Disclaimer: I do not own Godzilla or Pacific Rim.

King of the Monsters

Chapter 1 – The Kaiju War

Kaiju.

The word was once normal, unknown to most people; the Japanese word for a giant beast, a monster. But over the past decade, it has become the name of humanity's destroyers. A name to be cursed, feared, and hated by all those who hear it.

The first recorded Kaiju incursion took place in 1954. A gigantic creature emerged from the Pacific Ocean and attacked the Japanese islands. Tokyo, the capital of Japan, was its primary target. The entire city was razed to the ground, reduced to burning rubble. Thousands of people were killed in the First Kaiju's rampage. No one knows exactly where it came from, but it was said to emit nuclear radiation, to such an extent that just coming into contact with it could cause radiation poisoning. Some believed that it had been created by one of the dozens of nuclear tests conducted by the United States in the South Pacific, while others thought that it had been born from the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. Whatever its origin was, there was no denying that it was nearly unstoppable.

No conventional military forces could stop the First Kaiju. Guns, missiles, tanks, even fighter jets were useless against it. The only weapon that hadn't been used was a nuclear bomb, but the Japanese government were considering it when the strategy was changed. A brilliant scientist, a chemist named Daisuke Serizawa, developed a devastating new weapon; a device that destroyed oxygen, destroying all life in its path. Any living organism within the device's range would be suffocated.

Serizawa feared the damage that his invention, called the Oxygen Destroyer, would cause if it were ever used as a weapon; he had intended to use it as a new source of clean energy. But when the other option was that the First Kaiju would ravage the earth and kill everyone in Japan, Serizawa reluctantly agreed to use it, just once, to put an end to the destruction.

Serizawa himself activated the Oxygen Destroyer at the bottom of Tokyo Bay, where the First Kaiju slept during the day. The device worked; the First Kaiju was killed, along with all other marine life in the bay. Serizawa sacrificed himself to set off the device, and he'd destroyed all of his research beforehand so that the Oxygen Destroyer could never be used again.

In the aftermath of the First Kaiju's rampage, the world returned to normal. The Japanese government nicknamed the First Kaiju "Gojira", a combination of the words for "gorilla" and "whale". The name was changed, however, when it was translated to English. Since, obviously, no one was going to call it "Gorilla-whale", which was the literal translation, the Americans, most notably a journalist named Steve Martin who was in Tokyo and chronicled these events, chose a name that sounded like "Gojira."

That was when the First Kaiju became known by the name that would become world-famous over the next sixty years: Godzilla. The King of the Monsters.

After the events in 1954, Dr. Kyohei Yamane, a Japanese paleontologist and a colleague of the deceased Dr. Serizawa, publicly spoke out against further nuclear testing, warning that the First Kaiju was only the beginning. Of course, most people didn't listen, and the major nations of the world continued testing newer and more powerful nuclear weapons.

Several other Kaiju showed up in the next few years. A pair of giant flying reptiles called Rodans attacked the Japanese mainland in the 1960s; a giant insect called Mothra appeared in the early 1970s; and a giant, mutated reptile known as Anguirus attacked China in the late 1980s. But after the 80s, the situation quieted down, and nothing else was heard for decades. We all thought it was over.

But then, in 2013, the Breach opened.

No one knows why, but it just appeared one day, as if by magic. A portal between dimensions, appearing at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. And from it, they came forth.

Kaiju. Even worse than those which had attacked the Earth in the past. The Kaiju that had appeared before - except for the First Kaiju - were less destructive; they would often leave without finishing an attack. They behaved more like animals.

These Kaiju only lived to destroy. They wouldn't stop, they wouldn't retreat, until either there was nothing left to destroy or the Kaiju were killed.

The first one of these new Kaiju, codenamed Trespasser, made land in San Francisco. It took five days for the United States military to kill it, during which time three cities were destroyed. Tens of thousands of lives were lost.

Six months later, another Kaiju hit Manila. Again, tens of thousands of civilians were killed.

When the third attack hit Cabo a few months after that, it became obvious that things had changed. Traditional weapons, except for nukes, were useless against the Kaiju, and the Oxygen Destroyer was long lost to time.

We needed a new weapon.

The Jaeger Program was born.

Our best efforts had been futile, so our best scientists designed a new strategy. We constructed giant robots, as large as the Kaiju, to fight them one on one. The initial plan was for each Jaeger to be piloted by a single human, who would be linked to the robot via a neural connection. Every movement of the pilot's body would be mirrored by the Jaeger. The problem became apparent in the initial trials; almost no human brain can take the kind of stress necessary to effectively control a Jaeger alone. So the scientists running the program developed an alternative approach; using two pilots instead of one, our minds and memories connected to share the neural load, reduce the stress on each of the pilots, and allow them to control the Jaeger effectively. The more in sync the pilots are, the more effectively the Jaeger operates.

The guys who invented this system call it the PONS System. Most people just call it the Drift.

The Jaegers were initially a rousing success. The Kaiju were being pushed back. We were winning.

Then, in 2015, the unthinkable happened. Something we could never have predicted in our worst nightmares.

He came back.

The First Kaiju.

Godzilla.

His reappearance left the entire world stunned. The First Kaiju was supposed to be dead. He'd been killed sixty-one years earlier. But the video evidence of his first attack, when he slaughtered a Breach Kaiju and then easily defeated the Jaeger that had been sent to fight it, didn't leave any room for doubt. This Kaiju was identical to the one from 1954. Some people believed that it was another member of the original Godzilla's species, perhaps its child, returned to avenge its deceased parent. But there was also speculation that it was the original, back from the grave to wreak vengeance on the human race.

Whatever the reason, his return sparked a global panic. The Jaeger Program continued its work, but it was as if Godzilla's return had ushered in a new, worse stage of the Kaiju War. The Kaiju started getting bigger and deadlier, with less and less time between them. The Jaegers were taking casualties, and many people began to fear that mankind was destined to lose this war.

But the worst was yet to come.

PPDC Shatterdome

Anchorage, Alaska

2020

The sound of an alarm bell snapped Raleigh Becket awake. He lifted his head, glancing around the room as he scrambled out of bed, and focused on the sleeping figure of his brother Yancy. "Come on, Yancy, up you get! Movement in the Breach!" Hurrying across the room, he drummed on Yancy's chest with his hands, chanting "Come on, come on, come on!" He twisted out of the way of Yancy's hand as his brother swatted at him, and walked across the room to the sink.

"Oh, for God's sake... what time is it?" Yancy groaned.

"Four-thirty," Raleigh answered cheerfully, grinning at his brother's reflection in the mirror.

"In the morning? Seriously?" Yancy moaned, flopping back onto his bed. "I knew I picked the wrong job."

"Oh, quit complaining," Raleigh said with a chuckle, tossing a towel to Yancy. "Hurry up and get dressed, we have to be ready in five minutes."

"Yes, I know that!" Yancy snapped, clambering wearily out of bed to join his brother. "And, kid?"

"Yeah?" Raleigh asked, turning to face Yancy.

Yancy managed a grin. "Don't get cocky."

Five minutes later, the Becket brothers were walking down the hallway in their jumpsuits, with the logo of their Jaeger, Gipsy Danger, marked across the backs of their jackets. Raleigh was still grinning, while Yancy looked tired. They entered the fitting rooms, where several uniformed men helped them don their white drivesuits.

As the suits fastened themselves into place, the voice of Tendo Choi, Marshall Pentecost's right-hand man, filtered over the intercom. "Good morning, gentlemen!" he greeted them in a friendly tone.

"Morning, Tendo," Raleigh called back, while Yancy grumbled something under his breath.

"Sorry to wake you up so early, but we've got a situation," Tendo said.

"I gathered as much," Yancy replied. "What're we dealing with?"

"Category 3, designated Knifehead," Tendo informed them. "Making a beeline for Anchorage, so the Marshall ordered us to intercept."

"Got it," Raleigh replied. "Fun." His spinal clamp snapped on, completing the attachment process. He exchanged thumbs-up signals with Yancy, affirming that their systems were working properly.

Taking their helmets from the "pit crew," the brothers walked out of the fitting rooms and towards the control pod, donning the helmets as they walked. Entering the control pod, they took up their stations, Raleigh on the left side of the room and Yancy on the right. Devices locked onto their boots, holding them in place, while the techs connected control cables to their suits at the gauntlets and spines, linking them directly to the Jaeger's systems. Their helmets were briefly filled with relay gel, which drained as quickly as it entered.

As the pit crew exited the room, the voice of Marshall Stacker Pentecost rang over the speakers. "Engage drop, Mr. Choi."

"Engaging, sir," Tendo replied.

"Release drop," Yancy said, nodding to Raleigh as they each pressed a button on their control panels. The floor rose up under them as the head of Gipsy Danger dropped down a long shaft onto the body of the Jaeger, screwing quickly into place.

"We are locked, sir," Yancy reported.

"Prepare for neural handshake, Rangers," Marshall Pentecost's voice rang out.

"Ready, sir," Raleigh said.

"Five…four…three…two…one…" Tendo counted.

Then the floodgates opened and a rush of memories flowed through Raleigh and Yancy's minds. Every memory each of them had ever had was shared with the other. The fact that they were brothers was very helpful in this process, as they had grown up together and already shared most of the same memories.

"Right hemisphere ready," Yancy reported.

"Left hemisphere ready," Raleigh continued. "Gipsy Danger up and running."

"Neural handshake strong and holding," Tendo added.

"Attention, Rangers. Your objective is to hold that Kaiju outside the Miracle Mile, copy?" Pentecost ordered.

"Copy, sir," Raleigh responded.

Yancy noticed something on his map of the area. "Uh, sir? There's still a civilian vessel in the gulf-"

"You will not risk your lives and the lives of a city home to one million people for a fishing boat that holds ten, Rangers. Is that clear?" Pentecost said firmly.

"Crystal, sir," Yancy said, switching off the connection as he and Raleigh exchanged glances. Identical grins spread across their faces.

"You know what I'm thinking?" Raleigh asked.

"I'm in your brain," Yancy replied, tapping his forehead with one finger.

Raleigh grinned predatorily. "Let's go fishing."

Aboard the fishing boat in question, a crewmember was shouting to the captain, trying to be heard over the roar of the storm. "Captain, the boat can't take much more of this! We need to head in to port!"

"Have you lost your mind?!" the captain demanded. "We'd never make it past the shallows in this weather!"

Suddenly, a bone-chilling roar rang out over the storm. The captain's eyes widened as he looked through the window of the cabin, seeing the massive dark shape as it rose out of the water in front of the boat. "Kaiju..." he breathed in horror.

The Kaiju, designated Knifehead, roared again, intrigued by the fishing boat. Its interest was quickly drawn, however, to the large patch of glowing water directly behind the boat. As Knifehead watched, the water erupted, the massive form of a Jaeger emerging from the ocean.

Gipsy Danger straightened to its full massive height, then reached down and, surprisingly gently, lifted the fishing boat with one giant hand, turned, and placed the boat back into the water, giving it a small push to increase its speed. With the boat safe, it turned back to face the Kaiju.

Raleigh grinned, somewhat nervously. "Pretty big bastard, isn't he?" he called to Yancy.

"Yep," Yancy replied. "Let's see how he does against someone who can fight back."

It had been summoned, for the first time in millennia.

They needed it again. The beings who had enlisted its aid. The beings who arrogantly believed they controlled it.

It would show them, someday, exactly how wrong they were. No one tried to enslave the Destroyer of Worlds and got away with it.

But for now, the best course of action was to wait. Its masters did not give it enough sustenance to keep it stronger than they could handle; they sent it out to eliminate those who failed.

And it did that gladly, because it meant a chance to kill.

Now that it had been released, it would hunt down this mechanical creature, and the weak monster facing it. And it would kill them both; the machine because it had been ordered to do so, and the creature just because it wanted to.

It bowed to no one.

For the moment, however, it intended to enjoy itself.

And it would start by butchering the weaklings it sensed far ahead of it.

Gipsy Danger started the fight in style, landing a stunning uppercut followed by several punches to the Kaiju's head, knocking Knifehead's blade-like snout from side to side and driving its head down into the water. But Knifehead was very durable, and withstood the punches with surprising ease.

Working in perfect synchronization, Raleigh and Yancy raised Gipsy's arms, clenching a double-fist and slamming it down on Knifehead's back. Knifehead roared in pain and reared back, lunging at Gipsy with its jaws snapping.

"Fire plasma cannon!" Raleigh yelled.

"Right!" Yancy acknowledged, arming the plasma cannon in Gipsy's right arm. He raised the right arm to point squarely into the creature's gut, while the left arm was used to hold off Knifehead's jaws. After about five seconds, the plasma cannon fired at full power. The blast struck Knifehead dead center and hurled it backwards, sending it crashing down into the water on its back.

The Becket brothers glanced around, searching for any sign of Knifehead. "Did we get him, Shatterdome?" Yancy asked. "We've lost visual."

"No," Pentecost replied grimly. "It's still alive. Grab the boat and get out of there."

"Right," Yancy acknowledged, as the brothers started to turn Gipsy Danger towards the fishing boat.

Suddenly, Pentecost asked, "What?" and all talk on the other end of the connection abruptly ceased.

In the control room of the Shatterdome, Pentecost stared wide-eyed at the screen.

The two blips representing Gipsy Danger and Knifehead were at the center of the screen, Gipsy's position marked in green and Knifehead's in red. But appearing at the bottom of the screen, moving north at a fast pace, was another red designator. Another Kaiju.

And, according to the size indicator on the satellite image, this second Kaiju was much larger than the first.

"We've got a second Kaiju signature," Tendo reported, reopening the link to Gipsy Danger.

"Rangers, we've got another Kaiju on scanners," Pentecost informed the Becket brothers over the phone. "Currently four-point-seven miles south of your position."

"What category?" Yancy asked.

"Tendo?" Pentecost asked, looking more intently at the screen. "What category?"

"Just a moment, sir," Tendo replied. "Analyzing size, combined with projected energy output… it's…" His voice trailed off, his mouth hanging open in shock.

"What?" Pentecost asked impatiently.

"Yeah, Tendo," Raleigh chimed in. "What're we dealing with here?"

"Sir… it's a Category 5."

There was a moment of complete and total silence in the LOCCENT.

The Kaiju were classified according to a system of categories. The higher the number, the bigger and more dangerous the Kaiju. The initial waves of Kaiju had been mostly Category 1 and 2. But in recent years, more and more of them in the Category 3 and even Category 4 levels were appearing.

There was, however, only one Category 5 Kaiju on record: the First Kaiju himself.

Pentecost forced himself to breathe and stay calm. "Is it…"

"I can't tell exactly, sir," Tendo replied. "But it's definitely a cat-five. The readings can't be anything else. Our sonar buoys can't get a good look; it's giving off so much energy that they're going haywire at close range."

Pentecost nodded slowly. Remembering Gipsy Danger's situation, he turned back to the communicator. "Rangers, get out of there now!"

Aboard Gipsy Danger, the Becket brothers had heard the entire discussion, and they'd already decided on their course of action. If this was the First Kaiju, they'd never be able to escape him. The only option was to fight.

"Wish we could, Marshall," Raleigh said, "but at the speed he's going, he'll reach us in about a minute. We wouldn't have a chance in hell of outrunning him. The only thing we can do is make sure he doesn't find the Shatterdome, or he could tear the whole place apart. Hopefully, between us and Knifehead, there'll be enough out here to keep him interested and away from the shoreline."

Pentecost was silent for a moment. "Are you sure about this, Rangers?"

"Yes," Yancy answered simply. "There's no other way."

Raleigh grinned wryly. "And who knows? Maybe we'll go down in history as the Jaeger who finally took down the King."

Pentecost sighed deeply. "Godspeed, Rangers."

Raleigh and Yancy turned back to face the sea, watching the designator approaching –

Just as Knifehead burst out of the water with a roar, its claws slashing at Gipsy Danger's head.

"Whoa!" Raleigh yelled. He and Yancy jerked backwards reflexively, the only thing that saved their Jaeger from being impaled as Knifehead lunged forward, attempting to ram them with its enormous, bony snout.

Spinning, Gipsy Danger delivered a massive uppercut, snapping the Kaiju's head up and back. Knifehead crashed back into the water with a bellow of pain, and immediately scrambled to its feet. The two combatants remained motionless for a long moment, sizing each other up.

"Yancy, where's our other friend?" Raleigh asked. "Anywhere near us yet?"

Yancy checked the status board, his eyes widening. "He's about a mile that way, coming in fast! Point seventy-five. Half a mile."

"Bullshit!" Raleigh yelled. "He'd be right behind that other one; we'd have seen him by now! The water's pretty shallow, and he doesn't do quiet entrances!"

"He's here!" Yancy yelled back.

"Where?!" Raleigh demanded.

And then a shadow fell across their lights, and a huge dark shape slammed into Gipsy Danger, hurling the Jaeger backwards and knocking it off its feet.

It had chosen to strike down the metal creature first. A single powerful blow was all that was required to keep it immobilized for a few moments, until it could deal with the other creature.

Knifehead roared in defiance, shaking its pointed snout back and forth, but it was gravely outmatched.

Bolts of superheated energy blasted through the night, slamming into Knifehead with devastating force and searing its hide. The smaller Kaiju bellowed in agony and plunged into the water to cool its scorched skin.

Taking advantage of the momentary diversion, it circled quickly around behind its prey while Knifehead was submerged. As soon as the smaller monster surfaced, it slammed down behind its target, seizing it in an inescapable hold as it latched onto the back of Knifehead's neck and its left arm. Dagger-like teeth sank deep into the Kaiju's flesh, and Knifehead roared in agony as the larger monster tore viciously into its back.

The impact was so sudden and violent that both Becket brothers were stunned momentarily. After about thirty seconds, however, they were able to regain their focus.

Shaking his head vigorously to clear his vision, Raleigh fought off the dizziness and, together with Yancy, forced Gipsy Danger to its feet.

As their head broke the surface, Raleigh's eyes widened in shock.

Knifehead, directly in front of them, was thrashing around like a seal in the jaws of a shark, screeching in pain as blue blood poured from gaping wounds on its back, neck and flanks. But the most terrifying part was the gigantic, shadowy figure, mostly concealed due to the raging storm, that was holding the dying Kaiju in a vice grip from behind, tearing at its flesh.

In that instant, Raleigh noticed two odd things about this monster. He'd never seen the First Kaiju in person, obviously, but something about this creature didn't seem to match the description. For one thing, it almost seemed too big. While the First Kaiju was supposedly about three hundred and fifty feet tall (or about seventy feet taller than the two-hundred-eighty-foot-tall Gipsy Danger), this creature seemed even bigger than that. It towered over Knifehead, and therefore over Gipsy Danger as well. And it was clearly still hunched over.

The other odd thing was that, while the First Kaiju was bigger than any other Kaiju on record, he was still fairly humanoid in his proportions, more so than any of the Kaiju who had come through the Breach. He had two arms, two legs, a head with two eyes, and a long tail. From the front, if his size wasn't a factor, he bore a vague resemblance to a human. This Kaiju, however, looked… wrong, somehow. Its neck seemed to be longer than the First Kaiju's, and its arms looked weird, twisting at awkward angles.

With a final crunch of bone, Knifehead went limp in its killer's remorseless clutches. A Category 3 Kaiju that had been fairly evenly matched with Gipsy Danger… gone, in less than a minute.

"We're screwed," Raleigh whispered.

Yancy nodded grimly. "Most likely. But we're not going down without a fight; that's for damn sure!"

"Hell, yes!" Raleigh called out, his usual grin returning to his face. "Let's show this bastard what we're made of!"

They refocused on the Kaiju…

Which had vanished. All that remained was Knifehead's corpse, starting to sink amid a cloud of blue blood.

Raleigh glanced around uneasily, scanning for any sign of the Kaiju. Nothing.

"Where the hell is he?" Yancy muttered.

At that exact instant, the Jaeger was slammed by another tremendous impact, knocking it sideways like a rag doll. Another impact a few seconds later sent it staggering backwards, until they slammed up against a cliff; they'd reached the Alaska shoreline.

"Fire, damn it!" Raleigh snapped.

"I'm trying!" Yancy called back. But as he raised the plasma cannon to fire, there was a flash of yellow light outside the viewing window, and a brilliant golden energy beam shot towards them.

Raleigh had just enough time to think, But the First Kaiju's heat beam is blue, not yellow, and then the blast hit Gipsy squarely in the chest.

Raleigh screamed, clutching at his chest as he felt a sensation like a blast of electricity shooting through every nerve in his torso. Yancy did the same.

A moment later, the beam cut off, and another thunderous blow smashed Gipsy back against the cliff. Their view out of the window was blocked by a mass of darkness, and Raleigh's eyes widened in disbelief as he realized how big this creature must be… and that it was standing right in front of them.

A vicelike grip clamped down on Gipsy's left shoulder, and Raleigh felt a searing pain, as if someone was stabbing him with knives.

It's biting us, he realized.

And then a sizzling crack of energy filled his senses, along with the smell of ozone, and a blinding wave of agony tore through his left shoulder.

As alarms filled the cabin, Raleigh realized that Gipsy's left arm had just been blown off.

"Fire the damn cannon!" he yelled.

"It's not done loading yet!" Yancy replied.

For a bizarre moment, Raleigh thought he heard the strangest sound outside the Jaeger.

Laughter. But not normal human laughter. Closer to the laugh of a hyena, or the crazed, demented cackling of a mental asylum inmate. It was followed by a high-pitched, screeching roar, which came from so close that it was earsplitting.

Then there was a crunch of metal under stress, more alarms blared, and a set of massive, dagger-like teeth punctured the roof of the Conn Pod, directly above Yancy. A growl reverberated through the metal around them, and sparks flew as the creature tried to bite down.

Raleigh and Yancy locked eyes with identical expressions of horror.

"No," Raleigh said.

"Raleigh! Raleigh, listen to me! I–" The rest of Yancy's words were never uttered; the roof gave way and the Kaiju bit down, its teeth ripping through Gipsy's head, a huge maw engulfing Yancy and yanking him out of the Conn Pod, through the gaping hole.

"No!" Raleigh screamed, looking frantically out into the night.

He felt it, through the Drift. Yancy's terror, then several seconds of blinding, ungodly agony, and then darkness. Nothing.

He'd just felt his brother's death.

For a moment, there was only horror, and pain.

And then… then there was rage.

Raleigh found strength he didn't even know existed inside of him and yelled, a scream of pure hatred and agony. His hands flew over the control panels, setting the plasma cannon on overload.

Gazing out through the broken window, Raleigh aimed the plasma cannon dead-center of the shadowy monster in front of him. Even with the storm, he had no problem targeting it. It was gigantic, at least half again as tall as Gipsy Danger.

This wasn't Godzilla. It was something else. Something worse.

The monster roared at him, the sound drowning out everything.

Raleigh met that roar with his own scream of rage, and fired the plasma cannon.

The boy sat quietly on the frozen beach, hugging himself to protect against the chill of the blizzard and watching as the older man wandered down the beach with a metal detector. How he'd let his grandpa talk him into this, he had no idea. But he knew that he was incredibly bored. Then again, that wasn't a new feeling. He felt like this all the time now. Nothing interesting ever happened.

Then, through the frame of the truck, he felt it. A faint vibration. Then another, and another.

Hopping out of the truck, he looked up. His grandfather, feeling the vibrations, turned as well, just in time to see a massive shape emerge from the fog offshore.

A Jaeger. To be precise, Gipsy Danger, Alaska's most famous Jaeger.

The boy's eyes widened as he and his grandfather stared at the Jaeger. Then he realized that Gipsy Danger was in bad shape. Its left arm was missing, as was part of its head, and there were several large burns on its chest.

Slowly, Gipsy Danger staggered out of the water, then fell to its knees and collapsed to the ground with an earth-shaking crash. The boy and his grandfather hurried forward, stopping when they saw a man in a white drivesuit stagger out of the broken head of the Jaeger and crumple to the sand. The boy recognized the pilot from seeing his face on the news; it was Ranger Raleigh Becket.

Rushing forward, the boy's grandfather asked, "Hey, are you okay?" Raleigh looked up at him, his face confused.

Then the boy noticed that blood was running down Raleigh's face, from his forehead and nose. The grandfather turned quickly to him. "Go get help!" he called.

Nodding, the boy turned and ran as fast as he could back across the frozen beach, towards his house.

Notes: For anyone reading this, welcome to my new story, King of the Monsters! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, and I plan to update as soon as possible.

Now, there are a few things I should address here. First, the extent to which the Pacific Rim storyline will be adapted in this story. Basically, the premise of this story is that there have been Kaiju on Earth long before the Breach opened (those cases that have become widely known are Godzilla, Mothra, Anguirus, and the Rodans), but the vast majority of Kaiju in this story will come through the Breach. However, I will be including elements of the Godzilla franchise wherever possible; for example, I will be including some Kaiju from the Godzilla movies as members of the alien Kaiju being sent through the breach. Later on in the story, I will be including several other Kaiju that are portrayed as evolving here on Earth, some of which will be more of a threat to humanity than others.

I've also adapted the history of the Kaiju War somewhat; in this story, multiple Kaiju coming through the Breach has occurred on several different occasions, although at the start of this story there have never been more than two at once, and most attacks are still only committed by a single Kaiju. I needed to do that to fit the Rodans with the plot of Pacific Rim, but my most important reason for making that change will be revealed later on.

If anyone would like to guess the identity of the mysterious Category 5 that killed Knifehead and Yancy, please feel free to guess; rest assured, that Kaiju will play a very important role later on in the story.

Another issue I should deal with now is continuity. Taking a style of storytelling from the Millennium series, I will only be treating the original 1954 Godzilla film as canon, along with the separate origin films for Mothra and Rodan. Only those three films will be considered canon; none of the other films in the Godzilla franchise will be added to the story's history, but I will be incorporating characters and plotlines from some of those movies.

And finally, the obvious subject of Godzilla's appearance in this story. I've decided that, for this story, his appearance will be the same as it is in the Millennium series, specifically Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla Tokyo SOS, just because I find that version's design to be the most visually impressive, and the one that fits the best with the Kaiju in Pacific Rim.

I always enjoy receiving feedback on my stories, so if anyone has a comment or question about this chapter or the story as a whole, please review or PM me! (No hate, please; that's not fun for me or anyone else).

See you all next time!