It has been three years since Mothra left Earth. Humanity has been led to believe that she left to stop an incoming asteroid, but in truth, she doesn't know what she left to face. Before their defeat of Godzilla, Mothra's dark counterpart, Battra, informed her of incoming threats from space and asked her to deal with them should he fall in the battle they were fighting. He did not say what they were, so Mothra didn't know what these threats were, but she knew that she had to go.

Shortly before departing, she left two eggs in a cave on her island home to ensure the Earth's safety if she failed to return, for she knew it would be a long journey and that they would be ready to hatch by the time whatever threat she would face arrived. Halfway through her journey, she sensed the presence of what she believed to be one of the threats Battra told her of. She was unable to handle it herself, though, for the creature she sensed, who would soon be given the name, Spacegodzilla, was already much closer to the Earth than she was. Instead, she sent her fairies, the Cosmos, to Earth to warn humanity because they could travel much faster than she could. She remained confident that the humans and Godzilla could defeat this dark creature and her fairies have informed her that this hope was well-founded.

Now, she was approaching what she believed to be her main goal. At first glance, it appeared to be an asteroid, but Mothra knew all too well that appearances could be deceiving. Countless millennia's worth of memories passed down by her ancestors has proven that.

Her reasons for being skeptical are quite sound, too. First off, most of the other kaiju on Earth live deep underground. This means that unless the asteroid was exceptionally large, it shouldn't be a big enough threat to put them in any sort of danger. Second, Battra hated humans, which means that he would most certainly not be willing to protect them. Besides, this asteroid was not large enough to wipe out mankind. At a few hundred feet across, it was certainly larger than Mothra, but even the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was several miles across, and it failed to wipe out all life on Earth's surface.

No, Mothra didn't think this was any ordinary asteroid. She sensed something strange, almost as if the asteroid was alive or at least carrying a living thing. She had her suspicions, based on encounters her ancestors had long ago, and none of them were encouraging. She could only hope that these were wrong.

Hoping she was doing the right thing, she charged up her antennae beams and fired them at the asteroid. The result of this was a momentary mix of triumph and confusion on Mothra's part followed by a sinking feeling of dread. The asteroid seemed to vaporize upon contact. And out of the resulting flames came Mothra's worst nightmare. She was right about what the asteroid was. If she couldn't stop the evil she unleashed here and now, all life on Earth, human and kaiju alike, was at grave risk. Hurriedly, she sent the Cosmos back to Earth in order to keep them safe and to warn humanity, as well as Godzilla (if he would listen,) of what was coming. Reassured by this, she flew into what may well be her last battle.

Back on Earth, Junior and Anguirus have quickly become good friends. They spend much of their time talking, telling each other stories from their pasts. Of course, Anguirus, being far older, had many more stories to tell. Junior, with his inquisitive mind, found his friend's tales quite fascinating and often tried to picture them in his mind's eye. He learned much from Anguirus, both about the world around him and, although indirectly, himself.

It turns out that the creature whose bones now lay in the valley was once called Radon, a pterodactyl-like creature who was as white as snow. She had left the underground caverns most kaiju call home (which Junior was quite fascinated to learn about) in order to find a safe place to raise her son, who hadn't even hatched from his egg when she arrived. Anguirus had already made the island his home, however, and though they were old friends, Radon was too protective of her child to come near him, so she made her nest on the cliffs surrounding the beach Junior discovered.

Radon was quite old, however, and her age eventually caught up with her. While Rodan, her son, was out learning to fly, Radon came to visit Anguirus. They caught up with each other and spent some time reminiscing. They older kaiju was quite tired, however, and before long, she fell asleep. A short time later, Rodan returned and found his mother, who had already died in her sleep. He blamed Anguirus and remained on the beach, in apparent solitude for many years. A few years ago, Anguirus heard Rodan get into a fight with another kaiju, but he didn't try to aid the young kaiju because he was still consumed by guilt after losing Radon.

He never heard any more of Rodan after that night. At one point, a little over a year ago, he decided to go investigate the site of the battle and try to find out what had happened. All he found were rubble, footprints, and strange scorch marks. He concluded that Rodan had been killed and the perpetrator took his body. Since then, he carried within him a great shame, believing he had failed Radon.

This story, however, brought up more of Godzilla's memories and Junior was able to piece together what had happened: Radon discovered his egg on a nearby island and wished to raise him as her own, with Rodan being his foster brother. After Radon died, however, Rodan tasked himself with the raising and protection of Junior. Godzilla, being another member of Junior's species, attacked Rodan and the two fought over the egg. Some time later, the two put aside their differences in an effort to defeat a man-made kaiju, with Rodan giving his life to save Godzilla and to ensure the mech's destruction as well as Junior's safety.

Upon hearing this, Anguirus was somewhat relieved. But he was also confused as to how Junior knew this. Junior feared his explanation would only make this worse, but as it turned out, it didn't. "Stranger things have happened," Anguirus said before telling Junior about how Mothra's memories passed down to her children. Not knowing who Mothra was, it was now Junior's turn to be confused. Thankfully, a very surprised Anguirus explained in great detail, even going so far as to tell the tale of Gigamoth, the Earth's first protecter and Mothra's ancestor, who died protecting the Earth from a mysterious interstellar threat whose name was lost to time.

Anguirus also had questions on his mind. Not long after they first met, he noticed something familiar about Junior and felt compelled to mention it.

"You wouldn't happen to be related to an old kaiju named Gojira, would you?" he asked.

"No, why?" Junior responded.

"Because you look just like him!"

"Who is he?"

"Part of a very old and powerful race of kaiju. Far as I know, he was the last of his kind. You could say that we were pretty good friends way back when, but we sort of drifted apart. Pretty good guy, but cranky as hell and absolutely terrifying to be around when angered."

"Heh, sounds kind of like my father. What happened to him?"

"Oh, nobody really knows. I, personally, think he's either dead or in hibernation."

When he told Junior about Mothra (which was actually a few days later), Anguirus went on to explain that Gojira's species spent most of their time doing Mothra's will, protecting other kaiju and helping to preserve life on Earth. She was the Queen of the Monsters and their greatest protector. Gojira, being one of the strongest (and easily the most dedicated) of his race, was often referred to as her King. For millennia, he fought to help Mothra's kind protect the Earth, but eventually, as he grew older and more battle-hardened, he began to grow tired of it. He decided that he'd had enough and left the underground world to live a life of peace and solitude on the surface. Since most kaiju don't go to the surface, this seemed to be the perfect plan. He was never heard from again after arriving on the surface. Anguirus went on to say that he could have sworn he heard Gojira's roar several decades ago, but he wrote it off as just being his imagination.

For the next few weeks, they spent much of their time like this. Of course, that's not all they did. Anguirus showed Junior around the island and the two of them would often take time out to spar, which was something Junior enjoyed greatly and believed he absolutely had to do after being so easily defeated by Anguirus when they first met. Plus, his father wasn't exactly an expert on physical combat himself, usually letting his atomic breath do all the work.

Before long, he became a natural fighter, learning how to make the best use of his limbs and tail in combat. However, he started to get frustrated after a few weeks because no matter how much he improved, he still couldn't beat Anguirus without firing a shot of atomic breath. He tried not to let it show, however, because he feared he might seriously hurt his new friend if he did. Of course, with Anguirus's seemingly impenetrable armor, that was easier said than done.

While this did help alleviate Junior's concerns, it was also part of the problem, for every time Junior thought he was close to winning a bout, Anguirus blocked his attack with his spiky shield and retaliated with a sneak attack. He spent much of his time trying to figure out how to counter Anguirus's attacks, but found it difficult since his opponent was very unpredictable with them. Ultimately, he just decided to go with his instincts next time they sparred. Whether or not that was a good idea remains to be seen.

Now, it has been a little over two months since Junior came to the island, and as he and Anguirus laid on the ground talking, a question came to his mind that he was surprised he didn't ask sooner:

"Hey, Anguirus, are we the only kaiju on the surface?"

"Oh, no. All kaiju like to come up to the surface every now and then. I even know of a few that live up here full-time."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah! The Ebirahs actually live in an undersea canyon not far from here. The others live on a group of islands several day's swim from here. One of those is actually the entrance to the underground world. I don't recommend going there, though. A lot of the kaiju there aren't exactly the friendliest and a huge storm surrounds most of the islands."

"And what about the Ebirahs?"

"Dumb, hard-headed, primitive... And delicious."

"Anguirus!"

"Hey, a kaiju's gotta eat and those whale-things aren't very filling. Plus, they put up a hell of a fight and I love a challenge. You know, I don't think I've seen you eat anything since you came here."

It was true. Junior hadn't eaten anything since before his father died. The large amount of radiation in his body sustained him. But now that he thought about it, he was pretty darn hungry. And Anguirus was probably in need of a meal himself.

"What woud you say if I offered to go down there and catch us one in the morning?"

"Well, I'd say that I very much appreciate the offer and warn you that it'd be dangerous. You've improved a lot in combat, though, and I think you should give it a try. It'll give you a chance to fight without holding back."

"How did you-"

"Oh, please, I do it too! Otherwise I probably would've killed you a long time ago."

"Well, that's comforting."

There was a pause, which lasted for several minutes before Anguirus broke it.

"Get some rest, Junior. You're gonna need your strength."

Junior obliged, laying his head down and thinking about tomorrow. Tomorrow, he will prove himself. Tomorrow, he will face a real, dangerous challenge. Tomorrow, he will hunt!