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Godzilla roared as London was burning in a sea of flames. The creature before him had been fighting him and winning for the better part of an hour. Dagahra purred as it saw its Barem eat away at Godzilla's flesh. The four legged fish-dragon had come here sensing radiation. Thinking it had found a free meal, it instead found the King of the Monsters. Not deterred, the green monster attacked Godzilla, hoping to shift the balance of power in his favor by toppling the tyrant.
Not one to back away from a fight Godzilla stood his ground and despite all the odds against him, fought. Godzilla charged, ready to make this battle up close and personal, to bite and rip this foul beast apart. As he ran, he tripped, sliding on the ground and falling face first into Parliament.
"CUT!" yelled Ishiro Honda.
Several crew members rushed on stage to help the suit actors out of their costumes. Mr. Honda lit up a cigarette, took in a large mouthful, and then exhaled. It was another long day and he was wondering if he made the right choice. He had come out of retirement to make one more film, a documentary. One about giant monsters and their impact throughout history.
Toho, the film company he had worked for, had made many films, but some of their most popular were the documentaries, and easily their most popular among them were the ones about kaiju, alien invasions, anti-kaiju branches of the military like G-Force, their self-defense weapons like Masers and the science behind them, the military personnel, scientists and even civilians who had witnessed such historical events first hand and lived to tell the tale.
Mr. Honda would know. He, along with Eiji Tsuburaya, Akira Ifubube and Tomoyuki Tanaka, had witnessed the first Godzilla's attack on Tokyo in 1954 first hand. They would later make the first kaiju documentary using eyewitness accounts and photos and footage from the military and reporters, including a western reporter named Steve Martin and film dramatic reenactments using life size models of buildings, rubber suits, practical FX and pyrotechnics. It would open a door for many film companies to make similar films on the subject, and oddly it seemed like every film company had a favorite monster it liked to use as a subject, with Godzilla being Toho's and others being Gamera or Ultraman. But Mr. Honda's documentary on the first Godzilla attack and indeed the first kaiju attack ever would be the most famous.
It would also be easily one of their most controversial films.
Mr. Honda sighed. It's not that he didn't see how it would offend others, it was a sensitive topic even today, the first Godzilla's attack had happened only 9 short years after the Atomic Bombs were used on Japan during World War 2. Mr. Honda had driven by those ruins often.
Both subjects were sensitive on their own, the fact scientists like Dr. Yamane and Albert Einstein theorized that nuclear tests like the Hydrogen Bombs in the Pacific had disturbed and/or mutated Godzilla, and backed it up with evidence, only fueled international tensions that took decades to recover from, still recovering from in fact. But humanity needed to learn the truth about its self-destructive actions, it had awoken or created monsters through its arrogance and like it or not it had to take responsibility for its mistakes. A part of that meant some monsters would never be gotten rid of and that we are stuck with them and have to live and share the same planet with them, accepting them as a part of everyday life like tornadoes or earthquakes.
And so brings him to his current project and likely a new big time controversial one. It would be the anniversary of the 1954 attack soon, and the U.S. had recently declassified and released information that they had seen a second Godzilla during 1954, this one was different, brown with different shaped dorsal plates. All the nuclear tests in the Pacific were not tests, but a cover up, their true purpose was to kill the creature before it ever made landfall on any mainland.
They failed. Though no eyewitness ever got a good look at it and all photo and video evidence was of poor quality, there were enough sightings over the decades to prove that it was out there still swimming, as elusive as a cryptide like the Loch Ness Monster. There was now even allegations that all that bombing did was maybe created some of the later Godzillas who showed up, like the one that almost melted down and nearly destroyed the planet in a blaze. That Godzilla had been both a blessing and curse in how often it both saved and threaten the world.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much for Honda and his crew to work with regrading this mysterious brown Godzilla. Even it's alleged prey, the MUTO, were easier to make films about. Unlike the brown Godzilla, civilization was not lucky enough to avoid contact with these odd monsters. They attacked several cities looking for nuclear energy before finding one another and mating. They had several run ins with other monsters like Rodan, Gamera and the current Godzilla.
Their bodies were found, crushed, burning and headless on an island that was a dumping ground for nuclear waste. Though no one had witnessed the fight, experts were sure it was the mysterious brown Godzilla that MONARCH tried killing as the footprints matched it and not the current Godzilla. The fact it went out of its way to burn the egg clusters the female MUTO laid led experts to believe that the MUTO were a rival species to Godzilla much like Gyaos were to Gamera. Or at least this breed of Godzilla, the run ins with the currently active Godzilla could have just been a standard kaiju territory dispute.
That stay left very little to work with.
So the majority of the film was going to be about the original one who attacked in 1954 before being killed and later turned into Kiryu, the one who had saved the world from several alien invasions before resting on Monster Island permanently due to old age, and the current Godzilla.
And then there were other monsters that feed off of radiation and even some of the monsters that don't were awoken and rose from the oceans or underground like Baragon. The blasts being big enough to see from space may have even attracted some space monsters.
Mr. Honda sighed again.
He was wondering how many more setbacks this documentary could have. The suit actors had already almost drowned in the large pool on the first day of filming. Maybe he should have just done one more documentary on space and the other races out there or just a film that takes place in space. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy doing the kaiju documentaries, but he loved space and making films about space. Though with monsters like Hedorah and several failed invasions, sometimes kaiju and space overlapped.
It's not like there were aren't others who could do this film, several have done the job before and after his retirement. He wondered what they could do to make this film stand out. The monsters had been reenacted by pretty much everything, rubber suits, stop motion, Claymation, animation, CGI. There had used footage from the news plenty of time.
It was right when Mr. Honda had finished his smoking break and was getting ready to get his crew back to filming when the sirens went off. Everyone stopped what they were doing as an eerie silence fell on them sans the sirens.
"Attention everyone this is an emergency announcement. Godzilla has been sighted in Tokyo Bay. Please evacuate to a safe zone, such as your nearest underground shelter immediately. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. All looters and vandalizes will be arrested on sight by police and military personnel. Move all vehicles off the road so military personnel may move unopposed. If you cannot get to an underground shelter than keep your radio or television on at all times to be updated on Godzilla's current heading and position to avoid being in the same area."
Immediately the film crew started to panic and rushed to grab anything of value so it wouldn't be destroyed should the monster come to Toho studios. Film, camera, suits, anything that could be carried and was expensive to replace was being loaded up into cars and trucks so it wouldn't be destroyed. Mr. Honda had stopped after helping load some of the films when he realized something.
This was it! This is what the film could do that no other had. They could film Godzilla! True, they used actual footage before, but it always came from news outlets, military and civilians. Never had a film studio's crew gone out and actually filmed the creatures themselves with their cameras. Mr. Honda got on a crate and whistled to get everyone's attention. Everyone stopped midstep, staring.
"Listen up everyone, I'm going out there to film what is going to happen. Anyone who wants to stay is welcome to help, everyone else is should leave if you feel it's too dangerous" he said.
"Sir this is nuts, you sure about this?" asked a crew member.
"Yes, I'm sure," he calmly replied.
"Be careful, sir," the crew member said as he walked away.
Sure enough, most of the crew was gone and it was just him with a handful of men and women with cameras. He thought about what he was about to do. Sure, he had worked on dangerous films before, things caught on fire, actors and crew members got harmed, equipment got damaged, the explosives went off earlier than they should have but those were in controlled environments, things made by man. This was much different, this was like being storm chasers following a tornado, a living breathing tornado.
"Let's try not to get vaporized or crushed while out there!"
The crew set off, putting cameras on and around the buildings of Toho studios with their sights aimed at the bay, waiting. The wait wasn't a long one though… The ocean bubbled and frothed as Godzilla rose up from the depths, letting out a hellish roar from a creature very much out of its time. Boney maple leaf shaped spikes clanged together as he walked on the bay floor headed toward the city. Even from here the crew could see bits of green on the charcoal black monster, seaweed and other plant life that had got caught on the creatures smooth, tree bark like grooved skin. Fish could be seen flopping around in the grooves before falling off back into the ocean.
The crew felt awe, respect and fear all at once. Godzilla was said to be a beautiful, majestic creature, but also terrifying all at once by those who saw him in person. Now, seeing him with their own eyes the crew can attest to that. It was one thing to see him on film and in photos, it was another to see him standing in front of you with your own eyes. And he was already awe and fear inspiring on film and photos already.
Godzilla made his way on land and the crew was impressed again once they saw how tall he was. Tanks and jets opened fire, exploding several pounds of ammunition into the monster. The creature lived up to reputation thus far of being nearly indestructible, he didn't even seem fazed. He smashed into several buildings, rubble falling down, unable to withstand the kaiju's might. A jet broke out of its squadron and fired missiles directly into Godzilla's eye. This time Godzilla roared in irritation. His spiked flashed an azure blue and he fired his Atomic Breath, sweeping the ground and destroying several buildings before turning around and aiming his head up, destroying the lone jet that was brave but foolish enough to think could stop him.
The city fires cast Godzilla in an eerie orange glow, the smoke rising making him look like a creature that had rose right from the depths of Hell itself. Jagged lightning like energy burned into Godzilla's chest. He turned his head back and saw his attackers. Mr. Honda recognized them as masers, and unlike the older variants these were not carried on platforms by trucks but built into the tanks themselves. These must be one of the more recent models.
Godzilla charged forward, the maser team retreated all while firing the entire time. An unlucky maser got crushed underfoot. Godzilla roared and gave chase to the rest of the team.
"Look!" one of the crew members shouted. As Godzilla moved further into the city, a mini-tsunami headed toward land. The crew could only watch in horror as it crashed onto land. The results were instant and horrible. Buildings were damaged or downright destroyed, some were uprooted and swept away by the current. Some of the fires caused by Godzilla were instantly put out by the hellish current, causing huge amounts of steam to obscure the rest of the devastation.
Godzilla paused for a moment to look back, then turned around to resume his assault on the maser tanks. Honda and his crew started to feel footsteps. Footsteps that were separate from Godzilla's. Footsteps heavier than Godzilla's. Whatever it was seemed to be deliberately walking slow, as if to avoid detection, like a lion stalking its prey. Each step seemed to be timed to try and match Godzilla's. It appeared to be working, Godzilla didn't seem to notice. It's possible that the crew only noticed it because compared to a kaiju they were ants and would feel any tremor.
As the masers retreated the last one was unlucky. Godzilla would not let it go as he destroyed parts of a building causing the debris to block the road, cutting off its escape. Godzilla's foot came down on the weapon, destroying it and killing its driver. Godzilla roared and continued onward.
"Boss I think we should go, he's headed this way and we got plenty of footage," said one of the cameramen. Mr. Honda agreed and was just about to declare it time to leave when the wind blew some of the steam obscuring the second monster. No one could ever predict what or more accurately who it was gonna be.
The creature was still somewhat obscure by the steam and smoke, but now the crew could see the outline which looked awfully familiar. A brown foot came down, this time not timed with Godzilla's own. Godzilla stopped, either he had finally heard the second set of footsteps or he sensed he was being watched. Another brown, stumpy foot came down out of the smoke. This time Godzilla turned around and saw the face of his stalker who appeared out of nowhere like a ghost.
Godzilla jumped, as if startled or spooked. The monster walked out of the steam and smoke. If there was any doubt about what the creature really was, it was all but removed now.
A second Godzilla.
Mr. Honda stared in disbelief. Not just a second Godzilla, but THE second Godzilla, the second one from 1954 that MONARCH tried to nuke to Hell. No one had ever gotten a good look at it, but he was sure of it. The brown skin matched the descriptions from witnesses and the spikes matched the photos and video taken of it swimming.
This Godzilla looked different for sure, it slouched, its skin was covered in scales unlike its smooth cousin, the spikes were shaped like broken shards of glass instead of maple leaves, it held its arms downward instead of up. Where the Godzilla the world knew looked like a dinosaur with dorsal plated, this one looked like a crocodile walking on two legs with dorsal plates. The feet were like elephants. The crew wondered if how a Godzilla looked depended on the individual or if this was a related but separate species or breed.
It also looked ancient, far older than any lifeform should be, even by kaiju standards. While exact numbers are unknown, several monsters, including Godzilla, have shown that they were not one of a kind. The fact some monsters could literally revive from death itself made it even harder to determine if a monster was one of a kind, last of its kind, first of its kind or if there were more. It can be assumed that the Godzillas everyone knows were not millions of years old, but offspring of several generations that reproduced in isolation to today.
But this brown Godzilla gave the entire film crew the impression that he was no offspring born during or after the atomic age. No he felt like he was born before the dinosaurs and lived long enough to witness several mass extinctions. Truth be told, the crew would say they felt like death itself had forgotten about him and he just continued on.
This Elder Godzilla walked toward Godzilla, shaking the ground worse than him. It had to weigh more than SpaceGodzilla or Destoroyah and weighed almost as much as Biollante's rose form. And if Ishiro Honda was right about this being the mystery brown Godzilla, then it did. The depth of the footprints is often used to figure out how heavy a monster is, the footprints of the one they tried to kill in the pacific was on record as being by far the heavyset Godzilla ever record.
It was then Mr. Honda noticed two things he didn't before. This Godzilla had armor on its body, mainly its chest, around the top of its head and face and segmented armor on its tail. "Well, that explains the extra weight," he thought. The other was when it breathed in and out, this Elder Godzilla had gills on the side of its neck.
The film crew was both excited and scared. They were the first to get a good look at and good footage of this Godzilla, and knew more about it in just a few seconds by getting a good look at it than the experts did for decades staring at blurry images on film projectors.
Godzilla stood his ground, neither advancing nor backing down as he stared at this doppelganger. He was oddly silent. He gritted his teeth in anger and frustration. The last thing he wanted to do is fight an Elder. Damn his luck!
The Elder Godzilla stared at this younger Godzilla. This was the reckless wild card who had just as often put the world in danger as well as save it. That he had saved it was of no concern to him, this young one was a power hungry tyrant, feeding off of man-made radiation from plant to plant, sub to sub with no concern for the dangers of eating too much. He was gonna teach this arrogant creature a lesson, or kill him. It matters not which, as long as it stops. He was too old to care that they were some of the last of their kind.
The Elder Godzilla took one step closer, and stared. Ember rose to the sky as buildings burned around them. Then the Elder roared a booming bellow that seemed to never end, but for what seemed to be an eternity. Godzilla responded with a roar of his own. A whoosh noise was heard, followed by what sounded like a generator charging up, lightning flashed in the sky as blue energy glowed internally inside the Elder's spikes.
Godzilla knew what was going to happen and rushed forward, hoping to grab the Elder by the mouth and shut it or force him to aim somewhere else. By the time he got within arm’s reach of him, the Elder's chest puffed up as he sucked in air. Thinking quickly, Godzilla's spikes were engulfed in an external glow of a different shade of blue. The Elder moved his head and open his mouth to let loose, but the younger Godzilla's Atomic Breath took much less time to charge, opening his mouth and letting loose at the same time.
At point blank range, both Godzillas had let their Atomic Breath out at the same time. Ray clashing at such close range was like setting off a nuclear bomb and containing it to a small spot. There could only be one real logical conclusion to what would happen.
Both monsters and the area were bathed in a blue-white light before a massive explosion engulfed everything, sending both monsters tumbling backward.
Both Godzillas got up. The Monster King was ready to charge at the Elder but hesitated when he saw his spikes were still glowing. The Elder smiled. He didn't know his own heritage or how his ancestor’s powers worked. Good, he can use this to his advantage. The Elder breathed in and out, Godzilla mistook this for the Elder getting ready to launch another blast of his Atomic Breath, so the King of the Monsters was caught completely off guard when the Elder ran right at him.
The Elder's body slammed into Godzilla. Immediately Godzilla knew that while they were nearly the same size, they were not the same weight. The Elder Godzilla was heavier than him. The skin felt much rougher too, some kind of armor, like the kind on Rodan's chest or Anguirus, Bargon and Varen's backs. That would explain why he was heavier. But not the heaviest enemy he has ever faced, nor the most armored. Godzilla pushed, causing the Elder Godzilla to slide back. The Elder pushed back and Godzilla soon learned a third thing, the Elder was physically much stronger than him.
Soon it was Godzilla who was sliding back, pushing with both hands on the Elder's shoulders while the much older, brown Godzilla pushed him with one hand on his chest. Godzilla dug his feet in the ground to stop sliding, suddenly shoving with all his might, throwing the Elder off balance. Godzilla knew he couldn't win a pushing contest, but he had picked up and thrown much bigger and heavier foes than this. He grabbed onto the Elder, picked him up and was immediately met with a face full of burning blue energy that flickered and danced like fire.
Godzilla dropped his counterpart as he screamed in pain. The Elder swung his tail into Godzilla's chest, the blow from the heavy segmented armor knocked the wind out of Godzilla as he stumbled back, dry-heaving in pain. The Elder reached forward, garbing the younger monster by the head, and slammed his own armored head into the mutant's. Godzilla was seeing double, no, triple as he stumbled backward.
Godzilla heard a sound that sounded suspiciously like a splash in water or a whoosh from air movement before it slowly changed into sounding like a generator powering up. Godzilla saw the blue through his hazy vision and figured he had time to counter attack. He slashed out with his claws and missed, then tried tail whipping but the Elder moved back. When Godzilla's vision cleared the brown monster's spikes glowing internally with blue energy as he puffed up his chest and fired.
Godzilla stumbled back from the pain. Now that the monsters were no longer at close range, the film crew could see that while the brown Godzilla's Atomic Breath was similar to the one they knew, it was different. The blue was lighter, the breath was more washed out white and the ray was more like a fire, flickering with flames dancing out now and again.
The Elder would smile if he could while firing, it was just as he suspected. The younger monster did not know how his Atomic Breath worked. The Elder Godzilla had been born in a time when the planet was much, much more radioactive than it is today. His species as well as many others like the MUTO had naturally evolved and adapt to such an environment. Then the radiation died down over the centuries. The MUTO dug underground to get closer to the Earth's core and feed off the radiation, some of his own kind had gone closer to the ocean bottom to do the same.
He had been alive long enough to see many things, he had seen his species get smaller and weaker through generations of evolution, losing their armor or their Atomic Breath. With no more high amounts of radiation there were no more large rivals and thus no more reason to be kaiju. Some of the decedent’s offspring branched off into a subspecies that would evolve into what many would call the Godzillasaurs. He had lived through several mass extinctions, including the one that killed off most of the dinosaurs. Then came the human race. For the most part they were of barely any note to him, he had come to the surface once in a while and seen them, and they seemed to be just another species that would come and go, just as most of his kind had. But then they got smart, and one day split the atom.
Monsters such as the MUTO reawakened, and even worst, unnatural monsters, mutants, were born, no, created! The creature before him was once just a Godzillasaurs when exposure to man-made radiation had jumpstarted its evolution, mutating it into a creature more similar to its ancestors, more similar to him. But as far as the Elder was concerned, it was a mutation and a poor imitation of the real thing. It was nothing more than a man-made mistake, a shadow of the species former self. It couldn't even handle his Atomic Breath.
Then the mutant stopped moving back. The Elder eyebrows raise slightly at this. Then something unexpected happened. The younger monster started moving forward. The Elder's eyes widened in shock. Godzilla marched forward, skin burning to a crisp on his chest and grappled with the Elder who continued spitting. The Elder grabbed onto Godzilla's shoulder with one claw and punched with the other. Godzilla bit down on the Elder's arm, causing him to cease firing and to grunt in pain, the Elder learning the hard way that Godzilla's jaws had double rows of teeth. Godzilla punched and clawed, sparks flying every time his nails scratch an armored hide. The Elder used his free claw to gouge out one of Godzilla's eyes, causing him to roar in pain.
Godzilla's spikes flashed with external blue-white energy, making a noise that sounded like a downed live wire crackling. The noise was loud enough that even from far away the film crew had to cover their ears. Godzilla fired his atomic breath sending the natural kaiju flying backward, Godzilla fired again, sending flying further back, this time he didn't let up and continued the stream, the Elder sliding farther and farther till his feet gave out and he fell forward, gasping for air after the hit.
What power! The mutant's Atomic Breath was more powerful.
The Elder looked up and saw that the burnt skin on Godzilla's face had healed and even the skin on his chest was starting to heal before the steam had even gone cleared up. The Elder started to realize he had underestimated this Godzilla, he was used to fighting natural monsters, not mutants and this monster had mutated in some interesting ways. Stronger Atomic Breath, less charge time and while it lacked armor, it had super-fast regenerative abilities. While his species were naturally good at healing, they weren't good enough to heal in the middle of a fight!
He realized this fight was going to take longer than he thought. What else was this unnatural Godzilla capable of that nature never intended?
Godzilla watched as the Elder got up. Noticing that while the armor had been damaged by both his claws and atomic breath, it wasn't anything significant. Just some slash marks and dark, black burnt splotches. To say he didn't injure the Elder would be false, but at this rate if he wanted to end the fight using this strategy he was going to have to chisel at him for hours.
Godzilla had fought enough monsters over the years to be cautious. Even against a natural monster he took them seriously. The natural Godzilla's armor was going to be a problem. It was not as tough as the armor on some of the machines like Mechagodzilla, but it was close enough, and his fighting style was different, the Elder being better at fighting with tooth and claw.
The Elder had the armor, strength, weight and melee skills.
Godzilla had the healing, super powers, youth, energy, and stamina. While it's true the Elder had centuries of experience more, the Elder was used to being the top predator, Godzilla was used to being an underdog. Even without clones or robot doubles, he still had experience fighting monsters more powerful than himself, like Destoroyah, or space monsters or gods.
Godzilla knew he had the advantage, but it was still going to be a close fight.
The two monsters made their way to each other and traded blows. Godzilla grabbed the Elder's shoulder, who immediately broke his grip, unleashing a barrage of punches and claw strikes into his chest. Godzilla retaliated by slashing the stomach and sides of the Elder, digging in his claws as deep as possible, avoiding the armor as much as he can. The Elder grabbed him by the throat and punching with the other claw in the face over and over while pushing Godzilla back.
Godzilla kneed the Elder in the stomach as hard as he could. The Elder's held his stomach in pain as Godzilla backed up, then ran forward and jumped up, delivering a powerful drop kick to the Elder Godzilla's face. Godzilla swung his tail smacking the still recovering monster's face, blood flying in the air. The Elder couldn't see out of one of his eyes as it was swollen shut. Godzilla picked up the Elder and threw him down to the ground, curb stomping him.
Godzilla fell, roaring in surprise as the Elder grabbed his leg, pulling him down to the ground. The Elder rolled over on top of Godzilla, pummeling him. Godzilla tried blocking the strikes in vain, the Elder was punching too fast and hard for him to keep up or even breathe. Godzilla raised his knees behind the Elder's butt, grabbed his shoulder, and rolled backward, using the heavier monsters weight and momentum to roll him off.
Once more the two kings rose to their feet. Godzilla kicked the Elder in his genitalia, making him bend over. Godzilla grabbed him by the head and neck, running toward a large skyscraper while pulling him forward. The Elder's head smashed into the building. Several floors caved in, glass, papers, chairs, computers and office desks fell down to the street floor.
Godzilla let go, jumping back away from the other Godzilla's claws. Godzilla's spines crackled to life with deadly energy. The Elder braced himself, but Godzilla fired above his head, demolishing parts of the building behind him. Debris rained down on the Elder bouncing off his armored head. The Elder stared daggers at the mutant, wondering what he was doing. Godzilla merely stared back before lifting his head to look up. The Elder, confused, cautiously looked up behind himself. It was a second before impact when he realized that the younger monster had cut off the top of the skyscraper.
Tons of steel, glass and concert fell on top of the beast, burying him. Godzilla smirked. The fight was over. Debris exploded into the air as the Elder jumped out of his man made tomb, grabbing Godzilla by the head and groin. He lifted him up, turned him upside down and performed a suplex, slamming him head first into the ground.
Mr. Honda and his crew realized the two monsters were getting awfully close to the Toho film studios. And getting closer still. They loaded up their trucks and drove to a safer distance, Honda and several cameraman sitting in the backs, still filming.
The Elder picked up a large boulder leftover from the destroyed skyscraper, and bashed Godzilla in the head several times. One such blow caused one of Godzilla's eyes to pop out of its socket, hanging by its optic nerve. Godzilla spat blue burning hot energy at the Elder to force him to back off. Godzilla gritted his teeth in pain as he pushed the eye back into its socket. He had felt worst pain before, he swam in lava before.
Godzilla charged at the Elder, trying in vain to scratch the Elder's non-armored parts. But the older monster kept blocking his blows. Godzilla's spines flashed once more. Mistaking this for a warning of another Atomic Blast, the Elder threw the boulder at Godzilla's chest, a loud thud could be heard. Instead of opening his mouth to fire another blast of his main weapon, Godzilla punched and clawed the Elder, conducting energy through his touch. Blue, lightning like bolts zapped and burned the Elder's body. Godzilla wasn't even aiming for the unarmored spots anymore. Even when he hit the face or chest armor it hurt.
Godzilla unleashed a barrage of these attacks, wailing on the older monster, making him take a step back each time. Blood flew out of the Elder mouth and noise. The Elder fell to his hands and knees, breathing hard with a black eye. Godzilla saw that the Elder was exhausted. Old age had caught up with this monster, while he could fight, he didn't have the energy he did back in his youth.
The Elder realized he had underestimated the other monster. Apparently mutation had given this Godzilla powers nature never intended. He needed to end this fight soon, he had a feeling he didn't want to know what other powers this creature had gotten from being exposed to unnatural sources of energy. His spines lite up from the tip of his tail to his head. The Elder rose, lightning flashing in the sky above him.
He puffed up his chest ready to fire, but Godzilla lunged at him, biting down on the set of gills on the right side of his neck, drawing blood. The Elder screamed out in pain. Godzilla's skin was like a frogs, absorbing oxygen through water. He need never worry about drowning. The case for the Elder was not the same. From the moment Godzilla had seen the gills, he knew they were a weak spot and had been purposely avoiding them and hitting every other unarmored part of the brown monster’s body to lure the rival Godzilla into a false sense of security. Now his patience had paid off. The rival monster king had lowered his guard and left his easiest weakness exploitable.
Godzilla rose one of his claws, plunging it into the second set of gills on the other side of the neck. Blue energy bolts cracked and zapped from Godzilla's claws and teeth. The Elder Godzilla's skin burned, sizzled and popped. The gills were getting the worst damage. Godzilla wasn't satisfied with just this, and fired his Atomic Breath into the open wound he was currently biting into.
The Elder punched and pushed furiously. Godzilla kicked the Elder Godzilla back, still firing his signature weapon. The Elder walking backward as he tried in vain to fight the forces pushing him. The two monster kings stared each other down before both unleashed their heat rays. Godzilla's breath was an almost solid blue ray, the core white, surrounded by a dark blue with "dots" or "streaks" in it, the subatomic particles generating so much heat their collision with other atoms in the air, causing them to heat up and speed away, a chain reaction so violent even the human eye could see it, hence the "dots".
The Elder's breath was light blue, almost washed out or saturated completely by the white core, and flickering like fire and "vapor" made out of the subatomic particles splashing away. Both weapons were the same thing, plasma. But their different levels of intensities and focus made them behave differently, thus it looked like a laser fighting fire.
The two rays bathed a large chunk of the city in a beautiful, otherworldly, even ghostly blue light. The Elder's suspicions of the other Godzilla's weapon proved true. Godzilla's ray was winning the struggle, pushing the Elder's breath back toward him. The Elder pushed more energy into his ray, all of his energy in fact, stopping Godzilla's breath and even pushing it back. Godzilla seemed unfazed and pushed more energy into his own ray. The odds were back in his favor.
The Elder realized he could not win this ray struggle. He had fought one other creature like this back in 1954 at the bottom of the ocean. That Godzilla was black and white, the subatomic particles in his Atomic Breath not as strong as his own, looking like glowing steam as opposed to his fire like one. The Elder had won that ray struggle. Now that his was failing in the face of this mutant's laser like ray, he realized what the 1954 Godzilla felt when he lost to the Elder. He hadn't seen that Godzilla since, and sometimes wondered what happened to him.
The meeting point between the two destructive energy weapons was no longer even, with the meeting point being much closer to the Elder than Godzilla. An explosion occurred, and while both monsters were hurt by it, the Elder got the worst of it, being blasted back, laying on the ground, whereas Godzilla merely dug his feet into the ground, and stood tall, taking the lesser burnt of it.
Godzilla advanced on the weakened monster. Firing another blast that knocked the wind out of the Elder. The Elder's body was in agony. It felt like when the humans tried killing him long ago with a huge fireball. He had suffered broken bones and fourth degree burns. He still had scars from that blast after all these decades. The radiation he fed off of from the attack helped immensely in his recovery.
The Elder got up. Godzilla continued to advance. He thought he had won this battle, he had no idea what the Elder had in mind. Just a little closer. The Elder smirked, causing Godzilla to be enraged at this mere defiance. The bait was taken, just a little closer. Godzilla ran forward, seeing nothing but red in his pure rage! His spines charging once more, ready to kill the Elder with a barrage of point blank blasts, having no clue that he had snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
NOW!
The Elder swung around, smashing his heavy, segmented armored tail into Godzilla's chest. A look of rage was replaced with a look of horrified surprise as Godzilla heard his ribs break, the impact strong enough to actually make one of his ribs stab out of his back. The whiplash made Godzilla's head snap back, firing into the sky harmlessly. The Elder twisted around again, the tail smashing into Godzilla's leg, bending it backward. Godzilla hopped backward away from the next assault, grabbing his broken leg and snapping it back into place.
The Elder proved himself to be a true predator as he had gotten closer to Godzilla without making enough sound to be detected by him. By the time Godzilla looked up, he saw the tail come down and slam into his shoulder, dislocating his arm from its socket, hanging limply from his side, useless. Godzilla screamed in pain before the tail came down again, this time on his head, causing fractures to his skull. The Elder spun a full 360 this time, slamming his tail into Godzilla's jaw breaking it.
The jaw hung open, the Elder swung, ready to end this fight when Godzilla would pull one of his most amazing feats in history. Godzilla ducked before grabbing onto the tail with his one good arm, and with this one arm only lifted the Elder Godzilla into the air by his tail. The Elder's eyes widened in unbelieving shock, clawing at the ground to remain grounded and failing. Godzilla lifted and threw a creature heavy enough to rival some of the largest monsters to ever be recorded in history, human or otherwise.
The Elder saw Godzilla's spines crackle with red energy. For the first time in centuries he felt fear, a feeling he thought he had forgotten how to even feel. Red energy soon pooled into Godzilla's mouth. The Elder didn't even want to know what red meant, he needed to end this fight now. With a sudden burst of speed he never thought himself capable of the Elder Godzilla's grabbed the mutant by the throat with one claw, squeezing and closed the mouth with the other.
Nowhere to go, that's what the Elder thought. Nowhere for the energy to go, no Atomic Breath or whatever it was Godzilla was powering up. The Elder kneed Godzilla in the stomach with his leg several times. Looking into his eyes, he was confused to see Godzilla didn't seem scared. No gloating, but not worried either. He seemed indifferent. Why wasn't he worried?
A bright flash of light and energy emitted from Godzilla's body, sending the Elder flying backward. The Nuclear Pulse had torn most of the armor off the monster. In fact, it was a moment after the Elder got up that his chest armor fell on a gas station, causing a massive explosion and one of his tail armor segments fell down, almost smashing the Toho film studios, embedding itself into the ground, sticking out like a knife. Parts of his face had been burned off, showing bone or muscle underneath.
Godzilla's spines were still flashing red, the Elder got on his feet, charging forward like a steam powered train. Godzilla fired a blood red ray with a crimson lightning bolt spiraling around it. The powerful attack slammed into the Elder's chest, burning flesh off. The Elder half ran, half dug his foot in the ground, pushing against the force and burning heat with all his might. Godzilla poured more energy into his attack, but it wasn't enough.
The mutant soon realized they had something in common, something that allowed them both to overcome impossible odds, to beat monsters faster, smarter or stronger than themselves.
An unbreakable will.
The Elder built up speed, soon he was running at full speed, he couldn't stop even if he wanted, which he didn't. By the time the Elder reached Godzilla the Red Spiral Ray had stopped. Godzilla was ready to fire another blast when the Elder grabbed him by the head, clamping his jaws shut on the open maw of Godzilla. His spines charged up quickly, the Elder spat his burning hot plasma down Godzilla's throat in a literal kiss of death. Godzilla's body convulsed, he kicked and punched with his good arm. Finally, his eyes rolled up into his head, and his body went limp.
The Elder broke off the kiss, smoke coming out of his and Godzilla's mouth and nostrils, dropping the mutant down to the ground. The Elder took a moment to catch his breath before turning around, and headed back to the sea, flesh burnt off his chest, exposing his ribs. The Elder didn't walk long before he stopped. Something didn't feel right. He turned around.
Godzilla was back on his feet, smoke still issuing from his mouth and nose. He had only lost consciousness for a few seconds! What a monster! Scientists could only compare it to Biollante being shot in the mouth by Godzilla or Megalon having one of his own Napalm Bombs thrown back in his mouth and exploding. His durability and regeneration were high even inside his body!
The Elder felt fear. He fought strong monsters before, but he was almost always the top of the food chain, even among his own. Godzilla raised his one good fist up, getting into a fighting stance.
Something changed. The Elder no longer looked at this creature with such disdain, instead he now looked at him with much respect. He had looked at this battle the wrong way, it didn't matter that this was evolution versus mutation, natural monsters versus man-made accidents. He had the same unbreakable will as his own. Natural or not, they were one and the same. He had the same fighting spirit as his ancestors did.
The Elder now saw him as an equal, and suddenly, it didn't seem so bad he was abnormal. After all, he lived a lonely existence due to his lifespan. He could claim most things were natural. Most things. His lifespan was not. He knew that he should have died of old age a long time ago, after all that what happened to the others of his kind. He lived longer than he should have ever been able to, almost as if Death refused to take him, like some higher power was keeping him alive for an unknown purpose.
The Elder slowly rose his claws up, getting into a fighting stance. Soon an epic boxing match took place, blood and teeth flew. Blow after blow was traded, no attempts at dodging was made. It seemed this fight would go on forever. Finally Godzilla was swaying back and forth, his injuries having caught up to him at last. One more punch to the face and Godzilla was down, almost crushing the Toho film studios.
The Elder stared at his unmoving body. Before he had come to kill him, Godzilla had threatened the world before. But would he do it now? No. He had changed his mind. Godzilla had saved the world as well. The Elder didn't know what gave him such an unnaturally long life or why, but he couldn't protect the planet forever. Time was not allowed to kill him, but others were.
The world was filled with monsters again, and unlike the last one, this new age of monsters was filled with things unlike anything he had fought before back in his days, most of them not natural or even of this planet. He was only one monster, and unlike him, Godzilla was used to fighting everything and no stranger to being an underdog.
One of the best means of protection for the world was one of the biggest former threats. In an insane world, this fact made sense. There wasn't many of their kind left, and the Elder realized it was better for the planet to have a species of Alpha Predators protecting it instead of just one.
The Elder turned to walk when a claw grabbed his leg. The Elder looked down, seeing Godzilla struggling to get up, growling how he would murder him. The Elder gave an almost exasperated look of exhaustion before slamming his free foot down on Godzilla's head knocking him out cold.
For real this time.
Unbreakable will was a blessing for their kind, but at times could also be a curse. The Elder walked back to the ocean. Exhausted but alive. He stopped long enough to give out a long roar that seemed to go on forever before resuming his march. Honda and his crew watched and filmed as this other King of the Monsters returned to his watery home, the setting sun making him look like a shadow in the sparkling water. Fires were still going on his gills, but were too small to hurt or even be noticed by the brown Godzilla. A helicopter flew by, firing a tracking device into the creatures open chest wound.
The creature didn't seem to notice that either. Once at neck level, smoke rose as the fires were put out by the water rushing into the gills. Blood washed away from the gills as the creature swam out like a giant crocodile and disappeared into the depths.
Honda and his crew were startled as Godzilla rose to his feet, having regained consciousness. He too made his way back to the ocean, his tail barely missing the Toho film studios. The helicopter made its way past Godzilla, landing in the studio parking lot, the Monarch logo on the side. As the engine died down the crew was surprised to see the world famous kaijuologist, Dr. Serizawa, step out of the chopper.
While not the same man, the fact he shared his name with the scientist who sacrificed his life to stop the original Godzilla that attacked Japan back in 1954 was no coincidence. A relative, in honor of that sacrifice, named their child after him, who would later grow up to work for Monarch and study the brown Godzilla and MUTO. It seemed the family was forever destined to be tied with Godzilla in one way or another.
The film crew went over to greet him, asking if they could interview him for their film, and he agreed on the condition they allow Monarch to look at their footage for research purposes.
Godzilla stopped. Suddenly he fired a blast of blue energy from his mouth into the sky, then continued walking. Everyone jumped in shock as a Giant Condor fell to the ground, on fire and dead, shaking the ground for miles. Godzilla let out a grunt sounding much like a giant lion. He was in no mood to deal with another surprise attacker.
Godzilla walked into the ocean, grabbing his jaw, snapping it back into place before he too disappeared in the dying sunlight and ocean waves.
Today two monster kings had clashed. Honda remembered Dr. Yamane saying he could not believe the first Godzilla was the only surviving member of its kind, and wondered not for the first time in his life, how many there were hiding in the deepest darkest oceans.
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Several months later.
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Gojira vs. Godzilla: How The Atomic Age Became The Age of Monsters.
The title was a mouthful, but it was a major success, easily one of the biggest documentaries Toho had ever made. Monarch had given constant updates on the brown Godzilla even up to the films post-production was being completed. Due to the epic battle that took place right at the film studios own doorsteps, it became clear this brown Godzilla could and would go anywhere on the planet and was not exactly an ally of the creature that had long since protected/destroyed Japan for years.
Now that it was known both creatures were alive and well, for the sake of avoiding confusion, it was decided that the international name for the Godzilla who called Japan's waters his home would be his Japanese name, Gojira, while the brown one that the U.S. tried to kill would instead be called Godzilla from now on.
One thing remained on everyone's mind about the predator now. Where was he?
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On an island several miles from Japan's mainland, Anguirus barked a warning at the Elder. The Elder Godzilla smirked. So this was what Godzilla was doing when he roared bloody murder; he was calling for reinforcements. Anguirus's kind had been a rival species of their own kind. That Godzilla had been able to form a partnership with one was impressive. Maybe he could learn to tame a MUTO to be a valuable ally.
The two monsters got ready to fight. And this old Godzilla would soon leave a path in history like the others. Like all the Godzillas that humanity had seen, he would become legendary!
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