Over the course of the next hour, Gojira made his way into the Metro Area. He was walking slowly, feeling tired from his engagement with the Military. He didn't even know how he was tired, he had always felt Energetic, and when he consumed those people he didn't feel sustenance flowing into him. He knew a creature like him would have to consume probably over a Hundred-Thousand-Calories a Day, but he hadn't ever felt Hungry. He looked around him, it was still mostly rural, although he could see the lights of the city ahead. He walked over the highway, seeing some nearby Power Lines which he knew would make his journey easier if he took out. He pulled the powerlines down, sparks flew as he jerked them away and one of the towers that held them up crumpled too. He turned towards the city, the lights were shutting off, the only ones that remained were Solar Powered lights.
He walked into one of the towns at the edges of the Metro, his feet stomping on a Parked car, crushing it and causing it to explode. He made his way along the highway, and he felt a sting as he saw some police officers making a feeble attempt to stop him, he didn't know exactly why they were so dead-set on stopping him when it did nothing. He turned to them, and he looked at them as they quickly began to run away from him in fear, getting back into their cars and driving off. He breathed out his flammable gas, letting it spread far and wide until it covered the nearby buildings and officers, and then ignited it. The Resulting Explosion of which, destroyed them and the nearby buildings. He turned, not looking back on the Inferno he caused. The Area was much more densely populated, with the side of the highway seemingly completely lined with either homes or commercial enterprises. He looked at all of them, their lights off from the power he cut. He kept walking, he could see people waking up and driving away in their nearby homes, but he paid them no mind for now.
He heard Helicopter blades, a News Chopper was approaching him, it was shining its light into his eyes. He looked at it with annoyance, slamming his tail onto the ground as the Flashing Light ran up into his spine and he locked his feet into the highway. His Dorsal fins began to glow its Reddish-Orange this time as he prepared to fire his more powerful atomic beam, the chopper quickly began to head away, but it was no use. He fired the beam, the Orange cutting into the chopper and melting through it in less than a second, it exploded into flames midair and he dragged the beam down into the woods, for a brief moment it swept across the trees, causing them to combust spontaneously as he dragged it across the storefronts, which popped and melted instantly. He disengaged the beam, breathing out a puff of Ash and coughing. It had taken a lot of energy to do that, but as he looked around him at the destruction he caused, flames now engulfing the nearby woods, collapsing buildings and other damages he felt no pride in his work. He had no reason to do that, but his self-preservation kicked in one again and he kept going. He followed the highway, stepping over cars when they came under his foot and destroying them. Even if he was causing less annihilation now his path could still be traced easily by the orange lights of the fire he caused.
He came now to a Mass-Overpass intersection on the highway, looking at the winding roads, raised sections which either stood eye level with him or higher. He looked at them, firing up his Atomic powers again, this time they were weaker, he didn't need too much to deal with this. He fired it at bridges, melting into the structural parts and melting them. They began to collapse, falling to the ground and creating a cloud of dust around him. He stepped through it, emerging from the dust and moving onto the next town. He continued south, destroying more vehicles on the road. He eventually did look back, Orange spots dotting the area around the highway and the distant glow of his rampage made the regret come back again, but he couldn't keep regretting it, the emotion was pushed to the side. As he passed by a Major shopping center he felt gunfire from the soldiers, he turned to them, filling the entire complex with his flammable gas and igniting it, the whole complex exploded in a burst of flames. He continued further down, passing into yet another town, he would continue for a while, expending much of his energy and growing even more tired.
The Path of destruction he left grew longer.
Serizawa, asleep, was left alone for a bit. That was until he was awoken by another one of Packards soldiers and brought to a Wooden Table in the Mutagen HQ. He was sitting down, still tired, with many other people he did not recognize at the table.
"Dr Serizawa, this is Dr. Harling from the University of Cambridge." The General said, "He's a Paleontologist and Physicist. These are some of his associates. They specialize in Large Animals that shouldn't exist. As you can imagine, you're involved in the meeting because you were the head of the project that caused all this."
He nodded.
"Dr. Serizawa, I have to ask you this first." Harding spoke, "What do you know about this creature so far?"
Serizawa responded nearly instantly, "Well ... .We know that Gojira has some sort of Energy source, we also know it's not a conventional organism in the sense we see most others."
"Damn Right." Harding started, "Over the past 6 Hours we've been analyzing all the footage and information about this thing. From what we can tell, it's at least 64 Feet tall, and has a Theropod Structure. It also has to weigh at least 150 Tons, which is more than an Argentinasaurus. This would make it the heaviest land animal in history, and given this thing's speed, we've concluded this thing has a completely different bone structure and body than any living thing in history."
"Damn Right." Serizawa whispered.
"Not only that, but ignoring the square cube law implications, which themselves should prohibit this thing from existing, there is also the matter of its 'Energy' Attack, we've done some analysis on this thing, we think its generated from inside his chest, the light we've absorbed is its Spinal Cord Processing the Heat into the spines, which speeds up the process and prevents him from melting itself." Harding said, "Taking some spectra analysis and samples was tricky, but we've confirmed by now his Spines are made up of a Mix of Graphite and some other material, Graphite is a Great Heat Conductor and Radiator and is being used on NASAs upcoming Nuclear Spacecraft."
"Graphite." Serizawa said, "That makes sense, it's also durable…do we know what his scales are made of too?"
"Not yet." Harding said, waving his hand, "Tests from the labs aren't drawing any positives from the samples, whatever is in them isn't on the periodic table, and is also far more durable."
"More interesting, though, is his atomic ray itself." Harding told him, "Gojira's ray was easy to figure out, I'm sure you can recognize this chart, right?" Harding brought out a small Color Gradient, which Serizawa recognized pretty quickly.
"That's the color of Stars, yes?" Serizawa asked.
"Bingo." Harding answered, "Gojiras Heat Ray has an estimated temperature of 2,500 Kelvin, but we suspect the inside of it is higher, closer to 5,000. Much like a Star, the Interior and Exterior get brighter as he uses more energy in the beam. We saw him demonstrate this against the US Air Fleet that attacked him. Gojiras beam briefly matched the Temperature of a K-Type Sun, 5000 Kelvin. If it grows in power, it will turn yellow, then white, and become Blue once his beam reaches 15,000 Kelvin." Harding said, handing him a picture of Gojiras stronger orange beam.
"He hasn't used this beam much, so it must have some limitations." Serizawa said.
"Correct." Harding said once again, "We've observed Gojiras beam and walking pace getting Dimmer and Slower ever since he used the Orange Beam, it seems whatever sustains him is running out, meaning we might have a unique opportunity here."
"Opportunity for what?" Serizawa asked.
"Wait for Gojira to drain his energy reserves, and while he is incapable ... .capture him alive." Harding said.
"Are you kidding me?" Serizawa exclaimed, "He is over 60 feet tall and weighs more than just about anything….that's impossible, and even if you could he'd just adapt and escape!"
"Now now." Harding said, "We do have a solid plan on how to do this."
Another one of his men spoke up this time.
"I'm Alan Jones, I specialize in unconventional military tactics." The Man explained himself, "Our plan is simple, once Gojira exhausts himself of his reserves, he will leave himself open to capture, we will use Diamond Needles based off the Prototype GBU-600X, but instead of Thermobaric Payload we will use a Mixture of Coagulants and Viruses to put him to sleep, from there we will initiate and Inject a Neurotoxic into his brain, which will trick him into thinking he is just sleeping, from there we will analyze everything about him, extract the Mutagen and then put him down."
"So." Harding asked, "That's where you come in, you know more about how Mutagen works than just about anyone, and that's what we need to complete the operation."
Serizawa laughed with Sarcasm, before pausing and asking "Are you actually serious?"
"If we weren't serious, do we think we'd waste the past half hour talking to you?" Harding said.
"What you are proposing is insane, untested, and on such a Tight timetable that I would consider it impossible." Serizawa said, "Gojira could recharge his energy reserves or just not go offline at all, and you want to Capture him?"
"Yes." Harding said soundly.
"Not interested." Serizawa said, "What we need to do is evacuate everyone in his path and save as many lives as possible. I've…been responsible for enough deaths today." Serizawa told them solemnly, looking down at his shoes again.
"But with this we can save both lives and make advancements like never before!" Harding said, Serizawa felt anger welling up in him as Harding spoke his dangerous and foolish plan, "Think all of all the technology advancements we could make from studying Goj-"
Serizawa slammed his fist on the table, and they all stopped talking, staring towards him. Serizawa spoke, no, yelled his next words. "NO! We all know they will not be advancing the quality of life for anyone! They will open him up and just make more weapons! They will find a way to CONTROL Mutagen, and they will build weapons to conquer the world!" He got emotional, and a tear fell from his eyes.
He spoke softer now, and his next words were low and Solemn. "I've made the Mistake once, I helped make Mutagen, and now I think we both know that even if your plan worked that they'd take the same chance and make something far worse than Gojira ever Could."
"So, Mr Harding, I plead with you to not do it, I plead with you to make the right choice, go home, go help with evacuations, do anything but that." Serizawa said.
"So…you don't want to help us?" Jones asked with confusion.
"No, I want you to help yourself by not doing what you've claimed can be done, but can't, and shouldn't." Serizawa said.
"Suit yourself, it's been a pleasure speaking to you, I hope you change your mind Mr Serizawa, we'd be honored to have you." Harding said, and they all exited the room. Serizawa looked out the window from his chair, staying seated.
He hoped they didn't make things worse.
Above the Chaos, in orbit of Earth, sat RADSAT_1. Launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 in 2026, it had been observing Earth for the past year, collecting Data on Radioactive anomalies across the planet.
But now, orbiting above Texas, it picked up an anomaly, it began north of Oklahoma city, and trudged south nearly to Dallas, and strangely, it seemed to be moving against the wind further south…
….So when the information was received, it was quickly interpreted correctly as the path and result of Gojiras rampage, which was indeed suspected to be producing radiation. It was promptly passed down to the U.S Nuclear Commision (UNC) and then forwarded to General Packard. When he received it he was already on board his flight to Washington DC. He quickly looked at it, matching it up perfectly with what Gojira's path was, stunned, he then forwarded the information to Dr Harding, who he had contacted as a Second Opinion on what to do after Serizawa.
"Well, Blimey." Harding said as he looked at the map, "Goddamn, I guess we know what the source of his energy is…Nuclear radiation, or something like that."
"If he's radioactive, then that adds a whole level of Complexity to this whole Situation." Jones said, "Coagulants might not work, Perhaps ... .he's heading towards the Nuclear Power plants in Dallas, I know there is at least one there…he might be restocking-" Jones tried to explain but Harding held up his hand, stopping the group.
"No, No, I don't think that's what this is at all." Harding said, " I heard something about Packard saying he might be going towards the ocean, he seems more dead set on south than in the direction of the plants specifically."
"Either way." Harding said as they all stepped out of Mutagen HQ, looking up at the Full moon, The Tinges of Dawn setting in. "We'll get the job done, one way or another."
He had no idea what has happened in Dallas at that moment