Godzilla Lives!
A Godzilla fanfiction by Travis J. DeSantis
Chapter One
"Okay, Ishiro. Explain it to me again, this time in small, simple words."
In a darkened room, two men were hunched over a computer monitor. Even in the gloom, small flashing buttons and electronic beeping gave away that this was a laboratory. Various data was being displayed on the monitor, glowing in pale colors that gave each man an almost sickly pallor.
"Answer me this first, Shigeru: How can such a brilliant man be so incredibly dense sometimes?"
To the casual observer, it was impossible to tell these two men were among the most gifted scientists in their respective fields. One a nuclear physicist and the other a zoological geneticist, they were entrusted with a top secret project by the Japanese government. During Godzilla's rampage only months before, a portion of Tokyo was reduced to so much wreckage. It was in this graveyard that the Japanese Self-Defense Force recovered one of the behemoth's scales. Hidden away in an undisclosed location, these two scientists were part of a specialized research team whose aim it was to uncover the mysteries of Godzilla's very existence.
"All right, I'm sorry! But just remember, I'm not the geneticist of our little duo."
The man called Ishiro nodded, rubbing his temples. "No, I should apologize. This is...exciting, to say the least. I guess I'm just getting ahead of myself."
Shigeru pulled up a chair, sitting reversed so he could rest his arms on the chair's back. "So does that mean we can start at the beginning? I'd like to understand what it is you've found."
"Right, look here." Ishiro clicked the computer mouse, calling up a list of DNA sequences. "This one at the top is Godzilla's DNA. Thanks to the research done by Professor Hayashida, we know Godzilla was a normal animal mutated by atomic radiation. Now, I've compared its DNA to every known species of reptile. Even given the sheer magnitude of mutation necessary to make something like Godzilla, I've never found a DNA match higher than 63%. Follow me so far?"
"Yeah yeah, I think so. You're saying that Godzilla isn't mutated from any one type of reptile. He's some kind of hybrid."
"That's what I thought at first, but I wasn't sure how to go about combining reptile DNA to compare with Godzilla's. The approach itself was too haphazard to yield accurate results. That's when I remembered Godzilla's instinctual response to bird calls. What do you think of when you take birds and reptiles?"
Shigeru blinked, clearly stumped. "Flying snakes?"
Ishiro rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Dinosaurs, my good man," he explained.
The lack of recognition on Shigeru's face did not go away.
"You know, big stompy lizards? Died out a loooong time ago?"
"Oh, I know what dinosaurs are. What do they have to do with birds and reptiles?"
Ishiro rubbed his temples again as if he had a headache. "Dinosaurs didn't completely disappear. Their ancestors evolved in two very different directions: birds and reptiles. I couldn't find an exact match among the reptiles because Godzilla isn't really a reptile. I ran some matches with bird DNA and found the same level of similarity, but no other type of animal comes that close. That means Godzilla is related to both reptiles and birds equally."
Finally, a lightbulb turned on over Shigeru's head. "So, Godzilla is a dinosaur!"
"Exactly!" Ishiro replied, feeling vindicated. "Atomic radiation has mutated him beyond anything in the fossil record, but it's the only possible answer. There have long been reports around the world of dinosaur-like creatures that live where Man has yet to encroach. Nessie, Mok'ele-mbembe; though unsubstantiated, eyewitnesses identify these as animals we've found only in fossil form. We still don't know what caused the mass extinction, so it's not unreasonable that certain species withstood the rigors of time. Godzilla could very well be a living dinosaur."
Shigeru appeared lost in thought for a moment, then opened his mouth to speak. "You know, this is something I hadn't considered. It might explain the anomalies I found in--"
Suddenly, there was a crashing sound behind them, coming from the adjacent room. It was in there that they held Godzilla's scale in isolate containment. The ambient radioactivity was still within safe levels, but the scientists' work ran the risk of dangerously prolonged exposure. If there was a malfunction in the containment unit, they'd have to lock down the entire lab, interrupting their work. So, Ishiro and Shigeru crossed the room to investigate.
As they neared the security door, muffled voices could be heard on the other side. It sounded like a man was yelling, but the only word they could pick out was the name 'Patterson.' Shigeru quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher off the wall as Ishiro entered the access code on the door's adjacent key pad. He punched the accept button and the electric door flew open. Shigeru charged in and sprayed the room.
Now several voices were shouting in confusion and a gunshot rang out. The was a second clang of metal on metal as Shigeru dropped the fire extinguisher, stumbling back against the wall with a bloody hole in his shoulder.
Ignoring his personal feelings, Ishiro followed procedure and entered another code into the key pad that would seal the containment room. But before he could finish, a black clad figure leapt out and tackled him to the floor. They struggled for a while until another man ran out and helped tie Ishiro up. Behind them, the key pad beeped, clearing the existing entry because it had taken too long to finish.
<Damn it, Patterson!> roared a deep voice.
Over his shoulder, Ishiro saw a tall man stride out of the containment room while his remaining accomplices waved the air to clear it of extinguishant. The man that tackled Ishiro quickly stood up at attention, but the scientist could see his captor's fists shaking. The taller man raised the butt of his rifle and struck Patterson across the face, splitting open his chin. Patterson's commander was speaking English, so Ishiro could not understand all of it.
<Two screw-ups in one mission is unacceptable!> he raved, spit flecking his chin in anger. The commander wiped his mouth and composed himself. When he spoke again, his voice was deathly quiet. <Once this is over, I'm having you transferred off the strike team.>
Ishiro was helpless as he was dragged back into the containment room. Next to him, Shigeru was still clutching his bloodied shoulder. Once of the intruders had a gun to his head, clearly ready to kill him if he dared to cause more trouble.
Ishiro took the opportunity to observe his captors: There were six of them, all men, all wearing the same black military-style fatigues. Each was armed with several weapons and wore a simple red mask that covered the eyes and nose. Two of the men were pulling a large metal case away from the wall of monitors; one of them was cracked. The case was on wheels; Ishiro ascertained that Patterson had leaned on the case, causing it to roll into the wall.
<I got it, sir!> said a man hovering over the containment unit access computer.
From his position on the floor, Ishiro couldn't see what he entered on the keyboard, but a moment later, the unit opened. Exposed to the scale's radiation, the room increased in temperature noticeably. A small siren went off and the hazard lights started to flash.
Immediately, the intruders went to work. The large metal case was opened and Ishiro saw it was big enough to hold the scale. They carefully removed it from the containment unit and steam rose from their hands; the scale's radiation was slowly burning their protective gloves. They quickly placed it inside the case, strapping it in before sealing the case with a number of locks.
While his unit escaped through the security exit, the commander stayed behind. He walked towards the two scientists, a grim smile on his face.
"Thank you for the scale, doctors. It will be very useful to our cause."
As the commander closed the exit door behind him, a small round object clattered to the floor. Ishiro and Shigeru glanced at each other desperately, but their time was already up. The grenade exploded.
A scant hour later, Japanese federal agents swarmed the underground lab. They would find only two dead scientists and--in the containment unit where Godzilla's scale should have been--a small, young shoot of himalayacalamus falconeri damarapa. Red Bamboo.
