Chapter One

Location: Somewhere in the Sea of Japan

Timedate: 2nd February 2002, over half a year after the Megaguirus battle

Hiding deep in the depths, the memories of battling against the all-too familiar dragon-esque insectoid and the humans' black hole weapon in the previous year all remained fresh in Godzilla's mind. Since then, he went back into laying low, managing to evade as quickly and swiftly as possible, be it in the oceans or under the surface of the earth.

Fresher still were what happened to him and what might've been left of his kind around half a century ago. Huge flashes of silent yet raging fiery light; a rising sun in the west even though the day was already beginning; two suns in the sunrise.

His species owned the earth long before mankind came to take and abuse its precious elements for war and pleasure, and one way or another, he intended to take it back.

Nearly six years earlier, he remembered a lone individual human being who survived his arrival, one who would carry a hard grudge against him. Part of him did admire that valiant human. Rarely did he ever caught a human grabbing hold of him, even if he were unaware of it at the time.

But now, his mind was preoccupied. He sensed another titan roaming. One that may threaten the balance and order of nature and power.

Location: Osaka, Japan

Timedate: 9th February, one week later

Daylight reigned over the seemingly peaceful city, and its people carried on with their days. Although the memories of the reptilian king and the insect queen still remained fresh in many of their minds. Among such people were Kiriko Tsujimori, one of the leader of G-Graspers and twenty-four years of age, now already turning twenty-five. She was at her home, still doing a few sit-ups in her bedroom.

She had other things in mind, and people, or at least one person, a recent recruit to the G-Graspers team and a long-time old friend of hers, Akane Yashiro, twenty-three years of age. Akane had entered into the room with a cup of warm coffee in both hands.

"Happy 25th birthday, Kiriko," Akane greeted as she offered one of the cups.

"Thank you, Akane," Kiriko said as she got up and took one. "What kind is it?"

"It's decaf,"

"Okay, I was gonna need the energy," Kiriko shrugged just before sitting down and sipping on the drink.

"Do you think they'll appreciate us...?" Akane asked. "You know, being together?"

"I don't see why they shouldn't," Kirko retorted, wrapping her hands around Akane's neck. "Or why we shouldn't be together for that matter".

They embraced each other and kissed, their smooth lips gently pressing with and against each other. They laid down on the sofa together, with Kiriko pouncing over on top of Akane. The world and its issues seemed to have vanished around them, nothing could ever bother them.

However, a bleeping sound interrupted, snapping the two lovers back into reality and forcing them to break their kissing. Groaning with frustration, Kiriko spotted her phone buzzing and vibrating.

"I'll get it," Kiriko groaned. "It's probably for me".

She reached over to her side of the bed, picked up the vibrating phone, and answered it.

"Moshi-moshi?" Kiriko said.

"Major Kiriko, you there?" A familiar male voice called.

"Yes, I'm here," Kiriko confirmed, rubbing her eyes.

"Good, we need you at the HQ, ASAP".

"Why?"

"It's back," the voice said with a slight shudder. "The monster's back".

As soon as that was spoken, Kiriko nearly froze, her eyes widened and her lips parted slightly. "You joking?" she immediately refused to believe such.

"I wish I was," the male voice at the other end empathised. "We've having a meeting within the hour. We'll be expecting you there, both of you".

"On it," Kiriko sighed. "We'll be right there". With that, Kiriko set down the phone rather quickly. "Come on we gotta go, now." She ordered as she leapt out of bed.

"Why?" Akane questioned.

"It's been found again," Kiriko cut straight to the chase.

"As in...?" Akane too found herself stunned in shock, already figuring it out.

Kiriko nodded with a small hum. Once they both got up, they had a quick shower each before drying up. They put on their uniforms and gear before heading off and out through the doorway.

Location: G-Graspers Headquarters

Some time later, Kiriko and Akane had finally made to the HQ, in almost perfect time no less. The two dashed their way through the corridors up to the doors into the main hall. Within, various people in well-suited uniforms had stood and indistinctly chattered among another, some of them Kiriko herself already recognised as fellow comrades and veterans.

And so, the men and women of the G-Graspers had soon all gathered in the hall, almost. After a brief while, with deep black uniform, walked in a man of mid fifties with a stiffened expression and clean moustache. Sensing such a presence made Kiriko, Akane, and nearly all the rest of the people turn to see him.

"It's a good honour to see you again, Admiral Taizo Tachibana," Kiriko instantly recognised and bowed.

"And to you too, Major Kiriko Tsujimori," the man, identified as Taizo, greeted with a slight tip of the head before taking Kiriko's hand for a good and assuring shake. "And you, Lieutenant Akane Yashiro".

Akane bowed as well before the Admiral himself. "I share the honour, Admiral," she smiled lightly. "So how were the talks with the Japanese, US, and UK governments?"

"Moreorless as expected," Taizo adjusted his hat. "The seeming failure of the Dimension Tide project had left a big debt, but we do hope to make up for it soon enough".

"I wish so as well," Akane agreed, looking down.

Turning to the rest of people, Taizo then signalled everyone else to take their seats, which Kiriko and Akane soon quickly did the same as well.

"I'm glad all of you were able to make it here just in the nick of time," the admiral spoke. "I know some of you were having a good time of rest, especially after all that has happened last year. But it seems that for reasons yet to be known, Godzilla has just got out of hiding".

Various people muttered among themselves, some in disbelief, others in concern.

"We've just received word regarding a few reported sightings of Godzilla just off the Tsushima Basin," the admiral continued to explain. "Our tracking trajectories show that he might be heading to South Korea, specifically the city of Busan".

"Busan?" Akane questioned. "Why go there of all places?"

"Not sure," Taizo answered. "But that's what we're going to find out. We must send our units there as soon as possible. We can't let another nation suffer what we had to put up with for nearly half a century. Prepare yourselves for armoury and flight. Dismissed".

With that, the staff and crew got up and exited the hall, some more quickly than others. Marching down the halls, several agents and troops armed themselves ready by the time they made it to the hanger, within stood a few various aerocraft of certain classes and unique designs.

One of which was a white futuristic V-TOL aircraft, the GX-814 Hippogriff, about sixty feet in length, very much identical to the GX-812 Griffon in every way, aside from the stripes of purple instead of blue. Next to it was a much larger aircraft, about a hundred feet long and all in steel grey, the AC-3 White Heron. Following them were a few Mitsubishi F-15Js, scattered but still soaring together.

As Kiriko dashed to the Hippogriff, her new ship, memories of her old one were already racing in her mind, how she used it to chase down the monster that slayed some of her friends and comrades in battle all those years ago.

Location: Busan, South Korea

Godzilla etched towards the shore, already knowing full well the sea was getting more shallow towards the city harbours. Upon reaching, he got up to his feet and slowly marched without a second thought, not even any hint of doubt. Godzilla wondered about the city, peaking in between the buildings to see whose strange scent he picked up. However, he caught the sounds of clattering explosions and the distant screaming of human crowds, both of which he was normally accustomed to, and followed in that particular direction.

He soon found his target; Yonggary, a dull-green bipedal, almost feline, reptilian beast, seemingly similar to the King himself, so much so that any naïve human could easily mistake it for the real deal. This creature was at about two-hundred feet in height, just a few metres above Godzilla, plus with a tail longer by a slight. A small nasal horn sat upon its snout, while three larger horns had grown from the back of its head, and its shoulders were covered by spiked pads.

Turning to see the king slowly march towards him, Yonggary let out a mighty growl, only for Godzilla himself to skreeonk back. Yonggary then unleashed a blazing orb of plasma fire from its mouth towards Godzilla, who dodged just in the nick of time. Sneering with frustration, Yonggary picked up a small building and tossed it at its foe, as Godzilla spun round and whacked it back with his tail, causing an implosion of dust and debris to fly about.

After another roaring, Yonggary leaped and charged towards Godzilla. The king of monsters then crouched down, preparing for the oncoming adversary. As Yonggary jumped onto Godzilla, the latter managed to slice open the former's torso a bit with his sharp dorsal spikes. Wailing from the sudden and bleeding pain, Yonggary fell over onto another building, causing it to collapse under pressure.

Standing back up straight, Godzilla stretched a few muscles beneath his permanently scarred dark-green scales as he turned around to see his briefly downed opponent. Slowly getting back up and shaking off some rubble, Yonggary looked down to see a gaping wound across his lower torso, slowly leaking black blood.

As Yonggary struggled to get back up on its feet, an intense orange glow ran up Godzilla's spiky spines, emitting a deep low hum along with some sparks. Fire filled Godzilla's mouth as Yonggary looked on with widened eyes. Godzilla unleashed a beam of bright blinding fire from his mouth, straight at Yonggary. Letting out one last cry of pain, Yonggary fell back and down, dead. Taking his time to walk over and observe the limp singed corpse, Godzilla detected no flinch of life left in the rival. He let out a mighty roar of victory before turning back to the shore.

Godzilla moved on, returning to the vast ocean and slowly sinking down. Right up to the tips of the dorsal plates until they were completely out of sight as the watery surface soon calmed and settled once more.

A brief moment of uneasy silence or two had when a couple various jets and helicopters had arrived upon the scene. But by the time the G-Graspers had made it to the Korean city, Godzilla had already vanished. All that remained was the limp fresh corpse of Yonggary, still smoking slightly and partially dusted from all the debris about.

"Where did he go?" one of the fellow pilots asked. "There's no way he could've just popped up just now only to disappear again".

"Perhaps he knew we were incoming, so he must've decided to tuck tail and flee, whether back to the ocean, or go underground again like he did last time," another fellow pilot guessed.

"That wouldn't be like him to just run away like a coward just because of a few humans like us," the first pilot still remained sceptical.

"He came all this way just to kill that thing?" Akane questioned once she spotted the dead dinosaur. "Where did it even come from anyway?"

"There's gotta be something to this," Kiriko spoke up, her eyes squinted with suspicion. "Last year, Godzilla killed Megaguirus so he could remain on top of the food chain. No doubt the very same deal here..."

To be continued...