Author: Peter Smith | Banner: Vincent Rodger

2019 – Classified Location

Dr. Arison sat in a chair quietly as he scanned the room around him. It was a cold, empty room with a table, two chairs, a mirror, and a blinking security camera in the upper right corner. He knew very well that this room was for interrogations. He twiddled his thumbs nervously, feeling the eyes from behind the mirror piercing into him as he awaited whoever would enter through the paneless door. A few dozen minutes went by until he heard the click of a door being unlocked. He looked up and watched a tall man enter through the threshold.

The man was semi-formal, wearing black pants and a white dress shirt. He wore suspenders as well. He was bald and somewhat muscular. Arison watched uncomfortably as the man sat down. He held a clipboard and looked at it.

“You’re Dr. Arison, correct?” the man’s voice was deep, but surprisingly soothing. He stared up at the clipboard and adjusted his specs.

“Yes,” said Arison. The tension in the room was high. The man began to converse more about Arison specifically.

“It says here that you have three PHDs. Evolutionary biology, toxicology, and genetics. Is that right?” Arison nodded. He seemed to read more information on his clipboard before setting it down gently and flipping it on its face, hiding whatever was documented on the other side. They stared at each other for a few awkward moments before the man spoke again. “Mr. Arison, I feel no need to beat around the bush. I believe you know why you’re here. Do you?” He tilted his head forward expecting a response.

“I think so,” Arison said.

The man exhaled softly in slight approval. He grabbed a folder that was tucked between his arms and opened it. Inside were more documents and a few photographs that Arison couldn’t make out from the angle that he observed them.

“You work for the government. Have been for twelve years. Is that correct?” Arison nodded. The man pulled out a paper and observed it. “Says here that you work under an obscure governmental operation called Project M.U.T.O. Established in 2007. Can you tell me about this project Mr. Arison?” Arison was tentative, and clearly didn’t want to respond to the question. “You understand that the continuation of the project depends on your answers today, correct?” Arison clearly didn’t know that. He opened his mouth, but couldn’t find the words at first. The man looked sternly at him.

“It’s a project to find possible detection of biological abnormalities,” Arison answered.

“What kind of abnormalities?”

Arison stood quiet for another long moment, debating whether he should continue. He reckoned that this man probably already knew everything about the project. He was curious to see how much Arison knew. The man beckoned once more.

“M.U.T.O stands for massive unidentified terrestrial organism. We work to discover and research these organisms.”

“Well your project has been fully funded for twelve years and not a single notable occurrence has been reported other than some obscure cave paintings.” Arison looked down for a second blankly. “The thing is, we don’t entirely believe that to be the case.”

Arison spoke up firmly saying, “Whose we?”

The man shut him down quickly. “That’s none of your concern. Earlier this year we got intel of an interesting discovery involving this project, but we have no reports from you or anyone else assigned to it. It’s a rather troubling situation. Twelve years of searching and now that you’ve discovered something of interest, you keep it classified from the people you work for. Now explain to me, what did you find?”

Arison went pale and began to sweat. He wondered why he had been the person to be interrogated when he wasn’t even that important of an asset to the project. There wasn’t a way around it. He had to spill something.

“We believe we found some sort of egg,” Arison announced. He paused for a moment

“Go on.”

“A large egg that we believe has extraterrestrial origin.”

The man responded, “You believe you’ve found signs of aliens?”

“We believe so,” Arison vocalized. He was surprised by how accepting this man was of that statement. He continued tentatively. “After we found the egg, we discovered it was dead. It was a few thousand years old, in a potential crash area of a meteorite from around that age. We believe this spore originated from the rock, but the spore didn’t die from physical trauma. It seemed to just die due to a lack of nutrition.”

“How would a spore survive a crash landing on a different planet?”

“We don’t really have an answer for you there,” relayed Arison. That much was completely true. They didn’t understand how a mere organism could survive crash landing only to die later. The man stared daggers into Arison, before speaking up a moment later.

“Why did the people working on this project hide this information?”

Arison couldn’t say that. He gambled and hoped that this man wasn’t aware why. He wondered if he could spin it into a lie of sorts, but at the moment he couldn’t think of any.

“You’ll have to ask people higher up than me. I don’t take care of these sorts of things.” Surprisingly, the man seemed partially satisfied with that answer. He sighed and stared blankly. Then, without warning, he stood up and walked out the door, leaving Arison to ponder their conversation in that cold room.

*****

2024 – NASA Observatory

In an observation laboratory in the United States, computers bleeped alarmingly. A series of large objects had been detected in the dark depths of space. A line of small asteroids were detected moving in a straight line, and were projected to crash into Earth within twenty hours. Farther back in the line, there was one larger asteroid following hundreds of thousands of miles behind. It would crash an hour later.

*****

Sydney, Australia

The bustling nature of the city was an overwhelming sensation to be newly exposed to. Every corner featured echoing sounds of car alarms, honks, and people walking to wherever they intended to. Sitting on a bench at 46 Bridge Street was a young woman named Isla. Isla was in her mid-twenties with red hair and freckles. She sat quietly looking down at her phone, ignoring the hustle and bustle of the streets. It was a particularly crowded weekday in Sydney, seemingly overflowing with hordes of people during the rush hour.

She was in a more busy tourist area, the famous opera house being only a few blocks away and the Harbour Bridge only a thirty second walk from visibility. It was a sunny day, with a few fluffy clouds scattered around the blue sky. All felt and seemed normal for the time being.

Isla looked up from her phone as she heard what she thought was a distant scream. No one paid much attention to it, but her curiosity got the best of her. She got up slowly and began to walk towards the area where the scream came from. As she did, the world seemed to pause momentarily. Chatter and the sound of footsteps ceased as people began to turn their attention away from whatever currently interested them. Many people were looking up into the sky, and multiple cars had stopped in the center of the road to gaze.

Isla went to where she saw many people standing, at the intersection between 46 Bridge Street and 36 Farrer Pl. She went into the now completely still road, and stared up. In the sky, soaring through the blue horizon, were a series of distant comets. Each left a red and white streak throughout the air. It was like a meteor shower, but these were moving slower and were much closer to the ground. Some seemed to be no more than a few thousand feet from her. Others seemed impossibly high in the air. She saw a minimum of two dozen of the rocks, but some of the higher up ones were breaking apart to become smaller. It was such an off putting sight that was just as mesmerizing as it was unnerving.

After a few seconds of staring at the rocks, Isla found herself backing up. She felt a slight sense of panic as she looked up. She feared that the rocks would drop out of the sky and crash directly into the city streets. She bumped into someone as she backed up, and she turned around quickly to get out of their way. She only saw a slight glimpse of the ball of fire before her worries came true.

The comet smashed into the top of a tall, oval-shaped building down the street opposite the direction of where everyone was looking. The entire top fourth of the building erupted in fire and debris. People began to scream erratically as Isla tried to cover her head in panic. She felt people pushing over each other and shoving their way in the opposite direction of the explosion. Another crashing sound echoed throughout the city as a second rock crashed into the buildings.

In the direction everyone was running, a third meteor crashed into the crowd on the street. Dozens instantly died from the explosion. No one knew where to run as different people tried to get to different places. Cars attempted to drive in the crowds, some running over people who screamed in terror as fire rained on the city.

Smoke and debris filled the air, blocking some visibility and ensuing more panic. Distant explosions echoed all around. Isla curled up on the sidewalk to avoid the crowds of terrorized people. She closed her eyes and covered her ears, hearing the people stampeding around the streets matched with the horrifying sounds of meteors striking the ground.

She began to cry as she rocked herself in a failed attempt to remain calm. She smelt flames and smoke as she heard screams of agony from people burning alive on the road. Eventually, the meteors finished their fall with a final crash, more distant than the others but distinctly louder.

Looking up from the sidewalk, the road was a mess of rubble and open fires. People continued to wail and sprint randomly. She quickly got to her feet and laid her back against the wall of the building behind her, pinning herself in place.

This went on for a few moments, until a new noise broke through the screams. A loud hissing noise paired with an animalistic shriek echoed throughout the air. It was a noise that was completely foreign to Isla, as she had no reference for anything that produced such a sound. In the smoky fog, she spotted someone running and looking behind himself rapidly as he sprinted, as if he was running from something more particular than anyone else. His silhouette ran in front of her about twenty meters away, and trailing behind him was another figure sprinting on all fours. As soon as she saw it, the creature lunged forward, pinning the man to the ground. It had the appearance of a disfigured bug the size of a person. With one swipe, the man instantly stopped screaming as blood violently flew throughout the air. A person next to the man screamed in response to the appearance of the bug-like animal, which instantly sprung at her, swiftly killing her.

Isla screamed and ran away back down the street, only to spot another of the bug-like monsters running along the sidewalk. This one was more in view. It looked like a mutated rhinoceros beetle. It let out an unearthly screech as it ripped through the panicking masses. Another one landed on top of a car, revealing insect wings. It ripped the roof off the car and grabbed the woman seated in it. She screamed as it effortlessly flew upwards into the air with her in its grasp.

Everywhere Isla looked, a beetle monster was. There were tons of them crawling along the windows and on the city streets. She ran directly into someone as she looked behind her. They shared a brief moment of panic together before a bug creature swiped him in the abdomen. He screamed in pain as it swiped once more, silencing him. The woman she had seen previously being lifted in the air fell onto the concrete, contorting from the fall and instantly dying.

Now on all fours, Isla backed into another building watching the carnage unfold. She watched people being murdered left and right as these monsters effortlessly mauled the people to death. Suddenly, Isla fell backwards from where there used to be a solid wall.

A door opened behind her that she was accidentally leaning on. She fell through it and found herself in a building. Someone behind her that she couldn’t see grabbed her and pulled her back from the door. She looked up and saw a man around her age, panicked and bleeding, dragging her away from the chaos. Isla stood up next to him and ran to a desk in the small store, hiding behind it, hearing the deaths of hundreds of people all around the two of them.

Isla tried to catch her breath as the chaos continued. The man next to her held her, allowing her to regain composure. They quietly sat under the desk, fearful of the demons outside.

*****

They were under that desk quietly for over an hour before the sounds outside began to quiet down. Their faces changed from absolute horror to a blank gaze as they got used to the noises of mass death and torment. Finally, when it all seemed quiet, they spoke.

“I’m Isla,” she spoke, not knowing where else to start.

“Ben,” he responded. “I’m Ben.” The two sat for another minute awkwardly. “What do we do now?”

Isla didn’t know. She wondered if the monsters had flown off by now to search through the city for more people to kill. She would have to check outside in order to find out. “I think we should look out there, and then try to get out of the city.” Ben nodded, and got up to do so. He peeked around the corner tentatively. Nothing. No monsters in sight.

“There’s nothing out there,” Ben whispered. They had to leave the city limits. They didn’t know if this was only happening in Sydney, Australia, or even the whole world, but they needed to get to a less populated area. “Do you think we should leave?”

Isla thought for a moment. “We don’t really have any other options. We’ll have to take the bridge. It’s close to here, right?” Ben nodded in agreement. Isla looked around the store quickly, scanning for anything useful. She hopped through an indoor window that led to the back counter. Once on the other side, she found a shotgun under the counter, hidden from anyone on the other side. She called Ben over to look.

“I don’t know how to use this. Do you have any idea?”

“Sort of,” Ben answered. He had shot a shotgun years ago, but didn’t know how to do anything proficiently with it. He offered to hold it, and she gave the gun to him.

“We should probably leave before dark,” Isla murmured. It was already past six, and they needed to get over the bridge to the less human-filled areas of the city before they couldn’t see. Isla grabbed a sweet on the way out, and slowly they walked outside. In the roads, there were countless dead bodies. Many of the windows on the building were shattered, but a lot of the windows appeared to have no glass in the frame at all. As they walked, they got a view of the sky. Some of the comet streaks were still painted in the sky over an hour after they had crashed, but that wasn’t what either of them focused on. The sky was green, and streaking through it was something that resembled the southern lights, floating in the daylight.

*****

In a desert landscape in central Australia, three sets of eyes opened. A massive beast awoke in a vacant section of the continent. It rose to its feet, revealing its full design. It was a three headed dragon, with long, powerful necks. Each was crowned with horns and spikes. The dragon was massive, so large it was beyond the understanding of human beings. No one could imagine a beast being so large in the physical world. It had golden and bronze scales running along its entire body. It had a set of fanned wings, each of which had curved spines on the ends. He was King Ghidorah, the destroyer of worlds.

He opened his wings and roared with ferocity. He was now on a new planet. A new place to conquer. However, there was something he had to take care of before he began his conquest of the globe. There was another being he knew of that, by coincidence, was traveling to the same planet in the cosmos. Ghidorah would not share his universe with a mere insect, and had to dispose of it first. He had followed behind it, reaching the planet shortly after it. He opened his wings, pushed off the floor with large sinewy legs, and took to the skies to dispose of his enemy.

*****

Isla and Ben traveled multiple blocks down the roads to reach the beginning of the harbor bridge in Sydney. It wasn’t a massive bridge, but the process of getting onto it was somewhat of a lengthy walk, despite the bridge being so close to where they first saw the meteors. The green sky was mesmerizing to look at, and made the journey seem less traumatizing. As they walked along the roads, they saw dozens, if not hundreds of dead bodies. They also saw a fair amount of living people along the roads, but most were hiding and staying where they were. The pair would rather just get out of the city fast. They wondered where all the bug monsters had gone. There wasn’t any sight of a single one, despite their previously being countless flying around the streets. They finally got to the base of the bridge. There were guest walkways on the bridge, but they figured it would be easier to stay on the main roads. They began their walk. About halfway through their crossing, a noise echoed throughout the sky. It sounded like the bug monsters, only much, much louder.

They both covered their ears in fear at the sound. A loud splash was heard shortly after. They both shot their heads to the right to see something that shook them to their cores. A massive, bug-like creature sprouted from the water. It resembled the smaller insectoid animals rampaging through the city, only thousands of times the size. Ben and Isla screamed in terror at the sight. The bug looked upwards over the bridge behind them. Isla turned around and saw a silhouette outlined by the sun’s rays, and then a loud thud as another creature hit the ground of the bay, sinking calf deep into the water. This animal had three long necks and massive horns. It was taller and more reptilian looking. It had massive wings as well.

Both animals roared at each other from either side of the bridge. Isla and Ben looked at each other, and without any words spoken between them, began running. King Ghidorah and the bug began to charge at each other, closing the gap between them where Isla and Ben ran. The shadow from the left side of the bridge grew in size as the hydra edged closer to the structure. Ben carried the gun, sweating profusely as he attempted to run. Isla was slightly faster than him, and was gaining distance.

“Run! Faster!” Isla screamed off the top of her lungs at Ben, who’s fear pumped him into sprinting at a speed he had never reached. The end of the suspension bridge neared them as they heard repeated thuds of massive claws and legs crushing the harbor floor. King Ghdiroah was only a single pace away from the bridge, his adversary still sprinting towards the dragon. Isla and Ben were only feet away from the end when they felt the entire bridge shake and bend as the iron broke from the force of the titans. Both humans went flying forwards, the concrete beneath their hands cracking. Isla managed to get to her feet and grabbed Ben’s hand, hoisting him up. They crossed the bridge line just as the entire structure folded in on itself, and a clash of the titans began.

*****

Legion was an interesting beast. She was the protector of her kind, whose job it was to spread her children across the universe. This is why Grand King Ghidorah hated her. He wanted the universe to himself. He wanted every planet, every solar system, and every galaxy to be his and his alone. Legion’s kind made that near impossible. The sheer speed with which she reproduced made it near impossible to eradicate her kind planet by planet. He needed to kill the Legion by the root. He had killed members of his own kind to ensure his dominion of the universe, and would stop at nothing to claim all of reality as his own. Killing Legion would make that task even easier.

The insect monster sprouted from dirt beneath the harbor when she heard the incoming dragon. She looked up to see him flying down and landing a fair bit away from her. Legion shrieked, hoping to intimidate her foe. The two were near the same size, with King Ghidorah being slightly taller, and Legion being slightly heavier.

The two didn’t stand off long. Quickly, they began to charge. A weird structure sat between them, but neither paid much attention to it. They closed in on each other, colliding with a massive shockwave that could be felt for miles. The bridge between the two of them crumbled and fell to the ground as the pair exchanged blows.

Ghidorah crashed his left most head into Legion’s side, using it like a fist as the horns slammed into her. It didn’t pierce her hide, but did send her flying back a bit. King Ghidorah walked through what remained of the harbor bridge, iron and steel bending under his weight. Legion swiped at the incoming beast, keeping Ghidorah from biting down on her with his heads. Ghidorah backed up from her, cackling in defiance at her attacks.

He charged up energy in his throats, unleashing a barrage of yellow beams of energy that zapped Legion. It felt like lightning scorching her. She managed to take the hit with little effort, to the dragon’s shock. Legion shrieked another time, warning Ghidorah with a threatening display. Ghidorah didn’t care. He had to kill Legion to conquer this world, and would stop at nothing to do so.

Legion’s horn opened up like a pair of scissors and began to glow blue. Shortly after, a blue ray erupted from that split horn, piercing Ghidorah before he could put up his energy barrier. The voltage did little to Ghidorah externally, but it did sting quite a lot. The heads cried out in pain from the sudden assault. Legion unleashed another beam, but the dragon enabled his energy barrier before it could get to him. The light ray dissipated into nothing once it hit that invisible wall.

King Ghidorah flew upwards above Legion, hoping to crash down onto her. As he dropped down, she moved out of the way. She was surprisingly swift for a creature of her size, and moved much faster than King Ghidorah. Once he landed, Legion slammed into him, knocking the beast to the ground with her bulk. He fell onto the crushed wire of the harbor bridge.

He got to his feet before Legion could trample him, taking to the skies once again. He flew higher this time, over twice as high as he did previously. The tips of his wings began to unleash purple bolts of energy that struck Legion violently. She called out in pain from the strike. She managed to split her horn once again, launching that blue bolt into the sky, hitting Grand King Ghidorah’s abdomen. His purple electricity halted as he braced from the heat. He managed to stay in the air, but was thrown off balance from the assault.

He tried to strike her with more gravity beams, but the strange appendages off the side of her head curled inwards and sparked blue as they neared her. An anti-energy field formed around her as she absorbed the energy from his strikes. Ghidorah had never encountered another creature that could also effortlessly block energy. Legion let out another call, one more distinct than her others. It sounded like a breaking radio.

The top part of her head, which resembled a large spike, began to pulsate a glowing amber color. King Ghidorah remained above her, attempting to break her energy field with more gravity bolts. A few broke through the field, but Legion continued her beckoning call even through the pain King Ghidorah was inflicting upon her.

In the distance behind Ghidorah, what appeared to be a third monster formed. Only it wasn’t a single monster. Thousands of the soldier legion flew in formation towards King Ghidorah, who attacked the Mother Legion as she cried out. They moved like a locust swarm, flying from the nest that their mother had been building. King Ghidorah didn’t notice the bugs at first, which were only a few seconds away from the golden dragon.

King Ghidorah felt an itch on his body, which quickly turned into more of an annoying sting. Another itch on his neck, and more on his tails. The heads looked down to see several small soldier legions forming on his body. The number continuously multiplied as the dragon halted his attack on the mother.

He began to panic as the number increased into the hundreds on his body. The stinging sensation spread across the dragon who called out in pain. Before long, a majority of his body was completely covered in the symbiotic legion, his golden scales being covered in the black of the insects. He fell down, falling onto the floor once again as he writhed in pain, struggling to get the monsters off of him. They would bite harder the more he moved, as barely any released their grips. Now Ghidorah was covered head to toe in the bugs as he cried in agony.

Legion began to move towards her downed enemy, who viciously thrashed in the water. She swiped at King Ghidorah, displacing a few of her children, but only momentarily as more filled their place. The golden terror rapidly unleashed gravity beams down onto his body in attempts to pry off the mother’s children. Many fell off, but at the cost of injuring himself. King Ghidorah released a barrage of bolts in every direction to stop the smaller ones from incoming.

Once most of the legion was off of him, he immediately began to put up his protective dome. Quickly, Ghidorah and Legion were encased in a massive red and orange dome that prevented the smaller creatures from entering. It was back to an even playing field.

King Ghidorah and Legion charged each other again, the three-headed dragon chomping into her with its three heads. The rightmost head managed to get the best grip on the bug, and ripped off a small appendage, throwing it aside through the dome, incinerating it. Legion swiped ferociously at the dragon, and was the superior of the two in close combat.

King Ghidorah quickly became overwhelmed from the continuous swipes from his adversary, backing up from her to avoid being struck again. Legion opened her horn once more, firing another blue ray at Grand King Ghidorah before his energy barrier came up. He cried out in pain.

The snake beast concentrated his gravity beams upon a single spot on the bug. The grand king fired at her horn, and the combined power of the beast’s heads broke through her protective shield, shattering her horn into tons of small pieces, leaving only a charred stub in its place.

Legion screeched in pain, her children not being able to defend her. The bug toppled to the ground as Grand King Ghidorah laughed with malevolent glee. The Legion seemed to die. The monster celebrated, roaring loudly in pride of his accomplishment.

The Mother Legion sat on the ground, hearing King Ghidorah’s premeditated victory. Her eyes opened up, revealing an angered red glow. She rose to her claws to her adversary’s surprise. King Ghidorah watched as she looked him in the eyes, her stump on her head glowing a bright red.

Suddenly, crimsoned colored energy whips sprung forth from where her horn previously sat, whipping the air and burning everything in their path. King Ghidorah stepped back in shock at the display, never once having encountered such a thing in his long life of planetary conquest. Legion’s whips reared back for a second, before extending outwards towards Grand King Ghidorah, piercing straight through his golden scales and out his back as the three heads called out in pain.

She pried them out only to once more inject them into the dragon, who continued to scream. King Ghidorah kept backing up as Legion moved towards him, piercing him continuously, leaving his body full of holes.

Legion then concentrated all her whips in a singular area of the wailing beast, the central head. All the whips wrapped around King Ghidorah’s middle neck, covering it in bands of glowing energy. She reared back quickly, and with her came the severed neck of King Ghidorah. The two headed dragon looked down at its injury and screamed in horror.

It had never occurred to the prideful monster that anything was capable of beating him. He had never come so close to death ever in his life. King Ghidorah fell back into his dome, which broke quickly under his weight as he crashed to the floor. The children had died off as they attempted to get through the acidic shield, but Legion’s assault never allowed King Ghidorah a minute to recover anyway.

Legion once again wrapped her tendrils around Grand King Ghidorah, this time on his leftmost head. She found the strength to pry it off, leaving the hydra with only one singular head. King Ghidorah felt his body slowing down as he began to lose energy. It was only a matter of time before Legion ended the beast by severing his third head. King Ghidorah laid in agony as the salt water entered his wounds, realizing that this day might be the end of him.

King Ghidorah had conquered so many worlds and had killed countless victims. There was no being in the universe who had killed as many as he had, and perhaps this assault was the universe’s version of justice. King Ghidorah thought of every planet he destroyed, every life he had taken, and every battle he had won. All that to die at the hands of stupid bug. Would that be his fate? No. He wouldn’t let it. He had a universe to conquer and wouldn’t allow himself to die to a common bug. King Ghidorah charged up all his energy hiding within his body and unleashed a massive gravity bolt into Legion’s abdomen. The force of the blast launched Legion off her feet and onto her back.

Struggling, King Ghidorah got to his feet, flew upwards, and landed on the bug’s head. Legion cried out as the golden dragon attempted to crush her. She swiped at his ankles with her claws and red tendrils, but couldn’t pierce him before he landed on top of her again. He continuously crushed her skull for minutes on end, never giving her the time to react. The red whips began to lose momentum as King Ghidorah contorted Legion’s face.

King Ghidorah flew upwards one final time to stomp his adversary. As he came down, he heard a satisfying crunch as Legion’s head caved in. The bug’s struggle stopped as she died. King Ghidorah stepped off her for a moment, looking at the shattered face of his enemy. Blood did not course through the insectoid’s body, merely pressurized gas which parted the waters. There was no victory call, and there was no pride. King Ghidorah had no strength in him to feel anything but exhausted. He had won, and couldn’t think of anything more than to let his body heal. He fell to his knees, no longer being able to support his body weight; he crashed into the ground, submerging himself into the blood filled water with only a single head on his body.

*****

Isla and Ben had hid inside an abandoned bus on the side of the road, waiting for the fighting of the beasts to end. Eventually, it did. They heard nothing but immense silence following the fight. Isla exited the bus and walked up the street, Ben trailing behind her. In the distance, they saw the mangled body of the large bug creature, and the toppled over body of the dragon laying beside her. Isla hoped they both had died.

Ben couldn’t believe his eyes, that such monsters existed in the world. He knew that everyday for the rest of his life, however long or short that may be, would be impacted by this day.“What world do we live in now?”

Isla didn’t have an answer for him. They stared silently at the bodies of the monsters, the sun now fully set and the aurora above them glowing brightly.

*****

Four Days Later – M.U.T.O Research Station

Arison sat alone in an observation room. He hadn’t gone to Sydney yet, but was leaving to go and see the monsters for himself in two days. He stared into the cavern that the observatory overlooked. In it, sat a massive lumbering beast in a deep sleep. Someone walked into the room.

It was his coworker, Megan. She also studied the beast in this operation. “You lost in thought?”

“Somewhat,” Arison said. He didn’t know what to think. All this time that he had observed the beast in front of him, he didn’t truly believe it would ever wake up. Now he wasn’t so sure. “Do you think she’ll ever wake up?”

“Yes. I’ve always thought that. I wonder if she knows about what happened last week.”

“How would she know? She’s asleep.” Arison always thought it was strange how much Megan believed this monster to be so intelligent. The brain suggested it wasn’t smarter than a bird, but Megan insisted it was capable of complex thought and reasoning.

“I think she knows more than we ever will about this world. She’s been in it longer than humans have existed. Maybe even longer than mammals.” That much was true. Arison wondered what the world would be like from now on. Now that people knew monsters existed. In his heart, Arison knew that Sydney wasn’t an isolated incident. He knew that the world was changing. It was only a matter of time before the world would fall victim to nature. One day, Jinshin-Mushi would awaken, and monsters will rule the planet.

Winner: Grand King Ghidorah