work, I am forced to work with something else. A bi-product to our experiments in cross-species genetics."

And that is when he switched from the recorder to a cell phone, contacting someone, who at this moment, was walking down the streets of Sanya, Tokyo's Slum area. The person appeared to be a teenage girl with light tan skin and heliotrope-dyed hair, which shadowed her eyes. She was wearing a light blue hoodie, blue jeans, and sneakers. Hearing her phone ring, she pulled it out with a hand wrapped in bandages and answered.

?:"Z-9. I have a job for you."

Z-9:"Targets?"

?:"The two pilots of the Kaiju Fighting mech. Hunt them down and destroy them."

Z-9:"...Consider. I will not fail you."

Lifting her head, she showed that her eyes were glowing red, as it was clear that she was no mere girl...but a living weapon...ready to kill.