"Godzilla is the son of the atomic bomb. He is a nightmare created out of the darkness of the human soul. He is the sacred beast of the apocalypse."
- Tomoyuki Tanaka, creator of Godzilla.
"Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy."
- Ishiro Honda, director of the original Godzilla.
November 3, 1954
Lagos Island.
A desolate wasteland.
Few pockets of trees remain. Those that do are dying, their trunks turned black.
Sandy beaches are polluted with garbage and, surprisingly, bullet shells.
Most of evolution by natural selection's beautiful towers have been replaced by man's own. Apartments, business centers, schools, restaurants... yet they are all empty. Deserted. Trashed. Messy. Dirty. Abandoned.
At the center of it all, the charred remains of a nuclear power plant. At the center is a burned, caved in hole, as if something tore into it.
What once fueled man's facade of a utopia now fuels something else. An abomination that man never intended, too deviant and bastardized to be the work of evolution by natural selection.
The demon rises from behind a hill separating the beach from the abandoned city. Godzilla has awakened for the first time in his new colossal 100 metre form. His feet shake the Earth with every step.
Whilst mostly resembling a theropod dinosaur, he's more a freakish mismatch, as if evolution somehow mismatched stegosaur, ornithipod, and synapsid traits with a tyrannosaurs'. His skull is largely tyrannosaur-esqe, but mixed with otter-like features; a thin, elongated snout that then rises to create a prominent ridge over the eyes. The strength of his jaws and sharpness of his teeth would allow him to crush tungsten with ease. He has an upright body shape like that of man's early reconstructions of theropod dinosaurs. For a dinosaur, his arms are long, like an iguanodont, and his legs are thick and muscular. The claws at the end of his limbs are sharp enough to rip through the hull of the Titanic. The creature is also adorned with three rows of large, prominent dorsal plates along his back and tail, but resembling leaves more then stegosaur plates. Finally, an enormous, long segmented tail drags on the ground like a kangaroo. This tail is powerful enough to tear through trees like a hundred bulldozers. His natural beautiful scaly skin has been replaced by rough, bumpy charcoal scars.
The beast scans the beach. He has been unconscious for some time, and is dazzed by unfamiliar with his novel form. His new body is far larger and taller then his old one. His view of the world is entirely different. He now dwarfs the trees that once stood far above him, and the roles the gargantuan sauropods that he once shared the island with would be hilariously reversed.
While agonous writhing has disturbed the sand around him beyond recognition, as he scans further and further, he eventually comes across some remains of events that previous transpired; the footprints of a dinosaur.
The footprints of another life.
1948
Lagos Island is one of the most beautiful, tropical islands on Earth. It is also one of the most exotic. The entire island is a living fossil.
The lush environment has many different biomes. Vast forests of Cretaceous-esqe conifers tower over all. Open fern prairies allows titans to roam unimpeded by trees. Sandy beaches provide this as well, alongside the potential for something to be stranded, making for an easy meal. Brackish swamps are home to many different types of turtles and crocodiles.
But this is a world ruled by different reptiles. Dinosaurs.
The K-PG mass extinction was devastating for the dinosaurs, and while birds are the only dinosaurs alive known to man, they're not all that's left.
Lagos Island is very isolated. The dinosaurs that lived here in the Cretaceous were much smaller, and this allowed them to cling on through the seemingly eternal dark, ash winter that plagued the Earth after the asteroid impact. Once the Earth finally healed, mammals took over, but on Lagos, the dinosaurs were able to reclaim their former glory. Whereas before, the dinosaurs of Lagos were humbled by the titans of the Americas, Africa and Asia, they are now the largest creatures on Earth.
The top predator, when it is eventually discovered by mankind, will be known as Manospondylus gigas, and in the even further future, colloquially known as "Godzillasaurus". It is a descendent of tyrannosaurs, with a similar head shape to Tyrannosaurus but a more carcharodontosaur-like body. It has the exact same horizontal body-shape as other theropod dinosaurs; the upright posture of a mutated member of their kind of entirely alien. The large distinct dorsal plates of Godzilla have their roots in three rows of osteoderms along their backs and tails.
It is evening, and the setting sun creates a beautiful orange sky fitting for such a primeval setting. A 15-year-old male Manospondylus traverses through his territory, made up of a large conifer forest and a nearby fern prairie. Just like their ancestors, Manospondylus have huge territories of hundreds of square kilometres that they fiercely defend, providing them with ample territory to roam as they please and provide the necessary resources for survival. But these massively long territories are a burden at this time of year. This Manospondylus is not looking for food; he is looking for a mate.
Eventually, he encounters a female, sleeping peacefully amongst the vegetation. Her brown scales glow gold as they bask in the evening sun, making her look a graceful, elegant creature. Their sexual dimorphism makes sexual identification easy; the scales of males are more grey, and their general build is bulkier. Despite this, this female is taller then our young suitor.
The female wakes up from the approach, hearing the subtle noises and picking out his scent. She remains on the ground, but raises her head and hisses, curling her lips. Her tail habitually moves up and down on the ground.
The male ducks his lead low, submissively. The female studies him, but doesn't move an inch. There is nigh unbreakable tension in the air.
Our male begins to let out soothing low frequency rhythms and paces, circling around her. The tails of Manospondylus are more flexible, allowing him to do graceful, sophisticated dances with his tail. This is a mating dance. The female begins to loosen up, but is still shy.
As the male paces, he does something daring that would get many eager young males such as himself killed, and playfully rubs her face and body with his tail. But he is lucky. The female is receptive and gives the male soft, low frequency purrs.
Eventually, the female rises and begins pacing herself. The pacing and tail dancing is, astonishingly, in sync. They dance in a circle before eventually converging. A bit shy, they slowly ease into face rubbing affectionately. Like their ancestors, their faces are adorned with areas sensitive to touch. This relaxes them, and they rub more passionately. The male then moves towards the back of the female, rubs his body and tail across hers. She purrs in delight.
Hours later, in the beauty of the night sky, they rest on the ground together, having mated for the first time. Our male has ended his days as a lone wolf, and will now stay with his mate for life.
The heavenly light of the morning sun flows into the window of an apartment building in New York city. A fan blows gently.
A woman giggles, suddenly. A mattress is bumped from underneath.
"I thought we got on the floor to cool off?"
Steve Martin lies on the floor of his bedroom, hands and arms locked with his girlfriend, Laura. The 23-year-old couple have just recently moved in together. Steve is a 5'8 man with straight black hair, a beard, a bulky athletic build yet soft facial features. Laura is 5'10 with the graceful body of a dancer, clear skin, soft facial features, and wavy brown hair that glows gold in the sun.
"We did genius," Laura quips.
"Then why aren't we in bed where the wind can hit us?"
"I told you when we got it, I don't like the bed. It's too soft."
"I know, but you told me to pick out any bed I wanted."
"Remind me never to do that again."
Steve smirks. "No, I like how it turned out for me."
Laura laughs. She adores him.
"You're a selfish asshole, yah know that?"
"I love you too."
The phone rings on a small table next to the bed. Laura, still laying on the floor, grabs it before Steve can move. As she holds the phone to her ear, her smile slowly fades. She then turns to Steve, handing him the phone.
"It's for you Steve."
Steve rises and holds the phone up. Steve nods slowly.
"How soon?... Understood. I'll be there shortly. Thank you sir."
Steve hands Laura the phone, who stands up to put it back on the table. As she does this, Steve also gets up off the floor. He then turns to his girlfriend, dismayed.
"Laura, I'm sorry, I really am. But the deadline was moved up. The expedition leaves in four hours."
Laura is flustered.
"That's bullshit, they can't call you in like that on such short notice."
Steve begins to throw clothes into his suitcase.
"I don't like it either, but that's how this job works sometimes. This is going to be a huge story, and I can't miss it."
He turns to Laura with a comforting smile.
"It's only a three day expedition. I'll be back before you even realize I'm gone."
"Just be safe, ok? I don't want three days to turn into a lifetime."
"I will be, sweetheart. Don't' worry about me."
Steve grabs his suitcase.
"You can work on your novel without any distractions," Steve says with a smirk
Laura smiles. He always tries to make her feel better.
Steve leaves the room.