Chapter Text

STORY #1: A Clash Of Gods

To the princess of Selgina, the room she and her questioner were in, as plain and gray as indifference itself with exactly one large lamp hanging from the ceiling as the only light source, was almost like a dungeon chamber. Confining, uncomfortably stiff, unfeeling.

To Dr. Serizawa, however, it was just that, a room. One among the many he visited while making his rounds.

Nineteen years young and still very new to Monarch, he was but an intern in the day and age of 1965, but his future in the field of kaiju study looked bright. He had been through enough experiences, seen enough things that should not be witnessed by human eyes, that being assimilated into the staff of Monarch was his only option to prevent them from hunting him down and forcing him to reveal his secrets. It was lucky that he was naturally adept in the field of studying the biology and behavior of monsters such as Gojira, the demon beast that had prowled his dreams since he was ten. Scientists like him were sorely needed. It was why Monarch had been funded by the UN in the first place.

Perhaps it was the fact that Salno saw a bit of herself in him that led her to conclude that for all of this formality, she would not come to any serious harm. Her gift of prophecy, inherited from a family of mysteirous pedigree, had allowed the Nepali princess to speak of the visions that had saved the lives of millions when the Golden Calamity had descended. Visions that men of all stripes would have dismissed as pure hysteria just a year ago. But it was largely thanks to the Japanese government recognizing the truth of her warnings that evacuations had been swift and effective. But that changed nothing. She could only see the future, not change it. And not everyone was willing to listen to her.

So it was that Serizawa had arranged this meeting with Salno, here in this secret, undisclosed location occupied by Monarch personell. Whatever information he was about to glean from her, neither of them could afford to let it fall into the wrong hands. One slip-up, and the world, already hanging by a thread, could collapse into global catastrophe.

"Before we begin," the doctor spoke, calmly and carefully, "I need to extract a promise from you. There is no room for dishonesty here - every bit of information is crucial, and one falsehood can mean the difference between the preservation of this world and its obliteration."

"So, your wish is for me to be truthful?" asked Salno.

"Correct."

"I was going to assure you that what I tell you going forward is nothing but the truth, but I believe you already understand that."

"Fair. I can't be too careful, though. Any other man would dismiss what you speak of as pure madness. But I have been through similar enough events that I can understand you, and what you have seen."

She nodded. "So, what is it you ask?"

The Japanese intern steeled himself. He had only heard of what had transpired this past winter from news reports and printed articles, and those had been unreliable and outright dishonest. The public wasn't ready. But here now was a personal witness, and there would no minced words on her part.

"The sun and the sea, guided by a light from the heavens." He looked her in the eye, taking care not to come off as intimidating. "Those are the words you used to describe what would do battle with the three-headed monster from beyond the stars. What did you see?"

Salno could not help but shudder slightly. She knew she would have to answer for her prophecy eventually, but the sheer scope of the calamity made her feel both insignificant and almost ill. What she had seen could not be dissociated with the losses sustained by those who could not escape in time, of which there were many even with the evacuation efforts... mostly the poor, the homeless, those whom the governments of the world looked down upon as it was.

"The words I used should not be taken literally, of course," she began, her voice slightly shaky. "But I said them because the truth of what I saw was... well..."

Serizawa gave her a look of encouragement, but said nothing.

"The meteor," she whispered. "The mountain that fell from the sky. There was something inside it... something that should not be spoken of. It had three heads, two tails, and a voice like a bell. When I saw it, I thought about when I was visited by a people who lived in a snowy land far north of my kingdom, bringing with them a tale of a ferocious three-headed creature. They called it Zmey Gorynych, the dragon of the mountain, but most others called it a 'hydra', a dragon with many heads. Hidorah. Ghidorah..." Salno turned the word over in her head, remembering how it had been spoken in abject terror by the people whose land she had visited, the land ravaged by Ghidorah's rage.

"So, the fallen star. That is this 'Ghidorah', yes?" Serizawa looked sullen, but not surprised.

Salno nodded grimly.

"But where do the sun, sea, and heavenly light come in?" the agent continued. "Those must be euphemisms for the kaiju that did battle with Ghidorah shortly after his emergence."

"The beast from the sea I could understand," said Salno. "I vaguely remember such a creature from several visions before. The creature you call 'Gojira', is it not?"

Serizawa bowed his head in sullen silence, but his affirmative was clear.

"And the heavenly light, that was the Infant Island goddess, Mothra - even when young, her radiance was like an ancient, divine creature. But the sun... I don't know what that had to do with this, unless somehow it could emerge from the ground..."

"We believe that Titanus Firebird II, known to locals as Rodan, was associated with multiple monstrous birds from ancient legend, many of which were connected to the sun." Serizawa paused, thinking a little. "The Chinese have a myth where there were nine birds of fire that provided the world with the light of the sun, only one of them flying out at a time. But catastrophe struck when all nine of them emerged at the same time, and only a great hero with a sacred bow could save the world, by killing all but one of them."

"So, Rodan is the sun bird?"

"Arguably. The fire trailing from her wings as she flies is not unlike a flare from the sun itself. And her brother was even fiercer, burning almost white-hot in his aggression. I wouldn't be surprised if their power was immortalized in ancient legend."

Serizawa and Salno looked into each others' eyes for several long moments. Then the doctor broke the silence with a deep breath.

"So... After Ghidorah emerged, what did you see?"

Salno stared off into space for a brief moment, her stare almost vacant. Her mouth worked a little as she struggled to process the terrible memories.

"The pieces of the space rock were thrown in all directions. They flew like missiles, flattening everything they hit. As the screams started, we could hear Ghidorah's cries, a series of cackling howls like madness itself. He spread wings as vast as the sky itself, and then slammed them into the ground. The blast front as he launched himself upward would have leveled the forest all around him if it had not been destroyed already... it was as though I was watching the end times themselves come to life before me. And then I heard the cries of the young deities-"

"Mothra and her brother."

"Yes, them. They barreled straight towards the beast at incredible speed. They could do little to stop him, but they tried. They managed to bind the jaws of one of his heads with their silken spray before he descended..."

A pall settled over the room. Silence for several more seconds.

"One of them did not survive," Serizawa concluded.

"What Ghidorah did to him... Words can't describe how ghastly it was. If Mothra hadn't managed to distract Ghidorah by seizing one of his tails, there would not have been enough of her brother left to bury. The beast had not been merely angry when he had did... that... to the child god... He had been almost gleeful. Like he was almost excited to wipe him off the face of the earth."

Both of them turned slightly paler. This was no mere aggressive animal - this was a creature with a perverse, sadistic sense of cruelty. One that strove to make its prey suffer, rather than killing quickly and efficiently as any other creature would.

"Where were you, when it happened?" asked Serizawa. "Did you see it directly, or was one of your visions responsible?"

"Well, both of them. I had escaped an assassination attempt, but I was well within range of the creature, having fled into the mountains with my escorts at my back. Just when I thought I was safe, however..."

Her expression turned tearful once again. This time, there was no stopping the waterworks, and Serizawa took a tissue from his pocket to pass to her without saying a word.

"There it was, one of Ghidorah's heads. Right there, in front of me. A cavernous maw full of hundreds of fangs, fangs taller than me. Six eyes, red as blood, staring right into my soul..." She shuddered, blinking back tears. "Had it not been for the arrival of the sea beast, I can scarcely contemplate what might have happened."

Serizawa looked wan as milk. He wasn't entirely sure what she was thinking of, but given how close she had been to the space dragon's slavering jaws, he could easily make a very good guess.

"The blue flame struck just in time. It hit the evil creature with enough force to stagger it, but definitely got its attention. The twin firebirds swooped in a second later, attempting to rake the dragon with their talons, but missed and swooped around for another run. My eyes followed them, and then I laid eyes upon... upon him."

"Gojira," Serizawa replied. "The beast of the sea."

Salno wiped her eyes, smiling a little. "Most people would be rightly terrified to see this... this Gojira. Why wouldn't they? His father destroyed Tokyo, after all. But this was different. This time, he was our only hope.

"What followed was beyond all description. Fire and lightning and scorching wind, screams and roars and above it all, the howling storm wind and the sounds of thunder. It was like watching gods fighting. And perhaps it was gods who were fighting that day."

Serizawa pondered this for a moment. "What motivated Gojira and the Rodans to fight Ghidorah, though? Why did they not join him?"

Salno beamed for the first time since she'd entered the room. "Because Mothra had spoken to them before."

Serizawa blinked in surprise. Kaiju talking to each other? Was that even possible? Could they understand one another? "What exactly happened? Did you hear words, or...?"

"No no. The twin fairies that presage Mothra's arrival were there with us at the time. They were translating because they had some kind of connection to her. But I know what you are thinking - could the kaiju understand others of their kind? I believe so. How else could they work together?"

"So why did they choose to fight Ghidorah? Why did they choose to protect this world, even though they were hurt by it?"

Salno's face fell. She knew what he was talking about - the atom bomb had mutated Gojira, and the Rodans had lost their parents due to human resistance.

"Most likely," she said after a moment, "they chose to fight Ghidorah after seeing what he had done to Mothra's brother. If Ghidorah was willing to kill a god, even a young one... What he would do to our Earth was surely a problem they could not ignore."

Serizawa stared up at the ceiling, pondering this for a few moments. "So, they chose to set aside their hard feelings towards civilization, because if Ghidorah destroyed this world, then they would fall, too."

"More than likely," replied Salno. "Maybe they were only acting out of their own self-interest. But if Mothra could make the choice to actively help humans, without any benefit to herself, then surely Gojira and the Rodan siblings could learn to do the same."

Serizawa closed his eyes. "I can only hope that day will come. But given that they chose to fight back against Ghidorah, it's a start."

"I feel the same. Perhaps it would do them good to understand that humans, despite what most of them think, are not truly masters of their world. We are, after all, just a part of the world around us, a fact that most of us have sadly forgotten."

Silence for a few more moments.

"I see..." Serizawa replied. "So we should let nature run its course, then. Let the kaiju, the titans, decide the fate of the world, for better or for worse."

"As if we had much of a choice in the matter," said Salno. "The arrogance of man is thinking nature is in our control, and not the other way around."

There was no way he could know of it here, now, in 1965. But decades later, Dr. Serizawa would think back to the words the princess of Selgina had just spoken, and wonder...

Chapter Text

King of the Monsters: GODZILLA

Titanus Gojira II

Statistics

• Classification: Trematosaurid temnospondyl
• Height: 400 feet/121.92 meters
• Length: 1092.52 feet/333 meters
• Mass: 101,412.64 short tons/92,000 metric tons
• Locality: Throughout the Pacific, most commonly seen on the West Pacific seaboard near the coast of Japan; currently resides on and around Kaibutsu no Shima (Monster Island)

Bio

History:
March 1, 1954. The Daigo Fukuryū Maru (第五福龍丸, F/V Lucky Dragon 5), a Japanese tuna fishing boat with a crew of 23 men, made headlines when it was contaminated by nuclear fallout from Castle Bravo, the first in a series of high-yield thermonuclear weapon design tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, as part of Operation Castle. The crew suffered acute radiation syndrome (ARS) for a number of weeks after the Bravo test, though despite being inadvertently infected with hepatitis through blood transfusions, all of them recovered except for Aikichi Kuboyama, the boat's chief radioman, who died on September 23 from liver damage. In addition, the USS Patapsco (AOG-1), which lacked a decontamination washdown system and had therefore been ordered on 27 February to return to Pearl Harbor as quickly as possible, was still within about 180 to 195 nautical miles east of Bikini Atoll, and also experienced lesser degrees of contamination upon further examination. In fact, the fallout was more widely spread than expected, with traces of radioactive material recorded as far as Australia, India, Japan, and even the United States and parts of Europe. Castle Bravo quickly became an international incident, prompting calls for a ban on the atmospheric testing of thermonuclear devices, especially in Japan, which had been affected by the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima less than a decade prior.

What nobody could have anticipated, however, was that the crew of the Lucky Dragon 5 were not the only living beings affected by the Bravo test that day...

October 27, 1954. The Japanese freighter Eiko-maru was lost near Odo Island, with only scant rumors of a mysterious shape in the nearby water to go on during the subsequent investigation. The Bingo-maru was sent to inspect the site where the freighter was lost, only to also go missing, but this time with survivors to recall the nature of the incident. Over the next few days, multiple occurrences of watercraft going missing would be recorded, ascribed by the residents of Odo Island to a mysterious water creature called the Hōnengyo, historically said to be an omen of fortune - supposedly, the nuclear tests that had occurred earlier in the year had transformed it into a living bane, a portent of death and destruction. These stories were summarily dismissed as recollections of past mythology - until it appeared.

Reporters had descended upon Odo Island to dig up any potential material for a news scoop they could, and indeed there was a significant amount of evidence pointing towards a being beyond anything known to science as the culprit for the vanished ships, but no sightings had been made. That changed a few nights after the sinking of the Bingo-maru, when a storm hit the island and stranded most of the people there. During the night, a mysterious beast, saurian in form but towering high above everything else present, emerged from the sea, and by the time it departed, before the sun rose the next day, 17 homes, nine people, and 20 of the villagers' livestock were lost.

Amidst the tumult of Odo's residents demanding relief efforts, paleontologist Kyohei Yamane would be sent to the island to analyze the sightings and rumors. What he would uncover was nothing short of astonishing. The Hōnengyo was indeed a living, breathing creature - but not like anything seen before on Earth, more like a relic from the age of the dinosaurs than anything else. Previous accounts had described it as being a freshwater species, but this was a saltwater monster, not like what the myths described, and its strange shape, like a massive sea creature with the limbs of a man, led to the specimen being nicknamed "Gojira", after the Japanese words for "gorilla" and "whale". Gojira's home range, as it turned out, had been near enough to the epicenter of Castle Bravo that it must have been severely wounded by the fallout from the nuclear tests. Covered in radiation burns, exhaling scorching toxic fumes with every breath, and in immense physical and mental pain from its injuries, there was no way the beast could live without untold disaster for all else around it. So it was that despite Yamane's protests, and those of multiple other scientists aiming to study the creature, the Japanese government made the hard decision to have it put down, and military efforts dispatched to do the honors.

They failed. Dismally. And in so doing, they transformed its agony into hellish, unbridled wrath.

"Godzilla was baptized in the fire of the H-bomb and survived. What could kill it now?"
- Dr. Kyohei Yamane

"We're going to join Daddy! We'll be where Daddy is soon!"
- A nameless mother who was one of the casualties of Gojira's attack on Tokyo

November 3, 1954. Provoked by consistent efforts to destroy it, Gojira had now set its sights on where these efforts had come from in the first place. None of the efforts to stop its rampage were successful, and the beast retaliated by turning Tokyo into a raging inferno. Twice the monster made landfall, and twice it utterly obliterated all that was built to put a stop to it, plunging into the heart of the city and leaving a trail of destruction, radioactive fallout, and burning rubble in its wake. All the while, its terrible screeching roars could be heard for miles around, announcing its agony and hatred for all to hear. Japan would never know peace on this fated night, and by the time the sun rose again in the East, it was clear that despite the insistence on Yamane's part that the creature should be studied and not destroyed, the danger it posed to the world at large was too great, and the motion was reluctantly made to put an end to its furious rampage once and for all.

"Ogata... if the Oxygen Destroyer is used even once, the politicians of the world won't stand idly by. They'll inevitably turn it into a weapon. A-bombs against A-bombs, H-bombs against H-bombs — as a scientist — no, as a human being — adding another terrifying weapon to humanity's arsenal is something I can't allow."
"Then what do we do about the horror before us now? Just let it happen? Only you can save us from this tragedy. Even if you use it to defeat Godzilla, how can it be used as a weapon if you don't publish your research?"
"Ogata, we human beings are weak creatures. Even if I burn my notes, everything's still in my head. As long as I'm alive, who can say I wouldn't be coerced into using it again? If only I'd never invented it!"
- Dr. Daisuke Serizawa and Hideto Ogata, discussing the Oxygen Destroyer

It would only be through the innovation of Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, with the legendary Oxygen Destroyer, that the monster would meet its end. Even so, Yamane was not convinced that the world's conflict with Gojira was truly over - as long as nuclear testing continued, another of its kind would arise in the future. And what he would only reveal much later was that the site where Gojira had been originally irradiated did not just contain the creature itself, but something else. Something that would set off a chain of events that would rock the world for decades to come.

"I can't believe that Godzilla was the last of its species. If nuclear testing continues, then someday, somewhere in the world... another Godzilla may appear."
- Dr. Kyohei Yamane

Sure enough, the following year, beyond the prying eyes of man, deep beneath the waves off the coast of Bikini Atoll, the first of Gojira's children prepared to come ashore.

Personality and Combat Style:

"We scientists produced this monster... Godzilla. And ever since, we tried to destroy him."
"But then, why... Why does he keep protecting us?"
"Maybe because... Godzilla is inside each one of us."
- Shiro Miyasaka, Yuki Ichinose, and Yuji Shinoda, witnesses to the first sighting of Titanus Gojira IV in 2000

The being known today as Godzilla (an Anglicized corruption of "Gojira" first known from American headlines) is not the same as the original specimen that destroyed Tokyo in 1954, but rather the latest in a succession of such creatures that were affected by the fallout of Castle Bravo and passed their mutations onto their offspring. There are currently four known living specimens of Godzilla's species. In order, they are as follows: "Showa Godzilla", pictured above, the progeny of the original specimen who first appeared in 1955 and continued making regular appearances until 1975 with more sporadic sightings since then; "Heisei Godzilla" or "Gojirin", a sibling of Showa Godzilla which would pass in 1995 and leave its offspring in its place; "Milennium Godzilla", said offspring of Gojirin which would appear from 2000 onwards; and "Reiwa Godzilla", the eldest member of the lineage and presumably the ancestor of the original Gojira, who was the latest of the four to emerge starting from 2014, with two other appearances in 2019 and 2020. Other instances or partial instances of the species are also known, including a non-mutated juvenile, at least one rogue bioweapon with Godzillasaurus DNA as a principal genetic donor, and a specimen inadvertently created from a modified Godzillasaurus embryo, the latter of which became notorious for ransacking Tokyo once again in 2016.

Although related by blood, the various instances of Godzilla's species differ in terms of character based not only on their inherent personalities but also the circumstances of their birth. The first specimen to be sighted, "Gojira", was said to be a guardian of the western Pacific prior to the nuclear tests that scarred it forever, leaving more than just physical damage behind. It is theorized that Godzilla's species adapted to subsist not only on regular prey, but also on natural energy; originally they must have lived off geothermal heat, but radiation proved more effective even if it was more limited. However, it seems that the rapid influx of atomic energy from Castle Bravo was too much for the affected specimens to handle all at once, resulting in a sustenance imbalance which led to permanent internal damage, potentially to the brain in the case of Gojira. The end result was a traumatized but enraged figure which was as much a victim as it was a persecutor, and even when reconstituted into a different, more controlled life form, it still seems to remember the consequences of mankind's thoughtless actions and has been famously difficult to handle, only acknowledging the input of several very specific exceptions to its contempt towards humans in general.

Showa Godzilla, meanwhile, grew up without a parent to nurture it, and the mutation caused by the same excess energy that wounded its precursor so terribly caused it to grow virtually unchecked, growing from an adolescent to a premature imago form within a year. This caused it a lot of confusion and consternation, and the efforts by the Japanese military to prevent it from causing trouble as well as attacks from other supergiant organisms (a.k.a. daikaiju) only aggravated it further, causing it to lash out ferociously. To this day, Showa Godzilla has found it hard to adjust to the chaotic nature of the surface world, preferring to abide in deep water or untamed wilderness, away from the prying eyes of man. It doesn't have any set territory outside of raising offspring or other juveniles of its species, but it still responds to any foreign presence with a roaring, tail-lashing threat display that it isn't afraid to back up with savage violence should this warning not be heeded. Every part of its body is a deadly weapon, from its double rows of teeth to its muscular, prehensile tail and from its razor-sharp back spines to its concrete-rending claws. More devastating, however, is its ability to vent excessive amounts of nuclear energy, either in the form of a lethal radial pulse-wave or an oral radiation beam that can burn through just about anything that isn't specifically treated to resist it. Godzilla seems most at home in the water, where it has the advantage of all-dimensional mobility and can strike from unexpected directions, but it's just as effective on land, wading through even the fiercest assaults with minimal damage and seemingly becoming stronger as whatever conflict it is involved in draws on.

Despite its notoriety for brutally maiming unwelcome intruders without a second thought, Showa Godzilla is not a mindless abomination as some anti-kaiju extremists have claimed. This seems to clash with the social, parental instincts of the creature, however, and observers have noted that it makes strange calls when isolated and wanders aimlessly from place to place as though searching for something. Perhaps it is driven to seek companionship, but tragically, it also seems to be dimly aware of the fact that it has been mutated too much to be recognizable to others of its kind; once it is finished with whatever business it has, be it leveling whatever establishment caused it grief or terminating an enemy monster, it will simply leave the area and continue its search. For all of its troubles, however, it seems that it is no longer entirely alone, which has admittedly helped assuage its troubles somewhat. Other monsters that respect its warnings but continue to seek it out, either to request its assistance or to challenge it to an equal fight, will eventually earn its respect, and its natural penchant for aggression may be directed towards a constructive use in the form of "sparring" with such worthy rivals, so that if a real threat emerges, it will be better prepared. It is telling that almost all kaiju that have become allies to Godzilla and its family are of natural descent, although manmade monsters aren't exempt from this status, either. The same cannot be said for extraterrestrial kaiju and especially not for those employed by invaders from other planets in a bid to subjugate Earth for ulterior purposes - whereupon Godzilla will not hesitate to destroy them as completely as possible, and hopefully permanently as well.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: The "King of the Monsters" has not earned this title without justification - he is not just massive, but powerful even for creatures of his size as well, being proficient at close-ranged combat and resistant to most conventional forms of assault. His warped, semi-melded scales are able to withstand incredible physical stress, are unfeeling towards most impacts, and can even resist piercing damage to some extent, being reinforced by minerals passively leached from the surrounding environment during hibernation; his skeletal system is reinforced similarly. Beneath his armored hide are incredibly dense and powerful muscles reinforced by organic microcarbon filaments formed through the same process as how his skin is reinforced, giving him the ability to resist forces several times his own weight and pound creatures his own size or smaller to a pulp or toss them like hackeysacks. The reinforcement of his skeletal system applies to his teeth and claws as well, giving him claws and fangs that can rend plate steel and concrete as easily as the skin and flesh of kaiju sporting average durability. One impact from his muscular tail can turn boulders to powder and crack even the armor plating of some kaiju, and it's flexible enough to wrap around an opponent and constrict it as well as his jaws and talons are bought into play. Even when injured, he also exhibits a regenerative ability, allowing him to recover from injuries that many other monsters will find fatal, although the scar tissues often turn cancerous and diseased as a result which can cause him enough pain and stress to raise his ire even further - the tumors are generally resorbed within days, however. His durability, tenacity, and brute strength are all in all the stuff of legends, and few are the monsters capable of matching him in a straight fight - most of which are unnatural in origin.
• Energy Absorption: Godzilla is technically gigantothermic, meaning that it is its sheer size which conserves bodily heat thanks to the lower ratio of surface area to volume. It still practices some degree of endothermy in that adaptations to retain the heat produced by its muscle system become active in aquatic settings, but for the most part it requires lesser nutrition intake than a hypothetical endotherm of the same size; its own body mass produces more than enough internal heat to function properly anyhow. The creature does however have a physiology specifically tailored towards the absorption of energy from the outside and converting it into energy for itself, with special cells surrounding its central nervous system which are quasi-photosynthetic. Provided such energy, carbon dioxide from the creature's respiration, and water filtered from its environment, these cells can produce chemical energy capable of sustaining it even when food is scarce. In ages past, Godzilla's kin relied on the heat energy produced by the planet itself, adapting to the period of volcanism towards the end of the Permian, but nuclear power produced by people has attracted them to areas closer to civilization. It is geothermal heat and radiation which Godzilla is most reliant on, but solar energy is also a reliable standby if neither of these are close at hand.
• Amphibious: Because Godzilla originated as a pelagic organism, he is most at home in the water where the buoyant environment allows him to move more freely and without the restrictions of gravity. The same tail that makes a deadly weapon at close range is an excellent propulsion implement, allowing him to move with impressive speed and grace through the water in a crocodilian fashion. He retains the gills of his amphibian ancestry despite also having usable lungs, though the gills are protected by ossified plates to keep moisture in when on land. A favorite tactic of his is to drag an opponent under the water surface, and then twist and roll about with them in his grasp to disorient and potentially drown them. Godzilla is more confident in the water than when he is on land, though this isn't saying much for obvious reasons - he is very difficult to even slow down in a terrestrial environment, but when out in the ocean he can disappear, reappear, and deal a fatal blow before the opponent even realizes he is there.
• Primitive Mentality: While not stupid by any means, Godzilla's mentality is instinctive and driven by its own primal motivations. This makes it difficult to influence via mind control, and while communication via psionic means is not impossible, it isn't easy, either. Mental links to all representatives of the species save Kiryu have returned nothing but discordant, animalistic cries which, in the case of the more heavily mutated individuals, are disturbing enough to give the scryer emotional trauma that can last for weeks if not months. It is very, very hard to force Godzilla into compliance through mental manipulation of any sort, and if such is successful, he won't be controlled for long. His absolute fury over it means the perpetrator usually won't be around for much longer, either...

Special Abilities:

• Radiation-Tolerant Physiology: Even more than most kaiju, Godzilla can withstand amounts of radiation that are dangerous to other kaiju - specific aspects of his anatomy are in fact radiation-absorbing. Special nerves and blood vessels just under his scales are able to draw in thermal energy in a manner convergent to crocodilians, but the ones just under the keratin covering his bladed dorsal spines have cells which are not only radiation resistant, but actively draw particle radiation towards them. Samples of the remains of the original Godzilla have even resulted in the discovery of an additional kind of tissue which synthesizes organic chemicals with radiation as input, simialr to the photosynthetic cells of plants, suggesting that Godzilla is at least partly radiotrophic - a possible holdover from when his ancestors adapted to the increased levels of UV radiation which occurred during the Permian extinction. All of this means that Godzilla is able to absorb all forms of radiation emissions as a means of sustenance when organic nutrition is unavailable, allowing him to withstand amounts of radiation which would be dangerous to most other forms of organic life. In theory, he would be capable of cleaning all of Chernobyl of any traces of harmful radiation within a few months if not weeks. Scientists believe Godzilla seems to gravitate towards power plants rather than seeking out animal prey simply because at his size, there are precious few organisms that he can adequately subsist on, and most of those are hazardous enough in their own right that populations of them would be unsustainable. When he does hunt, he primarily targets life forms which are also quasi-radioactive in origin, particularly mutants bought about by nuclear experimentation.
• Atomic Emission: Tying into his radiation absorption ability, Godzilla is capable of emitting it as well, or at least venting excess amounts of it to prevent his already distorted anatomy from mutating further and causing him additional stress. The muscles surrounding his respiratory system have a network of nerves and vessels which funnel radiation that is emitted by the rest of his physiology into the lungs and trachea, and the aveoli of his lungs themselves are also specially radiation-resistant to aid in this. He is therefore able to exhale radiation in the form of a pressurized blast of vapor, most often giving the impression of breathing incredibly hot and toxic atomic fire like a flamethrower, though he is also capable of focusing it into a deadlier nuclear plasma beam to disable especially stubborn targets. The same subdermal vessels that absorb radiation can also release it as well, most often via his dorsal plates glowing before he exhales his atomic breath, but he can also release it through the rest of his hide and form a sort of "shield" of radiation around himself which can sicken and/or scald even other kaiju in immediate proximity, though it isn't as destructive as his breath attack due to a broader and more diluted distribution. Although Godzilla prefers close combat most of the time due to practicality, his atomic breath can traverse considerable distances if exhaled with enough force, although its concussive power generally decreases the further it travels.
• Nuclear Meltdown: On the rare occasions when excessive radiation has been absorbed too quickly for his anatomy to contain it effectively, Godzilla has been known to exhibit a sort of "powered-up state" which makes his presence alone incredibly deadly to most organic life. The sheer amount of energy emitted by his entire body is such that his hide heats up to a dangerous extreme, burning and paining him even more than normal and driving him into a berserk frenzy. Anything withing a radius of his body length risks being incinerated by the sheer heat he emits in this "Meltdown Mode", and even his own irradiated tissues are damaged even more than normal as a result. If the energy itself isn't released - in the form of a tremendous blast which may have several times more power than the atomic bombs dropped over Nagasaki and Hiroshima at full intensity - his own organs will fail and become overwhelmed by mutated tumors, forcing him into a healing coma or even potentially killing him altogether.

Weaknesses:

• Deathly Cold: Godzilla's gigantothermy has one fatal flaw: if the environment does not provide energy and especially heat, it struggles to maintain a steady body temperature. Even its own endothermic adaptations can only help it so much, and if the environment becomes too cold, with too little outside energy available, it will enter a state of torpor until it can warm up or otherwise receive energy again. Cold-based attacks from enemy kaiju are one of the few reliable ways of slowing Godzilla down, and disturb and rile it greatly as a result.
• Electrocution: The other significant means of giving Godzilla pause, its energy absorption is in part reliant on the energy being transmitted by its circulatory and nervous systems. The former is more relevant than the latter, however, and electrical energy is usually transmitted to the latter - too much of it can cause Godzilla to "short-circuit" and incapacitate it temporarily.
• Violently Territorial: Immensely old and emotionally scarred by his experiences in recent years, it's safe to say that "anger issues" is a massive understatement as a descriptor of Godzilla's major character flaw. His behavior is largely reactive in nature, but when his rage is stirred, it is virtually unstoppable and ignorant of reason. Though not averse to cooperation, Godzilla has been known to turn on allies that hinder him and force them out of his way if it means reaching the shared adversary - and anything that presents a threat to his or his habitat's well-being will find themselves in grave peril. As devastating as this aggression can be, it can also be used against him, drawing him away from key areas or into particularly challenging hazards or situations. That said, more than a few overconfident opponents have lost their lives due to toying with Godzilla's temper too much, and even close allies have to be careful around him lest they find themselves subject to collateral damage from his legendary rampages.
• Tag-Team: Godzilla is best suited to combat against single equally sized opponents. If he faces multiple foes that match him in terms of scale or power, he tends to struggle more due to his tendency to fixate on just one of them at a time, allowing teams of enemy kaiju capable of coordinating their efforts will be able to blindside him repeatedly as he tries to take them down one by one. Groups of smaller opponents like swarming monsters or military vehicles are less effective due to his attacks having a cleaving effect and hitting multiple small targets at once if aimed well, but there are some horde-based sub-kaiju which have still managed to match him, albeit in specific circumstances in their favor.

Chapter Text

Primordial Juggernaut: ANGUIRUS

Statistics

• Classification: Baurusuchidae
• Height: 295 feet/90 meters
• Length: 524 feet/160 meters
• Mass: 66,139 short tons/60,000 metric tons
• Locality: Originally sighted in the Honsai region of Japan, but thought to have originated in the western part of South Asia.

Bio

History:
April 24, 1955. Six months since Titanus Gojira I, the original Godzilla, had been subdued, incapacitated, and his remains extracted from Tokyo Bay for scientific study by a private corporation funded in secret by the then-incipient United Nations. The public had assumed that the threat of Godzilla was no more, that no such creature would ever threaten the world again.

The public had assumed wrong.

The earliest recorded appearance of Titanus Gojira II, on the coast of Iwata Island, was noteworthy in that unlike in the first encounter, where the beast had operated alone, there was another titan with it. Another kaiju, one that also dated back to prehistoric times, was locked in a heated battle with this new Godzilla, one that had also been affected by the Castle Bravo bomb test from the previous year. This new beast must have been further away from the blast than Godzilla's kind, since it exhibited less evidence of mutation than the previous Godzilla, whereas Gojira II was more directly affected, presumably being shielded from the majority of the fallout only by his own titanic parent, Godzilla I - perhaps explaining why it was able to grow so quickly in such a short space of time. The armored, spiked quadruped, in the meantime, was a wonder in its own right because not only was it engaging in a toe-to-toe match against this new Godzilla, but even looked like it was winning. The victor could not be decided, however, as the two of them fell off a crumbling cliff and into the sea before they could reach this point. As the government attempted to deal with Gojira II, attempting to use a series of flares to lure him away from civilization (only for an accident involving a hijacked truck to ruin their efforts), what little photographic evidence could be gained of the second monster was bought in for study. While witnesses insisted on it being some kind of dinosaur or other giant land-dwelling reptile, the blurry photos of the beast being washed out to sea were misinterpreted by scientists as belonging to a massive, sinuous aquatic creature, giving it the name of "Anguillasaurus" or "eel lizard" - which would later be shortened to "Angilas" and then Romanized to "Anguirus". Only after the creature surfaced a second time and did battle with Godzilla once again was it confirmed that he was indeed an armored land-dweller - originally suspected to be an ankylosaurid dinosaur, from the structure of his limbs, scaled integument, and the shape of his skull, jaws, and teeth, it would only later be deduced that his closest relatives were the extinct terrestrial crocodilians of the Jurassic and Cretaceous, most of which were found in South America and Madagascar - how his ancestors had managed to make it to east Asia would remain a mystery for the time being. As it was, Anguirus lost the second battle against Godzilla, who was now more fully grown as his mutation progressed; while Godzilla would eventually be lured to a small island and incapacitated by being buried under an avalanche, Anguirus' body was taken into custody and, as with the remains of the first Godzilla, analyzed for potential value to the scientific community.

Mortally wounded during his bout with Gojira II, Anguirus would remain in stasis for a month while the world recovered, but one night, the facility where he was being contained was mysteriously sacked, the identity of its invaders remaining unknown until over ten years later - more importantly, Anguirus himself awakened in the midst of the confusion, itself only recorded by a few security camera tapes, the resultant footage being of poor quality due to a malfunctioning security system which was most assuredly not accidental. Most of the intruding party were never seen again, and only half the staff escaped with their lives, a now fully rejuvenated Anguirus himself disappearing into the unknown. It wouldn't be until 1968, when the Kilaaks orchestrated an invasion upon the planet and attempted to subjugate various Earth-native kaiju for this purpose, did Anguirus, one of the few titans that had escaped their control, resurfaced and aided Godzilla and a group of other beasts against a biological superweapon, one that had ravaged Japan once before and had been tasked with conquering the entire planet. And at that task, it and the Kilaaks would fail in no small part because of Anguirus - his peerless ferocity allowing him to stand as an equal to Godzilla and the others. At the end of the battle, witnesses reported that Godzilla and Anguirus exchanged looks at each other before leaving - as though they recognized one another. But no fight came this time, perhaps due to their knowledge that they would need each other if the Kilaaks invaded again.

Anguirus nowadays lives on Kabitsu no Shima, or Monster Island, along with the other kaiju that have earned his respect, Godzilla and his family chief among them. He is not averse to traveling alongside the colossal amphibian as an aide against global threats, however, and should there be a need for Godzilla to settle a score, Anguirus is often the first to come to his aid. If Godzilla is the King of the Monsters, Anguirus is surely the greatest knight of his royal court.

Personality and Combat Style:
Anguirus' nature is distinguished by one critical trait: determination. He is feisty and tenacious, with no understanding of even the idea of retreating, and will brazenly challenge kaiju twice his size and many times his power. He is primarily a melee fighter, similar to Godzilla, but the projectile spines he can launch from his tail are also useful as a deterrent and a ranged attack if needed. He is as adept at surface-level combat as most other kaiju, but can also function competently in a fossorial setting, burrowing into the ground to escape danger or surprise foes from below. He is straightforward and brutal in battle, and his strength and agility are immense. While more like a land-dwelling crocodile than anything else in physical appearance, some have compared his attitude to a honey badger - refusing to give up, charging in without fear, and going down swinging til his very last breath.

In more recent times, ever since his and his allies' encounter with Monster Zero, Anguirus' personality seems to have mellowed out, though not by much all things considered. He seems to be on better terms with the other Earth-native kaiju, rather than being forced to viciously lash out. In the presence of like-minded company, he is a loyal and selfless companion. Anguirus is primarily a tooth-and-claw fighter, and without any of the bells and whistles of more recently appearing monsters, he has had to make do with his guts alone. His armored shell can withstand Godzilla's atomic breath without so much as a light blemish, and the spikes covering his body are formidable in both offense and defense, as are his fierce fangs and savage claws. A staunch ally of the first two generations of Godzilla's family, he is fiercely protective of other kaiju they consider allies (mainly Mothra and the Rodan siblings), defending them to the death. Conversely, kaiju that are not considered welcome by the natural world, such as most manmade weapons systems or extraterrestrial invaders, are regarded with a violent hatred - the creature will attack them on sight, and even those without malicious intentions are not trusted immediately. Nonetheless, Anguirus is no bully, and those who are able to work past his initial aggression and gain his loyalty (albeit from a respectable distance) will find him a valuable ally when danger on a global scale truly threatens.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Like other kaiju, Anguirus has the semi-mineralized physiology that enables his existence at his current scale, and the prodigious physical strength and durability that comes with it. His powerful limbs give him impressive speed for his bulk, his shoulder and hip spikes and facial horns are effective close-range deterrents, his tail and jaws are strong enough to deal significant injury, and a full body slam can inflict punishing forces capable of breaking kaiju bone and shattering buildings to rubble. His healing factor also seems to be more advanced than average among kaiju of his ilk, allowing him to keep fighting where other monsters would succumb to mortal injury.
• Spike-Armored Hide: The most important feature of Anguirus' anatomy is the coat of armored scutes on most of his dorsal side. These have been variously compared to the segmented shells of armadillos, the defensive spines of hedgehogs and porcupines, and the osteoderms of ankylosaurs and crocodiles, but while closest to the latter, most they seem to be of a structure unlike any animal known to man. As opposed to crocodile scutes each being comprised of a single piece of bone with a continuous keratin sheath along with a keeled ridge, each of Anguirus' armor plates is comprised of a bony plate from which a distinct spike juts outwards, the latter being comprised entirely of keratin somewhat like a rhinoceros horn. The keratin comprising the spikes is noticeably durable even relative to the rest of his armor, and grows so quickly that even when a spike is chipped or broken off, it will regrow in a day or two; it grows faster towards the center of each spike, ensuring that it assumes a conical, sharply pointed shape. This rugged armor is vital protection when underground, since it is resistant to pressure, extreme heat, and most forms of natural and artifical weaponry. His favorite means of using it actively is to curl up into a ball and roll at high speed, using his spines and body mass in conjunction to smash into the foe like a wrecking ball the size of an apartment complex.
• Burrower: While not as skilled at digging as other kaiju more specialized for the job, Anguirus is still accomplished at it due to sporting sturdy front claws and a reinforced skull capable of pushing through most varieties of soil and earth. He most often uses this as part of his defensive technique, hunkering down and partially burying himself so only his spikes are visible, but if need be he can also excavate tunnels to lure his opponents into, keeping the width of these passageways only barely wider than the radius of his tail swings and preventing an advancing foe from dodging them. Like some other fossorial titans, he can also cave in a passageway if sufficiently pressed, his armor allowing him to escape mostly unharmed while his foes find themselves entombed beneath the earth.
• Primitive Mentality: Anguirus' nervous system is similar to that of a crocodilian, both in brain-to-body ratio and intellectual sophistication. He has the intelligence to map out his environment and form a strategy depending on what information he has received, but his actions are largely driven by instinct rather than higher learning. That said, he seems to have an immunity to mind control and psionics of most varieties, the reasons for which are not fully understood. He is capable of communicating intelligently with other kaiju, but something about his mind seems to scramble any attempts to hijack his mental processes before they can make any headway. Scientists have tried to rationalize this as a hormone balance that makes him hyper-aggressive and therefore not suggestible, but this has yet to be conclusively proven.

Special Abilities:

• Projectile Tail Spines: One would be forgiven for thinking that Anguirus can only fight at close range, but he does have a surprise in store for foes thinking they are out of his reach. His long, flexible, and heavily muscular tail sports the longest and deadliest spines growing from his skin, made entirely of keratin like the ones growing from his back armor - unlike those, however, the tail spines are detachable, with the keratin at the base being more delicate than the rest of each spine and the spine itself not having an ostederm base (being essentially a modified scale). If subjected to enough physical stress, the spines break off, the keratin regrowing at an even faster rate than the body spines. While this is obviously useful for leaving them stuck in an opponent hit by his tail, an overhead or sideways swing can also cause them to detach from sheer inertia, allowing him to hurl volleys of spines like javelins. The length of these spines both causes them to break off more easily and enables them to penetrate deeply, punching through non-reinforced plate metal and kaiju hide alike. The spines are as biodegradable as most other keratin, so they have no lasting effect on the environment even when scattered about on the battlefield.
• Full-Body Oscillation: Like mundane crocodiles, Anguirus is able to emit infrasonic vibrations that can be transmitted from his entire body, traveling for great distances through the ground as a communication tool. He is also capable of weaponizing this, however, emitting vibrations of greater frequency that allow him to transmit them into an opponent upon physical contact with debilitating results; his claws in particular can tear through especially tough substances by vibrating at high speed. This ability is largely derived from a specially adapted and incredibly powerful larynx, so he can also project it in the form of a deafening roar which can blow through obstacles or enemies with sheer concussive force.

Weaknesses:

• No Energy Weapons: Apart from his tail spines and sonic roar, which are not as strong as most of his other attacks, Anguirus does not have any other ranged abilities, let alone any that are energy-based - if his opponent is protected against his spines and roar, he will not be able to fight them from a distance. He also struggles against opponents who are resistant to physical damage, his main form of attack, having no means of bypassing such protections if he can't find a weak spot to take advantage of.
• Weak to Cold: Like Godzilla, Anguirus does not do well in colder environments. Although not a true ectotherm as modern crocodiles are, his metabolism will still slow to a crawl at low temperatures or even proximity to extreme cold. Ice-based attacks especially are an effective way of deterring or outright stopping him, though if warmed up or thawed out he will become desperate for heat and even more aggressive than usual.
• Vulnerable Underbelly: Unlike modern crocodiles, Anguirus does not have gastralia (belly ribs), presumably to aid in his ability to curl into a ball for added protection, and his ventral hide is pebbly but not as armored as his back. This makes his underside especially vulnerable if his opponent can flip him over, which is also why he struggles against aquatic opponents or fellow burrowers like Baragon - they have no trouble coming at him from below, a direction which he finds all but impossible to guard against.
• Stubborn Streak: Simply put, Anguirus does not know when to quit. This is often advantageous in the heat of battle but if his opponent can outsmart him, they may be able to turn his tenacity against him. Even without mind control, he can still be tricked into rushing headlong into circumstances that are more difficult to get out of than to get in, especially if he ends up facing off against multiple opponents that match him in terms of power. When not overcome by a desire to terminate an adversary, he is patient and open to reason, but once he's set his sights on a foe, he will go through hell or high water to take them down, even if it means plowing through populated regions without a second thought. His tendency to strike first and ask questions later has also cost him on multiple occasions, most often via underestimating what his opponent is capable of. While not averse to cooperating with allies and easy to work with should there be no provocation specifically directed at him, he still has to be held back more often than he is allowed to go all-in, and he knows this all too well. He has a reluctance to face adversaries with a knack for targeting what he values the most such as allies he is particularly attached to, either due to the risk of underestimating these opponents or the ensuing carnage being possibly more devastating than the damage said opponents would have otherwise done if left to their own devices.

Chapter Text

Terror of the Skies: RODAN

Statistics

• Classification: Scansoriopterygidae
• Height: 154 feet/46.94 meters
• Length: 300 feet/91.44 meters
• Mass: 39,043 short tons/35,419 metric tons
• Wingspan: 871 feet/265.48 meters
• Locality: Cosmopolitan (capable of appearing anywhere in the world); while the initial nesting site was located on Kyushu, Japan, it is believed that Rodan's species originated in a more northern Earth hollow somewhere in Russia.

Bio

History:
The earliest historical records concluded by Monarch to suggest the existence of a giant flying monster akin to Rodan are arguably folkloric tales of enormous birds such as the Roc or Rukh and the Simurgh of Middle Eastern folklore, the Ziz of Jewish myth, or the Peng of China, most of which have been described as ruling like kings over all other flying creatures - a description which might be quite apt for Rodan, who flies across airspaces all across the world as though she owns them. While most such stories were dismissed as exaggeration of existing fauna, seeing as it used to be thought impossible for such a massive creature to exist, let alone be able to fly, the emergence of Rodan's family in 1955 seemed to defy all odds in this regard. It has been suggested that they were semi-lithic in nature, like Godzilla and Anguirus, and remained concealed from civilization by nesting in the hollows beneath the planet's crust as they once did, but stories of colossal birds existing in various cultures around the world imply that they might have been more active than was previously assumed - although it seems that the species' population was already endangered due to unintentional habitat damage by human activity even before Rodan's parents first appeared.

Oddly enough, the monstrous fliers were not the first unusual creatures to be sighted near the village of Kitamatsu, on the island of Kyushu. It all started when two miners went missing, one of which was later found dead, mauled by some unknown creature. The culprit would then be sighted attacking the house of one of the engineers and supervisors investigating the incident. This supervisor, Shigeru Kawamura, later described it as a massive larval insect of some kind - perhaps neotenic and troglodytic, given that it was later found to have originated from the mine where the disappearances had occurred. More such creatures, the Meganulons, would be seen exiting the mine and attacking the populace, coupled with seismic activity from the nearby volcano of Mount Aso, suggesting that they were fleeing the disturbances made by its imminent eruption. However, an accident during another investigation trapped Shigeru inside the mine - and while he was rescued, his memory was temporarily stifled from injuries sustained in the cave-in. Once it was restored, however, Shigeru immediately relayed news of something he had seen within the mine: a massive nest with two enormous eggs in the middle of hatching - and the creatures that had laid them roosting on top of them, feeding the Meganulons to the hatchlings. He was sure it wouldn't be long before they'd run out of their normal prey, however, especially since the hollow he had inadvertently discovered had been broken into - which had allowed the insects to escape, denying the parents of the massive infants the food they required.

Even more ominously, days before this report was recorded, something massive was spotted in the skies above Kyushu. Tearing through the airspace at supersonic speeds, it was more than a match for the military aircraft sent to dispatch it. Other sightings of this mysterious flier were sighted over China, Okinawa, the Phillipines, and other locations around the western Pacific. It was later deduced that there were, in fact, two such objects, and soon scattered photographs came in of these unknown entities picking off livestock and people. Only when was it discovered that these were, in fact, a mated pair of gigantic prehistoric reptiles, initially compared to pterosaurs despite exhibiting several more bird-like traits (feathers, grasping hind feet, and curved and flexible necks), and also having traits exhibited by neither. The two monsters were tracked down to their lair, the government hoping to destroy them, but it seemed that they had already sensed their presence - before the investigation could proceed, they tore their way out of Mount Aso, wiping out the platoon dispatched to confront them, and made their way to Kyushu in a bid to clear out any other humans present in case their young came under threat. Ironically, this ended up hastening their own destruction - driven back towards their home by a second counterattack with more personnel and better armaments, they finally met their end when the volcano erupted and buried one of them, the other refusing to leave it and dying by its side as well. That would have been the end of it, but in all the confusion, something very important had been forgotten - and as their home collapsed around them, the two hatchlings the flying monsters had sacrificed themselves to protect slipped deeper into the planet's crust, away from civilization.

Nine years later...

Daisetsuzan National Park. An ordinary night was about to become the world's eleventh hour when an enormous meteor shower plummeted from the sky, the largest of the space rocks crashing into Mount Kurodake. Some days later, Princess Salno of Selgina, while on a visit to Hokkaido and in the midst of dodging an assassination attempt, recieved a vision: the space stone harbored an evil from beyond the stars, and the planet was already preparing to face it. The sun and the sea, guided by a light from the heavens, would face the astral terror. Sure enough, in the midst of the ensuing chaos, the face of Mount Aso crumbled shortly afterward, and from it emerged two newly grown terrors of the sky - Rodan and her twin brother, Raodon or "Fire Rodan". How they had managed to survive since the eruption was not known, but one thing was for certain: they would claim the skies as their own, and the Astral Terror was not welcome here on Earth. Not if they, Godzilla, and a fellow kaiju that would bring them together could help it...

Personality and Combat Style:
Little is known about what Rodan's character was like prior to her emergence from Mount Aso. It is likely that her unfamiliarity with the outside world, due to the nest she and her brother were born in being sealed off by the Aso eruption of 1955, kept the two of them from venturing out into the surface world prior to their maturation and return to the nest almost a decade later. It is quite clear, however, that they do not plan to head back underground anytime soon, and even though the two of them have gone their separate ways, meeting up only occasionally, they are content to roam the skies of their own free will, virtually unchallenged by most other aerial creatures. Though they are generally nomadic, they do have several different roosts throughout the Pacific Ring of Fire, preferring to nest near or in active volcanoes where they can sustain themselves on the latent heat. Though she and her brother were first sighted independently of Godzilla, ever since their reemergence and subsequent fight with the King of Terror, they are most commonly associated with Godzilla's kind.

Rodan is highly territorial, and will defend her nest with her life. The literal flying dinosaur is most often seen flying above her chosen residence, daring monsters to challenge her, and will regard military aircraft as a threat to her territory similarly. She is technically Godzilla's first ally and acts as a foil to him to a certain degree, while also providing valuable air support. The Rodan siblings are the fastest airborne kaiju and prefer to take fights to the open sky where they can put their speed and flying prowess to use - although they are certainly capable at physical combat, using their beaks, talons, and bladed wings to deadly effect, the velocity offered by top-speed flight makes them particularly lethal if enough airspace is provided. They can comfortably fight from a distance as well as in melee range, but Rodan prefers to close the distance and tear into the opponent before they can get the chance to react. She isn't afraid to use underhanded tactics in battle, either, ambushing from cover and unexpected angles or employing surrounding terrain and obstacles to throw off pursuers or even lure them into serious harm.

Capricious, fearless, and independent, Rodan has a strange morality when it comes to how she treats the world around her, obeying a sort of "code of honor". She is stubbornly prideful, and may even come off as unsympathetic at times, her allegiances depending on the circumstances - she may fight side-by-side with a fellow kaiju one moment and then bicker with them the next, and if she feels she can't win, she isn't above giving up and leaving until she feels that the odds are stacked more in her favor. Though her behavior comes off as egotistic as a result, she can also be sensible if the situation calls for it and is good at making snap decisions; her alliance with the King of Monsters is at least initially based on the notion that his strength against other monsters keeps her homeland safe. Her tendency to rush into battle sometimes chafes against Godzilla's perceived responsibility for her, and the two parties have conflicted multiple times in the past, including when she and Godzilla clashed initially shortly after her first emergence. Nonetheless, she does concede that Godzilla is a strong leader, and defers to his nephew Titanus Gojira III for similar reasons even if she has had to pull him away from many a troublesome situation. Rodan also has a bit of a rivalry with other flying or gliding kaiju such as Mothra, Varan, and Kamacuras, and will often engage in aerial dogfights or chases with them to hone her own natural abilities; she has extended this instinct to passing aircraft as well, but has learned not to actively attack them lest she face retribution, preferring to keep a safe distance but still follow them for a time before veering away in pursuit of the next thing to interest her.

For all of her contempt towards extraterrestrial and manmade kaiju, perhaps the one creature that can raise Rodan's ire more quickly and effectively than any other is her primordial nemesis, the invasive odonatopteran known as Megaguirus; although her kind were a key prey item for Rodan's ancestors and are still kept under control by her and her brother's predations, Megaguirus resents the two of them for this reason and will not hesitate to attack them on sight. Rodan sees this as a direct affront to her percieved superiority as a volant predator, since the two of them are nearly equal matches in the air, and outside of their predator-prey relationship, they compete for the same resources and territory and would have struggled to co-exist even prior to the radioactive mutations that bought about their current state. Wherever Megaguirus appears, chances are that Rodan is not far behind.

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Despite being adapted primarily for combat from the skies, Rodan is no slouch at holding her own at close-range, either, and can be unexpectedly brutal if the situation calls for it. Her prehensile toes are capable of employing a crushing grip that can reduce concrete to powder, and can also clutch a struggling opponent firmly as she carries them aloft, while her enormous hooked talons can pierce through plate metal with enough effort; she often slams her feet into the opponent like a diving falcon as she swoops upon them, aiming for the head, neck, or wherever else is required to be intact for her target to function. Her wing claws and spikes as well as her razor-toothed, dagger-like beak are equally effective, able to puncture and tear through unarmored kaiju hide and flesh and often bought into play once her foot claws have secured the victim. She prefers to aim for the face of the attacker, and more specifically the eyes in a bid to blind them although the ears and nostrils are also valid options. Even the edges of her wings are weaponized, with hardened scales which form a serrated edge, allowing her to use them like blades and slash at foes as she flies past. On a more defensive front, her bones, while hollow for weight reduction, are abnormally strong with carbon nanofiber reinforcement, and her flesh and tissues are strengthened similarly with the feathers covering much of her body being hardened and fused into armored scales, spikes, and even plating on her shoulders and underside for body-slamming opponents.
• Supersonic Flight: Rodan is capable of powered flight, her ancestors having evolved this ability convergently to pterosaurs and post-Cretaceous birds. It was not until decades after the first sightings of her, and the discovery of the membrane-winged scansoriopterygid dinosaur Yi qi, that the pieces finally came together regarding where she and Raodon rested in the tree of life; it is likely that their species is descended from similar stock to the Vultursaurs from Skull Island, which were also found to be volant scansoriopterygids and may have directly descended from a dinosaur similar to Yi. In any case, Rodan exhibits similar skeletal, muscular, and respiratory adaptations to pterosaurs and true birds that enable her to take to the air and stay there - more importantly, enhancements to these adaptations allow her to reach supersonic speeds in flight, her physical durability enabling her to keep going where other fliers might suffer terrible damage from the air resistance alone. At a top speed of Mach 3, she can leave shockwaves in her wake, blow down entire buildings just by passing by, and dive-bomb with enough force to smash opponents into the ground or even reduce them to a crumpled smear. She is known for sideswiping and ramming foes without a care in the world, her sharp-edged extremities inflicting grievous lacerations and tearing through obstacles that aren't specifically reinforced against the tremendous forces involved. If she has enough room, she will usually fly as high as she can go, take aim at her foe or victim, and dive down upon them in a falcon-like fashion to smash into them with devastating power, often killing or hideously crippling any opponent that can't get out of the way in time.
• Heatproof: Nesting in active volcanoes has led Rodan and Raodon's kind to develop adaptations for resisting extreme heat. A redundant subdermal circulatory system shields her vitals from excess heat, circulating it towards her extremities and allowing them to gain extra lethality, and her skin, feathers, and even her internal tissues have protein structures that offer a similar fireproof quality to asbestos, although the inorganic constituents of her anatomy are more chemically similar to volcanic basalt. Either way, she is able to bathe in molten lava without ill effects, though she has to avoid ingesting it on pain of internal trauma, and prefers to avoid it unless necessary. She is also able to withstand heat-based attacks from most enemy kaiju and military equipment, having once even been able to take a direct hit from Godzilla's atomic breath with only a minor concussion.

Special Abilities:

• Thermal Shield: The same systems that enable Rodan to shield her internal organs from intense heat simultaneously cause her exterior to rise in temperature to dangerous extremes, and even outside of such circumstances this latent effect can remain for distressingly long periods of time. If she has recently nested in volcanic areas, which happens often, she will remain dangerously hot to the touch for days afterwards, being able to severely scald non-armored kaiju hide and incinerate less resistant materials. If not in proximity to environmental heat, she is also able to capitalize on the endothermic metabolism her kind has inherited, drawing body heat away from her interior to superheat her skin on her own. This forced combustion doesn't last as long as if she were "primed" beforehand, but it can still come in handy in a pinch, and might even help her turn a fight around if timed correctly. She prefers to heat up her beak, wing blades, and talons in this manner, allowing her to burn through even foes known to be moderately trauma-resistant.
• Heatwave Gust: Rodan's wing membranes are especially rich in blood vessels as a heat dispersal mechanism, adapted specifically to shut down circulation if exposed to intense heat, and resume activity in order to absorb heat if the need arises. Their most important function however is to shed excess heat, which causes her wings to experience a temperature increase at an even greater rate than with the rest of her body. The air itself seems to boil around her when this happens, allowing her to essentially generate her own thermals to aid in carrying her aloft - and immolate anything below her in the process. If her thermal shield is active, the temperature of the air around her can be such that things nearby risk spontaneous combustion. She seems to be aware enough of this effect to directly weaponize it as well, and one of her favorite defensive tricks is to beat her wings to hammer things below or in front of her with superheated gusts that can smash into obstacles and enemies alike with almost as much force as actual blasts of flame breath, knocking back incoming foes and covering escapes when she feels pressured. This heatwave ability becomes even deadlier when she's flying at supersonic speeds, the air friction only further heating the surrounding atmosphere to the point where environmental moisture outright evaporates as she passes by, inflicting grievous harm upon anything even remotely combustible. The heatwave isn't able to reach the point of a true flame trail due to the lack of a consistent fuel source on her person, but she does appear to trail embers of flame behind her during flight as tiny portions of her feathers catch alight and are ripped away from her by her own destructive velocity.
• Sonic Scream: The twin crests on Rodan's head are hollow like those on crested hadrosaurs, the channels running through them being direct extensions of her nasal cavity. These act as resonating chambers, and with adjustment of the air flow within them, Rodan can tailor her calls for various purposes, the most common being a piercing, deafening shriek that doesn't deal much in the way of physical damage, but is capable of causing intense pain to the ears and other sensitive organs of enemy kaiju at close range and even capable of throwing sonar for a loop if uttered at the right frequency. At point-blank range it can disorient the opponent or even damage delicate anatomy such as eardrums, giving Rodan precious time to regroup or escape.
• Vocal Mimicry: The other major purpose of Rodan's resonating crests is the ingenious ability to mimic sounds she hears, much like a parrot. This of course does not include as faint and delicate sounds as human speech, but the calls of other kaiju are fair game - she can intimidate opponents with the roar of a more threatening monster, or lure in an unsuspecting victim by mimicking the distress or mating calls of its kind. She is also intelligent enough to have studied the vocalizations of other creatures around her over the years, and while this is an obvious boon for hunting and self-defense, her alliances with other kaiju like Godzilla have also been easier than if she'd lacked this talent. She is, for all intents and purposes, the kaiju equivalent of a polyglot, able to communicate with several other allied factions using the same "languages" that they rely upon. She is also able to imitate manmade equipment and cityscape ambient noise, albeit not as fluently as with the noises made by other creatures, and can even "throw" her voice over varying distances as circumstances allow, distracting pursuers or drawing in prey as desired.
• Energy Drain: Rodan's most insidious ability does not come into play until she's up close and personal with an opponent, usually once she's sure that it has been incapacitated. Her tongue is extendable like that of a woodpecker, but also has a keratinized, serrated barb at the front that can saw through kaiju hide and flesh like a mosquito's proboscis; just behind this is a hole opening up into a channel which runs through the tongue and empties into her esophagus. Once her beak has punctured the opponent, her tongue will worm its way into the body and find the nearest blood vessel, penetrating it and allowing her to siphon away blood for consumption. Her draining attack also has the mysterious property of leaching heat and radiation from her victims alongside bodily fluids, weakening them even further. Her ancestral species used to be parasitic towards kaiju and would tap into blood vessels for a free meal, not unlike the vampire bats of South America or oxpeckers in Africa, but this method of feeding is equally effective, if messier, on smaller prey as well. She often likes to carry such victims off to a safe perch on a cliff or building top so she can drain their blood and energy in peace, but has also been known to simply hold the prey in her beak and "snack" mid-flight, dropping off the exsanguinated carcass at a safe location to be stashed for later.

Weaknesses:

• Wing Damage: Durable as they may be, Rodan's wing membranes are not as resistant to physical damage as the rest of her. Enemy kaiju are the most capable of blowing holes through them, but some especially powerful military weapons such as Kiryu's heaviest artillery have been able to do so as well, though not without some difficulty. It's actually catching her in mid-air that's the major problem, given that she can fly circles around opponents as long as her wings are intact, but significant injury to them can seriously hamper her flight ability and force her down to the ground where she is more vulnerable. As competent as she is at land movement, she isn't as confident or martially adept on the ground as she is in the sky.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Unlike some other reptilian kaiju which rely on the internal heat generated by their own body mass to maintain a stable temperature, Rodan's tendency to discard her own body heat is energetically taxing and requires more sustenance than average to maintain, forcing her to seek large amounts of small prey or tackle creatures almost as big as herself to balance things out. Without sufficient nutrition or proximity to heat, she will begin to suffer severe hunger withdrawal and loss of much of her bodily functionality until either is provided. Although her heat generation does allow her to withstand colder temperatures to some degree, this would drain her energy reserves much more quickly if the temperature difference between herself and her environment becomes too great. This is why she can't stand colder environments such as tundra and the poles, and will avoid such places if she can help it.
• Aggressively Territorial: While obviously more nomadic than strictly terrestrial kaiju, Rodan nonetheless deems anything within the radius of several miles of her which she doesn't recognize as a trusted ally to be a potential threat or target. This often prompts her to respond to outsiders violently and with precious little in the way of second thoughts, frequently underestimating the capabilities of whatever dared to tick her off with its presence alone. No first encounter with Rodan has ever gone peacefully, and her tendency to charge first and ask questions later has gotten her into several unfair fights before. Whereas Anguirus is patient enough to determine whether an opponent means harm or not, only resorting to violence if they strike first, Rodan has a "take no chances" policy and will judge adversaries based on how well they can fend her off rather than whether they have good intentions. Unlike other kaiju with a territorial mindset, Rodan's flight ability gives her the leeway to simply relocate her territory to somewhere else if the odds are stacked against her, so the poor reputation caused by her tendency to come out swinging is often worsened by her tendency to simply leave should she be overpowered. Her allegiances and avoidances are based more on the strength and combat prowess of those she interacts with than social bonds, and if faced with a foe too difficult to defeat on her own, she will only take the fight to said foe if they threaten something she holds dear; otherwise, she usually cooperates with allies only if there's something in it for her.

Chapter Text

Goddess of Peace: MOTHRA

Statistics

• Classification: Neuropteran
• Length: 325 feet/99.06 meters (larva); 275 feet/83.82 meters (imago)
• Mass: 45,000 short tons/40,823 metric tons (larva); 30,000 short tons/27,215 metric tons (imago)
• Wingspan (imago only): 750 feet/228.6 meters
• Locality: Cosmopolitan (capable of appearing anywhere in the world); originally found on Infant Island, East China Sea

Bio

History:
The religion and mythology of China speaks of a goddess by the name of Cángū (蚕姑 the "Silkworm Maiden [or Lady]"), who is also identified as or with Léizǔ (嫘祖), the wife of Huangdi, the deity of the centre of the cosmos and god progenitor of all the Chinese. Cángū is credited with teaching humanity about the art of sericulture, or the husbandry of silkworms - a staple for one of the most important products of ancient Chinese culture. The tale of Léizǔ discovering silk as a crafting material after dropping a silkworm cocoon into a cup of tea is likely apocryphal, but some accounts describe Cángū has having been transformed into a silkworm herself at some point, forever spinning her prized threads. It is speculated that the legend of a goddess taking on this form may have been inspired by residual memories of an actual creature, whose range was restricted to the island which would eventually be called Infant Island - prior to late July of 1961.

Investigations into Infant Island following the Castle Bravo test some seven years prior had found the island to have surprisingly few traces of radiation, despite it being well within range of the fallout, although it was not known if it was inhabited due to heavy weather preventing a more thorough investigation. It would not be until a Japanese fishing boat was marooned on the island that a more important discovery was made: the island was inhabited, its primitive people presumably protected from the radiation by certain edible plant life with potential pharmecutical properties. Upon the sailors' return and their relating what they had witnessed, a Chinese-Japanese joint expedition was formed to scout the island for potential resources, the crew discovering that the island's flora was more hazardous than expected and narrowly escaping with their lives. More surprising still, however, was that one crew member reported being saved from one of the predatory plants that grew on the island by two mysterious and strangely small people. Dubbed the Shojibin, they claimed to be among the last of an ancient race of spirits called the Airenas, who had been given the blessing of their goddess, Mothra - and pleaded with the crew to stop any nuclear testing throughout the south Pacific.

So of course, the leaders of the expedition decided to take them back to China for use in the entertainment industry.

This of course would not stand for the goddess, who up to this point had been content with feasting on the supernaturally lush forests deeper within the island. Shortly after the expedition returned to its home base in Shanghai, the colossal insect larva emerged from the waters off the coast, and headed straight towards the city. Evacuations were swift and immediate, but even as Mothra all but tore down the city, she never once responded with unprovoked aggression to anything around her - even attempting to avoiding the fleeing crowds. When the collateral damage inevitably resulted in fatalities, onlookers would later speak of her inspecting the bodies and letting out an etheral call that seemed like she was mourning the dead. The fact that fewer casualties resulted overall from this incident than with Godzilla I's siege against Tokyo had not gone unnoticed by the authorities, and the behavior she exhibited suggested a creature with a far greater understanding of mankind than most previous kaiju. Once she had retrieved the Shobijin and escaped the city - and the attentions of man - the arrest of the executives who had arranged for the Airenas' kidnapping was put out without delay, and Infant Island was henceforth protected by Chinese law.

This decision, despite attracting no small amount of controversy from the governments and populace of several other countries that had been affected by kaiju activity, would ultimately pay off in spectacular style when, just three years later, a meteorite landed in Mount Kurodake, Hokkaido.

Sensing that the meteor meant very bad news, the Shobijin and Mothra set off for Japan at once, but a massive typhoon struck just before their arrival, leading Mothra to fatally crash-land on the shore near the city of Nagoya. Witnesses braving the storm in search of survivors claimed to have seen a colossal butterfly smashing into the coast like a meteor, its abdomen splitting open to reveal an enormous egg, which would be partially buried by the debris from the storm. The egg itself would later be found by locals returning to the area, but was soon caught up in a bidding war from several enterprises once again hoping to exploit it, among them the mysterious organization called Monarch. Their intent was to study the egg, hoping to learn the secrets of the creature within, but they would get their wish sooner than they thought. The storm had affected more than just Mothra, for up from the coast emerged a groggy and very aggravated Godzilla, who had also been swept ashore. Sensing the presence of another supergiant organism, Godzilla made his way through Nagoya towards the egg, tearing through any military opposition which got in his way. While the locals struggled to figure out how to transport the egg to safety, however, two piercing shrieks echoed across the sky...

Having just emerged from Mount Aso, Rodan and Raodon had stumbled upon the commotion and, realizing that there was now a serious threat to their newfound territory, they converged upon Godzilla without a second thought. In the ensuing chaos, the egg under threat, it seemed to glow on its own - and inside it were two lights, one blue, and one red. Heedless of this, the twin fliers had not yet fully grown, and they were losing against Godzilla despite their numbers advantage. The tide of battle would turn when two massive larvae emerged from the egg and, together, proceeded to unload enough silk to meet the production demands of several major cities for over a year, binding all three of them to the ground. As the two larvae began to communicate with the downed kaiju, the Shobijin related to witnessing authorities that the only hope against the beast inside the meteor was if the kaiju all worked together, but the damage caused by humans upon Godzilla and the Rodan twins' parents was too great for them to consider it. All came too late, however, as the storm began anew, this time converging around Mount Kurodake - and the meteor that had crashed upon it began to split open.

And that was when the horrifying realization dawned upon all involved that the storm that had led to Mothra's death was not, in fact, a natural phenomenon.

Even before Godzilla and the Rodans had freed themselves from their silken restraints, the astral terror had shaken off the fragments of its cosmic shell, spread its wings, and taken to the sky, heading straight for them. The two larvae, now with a better scope on the threat they were facing, turned and headed out to intercept the storm-bringer, but it is possible that Godzilla and the Rodans both realized in a panic that they alone would not be enough. Tearing the silk around them away from their bodies, they immediately rushed after the larvae, arriving not a moment too soon - it had only taken a few minutes for the space creature to overwhelm them both, with one larva permanently crippled and the other alone and unprotected. It could have easily killed Mothra then and there... had a blast of atomic breath not stopped it in its tracks. Godzilla and the Rodans, furious that the space terror would all but kill what was essentially a child (even if it was bigger than a small building), descended upon the storm beast and, after a long and intense battle, wounded it enough that it was forced to return to outer space to recuperate - outright severing one of its heads, even. The job done, Godzilla simply left, the Rodans tailing him with the intent to finish their fight against him, while Mothra returned to Infant Island after the Shobijin brokered an agreement with the Japanese government to begin work on a sanctuary for any future supergiant organisms that may emerge throughout the Pacific. Peace had been restored, for Mothra so had commanded.

What would only come to light much later - even to most of the Monarch personnel - was that the second larva, the one the space beast had preseumably murdered, was, miraculously, still alive, albeit on death's door. And more important still, the Japanese government was already in the process of taking it into custody, in the hopes of giving it not just recuperation, but a new life. It would be nearly three decades, in fact, before the fruits of Japan's efforts would come to light, when Mothra's long-lost twin brother, his reconstruction complete, was given an order consisting of two simple words:

"Destroy Godzilla."

"DESTROY GODZILLA."

"DESTROY GODZILLA."

Personality and Combat Style:
Mothra is one of the most benevolent kaiju on Earth, and possibly beyond. She never acts out of malice and refusing to resort to violence unless she absolutely has to. As such, she exhibits the most sympathy for humankind and in fact relies on her twin fairies, the Shobijin, to communicate with the human race. Though scorned by some as being apparently weak and cowardly, she is more courageous and powerful than most assume, able to take on and even defeat Godzilla in a straight fight; the two of them have a rivalry of principles, and it is often Mothra's job to set Godzilla straight if he comes into conflict with humanity or his fellow kaiju. Nonetheless, Mothra is one of Godzilla's closest friends, and the two of them are as likely to collaborate as they are to argue. Mothra is very calm and collected and can be trusted to remain so in troubled times; it is her responsibility that keeps the more destructive Jiras in control of themselves. That said, she does not approve of the corporate greed and disregard of first-world people in power as far as the world around them is concerned, and refuses to associate herself with such people. Because of her selflessness, Mothra has cultivated a massive following from people around the world for thousands of years, and is one of the only kaiju known who has substantial public support. She is especially fond of the younger, more progressive generations, and communicates with such people through her fairy servants on a regular basis with the hope that she can inspire them to support a better future.

Whereas Godzilla embodies righteous fury, Anguirus personifies steadfast tenacity, and Rodan and Raodon redefine enthusiastic mania, Mothra is the living meaning of peacemaking, a graceful elegance which belies power on par with the best of them. It may be somewhat unexpected to see a creature bent on preaching tranquility in a world where all life is predisposed to violence in the name of either self-preservation or violence's sake - and even she is not above throwing her weight around if she has to - but Mothra stands out because she seeks to neutralize and placate her opponents rather than tearing them apart. Her physical strength is meant to pin and subdue opponents or remove them from key areas, while her special abilities are not intended to be fatal - even if they can and do inflict serious harm if she needs to. Her ability to return from death is perhaps her most vital asset - no matter what harm may befall Mothra, a new one will always come back to the world not long afterward, continuing her purpose anew.

Despite her moth-like appearance, Mothra's ancestry actually lies with caddisflies, which aligns more with various aspects of her appearance and history than lepidopterans. Isotope dating places her at least as far back as the Cretaceous, whereas caddisflies first appeared in the Triassic, are closely related to butterflies and moths, and have aquatic larvae similar to how the juvenile Mothra is an adept swimmer.

Surprisingly, Mothra is almost exclusively carnivorous (though she does supposedly have a taste for tree sap, fruit, and other sweets as well). She uses her strong mandibles and raptorial forelimbs to seize and butcher prey in an efficient manner, but pays respect to the environment by only hunting when she needs to, and always choosing the infirm that she knows will not be able to survive their ailments or old age. She apparently abhors even the thought of treating intelligent life as prey like some other more malicious kaiju do, instead employing her predatory instincts in a positive way by turning them on invasive, non-native organisms to the habitats she visits, up to and including Infant Island itself. This behavior lends credence to the notion that the ancestors of Mothra and Battra were symbiotic with other, larger creatures, removing and consuming skin parasites in exchange for protection - a behavior which has been observed several times in the form of Mothra herself extracting mutant Shockirus lice from Godzilla's hide, just one of several mutualistic relationships the two kaiju share.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: It might seem preposterous that an arthropod such as Mothra could exist on the same scale as most vertebrate-based kaiju, but the existence of oversized invertebrates throughout the planet hollows, including Mothra herself, seems to come down to an adaptation distributed among them by a so-called "wandering genome", a viral body which is easily transferred from species to species and induces similar changes in any host it infects; in this case, it attacks the cells and genomes of arthropods and modifies them to produce adaptations for larger sizes. Mothra herself exhibits the same structural modifications as with other affected organisms, the most important being an exoskeleton that is much lighter than it looks, consisting of a honeycombed structure not unlike a bird skeleton sandwiched between a thin, mineralized outer layer and a softer inner layer for muscle support and stress dampening. Combining this with increased muscle mass throughout the interior of her body - more like a crustacean than a regular insect - and a bellows-like "lung" in the abdomen connected to the tracheae for active breathing rather than passive respiration grants Mothra impressive physical strength and endurance, while keeping her light enough to stay airborne. Able to grapple with other monsters using her deceptively sharp tarsal claws and raptorial front limbs, she can strike in a split-second and shred through unarmored hide before landing a tendon-snapping bite like a bolt cutter. Her powerful wings, reinforced in the same way as her exoskeleton, are also strong enough to help her lift or drag other monsters off their feet, generate hurricane-force winds, and fly at speeds rivaling a commercial jet. Other volant insectoid kaiju are faster in the air, but Mothra is capable of flying higher and further than any of them - and once she's set her sights on a target that needs to be neutralized, it stands little chance of escaping unscathed.
• Luminescent Aura: Both versions of Mothra, the larva and the adult, have portions of translucent "skin" on parts of their bodies, which contain enzymes and other compounds which allow them to produce a blue-green light in a similar fashion to the Lampyridae family of beetles (fireflies). This glow is primarily used for communication with other kaiju, allowing her to transmit messages using a rhythmic set of light flashes almost like a sort of signal code. However, it also seems to have a sort of "soothing" effect on other organisms, reducing aggression and strengthening inhibitions. Why this is the case is unclear, but some have speculated that the light intensity and frequency are tailored specifically to synchronize with the nervous systems of its observers; this has yet to be scientifically proven, however, as it also seems to throw equipment for a loop, leaving readings inconclusive. In any case, whenever Mothra's light organs are active, other creatures seem to be more suggestible and open to reason around her, and less prone to dissolving into infighting. The Infant Island natives have even suggested that her light aura inspires hope and determination in other monsters, and can even bring a mortally wounded being back from the brink of death, though these accounts are likely urban legend and, again, have yet to be properly tested.

Special Abilities:

• Silk Spray (larva only): Mothra's larval form, like typical caddisfly larvae, is able to produce silk from salivary glands to either side of her mouth orifice, concealed behind the mandibles for protection. The silk production process typically requires a lot of fuel and, as such, the more food she has consumed beforehand, the more silk she can produce, and size does indeed matter when it comes to the creation of her silk when a single meal can be converted into hundreds of gallons of the chemical constituents at a time. The silk itself is both elastic and incredibly resilient, with a tensile strength greater than titanium and the ability to stretch up to twice its normal span before beginning to take damage. Two different versions are produced: one with a powerful adhesive for binding adversaries in place, and a microcable-reinforced version for structure-building. A combination of the two is used as a restraining implement, hardening rapidly upon exposure to air and quickly binding the target's appendages together before sticking them to the ground. On a more mundane front, the silk is also capable of serving as both a harness for aiding in movement up vertical surfaces or across gaps and the basis for the cocoons she uses to metamorphose.
• Luminous Beam (imago only): The light organs Mothra uses for communication might seem like a purely passive ability, but they are also capable of being weaponized if push comes to shove. She is able to increase the intensity of her glow for a brief duration to emit a brilliant flash of light that can disorient monsters with sensitive vision or even inflict temporary blindness. More mysterious however is her ability to channel and focus the light she produces, producing a destructive beam from the end of her abdomen or rapid-fire energy bolts from her wings, able to scorch through most materials and even kaiju hide if focused for long enough. While her worshipers have chalked this up to "magic", it has been argued that she somehow has the ability to create plasma via conversion of the energy produced by her light organs, but unlike with the remains of Godzilla, no such organs or other systems have yet been found even in the remains of Mothra's past lives which could be retrieved. It should be noted however that Battra does have the ability to fire a heat ray of even deadlier intensity thanks to a heat-producing organ at the base of his stinger - chances are Mothra may have a similar mechanism, though with less energy output due to the obvious lack of cybernetic enhancement.
• Tranquilizing Sting (imago only): Both Mothra and Battra possess a stinger on the end of their abdomens, co-adapted from the single abdominal spinneret which was possessed by the ancestor of the Mosura species and presumably used in nest-building - once they evolved flight and became symbiotic with other creatures as parasite cleaners, it was no longer necessary, but a defensive weapon against potential threats to their clientele definitely was. Mothra's stinger injects a cocktail of sedatives and inhibitors which, in small doses, dulls the aggressive responses of any creature dosed with them; higher doses can actually cause kaiju of her rank to lose consciousness within a matter of minutes. Creatures larger than her or which pack a resistance to venom may require several hits of the stinger to be neutralized effectively, but at the very least they'd become quite drowsy and slower to respond than normal, giving her more leeway to counterattack or escape. This is her trump card against opponents and even allies who tend to rush into battle in a berserk fury, since even nominal doses of her sedative can slow them down just long enough to enable her to de-escalate a tense situation.
• Scale Shower (imago only): As Mothra nears the end of her lifespan, she will shed the scales of her wings in a dangerous cloud as a last resort to incapacitate her adversary. These scales are biolithic in nature, having similar properties to jewel dust, which makes them dangerous to inhale due to potentially causing internal lacerations and respiratory trauma. More impressive still is how their intense reflectiveness, a side-effect of their semi-mineralization, allows her to use this skill in tandem with her light beams - firing her stinger ray into the scale cloud can cause it to refract and either focus on a single fine point to devastating effect, or disperse and send out multiple beams that can cover a wide area and strike multiple targets. Should Mothra's death be due to fire-based attacks, she may even go up in a massive explosion (presumably due to her plasma organ backing up), sending out a cloud of scales all over the place which can cause further powder explosions that can catch assailants unaware.
• Death and Rebirth: In the event that Mothra is grievously injured or dies of natural causes, she always carries an egg inside her abdomen, which she seems to have a telepathic link to; this connection will persist even if she lays it and then moves elsewhere (usually when she knows she's going into a fight she can't win). If she doesn't make it, her consciousness is transferred through this link automatically and into the embryo inside the egg, allowing her to persist and continue the cycle anew. As durable as the egg is physically, it's still vulnerable to most external threats that can harm a kaiju prior to hatching and can be easily isolated or contained by sufficient security; it's even possible to prevent Mothra from hatching at all if its captor can somehow put the egg in an air-free vaccum, though the few interested parties who succeeded for a moment in containing the egg simply submerged it underground with the same result.

Weaknesses:

• Fragile Wings: As sturdy as Mothra's wings are, they aren't as durable or resistant to physical trauma as those of other monsters with additional structural reinforcement such as gristle fibers or mineralized feathers. Unlike other insects, her wings can regenerate due to the bases being comprised of live tissue, but as much of their area is comprised of dead tissue as with a typical insect wing, she will have to shed them completely if they sustain enough damage and start regrowing them all over again, a process which can take weeks at a time. This is why she avoids close combat if she has the choice, preferring hit-and-run strategies that are better for keeping opponents from drawing a bead on her.
• Destination Incineration: Mothra is terribly weak to extreme heat, and does not do well against fire-based attacks due to her fluffy fur and wing scales easily catching alight. This is another reason for her dislike of getting too close to her opponents, since even if they don't have a heat-based weapon there may be other environmental hazards such as wildfires or exploding buildings which can deal second-hand fire damage to her. As the Shobijin can attest, the sheer irony of her having a heat-based weapon (her stinger beam) isn't lost on her, and when using it, she has to angle her entire body, her wings especially, so that no part of her is in the way before firing.
• Slow Crawler: When forced to land, usually through damage to her wings or difficult weather, Mothra becomes awkward and slow, her legs being relatively gracile and not suited for carrying her in motion for sustained periods. She moves at a slow, calculated pace, making it difficult for her to avoid incoming hazards if she can't take to the air. She's not entirely helpless in this state, however, despite popular belief - her forelimbs can strike much more quickly than most would expect.
• Pacifist: Mothra has a keen understanding of how valuable life is, and is incredibly empathetic and sympathetic to most organic life native to Earth. While this makes her extremely valuable as a guardian of the natural world and a hope-bringer for kaiju and sophonts alike, it also makes her incredibly reluctant to resort to violence even when such is required, preferring escape, negotiation, or neutralization rather than directly crippling an especially hostile adversary. Opponents who have no compunctions about endangering innocent lives or singling out what Mothra holds dear will have no trouble taking her down, since she will often be forced to defend these targets rather than going on the offensive. Mothra is keenly aware of this shortcoming, and whenever faced with a foe she knows will be indifferent to the deaths of civilians - or worse, will harm them deliberately - she usually ropes in at least one ally (usually Godzilla and/or one of his own companions) so that she can focus on evacuations or securing critical areas, potentially giving her companion(s) the freedom to beat the tar out of their opponent(s) with impunity.

Chapter Text

The Eighth Wonder of the World: KING KONG

Statistics

• Classification: Pongidae
• Height: 375 feet/114.3 meters
• Mass: 99,208 short tons/90,000 metric tons
• Locality: Skull Island and Farou Island (west of Sumatra)

Bio

History:
It had all started in the winter of 1933. A strange island, shrouded in storms, had been the subject of sailors' tales for centuries. They spoke of the so-called Lost Continent containing all manner of secrets, from the vanished civilizations of Mu or Lemuria to creatures from the era of the gods. This Lost Continent would be the destination of the Venture, its crew consisting of Captain Englehorn, filmmaker Carl Denham, first mate Jack Driscoll, and lead actress Ann Darrow, among others. It would be this expedition which would make history, proving once and for all that the titans that had been once restricted to folklore and legend were, in fact, as real as the animals that roamed the backyards and parks of the civilized world. And one such titan was the one the native Iwi people had referred to simply as "Kong", the word in their language for "god"... the alpha life form of the place that would come to be called Skull Island.

Unable to understand the strangers from beyond the storm, the Iwi had regarded them as a terrible omen, not unlike similar pale-skinned strangers who had wiped out the people on the mainland that they had once been a part of. They had deemed the "golden woman" a herald of misfortune and death - claims which Denham had callously dismissed. What was wrong with her? She was a starlet of the highest caliber! But the natives didn't care about Hollywood or the promise of fame, they simply wanted these strange, unwelcome people off the island before their god grew outraged by their tainted presence. Perhaps destroying the "golden woman" would assuage the god's wrath, or perhaps it would incite him to wipe out the foreigners. But no matter. She would be the next to be sacrificed, and so she was taken without delay, the beast god would claim her as he had many others before.

Many, many people would lose their lives that week. The pale men wanted the golden woman back, and so they took some of the natives and forced them to guide them through the jungle in search of her. But of the seventy men that had set off from New York Harbor, only twenty would return, and not all of them unharmed. But supposedly, their efforts were not fruitless, for they had bought Kong with them. It was planned for Kong to be presented to the public as a spectacle, the Eighth Wonder of the World - but that was not to be. Disoriented and furious, he escaped, running wild in the streets of Manhattan, before scaling the highest tower with the golden woman clutched in his hand - the woman he had grown fond of, all because she was new to him, a curiosity. For all of his amoral savagery, he perished knowing that there was beauty in the world. A beauty that had, ultimately, killed the beast.

Or so we thought.

It had been theorized previously that Kong had been the only one of his kind left, but more expeditions would prove this wrong. Just nine months after Kong's death, another expedition to Skull Island was made, in the hopes of establishing better relations with the Iwi and assuaging their fears that the pale men would not destroy them as they had their ancestors ages before. Their success in this prospect was debatable, but the other discovery the crew made on the island was more surprising still - an albino juvenile "Kong" who would come to be named Kiko, who would go on to save the expedition from certain death. But just before they left the island, the crew would swear they saw a glimpse of another, even larger member of Kong's kind, one who would have a far greater impact some twenty-nine years later...

Farou Island, 1962. A Japanese expedition this time, sponsored by Pacific Pharmaceuticals, made landfall in the hopes of brokering arrangements with the Iwi population there for sustainable resource production. The Farolacton berry, or soma berry, had been discovered to have medicinal benefits which would be of great interest to the scientific community, but there needed to be specimens retrieved for study (previous visits had involved mere observation). Things grew more complicated when a mysterious creature - the same giant ape that had been sighted at the end of the second 1933 expedition - was also found to be dwelling there, one which the Iwi connected in their mythology to the perpetual storm surrounding the island. In their words, "Kong" was the embodiment of the storm itself, a calamity made flesh, but one they had tempered with the soma berries and given the space to exist peacefully. With all of this in mind, a daring decision was made by Pacific: not only the soma berry samples would be bought back to Japan, but the beast god, Kong, as well.

This would, in fact, be a fortuitous choice. At about the same time, a hibernating Godzilla, buried in the same icy tomb he had been encased in almost a decade before, had been awoken by an American submarine, and was now descending upon Tokyo. The decision that Pacific would make to combat Godzilla would be controversial for decades afterward, but it would in fact set the stage for what was to come for many years more. They would release Kong in the same vicinity as the King of the Monsters, and then hope that the two of them would focus on each other rather than the surrounding cityscape. Of course, Kong's escape was largely accidental, but the outcome was the same: the two of them would fight several times over the coming days, Kong seeing Godzilla as an obstacle on his way back to Farou Island, and Godzilla deeming Kong a threat to his own territory. This being Godzilla, the advantage was his for a time, until Kong demonstrated why the Iwi referred to him as a storm god: with a terrible roar, he called down a massive thunderstorm, regaining his strength and turning the tide against Godzilla, the two of them tumbling into the sea after a final climactic clash of fire and lightning. And then, just like that, the water swallowed up both of them - only Kong would be glimpsed swimming back to Farou Island, but Godzilla was nowhere to be found. Perhaps he had simply decided to vanish into the depths and wait for a new opportunity. Who could say?

As for Kong himself, he would remain with his people, and his kind, on Farou Island for the rest of his days. It would be there where he would make a final stand against a skull-faced demon from the depths of the earth - and it would be there where his son, the child of the troop leader, would take his place as the storm god of Farou Island. For no matter what became of this lost land... someone had to be there to protect it.

Personality and Combat Style:
Titanus Kong III is a conflicted creature, one who has a legacy behind him of both tragedy and triumph. Of the others before him, there were Titanus Kong I, who made headlines in New York back in 1933, and Titanus Kong II, Kong III's father, the one who had clashed with Godzilla during the early 60's. Between these two, Kong I was perhaps the far less sympathetic one from a relative standpoint - only looking out for his own survival and his own entertainment. It was discovered sometime after the 1933 expedition that the reason that no other members of his kind were sighted when he was discovered is not because he was the last of his kind, but because he had been driven out of the troop he had been a part of by the larger, stronger Kong II; a strange set of scars on Kiko's shoulder, in fact, were later found to match the teeth of an adult Kong, and it was perhaps Kong I himself who may have tried to kill him for being different, earning the ire of his own troop in the process. Without any social bonds, Kong I would begin to lose his sanity, becoming steadily more sadistic and brutish as he fruitlessly sought like-minded company. He would brutally mutilate creatures that threatened him, playing with their corpses and even gleefully tearing them apart without eating them. And when he found a stray Iwi and ate him out of desperation, things went downhill very quickly, the ape god developing an addiction to the taste of man. If it wasn't for Ann having a different hair color than what he was familiar with, his fascination overriding his hunger, she would have certainly perished at his hands. As savage as he was, though, one cannot help but pity him for making the wrong choice in alienating his troop. The similarity to some people even today is almost uncanny, for we too have a tendency at times to reject what truly matters and ultimately to lose everything - even ourselves - as a result.

It should be obvious to the reader by this point that Kong III does not take after the original Kong at all - Kiko is Kong III's brother, and Kong II his father; accounts from the Iwi have hinted that Kong I was the dominant male prior to his exile. Both Kong II and Kong III are known to have been considerably better-adjusted, with Kong II not having any appetite for humans at all (Kong III did consume one of the staff manning the 1973 expedition, but regurgitant from him was later found containing the pilot's clothing, and he hasn't eaten people since then). Kong II was addicted to the soma berry instead, but otherwise simply wanted to leave Japan as soon as possible after he was transported there by Pacific Pharmaceuticals. He was said to be extremely protective of Farou Island's Kong population, which all belonged to his troop, and the Iwi would speak of him being fiercely loyal to those of his kind who were supportive of one another, strictly punishing threats from both within the troop and without. As collected as he was much of the time, his fury was terrible to behold, but while he could easily rend beasts as big as he was to pieces with his fists and fangs alone, he was also merciful and empathetic to those who earned his respect - the storm god was said to be able to both admonish a member of his kind unlucky enough to jeapordize the troop's safety and valiantly defend them over the course of a single action. It is perhaps this upholding of justice - or as close to it as a giant mutant orangutan clan can get, anyway - that Kong III still strives to maintain, despite the terrible loss of his troop to the Skullcrawlers prior to the 1973 expedition.

Kong III himself seems to have adjusted rather well to his role as the defender of the Skull Island archipelago, helping any life form that was affected by hazards foreign to the islands, while at the same time respecting the circle of life carried out by his native ecosystem. While Kong I only appreciated Darrow merely as a curiosity, an object to be admired, the inquisitive and mild-mannered Kong III instead sees humans as a miniature echo of his next of kin; as long as they don't wish harm upon him and his habitat, he will defend them, too, almost as though they are brothers and sisters to him. Perhaps he loss of his family weighs more heavily on him than most believe - giving him the resolve to guard the last vestige of the Lost Continent, and its people and wildlife, unto his dying breath.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: To say that Kong is powerful is like saying that water is wet - when fully angered, the Iwi god is said to be like a hurricane made flesh. His sheer size and mass should in theory prevent him from moving at all based on the square-cube law alone, but presumably the kaiju mutagens his kind acquired over the generations made his tissues more durable and resistant to the stress of his own weight despite not being biolithic. Why this is the case is a mystery, but what is true is that his muscles are strong enough to not only carry him upright, but grant him the ability to perform feats of acrobatics and strength that other monsters of his size often struggle with. Leaping and climbing are as easy to him as dismembering opponents. Aside from sheer brute force, he also has a formidable set of fangs in his mouth that can inflict terrible wounds, and the skin on his knuckles has become calloused and even ossified into bony nodules, both for added protection when walking (when on all fours he walks on his knuckles like gorillas do), and also as built-in knuckle studs to give him extra force when striking. His thick fur and surprisingly tough skin (not unlike the dermal armor of a rhinoceros) are also resistant to the teeth and claws of other monsters, giving him more leeway to rush his opponents and lay the smackdown on them. He is known for body-slamming opponents and hurling them about like ragdolls without a care, being able to go toe-to-toe with even monsters much larger than he is and brawl with the best of them. It is truly no wonder that when it comes to melee combat, only Godzilla is Kong's equal.
• Cleverness: Though Kong prefers to solve problems by smashing them apart, he is not a mindless brute, and like many great apes, he exhibits impressive brainpower as kaiju go. Problem solving, tool use, and social communication are well within his capability. He is especially known for his ingenuity in combat, not merely subduing his opponents with brute force but also employing the circumstances to his advantage and adapting on the fly. Most noteworthy is how Kong is capable of more sophisticated tool use than most other apes, though not to the same complexity as people - he has been known to piece together not only whether certain objects such as boat propellers or anchor chains can be used to his advantage, but what specific properties are most beneficial (using bladed objects as slashing weapons, or choking an opponent with the aforementioned chain as he famously did with Ramarak). While it is debatable as to whether he is truly smarter than other monsters (since even supposedly "primitive" fellow kaiju such as Godzilla exhibit impressive intelligence of their own), it is possible that his heightened ingenuity compared to other monsters and less reliance on simply pounding his foes into submission despite being capable of doing so is because he is less resistant to physical force and damage than other monsters and would much rather avoid a drawn-out fight if he can help it. He is also known to actively avoid kaiju whom he knows will give him a difficult time unless they present a threat to what he holds dear or if he otherwise has no choice on the matter.

Special Abilities:

• Conductive Anatomy: In conjunction with his increased size, Kong's muscle density and muscle structure seems to have adjusted to better support his sheer bulk (with help from the kaiju mutagens if genetic testing is any indicator). One unusual side-effect of this is that almost almost every major muscle in his body includes stacks of special muscle cells similar to the electrocytes of some species of catfish (including electric eels). When exposed to electricity, Kong therefore has the ability to channel and store it in his muscles for use in combat, usually by being able to shock his opponent upon contact and thus make his close-quarters combat style even more dangerous. Some reports claim that he is capable of more extraordinary feats, however, such as being able to produce electrical discharges by slamming his fists, stomping his feet, or clapping his hands together, or even launching bolts of lightning from his palms with enough power; these reports are most likely apocryphal, however. His passive charge-carrying capacity is approximately 800,000 volts, though he has been known to channel higher amounts of charge - even having been struck by lightning bolts with no ill effect, though in those cases he had to redirect the charge away from him to avoid physical damage (usually by electrocuting his opponents with more power than usual).
• Storm Call: A rarer manifestation of Kong's electrical powers, his ability to draw in power seems to affect not only manmade power, but the weather as well. When sufficiently pressed, he seems to be able to summon mighty thunderstorms with his roar alone - said by the Iwi to herald destructive weather. It should be noted however that whenever he does alter the weather, this is preceded by his eyes and the scars on his body emitting a white glow - presumably due to his body drawing electrons from the surrounding air and emitting an aura of Cherenkov radiation as a result. As more and more electrical charge is attracted towards him, moisture begins to accumulate in the sky above him and form clouds that can stretch for miles around, generating a feeback loop in which the cycling particles in the clouds generate electrical power (a negative charge at the base of the clouds), which Kong (whose stored charge is positive) acts as a beacon for, allowing him to attract further atmospheric vapor and steadily increase the size and intensity of the resultant localized storm. This is the same process that certain other storm-generating kaiju such as Ghidorah are capable of, but it is not as powerful or extensive due to it largely being a byproduct of his electrocytes working normally. He is able to use the summoned storm as an energy boost in a pinch, but it's often too risky gamble to try unless all other options have failed. He isn't able to control the ensuing winds, rain, and lightning and has been known to cause further incidental damage without realizing it as a result.

Weaknesses:

• Fur On Fire: The thick fur covering most of Kong's body is resistant to most physical damage, but it's extremely vulnerable to fire, being easily burned and trapping enough air that he is more vulnerable to intense heat than creatures with more room for heat dispersal. Without any specifically heat-resistant properties, he has to keep cool via bathing and drinking regularly in order to keep the heat generated by his own muscular system from overwhelming him, and does not do well in arid environments such as deserts where there is excessive dry heat and too little moisture for his weather-altering power to be of much use. As such, he is instinctively wary of kaiju with heat- or fire-based attacks.
• Endothermic Metabolism: Being a "warm-blooded" organism who is derived from creatures that regulate their body temperature through internalized means, Kong has to maintain his physiology via metabolic rather than behavioral processes, requiring somewhat larger amounts of food than other kaiju descended from more endothermic stock. He generally has to feed on large amounts on vegetation or large game in order to sustain himself, but because his stored power cannot be converted into chemical nutrition in the same way as the radiation-absorbing power of Godzilla or similar Permian-era kaiju, he cannot feed on electricity despite popular belief. In fact, his electrogenesis is itself energetically taxing due to the amount of muscle activity required, and he can easily exhaust himself before making any significant headway if his opponent has the resistance or strategy to bypass it. Simply put, he is not built for drawn-out fights or sustained endurance, and it's often due to reliable sustenance and/or external charge that he turns things around.
• Unfettered: Kong is more mild-mannered than his infamous 1933 predecessor, but not entirely docile, either - while capable of empathy towards other species, he also has a short fuse and almost no sense of restraint or discretion. When in the thick of a fight it's easy for him to get carried away and resort to the most destructive means of accomplishing his objective or neutralizing his percieved enemy. While he does know well enough to at least try and prevent whatever he is fighting for or defending from being caught in the crossfire, he is not always successful, and giving into his urge to utterly annihilate the opposite party has been known to do more harm than good at times. When undisturbed he is often calm enough to act sensibly, but if bothered or pressured too much he may find it increasingly hard to do so, and more than a few occasions have seen him simply give up on this prospect, throw common decency out the window, and descend upon the aggressor in a blind rage. When working with other kaiju, his associates need to be prepared to stop him as much as their shared opponent.

Chapter Text

Delugian/Mlok (Mlok diluvii)

• Name meaning: “Deluge salamander”, from Czeck mlok, "salamander", and Latin diluvii, "deluge".
• Adult length: 7-8 ft (including tail)
• Adult height: 4 ft
• Adult weight: 200-250 lbs
• Classification: Pleurodelinae

It used to be claimed that man was the only species with an understanding of morality. All creatures were compared to mankind in terms of superiority or inferiority in some way or another, and Homo sapiens was considered the pinnacle of evolution - any creature that became sapient would inevitably adopt a human-like anatomy. This conceit would come to be challenged in recent years by the cockroach-like Nebulans, and perhaps more dramatically, the eldritch shape-changing beings called the Xiliens. But even before they came to Earth, several other sapient civilizations had already been discovered, descended from some most unlikely sources.

In 1936, Czeck seaman Captain J. van Toch discovered a most unusual species of newt on a small island near Sumatra, who first happened upon an earth hollow leading to the undersea city of Mu, a vast subterranean community of these facultatively bipedal, terrestrial amphibians with the ability to survive in saltwater. Originally assumed to be humans which had adapted to live underwater during the global flood of God, they came to be called the Delugians as a result, though while the term has stuck in the public consciousness since then, the proper name of "Mloks" is preferred in the modern vernacular; the Czeck word itself possibly derives from the calls supposedly made by the creatures according to historical accounts, since scattered sightings of them were conflated with the myth of fire salamanders being elemental beings centuries ago.

Upon their discovery, human scientists concluded that the mythologies of a number of ancient Pacific civilizations on the surface world were influenced by the presence of these Delugians, with stories of water-dwelling sapient beings with undersea cities of their own being recorded since antiquity. The people of Mu were, as per the social norms at the time, employed in pearl farming, and as their existence came to be known, populations of these creatures began to emerge throughout most of the Pacific and interact with humanity as a whole - Mu was, in fact, the capital city of their far-reaching civilization. Their capabilities astounded the scientific community, and on the flipside they were incredulous that purely landlocked, live-birthing mammals did not require the water to colonize all parts of the world and give rise to a new civilization. Humanity owned the land while the Mloks colonized the sea, being able to tolerate extreme temperatures so that, whereas man mastered fire, they employed geothermal heat from undersea vents and volcanoes to establish their technology. Here was where human prejudice would cost them: being steeped in the myth of cold-blooded creatures being stupid and unfit for survival, they had assumed that the Delugians were inferior to man just because they were a type of newt. The Salamander Syndicate, founded by industrialist Mr. Gussie H. Bondy, was established in the hopes of providing the Delugians with a contributing role in society, but the newts were relegated to menial roles in industry which they took as a race-wide insult. The unhelpful escalation of hate crimes against Mlok-kind and increasing tensions caused the sentient amphibians to debate extensively about the option of waging war against humans. Before any action could be taken, however, World War II sprang forth, forcing them into hiding lest they be persecuted even more - and once the United States became involved, so did the usage of nuclear weapons.

When the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were bombed on August 6 and 9, 1945, the Mloks inevitably learned of what had happened and, fearing for their own civilization, pleaded for the governments with such superweapons to put a stop to their use at once - but they were once again silenced as a minority. It wasn't until a certain incident in 1954, involving what could only be described as a physical patron deity towards the Mloks, that the world finally heard their voice, too little too late. Devastated and fed up with humanity not only basically destroying itself, but also corrupting their most important godly figure, the Mloks chose to retreat to their ocean homes en masse and never again interact with the world of man, waiting for when the time was right to reclaim the oceans as their own. It is perhaps because of the folly of man that the history of the sea's dominant race is still poorly understood, being so heavily guarded even before they met the people of the land, who had seemingly closed the door to being on speaking terms with them forever - the Atragon's appearance near Mu in 1963, for example, was treated as a gesture of war, though their attempt to destroy it ended in failure and such extensive property damage that their planned retaliation ultimately fell through. It would not be until decades later, when the consequences of the Atomic Age finally caught up with mankind in the form of repeated alien invasions and the rampage of the rogue necromancy experiment called Ghost Godzilla (Yureijira), that the Mloks finally understood that doing nothing would solve nothing with the entire planet at stake. Achieving mutual trust between the two races was still an uphill battle, but if they had to put aside their differences to keep the world from being seized from the cold, dead hands of both of them, then so be it.

The average adult Mlok is shorter than a person, but heavier in terms of weight. They have an odd resemblance to palaeo-tyrant retrosaurs, with a diagonal spine and a large tail for balancing the body, but a skin texture akin to a toad, being moist and bumpy, with a waxy skin secretion to avoid drying out in the sun that they renew each morning, like with frogs of the subfamily Phyllomedusinae. Their large, muscular legs, long plantigrade feet, and grasping arms are rather frog-like in form, with an oddly kangaroo-like stance; they even hop like kangaroos instead of running when moving quickly, though they walk bipedally like a person when moving at a slower pace. The head is classically newt-like with lots of renewable needle-like teeth in the wide maw, small nostrils, large forward-facing eyes with horizontal frog-like pupils, and an inflatable frog-like throat pouch for vocalizing. Colors and markings vary as much as the skin and hair colors of people, but the main body color tends to be gray, green, brown, or black, with a pale-colored belly of any of the hues aside from black, while the dorsal markings can be red, yellow, brown, lighter green, or dark gray - solid-colored individuals are just as common as patterned ones. The dominant gene for their eye color gives them green or blue eyes, and the recessive one gives them red or orange ones. Whereas humans emote using their faces more than gestures, Mloks use their body language exclusively; both species employ varying tones of speech for the same purpose, however.

The mating and reproduction of Mloks is largely the same as that of other terrestrial salamanders, with gravid females attaching clusters of eggs to an object over a standing body of water, but like some species of frogs, the father remains with the non-sapient young to protect them until they reach their age of developing sapience - comparable to puberty in humans, it happens after a decade. Only 10% of the babies last that long, the rest dying to environmental hazards, predators, and cannibalism by their siblings. Because the fathers protect the young, their society is female-dominated, with the females tending to be breadwinners and the males having had to struggle for equal rights over the eons, rather than the other way around as with humans. Their technology level is similar to both the ancient Greeks and feudal Japanese - advanced enough to express advanced knowledge of the arts and sciences, but bereft of industrial-era technology due to the unavailability of the requisite materials and innovations. Their main triumph, however, is bio-engineering. It is not known how they have been able to perfect the art of hybridizing genetic information to produce completely new creatures compared to what humans are capable of; whereas the best we have been able to do is to create an organism that looks completely identical to the un-modified strain, with the foreign genes changing very few aspects on the outset, the Delugians pride themselves on a variety of creatures under their care and protection which are found only within their civilization and which seem to be artificial in origin. It is possible that they, and not humans, were the first to discover the strange properties of the mutagens common to most kaiju, repurposing them and the viral bodies that transmit them for their own ends - and according to some scientists, both human and Mlokian, it may have been these mutagens themselves that allowed the ancestral salamanders access to human-level intelligence in the first place.

While the Delugians are mostly practical, materialistic and industrial in terms of society and culture, just like us, they do express religious piety towards certain entities they consider to be far more powerful than them - it's just that unlike humanity personifying concepts like forces of nature, the deities their theologies revolve around are very much physical in form. As the Mloks' turbulent history with the Atomic Age can testify, a certain colossal temnospondyl in particular is their supreme god regardless of locality, and they regard hurting him by any means as blasphemy of the highest degree.

Seatopian/"Moleman" (Civitafossor morlockii)

• Name meaning: “City-digging Morlock”, from Latin civitas "city" and fossor "digger" along with Morlock, the fictional subterranean race from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine.
• Adult height: 7.5-8 ft
• Adult weight: 500-650 lbs
• Classification: Talpidae

The surface of the Earth is a familiar sight to the human eye, and so much of it has been explored by now that if any other sapient races lived on the surface before, they would have either ventured into places beyond the reach of man until recently or otherwise went extinct. While the Mlok race survived by living in the deep oceans where man would have difficulty navigating, the Seatopians, unlike what the name given to them by humanity suggests, are not marine creatures, but subterranean ones, living deep underground in a world without any light at all - a less commonly used layman term for them is "molemen" for this reason, but this is not widely accepted in academia even though the Seatopians are indeed descended from talpid stock, being most closely related to the North American moles such as the famous star-nosed moles they so resemble (if only in appearance, not in scale).

The origin of the "Seatopian" nickname for these sophont burrowers is a subject of debate; the leading theory is that they were once said to live beneath the ocean floor like many primordial deities and monsters were said to do, although this is not completely true - the mole people do sometimes establish communities or "colonies" directly under the ocean should they reside in coastal areas, but only when forced to do so by their avoidance of humans, and they are just as likely to live in the naturally existing earth hollows and tunnels already present. The racial name the Seatopians give themselves is not pronounceable to the human tongue, since even though they are capable of producing sounds in the same audible range as people and many have learned human speech to the point of fluency, their original language consists of a series of high-pitched chirps, squeaks, and whines that a human ear would struggle to process, thought to be derived from their natural echolocation. What at first appear to be eyes on their armored faces are in fact massive dish-like plates surrounding the forward-facing ear canals, with fleshy valves over the openings giving the illusion of "eyelids". They have no true eyes at all, having no need for them underground, so they sense the world through their ears and noses instead; this means that contrary to popular belief, they are not vulnerable to bright lights and are thus capable of functioning in daylight as much as underground or at night. They are more sensitive to loud noises and sharp odors than humans, however, and consequently they aren't too fond of the noisy, smelly, and often veritably uncomfortable hustle and bustle of urban human cityscapes, preferring the quieter recesses and earth hollows they call home; much of their technology is in fact engineered with minimal noise production in mind (systems akin to the kind used in human-built maglev trains are used in place of wheels in their vehicles for example). That said, many Seatopians are skilled engineers in spite of their lack of sight, and it may in fact be their reliance on other senses that requires them to ensure that they get their innovations right the first time. Their technology is in fact more advanced than that of humans - to the point of cybernetic enhancement, even - in part because they only rarely wage war amongst each other. The interconnected nature of their homeland of earth hollows and tunnels means they aren't concerned with the kind of turbulent relationships that make up human international politics - fighting over the tunnels everyone uses is useless, so they have more time to think forward for the good of the moleman race as a whole.

Unlike the country-wide governments of man, Seatopian politics is based on more localized communities, with each "colony" being its own individual city-state of sorts; cultural and material exchange is often done through migration from one colony to another, which also helps maintain genetic diversity among the mole people in a geography where the units of society have no choice but to live in relative isolation. Differences in culture, opinion, industry, and outlook occur on the level of the colonies themselves without any more expansive conglomerates of territory to speak of, although alliances between colonies are known to occur for convenience. This makes it easier to handle inter-colonial politics because, rather than an issue being the problem of an entire nation regardless of it being relevant to just one specific territory, it is that territory itself that has to resolve it. As such, responsibility falls more towards the localized heads of each community which, in turn, gives them more leverage and therefore more political power. If a colony presents a problem that the alliance it is a part of considers unacceptable, the alliance can simply cut off the colony it has issues with and want nothing more to do with it, rather than having to chip in to fix it under pressure from foreign relations - essentially, from a Seatopian standpoint, the problems plaguing a particular colony are the problems of its people alone. This means that if two colonies do come to blows over resources or living space, other local communities will go out of their way to isolate the conflict from the rest of the world to prevent collateral damage from straining relationships with those around them.

This is not to say that letting the colonies themselves hash out their problems without centralized governments is a flawless system, however. It has in fact led to more than a few cases where a Seatopian city at war sought outside help when the conflict turned out to be too costly and diplomacy not an option, only for the interested party to refuse to aid them, dooming the troubled city to destruction and forcing its residents to find other colonies to live in. It is just as likely however that a city-state will intervene on behalf of the city which they believe will present a greater political or economic benefit to them should they form a partnership with it, which is arguably how alliances are formed in the first place. Agreements and difference-settling don't have to be entirely homogeneous, either, as many Seatopian cities which have a firm opinion on a particular subject such as sustainable mineral cultivation or relationships with subterranean kaiju are neighbors and allies with cities whose views on that subject are not as supportive or denigrative, being understanding of their compatriots but also willing to provide "devil's advocate"-style feedback to determine how beneficial the viewpoint is as a whole, helping the more extremely opinionated colonies avoid stepping out of line. The most hotly debated topic, naturally, is their handling of the human race - while most Seatopians worldwide prefer an avoidance policy of only coming above-ground for resource gathering if absolutely necessary and staying far away from human civilization, there are "splinter factions" of social alliances which have chosen instead to wage war against humans before they encroach on the moleman homeland (which they believe is inevitable). While the Seatopians were largely unknown to human academia prior to the atomic age, several colonies that lived in and around the north Pacific took umbrage at the same destructive weapon testing that awakened most of the kaiju now active today, and attempted to set an artificially enhanced kaiju of their own on Japan in 1971. Ironically, this would lead to a smaller counter-movement once the Seatopians caught up with much of human history, with some of them recognizing that only a small portion of the human population was causing the issues plaguing the world at large - an all-too-familiar scenario in mole peoples' own society. The Seatopians which have ventured into the human world on their own volition to try and repair relations with us have been branded as heretics and outlaws by the rest of their society, and in surface-world society humans still outnumber them a thousand to one, but they still hope to bring about a new era of cooperation among all of humanity in the long-term rather than forcing everyone to rely on just a few ignorant people with more power than the rest of them. Whether their faith is well placed, of course, remains uncertain.

The typical Seatopian life cycle is somewhat faster than that of people, with a life expectancy of between 40 and 50 years rather than humans' being close to 70, and they take only 7-8 years to reach puberty and 15 years to reach sexual maturity; they are not monogamous, with females raising their litters of two to five young alone until they can fend for themselves. Studies into their evolution, by both human and Seatopian scientists, place their origin at approximately 4 million years ago, though their exact region of origin is unknown; it's possible that like the Mloks, they were influenced by kaiju mutagens when their ancestors found their way into the earth hollows preserving various extinct species, and grew to a larger size and developed a social, colonial lifestyle as a means of coping with the exotic, dangerous locals. Seatopians are in fact larger, heavier, and bulkier than humans, with thick, greasy pelts almost like velvet or shag carpet along with pangolin-like keratin "scales" on their faces to protect their heads when burrowing, which can be raised when aggravated to make themselves seem bigger and more intimidating to the echolocation of their kin. Their massive claws and the bony spikes jutting from their wrists are adapted to tear through soil and burrow as adeptly as a more typical mole, although they are useful as defensive weapons as well. These are clumsy, hefty appendages however which are not useful for finer manipulation - that role goes to their bizarre, almost sea-anemone-like noses, which have a sense of smell 3,000 times more acute than that of a human, along with between 16 and 20 fleshy feelers which are not only as touch-sensitive as human fingertips, but prehensile as well; they even have "fingerprints" like humans do, and no two noses are shaped exactly the same. It is often standard procedure for a Seatopian to bring his or her face up close to whatever handiwork they're working with, keeping their breathing gentle enough to avoid disturbing any delicate equipment, and use their feelers to control their implements as needed, organizing everything in their workspace so they know exactly where each component or tool is located. Heavier lifting or hitting is reserved for the arms themselves, and for tasks that require a broader range of perception they can use their echolocation, and even infrared reception to some extent thanks to an array of sensory cells between and just above the nostrils. Of all their senses it is sight which is lacking, for obvious reasons, but even though many technological and psionic advancements have enabled the brain signals relevant to sight to be projected into one's mind to allow them to "see" like we do, most Seatopians are actually terrified of this experience, and consider it baffling that anyone could be reliant on a sense that barrages the mind with such a confusing influx of stimuli which would drive someone mad if exposed to it for too long. All personal communication is through speech and scent, all long-distance communication is through codes of sound, and any written word is preserved through shapes and textures engraved or embossed on non-perishable material, which can be detected through either echolocation or touch-sensing.

Like their ancestors, the mole people are strictly carnivorous, their large mouths full of sharp teeth unable to adapt to anything but flesh, and so they either raise livestock or hunt other animals they share their home with. While they aren't afraid to sample the flesh of sophont surface-dwellers like humans in a vaccuum, contrary to popular belief they do not farm or hunt people for sustenance, and nearly all Seatopian colonies outright condemn this practice. Most are in fact squicked out by the propsect of hunting live people, considering it needlessly cruel, and any long pork they may consume is exclusively from corpses either taken from morgues and cemeteries in desperation or even donated to them by human societies both aware of their existence and sympathetic to their needs (though this is much rarer for all sorts of reasons). Ironically, Seatopians aren't disturbed by the practice of euthanistic or funerary cannibalism - instead of burying or cremating their dead or those they have to put down due to terminal illness or mortal injury, they strip the body of any edible tissue for later consumption (though out of respect for their dead, the meat is taken only by the immediate family of the deceased) and process the rest into other resources as required or feasible (burning the bones into carbon-rich ash for steel production, for example). For both cultural and scientific reasons, they believe that the brain and central nervous system is fatally poisonous*, treating it as a non-consumable resource and avoiding it as though it's diseased. This is even hinted at in the mythos of the Seatopians, wherein one of the earliest folkloric tyrants among them descended into madness after eating the entire head of a hapless rival he'd had assassinated, believing that doing so would grant him authority over the molemen said rival was leading (at least before the bloody uprising from which Baragon originated proved him fatally mistaken).

The kaiju that the Seatopians worship as deities all share a fossorial lifestyle - such as Gevora, Angurius, Sasori, and their own creations Baragon and Megalon, among others. Unlike other kaiju-centric religions where the creatures embody different aspects of the natural world, the Seatopians' views of the creatures is that they embody certain virtues that moleman-kind should aspire towards, with some even being artificially created by the Seatopians in a joint collaboration with several prestigious Delugian communities to fill in the gaps for qualities they deemed "missing". As such, the kaiju an individual Seatopian defers to the most is arguably the greatest indicator of their personality in a manner not unlike human astrology, and it's telling that those who follow the ideals embodied by the kaiju most likely to aid the surface world (with Anguirus and Baragon sharing the majority in this respect) are the ones most likely to cooperate with humans and other sophonts themselves.

* Which actually isn't that far from the truth, by the by.

Chapter Text

The Earthen Guardian: BARAGON

Titanus Dilong

Statistics

• Classification: Artificial hybrid (Dinocephalia + Cingulata)
• Height: 98.4 feet/30 meters
• Length: 393.7 feet/120 meters
• Mass: 19,841.6 short tons/18,000 metric tons
• Locality: Japan; first sighted in the Akita Prefecture; overwinters on Monster Island

Bio

History:
The story of the monster which would one day be known to the world as Baragon begins with one of the earliest major alliances established by the subterranean race known as the Seatopians, established by the reign of Emperor Zykon III; records of his existence have been dated back to sometime during 3,500 BC, at around the time when Seatopian colonies were first beginning to develop from simple tunnel networks housing several dozen to something more like the much larger labyrinthine complexes known in the historical and modern eras. This was during the era when alliances generally had a singular "leader" whose government would dictate the actions of the communal network more than those of others - which would prove not to be an effective system. With the power resting on too few individuals, these individuals would either buckle under the strain of managing such large territories or succumb to their own vices and prove incompetent - or as in the case of Zykon, manipulative and sadistic. Killing off all of his rivals and taking over the coalition by force, he had forcibly attempted to turn the citizens of the empire into an army bent on subjugating all other territories, with the intent of unifying the entire world so that there would be no conflict to begin with. This would ideally lead to no political strife but the execution of this idea was flawed in that he was the only one in power and given his descent into madness and cruelty, he was anything but ideal for the job - no one was. But he had gained too much power, and his army had developed superweapons and warbeasts so powerful that nothing could stop them. Unless...

It had been known for some time that the god-beasts the Seatopians worshipped were flesh-and-blood creatures, but of the pre-existing ones that had been worshipped, none of them expressed any interest in aiding civilization. But of the virtues that they had ascribed to these creatures, not all of them found any representative. So what if the people could make some of them to fill the void? Given that many struggling colonies were now fighting for their freedom, their hope, this measure was critical. But it would take too long to selectively breed a creature that could reach the same power as any existing god, and with Zykon's reign of terror expanding, there was no time to waste. So it was that the Seatopians reached out to another ancient race, the Mloks (soon to be called the Delugians by humans), in search of a solution.

The details related to this collaboration remain secret from historical and scientific study, but what is clear is that the creation of the Guardian Beasts, as both races called them, was enshrined in their respective mythologies. Legend goes that the mythical heroes of each of the two sophont species stirred the lava within the crater of an undersea volcano, and from it they sculpted a series of massive eggs, which in turn hatched into the Beasts in question. While several of them were intended for the Mloks to use themselves for a sociopolitical crisis of their own concern, the Seatopians found use in one of them, the beast which would eventually be called Baragon. Her high-pitched cry and rugged hide were engineered to make her recognizable to the Seatopians as a symbol of hope, a chance of salvation and renewal. Sure enough, it is said that the Seatopian heroes rode Baragon back to Zykon's empire, where she would lead the oppressed people against his enforcers and eventually do battle with a massive chitinous creature he had trained for use in battle, either grievously wounding or outright killing it depending on the story. Either way, Zykon would eventually fight to the death against his own army after losing what little sanity he had left and going on a murder-spree in his own capital, which would then be leveled by Baragon and reconstructed anew. Baragon herself was thereafter venerated by the Seatopians as their goddess of Hope, in the same way that Mothra was worshipped by the people of Infant Island - and unlike the great insectoid Zykon had beaten into submission, she was given a home to freely roam in, living on a massive island chain that the Seatopians considered hallowed ground due to other god-beasts already living there. And so she too called it home, venturing away from it only when the Seatopians needed her again. Until...

Akita Prefecture, August 8, 1965. Twenty years prior, a rogue experiment in early human bioengineering, acquired by the Japanese from a Nazi testing facility in Germany, had been transferred to Hiroshima for containment. That had been before the bomb had hit. Although Hiroshima would be leveled and rendered uninhabitable following the events that would end World War II, it would pass unnoticed by humanity that there was something in the city that was affected by the radiation in a marginally less fatal but much more grotesque fashion than the unfortunate humans killed in the blast - and it had already escaped long before anyone even dared to set foot in the city again. Now, the beast that would soon be called the Promethean had grown to a massive size, with reports of missing people, pets, and livestock over the past few weeks being attributed to the anthropoid beast. American scientist Dr. James Bowen and his assistants, Drs. Sueko Togami and Ken'ichiro Kawaji, were tasked with trying to detain the Promethean, but despite their success in this regard, containing it was a different matter. It would later escape and roam freely across the Akita prefecture, seemingly to blame for a mysterious earthquake that had struck an oil plant some days prior, but the reports of the mysterious creature that had presumably been the culprit did not match the Promethean in any way. Still, Bowen, Togami, and Kawaji were tasked with terminating the rogue experiment before its growing size made it a threat anyway, and so set out to find it. What they found was a very different beast...

Over the past few decades, Baragon had remained in the sanctuary of her underground lair beneath much of the island of Honshu. But life had become more and more difficult for her with civilization starting to encroach on more and more of the surface world, and years of mining and construction had resulted in many of her tunnels collapsing, forcing her to rebuild anew. The oil mining in the Akita Prefecture had been the final straw, and in her retaliation she had attracted the attention of the scientists looking for the Promethean. Thinking that the humans were allied with the civilization causing her so many headaches, Baragon immediately responded aggressively, threatening them with the intent of driving them away and leaving her alone, but her problems only grew when, attracted by the commotion, the Promethean emerged and descended upon her with hunger for meat on its mind. The ensuing battle was as intense as it was brief, but Baragon came off worse for wear, her neck and two of her limbs broken, her armor cracked to pieces, and her horn snapped in two. But the Promethean itself would not escape unscathed - for Baragon had set a clever trap within the landscape itself. Just as the undead beast prepared to land the final blow, the ground collapsed beneath them both, and gravity carried them into the depths of the earth, where they would never be found.

The Promethean, at least, was entombed forever, but Baragon was hardly one to embrace death so easily. She would recover, and she would fight again, against the astral King of Terror and against the undead Yureijira, among others. And while most of the the Seatopian colonies would grow steadily more warlike over time, some others would not lose sense of the beast that had once saved them, and would take her side instead as the world spiraled into further chaos in the years to come.

Though the Guardian Beasts have shown some destructive tendencies at times, they never were born from malice or contempt, but in defense of what they sought to protect. Once it was found that she was one of them, so too did it become clear that Baragon was engineered, ultimately, not to destroy others, but to save them. To this day, she continues to keep watch over the earth hollows throughout Japan and beyond. For where there is Baragon, there is hope.

Personality and Combat Style:
Baragon is a gentle, playful, and quite fastidious creature whose small size belies a lot of heart - though content to be left to her own devices most of the time, she cares deeply for the world around her and will not merely lie down as injustices happen. Being fossorial in nature, she is most comfortable in low-light conditions such as underground or at night; during the daytime she's noticeably more irritable because her large eyes can't stand bright daylight conditions, but at night or underground she's more docile and outright friendly. She generally doesn't attack cities, but bright lights and loud noises upset her greatly and she will try to put an end to these disturbances if she can't outright flee. She is more content to live underground, away from civilization, and actively cultivates habitats for all kinds of subterranean creatures in her maze-like lair, as she is not a territorial kaiju. Her maintenance of these habitats is in fact not too dissimilar to how humans tend to gardens or farmland, and it's hard work keeping her environment stable, but worthwhile. As one can guess, the fact that human activity collapses her tunnels frequently is a massive sticking point for her, and any attempts at strip-mining or establishing environmentally harmful structures will end in failure should they occur in her presence. While she doesn't mind humans or Delugians and is especially fond of the Seatopian worshipers who have given her sanctuary, she is much less sympathetic to surface-world civilization as a whole because of how intrusive it is in general, without regard to the good of the natural world, so she isn't above collapsing a settlement or mining facility if it means driving out the unwelcome outsiders that built it. She doesn't put the blame on individual sophonts - she was created artificially, after all - so as long as visitors respect the landscape, she won't go out of her way to harm them, and may even protect those who are especially nice to her against deadlier adversaries.

Baragon is a main predator of a number of fossorial creatures in her locality which are dangerous to people, and will pursue her prey all the way to mainland territories if he has to; she's actually been more successful at controlling such threats than many military efforts have been in decades. That said, most such prey items are smaller than her, and she has less experience handling larger opponents, which has led to several losses which she remembers keenly and works her hardest to avoid. Her relatively small size makes her more agile than other kaiju, and her massive forelimbs allow her to charge with deceptive speed over land, but her biggest advantage is her burrowing ability. She almost never attacks her opponents head-on, instead tunneling underground the first chance she can get - a home-field advantage is what allows her to match most other kaiju and make up for not having as much muscle. That said, should she be cornered or caught out in the open with no escape route, she still has the potential to catch her adversary unaware, showing that her vicious horn and powerful claws are as good at close combat as they are while tunneling.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Baragon may be considered a midget by kaiju standards, but she is no less formidable, and her attitude is backed up by some powerful weaponry. Her front feet have gigantic claws built for digging, accompanied by spikes on the sides of the forearms for traction in tight passageways, but these are also excellent weapons in a close-range fight that can inflict grievous wounds and even peel off armor plates with enough force. More dangerous still is her enormous cranial horn, which is used alongside her claws for burrowing and is capable of punching through solid granite with enough speed and force behind it; the horn is implied to have evolved from the thickened cranium of her ancestors in prehistoric times. If neither of those are effective, a simple bite from a mouth full of sharp teeth will do. On a more defensive front, her tough, leathery hide is studded with osteoderms and bony dorsal plates, repelling enemy kaiju and ballistic missiles with equal ease, though her softer underside is more vulnerable; it's also heatproof and pressure-resistant as needed for her underground lifestyle. Much of the front portion of her body is packed with muscle, especially her forelimbs and thick, stout neck, the better for delivering strikes, stabs, and slashes with punishing force.
• Burrowing: Baragon's forte is her burrowing ability, specifically adapted to aid the refugee Seatopians in passage construction, barrier removal, and subterranean infiltration. As mentioned, her claws and horn are her main tools for this, allowing her to dig as fast as many kaiju can run. Her large red eyes are protected by transparent scales, her nostrils can close up to avoid getting dirt in them, and her fin-like ears fold around her face and cover them for additional protection; the notches are there to make room for her horn which she uses like a pickaxe when tunneling. She is adept at striking enemy kaiju from below or collapsing the ground beneath them to send them down into the depths, and she may lure her enemy into her burrows so they will have more difficulty moving about in such an enclosed space. As a last resort, she may collapse her tunnels upon foes who have pursued her inside, easily escaping while they are buried alive under tons of rock and soil. To kaiju that aren't skilled at burrowing or flying, she is a massive headache; to personnel manning critical structures in places aligned against the Guardian Beasts, she is an absolute nightmare.
• Heat Absorption: Like Rodan and other thermophilic kaiju, Baragon has a redundant circulatory system with dual layers for shielding her vitals from excess heat as well as circulating heat energy around her skin and extremities to dissipate it into or out of her body for thermoregulation. She is completely immune to extreme heat as a result, and her burrowing talent allows her to "swim" through lava as though it were water. Though technically endothermic, she is strengthened by thermal energy and as long as such is available, she can remain active at any time of the day or year, which is why she prefers to lair as deep below the surface as possible, in as close of a proximity to the mantle as possible. She also share's Rodan's ability to superheat her skin for extra "kick", which also comes in handy for burning her way through soil and rock while digging as well as "softening up" opponents in melee.

Special Abilities:

• Lava Spit: Baragon often ingests soil and rock as she burrows, since she lacks any way to seal up her mouth and throat like she can with her nostrils and eyes. This is not a flaw in her design, however, since it plays into one of her major internal organs: a sort of "second stomach" where her esophagus meets the true stomach. It's more of a toughened, muscular sac than anything else, like a bird's gizzard, complete with a sphincter that only lets in edible foodstuffs that have been ground to a pulp by any hard material trapped inside. Still, it gets the job done, and has another purpose, too - in battle, she draws the internal heat generated by her own immense size into the sac and disperses it through the inner lining, superheating the contents within. Any ingested earth retained is melted into pressurized slag, and with a swift peristaltic contraction, explosive gobs of molten lava can be forced out through her throat. These "bombs" of lava detonate upon impact, scattering intensely hot liquified rock and red-hot shrapnel which act as additional hazards aside from the horrible burns that may be inflicted if they hit a live target that isn't heat-resistant. Needless to say, the inner lining of Baragon's mouth, throat, esophagus, and gizzard are completely fireproof, a necessary adaptation for hocking up spitballs reaching up to 1,170 degrees Celsius (2,140 degrees Fahrenheit).
• Erumpent Horn: If no minerals are available to ingest and superheat, Baragon can shed excess heat through her horn instead, causing it to glow red-hot. More importantly, the horn itself has a gland in its core, situated near the base with a duct leading through the center of the horn and out into a small hole near the heat-honed tip. This gland secretes a fluid which, when "primed" by intense heat, reacts quickly and violently, so anything she injects the fluid into will almost immediately explode - a gruesomely effective method against armored targets. She can also use this mechanism from a distance, firing a stream of ignited fluid that ignites into a destructive plasma beam almost like a welding torch, sizzling through most substances that aren't heat-resistant. This is more energetically expensive than the lava spit, however, and she can burn herself out on it more quickly than launching molten rock, so she uses it only when necessary. If she runs out of exploding fluid, it usually takes her about a week and an above-average food supply to "restock" it.

Weaknesses:

• Small-Bodied: Baragon is less than half the average size of most Earth-native kaiju. While this makes her more agile, she is also prone to being tossed around by bigger foes and struggles against those that outclass her in terms of weight. She resorts to the underhanded methods she does because she has to, not out of malice or sadism. Even then, she is still quick to flee if she feels that she is clearly outmatched in terms of physical power.
• Blinded By The Light: Due to her living underground, Baragon has large, light-sensitive eyes to help her navigate, and naturally, bright lights do not mix well with her, causing intense pain which may scramble most of her other senses in turn; since she lacks eyelids, the coverings protecting her eyes are tinted to reduce glare, but they can only help her so much especially when out in the open sun, forcing her to rely on her hearing and vibration sensing to find her way around when on the surface world during the day. The light from her own heat attacks is less intense, but it's still enough to disorient her slightly, so she is reluctant to use them unless she is at a safe distance or can regain her footing quickly.
• Camera-Shy: As a utility-oriented rather than combat-minded kaiju, Baragon is not especially combative, only lashing out as a last resort or if she feels her home is under threat. When threatened with hostility she prefers to leave rather than engage in a fight she knows is too risky to win. Given that most other kaiju are larger than her, this is sound judgement, but also makes it difficult for her to establish trust in other titans as an unpleasant side-effect. She even lacks confidence when dealing with military forces despite being as capable against them as any other kaiju. If she feels that something she cherishes, such as her habitat or supporters, will face obliteration if she doesn't act, she will set aside her fear to defend it with her life, but otherwise she is much more reclusive than most would desire, frequently choosing to avoid confrontation altogether.

Chapter Text

The Unbelievable: VARAN

Statistics

• Classification: Artificial hybrid (Varanopidae + Scorpaeniforme)
• Height: 164 feet/50 meters
• Length: 656.17 feet/200 meters
• Mass: 16,534 short tons/15,000 metric tons
• Locality: Originated on Jazirah al-Tennyn, part of the Wakwak Archipelago, but has been sighted throughout much of East and Southeast Asia as well, including Monster Island.

Bio

History:
The second of the Guardian Beasts to have been discovered by mankind, the creature which would eventually be known as Varan was one of the three artificial hybrids created by the collaboration between the Seatopians and the Delugians, dated to circa 3,500 BC. While only one of the Guardian Beasts was needed to overthrow Emperor Zykon III, it is known that at least two more were also created as aides to different locations elsewhere in the world, both of which are known to have been bastions for Delugian civilization. The creature known as Varan was the guardian of the Al-Wakwak archipelago, an island chain in the Indian Ocean which would later be recorded in Middle Eastern and Classical folklore; records from both the Mlok and later Middle Eastern scholars speak of rich metal deposits within the soil of the region, along with fantastical flora and fauna, such as including miniature single-horned antelope with rabbit-like ears, trees whose fruit resembled human heads, and giant serpents that could swallow grown oxen whole. Ruling these lands was what could only be described as a waran (ورن/ورل, "dragon"), a flying reptile that emitted smoke and poison and patrolled the skies over the islands as though it was their owner - though what it was guarding is still a mystery to scholars of all races. The metal deposits themselves might be a solid candidate, but given evidence of sapient life on the islands, there is also the possibility of civilization existing there, perhaps an important Delugian stronghold or a crossroads for commerce and relations with other sophont life forms. Regardless, the islands, presumably part of the Lost Continent that would also give rise to Skull Island, seem to have returned to their wild state after a period of volcanism forced the sapient inhabitants to leave. Varan, for his part, continued to stand guard upon the island chain despite being abandoned, presumably not caring so much about the civilization and more about the instinctive need that his creators had given him, to simply protect what he regarded as his territory. The fog-shrouded islands would eventually pass into legend, and would only be rediscovered in the age of exploration, thousands of years later.

During the early 20th century, once it was proven that there were still-habitable remnants of the Lost Continent, speculated to have been at least part of, if not synonymous with, the Eocene continent of Mauritia, several attempts at exploration were made there, one of which was the infamous 1933 voyage that would reveal the existence of the legendary King Kong. Other expeditions to the islands are less known to the public in part because they were kept under wraps specifically to avoid the press storm generated by the rampage of Titanus Kong I, but Varan's re-discovery would make headlines regardless for historical importance as much as the ensuing carnage. Once relationships were re-established with the Delugians following World War II, the ancient legend of Baradagi, the vanished creation of the ancient heroes that once guided the Mloks of the region to a golden age, was quickly uncovered and later somewhat verified by an expedition in 1958. Incredibly, Varan had survived after all these years, but at a terrible cost - he was apparently not as divine as the legends had said, taking the expedition team as a threat and attacking them. Military retaliation would only provoke him further and cause him to chase the escaping personnel all the way back to Tokyo, where he would ultimately be crippled by several rounds of an experimental explosive and taken into custody by Monarch.

Mortally wounded by the explosives, Varan would remain in stasis for an entire decade, whereupon a thorough analysis of his biology was conducted which confirmed his artificial nature - a hybrid of several animal groups both modern and extinct, exhibiting physiological quirks almost too extraordinary to have evolved naturally. Ultimately, Varan would be one of the kaiju who escaped from Monarch containment when the Kilaaks attempted to subjugate Earth in 1968, and would ultimately aid in the final battle against the Golden Calamity, the battlefield clouded in his noxious fog. Varan would be relocated to Monster Island not long afterward, but keeping him there was easier said than done - although he did establish a lair on the island, he would later leave and return to his old stomping grounds of Al-Wakwak, cycling back and forth between the two sites annually. While migratory in nature, however, the second Guardian Beast is not considered a pivotal threat to civilization as of now, and if left to his own devices he is manageable. In spite of the stir caused by his rampage in Tokyo, the Delugians regard it as a retaliatory act, and still worship him in the hopes that he will soon heal from the long isolation he had to endure.

Of course, the day will come when the entire world falls under threat once again. Perhaps then, and only then, will Varan make the choice that will decide his fate.

Personality and Combat Style:
Secretive and standoffish, Varan is as antisocial and foul-tempered as he is elusive, preferring solitude over socialization. He doesn't go out of his way to attack unprovoked, and is not averse to cooperation with other kaiju, but feels most comfortable on his own, alone and away from civilization or the tumult of interacting with other monsters. It is perhaps intentional that he was engineered to function normally as a solitary creature, because the distance between Al-Wakwak and the mainlands of Africa or southern Asia would leave him and the archipelago in complete isolation, without any other kaiju to speak of. He is always watchful and alert, his sharp eyes scanning the horizon for the next sign of danger - almost to a fault. If slighted or provoked, he will often fixate upon whatever insulted him until the offense has been rectified, even if it means collateral damage or grievous harm to his own person. It takes conscious effort to draw his ire, though, and usually when he chases away outsiders it's simply to keep them out of his turf rather than out of malice or vengeance.

As a Guardian Beast, Varan's main concern is the protection of key locations such as the Al-Wakwak archipelago, but being relatively lightweight, he is not built to take the fight to intruders directly, preferring a stealthier approach fraught with deception. Those he targets almost never see him coming, but they are always kept on their toes by the feeling of being watched, the chimeric pelycosaur stalking them from just beyond their range of perception. Usually this is enough for most enemies to make themselves scarce, but if an intruder does not heed his warnings to leave and tries to seek him out directly, they face a whirling dervish of spines, claws, and lashing tail, tearing into the foe without mercy until they get the message that they are not in the least bit welcome. He has a habit of toying with particularly persistent opponents, goading them into making reckless moves and exposing vulnerabilities for him to exploit - and given that he is relatively scrawny as kaiju go, this may even be a necessity.

For all his notoriety as a surly, manipulative creature, however, Varan has no truly evil tendencies at heart. He has made allies such as Baragon, Manda, and especially Anguirus, all of whom heed his wishes to be given a wide berth, but still visit him enough that his familiarity with them does not breed contempt, but stifles it. As long as they don't get too close to him, he is more tolerant of his fellow god-beasts than he is of other kaiju who simply rush in, get into a scrap with him, and run off without much fanfare. Should they find themselves in trouble, he will even set aside his aloof demeanor and descend upon the assailant in a furious vengeance, though he does not expect gratitude and will often leave the moment the dust settles. That said, places where other Guardian Beasts or fellow defenders of our planet's biosphere are known to inhabit will sometimes bear witness to the gruff god-beast perching somewhere high off the ground like a colossal gargoyle, observing the goings on relevant to his companion in silence and stillness, only coming to life once a threat to his comrade or their current residence presents itself. Manic fury and unmoving vigilance seem to be the only two moods he has, with no in between, and it seems he wouldn't have it any other way.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Despite being on the gracile side, Varan is no slouch in combat, sporting the same anatomical quirks common to the other kaiju engineered by the ancient Mlok/Seatopian coalition. He combines the attributes of an ancient order of lizard-like proto-mammals known as varanopids, dating back to the late Carboniferous and early Permian but now living in only a select few scattered earth hollows, and certain scorpaeniform fish native to the Indian Ocean, along with several kinds of lepidosaurs like monitor lizards, gliding lizards, and chameleons. His claws and teeth are obviously useful as weapons, as well as his long muscular tail, but the spines on his back can also be employed to deter attacks from above or even rake opponents' bellies as he passes below them. On a more defensive front, his scuted hide is tough enough to withstand most conventional armaments, though it isn't as sturdy against most kaiju attacks, necessitating his need for stealth; that said, he has above-average regenerative abilities to compensate, allowing him greater leeway in an offensive assault.
• Triphibious: Varan is adapted for mobility in any environment, with muscular legs equipped with claws like grappling hooks, a prehensile tail, and gliding membranes supported by extensions of his ribs like in gliding lizards alongside his limbs. He can climb, swim, run, and even burrow to some degree, but his most frequently used form of movement is by gliding. He is not capable of powered flight, but he can still achieve impressive distances by exploiting thermals and air currents, allowing him to soar with great agility until the pull of gravity eventually forces him to land. With the aid of his special abilities geared towards concealment, this often makes him perfectly adapted for evading all forms of detection and apprehension and, as such, exceedingly difficult to track.
• Dutiful Guardian: Varan was engineered with the intent of protecting key locations, and it shows. Though endothermic, he can slow down his metabolism like certain sea mammals such as whales, conserving energy whether in deep water or during a long period of surveillance, his heart beating only a few times a minute and all of his non-vital bodily processes grinding to a halt. Should a situation require his attention, it takes him a period of about an hour to resume normal activity, but this was factored in as well - his senses still work even when dormant, with large, light-sensitive eyes capable of seeing wavelengths of light beyond human vision, pits within the scales atop his head for heat detection, and a forked tongue like a monitor lizard's for directional scent tracking. His spines and wing membranes are finely attuned to environmental vibrations, and his sense of hearing is quite keen as well. This enables him to act almost like a living radar dish, mapping out any sign of activity for miles around him and making him nigh impossible to surprise. By the time an opponent has found him, he's often resumed a normal state of activity and will be ready for battle immediately.
• Color Change: While the scorpionfish aspects of Varan's anatomy are not immediately obvious, there are enough aspects present that kaijuologists with enough biological knowledge can spot them easily. Varan has the ability to change the color of his skin using chromatophores just beneath his translucent, almost wart-like scales, allowing him to camouflage himself among his immediate surroundings, This is sometimes assumed to be derived from chameleons, but they use their color changing for communication rather than concealment - but some scorpionfish have the same color-changing ability and do use it to blend in with their environment, which is probably where Varan got this ability from. That said, he does have the ability to express himself using color as well, with the markings on his gliding membranes and balloon-like throat sac being the primary "billboards" for this talent. These are yellow-orange with dark blue-black markings normally, but they turn yellow-green with darker green and blue mottling when distressed, and angry red-orange with numerous black and yellow eyespots when enraged; he can even flash a kaleidoscope-like array of colors to dazzle or confuse enemies with his membranes spread out. While his default color is brownish orange or yellow, he may also assume an overall main body color of green or blue-grey as the need arises, with other colors and patterns being rarer and more dependent on whatever biome he's in.

Special Abilities:

• Paralyzing Spines: Varan's dorsal spines are the other main element derived from scorpaeniforms, and like with these fish, this is much more infamous. While not positioned properly for offense, his low-slung body gives him plenty of opportunities to use them defensively, injecting a paralyzing toxin into any opponent impaled upon them. This results in a numbing sensation followed by a loss of motor function in the affected area as the nerve-blocking agents in the toxin kick in, leaving the opponent struggling to cope with the dead weight of a paralyzed appendage or even the whole body going limp all at once if he skewered something more important. Higher doses can lead to suffocation and cardiac arrest as the lungs and heart stop working. Should the dose be low enough that this is not a risk, the toxin usually does not wear off until at least twenty hours later, giving Varan more than enough time to plan a counterattack or drag the foe off to somewhere away from the territory he is protecting, if not simply vacate the premises entirely.
• Noxious Fog: In the same way that some species of geckos can spray a defensive fluid from their tails, Varan has pores just under his gliding membrane and along the underside of his tail which can emit an aerosolized secretion. It is not in fact toxic as some reports have suggested, but its malodorous properties are a whole other story. Depending on the concentration and predetermined constitution, the mist he emits has a scent that can range from that of curdled milk to rotten flesh, and in some rare cases when he was especially furious, it has been known to take on the scent of fecal matter or even certain atmospheric pollutants like car exhaust. In any case, the fog spreads quickly, hangs low to the ground, and can quickly invade the lungs and mucus membranes of any organism that requires respiration to function, causing fits of nausea and irritation of the eyes and nostrils on top of the sense of revulsion directed at the smell itself. Varan seems able to tailor the odor of his fog to match what his current opponent finds most repugnant, though the mechanism of this is unclear and warrants further study. The fog is his primary means of environmental control, giving him plenty of opportunities to disorient and lock down targets, clear out groups of enemies, cover escapes, set up ambushes, etc.

Weaknesses:

• Cape Damage: The scales on Varan's skin are as tough as they come, but his gliding membrane is much more vulnerable to damage. While resistant to conventional weaponry, it can still be damaged with enough force, and it is not uncommon for him to be seen with holes and tears in it along with broken rib-struts after most fights. The membrane and struts regenerate more quickly than the rest of his body, though, and without further hindrances they will often be back to normal within less than a day.
• Skinny and Scrawny: Varan is relatively lightweight, a necessity for a gliding animal, but naturally this makes him bad at direct combat. If a foe can catch him, they can hurl him about like a ragdoll and easily beat him into the ground. That said, his lower weight compared to other kaiju makes him more agile and maneuverable, making it difficult to capture or even land a solid hit on him - though this isn't impossible by any stretch, especially if his opponent has faster reflexes than he does.
• Lone Lizard: As a guardian and not a direct fighter against dangerous forces, Varan frequently eschews cooperation and prefers to act on his own if he can help it. His skillset is not built with team strategy in mind, and most allies have to plan around him rather than alongside him lest they accidentally interfere with his own plans and make his work more difficult. Should things not go to plan, he is prone to angry outbursts against those who have screwed up his carefully constructed strategies, temporarily souring relationships and making reasoning with him more of a chore than normal. That said, he is not one to abandon his allies if he feels they can't win - more than one opponent who dismissed him due to their perceived advantages against him and his allies has learned the hard way that just because he is lighter than they are does not make him any less capable in battle, especially when he leaps into the defense of one of the few kaiju he considers truly trustworthy.

Chapter Text

The Deluge Serpent: MANDA

Statistics

• Classification: Artificial hybrid (Aigialosauridae + Ariidae)
• Length: 1,312.34 feet/400 meters
• Mass: 93,696.46 short tons/85,000 metric tons
• Locality: South China Sea

Bio

History:
The third of the Guardian Beasts created by the Seatopian/Mlok alliance circa 3,500 BC is the colossal sea serpent known as Manda, sightings of which have been equated to stories of marine dragons in many East Asian cultures. Though sightings of him in ancient times must have been common, it seems he had always been intended as the guardian of the undersea city of Mu. One of the cornerstones of Delugian/Mlok civilization, Mu was one of the grandest and most politically important cities inhabited by the newt people, and thus a prime target should conflict or invasion arise. As such, the Delugians had needed a guardian to protect the city for centuries, especially after their declining population made manning the borders themselves difficult. So when the Seatopian refugees fleeing from Emperor Zykon III came to the city of Mu hoping to engineer a creature that could protect them, the city administration decided that now was as good a time as ever to create a vigilant guardian of the region. This is not mere myth, in fact - several stone tablets uncovered from the sunken remains of Mu bear inscriptions of the legal processes approving of Manda's creation.

Of course, that discovery would not be made until after the expedition of the Gotengo in 1963, which was witness to one of the deadliest battles of the post-WWII era where each side was comprised of a different sophont species. Despite attempts at diplomacy falling apart due to cultural barriers and the Delugians' mistrust of man, enough evidence was retrieved to verify Manda's supposed origin. More surprising still, however, was the stipulation that a second hybrid was to be created, identical to Manda in every way except gender. The creature that had attacked and later been killed by the Gotengo was, in fact, the female of the species, and Manda himself was guarding the nest at the heart of the city presumably created for the two of them. It is not known what became of Manda since the raid upon the city, but refugees from the attack on Mu would later claim that he was inconsolable over the loss of his mate, and had refused to budge from his lair since then. It would not be until he among numerous other Earth kaiju was forced into servitude under the invading Kiilaks some five years later that he would be roused from his grief, joining the other monsters in the fight against the King of Terror. After this, he would simply vanish into the depths of the sea, seemingly never to be seen by man or Mlok again.

At least, not until seven years later.

Several attempts by mankind had been made at the construction of what was essentially a mechanical kaiju, capable of being controlled by human pilots but with the abilities and vital essence of a supergiant organism. The most successful attempt (Kiryu) had yet to happen - as it was, the blueprints had been stolen by the Simians of "Black Hole Planet 3" shortly after their attempt to conquer our planet had been thwarted, and as such, had created a mechanical doppleganger of the King of the Monsters which had been deployed upon Earth several times in a bid to dispatch Godzilla, though none had been successful. The latest attempt involved another participant, however - a reptilian leviathan by the name of Chitanosaurus, controlled using the same means as in the 1968 Kilaak invasion. Godzilla had faced off against Mechagodzilla before, but this time, against two kaiju at once, it was a match that he might not have been able to handle. Chitanosaurus had provided the mobility, and Mechagodzilla the muscle. The King of the Monsters might have met his match that day, if it hadn't been for one critical flaw in the Nebulans' plan.

The frequency of the signal being broadcast by the Nebulans' control tower was both far-reaching and recognizable to those who knew it. Even far below the waves, Manda found it familiar - and enraging enough that he could piece together what was going on almost immediately. Without delay, he zeroed in on the signal tower, slithering out from the sea and making his way straight towards it. Even before he'd gotten there, the patsy controlling Mechagodzilla committed suicide to disable the device responsible, causing the machine to go haywire. The Monarch agents investigating the Nebulan facility escaped just in time as Manda plunged into the complex and razed it to the ground, before turning towards the berserk mech and launching himself into battle alongside Godzilla. Together, they reduced the stolen automaton to scrap metal, and before Chitanosaurus had a chance to recover, Godzilla sent his opponent plummeting into the sea before making his own escape.

Slithering back below the churning waves, Manda circled around the crimson sea lizard, sizing her up, the Monarch personnel expecting the two of them to throw themselves upon each other and turn the foam blood-red. But as the Manda prepared to make the first strike against the wounded Chitanosaurus, she let out a last warbling bellow in a bid to express submission... whereupon something suddenly changed in the Deluge Serpent. Manda's posture slackened, his eyes widening, and after a few moments, he let out a deeper-pitched, trilling growl of his own. And then Chitanosaurus responded in kind. The two reptiles remained still as stone for a few moments, and then, right before the stunned agents, the scarlet beast swam up to Manda and gently, tenderly, nuzzled his snout with its own. They circled each other a few times, calling out in harmony. And then, without any further spectacle, they vanished beneath the ocean surface at the exact same time, side by side.

Later sightings would confirm the initial suspicion: Manda and Chitanosaurus were, in fact, somehow biologically compatible, not to mention that the latter was actually female. Her previous rampages had been due to the creature being relatively young - the one that Dr. Shinzo Mafune had recorded in his studies was presumably its mother - and in fact, she was looking for a mate. With his own companion gone, Manda had been bought back into season in spite of his own bereaved state, and the two of them had found that what had been missing from their lives could be filled by each other. Thereafter and forevermore, they would never be seen apart, and they would guard the city of Mu - and the world's oceans - as friends, comrades, and lovers.

Perhaps the Delugians' original wish for Manda to raise a family in the heart of Mu might be fulfilled after all... just not in the way they had originally intended.

Personality and Combat Style:
Manda is believed by historians to be at least partly responsible for the myth of the Asian dragon, a benevolent creature that is a harbinger of good fortune, but also imposing and fearsome when roused into action. Like the other Guardian Beasts, Manda was engineered to be a loyal and vigilant sentinel of the territory he was tasked to protect, and his faithfulness and responsibility are second to none. If he feels the need to keep watch over a particular location, he will have no reservations about doing so, especially if he feels some sentimental attachment to the site in question, such as places relevant to his creators or their history. The downside of this, however, is that should whatever he is protecting be compromised regardless, chances are he will be completely and utterly inconsolable. His original nest at the center of Mu was his pride and joy, and the realization that his mate had perished, meaning there would be no eggs to fill it, devastated him to the point that he went into aestivation while coiled around the brooding pit out of overwhelming grief; the Delugian priests who attempted mental communication with him during that time relayed feelings of suicidal despair, the creature attempting to starve himself to death, seemingly blaming himself for making what he believed to be a poor choice in staying within Mu to guard the place while his mate fought the Gotengo to the death, dooming his home to crumble around him. The process of his recovery from this loss has been a slow one, but the Mloks of Mu have reported that he is grateful for his people standing by him and keeping him alive for just long enough to reignite his sense of duty during and after the Kilaak invasion. He still remembers the tragedies in his life keenly, however, and anything that reminds him of what he has lost, such as the Nebulans or the Gotengo, is in terrible danger.

Much of what we know about Manda's nature comes from the records kept by the priests of Mu of his thoughts and feelings since the siege against the city. Before Chitanosaurus came into Manda's life, he seems to have been a reclusive yet temperamental beast, filled with rage and self-loathing over his failure to save his home and family. He would avoid most other life forms that he didn't consider prey, but anything manmade that he encountered would face obliteration, his crushing coils and venomous, heat-draining bite making him a formidable yet slippery threat to maritime transport throughout the Pacific. Stealthy and patient but brutally straightforward when need be, he was also difficult to monitor due to how thoroughly he expunged any trace of man from his world. Once he and Chitanosaurus first met one another, he had thought of her as simply another potential threat, especially one tied to the Nebulans - but when she called out to him in a plea for mercy, he realized that she too had been hurt for senseless reasons, and his aggression had cooled for once. That was all she had needed to appraise his condition and offer him the one thing he had been missing all this time: comfort. It wasn't much, but it had been enough, and while it would be some time before they would become a proper couple, the Mloks to this day sing praises of the lifelong friendship which was born that day, and speak of how Manda has warmed up to the world around him again with Chitanosaurus by his side. Indeed, it is largely thanks to her that other marine kaiju like Gigantis, Ganimes, and Vagnosaurus have gained his respect and trust as well, even if in many cases it's just begrudgingly. Of course, woe betide those who mess with anyone Manda cares about - for he is as loyal to them as he is to the people of Mu, and should they be in danger, he will do everything in his power to annihilate the hapless aggressor.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Manda is nearly a hundred thousand tons of sinuous muscle, sheathed in tough scaly skin and armed with sharp teeth on one end and a powerful tail on the other. His long coils are capable of exuding enough pressure to crush buildings to powder and crack the bones of other titans if he can get a good grip in, and one whip-like lash of his whole body can snap a medium-sized kaiju's spine. When subduing a foe he prefers to constrict the body cavity, cutting off circulation and stopping the heart, though he can also wrap around the throat and stop blood flow to the brain while simultaneously strangling the windpipe. His serrated fangs can inflict terrible wounds, but their recurved shape, preventing anything unfortunate enough to be caught from escaping without hurting itself even further, also helps to provide an initial grab so his coils can get to work. On a more defensive front, his narrow body shape is difficult to land a hit on due to its flexibility, which also makes him better at slipping into tight gaps and hiding spaces than most other kaiju, so he can escape quickly or even launch sneak attacks if enough cover is available. Manda's scales are as such small enough to afford flexibility and smooth enough to keep drag to a minimum, but at the same time sturdy enough to prevent opponents from damaging him while struggling to break free of his grip.
• Amphibious: Manda is at home both in the water and on land, slithering like a great snake with equal ease in both mediums. He can paddle along at 200 knots in short bursts and maintain 100 knots over a much longer time period, and dive to a mile below the surface. He has both gills like a fish and lungs like a reptile, but relies on the former when diving, exhaling so his lungs won't be compressed by the water pressure. He is a bit slower on land due to his own weight restricting his movement, and can't stay ashore for longer than six hours lest his organs stop working, but he can still slither along at 50 mph thanks to a conveyor-belt-like system of muscles attached to his ribs which can move with phenomenal speed even in such circumstances. He is a decent climber and burrower as well, though he can only dig into softer soil and doesn't do so very often, preferring to bury himself only when on the seabed. In general, he is more confident in the water than on land, but isn't reluctant to take the fight onto terra firma if he has to.
• Tracker: Manda's creators engineered him with exceptional senses and for good reason. As a guardian of an important location, to be able to locate potential outsiders is critical, and the Deluge Serpent is adapted to do so with aplomb. His eyeballs are quite large with excellent color vision, protected by transparent scales like swimming goggles which are polarized to prevent sunlight blindness. They're also somewhat good in low-light conditions, though he's more reliant on his catfish-like barbels on his face, which are heavily sensitive to both vibrations and electrical signals in his surroundings (and his fins exhibit this same property though to a lesser extent). His forked tongue gives him a directional sense of smell and taste, and synergizes well with his sensory feelers for locating prey or hidden things in murky water or at night. Manda is intelligent enough to recognize if a stimulus is synonymous with a potential risk, and is capable of tracking down anything he recognizes as such for days if not weeks on end. In general though his primary course of action is to remain in the vicinity of key areas such as Mu and ward off any potential threat that draws his attention. His field of sensation typically ranges over a radius of about 100 miles or so, but if a signal is strong enough he can recognize it from much, much further... a fact that the Nebulans learned the hard way during the 1975 invasion, as he was able to trace the broadcasting signal they were using to control Chitanosaurus from thousands of miles away.

Special Abilities:

• Cytotoxic Venom: Manda's saliva contains several varieties of cytotoxins and hemotoxins, similar to the kinds produced by the venom glands of both pit vipers and monitor lizards; this same cocktail is also injected by the horn-like spines on his head as well, derived from certain venomous catfish species. Upon injection, this venom is capable of inflicting blood poisoning, internal hemorrhaging, excruciating pain, shock, and in higher doses, organ failure and eventual death by internal exanguination. Doses in dozens of liters (the production of which is well within his capability) are required to incapacitate a similarly-sized kaiju, but to smaller creatures it is instantly fatal. The slashes inflicted by Manda's fangs easily let the venom in, causing his victims to bleed profusely and weakening them quickly even if the bite wound itself is shallow, and by aiming for where blood flow is closest to the skin, he can optimize its effects due to a better chance of injecting it directly into the bloodstream. At higher doses, it's even capable of stifling kaiju regeneration until the venom is neutralized - not the easiest process, given that it's technically several malignant substances being delivered together, each of which requires an antivenin of its own. Resistance to one part of the venom does not guarantee another, greatly expanding the range of supergiant organisms it is capable of afflicting. Needless to say, however, it is only dangerous to organic life, and has no effect on artificial constructs, non-organic elemental entities, or manmade machinery.
• Frost Bite: A more mysterious property of Manda's teeth lends credence to the myth that he injects ice and frost into those he sinks them into, though this is simply because the effects of his venom are somewhat similar to frostbite. He seems to leach heat from the bite wound, causing a feeling of intense coldness and numbness in the affected area that can swiftly become painful. Prolonged periods of this can lead to dangerous cryogenic necrosis, and though his flesh-tearing fangs aren't as useful for gripping as the more conical teeth of more specialized fish-hunters like Chitanosaurus, their backwards curve still allows them to act like fishhooks to gaff whatever they've been buried in. Curiously, however, his venom itself also exhibits the same heat-draining property, causing tissues to freeze over as it spreads through the body. There is as yet no scientific explanation for this, and the Mloks chalk it up to divine magic, but it's likely that certain compounds in the venom become endothermic when exposed to blood plasma. Of course, retrieving a sample Manda's venom to prove this theory would be virtually suicidal, so proof of this is nonexistent for now.

Weaknesses:

• Cold Snap: Ironically, Manda is himself vulnerable to cold, and it was the Absolute Zero cannon used by the Gotengo that killed his mate for a similar reason. He is gigantothermic (relying on his great size to conserve his internal temperature) and has to drain heat from his prey and environment to recoup any loss of heat, so it stands to reason that excessive loss of heat would be fatal, and he also has no blubber layers to speak of. He is not comfortable with colder seas for this reason, and prefers to stay in warmer waters if possible.
• Tag-Teamed: Manda's fighting prowess is largely restricted to single opponents, especially since his constricting attacks focus primarily on one target. If multiple opponents are facing off against him, if he manages to catch one of them, another could distract him and give his victim time to escape or counterattack. His first course of action when dealing with a group is therefore to separate the most important members away from the rest, but enough vigilance and coordination on the part of the opposition can stop that strategy cold.
• Tunnel Vigil: Manda is obedient in his guardianship almost to a fault. No matter what he is tasked with keeping vigil over, he will go out of his way to make sure it isn't disturbed, and if it is anyway his response will be as swift as it is violent. By necessity, he takes this responsibility extremely seriously, and not even trusted allies are allowed access to whatever he is guarding unless they have a dire reason for it. This has been used against him however in that several enemies of him and his people have managed to infiltrate a location he was watching over because associates of theirs' had caught his attention first, usually on purpose. That being said, he has wised up to this strategy since his past defeats and losses, and overconfidence in the knowledge that he was distracted along with underestimating how long it'd be before he'd catch on has cost more than one adversary their lives.

Chapter Text

The Golden Calamity: KING GHIDORAH

Statistics

• Classification: Unknown (Extraterrestrial)
• Height: 600 feet/182.88 meters
• Length: 1500 feet/457.2 meters
• Mass: 187,393 short tons/170,000 metric tons
• Wingspan: 2500 feet/762 meters
• Locality: Unknown; presumably within the Local Interstellar Cloud

Bio

History:
Are we alone in this universe? That is a question that has burned in the minds of scientists and writers ever since the possibility of life outside of our Earth was first imagined. As technology advanced and as our knowledge of outer space and the universe expanded over the centuries, many fantasies about life on other planets, from dinosaurs on Venus to invaders from Mars, have faded into the realm of science fiction. For a while, it was thought by the scientific community as a whole that life beyond Earth, while certainly possible due to the sheer multitude of planets in the galaxy, was so utterly remote that there was no way that humanity would be able to establish contact with it, let alone study it in any further detail than satellite signals and spectrometry graphs.

That conceit would be completely and absolutely shattered in the month of December 1964, when a meteor the size of a small hill dropped from the skies above Daisetsuzan National Park with enough force to turn the entire southern edifice of Mount Kuro into a smoking crater.

Over 12,000 square miles (31,079.86 square kilometers) of the surrounding landscape, including 200 million trees and over a half-dozen cities, were instantaneously leveled - a more destructive impact than even the infamous Tunguska Event of 1908. The impact event made global headlines, with news media outlets from almost every country in the world visiting ground zero to cover the aftermath, including the relief efforts and scientific investigations into the colossal boulder that had smashed into the side of Kurodake. But the impact was just the start of a series of disasters that would affect the park throughout the rest of the month: localized earthquakes, massive die-offs of plants and animals of every shape and size, massive spikes in the rates of criminal violence of every city within a hundred-mile radius, and a series of strange diseases that would hamper the relief efforts and take the lives of many that had only barely survived the initial meteorite collision. All the while, the weather gradually worsened, the snow that would have been second-nature to the park at this time of the year being replaced by a violent, perpetual storm, with hurricane-force winds, lightning strikes, and inexplicable acid rain. And at the center of it all, that colossal egg-shaped asteroid, drawing in bolt after bolt of heavenly fire and emitting a strange, magnetic pulse that could be detected from as far away as Russia and Vietnam. It sat there even as scientists chipped off tiny shards of its surface for study, even as Princess Salno of Selgina, Nepal spoke of her vision of it bursting open, even as the storm it created crippled the great goddess Mothra.

"Beware, beware, the Fallen Star, that swoops to touch the ground.
For the skies above shall boil with hate as soon as it is found.
Torn apart the land will be, as the sun comes forth from below.
While split in twain, the sea brings forth a shadow with breath aglow.
The sun and the sea will join as one, with a light from the heavens to guide them.
And the Fallen Star these three will meet, for justice will this world provide them.
Do not fear the beasts of the earth, for they answer to Heaven's call.
And should the Fallen Star spread its wings, they will save us all."
- Princess Salno of Selgina, delivering what would soon be called the "Prophecy of the Fallen Star"

Even as Godzilla and the Rodan twins fought ferociously in the city of Nagoya, the meteor remained as still as the stone comprising it. Waiting. It would not be until the twin Mothra larvae subdued the battling kaiju and broadcast their communication signal beseeching them to cooperate that, at long last, the meteor cracked open, before collapsing completely in a great plume of dust and debris.

Then the fragments of astral stone froze in mid-air, and started floating upward, hovering and traveling in a slow orbit around the thing at the center. The living nightmare that had been dormant inside the asteroid for countless eons. The cosmic titan that would soon be known as the Golden Calamity, the King of Terror, the Three-Headed Monster... KING GHIDORAH.

It is not known where, exactly, Ghidorah originated, in part because he seems to have come to be outside of our Earth and its biosphere. It is unusual, therefore, that he seems to have taken a variety of characteristics from many Earth organisms, like some chimeric, plagiarized parody of our planet’s terrible lizards of yore. That said, however, the fact that Mothra regarded the meteor that he had used as a hibernation chamber during his travels through space as a top-priority threat seems to indicate that she must have encountered the creature or something like it in the past. When questioned about this by Monarch, The Shobijin at first refused to disclose information on the subject, but eventually they relented, and noted that many eons ago, at the twilight of an era ruled by creatures clad in scute, scale, and feather, Mothra had done battle with something that had arrived on this planet with the intent to assimilate all that lived upon it. That something had ridden a meteorite the size of a mountain straight into what would become the Yucatan Peninsula of modern-day Mexico; it had had no form back then, but once it imbibed the flesh and blood of those initial casualties of the impact event, it had gained a form simultaneously familiar and alien, and would have continued its ceaseless, manic defilement of Terran life if Mothra had not stopped it. Back then it had not been fully formed or fully grown, and perhaps recognizing this, it had retreated into space after its defeat, seemingly never to return.

Except that it had returned. And now Ghidorah was complete, and hungered for the death and destruction of all living beings - all life that was not his own.

Fortunately, the King of Terror would not get that chance. Thanks to the early warning of Mothra’s young, Godzilla and the two Rodans would intervene just in time, though too late to save the larvae with red light from being all but torn to pieces - the sight of which filled the prehistoric colossi with rage and disgust. The ensuing battle was as brutal as it was decisive, all four surviving kaiju converging upon their common foe, the space dragon eventually finding one of his heads torn off and one of his wings crippled and shattered. Outnumbered and outmatched, Ghidorah’s survival instinct, in that most brief of moments, overrode his rage and lust for destruction. With one great sweep of his remaining wing, the tricephalic titan bowled over all of his opponents with a gravity pulse-wave and launched himself back into the sky, piercing through the stratosphere like a ballistic missile and shooting off into deep space. Gathering space debris around himself and forming a new shell to encase himself in, he would drift off to who knew where, a non-entity for all the world knew. As for Earth, it would recover. The storm now clear, mankind would pick up the pieces, and the progress of civilization would continue from that day to this.

The kaiju who had saved the planet, Godzilla and the Rodans, would go their separate ways, forever in Mothra’s debt - but also knowing a new threat, a hated foe that should not be. They knew that as long as Ghidorah lived, the world would not be truly safe. The three-headed monster had tasted the lifeblood of the Earth for the first time in millions of years - and if what the world had seen of him was any indicator, he would not let go of such a valuable prize so easily...

Personality and Combat Style:

"Ghidorah is not King because he rules over others. He is King because none can challenge him on their own and expect to win. He is the ruler over all who are proud, and those whom he considers unlike him are judged as unworthy to him and therefore fit only for destruction. If he has a motivation, it seems to be to leave this universe bereft of all life except that which he considers his equal. But since he has no equal, this means that as long as he exists, there is nothing else in the universe he does not see as detritus to be removed by any means necessary from his realm of absolute purity."
-The Shobijin, on Ghidorah

Ghidorah is the greatest and most terrible of the Seven Beasts of Worlds' End, the seven fragments of an ancient entity from the dawn of the universe that was believed to herald the destruction of all life on any planets it encountered, and was said in legends to have been once tasked with destroying worlds whose biospheres were deemed beyond saving. This entity was said to have become disillusioned with its role and became an entity of pure destruction, whereupon it was sent into deep space to be kept in stasis for all eternity. While not the first of the Beasts to have broken off from this mysterious being, Ghidorah is still the best-known due to being the first to appear on Earth as well as the most prolific, having descended to ravage our planet at least eight different times since his first appearance in 1964.

The King of Terror is an amalgamation of a variety of organisms native to an untold number of planets, all of which he had either depleted of all organic life, or was repelled from after launching a devastating campaign of extermination against the inhabitants of worlds capable of defending themselves against him. He is truly unlike any other being in the known universe and, as such, is completely and utterly alone in his existence, even in the presence of other organisms. One would think that his ceaseless fury directed at all else around him is due to the presumed pain and suffering he feels from his innate isolation, but this is not actually the case, because he has never been known to actually experience any feelings of loneliness. Far from it, he actually seems to regard his being unique with immense pride, and views all other life forms as mere sources of traits to add to his own person. The fact that all creatures resist his attempts to integrate them into what he sees as the supreme being has brought him to a constant state of indignant fury, and he believes that if he cannot have the beings he feels entitled to consume, then simply obliterating them is fine, too. Ghidorah has come to find sadistic joy in overcoming the feeble resistance of those he perceives as lesser beings as a result of this complex, and revels in the terror and chaos brought about by his presence alone.

Each of Ghidorah's three monstrous heads is an embodiment of the major aspects of his horrifically toxic and ferocious personality. His middle head represents Pride, its luxurious mane and gleaming, elaborate horns highlighting his inflated sense of self-worth and his pretentious belief that the rest of existence is inferior to him. This head is considered the leader of the three, being the first to strike when he descends into battle and the one that is raised the highest to survey all before him most effectively. The right head invokes Cruelty in every aspect, with the sharpest teeth, the widest gape, and the cruelest horns of the three; while it often attacks second after the central head, when it does enter the fray it is the most savage and least subtle, its violent movements dealing tremendous damage. Lastly, the left head is the manifestation of Ghidorah’s Madness, a wild and uncontrollable entity that whips and flails about every which way unless all three heads need to focus on one adversary - even then, it will still dart about every so often to watch other things around him, snapping at anything that gets near like a rabid beast. While it may seem unfocused and inattentive, however, it is often the first to spot danger from different angles compared to Ghidorah’s current focus, being more observant than most enemies would suspect. While all three of these heads exhibit different behavioral quirks, however, they never seem to fight with one another and are hinted at to not have separate personalities, suggesting that they are linked to a single overall consciousness. This is probably why they can work in such deadly harmony when in battle, their movements simultaneously elegant and sinister, his demented screeching and cackling echoing alongside the sounds of the carnage he inevitably brings.

In light of all of this information, it is therefore easy to see why Ghidorah's outer beauty belies a terrifying opponent to all organic life. His hatred of the world around him was inherent and present since his beginning, and as such, he cannot be reasoned with or redeemed (although entities derived from him are a different story). The only recourse available to the inhabitants of Earth, or any other habitable planet, is to fight him again and again unless and until he is terminated for good - but otherwise, the universe will forever be in fear of his omnicidal, ruthlessly destructive nature.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: A consummate predator of all other creatures, Ghidorah is referred to by all other life forms as a “King” not because of any association with royalty, but because he is an indomitable force of destruction who is regarded by all other organisms with nothing short of mortal terror. Analysis of tissue samples from him seems to indicate that his bodily composition is silica-based rather than carbon-based, but the organic nanofibers common to all kaiju tissues are of the same geometric structure, giving them incredible strength and durability beyond what a normal creature is capable of. This is likely how he can afford to be so massive that even the largest Terran kaiju only barely break even with him in terms of scale, and as such, his strength and vitality are above and beyond most other organic life. His triple necks can constrict with enough force to crumple skyscrapers and kaiju skeletons alike, his teeth and talons can rip through all but the toughest hide, and blows from his tails and wings can snap titan spines as easily as they can reduce whole districts to rubble. His scales are hard as titanium, his honeycombed bones are like reinforced steel girders in terms of strength despite their lightness, and his dual hearts and massive lungs allow for tremendous amounts of exertion over long periods where other monsters would soon exhaust themselves. Nothing short of a collaborative effort on the part of at least a dozen kaiju working together is capable of stopping him, and even then he will not go down without putting up an impressive fight, with heavy casualties on the opposing side being all but inevitable.
• Interstellar Flight: Ghidorah’s massive wings are obviously used for powered flight, as well as terrestrial locomotion, acting as limbs in the same fashion as with pterosaurs (up to and including a quadrupedal vaulting launch). His flight speed has been clocked at around 550 knots, or about Mach 0.8, but he is capable of much faster speeds as the need arises, comparable to most modern spacecraft. The same wings that enable flight are also able to emit a kinetic field which can be directed either backwards or below him, allowing him to not only stay airborne despite his size, but propel himself at escape velocity and beyond. In outer space, where air resistance is irrelevant, he can accelerate even further, traveling from planet to planet at speeds comparable to interstellar spacecraft, though given the vast distances between stars it may still take him millenia to reach his destination - something which he has contingency plans for as well.

Special Abilities:

• Anti-Gravity Field: Ghidorah's existence originally brought a lot of confusion to scientists and kaijuologists who questioned how such a massive creature wouldn't suffocate under its own weight. Observations over the years have since led to speculation that he can grow so large due to manipulating his own gravity, reducing his relative weight so that he can achieve much greater raw mass and, therefore, a greater advantage against his enemies. His gravity manipulation is not merely limited to his own body, however; by extending the range of it to a larger area around him, he can essentially manipulate objects around him without even having to touch them - this includes drawing things towards him or flinging them away, levitating them for use as projectiles or shields, or pin things like obstacles and opponents to the ground to subdue them more easily. This also allows for the reduction of impact force should an enemy manage to land a hit on him, and he may even briefly "root" himself to the ground to withstand particularly powerful attacks. He has found many creative ways of using this power over the ages, for both offense and defense.
• Electrogenesis: Like a number of other kaiju, Ghidorah's muscle tissue is packed with specialized electrocytes, allowing him to store and generate incredible amounts of power. He is able to release this electricity in the form of either an electrical "shield" over his already tough hide, an EMP blast that can disrupt electronics and nervous systems miles away, or supercharged strikes, bites, or slashes capable of frying an opponent from the inside out. Even when at ease (which is exceedingly rare) he generates power automatically that physical contact with him amounts to the kaiju equivalent of being tasered; when roused into extremes of anger or mania he can outright reduce a medium-sized kaiju to charred, crippled masses of burnt flesh with just a few hits. At full power he can even manipulate the surrounding atmosphere and summon electrical storms as cover, similar to other kaiju with the same ability such as Kong or Balkzardan, but with more precise control over the clouds and weather produced thanks to his gravity control. He is also capable of absorbing any electrical charge from masers, lightning strikes, or enemy kaiju attacks directed at him, becoming strengthened by the power boost and eventually gaining enough charge to remain in his overloaded state indefinitely.
• Mag-Grav Bolts: Ghidorah’s main ranged attack is a combination of his control over both gravity and electricity, being able to emit a beam of invisible plasma from each of his mouths which also affects the gravity around it in a localized radius. This has the effect of pulling in objects and particles within the zone of affect, allowing it to serve as a conduit for the electrical blast traveling down the length of the beam at roughly the same time. Objects hit by this beam are subject to a combination of concussive and electrical force, which is incredibly destructive to structures and organic matter alike; at point-blank range he can even instantly kill kaiju half his size if an oral bolt hits a vital area. He is also capable of controlling the intensity of these bolts as he sees fit, able to launch rapid-fire ball-lightning-like blasts of electrified plasma as cover fire or continuous streams to subdue a target from a greater distance or sweep across a wide area, but his most insidious use of this is the aptly named “Ion Destroyer”, wherein he crosses all three beams together to form a far more devastating blast that can unmake almost any substance it touches on the molecular level and in a highly explosive fashion - the number of materials that can withstand it can be counted on one hand, and some aren’t known from Earth. The Ion Destroyer is both the most energetically expensive of his attacks and the most difficult to aim, and is often reserved as a last resort, but it’s such a thoroughly destructive and effective attack that it can turn a losing battle around within a split second if it actually manages to hit his opponent.
• Kaiju Commander: Ghidorah’s status as a sort of “alpha” over all other kaiju on most planets he visits is not without justification, and not merely due to his greater physical power relative to them. His distinctive cackling cry combined with certain electrical and psionic signals he emits passively and constantly exhibit the strange effect of scrambling the nervous systems of most kaiju they reach - essentially, he has the power of indomitable suggestion, forcing other kaiju to do his bidding even against their own will. This can make him incredibly dangerous as he has the intelligence to strategically deploy such enslaved titans to maximize his advantage, along with the selfish cruelty to carry out exceedingly petty acts with it, including causing whole communities to go into homicidal rages, turning allies against one another, or forcing those affected to hurt or kill their loved ones or even commit suicide for his own sick amusement. Resisting his control is not impossible, but gets more and more difficult the closer a victim is to him; survivors of the effect claim that he controls their minds by instilling a sense of fear so potent that it enforces absolute obedience on pain of hideous retribution - which, knowing him, is a very legitimate concern.
• Meteoric Shell: In the event that Ghidorah needs to travel to another planet, either because he was driven away from the planet he attempted to invade or because he completely destroyed and assimilated all life upon it, he has the ability to draw in and consolidate inorganic matter encountered in low orbit such as minerals and metals (or alternatively, debris carried up with him by his gravity field) once he escapes the planet’s atmosphere, fusing it together around him to form a sort of shell. This keeps him protected from cosmic rays and other potential threats like a preservation chamber, allowing him to go into stasis while his kinetic field passively allows for greater acceleration through the depths of space. Once he's sealed himself he can essentially go into stasis inside his constructed "shell", recycling oxygen and nutrients within his own body and remaining dormant for centuries, even millenia, all the while hurtling through the cosmos like a meteor... which is exactly what his containment shield becomes once it enters the atmosphere of the next planet he comes across.
• Gene Stealer: When he first arrived on Earth at the end of the Cretaceous, Ghidorah was an amorphous, protoplasmic entity with no defined identity to speak of. This quickly changed once it began consuming the remains of some of the creatures which had perished in the Chixiclub impact, causing him to develop into a twisted facsimile of several prehistoric reptiles merged together. Ghidorah seems to have retained this ability to absorb and integrate the DNA of creatures he consumes since then, as each of his appearances has seen him exhibit new traits akin to past opponents he has defeated. How this is possible is not fully understood, but tissue samples from the creature have been found to contain proteins which are drawn towards DNA, RNA, or any compounds with the same functions, cutting apart specific genetic sequences; it is presumed that he stores this stolen genetic code as a means of adaptation to specific environments, essential for his invasion of all kinds of inhabitable planets. Needless to say, this gives him all manner of biological quirks unlike any other organism, making it very difficult to determine his vital anatomy and forcing opponents to brute-force most fights against him rather than exploiting any critical weaknesses.
  Oddly enough, creatures derived or reverse-engineered from Ghidorah's biomass, such as the Venusian Dorats, the imprisoned Death-Dealer Shinighidra, or the Thousand-Year Dragon Kuraokami, have not been known to exhibit the same gene-editing skill as Ghidorah himself. Some have speculated that since they mutated further from the original King of Terror with a specialization for specific habitats and ecosystems, they may have discarded it ages ago due to simply not needing a use for it.

Weaknesses:

• Immense Weight: Ghidorah is enormous even by kaiju standards, which can be as much of a hindrance as it is a strength. Movement and exertion are somewhat more difficult for him than with smaller kaiju due to his greater mass, and his gravity field, while obviously essential for holding himself up, can only carry him so far - increasing velocity in a straight line is easy for him, but not so much changing his direction once he gets going. In theory, should his gravity field be disabled, he could die almost instantly due to his vital anatomy being fatally macerated by his own weight.
• Wingspan: Ghidorah’s huge wings are essential for his locomotion, but their great size can be a hindrance in close quarters and also makes them obvious targets. He has been known to struggle to fit in the confines of cityscapes because his wings got in the way, and in the water they offer too much drag to be of much use even with his kinetic field pushing him through. Of course, he can simply knock down most obstacles in his path, and isn’t reluctant to do so by any stretch. That said, disabling his wings via bone breakage or holes torn into the membrane can severely hamper his ability to even move without extra use of his gravity power.
• Public Enemy Number One: Nothing and nobody is a true friend to Ghidorah - all things in the universe are simply prey, resources, playthings, or any combination of the three. No matter what situation he is in, he will engage in fits of violent bloodlust and inconceivable cruelty, leaving tremendous destruction and death no matter where he goes. This obsession with bringing ruin to all things, along with his habit of enslaving others to his will when he deigns to engage in tasks that require more than two sets of claws, has made it impossible for him to earn sympathy from any sapient being (not that he cares to do so, of course), and causes even non-sapient creatures of all stripes to panic at the mere hint that he is in the vicinity. He is considered a top-priority threat by all sophont beings in the known universe, even those who attempt to control him for their own use. Theoretically, subjugating him forcefully would be the only option a civilization can have if they hope to somehow bring his power to bear, but any attempt as such is prone to making things catastrophically worse for all parties involved except Ghidorah himself. The space dragon's chaotic, ever-shifting existence on both an anatomical and personal level means that even if one head is brought to heel, the other two will find reasons to turn against whomever DARED to try and enslave him, and he will only actively seek out cooperation with external forces if he can benefit from it in his own twisted way... and then destroy his collaborators regardless at a later time, just to be thorough.
  The only reason that certain entities derived from Ghidorah like Kuraokami or the Dorats have been easier for civilizations of various kinds to handle, in one way or another, is because his penchant for sadism is not hereditary. Due to their already being relatively complete in terms of genome by the time of their creation or regeneration, the Spawn of Ghidorah have no instinctive interest in assimilating other life forms, and as they lack his consciousness they will instead develop distinct mentalities on their own terms, with varying degrees of similarity to the King of Terror himself. Despite their genetic relationship to Ghidorah, however, almost all of his derivatives refuse to acknowledge him as their precursor, and will side against him as much as any other life form victimized by his behavior.

Chapter Text

Horror of the Deep: EBIRAH

Titanus Polypus

Alpheus bisincisus (Red snapping shrimp)

Statistics

• Classification: Alpheidae

• Length: 328 feet/100 meters

• Height: 164 feet/50 meters

• Mass: 50,000 short tons/45,359 metric tons

• Locality: Populations of Ebirah’s kind are known from around Leitchi Isle, Monster Island, and Infant Island, with a smaller population existing off the coasts of Skull Island. Titanus Polypus himself is most frequently sighted within all of these regions, but has appeared elsewhere in the Pacific and Indian Oceans on a regular basis.

Bio

History: Titans or kaiju, chthonic beasts of the end times or primordial gods of the ancients... whatever the supergiant organisms are called, their nature as ancient life forms from a time before civilization was regarded by the scientific community as the undisputed truth. No other creatures on Earth were quite like them, after all, and the fact that their anatomy had more in common with a number of extinct groups of organisms only cemented this idea. It wouldn't be until sometime during the mid-20th century, and more specifically following Watson and Crick's analysis of the molecular structure of DNA in 1953, that scientific investigation would present a new theory: that kaiju were the result of a distinct series of mutations by an ancient family of viral pathogens. Ever since kaiju were first studied, the fact that some seemingly unrelated kaiju developed adaptations too similar to be mere coincidence had given credence to the hypothesis not only that kaiju were descended from a common ancestor that emerged very early in the history of life on Earth, but that this common ancestor also passed the ability to produce supergiant organisms down to potentially all organisms known today. While this is now known to be not exactly true, there is still at least a bit of merit to the viral agents appearing not long after organic life itself first emerged, seeing as the mutations they induce can occur in virtually any kind of life form, including adapting to the biology of any host affected by them. With all of this in mind, then, the inevitable follow-up question, which multiple factions have attempted to answer ever since this initial discovery, was thusly: How would a life form from the modern era adapt to being forcibly affected by such a mutagen? It was the environmental rights group known as Red Bamboo, in operation from around 1956 to the late 70's or so, that made the most prominent attempts at enhancing Holocene life with the family of viruses responsible for kaiju manifesting in the first place. The organization's use of Leitchi Isle, a small island off the coast of Vietnam, was initially for nuclear energy as a source of environmentally friendly power generation, but once bio-engineering came onto the scene, it didn't take Red Bamboo long to try its luck at it. Unfortunately, the aftermath of several world wars and the emergence of multiple supergiant organisms, along with international tensions caused by the Vietnam War, led to Red Bamboo resorting to more extremist methods - and, eventually, the kaiju mutagens, initially acquired for the production of better and more sustainable crops and livestock, were repurposed for the creation of deadly biological weapons. The most successful of these unholy creations, at least relatively speaking, was a population of red snapping shrimp exposed to a kind of pathogen isolated from remnants of the chrysalis Mothra had emerged from in 1961. With the reduction of the constraints posed by having to molt increasingly heavy shells on a regular basis, the shrimp grew to much greater sizes than normal, and other mutagens were introduced to grant them other adaptations to existing at such a scale. In just five years and three generations, the crustaceans had become truly colossal... and also that much more aggressive. Controlling them was as much of a challenge as preventing them from escaping into the open ocean, and the only reliable way to keep them under control was through the imported soma berries that were already being grown on Leitchi Isle by the enslaved natives along with imported laborers from the nearby Infant Island. The benefit of this was near-total security for Red Bamboo, since any attempts to enter or exit the waters surrounding the island without the organization's supervision would end in failure - and death. Things would turn around in 1966 when, after the largest and most ferocious of the mutant shrimp had once again sunk another intruding watercraft, several of its passengers managed to make it to the island and hid from Red Bamboo in its cave systems. This was where they found another, even darker secret, one even Red Bamboo itself had missed: the aestivating, mucus-swathed body of a certain colossal mutated amphibian, still recovering from his cataclysmic battle with the Golden Calamity two years prior. With all routes of escape cut off by either the mutant shrimp or the gigantic vultures also found on the island, the castaways had no choice but to awaken Godzilla to essentially clear out an escape path for them and the slaves they intended to liberate. With the aid of a lightning rod and a hijacked power generator, they managed to do so - only to attract the attention of the titan shrimp, dubbed "Ebirah" by the natives and in need of fresh meat to see him through his next molt. Godzilla had thankfully recuperated enough by this point that he was able to fend off both Ebirah's shoal and the Ookondoru flock - even a coincidental joint effort by the largest members of each group barely slowed him down, and some of the smaller ones became his first meal since he'd been literally jolted awake. But while the crippled and badly singed lead Ookondoru swiftly made itself scarce, taking the surviving members of its flock with it, Ebirah was not about to give up such a prize feeding opportunity, and as such, he and his shoal continued to ply the seas around the island and harry anyone attempting to escape into the ocean beyond, hoping Godzilla would succumb to his wounds. All for naught, though: the King of the Monsters would go on to destroy the Red Bamboo facility, causing the power plant to go into meltdown and begin to self-destruct. Familiar with crisis situations like this, the Infant Island natives called upon Mothra to oversee the evacuation of everyone the castaways had rescued, keeping Godzilla at bay as Ebirah returned to settle the score. The two sea monsters would clash one more time in their home field, Godzilla ultimately emerging victorious and sending a now pincer-less Ebirah into flight. Thankfully, there were no significant casualties, with everyone making it past the minimum safe distance before the facility erupted into a nuclear inferno and turned half the island into a smoking crater. While Red Bamboo's resources were severely crippled by this incident, the surviving members would take their research with them and eventually sell it off to other interested parties - but never again would Ebirah be of use to them. With no more soma berry juice to keep them occupied, he and his shoal would settle into the ecosystem of the South Pacific and pose few threats to human sea travel, being bottom-dwelling scavengers rather than pelagic hunters with little interest in surface life. Today, Ebirah remains a low-priority hazard for the time being, but a hazard nonetheless; areas where he has been sighted are designated as temporary "no-trespassing zones" for all water transports until confirmation is given that he has moved elsewhere. Still, being little more than a wild crustacean with only his anatomy altered to supergiant size, Ebirah himself was, and still is, content to simply live out his life in the wild, away from civilization. Personality and Combat Style: The titan known as Ebirah is, in fact, an advanced stage of growth among a whole population of the mutant crustaceans, which look identical to Titanus Polypus, albeit much tinier. Ebirah reincarnates in a protoandrous fashion, meaning that each time an "instance" of him dies, the biggest and strongest of the Ebis known, if it isn't already a male, will change its gender accordingly prior to undergrowing the needed growth spurt. Why this is the case is not clear, but it may have something to do with territorial defense, a must for a native to the hustle and bustle of a coral reef. In any case, Ebirah is a straightforward creature and not very bright, being largely predatory in nature and attacking anything that looks like either food or a threat. To be fair, though, this still makes him a ferocious opponent, relentlessly coming at assailants with murderous intent should his ire or hunger be raised and in so doing tearing through anything - or anyone - unlucky enough to be in his way. His straightforward mentality makes it easy for more tactially minded adversaries to lure him away from key areas or goad him into rushing headlong into danger, but with his hard armor and formidable weaponry, he is obviously not as easy to defeat as he is to trick. It is perhaps fortunate that his wants and needs are far more base than most other kaiju, because if his competence in both close- and long-range combat were hypothetically combined with the capablity of higher thought, he'd be nearly unstoppable. As it is, though, he remains a less significant threat than monsters with an active grudge against civilization or the planet, and the only times he has posed a threat to either have been when other parties such as Red Bamboo "employed" him for their own ends... which is a surprisingly facile task provided the proper victual incentive. Being nothing more than an oversized wild animal, though, Ebirah's behavior, as predictabile as it is most of the time, is geared solely towards either self-preservation or acquiring sustenance, and if turning on those attempting to control him is a better option to him than wiping out the intended target, he will do so without hesitation. Most countries in proximity to areas where he and his kind have taken up residence have enacted strict legal measures to prevent any exploitation of the species for this reason, and the fact that most such attempts have not ended well has only provided that much more of a reason to keep these regulations in place.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Ebirah is a typical crustacean aside from scale, but since some of his relatives are already quite powerful among creatures of similar size, the ones as big as cruise ships would seem to be titanic fortresses of chitin with pincers that can tear through the hull of a warship with ease. This... is not entirely untrue, but a number of adaptations which recalibrated his physical integrity have had to be made to exist at such a size, possible only through the viral mutagenic genomes associated with kaiju in general, so despite his sturdy defensive shell, he is not invulnerable to predation, and instances of him frequently meet their end at the teeth of much larger marine titans. Nonetheless, Ebirah is a powerful and dangerous adversary in his own right, easily able to overwhelm most military opposition and engage with other sea beasts with formidable skill. His sturdy legs have adapted to support his weight on land, so their distal segments, shaped almost like hooves, are not as useful for clinging and stabbing, but with a thrust of his tail, he can leap surprising distances to clear the gap between himself and a startled opponent, skewering them with either his elongated right pincer or his sharpened rostrum. He can either crush armor and shatter bone with a sudden snap of his massive left claw or slash and stab with his right, adjusting the use of each arm depending on the situation. Although he obviously struggles against larger, stronger foes, creatures his size or smaller are in grave danger should they be pitted against him.

• Amphibious: Like some other marine monsters, Ebirah is capable of moving about on land as comfortably as he can swim, and while he isn't as capable a burrower as other crustacean kaiju such as Ganimes, he can still tunnel through the ground with repeated shockwave blasts and hammer-like impacts from his left claw, though not at a fast pace. Regardless, he is faster in the water than on land and can swim both forwards and backwards, easily capable of short bursts of acceleration to escape from danger or close the distance with prey or opponents. With enough room to maneuver, he is even able to jump out of the water when swimming to pluck fliers from the air.

Special Abilities:

• Shockwave Snap: Like other members of the family Alpheidae, Ebirah has an impressively sized left claw, which is built like a mix of a real lobster pincer and a pistol shrimp claw. This fearsome weapon is not only capable of crushing concrete to powder but also allowing him to attack from a distance. Packed with almost unnecessarily excessive amounts of muscle, the back of the claw stores elastic energy each time the hinged section of the pincer swings backward in a certain way. A specialized protrusion near the base fits in a socket on the other half of the claw, and once the claw slams back shut, it pushes any water or air within out of the socket with enough force to create a low-pressure pocket followed by a concussive cavitating shockwave which spreads outward from the pincer and carries enough force to send cars and small boats flying and level multiple small houses at once. This can be done both above and below the water, but is more devastating in the water due to the higher density of the fluid medium involved, enabling Ebirah to blast holes in the armored hulls of warships and sink them to pick over later. Even if the blast front itself is deflected, the sonic boom generated simultaneously can rupture sensitive organs at close-range and can be heard for miles around, easily deterring anything with the sense to head in the opposite direction. Ebirah finds it difficult to use this attack in rapid succession and prefers close-range combat whenever possible, but if used correctly it can be deadly - with it he can wipe out a whole fleet of vehicles or horribly cripple a kaiju matching his size (or stun a larger one just long enough for him to counterattack or escape).

• Ebijin Shoal: Ebirah is not the only member of his kind by a long shot, and Red Bamboo's experimentation resulted in the creation of an entire species of mutant pistol shrimps of similar ilk. The main difference between them and Ebirah himself is that they're much smaller even at adult size, being "only" around the size of a school bus. Proportionally, this means they have less potent shockwave blasts and can't take on kaiju-scale threats as effectively, but against human-scale prey or enemies they are adversaries to be reckoned with - the shockwaves they produce hit like shotgun blasts and can be fired en masse when the shoal amasses on a hunting run. Like many other crustaceans, the telomerase present even in adult tissues enables them to recycle their genetic code and prevents them from weakening with age and enables them to reach impressive sizes aided by their altered exoskeletons, but exhaustion from molting takes its toll on them nonetheless and those that don't succumb to one shell shedding too many will very frequently get picked off by any predators looking to prevent them from becoming too much of a threat, which is compensated for by their relatively high fertility rate as creatures affected by kaiju mutagens go.

Weaknesses:

• Weak Armor: A disadvantage of Ebirah's adaptations to lightening his exoskeleton is that since it isn't solid, it isn't as durable. As sturdy as it is generally, any impact capable of bruising the hide of a similarly sized vertebrate kaiju can cause it to shatter like sugar glass. Piercing damage is best dealt towards the joints between his armor plates or vulnerable places like the eyes and mouth, but a large-enough sharp object with enough force behind it can still puncture his shell without too much trouble. It's also easy to remove his limbs - and many opponents aim to do exactly this - but like other crustaceans, this is only a temporary measure. That said, any damage dealt to him can only be restored after he's replaced his exoskeleton completely (see below).

• Shell Replacement: Like other crustaceans, Ebirah needs to cast off his shell every so often so a new one will grow. This is a long, difficult process which can last at least a week, during which he won't be able to feed or defend himself until his exoskeleton grows back. Before and after this period, he has to hunt and feed at above-average capacity, which can make him reckless and desperate when available sustenance is at stake, causing problems for sea-reliant nations and marine kaiju alike. He is most dangerous before he molts because he still has his durable armor, but is so driven by his need to find food that he may even attack much larger creatures; once he has broken free of the old shell, he is still not to be trifled with, but somewhat easier to fend off or overwhelm, as he cannot rely on any of his usual strengths in combat until his armor hardens again.

• Violently Territorial: Ebirah has the same mental capacity as a typical crustacean despite his greatly increased size and neuron count, so he largely relies on instinct to get by. About the only difference is that as a result of Red Bamboo's experimentation, he has become considerably more high-strung and prone to lashing out savagely. Anything entering his turf can expect to find themselves subject to a ferocious assault, and he makes no exceptions because due to his behavior being almost entirely unchanged, he is not one to make alliances or even symbiotic relations with other species. A more intelligent opponent can easily exploit this fact along with his behavior being entirely predictable based on observations of other similar creatures, and he has met many a demise by charging straight into a fight he can't win or stumbling into inescapable traps or hazards.

• Memory-Free Rebirth: Unlike some other reincarnation-capable kaiju which can transfer their consciousness to a new body each time they pass on, each time Ebirah is killed, a completely new version of him grows from the strongest Ebijin without any procedure for getting his prior memories back. Since his memories aren't retained as such, he does not retain experiences from his past "lives", which does him no favors when it comes to learning by experience. He has been known to fail to recognize threats that should be blatantly obvious to anyone who's encountered them prior, "forget" the strategies and abilities of opponents who fought him at least once in the past, and repeat mistakes which have proven fatal several times before.

NEXT: SCOURGE OF SOLGELL ISLAND

Chapter Text

Scourge of Solgell Island: KAMACURAS

Titanus Kamikiri

Hierodula membranacea (Giant Asian mantis)

Statistics

• Classification: Mantidae (Hierodulinae)

• Length: 328 feet/100 meters

• Height: 164 feet/50 meters

• Mass: 50,000 short tons/45,359 metric tons

• Locality: Cosmopolitan, but her main territory encompasses Leitchi and Solgell Islands off the coast of Vietnam.

Bio

History:
The weaponization of the viral agents responsible for organisms mutating into kaiju was a hotly debated topic in the 50's and 60's, almost as much as nuclear power; the most important question was whether or not it would be ethical to subject any organic life to such drastic changes, although a close second was how the outcomes could be controlled... assuming they could survive the mutation in the first place. Among the organizations that were more concerned with the latter rather than the former was Red Bamboo, and it had already been demonstrated that while the outcomes of its experiments with arthropods and the mutagens isolated from Mothra's silken castoffs were far from unviable, keeping Ebirah from obliterating his own creators was a different matter entirely. It would be only later, however, that two other previous experiments in a similar vein, by the same group, would come to light, and be revealed to have been even less successful...

Solgell Island, 1967. Just a year after Godzilla wiped out the Red Bamboo facility on the nearby Leitchi Island, unusual weather patterns were reported within the vicinity of this particular archipelago. Solgell Island itself had at some point been used as another Red Bamboo base but, for some reason, had to be abandoned; it would be this island that would host a Monarch-funded experimental weather control station intended to keep the unusual storm system in check until its cause could be determined. Efforts to construct the station itself, however, encountered a setback apart from the weather itself. Lurid tales of praying mantises the size of horses began coming in, prompting intervention by Monarch. A team of Monarch naturalists were thus sent to the island with the intent of piecing together what exactly had led to the mantises appearing. While they were less than successful in trying to catch a live specimen, they did manage to retrieve the remains of one of the few "Gimantids" that security forces had actually managed to dispatch (though not before it had put up quite a fight and claimed several lives). There was certainly enough evidence from studies on the genetic code and microbiota of the body in question to prove the involvement of Red Bamboo, but the Solgell facility hadn't been used in years, while the Gimantid swarm hadn't started its rampage until after the Leitchi Island facility's destruction. What had happened back there? And why were the mantids now particularly fixated on one specific cave at the heart of Solgell Island?

The answer to one of these questions would be revealed when Leitchi Island itself was investigated, leading to the discovery of a massive horde of Gimantids, led by three especially titanic specimens which, presumably, would have fought each other to the death for supremacy had they not been intruded upon, prompting them to pursue the naturalists back to Solgell Island. Apparently, it hadn't been just shrimp that Red Bamboo had experimented with, although the extreme aggression of the creatures had resulted in the need for a far more secure means of containment than mere soma berry juice. The nuclear explosion that had destroyed the Leitchi Island facility had not only freed the swarm, but mutated several of them even further, and now the swarm was invading Solgell Island as well. For a certain other creature whose egg had also just been discovered within the cave, this couldn't have been a worse time to hatch...

Surrounded by unfamiliar creatures pouring into the cave with the intent of ripping it to shreds, the bus-sized tadpole could only scream in confusion and absolute terror, its cries echoing far beyond the underground pool it had spawned in. But its distress call was heard, and a much larger member of its kind answered: Godzilla's vigil in the waters around the archipelago, sensing a familiar presence here, had not been fruitless after all. Arriving ashore and seeing the Gimantid swarm on the move, he quickly realized what was about to happen and immediately went on the warpath, smashing through everything in his way - including the facility - to reach the panicked infant. Every Gimantid unlucky enough to be in his sights was either incinerated or squashed to a pulp, but he might have already been too late - so large was the swarm that only some of the Gimantids could enter the cave, so they had to drag the now grievously wounded but still viciously fighting "mini-Godzilla" back out through the entrance to finish the job. They didn't get the chance to do so before an enraged Godzilla came charging in, wiping out the massive mutant mantids in entire droves before the three biggest ones sprang into action. The fight was brief but brutal, two of the titans giving their lives to stall him while the third one tried to make off with her prize, but ultimately the swarm's efforts would be in vain. Forcing the swarm into retreat, Godzilla scooped up the hatchling in his mouth with unexpected gentleness for a bringer of destruction, daring not to hurt it further as he carried it to safety.

Now led by just one alpha, Kamacuras herself, the Gimantid swarm was now far smaller than before with more than half its members lost, but there were still enough of them to pose a threat to all concerned, and the swarm would continue to menace much of the Southeast Asian locale for ages to come - and still does in the present day. As for both Godzilla and Monarch, they were forced to keep constant vigil in case she decided to try another attempt. So focused were both parties on Kamacuras, however, that up until the very last moment, they completely missed another grave threat lurking within the jungles of Solgell Island...

Personality and Combat Style:
Kamacuras is a stealthy, patient, cruel, and intelligent hunter. She will tail her prey for hours or even days at a time, toying with and driving it into a state of irrational terror before striking. That said, she has little interest in people because they don't nourish her the way megafaunal creatures do. When it comes to fighting other monsters she can be a bit of a sadist, reveling in causing pain and suffering and drawing out fights as much as possible so she can torment her foes even further. She is not one to hold grudges, though, and can be persuaded into working against certain targets that would otherwise be bigger threats, as long as she gets a petty thrill out of maiming them; however, she will retreat or even refuse to fight entirely if she feels it isn't worth her time. While commonly accompanied by the rest of the Gimantids, which regard her as a sort of ruler and are willing to defend her in battle, she is not actually attached to them, recognizing them as kin solely by taxonomy - she will allow them to feed off the scraps of her kills and may set them upon a particularly stubborn foe, but that's about as far as her care for them goes. Contrary to popular belief, however, she does not habitually eat her own kin, only doing so if she needs sustenance for healing immediately but no other prey is within her reach, or if the Gimantid population becomes too great to remain sustainable.

Her and her swarm's relationship with other kaiju is a somewhat rocky one. The Gimantids themselves are considered prey by almost every other kaiju both aware of their existence and capable of feeding on animal matter, since they are considered unnatural and invasive which necessitates extermination with extreme prejudice if they are found anywhere they aren't welcome... which is anywhere beyond the Leitchi and Solgell Islands, which are small enough that the swarm can't sustain itself with their resources alone and has to emigrate to find more. Kamacuras herself is vaguely aware of this issue and is currently in search of a new territory, but almost all other locales are currently occupied and few other kaiju want anything more to do with her than they do with her swarm. Around half her encounters with another titan has forced her into immediate retreat, but she is equally likely to rush the other monster out of hunger and do battle with them with varying degrees of success. While most other kaiju are understandably put off by Kamacuras' mere presence, however, surprisingly few outright despise her, and most actually pity her instead; simply put, the fact that the swarm was forcibly mutated is no longer a secret. Some of the more idealistic guardians of the natural world such as Mothra even hope that with enough time to adjust to their new condition, the swarm might be able to settle into a more balanced role in the global ecosystem, even if it's still too early to say for certain.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Like other mantises, Kamacuras is primarily an ambush hunter, but she is also capable of moving swiftly when she needs to, and as with other arthropods affected by kaiju mutagens, her anatomy has adapted to living at a larger size, affording her greater strength and durability - and despite appearances, she's one of the most powerful insectoid kaiju known. In her final form, her spiny exoskeleton, while honeycombed, is as tough as that of Ebirah, allowing her to soldier through enemy fire with barely a scratch on her. Her principal weapons are her raptorial forelimbs, able to strike with impressive speeds and plunge their saw-like barbs into struggling prey as she rips into the still-living body with her shearing mandibles. Aside from trapping prey, however, they have also been modified for use as melee implements, slashing and stabbing like serrated sword blades and inflicting terrible wounds. Her other limbs are also heavily muscled to support her weight, but also allow her to leap impressive distances for taking flight or closing the distance between herself and her prey. Despite her sheer brute strength, though, her low endurance means she's ill-suited to pursuit hunting, preferring to use her bursts of speed as either a means of escape or to lunge at victims close enough to guarantee a successful strike.

• Flight: Unlike regular mantises, Kamacuras is flight-capable despite being female, which was presumably invoked by Red Bamboo to enable her to transport herself to and from key locations more easily and while attracting less attention. While not able to reach supersonic speeds like other more specialized fliers, she is still swift and agile when airborne, easily performing loops and rolls to throw off pursuers or line herself up to strike back. Although diurnal, like many nocturnal mantises, she has a hearing organ in her abdomen, repurposed from sensing the echolocation of bats into a general-purpose air current detector - even at top speed she can still calibrate the movement of the air around her with impressive precision, allowing Kamacuras to not only adjust her flight movement to avoid losing control but also determine if an enemy flier is nearby, whether or not it's coming for her, and how large it is relative to her, giving her plenty of time to prepare for a potential confrontation or to dive for cover if the risk of one is too high.

• Mantis Vision: The massive compound eyes taking up most of Kamacuras' face easily give away her primary means of tracking her environment, and also explain why she is primarily diurnal. Her sense of vision is acute enough that even at her full size she can still sense animals as small as humans moving through forest cover, and spot a potential prey item from several miles away even while flying. She is additionally aided by the fact that mantises, the animal group she is derived from, are the only insects with stereoscopic vision, the better to judge how close a victim is - she can accurately determine not only the distance between herself and her prey but also predict their movement with enough accuracy to strike just ahead of it, intercepting it even in mid-air. Her sense of sight is somewhat reduced when flying, however, since the world around her moves too quickly for her brain to process, but her antennae and abdominal hearing organ make up for this to some extent; still, she prefers to land before attacking because it's when she isn't moving that her sense of sight is most effective. She still has to rely on environmental light, however, and when active at night she has been known to be attracted to the artificial lights of vehicles and cities.

Special Abilities:

• Camouflage: Unlike her bretheren, Kamacuras is unable to change her coloration and body texture once she has developed into her titan size, remaining the same as the form she had before her growth spurt. Her default color scheme is light red for a tropical habitat but instances of her can also be either mottled green or a pale brownish grey. Her means of getting around this is an interesting one: when stimulated, special crystallized cells on the surface of her exoskeleton, covering it in a manner akin to reptile scales, become raised and mobile, able to reflect light in such a way that she can mirror the environment around her. This allows her to all but turn invisible and while this mechanism isn't perfect, she can still conceal herself as long as she hold still. As an ambush hunter who usually only needs to move quickly once her victims are within striking distance, this skill can come in extremely handy, although it cannot be used when she is already moving, meaning she still has to find a vantage point such as a high ledge or a patch of dense vegetation before going into stealth mode.

• Metamorphic Rebirth: Like Ebirah, Kamacuras is capable of reappearing even after death. As long as Gimantid populations are available, each time she is killed, the largest of the swarm will experience a growth spurt to become a new "instance" of her. She is protogynous, being always female, and if no females are available, the biggest male will change gender before growing. As detailed below, however, Kamacuras differs from other kaiju that reincarnate in this way in that she can "retrieve" memories of her past life if doing so is feasible...

• Memory Absorption: While not as perfect as Mothra, and not without flaws of its own, Kamacuras' reincarnation is capable of retaining memories from her previous "life" across multiple instances of her existence, aiding in the process of learning over many generations. In the event of her "rebirth", the nearest female Gimantid (or any local male if no females are capable of reaching her) will be compelled to find and eat the body starting with the nervous system, growing to kaiju-size via repeated moltings and absorbing her consciousness as a result of the feeding (and changing gender as needed). The process of this memory absorption is currently unknown to science, but what is known is that any morph of Gimantid will be locked into Kamacuras' color scheme and ornamentation permanently after transforming. This memory retaining also extends outside of her own kin: if she eats the brain or nervous tissue of a slain kaiju, she will be able to recall the memories of the creature’s life, allowing her to anticipate and strategize against any opponent her prey fought before it was killed. She also seems to exhibit slight physical alterations based on traits of her deceased meal (a sturdier exoskeleton if her foe was heavily armored, for instance), though these may recede with age, be supplanted by new ones, or disappear entirely following her next molting.

Weaknesses:

• A Wrestler, Not A Chaser: Like other mantids, Kamacuras is primarily an ambush predator who can bring down prey with a single incredibly deadly grappling move, but has to get within striking distance of her victim to use it in the first place. Simply put, if she isn't able to reach or catch up to an opponent, she can't hurt them. Her lack of projectile attacks and inability to move quickly for long periods without burning herself out makes it easy for other kaiju to outpace her even when flying, and her pounce attack is predictable enough if she's out in the open that it can be avoided by a nimble-enough foe. False confidence around her is its own downfall, however - this deadly mantis is as persistent as she is perceptive, and if her target remains within her territory for long, they will inevitably be found and attacked, be it by her swarm or by Kamacuras herself.

• Delicate When Young: With a relatively slender frame, the average Gimantid is not especially suited for prolonged periods of melee combat, and until the queen of the swarm can reach her fully grown final form, she is no exception. Many instances of Kamacuras have met their fate before they could mature by being smashed, torn apart, or outright disintegrated by monsters even slightly bigger than herself. Her core strategy against equally sized opponents is to strike before they can get the chance to put up resistance for a reason, and the obvious downside is that she has no choice but to back off if the element of surprise is lost. This mentality applies regardless of her power level, but once she does manage to reach her strongest stage in life, she becomes a deceptively sturdy and frighteningly brutal grappler, capable of bringing down victims as big as herself if she can ambush them successfully.

• Memory Erasure: Kamacuras' memory absorption ability has one major flaw: she can't tap into what she can't eat. If no nervous tissue from her previous incarnation can be recovered - such as if the body is completely destroyed - she won't be able to obtain the memories of it and will therefore have to start learning all over again, almost entirely from scratch. This is why she is instinctively driven to get as far away from any source of conflict as possible if she senses she's too far gone to recover from an injured state, although there have been times where she couldn't get the chance. Isolating and obliterating her corpse is the most common follow-up to her invasion of a major city or other key location, partly to prevent attracting the other Gimantids and partly to keep her from remembering the site in question and returning to make another attempt at subjugating it.

• Predatory Aggression: Kamacuras is primarily instinct-driven and, while highly intelligent as insects go, she has no significant need for higher thought. As such, her response to the unfamiliar is almost always violent, and she will often attempt to eat anyone she doesn't recognize from prior scrapes as too much for her to handle. This makes most other monsters wary around her, and smaller monsters will outright flee from her, the better to avoid a gruesome fate should she get hungry. Even her own kind aren't safe because she will stoop to cannibalism if the swarm becomes too large, though she doesn't indulge in it as some have claimed. Like Ebirah, she is at her worst, and hungriest, when about to molt, because she won't feed throughout the three-to-five-day-long process and will therefore be under the instinctive pressure to stuff her face well in advance.

**********

Gimantid (Hierodula membranacea kamacuras)

• Adult length: 8.2 feet/2.5 meters

• Adult height: 6.6 feet/2 meters

• Adult weight: 1,000 lbs/453.6 kgs

• Classification: Mantidae (Hierodulinae)

Kamacuras' base organism is the Gimantid (sometimes called Gimantises, singular Gimantis), a type of oversized predatory insect which was presumably bio-engineered to exist comfortably at a larger size than their ancestral stock. Both genders of Gimantid are flight-capable and agile enough to escape larger threats, though they're mostly active on the ground to conserve energy and prefer to capture their prey using sudden leaps. Their anatomy and behavior is almost identical to typical mantises but, as with Kamacuras herself, they exhibit adaptations for a larger size: much thicker, sturdier legs held straighter below the body with larger feet and tarsal claws to support their weight, a relatively lightweight exoskeleton with a honeycombed interior, and even a bellows-like "lung" in the abdomen connected to the tracheae for active breathing. Regardless, these stealthy predators are masters of ambush, applying their stalking and killing prowess to much larger prey ranging from several species of eagle-sized fruit flies and hornets to deer, raptors, and any human explorers unlucky enough to stumble upon them. Like other tropical mantises, they can breed throughout the year as long as prey is available, and females are also prone to cannibalizing their mates for extra nutrition during egg-laying, although over 80% of males escape the first attempt when in the wild.

The colors and patterns of Gimantid populations vary considerably depending on the biome they live and hunt in, with gray and brown ones for rocky terrain, mottled green ones for thick jungle vegetation, brightly colored ornate ones for groves of giant flowers, and so on. The thorns, spikes, protrusions, and even wing patterns that Gimantids use for camouflage or display vary between individuals, each being suited for camouflaging in a specific area they claim as their territory. If displaced by competitors, predators, or understandably annoyed military regiments, they can resorb old features and grow new ones within days of resettling, changing color as well to match their new habitat.

While Kamacuras herself can appear anywhere in the world, she and the largest known Gimantis population are endemic to Solgell Island off the coast of Vietnam. Smaller Gimantis populations are also known from Leitchi Island and Infant Island, and a steadily growing population was also introduced to Monster Island by accident following the 1968 Kilaak invasion. Strict legal measures have prevented any specimens from being transported anywhere else without Monarch supervision - any stray Gimantises, eggs, or nymphs that are either (somehow) illegally smuggled to the mainland or migrate there on their own are to be killed/destroyed on sight.

NEXT: THE SOLGELL STALKER

Chapter Text

The Solgell Stalker: KUMONGA

Titanus Tsuchigumo

Scytodes thoracica

Statistics

• Classification: Araneae (Scytodidae)

• Length: 426.5 feet/130 meters

• Height: 196 feet/60 meters

• Leg-Span: 689 feet/210 meters

• Mass: 33,069 short tons/30,000 metric tons

• Locality: Current lairs include one on Monster Island and one on Solgell Island off the coast of Vietnam, although she has ventured onto mainland Southeast Asia in search of suitable prey multiple times since her first emergence.

Bio

History:
Ever since the discovery of the viral agents that caused organisms to mutate into kaiju not long after the first appearance of Godzilla and other such titans, various organizations had attempted to weaponize it as a bio-weapon. Red Bamboo was one of the more notable cases, initially starting off as one of the earliest cases of bio-engineering for more sustainable organic resources. The Vietnam War and other local crises however caused them to turn to weaponry instead and, with only the offerings of the highest bidder governing their motivations, the most prominent members of this organization soon became classed as international terrorists. That said, their actions would have been far more notorious if they or the factions they sold their wares to could actually control their savage creations, which they... couldn't. At least not quite. One particular species exemplified this fact more than any, one that would haunt the islands they used as a testing ground for decades to come.

The most famous experiments credited to Red Bamboo, conducted in the late 50's and early 60's, involved arthropods and, as had been previously observed, both crustaceans and insects had been successfully enhanced, with the initial intent of increased meat production for a more nutritious alternative to mammalian livestock - only for them to be repurposed as beasts of war, at least in theory. With an increase in size came a more aggressive nature and while Ebirah was manageable, Kamacuras and her Gimantids had to be confined until a means of keeping them from murdering everyone who so much as breathed in their direction could be devised... a goal which would never be achieved because of Godzilla's interference. There was, however, one other arthropod group that the mutagens had been used on. What would happen if chelicerates, the group including arachnids, were exposed to them? Crustaceans and insects were much more closely related to each other than to the subphylum Chelicerata, so it was predicted that arachnids would react differently to the mutagen. While there were massive growth spurts observed in the insects and crustaceans used as test subjects, initial tests on arachnids were inconclusive. There were, in fact, no effects at all, at least on the outset. These experiments were deemed failures as a result and the specimens were intended to be destroyed, but one collection of Scytodes thoracica used in the experiments had been displaced somehow. This would go ignored for a while until, a few years later, a rash of mysterious disappearances began plaguing the Solgell Island facility. Further investigation would lead to a horrific discovery, and after multiple unsuccessful attempts to contain the culprit, the facility had to be abandoned and all its inhabitants and specimens evacuated and transferred to Leitchi Isle. Solgell Island would remain uninhabitable for several years more, until 1967...

Observations of both the weather station being constructed on the island and the experimental wildlife now inhabiting it were turning up a number of interesting results. Most groundbreaking was the revelation Godzilla was not the sole specimen of his kind, and at first there were concerns that a whole population of the species would eventually arise, but as it was, only Godzilla and the "mini-Godzilla", or Minilla, were currently known. Rescuing Minilla from the Gimantid swarm had awakened something within the King of the Monsters, and now he was determined to protect this younger specimen despite not knowing or caring whether they were truly related. Under his protection, Minilla recovered from the injuries he had sustained from the Gimantid assault and grew quickly, sustaining himself off Godzilla's excess radiation and eventually growing big enough to hunt the Gimantids as prey. A few weeks and Minilla was about a third of the size of his surrogate parent, and his life seemed to be taking a turn for the more peaceful. But then one day, during one of his hunts, he stumbled upon a vast, grisly display of silken threads and hanging bones and corpses throughout whole acres of jungle, unseen by the Monarch team but unmistakable from an aerial or kaiju-eye view. It was here that he encountered a strange new creature... a bug with eight legs, not six.

The new scuttling thing was swiftly dispatched, but as he made off with the body, more of its kind followed. The swarm of giant spiders, which would go on to be dubbed "Spigas", was now aware of the presence of Minilla and once they discovered the scientists investigating the island, the battle was on once more. Evidently, the experiment that had led to Red Bamboo's departure from this island had not been terminated after all. With the body count rising, it was decided that the weather station would have to be set to summon a winter storm, even if it posed a risk to the wildlife there which was adapted to a tropical climate - but with the Spigas wreaking havoc at an increasing rate, there were no other options. Meanwhile, Godzilla sensed danger upon discovering the swarm, moving to protect his adopted son and starting to school Minilla on the art of life-and-death combat in the process. But there was worse to come.

Emerging from the jungle with poison dripping from her vicious chelicerae, the very largest of the Spigas had only one goal in mind: the death of the child that had assaulted her brood. The eight-legged horror had been plying the island's depths for a long time and had been waiting for suitable prey to discover her, but Minilla had wandered back out of her reach as quickly as he had entered it, and she was not about to let him escape. It wasn't long before a panicked Minilla wandered off once more, and one harrowing chase into the central mountains of the island later, she had cornered him and the surviving Monarch personnel. Before she could make the final strike, however, a tremendous screeching roar rattled the very ground itself, and Godzilla descended upon the beast that would come to be called "Kumonga" in a berserk fury, obliterating any Spiga that tried to intervene. The battle was nothing short of awe-inspiring, Kumonga managing to give Godzilla a surprisingly good fight despite being outgunned and, once Minilla managed to join the fray, outnumbered as well. Eventually, though, she was left upside-down, legs curled inward, and with her carapace charred to a crisp - still alive, but barely, and much too crippled to do anything further. As the Monarch crew escaped, the weather device summoned the snowfall as planned, trapping the Spiga colony on the mountain peaks and forcing Godzilla and his adopted son to hibernate until the next summer thaw. With no hope left of recovery, Kumonga relayed a final silent request to her brood, to make use of her body and her memories before heading underground once more to rebuild anew. And as her life slipped away, she knew but one thing: Minilla was not to be harmed, on pain of death.

It would be another year before a new Kumonga emerged, reconstituted in the body of the strongest female of what was left of the Spiga colony. But the macabre craftsmanship she had left behind would attract less than welcome attention again just a year later. And it was through this series of events that she would discover that there was a world beyond her island home... and a whole smorgasboard of new prey to go with it.

Personality and Combat Style:
Kumonga is a quiet, patient assassin who communicates little and prefers to think only of her next hunt. She is a largely self-interested arachnid, but is not above cooperation as long as it means she can feed on other kaiju; considering that most instances that require her aid lead to at least one dead body to make use of, this is a fair investment for the Solgell Stalker. Having no moral priorities, it's easy to think of her as being simple-minded, but she is far more cunning than she seems. She can memorize the environment around her and remember details for long periods of time, allowing her to set traps, plan ambushes, or lure other less attentive opponents into hazardous situations. Even hostage situations have been employed more than once so she can get what she wants, and she is not above threatening defenseless creatures like juvenile monsters or civilian crowds if it means gaining leverage. Few other monsters will actively seek her out unless left without any choice, most life forms give her and her "brood" a wide berth, and even Monarch knows that placating her is best for everyone (usually with mortally wounded hostile kaiju left near her lair every once in a while), since she has no interest in entertaining grudges and can be trusted to stay put as long as she has a regular food source available.

As amoral as she is, however, Kumonga can also be considered quite affable when not motivated by hunger. She does not actively seek to maim others unreasonably, preferring to simply lounge beneath suitable cover and observe the goings on around her and interact in a curious fashion with things she finds interesting. One particular quirk of the titanic spitterspider is that she has frequently been observed making unexpectedly artistic usage of her silk and/or other things around her, although she usually responds harshly to being caught doing so, almost as though embarrassed at having been seen like this. Regardless, artfully arranged landmarks and even prey remains carefully organized to invoke as ominous an atmosphere as possible are a sure sign of her presence, and in particular, silken webs with mutilated, dessicated corpses strung up in them and posed in the goriest and least flattering ways possible are frequently left as a sort of "calling card" when she has been involved in a major incident, and many such displays can be seen near the entrance to her den. It used to be thought that her decorating her lair the way she does is for the sake of camouflaging herself and her dens from other threats, and her stealth-based approach to combat lends credence to this idea, but it is more likely that the "threatening aura" of her territorial aesthetic along with her macabre handiwork left after slaying and feeding on other kaiju is meant to warn potential competitors of her presence and hopefully scare them away. The fact that she can afford to set up such obviously menacing decor and still hunt successfully is a testament to how much of a threat she can be if sufficiently motivated - and both Monarch and most other kaiju are grateful that she usually isn't.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Kumonga is exactly as one would expect of a gigantic spider: stealthy, patient, silent, and savage. Her eight legs are not useful for a fast pursuit, but she doesn't need to be quick when she has certain insidious tricks up her figurative sleeve. Once she's closed the distance with prey she has immobilized using her silken threads (see below), she will bring her legs into play, using both her hook-like tarsal claws and the spear-like protrusions from the tibias (the fourth from the last segment of each leg) to puncture, hook, and tear through the hide of her victim, even working her way into gaps between armor plates to literally peel them off and shaving off hide and feathers to find the most vulnerable place to deliver the killing bite. The legs themselves are heavily muscled (more like a crustacean than a normal arachnid) to help support her weight at such a massive size, capable of delivering stabbing kicks with their tibia blades with enough force to punch through sheet metal and pierce the bones of enemy kaiju, and the same is true of her fangs which can swing downward like pickaxes to impale anything directly under them. She will sometimes finish off an opponent by piercing a fang or appendage through the eye or ear and into the brain without even waiting for her venom to kick in. She is also unlike any other spider in that instead of a simple hole to serve as a mouth, she has a retractable, needle-pointed proboscis, closest to those of sea spiders (Pycnogonida) which she uses to inject digestive enzymes directly into prey, the better to avoid wasting them while feeding; at close range it is capable of lancing exposed skin almost as effectively as the fangs themselves. On the defensive front, Kumonga's exoskeleton, while honeycombed like those of other giant arthropods, is strong enough to withstand impacts on par with most physical kaiju attacks, and is almost as durable as that of Ebirah. While not quite as resistant to damage as other armored monsters, she is still capable of soldiering through most assaults without too much trouble, though she prefers to remain undercover most of the time, plying her way around the current conflict and searching for the perfect opportunity to launch a single decisive strike.

• Sensory Bristles: Like other spiders, Kumonga seems to be covered in "hair". In actuality, the bristles on her exoskeleton are in fact sensory implements known as setae and are more akin to whiskers, being able to detect vibrations in the ground or air around her. Their sensitivity is enough that she can keep track of regular-sized birds flying around near her or determine the location of a car traveling up to half a mile away (or a kaiju from a much greater distance). When using the silken threads she lays throughout her territory to track whatever touches them, she can pick up disturbances from even further still. While not as prone to higher thinking as some other kaiju, Kumonga is intelligent enough to distinguish the movement and even the rough shape of others around her based solely on the patterns of the air currents or ground vibrations they give off, and she can recgonize whether or not any titan in her vicinity is worth hunting or should be avoided, as well as being able to recognize her Spiga swarm and the activities of all of its members within sensing range of her at any given time. She's even able to relay communications through the ground to the rest of her "brood" by either rhythmically tapping the ground with her claws in a manner not unlike Morse code or stridulating (vibrating) certain longer setae on her abdomen to produce subtle vibrations in the air, enabling her to loosely command her swarm in a manner akin to a pop-culture "spider queen". In general, the range of her vibration sense without her silk being involved has a radius of roughly two miles, though especially loud or tumultuous disturbances have caught her attention from ranges much further than this.

Special Abilities:

• Venomous Silk Spray: Kumonga's base organism is a member of the spitting spider family, which capture prey by spraying a fluid that congeals on contact into a venomous, sticky "net". This insidious fluid contains both venom and silk proteins in liquid form, though it is produced in the titanic venom glands housed behind and channeled through her chelicerae. Kumonga's spray is an effective hunting tool whether it is injected directly into the body or sprayed from a distance - and her size means she is capable of both producing astounding high volumes of the substance and firing it over a range of up to ten times her leg-span. The venom itself is similar in nature to that of the infamous brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa), containing lethal amounts of sphingomyelinase D, said to induce horrific skin necrosis even in normal brown recluse bites. While accounts of normal recluse bites inducing this phenomenon are largely apocryphal and the majority of such cases have been determined to instead be from skin infections from a variety of sources irrelevant to the bite itself - if there was a bite at all - the sting of Kumonga's fangs is on a completely different league in that this elixir of death is usually delivered in doses of several dozen gallons. With or without other foreign pathogens playing further merry havoc on the bite wound itself, the effect is devastating in its own right, leading to agonizing rotting ulcers, festering blisters, and accelerated epidermal decay around said wound, followed by soft tissue destruction and potentially fatal organ failure if left untreated. This bio-weapon is of course useless without entering the bloodstream, and one would think that infusing her silk with it wouldn't make it any more effective, but her spray carries an even deadlier secret. Whereas most spiders secrete the digestive enzymes to break down captured prey solely through their microscopic, nigh-invisible mouth orifice just below their fang palps, Kumonga is also capable of producing them from her venom-silk glands as well. The result is a horrifically caustic, viscous, double-barreled glue-trap capable of melting through exposed kaiju hide and even weakening natural armor to give her venom more leeway to bypass the skin... to say nothing of what the enzymes themselves can do to any flesh they attack. Kaiju with above-average regeneration abilities can power through the effects of the venom with some difficulty but it usually takes several days to recover and even if the venom itself is ineffective, the tissue damage caused by the enzymes can be just as bad. Kumonga is able to fire off a full blast of the spray only once every half an hour, but can do so for a minute straight each time, and usually unleashes much shorter bursts to conserve her venom; she can usually feed enough to make up for the lost nutrition once she's successfully captured a meal, but in the event of failure in doing so, she will consume the silk left behind to recycle the nutrients and venom used to create it.

• Structural Silk: The spinnerets on the other end of Titanus Tsuchigumo produce regular, non-venomous silk, and are used primarily for nest-building and the creation of sensory cables like tripwires left throughout her territory to keep track of anything that passes through; only small amounts of the envenomed silk are involved and are usually more prevalent the closer one gets to the lair proper. The rest of the silk is of the standard varieties, however: the two most common is the major-ampullate (dragline) and cylindriform silks, incredibly strong lattices of protein chains stronger than steel cables of the same diameter, used either for structural purposes such as weaving a suitable nesting chamber for her Spiga bretheren, constructing protective wear for herself like water respiration bubbles for sea travel or insulating "cold-weather wear", or as the aforementioned tripwires spanning much of the rest of her territory - she has more than once even constructed "rafts" using this kind of silk and buoyant debris to make her way by sea to mainland Asia. The third most common variety is the classic adhesive trapping (flagelliform) silk, although the sheer size of the cables means the binding agent involved has to cover the entire strand rather than accumulating in the form of beads along its length, the whole strand resembling a giant, extra-long spring to withstand the impact of large prey slamming into it at speed. The toughest kind, aciniform silk, is used to bind captured prey, being twice as strong as even the dragline silk, and it is no accident that the protein structures of this variety are the same kinds found in the venom glands. Kumonga's spinnerets are not capable of ejecting her silk as forcefully as her fangs, and more often she will stick the free end of each thread on a surface and then "spin" it outward via her own movement, but she can produce much more abdominal silk than venom over the same time period. Her webs and nets have been known to stretch for at least several miles beyond the nest itself, and it's possible that in the years since Red Bamboo left her to her fate, she has built enough of them to potentially encompass, and therefore keep track of, the entirety of Solgell Island.

• Metamorphic Rebirth: Like Ebirah and Kamacuras, Kumonga is capable of reappearing even after death. As long as Spiga populations are available, each time she is killed, the largest of the colony will experience a growth spurt to become a new "instance" of her. She is protogynous, being always female, and if no females are available, the biggest male will change gender before growing. Like Kamacuras, but unlike Ebirah, Kumonga is able to retain memories of her previous life using the below ability, passing her knowledge and identity down from one instance of herself to the next.

• Memory Absorption: While not as perfect as Mothra, and not without flaws of its own, Kumonga's reincarnation is capable of retaining memories from her previous "life" across multiple instances of her existence, aiding in the process of learning over many generations. In the event of her "rebirth", the nearest female Spiga (or any local male if no females are capable of reaching her) will be compelled to find and eat the body starting with the nervous system, growing to kaiju-size via repeated moltings and absorbing her consciousness as a result of the feeding (and changing gender as needed). This memory retaining also extends outside of her own kin: if she eats the brain or nervous tissue of a slain kaiju, she will be able to recall the memories of the creature’s life, allowing her to anticipate and strategize against any opponent her prey fought before it was killed. She also seems to exhibit slight physical alterations based on traits of her deceased meal (a sturdier exoskeleton if her foe was heavily armored, for instance), though these may recede with age, be supplanted by new ones, or disappear entirely following her next molting.

Weaknesses:

• Slow: Kumonga is a heavy-bodied, relatively slow-moving creature who can only move her entire body weight in short bursts, preferring to slowly stalk her victims. This means that she has to make sure she completely immobilizes her prey before closing in for the kill, ensuring that resistance is minimal. As formidable as her ranged weaponry and trapping abilities can be, a straight fight is not something she can expect to win unless she has a clear size advantage. If she recognizes that a potential victim is too much for her, she always opts to leave without even bothering to draw its attention.

• Memory Erasure: Kumonga's memory absorption ability has one major flaw: she can't tap into what she can't eat. If no nervous tissue from her previous incarnation can be recovered - such as if the body is completely destroyed - she won't be able to obtain the memories of it and will therefore have to start learning all over again, almost entirely from scratch. This is why she is instinctively driven to get as far away from any source of conflict as possible if she senses she's too far gone to recover from an injured state, although there have been times where she couldn't get the chance. As with Kamacuras, obliterating her corpse after killing her is the most common follow-up to her invasion of a major city or other key location to prevent her from remembering it and returning for a second attempt.

• Molting Season: Being an arthropod, Kumonga faces the same difficulty as with Ebirah and Kamacuras in that every so often, she needs to replace her exoskeleton, and will not be able to use her most effective weaponry until it re-hardens. She will not be able to feed herself between the start of her molt and the hardening of her new shell and, as such, she has to seek out larger or more prey than usual just before this period begins. This makes her more aggressive and desperate than normal, prone to taking greater risks and pitting herself against opponents that she might not be able to handle even at full strength. She is almost as much of a headache after the molting period, since she will often need sustenance urgently after starving herself for in the weeks prior.

• Style Over Substance: The gruesome "artworks" Kumonga constructs throughout her lair and leaves behind after killing prey are meant to send a message that she is not to be trifled with, but she frequently gets carried away in making them as spectacular and horrifying as possible, brutalizing corpses beyond recognition and often pulling them apart at the joints rather than simply leaving the bodies be. Most sites she has visited, infamously, feature entrails and smears of bodily fluids strewn for miles around, and sometimes she might even leave a trail of gore behind her for others to follow in the hopes of attracting another potential meal. It is perhaps fortunate for most creatures that she prefers to terminate and feed off of her quarry before tearing it to ribbons, but once she gets carried away in making her handiwork as grotesque as can be, it can be difficult to stop her and she might even attack others who disturb her craft. It has been suggested before that this can be considered an act of gloating, demonstrating how successful she is as a hunter, but none can say for certain. This preference for spectacle is not limited to cadavers either, in that she often draws out the process of subduing opponents and terrorizes them as much as possible before she makes the actual kill, seemingly reveling in their suffering and the loss of their vitality. Needless to say, if an opponent can regroup or blindside her while she's lost in her revelry, they can turn things around relatively easily... that is, assuming they can actually overpower her.

**********

Spiga (Scytodes thoracica kumonga)

• Adult length: 8.2 feet/2.5 meters

• Adult leg-span: 6.6 feet/2 meters

• Adult weight: 1,000 lbs/453.6 kgs

• Classification: Araneae (Scytodidae)

Kumonga is the dominant female of the Spigas, a species of oversized spitting spider (or "spitterspider" as some naturalists have called them) which resembles her but is much smaller, at "only" the size of a rhinoceros. Like Kumonga herself, the Spigas are adaptable and quite intelligent as spiders go, easily able to climb, stalk, and even leap after prey, though their great size makes them relatively slow... and in turn, extremely patient. Aside from the same deadly flesh-dissolving bite as their "matriarch", they also sport the same projectile venom attack, webbing up things they spray with it within a matter of seconds - especially when attacking as a group. Like Kumonga's spray, this webbing carries a deadly payload of digestive enzymes as well, and if the venom compounds end up inside the body via seepage into wounds either already present or induced by said enzymes, they cause localized skin decay and eventual organ failure. The Spigas will feed on any prey animal smaller than they are but prefer larger game whenever possible, and may even swarm larger beasts up to the size of sauropods if especially hungry. Their preferred quarry however are giant insects and especially, for some reason, those that have been artificially mutated such as by Red Bamboo. The Gimantids are a particular delicacy and while there were initial concerns about them hunting the oversized mantises to extinction and moving on to other prey, their populations have managed to balance each other out after just a few decades of conflict. Some proposals have been made to exterminate the Spigas entirely lest they pose a threat to people, but aside from their confinement to just a few remote islands and preference for larger prey than humans, it's thought that their destruction would cause the Gimantid populations, along with those of several other altered species native to the archipelago, to potentially explode out of control to disastrous effect.

Like some species of regular spitterspider, Spigas are social by nature and live in colonies that allow them to subdue larger prey and take care of larger numbers of offspring, a rarity among spiders overall. The female of the species is 50% larger than the male and is not above making a postcoital meal out of him during the breeding season to ensure her survival until the egg sac she protects opens up to release the spiderlings within, usually two to three weeks after laying. The spiderlings themselves are the size of a human hand upon hatching and are prey to almost all insectivorous megafauna they share their habitat with, ironically including the Gimantids themselves; they grow to an adult size within a year and are ready to breed a mere month or so later, but only 30% make it that far and even the adults aren't safe from bug-eating kaiju, other giant predators, or military forces keen to euthanize any that end up on the continental mainland by mistake or are illegally smuggled there. The Spigas' main domain, including Kumonga's personal colony, is on Solgell Island, but several populations begun by inadvertent migrant Spigas have also been established on Leitchi Island, Monster Island, Infant Island, and even the infamous "spider pits" of Skull Island.

NEXT: PRINCE OF THE MONSTERS

Chapter Text

Prince of the Monsters: MINILLA

Statistics

• Classification: Trematosaurid temnospondyl
• Height: 12 feet/3.7 meters (at time of hatching); 80 feet/2.4 meters (current)
• Length: 45 feet/13.7 meters (at time of hatching); 200 feet/61 meters (current)
• Mass: 30,000 lbs/13,607.8 kgs (at time of hatching); 33069.3 short tons/30,000 metric tons (current)
• Locality: Throughout the Pacific, most commonly seen on the West Pacific seaboard near the coast of Japan; currently resides on and around Kaibutsu no Shima (Monster Island)

Bio

History:
Leitchi Island, 1966. It had been a year since Ghidorah's attack on planet Earth, and although he had been driven back into space, the toll was heavy; tens of thousands had died in the chaos, and several prominent combatants against the King of Terror had risked their lives to see him off, one of whom had even perished at his figurative hands. For one particular participant, it had nearly been the end of the road - the injuries sustained were severe, and it would take a long time, perhaps years, to recover completely. His only recourse would be to find the most isolated resting place and wait until he was back in prime condition.

And yet, there was another calling within Godzilla's mind. Some strange compulsion was now insisting that he should, at all cost, venture southward. It was a vague signal that he couldn't make out at first, but as no other options came to him at the time, he followed it. Traveling along the western edge of the Pacific, hugging the coastline as best he could without being noticed, the King of the Monsters was guided solely by instinct, not knowing what awaited him. As he approached the waters off Vietnam, however, something new, yet familiar, greeted him. The distinctive bio-radar of a new life, one whose signature was identical to his own.

Godzilla found this new development intriguing. He had known of siblings, and a father before him, but a descendant? Was it even possible? If so... there might just be hope for his kind after all. His kind were not immortal - the loss of his father was proof of that. But if his species could continue somehow, then... maybe...

But alas, he was still not in the best state to investigate this new development further. He did know however that something important had happened on one of the islands in these waters, and he didn't know or care how long ago that was - all he knew was that the outcome needed his protection. Sadly, he managed to make it to the next island over before his strength gave out, and finally drift off into slumber deep in the caverns below it. Not until a year or so later would he be forcibly reawakened, just in time to discover what Red Bamboo had done to this island, and further a chain of events that would take the world entirely by surprise.

Meanwhile, on Solgell Island, something thought lost to time began to stir...

The explosive destruction of the Leitchi Island facility was not powerful enough to trigger any significant geological activity - most tectonic movements, in fact, regularly produce power outputs several dozen times greater than the weaponry responsible for the destruction of Hiroshima or the mutation of the first Godzilla. There was, however, a very slight seismic disturbance beneath both Leitchi and Solgell Islands which, while not nearly strong enough to induce the eruptions of either of the volcanoes forming them, did result in changes to the geothermal springs within their respective cavern systems, increasing their activity, altering their chemistry, and most importantly, raising their temperature by about two degrees. It was hot springs such as these, in fact, which would have been sought after by gravid members of Godzilla's species in ancient times, because they were the only means of incubating their young... and it just so happened that one such member, the whereabouts of which were as yet unknown, had left an egg sac within the springs beneath Solgell Island. With the increased temperature reviving it from dormancy, the development of the larval creatures within resumed, and as the months passed, the harsh but natural cycle of life proceeded with the largest of the embryos eventually cannibalizing its siblings. Finally, the egg sac opened, and one massive tadpole, a male, wriggled out into the world beyond. He wasted no time calling for his parent to retrieve him and find a body of fresh water to put him in... only for a swarm of hungry scuttling things to start pouring into the cave a few minutes later. Trapped in his pool, instinct took over as he let out a piercing distress call that could be heard even outside the caverns. Only barely stalled by the volume of his panicked screams, the Gimantids descended upon him in a seething, scuttling mass of claws and biting mandibles. Spurred by pain and terror, the baby's only way out was through. Taking his first steps, thrashing and plowing his way through the swarm, throwing off as many Gimantids as he could, the still-screaming infant struggled in search of the smell of clean water just out of reach, but it wasn't long before the swarm overwhelmed him and dragged him outside; even though he was five times as big as one of the Gimantids, they vastly outnumbered the newborn and were driven by desperation as much as hunger. This was a threat, but one that could be defeated at this point in its life, but if this fiendish spawn wouldn't just shut up and die already, it could attract an adult member of-

The roar stunned everyone into silence. The earth shook with every tread Godzilla made as he entered the scene, at first unable to believe what he was seeing. But the moment the smell of the wounded baby's blood hit his nostrils, there could be only one objective: SAVE HIM.

Mantids flew skyward, roars and screeches rattled the earth itself, atomic fire lit up the jungle. Desperately the swarm tried to hold onto their prize but Godzilla's fury would give them no mercy. Any Gimantid foolish enough to stay would face annihilation, and it was clear that even with their numbers advantage, the fight was clearly in Godzilla's favor, and the infant was soon abandoned. When the dust settled, the baby looked up at his savior, chirping nervously, but soon it was clear that all would be well. This wasn't his true parent, but he had saved his life, and that was enough. So it was that Godzilla took in the infant, bringing him to the nearest lake to recover from his injuries and begin his life properly.

Of course, with Godzilla, there was no such thing as "normal". Just a few months after hatching, the infant, summarily dubbed "Mini-Godzilla" or "Minilla", would discover a colony of gigantic spiders at the heart of the island, and in so doing start a series of events that would lead to the island going into lockdown, its volcanic peak covered in snow. The weather patterns observed on the island had already been unusual to begin with, but there was no way now that this equatorial yet wintery locale would not be noticed by anyone... and especially not a certain visiting faction from beyond the stars looking to retrieve something they very much wanted from the destroyed Red Bamboo facilities. They would come away from this with more than just what they had intended, and in so doing begin a truly insidious global operation, one that not even Godzilla might be able to save the world from.

What the invaders didn't know, however, was that by deactivating the weather machine in order to abduct Godzilla, they would inadvertently awaken Minilla as well - who quickly realized that his father was gone, and that this time, Godzilla was in need of saving. So it was that for the first time in his life, the Prince of the Monsters headed out to the open sea, to rescue his father... and find himself embroiled in a catastrophic battle for planet Earth... to Destroy All Monsters.

Personality and Combat Style:
Like most young creatures, Minilla is possessed of a childlike sense of innocence, a meddlesome curiosity, and an incessant need for stimulation. While his brush with death mere minutes after hatching left him understandably frightened and mentally scarred, Godzilla's care has more than helped him overcome it, and the confidence he has gained since has often crossed into outright boldness. If confronted with something new, he is all but compelled to investigate it, and often doesn't understand the potential danger an unfamiliar thing might pose until the very last moment. This complete about-face from his state of fear in his first moments might be due to his reliance on Godzilla, believing that should trouble arise, his parent will come to save him, which is expected for any parent-child relationship but, of course, is only temporary. Eventually, Minilla has to grow up and become independent, which is why Godzilla took to training him on how to fight and survive as soon as the younger creature seemed capable of it. While obviously less experienced, Minilla is eager to make his adopted father proud, and often attempts spectacular displays in a bid to impress him... never mind that the point of Godzilla's patronage isn't to be presentable to him, but to know what to do when lives are at stake.

For what it is worth, Minilla does have potential to become a truly formidable fighter, even if he still has a way to go before he can reach the maturity and durability of an adult of his kind. Currently, his main advantage over most opponents is that he is smaller and, consequently, more agile, especially underwater. Able to outmaneuver foes much larger than him and retaliate with rapid if haphazard strikes, Minilla prefers to taunt and bait enemies with the intent of stalling for time or exhausting them before escaping or letting bigger members of his "family" take over for him. Even if no help is available, though, anyone who expects Minilla to be easy prey is guaranteed to be sorely mistaken - for even at his age, when cornered, surrounded, or driven by desperation, he can be every bit as vicious a fighter as his father, thrashing and snapping so wildly and unpredictably that he is all but guaranteed to hurt someone.

In the days since Godzilla adopted him, Minilla has been regarded as a son in all but genome to the King of the Monsters. Through thick and thin, he has stuck by his surrogate parent, learning the ways of his kind and reaching out to his allies as well. More than anything else, it is arguably Minilla who has brought out the best in Godzilla and his family - and knowing recent events and signs, the world may now be in need of these two more than ever before...

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Substandard Kaiju Strength: Minilla is not yet fully grown, and nowhere near as large and powerful as other kaiju. As such, he is obviously outclassed in terms of raw strength when faced with most adult titans and even some subadults which outweigh him physically. Nonetheless, he is quite capable with what he has, and isn't to be underestimated. With sharp claws and teeth, a powerful tail, and a strong kick from his already well-developed back legs, Minilla's small size makes him much more nimble than bigger foes even if his large webbed feet make him clumsier on land than underwater, and he can for the most part leap, dodge, and weave around whatever they can throw at him, nipping in opportunistically whenever the chance presents itself. His lack of experience often makes him reckless and this can be taken advantage of, but many overconfident opponents learn the hard way that he is not as helpless as he may seem, especially when in defense of those he cares about such as his father or family friends.
• Energy Absorption: Like Godzilla, Minilla is able to absorb energy from the outside environment and convert it into energy for himself, with special cells surrounding his central nervous system which are quasi-photosynthetic. Provided such energy, carbon dioxide from the creature's respiration, and water filtered from its environment, these cells can produce chemical energy capable of sustaining him even when food is scarce. In ages past, Minilla's kin relied on the heat energy produced by the planet itself, adapting to the period of volcanism towards the end of the Permian, but nuclear power produced by people has attracted them to areas closer to civilization. It is geothermal heat and radiation which Minilla is most reliant on, but solar energy is also a reliable standby if neither of these are close at hand.
• Amphibious: Like Godzilla himself, Minilla is an excellent swimmer. The long webbed toes that render him so ungainly on land are excellent for propulsion and steering while underwater, and his tail in particular is heavily muscled and sports fins both above and below, making it as useful for sculling at speed as it is for lashing out at opponents. At top speeds he has been known to outpace even high-speed watercraft. While able to function on land well enough as long as his gills remain moist, he is more confident below sea level than above it, and is more than able to swim circles around prey and enemies alike.
• Primitive Mentality: Minilla is every bit as intelligent as his father, but his brain is wired in a different way compared to both mammals and reptiles, and can be considered more "primitive" in the evolutionary sense. This makes him somewhat more instinct-driven than other more evolutionarily advanced life forms, but something about his mind still seems able to throw mind controlling abilities for a loop, making him resistant to these kinds of skills. That said, his recklessness means tricking him normally is still easier with him than most. 

Special Abilities:

• Radiation-Tolerant Physiology: Like his father, Minilla can withstand amounts of radiation that are dangerous to other kaiju - specific aspects of his anatomy are in fact radiation-absorbing. Special nerves and blood vessels just under his scales are able to draw in thermal energy in a manner convergent to crocodilians, but the ones just under the keratin covering his bladed dorsal spines have cells which are not only radiation resistant, but actively draw particle radiation towards them. Samples of the remains of the original Godzilla have even resulted in the discovery of an additional kind of tissue which synthesizes organic chemicals with radiation as input, simialr to the photosynthetic cells of plants, suggesting that Minilla's species is at least partly radiotrophic - a possible holdover from when his ancestors adapted to the increased levels of UV radiation which occurred during the Permian extinction. All of this means that Minilla is able to absorb all forms of radiation emissions as a means of sustenance when organic nutrition is unavailable, allowing him to withstand amounts of radiation which would be dangerous to most other forms of organic life. When he needs to hunt for organic sustenance, he, like his father, primarily targets life forms which are also quasi-radioactive in origin, particularly mutants bought about by nuclear experimentation.
• Atomic Emission: Tying into his radiation absorption ability, Minilla is capable of emitting it as well, or at least venting excess amounts of it to prevent radiation overload. The muscles surrounding his respiratory system have a network of nerves and vessels which funnel radiation that is emitted by the rest of his physiology into the lungs and trachea, and the aveoli of his lungs themselves are also specially radiation-resistant to aid in this; he is therefore able to exhale radiation in the form of a pressurized blast of vapor. Minilla is currently capable of creating rings, distilled clouds, and short puffs of radiation vapor, and has only rarely been able to generate the pressurized streams his father is capable of, but he is learning quickly; his usage of his atomic burst breath is a lot more creative than Godzilla's by necessity, with a variety of tricks such as covering escapes with smokescreens, blinding and disorienting attackers, and launching cannonball-like blasts with deceptive destructive power.
• Salamander Regrowth: Like many salamanders, Minilla's healing factor is extremely well-developed, perhaps even more so than his father. Owing to the constant growth of his cells, he is able to reduce the cellular structure of any injured area to a liquid consistency and revert the cells local to the wound back to stem cells, which will change again into the needed structure for swift regeneration, though he may have to sacrifice his remaining tissues in the process which can lead to additional complications. Still, his healing ability more than makes up for his delicate nature as of now - even the complete loss of a limb or his tail can be negated within a matter of hours or even minutes as long as enough sustenance and fluid is on hand.
• Sonic Distress Call: Minilla's well-developed lungs and strong vocal cords are adapted for emitting vocal signals to summon his kind. Since his father is usually never far away, a common tactic when all else fails is to simply emit an alarm cry capable of reaching 150 decibels, enough to injure sensitive organs such as eardrums (valves just behind his own close up to protect his hearing when doing this). These calls can carry for miles around, easily attracting the attention of anyone he is allies with, Godzilla in particular, and also have a specific frequency intended to cause the greatest amount of distress in any such creature, similar to how the crying of human infants sets off similar reactions in nearby adults. Godzilla's own iconic roar is in fact similar to Minilla's alarm cry in this respect, suggesting that the species retains this adaptation into adulthood, but eventually repurposes it as a territorial display to ward off potential competitors.

Weaknesses:

• Soft-Skinned: Minilla's hide and scutes are not as developed as those of his father, and even with his regeneration he can only take so much damage before being incapacitated. Conventional weaponry has been known to induce Minilla's adverse reaction in a manner not unlike a child getting a splinter, and even though most injuries of his can be healed off within minutes in the right conditions, he has to redistribute the rest of the cells in his body to do this and can suffer from severe tissue and organ damage if he's forced to keep it up without any immediate source of food and drink. A damaged vital organ can take even longer to recuperate than an open slash wound, and it's possible that a mortal hit to one of his vital organs such as the heart or brain could leave him comatose and horribly crippled for weeks until such an injury is repaired.
• Naive Bravado: As expected of a young creature, Minilla has plenty of nerve and resolve but little experience to back it up. This makes it easy for him to stumble blindly into trouble and make rash decisions which he can't forsee the consequences of until it's too late, and his curiosity often leads him to poke his snout into anything that he finds interesting even if he really shouldn't. Some especially clever enemies have been known to exploit this and pretend to be sympathetic to the young monster only to turn on him and use him as leverage to enforce Godzilla's cooperation. This is however a risky gamble for reasons beyond Godzilla's own protective fury coming into play - Minilla is actually more clever than most suspect despite his naivete, and once he's realized that he's been taken advantage of, the consequences for the perpetrator will not be pretty...

Chapter Text

Robotic Wonder: MECHANI-KONG

• Manufacturer: The Nameless Builder
• Height: 375 feet/114.3 meters
• Mass: 100,000 short tons/90,718 metric tons
• Locality: The remains of Mechani-Kong were last reported in Monarch's Tokyo facility circa 1973, but mysteriously disappeared shortly before the first invasion of the Simians the following year; its current whereabouts are unknown.

Bio

History:
Mechani-Kong is the creation of a mysterious scientist known only as The Nameless Builder, who was once nicknamed "Dr. Who" but has since come to be referred to by his original moniker to avoid confusion with a certain popular British TV show. Regardless, Mechani-Kong is his most infamous creation, and was originally created in 1966 as a machine meant for hard labor in the mining of precious minerals from the Arctic. It was notoriously prone to breaking down for reasons unknown, however, and after a year of headaches caused by these malfunctions, the Nameless Builder, at the behest of his supervisor known only as "Madame X", sought the real Titanus Kong II to take the place of the faulty mecha. This of course led him to Mondo Island, where Kong had forged a bond with Lt. Susan Watson, part of a team of Monarch scientists investigating the region and more specifically, a bizarre phenomenon wherein creatures lost to time were alive and well - dinosaurs and retrosaurs especially. Somehow, Kong and his troop had managed to stake out a living despite heavy competition, but their relatively peaceful existence wasn't to last. The Nameless Builder discovered the island a week into the expedition and managed to capture Kong, placing him in a hypnotic trance with a mysterious device on loan from Madame X. Eventually, however, the required technology began to fail and, predictably, Kong was not happy to have been exploited, and promptly decided to trace the source of the signal that had enslaved him back to its owner... who happened to be overseeing the maintenance of Mechani-Kong in a secret base beneath Tokyo. With an unexpected soon-to-be ally following in his wake, Kong traveled to Japan once more with vengeance on his mind.

Even though repairs were still incomplete, Mechani-Kong was re-activated with the intent of fending off and, ideally, killing the defender of the Skull Island archipelago. The two giants began to clash in earnest, monster versus machine, but between Kong's less-than-ideal mental condition from his recent hypnotism and the robot's superior physical power, the ape god seemed hopelessly outmatched - until the ally from earlier, its jaw back in place, leapt into action and, with a little effort, was able to damage a crucial control circuit in the mechanical double, causing it to malfunction. Desperate to escape, the mecha began to climb up Tokyo Tower, Kong following him with the other titan prowling around the base hoping to finish the job. The fight atop the tower was long and brutal, but ultimately, Kong managed to damage the robot enough to send it toppling to its destruction far below. The Nameless Builder would also perish in the chaos, foolishly blundering into the path of the other monster, but a swift evacuation had ensured no other casualties, and Kong and his companion were allowed to peacefully depart.

The few remains of Mechani-Kong that could be identified were almost immediately retrieved by Monarch for further study, wherein a surprising discovery was made: there were bones, muscles, and other tissues contained within the mecha's exterior. It was perhaps their decay which had caused the malfunctions, but presumably, this strange robot had been built around the remains of an organic life form - and later DNA testing would confirm that it was, in fact, the deceased body of the original Titanus Kong I which had been used as a framework. Plans for further analysis into this development would be cut short, however, when the remnants of Mechani-Kong vanished without a trace some six years after they were seized by Monarch. Little did the world know that the culprits had seen promise in the idea behind this prototype, and were already in the process of adapting it to a different kaiju species, aiming to produce something much, much deadlier...

Personality and Combat Style:
The product of scientific progression without any concern or sympathy for any the life forms involved (save of course for its creator), Mechani-Kong has no trace of any of the personality Titanus Kong I had to begin with. This is because the original Kong had been dead for several decades by the time his corpse was rebuilt as Mechani-Kong, with no hope of recovering his original mentality, especially since his already decaying brain was completely lobotomized with only base functionality available to the mecha itself. As such, all characteristics displayed by Mechani-Kong were attributed to The Nameless Builder, a cruel and sadistic individual who believed that the ends justified the means, with little respect for the lives of others and a propensity for wanton destruction just for the sake of it. Mechani-Kong is proof that one does not need to be a building-sized colossus or to look like a wild beast to be of a savage nature, but with no capacity for independent thought, it was, at the end of the day, just an elaborate puppet for the Builder's machinations - nothing more, nothing less.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Augmented Kaiju Strength: From the body of Titanus Kong I, Mechani-Kong was enhanced into effectively a hybrid between the organic and the inorganic. This granted it even greater strength than Kong I could achieve, and with no means of sensation and all control resting solely on its pilot, Mechani-Kong had no problem reducing anything it was commanded to destroy into shattered powder and smears of fluid. The alloy comprising its shell was nearly indestructible, and it was only the more vulnerable joints and finer instruments on its face that were susceptible to damage. It is no surprise that Mechani-Kong's offensive and defensive might were among the key aspects that the Simians sought to replicate with their own take on the underlying concept, though with fewer vulnerabilities and to even greater success.

Special Abilities:

Weaknesses:

• Vulnerable Joints: The armor plating of this robot was incredibly durable, but the joints... not so much. The reason Kong was able to damage the mech was because he knew that targeting the rubber housing of the joints was the quickest way to incapacitate it; it would've been possible to pull it apart limb-from-limb if Kong could get the chance to. The mecha's armor was also not capable of protecting its interior from the forces generated by heavy impacts, meaning that dropping it from a great height could cripple it to the point of requiring long periods of downtime to be fully repaired.
• Mindless Puppet: Mechani-Kong had almost no brain tissue capable of conscious thought. This meant that every action it performed was entirely the Nameless Builder's decision, and because he was the only one who knew how to control the creature, should he be incapacitated or killed, there would be no way to operate it at all and it would remain inanimate forever even if it wasn't destroyed. The obvious question of why he didn't seek the functional brain of another kaiju to install for the sake of giving the robot the ability to operate independently can be answered by his apparent insistence on total control over it, since it was to be used solely as a tool and a weapon. This is not without justification, because if Kong's response to the attempt at mind-controlling him proved, giving Mechani-Kong a consciousness of its own would no doubt have enabled it to turn on its creator.

Chapter Text

The Time Dragon: GOROSAURUS

Statistics

• Classification: Carcharodontosauridae
• Length: 1150 feet/350.52 meters
• Height: 350 feet/106.68 meters
• Mass: 93,696.46 short tons/85,000 metric tons
• Locality: Sightings of Gorosaurus have been recorded throughout the Monsterland Archipelago and more rarely in other locations worldwide, but his current surface-world territory seems to encompass Mondo Island as well as part of Skull Island.

Bio

History:
Dinosaurs. The fearfully great reptiles. The terrible lizards. One of the most iconic clades of antediluvian life that has ever existed, this was the most dominant clade on planet Earth for some 150 million years, producing forms of every shape and size. Even as a giant meteor brought the global ecosystem to a swift collapse some 65 million years ago, several families of dinosaurs still managed to cling onto existence when all was said and done, surviving to the present day as birds. But the advent of human civilization and later, the return of kaiju to the world of the living would bring about the resurrection of other dinosaur lineages, many thought lost forever. One dinosaur in particular would, by the whims of fate, become instrumental in deciding the fate of our planet...

Mondo Island, August 1968. Within the depths of the jungle, an archosaurian colossus slept soundly, far from the prying eyes of man. It had been a year since Gorosaurus, the king of carnosaurs, had fixed his broken jaw back into place and strayed from his island home in pursuit of the ape god Kong, who had just defeated him in battle in defense of one Susan Watson. He had wanted a rematch at first, but then more urgent priorities took over once he saw how strange the primate had been acting since that encounter. The meat-eater had then followed him to a strange, almost frightening new world, where spires of strange shining rock reached for the sky and tiny, smelly, honking things moved in straight lines and turned at sharp angles. It was here where he had aided Kong in the fight against his mechanical doppleganger, and unintentionally killed the nameless scientist who had created the fiendish robot with a single misplaced step. But once his job was done, he didn't hesitate to leave. This weird land of the scarily unfamiliar was not the place for him, and the sooner he returned to the comfort of his tropical home, the better. Once there, Gorosaurus would rest and recover, and then return to the same routine he had done throughout his 100-million-year lifespan: hunting only for necessity, patrolling his territory for danger, and visiting the hollows within the Earth's crust to tend to his vast, subterranean collection of long-lost life forms, preserved as though time had never changed them through the eons.

At least that had been the plan. And in the months since he'd left Tokyo he had followed through with it as usual. But just his luck, his nap was suddenly disturbed by, surprise surprise, something unfamiliar. A wailing, keening creature with gills and lungs waddled ashore, crying out for its parent. By all accounts it shouldn't be welcome, but dealing with it would be no problem, for it certainly wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight against the colossal carcharodontosaur that ruled here. But something about this little infant's distress seemed to tug at his hardened heart, compelling him to set aside his annoyance at having been rudely woken up, confront the baby, and demand an explanation. Emerging from the forest and thundering onto the beach, he saw that the little amphibian, a helpless child on all counts, was alone. This was not a good sign: Gorosaurus knew enough about the parental care of relatives of this particular species to guess that if such a young tadpole was present without any adult supervision, the odds were good that something was very wrong indeed, and he didn't like that prospect one bit.

After verifying that the baby didn't present a threat to him or the island (a laughable conceit, sure, but one could never be too careful - especially when said baby could topple trees with a wag of its tail), Gorosaurus reluctantly decided to hear the newcomer out. It happened that earlier in the month, Minilla's father had been abducted by a mysterious light from the sky, and upon waking up from hibernation on Solgell Island, he had found himself isolated and without his parent's comforting presence, which had disturbed him greatly. With no one else to turn to (at least not without them trying to kill him as Kamacuras or Kumonga surely would have), he'd had little choice but to head out to sea to find someone to help him get his father back. Gorosaurus chided the infant with an unamused snort, the two of them knowing that it was lucky that Minilla had stumbled upon the Time Dragon rather than someone less merciful, but there was little time to argue. Already, a faint signal felt across the world began to register in the minds of both of them, setting off mental alarm bells at maximum volume. The Kilaak invasion had begun...

The invading force had subjugated more than just the King of the Monsters, and in a bid to sow confusion and disable or divert the world's militaries, they turned their new slaves loose in every corner of the globe: Godzilla in New York City, Rodan and Raodan above Moscow, Mothra in Beijing, Baragon in Paris, Manda in London, Ebirah in Honolulu, Anguirus in Rio di Janeiro, Kumonga in Cairo, Varan in Shanghai... The list went on and on. How many monsters had been taken and mind-controlled, no one but the Kilaaks knew, but surely there were so many running around now that they'd have missed at least one, right? It was when Okinawa came under siege that the first error in the Kilaaks' judgement came to light. Kamacuras and her swarm were laying waste to the island community when suddenly she caught the familiar scent of something they should have killed years ago. As soon as the invaders realized that Minilla could present a problem the moment he found Godzilla again, they set Kamacuras on him. The situation was almost exactly like his very first moments, and in his panic he let out his distress call, but this time, to their delight, Godzilla never came... Fortunately for Minilla, another titan was right behind him. Gorosaurus had struggled against ocean currents for days to keep pace with his companion, and he was not only ravenous but also highly enraged over how this unnatural, invasive species had made an attempt on said companion. Several dozen devoured and/or squished Gimantids and one very nearly pulverized Kamacuras later, the swarm got the message and fled in the opposite direction. Perhaps realizing that the swarm's first response to being overwhelmed was to regroup where their controllers were hiding, the two giants followed them... back, as it turned out, to the strange land of metal spires that Gorosaurus had visited the year before.

With their underground base near Mt. Fuji about to be unceremoniously flattened, the Kilaaks, in an act of desperation, called upon every monster they had under their control to withdraw immediately and converge on Tokyo to stop the two titans. That was their second misjudgement. Easily tracing the signal, Monarch managed to locate the base, and the Japanese Defense Force swiftly stormed it with the intent of seizing everything that could pose a global threat. This included the mind control system which, despite initial difficulty, was successfully deactivated just before Gorosaurus and Minilla could get their first sight of the kaiju army being beamed into Japan. Within moments, all was chaos as the alien invaders realized that they had been compromised and, in a panicked scramble, sent out every fighter craft they could muster in a bid to stop the ensuing rampage, to no avail. With so many angry monsters with a score to settle and now dangerously close to their facility, the Kilaaks had no other options left - the secret contract they had made with a mysterious third party had to be invoked. A contract they'd hoped never to use, but with death on all sides, they had nothing to lose either. Sending a signal up towards the stars, the Kilaak commander - Madame X - broadcast one desperate message, one that would haunt the world for decades to come:

"Destroy. All. Monsters."

Like a falling star, against the light of the rising sun, there came a colossus from beyond the void hurtling towards the outskirts of Tokyo. Three cackling cries split the heavens, lightning set everything still standing ablaze, and a terrible storm covered the land in shadow. Among the throng of kaiju gathered to see its descent, four of them felt a surge of fear for the second time in a decade. And for very good reason... Ghidorah was back.

Cackling with demented glee at the prospect of tearing down an entire army of fellow giants, the King of Terror swept over the ruins of Tokyo with the intent of ending every single life left in the area, starting with his most hated foe. Godzilla roared in answer to his challenge and charged at the three-headed dragon, and the battle was on. Roars, screams, claps of thunder, blasts of breath weapons, and the sounds of mass destruction carried from one end of the island to the other as the monster all-out attack lasted for an entire day. Bodies flew, blood spilled onto the ground. But even when outnumbered, Ghidorah was powerful enough to prove more than a match for all of the monsters present. There were, somehow, too few of them to overcome him! Was there anyone else willing to join the fight and help turn the tide?

It seemed that no one else was coming. Minilla had tried to rouse his wounded father, but Ghidorah had turned his sights to ending the child here and now. All Godzilla could do was watch in horror as Minilla screamed up at three grinning horned heads. The fight was about to be lost, Ghidorah would wipe out all life on Earth starting with the Prince of the Monsters, and the evolution of the kaiju of this world over millions of years would have been all for-

Ghidorah's excitement turned to startled outrage as a cerulean blur slammed its two taloned feet into his back with enough force to shatter his spine. Crippled, shocked, and slowed down for some strange reason, the three-headed monster fell to the ground as Gorosaurus ripped into him with murderous intent. The carnosaurian colossus had arrived fashionably late, but just in time to save Minilla a second time, and his timing could not have been more perfect. And come to think of it, Ghidorah wasn't responding as quickly as before, as though time was being decelerated around him... Any debate as to how this was possible was quickly set aside as Gorosaurus pounded the space terror into the dirt, and the other monsters proceeded to join the unexpected savior now tearing Ghidorah's back open. Within the hour, the shrieking space dragon had been ripped limb from limb, and all known remnants of him consumed or incinerated. The battle was won, and the Kilaaks, their war lost, swiftly evacuated in their mothership... or would have, if the so-called "Fire Dragon" hadn't been pounced upon by Gorosaurus and then mysteriously slowed down just long enough for Godzilla's atomic breath to take out one of its engines. With help from the JDF, the monsters proceeded to obliterate the mothership and all inside it, silencing Madame X forever and ensuring that this regiment wouldn't ever be able to return to wherever they'd come from to recover. The operation to Destroy All Monsters, fortunately for life on Earth, had ended in failure - although whether or not this was the end of Ghidorah himself, no one could tell for sure...

Regardless, as the monsters went their separate ways, Minilla lingered just a little longer. Confused, Godzilla wondered what was with his child, until Gorosaurus approached him, stooped, and touched his snout to the juvenile's own, Minilla returning the gesture. Realizing what Gorosaurus had done, Godzilla also strode up to the Time Dragon, a low rumble of approval coming from his throat. Only then did Gorosaurus realize that this child, whom he had been keeping safe all this time, was under the care of the most powerful kaiju ever to live... and now he had the King of the Monsters' respect. Bowing respectfully, Gorosaurus worried that he did not deserve this honor, for he had not joined the fight until it was nearly too late - but then, to his surprise, Godzilla touched his snout to the dinosaur's own. The message was clear: What the Time Dragon had contributed to their victory was more than enough. And so a bond of friendship was born, each of the two monsters gaining a powerful new ally that day.

Once Godzilla and Minilla had bade Gorosaurus farewell and departed, there was only one kaiju left. Looking out over the ruins of Tokyo and the sight of the calamitous battle, Gorosaurus felt his heart grow heavy. He couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what would have happened had he arrived just minutes later. But that was probably just him worrying too much again - what mattered the most was that the world he loved, and the museum of all lost species it concealed, was safe once again. That was a thought he could certainly live with as he headed off to find the hollow Earth entrance on Mt. Aso and make his way back to Mondo Island.

The Time Dragon was going to have a very long, peaceful nap when he got home, he knew that much. With luck, there would be no global emergency to wake him up again any time soon.

Personality and Combat Style:
For a beast whose codename is taken from the flesh-hungry appetite of the dinosaur group he is derived from, Gorosaurus is far more mellow than popular culture would have people think of creatures of his ilk. Although he does require a regular intake of fresh red meat, he does not hunt other creatures unless he absolutely has to, preferring to scavenge when possible, and is certainly not driven to devour everything he sees, instead carefully choosing specimens for whom their loss will have the least impact, such as the elderly, infirm, or mortally wounded. Almost every action Gorosaurus undertakes, in fact, seems calibrated to avoid unnecessary damage or harm, and what few bouts of aggression he does display are for the sake of preventing intruders from disrupting his home and routine in typical animalistic fashion. His gentlemanliness is less surprising when the fact that he is a predator is taken into account - as paradoxical as this may seem, meat-eaters like him actually have to avoid taking risks as much as possible in order to remain in prime condition because anything less pretty much guarantees starvation, and Gorosaurus knows this all too well. Naturally cautious and borderline paranoid at times, when working with other kaiju he is almost always the first to question decisions and ponder the risks involved. Even if this puts a slight damper on his popularity with his equals, so many lives have been saved by his compulsive need to prevent his companions from rushing headlong into potential danger that the towering theropod is held with great respect by most other titans regardless as their equivalent of a voice of reason.

As frightening as he may be to other life forms at first, especially those much tinier than him, Gorosaurus is huge enough that the majority of smaller life forms can't fulfill his energy demands even in bulk, so he of course has no interest in hunting them. He is however fond of regular-sized organisms in the same way as one would regard household pets or garden plants, and especially enjoys collecting them. In fact, almost every "lost world"-type Earth hollow known to man was populated under his supervision - on top of his intimate knowledge of the tunnels in the planet's crust, allowing him to visit these hollows as needed, the strange quirk he possesses has been critical to their preservation. If anything, he can be considered a sort of curator with the hollows as the museum, housing extinct species of all stripes and from every epoch since the early Cretaceous. Needless to say, Gorosaurus is extremely protective of these refuges, and if he isn't there personally to ensure that no harm comes to them from the outside world, his smaller carnosaurian kin will usually be on hand to do the job for him since they have inherited the same instinctive drive to guard and manage the hollows. Regardless of scale, anything that could pose a threat to these safe-zones, be it through predation, competition, or foreign disease, will be summarily evicted or terminated as necessary.

With all of the above in mind, then, Gorosaurus' hesitance in the face of even possible doom becomes far more relatable. It is certainly true that his sheer brute strength and surprising tactical prowess make him more than capable of holding his own in a fight, and in fact his double kick has frightened - and wounded - many a world-ending menace as much as if not more than his serrated saw-like fangs. That said, however, as the being responsible for preserving all things lost to time throughout Earth's natural history, it's understandable that the mere thought of change, while inevitable and even necessary to progress, still makes the Time Dragon cringe. He not only finds it perennially difficult to experience anything new, but outright fears unfamiliar threats to the point where he responds aggressively to them on sight, and if it were up to him he'd rather keep to the same routine he has maintained since time immemorial. As the world moves forward around him, though, Gorosaurus is well aware of the need to adjust as required; it's just that he prefers a much more gradual process of it than being unexpectedly thrust into things, and if he can double-check to make sure there won't be any unforseen consequences further in time, all the better. It is certainty he takes the most comfort in, be it comprehending the full impact of a newly introduced ecosystem to his collection or knowing the extent of a global threat, and while he isn't averse to cooperating with others against a common enemy, convincing him to lend his aid requires absolute proof that no harm to himself or his global protectorate is intended. Anyone capable of providing such proof will find a valuable ally in Gorosaurus... and it goes without saying that threatening those peers who have managed to work past his mental barriers and forge a meaningful relationship with him is the quickest way to get the Time Dragon to become the furious, slavering terror that the public thinks his kind are like, if only until the target of his ire has been reduced to a mangled, vivisected mess beneath his feet.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Benign though he may be when at ease, Gorosaurus is still an apex predator and shouldn't be trifled with under any capacity. Thanks to exposure to natural mutagens at various times since his origins in the Cretaceous, he has not only grown to tremendous sizes, but developed a more chimeric anatomy than others of his species and thus greater power and durability - a fight against him is like taking on a force of nature, and even without his paranormal abilities coming into play, this seemingly austere-looking carnosaur's raw strength and deceptive agility are utterly tremendous. He is able to topple enemies over three times his weight, to say nothing of thrashing and flinging smaller foes about like pet toys and crushing them with ease. His deadly teeth and foot claws are his obvious main weapons, but his immensely powerful tail can be used to bludgeon opponents or stab at them scorpion-style with the sharpened spike on the tip formed from his final tailbone, and his reinforced skull crown can be used to headbutt opponents to set up a deadlier attack combo. His short but heavily muscled, quill-bearing arms have large, hook-like hand claws and while not articulate enough for fine manipulation, he can use them to seize opponents and keep them close enough to disembowel them with a kick or bite their throats out. This head-on, in-your-face fighting style is nicely complemented by the armored scutes covering most of his hide, mostly small round nodules like chainmail but with bone-cored, spike- and stud-bearing plates on the back, head, and tail to deter attacks from above or behind - shaped more like those of a crocodile than the osteoderms other theropods have, they were likely altered by the mutation process that turned him into a kaiju. Powerfully muscled with a pneumatic but diamond-fiber-reinforced skeleton, Gorosaurus is more than capable of smashing and tearing all but the toughest adversaries to bits, but can also employ more tactical strikes aimed at specific vulnerabilities to make sure the opposition, once knocked down, stays down long enough for victory to be ensured.
• Double-Clawed Kick: The most famous move Gorosaurus uses in combat is the Double-Clawed Kick, informally known as the "Kangaroo Kick", and it utilizes several adaptations granted to him by mutagen exposure for existing at such a great size. His hip joints are more flexible than a typical theropod, being more like those of a retrosaur, and his tail, which is vertically stiff and held upright at all times in other theropods, has become a sort of third leg with heavier musculature, much greater flexibility on both the horizontal and vertical planes, and specially shaped lower chevrons (midline bone flanges) to the vertebrae so its underside can be held flush against the ground to better support his weight (a set of traits shared with stegosaurs and some sauropods, but no other theropod). Combined with the incredibly powerful muscles and reinforced, impact-resistant bones in his back legs, this allows him to lean back on his tail and then kick forward with both feet at once, the forces involved being astronomical on their own - some have compared the impact from just one foot to being hit by a bullet train moving at top speed. The real danger, however, comes from the enormous curved claws on the first and second toes, more like a dromaeosaur than an allosaur. This enables each claw to act much like an oversized meathook, piercing through skin and muscle and even being able to peel off armor plates with enough effort. The diamond-fiber reinforcement of the rest of his skeleton is also applied to the keratin covering of his talons which makes them incredibly strong, allowing him to punch straight through bone with a straight hit or hang onto a struggling enemy kaiju by his toes alone. While his standing kick is the most common usage of his foot claws and is one of his signature techniques, his mighty legs are also useful for performing incredible leaps, intending to slam feet-first into the opponent and shatter as much of their skeleton as possible - a favorite tactic of his is to jump onto the back of an opponent to try and break their spine and then cling to them or pin them down while his razor-toothed jaws get to work, much like predatory dromaeosaurids have been thought to do, though without large wings, he has to rely on his overly long tail to maintain his balance should the victim be too large and powerful to cripple outright. Regardless of how it's used, the Double-Clawed Kick is a move to be feared: kaiju at his size or larger will find themselves winded, bleeding from multiple deep puncture wounds, or outright knocked on their rears with multiple bone fractures - and if he manages to nail their head, it's an instant kill if they need it intact to stay alive. Smaller kaiju, of course, will be disintegrated almost instantly.
• Flesh-Ripping Fangs: The other primary attack weapon Gorosaurus has at his disposal is his mouth, which like other allosauroids is lined with recurved, serrated teeth which are designed to rip through flesh and hide. Compared to Godzilla's vice-like bite, the Time Dragon's jaw power is actually somewhat weaker, but still impressive in its own right; his skull and jawbones are also extremely strong on the vertical plane and his neck muscles are capable of exerting enough force to drive his upper jaw downward like the blade of a guillotine, similar to how Allosaurus itself was once (erroneously) claimed to have used its skull. To keep his snout out of harm's way, he has to angle his head almost parallel to the hide of his prey as he makes his initial head-swinging lunge, but this allows both rows of fangs to shred through hide and muscle like a hacksaw as he bites down and shears off the resultant mouthful, much like how monitor lizards use their similar-looking saw-like teeth. This invariably leaves a gaping, bleeding wound which he can then exploit by reaching in with his long jaws and removing more and more flesh from within the hapless victim with each strike. If any teeth break off in battle, they can either regenerate in typical theropod fashion or be replaced by his time reversal ability depending on how soon new ones are required. When bringing his most potent weaponry into play, Gorosaurus will aim for the neck area of his opponent whenever possible, attempting to sever the jugular or carotid and kill his target quickly so as to avoid a drawn-out, hazardous brawl.

Special Abilities:

• Biological Clock Reversal: Gorosaurus' moniker as the Time Dragon is no accident. For some bizarre reason that cannot be yet explained by science, he has limited, instinctive control over the passage of time itself, and the most prominent effects of this ability pertain to his immediate person. That is to say, the state of his physiology can be reverted at will, as though time seems to work in reverse for his tissues and skeleton. This means that any cell matter associated with him can effectively experience a reversal of any damage it sustains, and may even reattach itself to him if it was removed without its connection to him being broken (e.g. being eaten by another kaiju). A broken limb, dislocated jaw, or shattered spine can simply pop back into place within a matter of minutes, teeth or scutes that have been knocked off of him seem to fly up into the air and reattach themselves, and even the effects of diseases can be undone by having the pathogens be de-aged out of existence as the infected tissues return to normal. Even injuries which are considered fatal in other kaiju or may even have killed him outright can be recovered from due to an involuntary reflex causing the localized time on his person to reverse itself to a moment hopefully before the injury occurred, expelling any foreign objects involved. Given that Gorosaurus can not only recover from violent "deaths" but has also never suffered from any illnesses or age-related complications throughout his lifespan, it's possible that he might be outright immortal.
• Shockwave Strike: Whenever Gorosaurus is about to forcefully strike something, another instinctive reflex kicks in which causes time to briefly slow down around him. This enables the blow to land with far greater force than if his movement weren't affected, and on top of this, his molecules will also be vibrating with enough speed to produce a resonance effect like a colossal tuning fork. The vibration transferral and increased impact force combine to produce a devastating rippling shockwave that travels through whatever was unfortunate enough to be on the recieving end of the Time Dragon's attack. Flesh and bone are literally shaken apart, stone and metal warp and shatter, and even the air itself (or water should he be submerged in it) seems to burst from the force of the resultant collapsing low-pressure zone. He most often projects these shockwaves through his feet when using his Double-Clawed Kick, but he can also send them through his teeth to hack through armor plating or bone like a dual set of electrical carving knives. The effect is even deadlier when he's coming out of a jump, due to his whole body weight being put into the kick, and even if he misses the intended opponent, he can still produce a short-range tremor that can knock over things that haven't been secured to the ground. Needless to say, every cell in Gorosaurus' body is naturally shock-absorbent, not only to withstand the mechanical stress of his own weight but to prevent his shockwaves from hurting himself as well.
• Booming Roar: Another usage of Gorosaurus' time-manipulation ability is the acceleration of movement of the air molecules he exhales. This results in a resonating effect which can be projected outwards from his mouth, producing a devastating conical sonic blast that's best described as a "roar", although it sounds more like a cross between the blast wave of an explosion and a crocodilian bellow than the more traditional mammalian vocalization. The blast is capable of sending smaller creatures airborne, rupturing sensitive organs, and shattering some solid materials like glass or timber. Gorosaurus can either emit a short "pulse" to knock opponents away or a more prolonged roar that can inflict some pretty nasty injuries to an unprepared opponent. It's speculated that this ability was granted by horizontal gene transfer from a compatible kaiju or base species with sonic powers of its own, with Anguirus' kind being the most likelye candidate due to being from a similar time period. Like Anguirus' own resonating call, Gorosaurus' roar attack is not as precise as the more refined sonic abilities of other similarly equipped kaiju such as Chitanosaurus, but its sheer destructive volume makes it a skill to be reckoned with, especially when followed-up by a double-kick or slashing bite delivered with virtual impunity upon a stunned or deafened opponent.
• The World Stands Still: Gorosaurus' most impressive manifestation of his time manipulation ability by far occurs when he has to actively concentrate on getting everything around him to stop in its tracks. This nearly invisible "bubble" around him causes time to outright slow down inside of it, with the movement of everything except Gorosaurus being reduced to a crawl. In the most extreme cases he may even stop time entirely within the bubble, producing a pitch-black spherical void due to even light being brought to a halt within, allowing him to cover an escape or isolate a target for execution inside. Beyond this range of influence, time progresses as normally as in any other situation, but things passing into the zone of slowed time experience the effect immediately. Because the Time Dragon is still capable of moving as normal and can interact with things within the slowed time zone, he has free reign to do with incapacitated foes within the bubble as he will. This is Gorosaurus' least-used ability and one he does not use lightly, because slowing time in an area around him takes far too much concentration and energy investment to maintain for longer than about half a minute before he passes out from exhaustion, and he can't stop time for longer than about three to four seconds - though that's usually all he needs to dodge incoming attacks or clear the distance with his intended victim. If timed correctly, he can even use it to neutralize projectiles such as missiles or even beam attacks closing in on him.
• Preservation Field: An extension of his de-aging effect, Gorosaurus' cherishment of things that have long since faded into extinction elsewhere in the world manifests itself as a sort of area-wide effect that, while much more subtle than his other special abilities, has a greater range and has been known to cover stretches of land as big as entire cities. Essentially, life forms in his vicinity seem to stop aging and gain limited regeneration abilities of their own as a diluted version of his time-reversal healing effect kicks in, allowing them to more easily recover from adversity such as disease outbreaks, parasite infestations, etc. This effect is also different from the other abilities in that even when Gorosaurus has left, it still lingers and can last for impressive durations, ranging from several months to a year or more, so he doesn't have to visit every single one of the sites where said effect is needed over the course of each day. This is how Gorosaurus has been able to maintain the various Earth hollows populated by otherwise extinct life forms over the millennia, and now that he has become more active on the surface world, his offer of benevolence has also been extended to Anthropocene ecosystems and revitalized the plant and animal life therein - his presence has even enabled some especially endangered biomes such as the Amazon to bounce back from the brink of destruction by human hands.

Weaknesses:

• Kill It Through Its Mouth: Gorosaurus' hide is nearly impenetrable, with two exceptions: the "vent" near the base of his tail and the inside of his mouth. The latter is easier to reach due to his jaws being used frequently in combat, but any military-grade weaponry that manages to enter it will hurt a lot more than if it simply bounced off his scales. In theory, one could drop an explosive down his throat and it will go off before he can use his time-slowing ability to prevent it from doing so, damaging internal organs and potentially proving fatal if he can't reverse time within him quickly enough. On a lesser scale, the mouth itself can also be broken via forcing his jaws apart too wide for the joints to handle, but this is not fatal and can be reversed in the same way as any other wound with enough concentration.
• No Ranged Attacks: Self-explanatory. Gorosaurus has no true projectile or beam attacks and even his shockwaves are much less effective at a distance. He has to get up close and personal with his opponent and if he can't get to them, they're usually safe. That said, Gorosaurus isn't above simply picking up objects lying around and flinging them at distant targets - often using his time-control to "slingshot" them at incredibly destructive velocity.
• Time-Out: Gorosaurus' time-slowing ability is limited in that he isn't able to turn the clock back for longer than several hours, and his time-reversing reflex when near death can only last for a few minutes. If he were prevented from using this skill for long enough period or if it was nullified somehow, the injuries he'd have sustained before then would stick. Gorosaurus is aware of this limitation and uses his time control as judiciously as possible, but he isn't always attentive to his need for it and bears numerous battle-scars from various scrapes over the milennia that were either forgotten about or too insignificant from his perspective to be worth fixing. In theory, disabling his time control for long enough after a fatal injury could potentially kill him permanently.
• What Date Is It Again?: Because Gorosaurus reflexively uses his time reversal to undo most significant injuries, disease, and the effects of aging, he is as every bit as sprightly as he was in his prime during the Cretaceous, but the price of his heavy reliance on this effect is that he no longer has any awareness of how long he has been on this Earth. As such, his knowledge of the passage of time is largely due to observations of the world around him rather than feeling any significant age-related complications. This means that over the eons, he has watched entire species and even entire eras come and go, largely being powerless to stop the losses occurring. His fear of change and new things stems from the deep-seated existential horror that he has developed from undergoing these experiences too many times to count, and on occasion when he visits the lost worlds under his care, he has been known to dissociate and believe that he was back in the same time period from when the species present originally existed. The shock of this perceived time travel is enough to disorient him frequently if often briefly, and as such he not only makes it a point to visit the Earth hollows only long enough to re-preserve them, but also dislikes associating with other titans based on extinct fauna until they prove themselves to him, largely because their very existence has been known to leave him hopelessly confused about what epoch he's in.
• Overprotective Guardian: As a consequence of being a guardian of lost and precious things, Gorosaurus has a highly protective streak underneath his kindly exterior. His Earth hollows, his friends, and the species under his protection are all emotional vulnerabilities that a savvy opponent can take advantage of, resulting in excessive and often reckless efforts on the Time Dragon's part to rescue them. His behavior in this regard is highly predictable and can be used against him if his enemy has no regard for the well-being of what he cares about, but this is by no means an easy gambit. Gorosaurus is easily powerful and capable enough to exact dire vengeance on anyone who threatens his charges for their own benefit, and almost none of the antagonists who have goaded him in this manner have lived to see the aftermath.

Chapter Text

STORY #2: Time Against Space

How had it all happened so quickly? What had motivated him to follow this strange child towards not but certain death, even though every instinct of his had told him - no, screamed in his ear at maximum volume - to turn and run in the opposite direction? That was a question that the Time Dragon couldn't answer. No one knew why he'd made the choice to follow the King's child. Not even Gorosaurus himself.

But it had led him here now. Here alongside every monster that the Kilaaks had summoned. Here before the monster of monsters, the three-headed Golden Calamity himself, the destroyer of many worlds beyond... and there was no turning back now.

Like the asteroid that had wiped out Gorosaurus' prehistoric kin so many eons ago, Ghidorah descended from the sky with enough ground-shattering force to leave a crater wider than Gorosaurus was long. Every monster in the vicinity was thrown off their feet, including Gorosaurus himself, and the seismic shockwave sent trees hurtling and rocks tumbling at least a mile away. But all stood their ground as soon as they'd regained their footing. Ghidorah was certainly a master of consummate destruction, but they had numbers on their side.

The spiky beast, Anguirus, was the first to strike, barreling headlong towards the King of Terror with jaws and claws outstretched. The space dragon began blasting gravity bolts wildly around in a bid to dissuade his attacker, white-hot plasma carving blackened, smoldering ditches into the earth and turning trees into charcoal. Gorosaurus and Minilla hopped and danced back in an almost frantic manner as the ground around them turned into fire, instinctively wary of these deadly electrical blasts, but despite the fear gnawing at the back of his mind, the Time Dragon refused to be discouraged. He knew he couldn't flee. Failure was not an option here.

Godzilla meanwhile circled around, hoping to catch his foe off-guard with an ambush from behind. Ghidorah's left head had turned to spot him just in time, though, and Godzilla's charge was blocked by the creature's scaly, sturdy back, its rows of spikes running down its length. At the same time, Anguirus had sunk his fangs into his right wing, clawing and tearing at the metal-hard scales with all his might.

Ghidorah snarled impatiently, and then flicked Anguirus away, sending him onto his back and forcing Gorosaurus to leap aside to avoid getting spiked in the face. The King of Terror had no interest in those two pests - Godzilla was his main priority.

The Time Dragon glanced down at Anguirus with concern, before nudging the armored crocodilian's neck with his snout, causing the latter to whip round and growl at him. Stumbling back a little, the dinosaur was upset less at being warned to back off and more at the fact that the ancient beast before him had been tossed like a twig in a tornado - despite being almost as big as Gorosaurus himself. Ghidorah's power was beyond compare... and yet Anguirus was not going to back down despite being so outgunned.

Suddenly, Godzilla was hurled aside as one of Ghidorah's twin tails had wrapped around his leg and yanked him off. Before the three-headed horror could react, however, Anguirus had charged at him again, this time seizing the throat of his right neck with his teeth - and this time, more monsters joined him. Varan had wrapped himself around Ghidorah's left neck, Manda coiled around his legs, Ebirah had grabbed one of his wings, Rodan had seized his center neck with her talons so Raodan could begin pecking at his head, Baragon had jumped onto his back and tried to claw his armor off, and the infant Mothra had of course grabbed onto one of his twin tails, with Kamacuras pinning the other. Even Kumonga had volunteered by firing poisoned silk into the fray, though it had left a few painful welts on some of her allies in the process. But it would take more than even all that to subdue the King of Terror.

Angered but none the worse for wear, Ghidorah decided he'd had enough. His wings twitched, and as Gorosaurus looked on in alarm, the scattered debris around him began to float slightly...

There was a faint humming, the air rippling around the King of Terror ever so slightly. It was all the warning the monsters dogpiling had before they found themselves airborne, as though the golden dragon had exploded with the force of a hundred atomic bombs at once. Even Gorosaurus, who had thought himself a safe distance from the epicenter, was sent hurtling head-over-heels several body lengths away. Carving a ditch into the countryside with his chest and chin, he would swear he'd broken at least a half-dozen bones, maybe a few spinal ones, and definitely one of his legs - but one quick time-reversal later and he was back on his feet. Immediately rushing over to a prone Minilla, he was prepared to see the worst.

A great shadow passed over the two of them. Ghidorah had taken to the air with Anguirus - the only one not repelled by his strange pulse attack - still hanging onto his right neck by his teeth alone.

Gorosaurus was distracted from the grotesque sight overhead as Minilla coughed, weakly looking up at his prehistoric pal. Bruised and winded though he was, he'd gotten off better than his bigger and somewhat more breakable companion - but the chaos was far from over. Gently but quickly, Gorosaurus picked Minilla up with his mouth, and carried him a short distance before setting him down on the side of a large forested hill and growling at him to stay absolutely motionless lest that golden abomination notice him. Before Minilla could protest, however, something crashed into the other side of the hill and caused it to crumble in a landslide, exposing part of a shiny metal dome hidden within.

The Kilaaks' base was given not a thought as Ghidorah descended upon the land-croc he'd just dislodged and pile-driven into the ground, slamming into his underside with his talons and fracturing his ribs. Anguirus wailed in anguish as he clawed and lashed his spiny tail at his tormentor, actually managing to draw blood himself. But Ghidorah was not quite done - with a cackle of manic glee, he raked and bit at Anguirus' belly, gulping down scraps of skin and flesh and intending to rip out much more at a slow, agonizing pace.

Gorosaurus bared his teeth in barely-restrained fury at this awful sight. The three-headed fiend was tormenting a creature that was already down, and now too incapacitated to fight back! The Time Dragon had seen enough and, with a terrible roar, he clambered up the hill and, upon crossing its peak, barreled straight at the space monster with his jaws open wide.

Before Ghidorah could hurl him aside, Gorosaurus' teeth had embedded themselves in his left neck, the primordial predator yanking him away from Anguirus with all his might. Even with his great strength, Ghidorah was heavier in terms of mass alone, but help was on the way as Godzilla grabbed at the other two necks with his fangs and claws before tugging him in the same direction. Too startled to exert that strange force he had control over, Ghidorah felt his feet slip and, with a triple screech of outrage, he was pulled to the ground, flailing and lashing out every which way.

The other monsters converged upon the evil space dragon, fully prepared to similarly exercise their right to defend the world he had threatened twice now. That would have been the end of him if not for a single mistake...

Foolishly, Minilla stepped out from behind the hill, calling for his father. One of the six eyes on Ghidorah's central head met his gaze, and the infant's expression turned fearful as he realized the same thing Ghidorah had: the alpha predator had a defenseless child right in front of him, much too close, and unable to escape in time.

Perhaps Godzilla realized this as well, for he risked one glance at Minilla with a silent, pleading look to run while he still could. That was an error of judgement. Ghidorah's wings vibrated again, debris began to float. A smaller gravity pulse flung the other three monsters aside as the evil alien reared to his full height, before glaring straight at Minilla with all three of his heads. The little kaiju didn't get the chance to react before that strange hum came through the air again and he was suddenly pulled to the ground, unable to move. All he could do was look up and scream in horror as Ghidorah reared up to his full height, looming ominously, electricity crackling around his back spines and teeth as he prepared to blast him to oblivion.

For the first time in his life, Godzilla felt nothing but pure, unbridled fear, knowing that his adopted son was about to die in front of him. And yet he couldn't move, his legs feeling like solid stone, his body locked in place and somehow incapable of mounting even the slightest defense.

All the other monsters present, paralyzed by fear, were similarly too slow to react. All, that is, except one.

Absolute rage burned in Gorosaurus' every cell. He had nearly lost Minilla once, and he had also learned that the baby titan had apparently suffered near-death experiences two times before. But if something wasn't done at this very moment, Ghidorah could kill him for real - and the Time Dragon wasn't about to let that happen.

Time seemed to slow down as its saurian master felt his legs move almost of their own accord. Around him, flying debris seemed to decelerate even as he started running straight at the King of Terror without an ounce of fear. At the last moment, he thrust his tail downward and leaped skyward - and just before the inevitable collision, for one critical second, Ghidorah began to feel the movement his own body grind down to an excruciating crawl.

And then the flying double-clawed kick slammed into the space dragon's back.

Armor cracked, bones split, flesh tore as the impact sent the space dragon sailing over Minilla's head, a startled shriek escaping each of his three snapping maws. Rolling to a stop with his chest to the ground and his back broken, Ghidorah found that his movement speed was now back to normal, but too late. Before he could react, Gorosaurus had launched himself at him with a lone, completely out-of-character intent: KILL.

Talons longer than train cars sank into Ghidorah's back once more. Ripping into the armored hide, Gorosaurus dipped his head and sank his teeth into the raw red meat within the wound he'd inflicted, tearing out a truck-sized chunk of the strangely flavored, blood-drenched flesh and bolting it down without even chewing. Pain flooded Ghidorah's nerves as he realized what was happening, outrage and - for the first time - fear causing an instinctive and violent reaction. All three of his heads spun round and hurtled teeth-first at his attacker, bent on tearing him apart then and there. Having buried his fangs into the wound again, Gorosaurus pulled his head back to dodge the attack, another great strip of gore being yanked out of the gash in the process, but while two sets of fangs missed by inches, the third plunged into his leg, holding fast like a ghastly vice, tearing through muscle and scraping against bone.

Digging his claws even deeper into his wounded foe, the Time Dragon refused to budge even as his leg flared up in agony, Ghidorah attempting to hamstring him if not pull him off completely. Undeterred and determined to finish what he had started, the furious carnosaur continued to feed on the still-living King of Terror with no mercy given, tearing out mouthfuls of flesh again and again, doing his damndest to put a stop to his omnicidal rampage before it damaged the planet beyond recovery. The fuming extraterrestrial continued to struggle even while being devoured as such, bucking and flapping his wings madly and even briefly thrusting himself airborne several times. He might have had his back broken, but the King of Terror's wings were still functional, and if he could just get this troublesome theropod literally off his back, there might be enough time to regenerate good as new!

But Gorosaurus held, continuing to maul his hated enemy like a carcharodontosaurid possessed and intermittently swatting away the creature's other two sets of snapping jaws each time they lunged at him, swinging his head and tail about and ducking and dodging gravity bolts at point-blank range. Still motivated by sheer indignant anger but losing vitality by the second, Ghidorah started literally dragging himself back towards the nearest electrical power source - the city of Tokyo - with his unwanted passenger still hanging on for dear life. The realization that the space terror was making his way towards the colony of helpless tiny bipeds made the dinosaur's blood boil. The humans had done terrible things before, he thought, but even the masses led by such a horrid minority were as much a part of this planet as the kaiju were. How many more innocent lives would Ghidorah make a senseless end of before he was stopped? Luckily, Gorosaurus' efforts were already taking their toll: vital fluids poured onto the ground in a giant crimson trail as roars, screams, thunderclaps, crashes and thuds, and tearing and crunching noises straight from man's worst nightmares carried across the hills, the other kaiju already converging on the gruesome struggle.

Just as the Tokyo skyline came back into view, Ghidorah paused to make a final attempt to dislodge his attacker. The other two of the space terror's heads swung around once again, but Gorosaurus' reactions were quicker. Daring to lift one foot off Ghidorah's back, he managed to nail the rightmost head with a razor-clawed kick that nailed it square in the face, sending two of his scarlet eyeballs flying. The other whiffled as a result, and before the King of Terror could react, Gorosaurus had sank his teeth into the back of his neck just behind his head. A violent, grisly tug of war ensued as the two scaly beasts writhed in place, each trying to dislodge the other. But even Gorosaurus' strength could only carry him so far...

A great ripping noise could be heard as Ghidorah's left head was torn from Gorosaurus' leg, eliciting a snarl of surprise and pain, and though he didn't let go of the center neck caught in his teeth, he couldn't help but risk a glance at the intruder. Anguirus had caught up to the two of them, and his teeth and claws had met the space dragon's throat for a second time! The daredevil dinosaur's act of bravery in Minilla's defense had impressed the Primordial Juggernaut, and having been saved himself from being cruelly dismembered minutes ago, the giant land-croc was keen to return the favor. Keening in encouragement, he called for the others to help, for the sooner their foe was dispatched, the better.

But before Gorosaurus could express his gratitude for the gesture, he felt something coil around his throat, cutting off his breathing and circulation. Ghidorah's rightmost neck and head had snared him in a desperate act, and it was enough to cause the Time Dragon's jaw to slacken. The central head wriggled free and reared back, prepared to blast him to oblivion, but he didn't get the chance. With a savage, piercing cry, Rodan swooped in to lend her aid, sinking her talons into the back of his head and slamming her dagger-like beak into his scalp with enough force to chip off a few scales and fracture the skullcap. At the same time, Anguirus had managed to work his way through the scales and flesh of the leftmost neck, and before Ghidorah could react with a gravity pulse to hurl him away, he felt a set of teeth crunching into his spine. Then Anguirus flexed his jaw, and the sinister light in Ghidorah's left head went out.

Even so, Gorosaurus still struggled and spluttered in the grip of Ghidorah's right neck, feeling his vision turn fuzzy at the edges. He was certain that he was going to die, strangled by this psychotic world-destroyer that had taken so many to bring down. His fight had begun to ebb away along with his breath, but at the very least, he had weakened the space dragon enough for the others to finish the job.

Teeth and talons sank into Ghidorah's rightmost neck, startling him. The corresponding head looked around just in time to see that Godzilla had caught this neck in a bear-hug, every muscle in his arms and jaws straining with the intent of pulling him off of his ally. This would not do... IT WOULD NOT DO! A crackling sound filled the air as a white-hot energy surged through the neck and head, making Gorosaurus' throat feel as though it were on fire and Godzilla's every nerve erupt in searing pain. A yellowish white glow emanated from Ghidorah's eyes and throat as he prepared to blast Godzilla's face with a point-blank mag-grav bolt, but this time, Godzilla had rage and determination engraved on his visage - if he was going to perish bringing down the King of Terror...

Three other bodies came down upon the prone space dragon in an instant. Baragon and Manda respectively pinned down each beating wing, and Varan forced Ghidorah's head down with a claw-slam just before the bolt was fired, hitting the underside of his own neck and slicing clean through his own flesh. All life in the rightmost head died in an instant and his grip slackened just enough for Gorosaurus to draw breath, before he seized the lifeless neck in his teeth and tore it clean in two. But of course, there was still that central head to deal with.

With a final thrash, Ghidorah flung Rodan aside, but before he could strike at Gorosaurus again, three more monsters stepped in. Ebirah, Kumonga, and Kamacuras all piled onto his neck with the intent of pinning him down as Gorosaurus resumed tearing into his back, looking for a vital organ to extract or the joint connecting his neck to his body so he could sever that as well. But perhaps realizing that he was losing in earnest now, Ghidorah's egotistic rage exploded to new heights. That ominous humming filled the air once more, giving away what was about to happen, but Gorosaurus dug all six of his toe claws as well as his teeth into the body of his hated foe to keep himself from being sent flying. His claw tip found a gap between two of Ghidorah's vertebrae and buried itself in his spinal cord, and Ghidorah felt his legs and tail go limp, his own gravity power beginning to falter. Distracted for just one second, his eye fell upon Minilla once more. In a last, desperate ploy, the remaining head lunged at the Prince of the Monsters, jaws agape...

There was a flash of blue, the sound of flesh being blown apart, and a scream of anguish. Ghidorah's final head twitched in place, smoke billowing from his nostrils, the corners of his mouth - and the massive hole just behind the back of his head where the explosion from Minilla's atomic fireball had busted right through. The other monsters could only stare in shock, even Minilla himself, as the King of Terror's central neck and head spasmed once, twice, three times, and then slumped to the ground with an almighty crash.

Bleeding from every orifice, most of his bones broken, the beating of his two hearts becoming erratic like a broken-down car engine on its last legs, Ghidorah, even in his final moments, still couldn't believe what had just happened. He had to have won - even with so many opponents, he was KING GHIDORAH! The destroyer of all life, the consummate wielder of death itself! How could any of these foolish dullards have been even close to a match for him? Why did they think tearing him down would be a good idea? Where had it... all... gone...

As the final light of the King of Terror went out for good, Gorosaurus locked eyes with his remaining head with a final, meaningful look, throat puffed and bloodstained jaws slightly parted in a toothy snarl. The message was clear: This world was not Ghidorah's, or any other invader's, to defile as they saw fit.

For a full minute, the monsters of Earth milled about uncertainly. For all they knew, Ghidorah could rise again and kill them all if their guard was dropped. Gorosaurus nudged the broken body a few times and sniffed at the gaping holes he'd torn into it, unable to believe that the space dragon was dead, or for that matter that he had played such a significant role in killing him. But ultimately, as the storm clouds cleared and the dust settled, the realization came to everyone almost simultaneously: This fiend from beyond the stars should not have existed. His shattered corpse was proof that he had anyway, so they'd have to be thorough in its destruction.

Still, the Kilaaks' invasion had failed, their greatest and most terrible ally gone. The Earth had been saved, the families of kaiju torn apart by the invasion reunited once again, and new friendships made. But was it a true victory? No one knew. But somewhere in the back of his mind, Gorosaurus suspected, the war for Earth might not be over just yet.

He was just about to return to the meal everyone was due to partake in when a noise reached his ears. The sound of a spaceship's engine roaring as the Kilaaks' Fire Dragon rose into the sky. Gorosaurus wasn't sure how he knew, but instinct told him that this was a thing from beyond the stars, and if it returned to them, it would bring news of Ghidorah's defeat to wherever it had come from, and surely that would lead to an even greater disaster. At long last stepping off the still-warm cadaver, Gorosaurus regarded the spacecraft with narrowed eyes, tensed legs, and the intent of silencing the invading force for good.

It seemed the Time Dragon's return to Mondo Island would have to wait a little longer.

Chapter Text

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms: RHEDOSAURUS

Statistics

• Classification: Retrosauria (Metatyrannidae)
• Length: 200 feet/60.96 meters
• Height: 75 feet/22.86 meters
• Mass: 500 short tons/453.59 metric tons
• Locality: The Rhedosaurus specimen that attacked New York City in 1953 was originally sighted emerging from what is now called Caspak, a subterranean ecosystem beneath the Arctic Archipelago with multiple entrances in the ocean floor surrounding the islands. Additional members of the species have since been confirmed to exist within the hollow.

Bio

History:
The history of kaiju attacks, despite being quite storied, is actually only relatively recent in academic circles. While many historians now believe that a variety of myths and legends around the world are attributable to the various supergiant organisms that are now known to exist on every continent, the study of these creatures only began sometime during the 1930's, shortly after the famous expedition that led to Titanus Kong I being transported to New York City. This would only be the first in a series of incidents wherein this famous metropolis would witness a slew of different kaiju attacks over the next century, the first of which would happen just twenty years after Kong's topple from the Empire State Building.

Ever since the use of atomic energy as a utility aid and as a weapon began at the close of the 30's, a major concern was the effects of radiation on the ecosystem and on the general public, with a number of incidents of sickness induced by proximity to atom bomb testing being reported - culminating in the infamous use of Fat Man and Little Boy to obliterate the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshma, respectively, killing somewhere between 129,000 and 226,000 people and aiding in World War II coming to an end. As part of the aftermath of these incidents, the global public, especially in Japan, rained utter condemnation upon nuclear energy and the harm it had done to the world at large, forcing many nations to run nuclear tests in a more secretive manner where they would not disturb human civilization. Among these tests was Operation Experiment, conducted somewhere within the Arctic Archipelago off the coast of Canada in May of 1953, although the exact coordinates of the test itself remain classified. While it was expected that there would be no immediate disruption to humanity due to the choice of location, however, the blast front and radioactive fallout did disrupt something else seemingly trapped in a nearby iceberg. Physicist Thomas Nesbitt, the only witness to have escaped with his life, was later dismissed as being delirious from what was claimed to be a faulty test, but he insisted on being truthful about the discovery of what he would later describe as a prehistoric monstrosity awakened from the ice that had contained it.

"It was a beast of truly colossal size, clearly reptilian in nature, and hailing from the Jurassic period. It was like it had come from twenty-thousand fathoms below - incomprehensively enormous and indescribably terrifying. Perhaps the heat from the blast had melted the ice and awakened it after its 100-million-year hibernation..."
- Dr. Thomas Nesbitt, describing the soon-to-be-called Beast From 20,000 Fathoms

Obviously, as the sole survivor of the incident, Nesbitt found next to no support for his suspicion, but then fishing boats began disappearing off the eastern coast of the North American continent. Then a lighthouse on the coast of Maine was destroyed, with reports claiming that the creature was attracted to the sound of its fog signal, perhaps mistaking it for the bellowing of a rival of its species. The major events of the "Foghorn Incident", however, would occur only after the beast, identified as a member of the transitional tyrant retrosaur species Rhedosaurus bradburius by the late paleontologist Thurgood Elson, found its way to the Hudson River and into Manhattan, possibly due to the conditions of the river being similar to the species' ancestral biome. Perhaps it was looking for a new nesting ground, or maybe it was passing through in search of an inland region that may have been covered by the sea in the Jurassic - none could say. But in any case, the Rhedosaurus would cause total chaos as it made its way through New York, destroying everything in its path, easily routing military resistance despite suffering from a neck injury in the process, and leaving behind its own infectious pathogens which prevented a more destructive means of dealing with it from being carried out. After confirmation that it had been mutated by the radiation from Operation Experiment and was suffering from its deleterious effects, Nesbitt deduced that the creature would need to be put down in a way that neutralized its immune system, the only way being one of the radioactive isotopes which would go on to be used in chemotherapy decades later. With time running out, the Rhedosaurus was lured to Coney Island where a concentrated dose of the isotope was delivered into its wound, eventually causing it to level the amusement park in its death throes and spark a fire that consumed the whole establishment including itself.

While the remains of the Rhedosaurus were retrieved for further study, the United States government had to confiscate them to avoid causing a potential scare among the public, with Nesbitt being the only one involved in the Foghorn Incident who had clearance to reach them. Realizing that there was a connection between atomic energy and giant monsters, he would attempt a study later in the year on the effects of radiation on the health of the natural environment, but the government swiftly defunded it, again to avoid controversy in the face of nuclear energy being increasingly considered as an alternative to fossil fuels. It wouldn't be until June of the following year, when another bomb test in the southwestern U.S. would produce a nest of gigantic mutant insects, that Nesbitt's opinion would be validated, but more importantly, another even more famous calamity would transpire a mere four months later, quickly overshadowing the Foghorn Incident. With the world now knowing that nuclear energy and daikaiju were connected somehow, there had to be some way to address the new surge in titan-related phenomena. And so it was that just a month after the destruction of Tokyo, a certain palaeontologist by the name of Kyohei Yamane met Nesbitt for the first time under the supervision of their respective governments. Of course, the "Yamane-Nesbitt Division" sounded too obvious as a name for the collaborative efforts of these two men and their colleagues, so an alternative name was picked instead: Monarch Sciences*.

Ecology and Behavior:
The Rhedosaurus that ransacked New York, while notable in being the second kaiju attack on New York City and the first to involve a monster affected by nuclear radiation, was at the end of the day an ordinary if somewhat glorified animal as opposed to a more advanced organism. It never was a guardian beast, embodiment of nature, or bioengineered superweapon, it just was, and the folly of man was as much to blame for its rampage as the creature itself. Most of the behavior ascribed to Rhedosaurus in Monarch's records is based on observations of other specimens known from the Caspak Earth Hollow, which remained largely inaccessible by most marine transportation both before and after the Foghorn Incident and has been deemed a protected region since its discovery. This is in part to preserve the biodiversity of the hollow and to prevent any repeats of the same collateral that led to the Rhedosaurus type specimen attacking the U.S. Eastern seaboard, which led to calls for retaliatory persecution of the species as a whole. Claims that these animals are bloodthirsty abominations bent on destroying humanity are best ignored - these relics of the Jurassic are, in fact, an important part of the Caspak ecosystem, and are as important to the region's health as the other species native to the so-called "Land That Time Forgot".

The Rhedosaurus is the largest predator of Caspak by a fair margin, and though a few herbivorous species eclipse even it in scale, it is still capable of hunting them and may in fact be the only species that can reliably do so. For the most part, though, adults of the species prefer to dine on creatures about their size or smaller, finding easier pickings among the mammoths, aurochs and other ungulates, slurpasaurs, and other smaller kinds of retrosaur they share their habitat with, along with large fish such as sharks, whales, and sea reptiles of all stripes which they can chase after due to being amphibious. If given the chance, they may even hunt other terrestrial carnivores such as bears, theropods, other predatory retrosaurs, or smaller members of their own kind. With a vicious bite that can crush a truck like an empty soda can, it can grapple with creatures as large as itself and then either choke the windpipe, shatter their bones, drag them underwater to drown them, or rip great bleeding chunks out of them to kill by exsanguination, if not simply crunch them to a pulp should they be small enough to swallow in one mangled piece. The creature may seize larger prey in its jaws and, while holding onto it, sink the large talons on its front feet into it to further drag it down to a vulnerable position. Devouring every part of the corpse from bones to scales to teeth to fur, the Rhedosaurus can eat up to half its body weight in a single meal, and will readily feast on carrion as well as live prey, easily cracking open marrow-rich bones that no other carnivores can. In some places, the Rhedosaurus is the only creature powerful enough to can keep the populations of certain equally destructive species in check via predation, which is part of why they are a protected species and have largely been avoided rather than systematically slaughtered as with other apex predators known to man... to say nothing of how the armored hides, sheer size, and brute strength of the creatures are regardless too much for even the most experienced hunters to handle.

Rhedosaurus are adaptable predators capable of both pursuit and ambush hunting, as while its inverted limb proportions compared to other, swifter predatory retrosaurs - short, stocky hind legs and long, heavily muscled forelimbs - are suited more for wrestling prey into submission than running it down, its muscular, paddle-like tail makes it a swift, powerful swimmer that can outpace most other aquatic prey animals. Keeping track of its prey by using the highly acute taste recepters on its flickering, forked tongue (in lieu of a Jacobson's organ, which archosaurs lack), the beast will slowly stalk a chosen victim for hours or days at a time before coming at it with a short burst of speed when it is least vulnerable - attacking a prey item in its sleep is a common tactic. The un-mutated animal at adult age is only three-quarters of the size recorded for the type specimen from the Foghorn Incident, but at 150 feet long, this is still enormous enough that it requires a large territory, usually at around 1,000 acres or so, for there to be enough game at any given time to sustain it - especially because the latitude of Caspak means it has to be somewhat more endothermic than a hypothetically similarly-sized crocodile. As such, the animals are fiercely territorial, viciously battling whenever they come across each other; they will size each other up, emitting deep, foghorn-like bellows in challenge, and if no clear size advantage can be gauged, they will throw themselves upon each other in a thrashing mass of scales, fangs, claws, and blood. Even if one doesn't meet its fate at the teeth of the other, both will come away with heavy, bleeding wounds - every adult has a unique pattern of scars from previous fights over the years, which some naturalists use to identify specimens in the same manner as human fingerprints.

Perhaps the only exception to the Rhedosaurus' violently antisocial streak is when mature members of opposing genders meet, and even then they will only mate for long enough to procreate and then part ways without a second thought. Like most other retrosaurs, Rhedosaurus lay soft-shelled, crocodile-like eggs and care for their occupants until the young can survive on their own; a gravid female will bury her clutch of about a dozen eggs in any patch of soft ground near a body of water and remain in the area to prey on any potential egg thieves that try to steal them, at least until they hatch two months later, upon which she will then ferry the young on her back to the nearest lake or pond for safekeeping. Like crocodiles, the alligator-sized hatchlings remain in creches until they grow old and large enough that doing so is unsustainable, but they grow slowly enough that they hold a comfortable niche as mesopredators in the meantime, taking around 50 years to reach adulthood. Only one or two per clutch will make it that far, though, as many other carnivores, including larger Rhedosaurus, will try to dispatch their competitors/potential predators while they're still small. Even those that do make it to maturity aren't necessarily safe, as though obviously formidable when in good health, clashes with rivals or injuries from especially difficult hunts often take their toll, with more than 50% of individuals failing to make it past 80 years of age (Titanus Foghorn itself was found to be a mere 130 years old at its time of passing); the oldest-aged Rhedosaurus remains known have been determined to be around 260 years old at the time of death, and though longer lifespans could be achieved, the harsh ecosystem of Caspak has made most biologists skeptical of this possibility happening naturally.

The Rhedosaurus has a somewhat strained relationship with the sapient inhabitants of Caspak as well as mankind - so difficult is it to kill that many tribes either take heavy losses or are eventually forced to flee (or both) when confronted by one, even though they are well within their right to try and fend it off because of its tendency to attack any other creature they encounter, often without provocation, as an insurance that its place at the top of the food chain remains undisturbed. An adult animal can flatten a village in a half-hour or less if not lured away by some other source of interest, and whole populations of people have been driven from their homes just because a Rhedosaurus decided that it didn't like the placement of their town. The Foghorn Incident aside, though, the species has not suffered significantly from human intervention, but even so, its numbers are still in decline, with only around 500 left in the wild. The greatest threat to its existence is the climate change induced by global industrialization: the warming of the planet's atmosphere and the resultant shrinking of the polar ice caps has led to the entrances to Caspak becoming less protected from invasive species which may venture in through Hollow Earth passageways that were previously inaccessible. This could potentially impact the Rhedosaurus population by putting additional pressure on the vulnerable juveniles, to say nothing of the changing climate of Caspak itself altering the habitats the creatures are used to potentially for the worse. Sadly, as other, more significant kaiju sightings have eclipsed the notoriety of the Foghorn Incident, the species' significance has faded from public opinion and is only maintained nowadays by Monarch and kaiju-centric naturalists monitoring the Caspak ecosystem. If something doesn't change soon to better the global condition, the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms may well disappear from the Hollow Earth completely by the turn of the next century.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Sub-Kaiju Strength: The Rhedosaurus is the apex predator of its realm, and is as such built for tackling the largest prey of the region - few creatures short of kaiju are capable of withstanding its attack. It is not an animal built for long-distance land pursuit, but its mismatched leg proportions are significantly better built for swimming, burrowing, and even climbing, traversing even the roughest terrain when tracking prey. The Rhedosaurus' main weapon is its large, short, and solidly built head, with powerful jaws bearing thick, slightly recurved, and finely serrated teeth like a tyrannosaur for piercing and gripping; its bite force measures at over 12,000 pounds, easily able to rend substances as hard as refined metal and crack open the toughest of bodies. Tearing gigantic chunks of flesh from its prey, thrashing it around like a ragdoll, it lacks subtlety in mauling it to pieces, using its front claws and bludgeoning strikes from its powerful tail to aid in nullifying potential resistance. With its tough, scaly hide and more solidly built skeleton than most other retrosaurs - a must for deep diving - it's able to take punishment better than other smaller relatives can, and often gives as good as it gets as many overconfident assailants find all too late.
• Amphibious: Able to hunt both on land and in the water, the Rhedosaurus seems almost custom-made to prowl the depths of the sea in search of food. Its muscular, paddle-like tail is its main propulsion system, its web-fingered hands being its main means of steering. With relatively smooth scutes and a low-slung body, it is a scarily efficient stealth cruiser that can dive to great depths thanks to certain adaptations such as reinforced, collapsible lungs and a reduction in air cavities in much of the skeletal system, as well as a somewhat streamlined form to move through the water more efficiently. The "Foghorn Incident" Rhedosaurus was able to travel from the far north of Canada to the waters off Manhattan within less than a week, and other Rhedosaurus specimens have been observed diving as deep as 2,000 feet below sea level. Although the species has above-average hemoglobin levels in its blood for greater oxygen storage, like deep-diving marine mammals do, it's also able to breathe underwater thanks to an oxygen-absorbing membrane lining the inside of its mouth and throat, so it can avoid or surprise competitors by remaining below the waves for much longer than strict air-breathers can.

Special Abilities:

• Infectious Body Fluids: Scientists have speculated that Rhedosaurus evolved from a fossorial or burrowing ancestor, which had to get used to confinement in relatively closed-off environments such as underground cavern systems. It therefore stands to reason that the Rhedosaurus has retained a powerful immune system to keep infection at bay, as it is in constant proximity to all sorts of pathogens. The "Foghorn Incident" specimen, however, revealed just how powerful its immune cells could be - while beneficial to the creature itself, they became a deadly disease when other organisms contracted them from its spilled blood, acting of their own accord almost like infectious bacteria. It used to be thought that this was due to radiation mutating its anatomy, but other Rhedosaurus specimens have displayed the same ability. Every substance containing immune cells including blood, bile, and saliva have tested positive for this pathogen-like property, making close-quarters combat with a Rhedosaurus a dangerous prospect. Why the species' anti-infection mechanisms are so unnecessarily powerful is a mystery, but it's been suggested that because the permafrost and glacial ice above the Arctic Circle is known to contain all kinds of dangerous diseases, the Rhedosaurus' biology and microbial ecology probably had to adapt to the possibility of contracting them. As such, it is highly resistant or outright immune to all manner of pathogens, toxins, and other biological weapons.
• Cryogenic Suspension: Another distinctive aspect of the Rhedosaurus' biology is its ability to withstand extreme cold almost indefinitely. Proteins in its blood not unlike the ones found in many species of fish and amphibians found in polar latitudes allow it to curb the growth of ice crystals in its system before they can spread to dangerous levels, enabling it to go into a state of torpor and hibernate even when frozen solid. During this period, its vital processes slow to just barely enough for it to be considered alive; should it be thawed out, it can easily revive and resume normal activity. While it was initially speculated that the type specimen was preserved in ice since the Jurassic, it has since been found that a Rhedosaurus can remain in this state for only around five years or so - though this is often more than long enough to withstand the seasonal cycle of the Arctic circle and endure especially harsh winters until conditions improve.

Weaknesses:

• Kill It With Fire: Rhedosaurus are technically ectothermic, meaning that their body temperature is based on the environment, but as adults they are gigantothermic and can retain heat to some extent by virtue of both their sheer size and a complex circulatory system to transfer outgoing heat back towards the vitals - a must for polar conditions. Unfortunately, this also means that the creatures have no means of discharging heat that they accumulate from the outside at a pace capable of keeping them from dangerously overheating. Intense heat is thus an anathema to them, and they will retreat from even the smell of smoke or other indications of fire. While a Rhedosaurus has few combustible body coverings or surfaces for flames to stick to, a large enough inferno such as a forest fire can overwhelm it completely if it has no means of escape into water or underground.
• Certain Radioactive Compounds: The immune system of the Rhedosaurus has been found to be neutralized by the same kinds radiation that are now used in modern cancer treatment. Although in humans the risk of a defective or inactive immune system is that foreign pathogens are capable of infecting the body more successfully with fewer defenses available, the mutations induced in the "Foghorn Incident" Rhedosaurus' immune system seem to have caused it to turn against its own body and attack its still-living tissues, causing a deadly allergic reaction followed by catastrophic organ failure. It is still not known if this is the standard condition for all Rhedosaurus, let alone why this occurred in the first place.
• Animalistic Mindset: A Rhedosaurus is not a complex creature - its needs such as food, territory, or breeding are very simplistic and easy to predict with enough knowledge of its behavior. This means that ideally it can be easily dealt with in a nonlethal fashion, assuming it hasn't already made the choice to actively antagonize humanity by nesting in civilized regions. Unfortunately, however, this also makes it less capable of holding its own against more intelligent foes, as it has to rely on its size and strength to do so with only its pathogens as a special technique, and even these can be resisted and do not affect machinery. A Rhedosaurus is less a sapient being and more a wild animal, and can only be communicated with in the most rudimentary forms if its attention isn't focused on its own wants and needs. It is also relatively difficult for a Rhedosaurus to come up with sophisticated strategies, especially in combat, and conversely it is easy for more intelligent opponents to trick it into stumbling into circumstances it can't resolve with brute force alone.

Chapter Text

The Atomic Sea Monster: PALAEOTITAN

Statistics

• Classification: Tonitrusauridae
• Length: 1350 feet/411.48 meters
• Height: 400 feet/121.92 meters at the shoulder
• Mass: 148,812.03 short tons/135,000 metric tons
• Locality: Unknown as of now, but most likely in the Hollow Earth. Sightings of the second Palaeotitan have been most common off the coasts of Europe, particularly near the British Isles.

Bio

History:
The natural history of the Earth, as extensive as it is, is largely focused on the surface world - ignoring most of the Hollow Earth, which has not been explored due to being ill-suited for human activity. Here, alternate forms and lineages of life were able to survive multiple mass extinctions and evolve into all kinds of strange new forms. One such form was Palaeotitan astrape, a member of the retrosaur family that has been attributed to a number of dragon myths from northwest European folklore. The placement of the species was uncertain prior to the first confirmed sighting in March of 1959, which involved the creature sadly having to be put down. Analysis of its remains finally brought the Palaeotitan's affinity to light: the creature was a very early long-necked goliath retrosaur, a group that convergently evolved with the equally long-necked, massive-bodied sauropods, proving a theory that at least some primitive members of the clade were omnivores rather than herbivores. That was, however, just one of the findings gleaned from this extraordinary event...

The creature known as the "Giant Behemoth" was first sighted off the coast of Looe, Cornwall, albeit very briefly and with the sole surviving witness only managing to utter the word "behemoth" before dying of severe radiation burns. The marine life throughout the area had been poisoned by radioactive contamination, the most likely candidate for such being one of the nuclear tests that the various superpowers experimenting with the technology were conducting at the time. The problem was that in almost all cases, they had occurred in the south Pacific; no officially recorded nuclear tests were conducted anywhere near the British Isles, let alone off of Cornwall.

The key phrase, of course, being "officially recorded".

What no layman could have suspected at the time, and what Monarch officials would not know until well into the next decade, was that there was an undocumented test that had occurred in a sea trench off the coast of Scotland, specifically within a newly discovered entrance to the Hollow Earth - the intent had been to block the entrance in case something dangerous had come out of it. In an eerily similar turn of events to what had transpired near Tokyo just five years prior, though, the attempt had backfired. The blast, despite not being noticeable to the surface world thanks to the depth at which it was detonated, contaminated much of the marine habitat within the very Earth Hollow it had been intended to close off. This resulted in not only a massive die-off of the marine fauna present in the area, but the awakening, and subsequent horrific mutation, of a prehistoric beast that had been slumbering within the hollow close to the entrance. Now significantly larger, suffering from horrifying Keloid scars and other burns, and very hungry from its sudden growth spurt, the beast had emerged from the hollow and was heading towards the surface to find food.

Unfortunately, the next place the monster visited was Essex, where it leveled a local farm and devoured every crop and livestock available. As awareness of the creature began to rise amongst the British populace, it also came to light that the beast was suffering from some sort of radiation sickness which was initially speculated to have been brought about by possible illegal disposal of toxic waste into the North Sea, and this was the official statement regarding the monster's origin, though no confirmed sources or studies about it would come to light. The British government had covered their tracks very well given the state of things, but any analysis into the mutated Palaeotitan could very well undo these efforts. As such, military forces were sent out to dispose of the creature as it proceeded on its way towards London, where it would destroy boats in the Thames, topple buildings, flatten vehicles, and leave a trail of destruction and radioactive fallout in the city streets. With its body destabilized due to its immune system going haywire in a bid to counteract its mutations, a difficult decision had to be made: was it better to dispose of the beast before it caused further damage to the ecosystem and civilization, or to attempt to cure its condition and send it back from whence it had come? With time running out, however, the government moved forward with the former approach, using a radium-filled torpedo to dispatch the Palaeotitan by accelerating its decay and inducing a deadly meltdown... causing its radioactive blood to pour from every orifice in its death throes, leaving the Thames polluted for decades afterwards, and leaving most of London uninhabitable.

This was just one of the many incidents during the '50s that led to many, many calls for a global ban on nuclear weapons and the use of radioactive substances in general. These calls were unfortunately ignored, especially during the Cold War when the threat of atomic destruction loomed more than ever. In light of this, the various global superpowers attempting to cover up their own responsibility in the mutation of a slew of giant monsters throughout the decade seems more understandable, if not necessarily forgivable, but as long as the atom bomb existed, so would the possibility of kaiju being hurt by it again and again.

Sure enough, just two years after the Palaeotitan's rampage, marine life started dying out en masse off the coast of Denmark...

Personality and Combat Style:
There are actually two Palaeotitan specimens known, one of which was euthanized in London in 1959, and the other currently at large in the North Sea. The relationship between the two isn't known, although it has been theorized that both of them were in proximity to the blast that was meant to cut off their egress from their native Earth hollow. Whether they were siblings, parent and child, or simply acquaintances is a mystery that might never be solved, as the original Palaeotitan's DNA was altered too much by its mutation to provide any conclusive results.

Palaeotitan himself is a simple-minded creature who for the most part looks out only for himself, and can't care less about much else unless it directly affects him. Should he not be faced with challenges, he will carry about his business while purposely ignoring smaller, weaker forms of resistance. His sheer bulk and iron-hard hide cause most attacks to simply bounce right off of him, and anything and anyone foolish enough to stand in his way for too long will inevitably end up being unceremoniously flattened. Worse yet, the beast is nothing if not stubborn — if he encounters anything between himself and whatever he wants or wherever he wants to go, the first, last, and only thing he will do is reduce it to rubble. Entire towns have been laid waste just because they were unfortunate enough to be along his path from A to B, or because they had something he wanted — usually food. While capable of digesting both plant and animal matter, he differs from most of his extinct kin in that he prefers the latter given the choice, often scooping up and devouring whole herds of animals (including people). It is not surprising, therefore, that most European governments consider Palaeotitan a top-priority threat, and their respective militaries have clearance to target him on sight should he make an appearance. Not that he cares, mind — such attempts are considered laughable and if they do manage to draw his attention, it won’t take much for him to wipe them off the face of the earth and carry on unmolested.

Other kaiju are more of a proper challenge for the Atomic Sea Monster, but not by much. Being noticeably larger than most other titans gives him a size advantage that he readily flaunts any chance he can get — even Godzilla himself only comes up to his shoulders. He does not actively seek out victims like some other kaiju do, but the fear he instills in other monsters often leads to them trying to proactively repel him, causing him to retaliate in kind. Of course, it would take either an especially large and powerful monster or the cooperative effort of several kaiju working at once to give Palaeotitan pause, and once the obstinate creature acknowledges being opposed in any capacity, his retaliation is quicker than most would expect, but every bit as brutal as one might imagine. His drive to dominate other monsters is such that he may obsessively pursue them until he has beaten them into submission, and with his immense crushing bulk and deadly radioactive aura and electrical attacks, he has no problem carving the straightest path to his target (or targets) like the juggernaut he is. A fight with this colossus, if he does choose to act, comes down more to survival than victory.

As fearsome as he is, however, Palaeotitan is not entirely unsympathetic. Scientists have noted that the creature is actually smaller than the behemoth that terrorized London, and it’s possible that he was not as close to the blast that mutated them both because the other creature had forced him away from the entrance where access to the food-rich open sea beyond would be easier. If so, it can be assumed that he is still hurting from being considered second-best between the two, and is trying to compensate with a domineering attitude towards weaker creatures, via either the silent treatment or a violent and often lethal response to significant-enough protest. Things grew even worse after his mutation — while not as afflicted by radiation sickness as the first Palaeotitan, his anatomy is still struggling to cope with the adverse effects, with the cancerous flesh beneath his burnt hide as well as the skin itself decaying and healing constantly throughout his body and his internal organs gradually restructuring themselves in all kinds of unnatural ways. Onlookers have noted that the creature makes strange roars on occasion that sound pained and laboring, as though struggling to keep himself together. Combined with his social nature, warped by the absence of others of his kind, this has unfortunately led to his heart becoming hard as stone, picking on other kaiju as an outlet for his inner turmoils both figurative and literal — as though he is frustrated with these infidels for being unable to understand the adversity he has to endure.

Palaeotitan is as such a kaiju that has to be planned around if not completely avoided, his toxicity in more ways than one making him a difficult creature to associate or deal with. While his character issues are not entirely of his own doing, he has still chosen the wrong path in dealing with them and will likely remain in solitude should he remain on it, a sad fact which he seems to be aware of but is too callous to care about anymore. The amount of kaiju that can approach him with slightly less risk than normal can be counted on a single hand, and even they still need to be wary, for although he is confident enough in his superiority to ignore others who don’t mess with him too much, attacking his proud character is still a terrible idea — a fact that he won’t hesitate to demonstrate to those who make that mistake with a single strike of his massive tail.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: A giant among giants, Palaeotitan revels in his sheer girth and the strength that comes with it, being all but invincible in a world where almost every other creature is smaller than he is. With his every footstep, the ground shudders as though struggling to bear his weight, and with a single swing of his neck or tail, he can level areas as big as whole city blocks without having to take a single step. One hammer-like blow from any of his appendages can knock even monsters as big as Godzilla off their feet, a bite from his powerful jaws and sharp spike-like teeth can crush bone and rend metal, and what happens to things caught underfoot is best left undescribed. His cracked, hardened hide, warped by the mutations caused by absorbing too much radiation at once and further charred by his own electrical attacks, is resistant to all forms of attack, and was so thick even before then that the claws and teeth of other kaiju have difficulty working through it. Combined with his robust skeleton and the sheer amount of muscle and fat encasing it, Palaeotitan has more than enough body mass to shrug off most hits as though they were nothing. It takes a lot of effort to even leave a lasting mark on him and only a second's carelessness in the face of his ensuing wrath to be left a broken mess on the ground — and as he never holds back in a fight, almost no other kaiju has managed to raise his ire and live to tell the tale.
• Amphibious: Like some other retrosaur kaiju, Palaeotitan is capable of functioning effectively both on land and in the water. Like a crocodile, he tucks his legs to his sides and sculls with his tail in order to swim, being able to push through the water with surprising grace for his size. Of course, being so large means that when near the surface, he can stir up massive bow waves that can capsize boats and momentarily inundate coastlines, and when he rises out of the water, the water displaced by his sheer size always creates a tsunami when it returns — which he has used more than once to waterlog the terrain of a confrontation and make the environment more difficult for opponents to navigate. When swimming, he can dive as deep as 1.5 miles beneath the surface in search of food, and move with impressive stealth despite his bulk... meaning other aquatic enemies almost never see him coming when he rises from below to smash their skeletons to shrapnel or rip their guts out.
• Energy Absorption: Like some other kaiju, Palaeotitan is capable of absorbing energy from the surrounding environment, including heat, electricity, and radiation, thanks to special cells in his scales and spines that can convert it into a safer form for use in his body. This means he is able to withstand all manner of energy-based attacks and even draw strength from them. He is even able to absorb radio and sound waves directed at him and prevent them from being reflected, rendering him invisible to radar and sonar tracking devices or similar systems in other kaiju.
• Primitive Mentality: Like other members of his clade, Palaeotitan has a very small brain for his body size, which is largely driven by instinct rather than learned experience. This makes it difficult (though not impossible) to control his mind, and even successful attempts are only temporary. His simple, straightforward approach to combat and most other things in life are also very effective when coupled with his strengths, as it doesn't take much strategy or sideways thinking to simply squish a problem underfoot.

Special Abilities:

• Lightning Pulse: Palaeotitan has a distinctive ability shared with only a few other kaiju: his muscles contain electrocyte cells which can generate and store an electric charge as he moves, enabling him to release a powerful electrical pulse with a swing of his neck or tail. The resultant thunderclap is accompanied by a shockwave not unlike an EMP that can fry circuits and nervous systems over a significant distance. If he's recently absorbed electrical energy he can augment it even further, allowing him to "throw" a crescent-shaped energy blast from his tail that spreads out as it goes and can strike multiple at once or "mow down" an entire fleet of smaller threats like military vehicles, which often have little resistance to electric attacks.
• Radioactive Aura: The energy absorbed when Palaeotitan was mutated by the atomic bombing meant to cut him off from the surface resulted in a feedback loop that has been continuing ever since, causing him to constantly emit a sickening aura of gamma-wave radiation which intensifies depending on his mood. Exposure to it causes immense discomfort followed by the decay of cellular tissue, with fur or scales and then skin and flesh literally melting away. Only the accelerated regeneration that he had prior to his mutation has kept Palaeotitan himself from suffering the same fate, and in the case of the first specimen even that wasn't enough. If the aftermath of the London rampage was any indication, any leakage of his bodily fluids, either voluntarily through excretion or involuntarily via the spilling of his blood, could have disastrous consequences for the surrounding environment.
• Nuclear Plasma Breath: As a trump card when a physical or passive approach fails, Palaeotitan can draw all the radioactive and electrical energy produced in his body towards his mouth, charging up and then firing a deadly beam of ionized radioactive gas that serves as a conduit for a focused electrical charge. It's quite literally a death ray, so focused and immensely powerful that even things resistant to radiation and electricity are often overwhelmed by the sheer heat and explosive force upon contact. It's a highly destructive but energetically inefficient attack that causes any creature less than half his size to messily explode, and can punch a hole through the hide even a kaiju as big and resilient as King Ghidorah himself. He can only use this about once a day, however, and it leaves him sluggish and exhausted upon use, which is why he often aims it in such a way that the one blast he can fire is the one that counts. This is, suffice it to say, not an ability the Atomic Sea Monster uses lightly.

Weaknesses:

• Size Does Matter: Palaeotitan is as slow as he is gigantic. While more than capable of shrugging off most enemy attacks, his great size makes him an easy target and his long neck and tail are as vulnerable as they are dangerous. He is able to reach unexpected speeds for his bulk and can steamroll most opponents easily, but his agility leaves a lot to be desired and the weight of his appendages means his physical attacks often have a large windup time that can be dodged if one is both quick enough and knows how to predict them. In the rare occasions when the titan does get knocked over, it takes him a very long time to get back up, and while no means defenseless in such situations, he is still more vulnerable.
• World's Biggest Cancer Patient: The constant mutation occurring within Palaeotitan's body is a liability that prevents him from functioning at his best most of the time. His muscles, organs, and even his skin and bones are constantly changing due to random mutations and the cycle of decay and regeneration, and arbitary instances of his own anatomy failing him or preventing him from reacting appropriately to various circumstances are common. He is also deeply pained and hampered by the disease he is suffering from, with his own immune system constantly fighting to keep him alive and reacting more adversely to foreign threats like pathogens than normal, making infections that wouldn't be significant to other kaiju a serious risk for him. Like his predecessor, it's possible that an excessive dose of radiation could kill him due to disabling his immune system and allowing his own mutating physiology to destroy him from the inside out. 
• Walnut-Sized Brain, Mountain-Sized Pride: Being part of the retrosaur group with the smallest brain-to-body size among them, to the point where it was once even speculated (erroneously) that they would need a large nerve cluster in their hips like a second brain to even function, Palaeotitan is, to be blunt, as dumb as a sack of bricks, and while arguably that much more of a public hazard for it, this makes him surprisingly predictable as well. If one recognizes his basic needs and responses to stimuli they can easily lead him away from vulnerable areas or even trick him into difficult situations without having to probe his mind. Palaeotitan's antagonism towards others has little to do with his lack of intelligence, however, and while lacking in terms of communication and complex thought, his lack of empathy towards other creatures and the inflated ego brought about by literally looking down at them is what makes him such a threat, not helped by the fact that any attempt to humble him is often crushed within minutes and only bolsters his arrogance further. While he would certainly be even more terrifying if he were cleverer, his selfish pride and his dimwittedness are still a dangerous combination.

Chapter Text

The Serpent That Gnaws: REPTILICUS

Statistics

• Classification: Uncertain, possibly chimeric, but genetic testing has confirmed that the majority of its genome is varanoid in origin.
• Length: 1230.31 feet/375 meters
• Wingspan: 1,312.34 feet/400 meters
• Mass: 55,115.57 short tons/50,000 metric tons
• Status: The "original" Reptilicus was neutralized and incinerated shortly after attacking Copenhagen, Denmark, but more of its kind have appeared throughout Scandinavia since this incident due to some of its tissue being scattered from previous attempts to dispose of the creature. It’s possible that another "alpha" Reptilicus might arise from the Reptisaur population, but the creatures are currently distributed across enough of northern Europe to the extent that verifying its existence, let alone its precise location, is not feasible for now. Its status is currently listed as Unknown in the Monarch database, though amenable to change.

Bio

History:
The exact date of origin for the titan known as Titanus Nidhogg, the Dread Biter, the Malice Striker, or Reptilicus is unknown, and scientific testing has thus far been inconclusive. Named for and associated with a monstrous serpent or dragon from Norse mythology that chews the roots of the world tree Yggdrasil, theories about its origin vary from the sole relic of a natural species from within the Hollow Earth to a bioweapon created by a rogue Scandinavian Mlok/Delugian community to a unique, anomalous hybrid fused from the cell matter of multiple types of reptiles. As of now, no fossil evidence has been found of any ancestor to the creature, no sapient race has claimed credit for its creation, and no genetic links to any currently known species present during the Holocene or Pleistocene have been found thus far. The rapid and random mutation the beast has been subjected to seems to have occurred so many times that its genetic code has become thoroughly unrecognizable, meaning that the only evidence relevant to its origin might well be ancient folklore and historical records, and even these accounts are often so scant that it's doubtful the mystery may ever be solved.

Reptilicus itself, however, is infamous throughout much of northern Europe, feared and despised as a symbol of destruction in Sweden, Iceland, and especially Denmark. Historians have identified the monster as one of several sources of dragon myths throughout these regions and beyond, with some suggesting that more than one of them may have existed in the past. Whether or not all Reptiaurus specimens worldwide originated from a singular creature or if there always was a collective that simply gave rise to a singular oversized individual that attacked Copenhagen in 1961 is unclear, but studies have pointed towards the former given that there is too little genetic variation between specimens to be considered a genetically viable population. The Reptisaurs therefore cannot be considered a true species in the scientific sense, with the common term for them arising as a way of distinguishing these smaller, weaker creatures from the bigger one sighted in Copenhagen.

Part of the reason for Reptilicus and its lesser kin being so prolific is the fact that attempts to get rid of them used to be doomed to failure is that its ability to not only regenerate with impressive speed but create more of its kind from tissue sloughed off of itself was discovered only recently. The specimen from 1961 resulted from a lab accident wherein a frozen piece of the creature's tail - possibly the only remnant of the species in the surface world - was thawed out and left to grow into a new monster. Although the creature was eventually disposed of in a way that prevented more of its kind from arising, earlier encounters with it did indeed result in the loss of some of its body parts which, in due course, would regenerate into new monsters and start a new surface population. Thanks to the public largely being unaware of its regenerative ability and using overly destructive means to kill them off in self-defense, their numbers would only continue to rise in the coming months. Later in the year, however, another monster that happened to be migrating through the area chanced across them and proceeded to take on the entire Reptisaur "army" in Oslo, Norway, demonstrating that against other kaiju, the creatures were less of a challenge. Over two-thirds of the population in the area had been reduced to ash by the time Palaeotitan, his point made, trudged back into the sea to recuperate, leaving scattered groups of survivors to either recoup their losses or simply move on to make a nuisance of themselves elsewhere.

Despite this and several other encounters with other kaiju that have also managed to hold their own against the Reptisaurs, however, their population has been barely dented overall, and has in fact been slowly but steadily growing. Much of the Scandinavian population has established security bunkers in case of a Reptisaur attack, and governmental campaigns have been established to spread awareness of the creatures and their strange abilities as well as how to ward them off or dispose of them in ways that prevent more of them from occurring. The general consensus is that given the way the Reptisaur flight works, chances are a new Reptilicus will also arise from it in the near future - it isn't a matter of "if", but "when".

Ecology and Behavior:
The Reptisaurs - and Reptilicus by extension - are unnatural, unpredictable, and unscrupulous by nature, an opportunistic lot with a mentality and morality that only sees things in a purely black-and-white fashion: their own kind are "good", everyone else is "bad". They seek to cultivate what is "good", i.e. procreation of more of their kind, and to get rid of what is "bad" by any means necessary. All other life forms are either prey or enemies to them, and their reaction is a violent one either way. A group of Reptisaurs is called a "flight", in reference to the whole collective surveying the landscape from the sky when traveling in search of food, as they are nomadic by nature and not tied to any specific territory. Responses to potential threats vary from sending out just one Reptisaur to scout ahead and sacrifice itself if need be to the entire flight going on the offensive, but in all cases they do not consider retreat as an option unless the loss of their number eventually outweighs their reproductive gain (which is why they simply leave whenever extermination campaigns prove successful). Confronting the flight requires one to expect any possible course of action from the creatures, including some that would defy common sense and logic. Despite their actions being as haphazard as their genetics, however, if one is aware of the weaknesses shared by the collective, they are easily dealt with - some kaiju with effective means of destroying the bodies without causing them to regenerate consider the Reptisaurs as nothing more than cannon fodder.

There are, however, more intelligent specimens of Reptisaurs out there, and Reptilicus itself, despite its strange appearance and seemingly daffy behavior, was recorded as being deceptively cunning, luring opponents into vulnerable positions and toying with them until they exposed weaknesses for it to take advantage of. Most if not all members of the group, however, display shared traits of opportunism and pragmatism. They most often hunt any smaller, weaker creatures they come across, including humans if they are at the size range to consider them viable prey, but if faced with a worthy threat, they will either retreat or gather in large numbers to try and stack the odds against it. While they do have a self-preservation instinct to some extent, with some arguing that they seem dimly aware that each time they regenerate from dismembered pieces causes the copies to degrade in quality, their hyper-accelerated healing factor compared to other kaiju means that they can afford to dismiss the risk of physical harm in combat, with the only way to give them pause being a means of destroying their bodies permanently such as fire- or ice-based attacks, caustic chemical agents, or destructive radiation. Even then they will often deliberately throw weaker members into the line of fire as sacrifices or decoys, distracting the opponent while the stronger members of the group prepare to ambush them from a different direction. As Reptisaurs vary dramatically in terms of color, scale and spike arrangement, and even the proportions of their limbs and facial features, it is impossible to determine which of them are too ill-fit or mentally impaired for long-term survival and which are the more clever and dangerous ones, and this is exactly what the flight is counting on whenever they are incited to act as a group.

Because the Reptisaurs are openly hostile to anything else with even a modicum of sapience and have a habit of killing the defenseless young of other animals rather than healthy adults, most other kaiju are not too fond of them and will prioritize them as soon as they cross paths. The smarter individuals are known to give their fellow titans a wide berth, though depending on the amount of confidence they have based on their numbers advantage, they are just as likely to take the fight to an intruding kaiju as they are to make themselves scarce. They also can't care less about damage to human property when either scrounging for food or attempting to subdue an adversary, and will level entire districts to reach what they want (such as in one infamous case from Pisa, Italy involving Palaeotitan and the second recorded Reptilicus in 1988, with the unfortunate Leaning Tower being caught in the middle of their calamitous brawl). Reptilicus itself seems to remember previous encounters with other kaiju as well, even if it was destroyed in the process and grew anew from the next strongest Reptisaur, lending credence to the idea that they all share a unified mind that becomes bolstered when they're together - meaning that knowledge is passed through the population about what life forms are to be avoided, challenged, or considered prey, along with tabs on which of the kaiju Reptilicus has met have managed to best it. Palaeotitan itself is one of these few and perhaps the only kaiju that Reptilicus exhibits grudging respect towards, and even then, the dragon is prone to cooperating with or turning against the marine behemoth on equal measure. Perhaps the only other monster with anything close to this distinction is Ogra, who responded in exactly the way anyone would expect after Reptilicus tried to eat her son, which is why it now knows better than to mess with either of them. All others are fair game for whatever shenanigans Reptilicus and its spawn might be up to, including and especially humanity - the Reptisaur flight is perhaps the highest-priority threat from the standpoint of every military organization in Europe, with culls in place across at least 30 countries to keep them from overrunning the entire continent, and possibly beyond.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju (and Sub-Kaiju) Strength: Reptilicus was a patient, cunning schemer with a cruel intellect despite its bizarre appearance, and while not the strongest of kaiju it was more than capable of wreaking havoc when not met with significant opposition. The Reptisaurs that are its progeny carry much of the same strengths as the beast itself, with crushing coils to squeeze the life out of prey and enemies, powerful muscular wings that can knock down buildings, long talons on their stout but strong front limbs, and jaws full of crooked, recurved fangs that can deliver a nasty bite. Their long bodies are flexible enough to weave around enemy attacks and dodge projectiles, infiltrate tight spaces such as tunnels or cavern passages, and find cover in surprisingly sparse environments. Although not especially armored, their scales are also hard enough to deflect most military weaponry, and are articulated to ensure flexibility. Overall, against foes at their size or smaller, the Reptisaurs and their "alpha" are formidable, cunning killers with almost no glaring weaknesses.
• Flight: A Reptisaur's largest limbs are its wings, developed from membranous sails which seem to have been supported in the species' ancestors by narrow projections from the spine, akin to the sail of a pelycosaur. The specialization towards gliding and later flight may have occurred thanks to gene transfer from other creatures native to the Hollow Earth, but some have suggested that the shape of the wings is too close to that of a certain Astro-Monster to be coincidental. Regardless, the Reptisaurs are not capable of supersonic flight, and Reptilicus itself is no exception, but they are able to glide, swoop, and soar with the best of them, especially if mutation causes their wings to grow even larger than usual. When hunting from the air, a Reptisaur can glide at around 70 mph, and divebomb its prey at over twice that speed.

Special Abilities:

• Hyper-Advanced Regeneration: The most important ability that Reptilicus possessed, and one still carried by its progeny, is its advanced healing factor, above and beyond most other kaiju. Even a single cell from the creatures is able to convert itself back into a stem-cell-like state and grow into a new monster in a similar manner to embryonic development, while pieces of tissue such as severed limbs, pieces of tail, or scraps and tatters of wing membrane can grow additional bones, muscles, and entire organs as they develop into smaller Reptisaurs that can eventually grow into the same size and power as their precursor given enough sustenance. This makes explosives and dismemberment counterproductive and terribly ineffective at destroying the creatures, as all that does is produce more of them, and even the original target, if it manages to survive, can regenerate from any injuries it's sustained at incredible speed. Some more cunning specimens have even been known to rip their own limbs and tails off if in sufficient desperation, enabling them to generate more of the creatures as backup.
• Caustic Venom: The six hollow fangs of a Reptisaur are capable of firing jets of an incredibly corrosive substance that acts more like a highly concentrated acid than the typical venom seen in snakes and their immediate relatives. All kinds of dangerous enzymes, caustic agents, and oxidizing chemicals form a deadly neon-green cocktail that can melt through most substances, organic or no. A Reptisaur can either inject this venom directly into a victim for devastating and horrific effect, much like a viper, or fire it over a distance of several times its body length with enough precision to even hit moving targets, projecting it as either a bullet-like glob, a thin set of streams that can be swept around to hit multiple targets in succession, or a noxious aerosolized fog that can blanket and devastate a wide area and lasts long enough that it can be carried by winds to wreak havoc on other regions without the creature even setting foot in them. The Reptisaur flight often unleashes entire volleys of venom blasts en masse, inundating the opposition with so many liquid bio-weapons that in most cases, even the most protected of victims cannot withstand every single one of them. The exact composition also varies on a case-by-case basis, and in some later-generation duplicates, the venom even contains certain volatile chemicals that ignite when exposed to air, allowing these Reptisaurs to spray napalm-like "liquid fire" that leave horribly toxic, flesh-dissolving smoke in their wake.

Weaknesses:

• Delicate: Reptilicus, and the Reptisaurs by extension, is not the most resilient of kaiju. While capable of taking military fire reasonably well thanks to its scaly hide, it does not have especially tough armor and needs air pockets in its skeletal system to remain light enough for flight, making it easier for it to be defeated and dismembered in the face of a larger opponent. Unusually for such a creature, however, this is both a weakness and a strength, because not many opponents realize that tearing a Reptisaur into pieces will result in more of them arising later if the remnants aren’t disposed of in time.
• Brainless Clones: Reptilicus itself is fairly intelligent and resourceful, but as for its duplicates… not so much. Although they do replicate brain tissue as they grow into whole new bodies from pieces of flesh, the process does not flawlessly replicate the nervous system of their progenitor, so mental defects are common. As copies spawn more copies in turn, each successive generation has less capacity for complex thought, eventually being reduced to mindless, rabid shells in imitation of the original that are guided by only the instinct to feed and cannot be reasoned with. They have no self-preservation instinct and are easily lured into traps or blindsided by sneak attacks, and with enough awareness of their weaknesses, they can be easily wiped out. The one thing they have going for them is sheer numbers brought about by their regenerating ability, but in most cases, that's all they really need.
• Genetic Uniformity and Decay: Reptilicus’ DNA, while prone to frequent mutation as the creature duplicates and reforms repeatedly over time, is based on the same genetic code across all representatives of the flight. This means that there is overall very little variation across the population and, as such, something capable of incapacitating one of them, such as a certain disease or a type of poison, can theoretically take down all of them. The creatures also do not mutate in ways that can help them cope with environmental stimuli, and all changes to their genetic code are arbitrary in nature. It is not only possible but likely for a newly spawned copy to exhibit a detrimental mutation that reduces its lifespan considerably compared to that of its parent, especially when the tissue it generated from was modified extensively from the stem-cell variety such as bone — and with every successive generation that spawns from tissue budding rather than proper parthenogenesis, the defects will stack until each Reptisaurus becomes too inbred and genetically unfit for survival that it could even break down into a cancerous molten grease puddle instead of forming a proper body. The population is also unable to obtain DNA from other organisms to mitigate its lack of genetic diversity outside of external means of mutation that affect other life forms, so if the environment changes or new hazards are introduced, entire populations of them could be wiped out.
• Permanent Cell Destruction: The only way to truly kill a Reptisaur — or Reptilicus itself — without causing it to replicate is by exposing it to agents capable of stifling its cellular regeneration, such as certain kinds of cell-destroying radiation, extreme heat or cold, or toxins capable of damaging cellular tissue. The monster is not endothermic, which means that temperatures too cold or hot for them cause its cells to slow to a stop and can even kill them outright if prolonged. For the most part, therefore, these creatures do not do well in especially hot or cold climates or areas affected by pollution. Ironically for an unnatural collective of organisms, they can be considered a sort of indicator for the health of an ecosystem — an imperfect one, but an indicator nonetheless. The less polluted a habitat is, the better the chances of a Reptisaurus population establishing itself, although this also depends on environmental temperature, weather patterns, and other factors more related to the biome itself than to interference by human civilization.

Chapter Text

THE GIANT CLAW: LA CARCAGNE

Statistics

• Classification: Unknown
• Length: 250 feet/76.2 meters
• Height: 150 feet/45.72 meters
• Wingpsan: 860 feet/262.1 meters
• Mass: 39,000 short tons/35,380.21 metric tons
• Status: Listed as "Deceased" by Monarch, though this is currently under review. She was sighted at various points throughout the eastern U.S. before finally being shot down off the coast of New York, but the body has since mysteriously disappeared.

Bio

History:
The Eastern United States has always been privy to a variety of sightings of strange creatures, most notably the Fearsome Critters of the Great Lakes and the Appalachian Mountains. Some of these creatures, however, seem to have really existed at some point or another in the Hollow Earth beneath the North American continent, or descended from the void between the stars to live in the area with no one suspecting that they could have come from a world beyond our own. The Snallygaster of South Mountain, also known as La Carcagne or The Giant Claw, seems to have been both - a monster that fell from space millions of years ago, and dwelled beneath the planet's crust ever since, living off the native life and remaining unseen by the surface world. Then, in 1957, a radar test flight over the state of Maryland spotted a massive hole in the side of South Mountain. It hadn't been there during past inspections of the region, suggesting that something enormous had been waiting within the mountain for a chance to find its way out. Over the next few weeks, sightings of what was claimed to be a "bird as big as a battleship" became increasingly common. Curiously, descriptions of the creature lined up perfectly with stories dating back to the 18th century and told by German immigrants to Frederick County, Maryland, describing a creature combining attributes of lizards and predatory birds with a metallic beak lined lined with sharp teeth, octopus-like tentacles, and talons like meathooks, suggesting that it had been regularly venturing to the surface for quite some time after a change in its habitat deprived it of its regular source of food.

The first supposed sighting of the Snallygaster was dated to far before the 1957 attack, with newspaper stories of it occurring as early as 1909. One particular article from that year claimed that it had claimed a victim, who was later found drained of blood on a hillside. This lurid story would soon spread across the eastern U.S., with the Smithsonian Institution offering a reward for the skin of the beast, and President Theodore Roosevelt reportedly planning to postpone a trip to Africa to bring it down. But the creature seemed both everywhere and nowhere, vanishing as quickly as it had been seen. Then later in the year, in West Virginia, the Snallygaster was supposedly found roosting in a barn near Sharpsburg, where it had laid an egg the size of a barrel...

In Maryland, sightings of the monster occurred near Cumberland, Hagerstown, Middletown, Gapland, and Burkittsville, and supposedly it laid another giant egg in the mountains between the latter two. The last sighting in Frederick County occurred in March 1909, after which no more sightings were recorded that year. Then in 1932, it or one of its offspring returned to terrorize the region once more, until it was finally brought down by the fumes of a moonshine still near Washington County and fell from the sky into the 2500-gallon vat of alcohol within it. The vat and the body were then destroyed by government agents, and no sightings had occurred since then.

Until 1957.

As the now truly titanic monster began to appear in airspaces across the Eastern seaboard, striking planes out of the sky and picking off whole crowds of panicking citizens, it quickly became clear that this living legend, the Snallygaster come to life, was a threat to the public and an ecosystem it did not belong in. By all accounts, it did not match any known life form on Earth, or even within the Hollow Earth, with anatomical quirks and abilities unlike any known bird - or for that matter, any other organism native to our planet. But there was no time to answer any questions related to its origins, especially not with the "flying battleship" descending on New York City and causing chaos by preying upon the populace. Fortunately for us humans, its antimatter field, capable of neutralizing all known weaponry, was soon discovered to be neutralized by muonic particles, and an explosive intended to release a burst of them was directed at it, shutting down the barrier and sealing its demise. The mortally wounded "bird" crash-landed in the waters just off Manhattan, one of its giant claws being the last thing seen of it as it sank beneath the waves, never to be found again.

But what was this weird creature? Was it an alien superweapon gone rouge, a life form native to an antimatter galaxy, or even something that had been planted there by an ancient spacefaring civilization? No one knew. Even the earlier accounts were inconclusive - they were actually part of a hoax perpetrated by Middletown Valley Register editor George C. Rhoderick and reporter Ralph S. Wolfe in an attempt to boost sales, and whether or not they were based on actual sightings of a creature similar to La Carcagne isn't clear. Without any material recovered from it for study, this was a mystery that might never be solved. The myth of the Snallygaster, it seemed, would be doomed to be just that, a myth.

...unless... there was another egg within the Hollow Earth... waiting for just the right time to hatch...

Personality and Combat Style:
La Carcagne's motivations were largely unknown even at the time of its discovery, with the hoax newspaper accounts only complicating things further. Various accounts claimed that she made screeches like a locomotive whistle whenever she was spotted, perhaps suggesting indignation at her discovery, but others noted that her sucking the blood from her victims and then leaving the bodies out in the open showed that she cared little about attracting attention. Her pattern of attacks on cities throughout the Eastern seaboard was also haphazard and seemingly random, swooping down upon large cities and smaller towns with equal fervor, with little in common between the various locations she was sighted in, much like the reported sightings of the Snallygaster being in various arbitrary towns in Maryland. What the 1957 attack did confirm, however, was her ravenous appetite for the flesh and blood of Terran organisms, including and especially people. Even when she had grown too massive to sustain herself on humans alone, she would still hunt them for the sake of it, scooping up dozens of terrified civilians at a time with her tentacle-like feeding appendages and tearing open buildings just to get to them. Other recorded quirks include an aversion to seven-pointed stars, which were painted on barn roofs supposedly to ward her off, and a deadly allergy to moonshine, which was what presumably killed the 1932 specimen, although given that these are part of the hoax reports from the early 20th century, whether these traits were based on fact is, to say the least, a matter of debate.

With no known encounters with other kaiju either before or during the 1957 rampage, it is not known how La Carcagne reacted to her fellow titans, or vice versa. Since she does not seem to be of Earth-native origin, however, it can be presumed from previous interactions between Terran kaiju and those from other worlds that these interactions would not have been pleasant. Some have even speculated that the creature may have hidden beneath South Mountain specifically to avoid such creatures, although given that the Hollow Earth is accessible across the world and has fewer natural barriers, this does not seem like a viable strategy, making it yet another mystery as to why she would live in Maryland of all places. Given her reliance on her antimatter field and her fraility aside from that, however, it can be assumed that she would not have fared well in physical combat against another kaiju, although this will never be truly confirmed without an encounter between another Snallygaster and a different monster.

La Carcagne has no relation to the Ookondoru flock of the South Pacific, which has been confirmed by genetic testing to be purely terrestrial in origin.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: La Carcagne was not significantly stronger or more durable than other kaiju - in fact, she seems to have been one of the weaker monsters known - but she was still formidable nonetheless. Her primary weapons were her massive talons and the teeth lining her four-pointed beak and the tentacles within, which were reported to have been comprised of metal and could tear through structures and flesh alike. Her massive wings in particular sported talons capable of punching through concrete walls with little effort, and though her beak did not have a significant bite force, its serrated fangs could still leave terrible wounds, the beak itself could pierce through plate iron, and the feeding tentacles within it could extend to several times the length of her neck to snatch prey from afar. While not especially capable in fights with other kaiju, at least hypothetically, her encounters with aircraft were, at least until her demise in New York, considerably more one-sided, though there was a reason she had to rely on her special barrier for self-defense.
• Extraterrestrial Anatomy: The strange biology of La Carcagne was internal as well as external. What appeared to be her neck and head was actually a large, boneless stalk growing from the front of the large cephalothorax comprising most of her vital anatomy - her beak, eyes, nostrils, and feeding tendrils were all mounted on this appendage, but no vital organs such as a brain were located in it (from some accounts of the 1957 attack and her subsequent defeat, the brain was contained in her chest instead). Every aspect of her anatomy defies Earth evolution - her grasping limbs seem to have been two pairs of limbs fused together, and her wings were derived from her rearmost legs rather than the front limbs in a bird, with her "feathers" actually being more akin to vanes of matted, fused hair. It can be presumed that this strange biology made it all the more difficult to dispatch her, as her vital organs were not located in the same locations one would expect of something that evolved on Earth.
• Flight: With her massive, powerful wings, the Snallygaster was able to fly by exploiting thermals and rising air currents, much like birds of prey do. As a much larger monster, however, she could soar much further than ever before, and presumably the air displaced by her own great size, wingspan, and antimatter field created a sort of cushion that could keep her aloft, tearing buildings and landscapes apart below her as she flew. She was able to outpace fighter jets mid-flight and simply pluck them out of the sky, and could also remain airborne for long enough to traverse half the continent without landing.

Special Abilities:

• Positron Barrier: La Carcagne is like a living particle accelerator, processing matter absorbed from the environment around her through her skin or which she ingests and induces molecular particle decay on within her body, the energy produced by this sustaining her. As a side-effect of this, the positron antimatter she produces is emitted in a steady field around her in the form of a sphere. The concentration and intensity of positrons within this field is comparable to cosmic rays and is as such incredibly destructive - there is almost nothing capable of coming into contact with it without being subject to tremendous damage comparable to that induced by excessive radiation and electromagnetic exposure. While she can tone down the intensity of her emissions to avoid detection or prevent herself from damaging the environment too much when in a passive state, she can also intensify the strength of the barrier and/or increase its radius to produce a deadly "shockwave" and level everything around her, covering an escape in the ensuing chaos. The standard intensity of the barrier was enough to destroy incoming missiles, crumble skyscrapers, and kill thousands of people just by being in the same area.    
• Energy Drain: The hunting strategy of La Carcagne relies on "stealing" the bio-energy produced by other life forms, either by passively drawing in body heat and the electricity from the nervous systems of other animals or directly leeching the blood and fluids from prey. The teeth lining her mouth and tipping her feeding tendrils are hollow and attached to internal ducts capable of "drinking" liquid matter like a straw, atomizing and decomposing particles therein even before they have passed into her main body. Whether or not she has the courage to feed off other kaiju in this way like Rodan can is unclear, but she seems to target much smaller life forms instead and in larger volumes: the telltale sign of her feeding activity was entire areas littered with exsanguinated, charred corpses sporting both damage from her antimatter field and a series of puncture wounds left by her fangs as she drained dozens of victims at a time to entirely dry, lifeless husks.

Weaknesses:

• Antimatter Negation: The positron field La Carcagne produces can be neutralized by electron emissions, such the experimental muonic weapon that helped bring her down. An excess of electron bombardment is even capable of causing her biological processes to temporarily stall, leaving her vulnerable to other hazards. It has been theorized that a high-enough dose of such a negation system could even reverse the process of matter processing and induce catastrophic organ failure and cell death, but no devices on Earth are able to produce strong-enough electron emissions to test this theory. 
• Built Like A Kite: As a flying creature, La Carcagne is delicately built and lightweight. Without her antimatter barrier, she tends to buckle, and even the hair-like structures insulating her and forming her wing vanes are not capable of withstanding most destructive anti-kaiju weaponry. It was a lucky shot to her brain that fatally injured her during the New York attack, and if one could figure out her kind's strange anatomy enough, they would be able to deal with them quite reliably if they had a suitable means of disabling her positron field.
• Alcohol Fumes: For some reason, the monster was not tolerant of alcohol in either liquid or vapor form. The alcohol contained in the moonshine fumes that killed the '32 Snallygaster induced a destructive reaction akin to a mix of an allergic reaction and accelerated cancer. There is no biological explanation for this, this is a trait shared by all specimens, one of the only clues related to the environment the species was once native to (and even that isn't of much help concerning her origin).
• Chaotic Neutral: La Carcagne was a selfish, unpredictable creature, only caring for her own well-being and inscrutable thoughts. That said, her lack of any morality or Earth-native ecological sensibilities meant that she was not easily swayed by any attempt to control or pacify her, and all attempts to bring the Snallygaster to heel were said to have ended in catastrophic, bloody failure (though again, the hoax reports and sensationalism have complicated research into the beast in general). It is unlikely that any interaction with other monsters on her part would have ended in cooperation, and most suspect that such encounters would end only in violence. Given her avoidance of them it is possible that the other North American kaiju may have felt the same way, though there is no historical evidence as of yet of such encounters actually happening prior to her species' discovery.

Chapter Text

The Sea Spirit of Nara Island: OGRA

The Sea Spirit's Son: GORGO

Statistics

• Classification: Tyrannosuchidae, Megalotyrannidae, Carnodontidae
• Length: 750 feet/228.6 meters (Ogra); 120 feet/36.576 meters (Gorgo)
• Height: 250 feet/76.2 meters (Ogra); 65 feet/19.812 meters (Gorgo)
• Mass: 44,092.45 short tons/40,000 metric tons (Ogra); 1,102.31 short tons/1,000 metric tons (Gorgo)
• Locality: The Tir-fo-Thuinn Earth hollow, located beneath the Emain Ablach archipelago - Nara Island is its most notable entrance and where Ogra and Gorgo's surface-world nest is located.

Bio

History:
Many stories have been told throughout the ages of monsters lurking in the depths of the sea - giant serpents and ship-sinking krakens, monstrous whales and island-backed turtles. Most dismiss these accounts as tall tales, but some have been found to be very real indeed. Such is the case with Ogra and Gorgo, the legendary sea spirits of the hidden, formerly unplottable Nara Island off the coast of Ireland.

One of several entrances to the Irish Earth hollows associated with the legends of the Formorians, terrible spirits that lived beneath the waves and underground, Ogra's species presumably evolved in an underground sea, descended from the tail-dragging bipedal predators known as guanjis that once found their way to this region millions of years ago. The species must have taken advantage of the lack of any large marine carnivores native there by filling the ecological niche available as a result, but as the Hollow earth changed and introduced other species of apex predators that prowled the oceans' depths, the ancestors of Gorgosuchus developed into ever tougher, more formidable competitors capable of taking on even sea serpents and swimming retrosaurs - any megafauna which a Gorgosuchus can capture and tear apart, on land or in the sea, is on its menu. The code name Monarch has assigned to Ogra and Gorgo refers to a water-dwelling dragon or serpent from Irish legend, which supposedly fled from Ireland to avoid Saint Patrick, its tail carving the River Shannon in the process, although the account of the creature swallowing a piper only to regurgitate him due to being bothered by his music is not but an urban legend, as Ogra does not see humans as prey. Accounts of giant aquatic reptiles in Ireland do suggest however that the Hollow Earth ecosystem now known as Tir-fo-Thuinn, after another name for the Celtic Otherworld of spirits, may have once been expansive enough to have encroached beneath the landmass of Ireland proper, with Ogra's species evolving there first before its range became restricted to the mysterious Emain Ablach archipelago (which is named after a legendary island paradise, again from Irish folklore).

Gorgo himself was actually the first of the two specimens of Titanus Oillipheist to have been encountered, first sighted in 1961. Having gotten himself lost and encountered humans for the first time, he had come dangerously close to eating humans out of curiosity, and had been blamed for several disappearances around the area. Granted, at his size back then he could have easily regard them as prey at first, but he soon learned the hard way that they were too difficult and dangerous to be worth the meal when an investigating archaeological team turned against him and captured him, declaring various intentions at his expense. Surprisingly small for a kaiju, the creature was dubbed "Gorgo" for his frightening appearance, and it was initially thought that he was already a fully-grown adult. However, some witnesses regarded his behavior as remarkably child-like, and soon the question was posed: if this was a baby monster, what would the adult be like? The answer came when the much larger monster, which the Nara Island residents had already identified as their patron goddess Ogra, all but tore the island apart in a frantic search for her son, before following his scent towards London where Gorgo was being kept. Still reeling from the rampage of Palaeotitan just two years before, Britain had not quite finished rebuilding but was at least more prepared for the possibility of another kaiju attack, with as many anti-kaiju defenses put into place as was feasible. To the dismay of all concerned, the enraged mother monster shrugged off every man and machine they could bring against her, and with no other options, the staff holding Gorgo captive evacuated, leaving him to his fate... which was exactly what Ogra had wanted. The moment she had retrieved her child, they departed, back to the Hollow Earth beneath Nara Island, with human civilization having learned a valuable lesson: some monsters are just like the people who oppose them, willing to go to great and sometimes terrible extremes to protect those they hold dear. As such, the Emain Ablach islands were made a protected sanctuary without delay, with Monarch being the one organization authorized to study them and the Earth hollows they concealed.

While this was the most significant appearance of the two monsters in the prying eyes of man, it was also just the first, and as Gorgo began to develop into a worthy successor to his mother, he began to venture out into the world beyond Tir-fo-Thuinn on a regular basis, albeit knowing better than to openly draw humanity's attention this time and with his mother tailing and teaching him just in case. Over a period between 1961 and 1965, sightings of them became frequent around the north Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as Gorgo grew into his own while fending off a number of terrible threats to both western Europe and eastern North America, such as the venomous Watang, the hairy, scary "Venusian Terrors", the menacing Chloryllfid, and in an encounter in such a remote corner of the Hollow Earth that no man has ever witnessed the carnage that ensued, the Reptisaur flight that had ravaged Denmark the same year Gorgo had been first sighted. It is notable that every one of these encounters has ended in Gorgo and Ogra's favor, cementing the notion that both then and now, they have upheld the peace within Europe's Hollow Earth, striking down even the fiercest of potential usurpers.

As the 60's drew to a close, however, the two sea spirits withdrew from the public eye for reasons that are still unclear, and have remained beneath Nara Island since. Perhaps the new wars that man was engaging in did not sit well with them, or new and dangerous technologies and manmade environmental changes were too much to handle. Whatever the case, it is for the best that they remain undisturbed for now. Who knows if the Nara Island Spirits may be needed again someday?

Personality and Combat Style:
Ogra and Gorgo are a loving mother-and-son duo who, as has been discovered by Monarch during the exploration of Tir-fo-Thuinn, are the largest and most prestigious of the endangered Gorgosuchus population, their bloodline having presumably stuck to their instinctive sense of purpose as Europe's main line of defense against global threats for many generations. While there is some understandable friction between the two because of Gorgo's inevitable growth into an independent creature who will soon have to find a territory of his own, their bond is close enough that some have deemed it a sort of "love", or the closest to the human concept of it that can be achieved by giant prehistoric crocodilians (for which parental care is known in many species already). Wherever Gorgo goes, his mother is often not too far behind.

Of the two, Gorgo is the more outgoing by quite a margin, and despite his untoward first encounter with man, he has never once lost his sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around him. Though formidable in his own right and the equivalent of a child prodigy when it comes to taking on foes even more dangerous than him or his mother, for the most part he has yet to outgrow his, well, childish nature and the adorably innocent yet unfortunate ignorance that comes with it. The playful creature has been known to frequently stumble a little too close to danger and only learn of what this entails too late to make a break for it without making a bad situation worse, though to his credit he is a fast learner who can easily recognize friend from foe once experience gives him the answers... albeit in ways he certainly hasn't enjoyed more often than not. That said, his fascination with life's many wonders has been as rewarding as it has been frustrating, and he has easily made friends with most other juvenile kaiju who aren't associated with threats to the global ecosystem, with Minilla being one of his most trusted comrades and a recurrent sparring partner whenever Gorgo and his mother visit Monster Island. Gorgo has also managed to befriend a few kind-hearted humans despite his earlier doubts about mankind as a race, and has a rapport with the Nara Island residents who offer up part of their daily catch on a regular basis to keep him from being forced to hunt the people themselves. The response of other kaiju varies depending on their view of children in general, though there is of course a significant number of more heroic monsters that have taken a shining to him almost as much as his mother.

Ogra herself is the older, wiser, and more grizzled veteran of Nara Island, who has done battle with everything from other retrosaurs to Vikings to alien invaders, both before and after she started her family. A loving but slightly paranoid single parent and the unofficial combat instructor to her only son, the attachment she has towards him has yet to be overridden by her understanding that he will need to live his own life someday, but despite her habit of smothering him a bit when they are together, she has never once been on bad terms with Gorgo and will literally move mountains for the sake of his well-being. Notably, this same sense of paternal care has come to extend to every other creature she knows who is both weaker than herself and confirmed to not be a potential threat to her and Gorgo. Defending smaller monsters, civilians, and young creatures of all shapes and sizes is one of her most well-known characteristics, and from her standpoint, all life deserves the chance to exist and prove itself. In this respect, she isn't unlike her fellow guardian kaiju, Mothra, in that her main ambition is the preservation of peace throughout her home and the European continent, and anything that purposely tries to undermine it will pay a heavy price - especially since she is far more physically inclined, naturally sturdy, and violently defensive about this goal. Even Palaeotitan is rightly cautious around her since, for all her gentle and caring nature, there are very few who have managed to survive the wrath of a slighted goddess and none in one piece.

While somewhat more obscure to humanity than some other kaiju due to the limited range of appearances and fewer active periods than most, Ogra and Gorgo are still some of the best-known giant monsters of western Europe and have befriended a bunch of kaiju from further reaches. Should the need arise, they are often more than willing to come to the aid of those they have forged alliances with for the sake of global safety, with such trusted aides including Mothra, Kong, Chitanosaurus, Manda, Gorosaurus, Baragon, Gigantis, Palaeotitan (surprisingly), and Godzilla himself.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Ogra is one of the greatest powerhouses of Europe's known kaiju, and her son is well on his way to matching or even exceeding her in terms of sheer physical might once he reaches maturity. Ogra's scales are hard as steel and cover diamond-microfiber-laced muscles capable of exerting incredible forces at a whim, deflecting most forms of attack and leaving foes open to a brutal punishment. Her jaws are strong enough to drive their numerous replacable railroad-spike teeth through plate steel, and combined with neck muscles to match, she can lift and hurl aside opponents as big as herself with her mouth alone. Her massive tail can shatter entire hillsides and leave furrows like miniature canyons with a ground-slam much like the legendary Oillipheist, and kaiju bones fare little better even if their owner manages to withstand a tail slam without being toppled. Her main weapons, however, are the long claws on her hands which can rend anything from concrete to kaiju hide, and she likes to grapple her foes with her fangs while her talons do their worst, often kicking and stomping with her mighty clawed legs for good measure. Gorgo has much the same weaponry but as it is not fully developed he isn't capable of dealing quite as much damage, although he is far from incapable of tearing into foes if sufficiently pressed. His smaller size and low-slung physique make him faster on land than his mother even with the awkward waddling of his large webbed feet, and he is even able to jump surprisingly well, allowing him to swiftly close the gap between himself and a startled opponent.
• Amphibious: Both specimens of Titanus Oillipheist evolved to swim as well as they can stomp, and with long paddle-like tails, large webbed feet like a mix of crocodile and waterfowl, and enlarged dorsal spines forming a sail that keeps them stable in the water, their natatory talent matches that of Gigantis and Chitanosaurus, though both are still slightly less capable when submerged than specialist swimmers such as Manda or Gezora. Ogra is still able to cruise neck-and-neck with warships at full throttle, and Gorgo can keep up with speedboats over short distances. Unlike Godzilla, the two of them lack gills or any means of absorbing oxygen underwater, but while they primarily stay hidden by remaining in the Hollow Earth as per tradition, they can also hold their breath long enough to dive for several hours at a time.

Special Abilities:

• Damage Absorption: The most significant ability relevant to both Ogra and Gorgo is the fact that they are capable of withstanding incredible amounts of punishment, far beyond even things capable of killing other kaiju - one urban legend claims that Ogra managed to shield Gorgo from an alien superweapon that could destroy an entire planet and only received a second-degree burn. While the exact mechanics of this are not entirely clear, it seems that Ogra at least is able to absorb the energy of incoming attacks, be it kinetic, thermodynamic, electrical, or even radioactive, and convert this into biological energy to give herself a temporary boost in physical power. This of course has its limitations and powerful-enough hits could still injure her in theory by overclocking her attack-absorbing skill, but this would require forces beyond even the scope of natural disasters such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Gorgo seems to have a similar ability albeit on a lesser scale, but since he is not fully grown yet, the threshold he can take is likewise much lower, although he is still able to take a surprising amount of punishment before being incapacitated.
  One particular effect of this ability is that when a certain amount of energy has been absorbed, often dangerously close to the limit either Ogra or Gorgo can take, their eyes, throats, and the gaps between their scales begin to emit a ghostly blue glow, and their physical power virtually doubles temporarily. This has colloquially been referred to as their "Vengeful Spirit" mode and because of the extreme lengths one would have to go to activate it, this is virtually always a sign that their opponent or opponents have crossed a line that no sane individual should. This mode is feared by every living thing that knows them and for good reason: when active, they become immune to pain, incapable of being forcibly moved, and stubbornly set on their course of action without any regard for long-term consequences... usually the complete obliteration of the antagonist who had the power, willingness, and brutality to trigger it.

Weaknesses:

• Cold-Blooded: The Gorgosuchus species is gigantothermic in nature, meaning that their size as adults is how they retain body heat - but as they have to start their lives small, the hatchlings are as ectothermic as regular crocodiles and need to rely on the environment to maintain their body temperature, especially without the adults' dorsal sails to aid in doing so. Even when adolescent or fully grown, however, extreme temperatures are not for them. Ogra is more tolerant of intense heat and cold and even without her indestructibility, her scales are tough enough to withstand most heat- or cold-based attacks, but Gorgo is smaller and more adversely affected by such forms of damage, and is in fact driven to a panic at the  mere sight of fire. Cold environments can also slow even Ogra's movement to a crawl, so she and her son have to stick to the Hollow Earth locales in northern latitudes where the geothermal heat makes up for the air temperature.
• Close-Quarters Combatants: Unlike Godzilla, Ogra and Gorgo have no ranged attacks whatsoever, with their only thing going for them being their nigh invulnerability. This makes dealing with opponents with ranged weaponry of their own an uphill battle and fliers/speedsters even more of a challenge - to say nothing of monsters that are both. Ogra is well aware of this shortcoming, though Gorgo not so much, which is why she has been educating him on a variety of ways to circumvent it, some of which are surprisingly creative.
• Stalwart and Stubborn: Ogra is reasonable and gentle when calm, and slow to bring to genuine anger, but far from such when her fury is finally roused. When set upon a course of action, she will stick to it with a tenacity no other creature can hope to achieve, especially when enraged. This can lead to severe tunnel vision wherein she doesn't realize the consequences of her actions until after her goal has been met, and in cases where the collateral cost lives and damaged far more than she should have, she has shown heart-rending penitence and will often seek to rectify the mistakes she never even knew she'd made, even if simply leaving things be is the smarter option. Gorgo has the same personality issue but exacerbated by a less-than-mature mindset and little experience or wisdom, this can get him in serious trouble, often failing to realize what he's gotten himself into until it's too late.
• Immature (Gorgo only): Gorgo is not fully grown, and it shows in both his personality and his physical traits. Since his body is not as strong or durable as his mother, opponents will have a slightly easier time overwhelming him, although this is still a difficult feat because even at his age he is already a ferocious fighter when pushed into it. His damage-absorbing ability is also under-developed and as such he can handle less physical trauma than his mother before being forced into his Vengeful Spirit mode or conceding that retreat is the only option. In terms of character, he has the usual childhood issue of still learning about the world around him and because of his outgoing nature he often learns what is dangerous and what isn't by direct experience, which is often dangerous enough for his mother to intervene. If an incident involving the pair isn't due to someone deciding to exploit them, it's most often because Gorgo's inquisitiveness has led him to make a rash decision (and as shown in some cases, the two causes aren't mutually exclusive).
• Maternal Fury (Ogra only): Ogra is ludicrously protective of any young creatures she associates with and especially her only surviving child (and not without reason given his importance). This can cause problems in the case of Gorgo especially as his child-like behavior can get him in trouble with other less scrupulous third parties and, as such, Ogra is left to have to deal with them and can get unnecessarily violent when teaching them a lesson about messing with her son. Her desperation when it comes to defending him and other creatures she regards as though they too were her own children can and has been used against her, and it isn't common but not unheard of for her benevolence to have been taken advantage of. Needless to say, however, her raw strength and durability means this is not a gamble for the faint of heart.

Chapter Text

Rulers of Obelisk Isle: GAPPA

Statistics

• Classification: Scansoriopterygidae, Vultursaurinae
• Height: 196.85 feet/60 meters (Tarkshya), 164.04 feet/50 meters (Unnati), 32.81 feet/10 meters (Sampati)
• Length: 262.47 feet/80 meters (Tarkshya), 246.06 feet/75 meters (Unnati), 49.21 feet/15 meters (Sampati)
• Wingspan: 492.126 feet/150 meters (Tarkshya), 459.32 feet/140 meters (Unnati), 262.47 feet/80 meters (Sampati)
• Mass: 15,000 short tons/13,607.77 metric tons (Tarkshya), 12,000 short tons/10,886.22 metric tons (Unnati), 2,000 short tons/1,814.37 metric tons (Sampati)
• Locality: Cosmopolitan in migration, but their main nest is located on the island of Vaikuntha a.k.a. "Obelisk Isle", which is part of the Shakdvipa Earth Hollow, to the southwest of the Phillipines.

Bio

History:
In Hindu mythology, the legendary avian monster known as the Garuda is variously the vehicle mount or vahana of the Hindu god Vishnu, a protective figure in Buddhism, and a nature spirit associated with the spiritual teacher named Shantinatha. It was believed at various points that there was either a singular Garuda, a family, or a whole race of the creatures, with sightings ranging as far south as Indonesia and as far east as Japan, although their main roost seems to have been a cosmic realm known as Vaikuntha which was also said to have been where their patron Vishnu lived. Although it remains a celebrated figure in Hinduism and Buddhism, and is still invoked for protection against evil to this day, for centuries it was a mystery as to whether it was an exaggeration of real-world birds, an allegory for divine forces - or a real creature. It wouldn't be until 1967 that the answer would come to light, with the discovery of an island in the Indian Ocean that had not been noticed before.

In the months since surveillance imagery took notice of it, various companies had tried to make a fortune off what would come to be called Obelisk Island, and the heads of Playmate Magazine in particular were keen on making it into a tourist destination, despite there being natives there that warned them against venturing deeper into the caverns beneath the island. The notion that there was already human habitation on the island was swiftly dismissed as beside the point, and exploration of the island for potential venues commenced without delay. Eventually, however, the reason for the natives' concerns became clear: a unique ecosystem full of creatures seemingly lost to time, and in particular a massive "lizard-bird", was soon uncovered, and despite the investigating companies all dismissing these findings as attention-seeking and absurd, at least initially, it was eventually found that this strange creature and its habitat indeed real - and potentially valuable to civilization for all sorts of reasons. The animal was thus swiftly captured with the intent of sending it to Tokyo for research purposes, only for reports to soon come in of Obelisk Island being ravaged by two much larger versions of the creature. Despite insistence on the part of many concerned parties that what was presumably their offspring would have to be returned, the corporate heads stayed their course and refused to let their finding go, which was what led to the parent monsters, known as "Gappa" by the Obelisk Island natives, to rampage across Sagami Bay to rescue their child. Ultimately, the only way to defuse the situation was to release the captive juvenile, and sure enough, the family left as soon as they were reunited, and any business ventures on Obelisk Island were closed down in light of this incident.

Monarch, of course, was not happy with the events that had led to this new sighting. The suggested course of action would have been to leave the young Gappa be and have Monarch agents investigate the hollow and its inhabitants, something which was not done because the various businesses intending to exploit the island did not want to come into conflict with Monarch and the sponsoring governments that could interfere with their efforts - such is the nature of capitalism and its disregard for the world and its well-being. Ultimately, though, the island came under governmental protection, both to protect its ecosystem and to keep anyone from disturbing the Gappa family again. So it was that they would be safe from human intervention - but other kaiju were another story...

Just a year after this incident, a mysterious light appeared in the sky above Obelisk Isle. As soon as the largest of the Gappa, dubbed "Tarkshya" by Monarch, emerged from their lair to investigate... he was gone. Sometime later, the city of Manila, capital of the Phillipines, found itself under attack as the Gappa patriarch tore through the skies above it, raining lightning and death upon countless terrified civilians and helpless structures below. No military force could put a stop to his assault, and it seemed that Manila would be completely wiped off the map... until a tremendous roar made the ground itself tremble.

Towering above the ruined buildings, a mighty reptile stood on two legs, a vision of prehistoric terror. Gorosaurus the Time Dragon had been led here by his companion Minilla, who was continuing his search for his missing father, and was drawn here by the sounds of utterly immense destruction that had been associated with Godzilla throughout his life. There was sadly no King of the Monsters to be found here, but Gorosaurus felt a thrill of panic nonetheless. This unfamiliar creature had to be subdued or repelled, lest it cause untold harm to the native ecosystem! Tarkshya meanwhile saw a new threat - even while under the Kilaak's control, his every instinct told him that this was an enemy, somehow. Swooping from the sky to meet the predatory dinosaur, his objective changed from wiping out all of humanity in the area to tearing his scale-swathed foe to bits even at the cost of his own life. Gorosaurus met with his own teeth and talons, and the dance of death was on. Back and forth they fought on equal footing, scything talons meeting serrated fangs, bludgeoning wings countering whip-like tail strikes, a beak like a battleaxe clashing with a spine-shattering double kick. The match was surprisingly even despite Tarkshya having a range advantage, lightning bolts searing Gorosaurus' hide and humid tempests making it hard for him to remain standing, but he refused to go down without the fight of a lifetime. Finally he managed to grab hold of one of Tarkshya's wings, pulling him to the ground and pinning him with a taloned foot against his back. Tarkshya struggled desperately against his saurian foe who was now preparing to cripple him with a deadly bite to the throat - when three distinct cries alerted them both.

Minilla re-emerged from the dust and debris, and behind him were two other monsters that looked very familiar to Tarkshya: "Unnanti", his mate, and "Sampati", their child. The sight of their distressed friends and family briefly caused something to stir in the father Gappa, and when Gorosaurus returned his attention to his downed adversary, he finally took notice of something that he had missed since their fight began: a strange metallic thing attached to the back of his head. One surprisingly delicate nip later, the mind-control device had been pulled free, and after discarding it like a piece of garbage the size of a pickup truck, the dinosaur simply stepped off of his downed opponent and continued on his way. Stunned and confused, Tarkshya got to his feet, regarding his family for a moment, and called out to Gorosaurus in a nonverbal inquiry as to why he was letting him live, and in reply the carnosaur paused, turning his head to regard him in turn, and let out a growl in a manner akin to saying "You're welcome", simultaneously pointing with his spiked tail tip towards the device he'd extracted. The Gappa family and Minilla took one look at the still-sparking piece of alien tech, and understanding came to them. While the Gappa had every intent of wanting to see Tarkshya's abductors punished for their transgression, Minilla responded by snuggling with Sampati, his expression pleading with them to seek refuge - he had no idea what would happen, but they were together now, and they shouldn't take any more risks than they had done already. If the world needed them, they'd know soon. But for now, they must take shelter before the Kilaaks returned.

Fortunately, the Kilaaks were repelled without any need to call on any other kaiju aside from the ones who were able to deal with them and their secret weapon. The Gappa were as such left to exist peacefully on Obelisk Isle, with Monarch's studies of them and their habitat as their only human contact. No recorded clashes between them and civilization have been recorded since, but their harmony with the world remains uneasy. The greed of mankind, after all, is nothing if not creative...

Personality and Combat Style:
Closely related to Rodan and her twin brother, the Gappa are distinct from them in that they have four legs instead of two, alongside their two wings each - a condition known as polymelia which has been recorded in a number of modern birds. The ancestors of the Gappa may have retained this condition due to it being evolutionarily advantageous, but what advantage can only be guessed at. Theories about their origins range from an especially strange species native to the Hollow Earth to the results of ancient genetic experiment, with some even suggesting that they were affected by an extraterrestrial organism. No confirmation of any of these suggestions has yet been found, although their strange abilities and abnormal number of limbs do hint at some degree of genetic tampering, either by an unknown natural kaiju mutagen or an ancient civilization that has since been lost.

• Tarkshya, the father Gappa, is the most active of the three and the most commonly seen. When something poses a risk to the family, he is usually the first to respond. His territorial streak appears to be a hallmark of male dinosaurs, and although his character seems to have been tempered by his relationship with his family, he was supposedly once a prideful and dangerous creature who could be expected to attack with little provocation if he deemed whatever he was confronting an unwelcome presence. Nowadays, however, he has more respect for creatures weaker and smaller than he is, and cares for his son and wife deeply enough that any harm that befalls them will be repaid twice over if he can help it. Of the three he is the one most often seen flying over Obelisk Island in search of prey or potential threats, with many aircraft wisely steering clear at the sight of him lest they be shot from the sky due to him mistaking them for more dangerous foes. While fiercely protective of his turf and loved ones, he does not actively seek out other kaiju to challenge them, and would much rather be left to ply the skies and seas around his home for his family's daily needs and spend time reinforcing his relationship with them on equal measure.
• Unnati is the smaller and more gentle matriarch of the trio, but no less formidable - in fact, as passive as she is most of the time, she is in fact more dangerous than her mate in certain situations. This is because it is her who is more actively protective of their son, often sheltering him close to her when conditions turn harsh, and most creatures on the island know that when the child is around, she won't be far behind, meaning they instinctively know better to leave them alone as they should. While Unnati does love her son very much, however, she can also be somewhat excessive in her drive to keep him safe, attempting to keep him within her sight or otherwise away from the borders of the island out of a lack of trust in his ability to fend for himself. Losing either of her family members is, understandably, her deepest, darkest fear, and even the possibility of this happening is often enough for her to scoop up her child and rush to find suitable cover. It is no accident that the locals familiar with her often compare overprotective human mothers to her, but despite this, she nevertheless loves her family very much, and in a world full of things capable of wiping out whole continents if left unchecked, her concerns for their safety aren't entirely unwarranted.
• Sampati, the child of the family, is named after another mythical bird from Hindu lore who is said in some myths to be the son of Garuda and an ally of the hero figure Rama. The protectiveness of his parents, while invaluable against the other titans that could have easily claimed Obelisk Isle for themselves, has led to his demeanor being quite meek, reclusive, and somewhat paranoid, suspecting most events and entities as being potentially risky and being hesitant to investigate new things. Upon sensing danger, his first response is to panic and retreat, and given that he is not fully grown and lacks the power and durability of his parents, this is often the best course of action - though it also makes him dangerous to people in his own right, as he might end up plowing through inhabited areas without thinking while making his escape. If he can't escape to the skies when in danger, he usually tries to find an underground tunnel or passageway to hide in, as they are reminiscent of the burrows and caverns his family nests in, which would make him a potential nuisance for subway lines, underground malls, and other subterranean constructions if he were to ever find his way once again into human civilization uninhibited. Despite his flightiness in more ways than one, however, he is not as easy a victim as one might assume - his parents are currently teaching him how to fend for himself and face off against danger rather than running away from it, and these lessons are already being taken to heart. If cornered or trapped, he can and will lash out in a screeching, flapping flurry, and although he still has the awkwardness of youth holding him back, his beak and claws are still strong and sharp enough to draw blood if he can catch his opponent off guard. Luckily, the little reptavian is still sociable enough that he can rely on other youthful companions to back him up or help him escape if they're on hand, with Minilla and Gorgo being among those he can count on during times of need.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: The Gappa are relatively small by kaiju standards, but their physical might is still impressive for their size. The powerful wing muscles they use to launch themselves airborne also allow them to inflict bludgeoning or slashing blows with punishing force, and their tough scales and hardened feathers enable them to withstand any retaliation against their assault as well as most forms of attack. Their teeth, and beaks are strong and sharp enough to tear through solid rock and a swipe of their tails or wings can break bone, but in particular their talons are able to inflict vicious slash and stab wounds like a sword through tissue paper and can grip with enough strength to crush concrete into powder, sinking their claws deep enough to pierce vitals and sever spinal columns. With bodies packed with muscle and reinforced yet lightweight skeletons, their balance of agility and strength makes them formidable both on land and in the air.
• Flight: The Gappa have powerful wings which can carry them at incredible speeds, the long and narrow shape being perfect for exploiting any air current that rises from below. Both parents have been known to appear in airspaces across the globe since his emergence, and are able to stay airborne almost indefinitely by riding cushions of air formed by waves and mountains at every opportunity, needing only a single wingbeat to get airborne. Much like the Rodan twins, their favored aerial combat tactic is to simply drop from the sky with the speed of a meteor, striking feet-first and crippling their prey or opponent to leave them open for additional attacks.
• Triphibious: Aside from being agile on land and in the air, the Gappa are surprisingly good swimmers, too - easily able to dive straight into water in pursuit of prey. Valves in their throats and nostrils prevent them from choking on water as they submerge, their wings can be tucked in and used as flippers, and their lung capacity allows them to hold their breath for up to twenty minutes as they chase down aquatic prey. Their feathers trap air beneath them, forcing them to work hard to reach significant depths, but this also allows them to simply rise like a cork if they wish to return to the surface. Their nest is even stationed in an undersea cave , and not without reason - creatures that hunt airborne prey often won't think to look for such passages that other flying dinosaurs wouldn't even think of using as escape tunnels or secret entrances.

Special Abilities:

• Electrogenesis: Like several other unrelated kaiju, the Gappa are able to conduct electricity thanks to special cells in their muscles  allowing them to act as generators. The very act of physical exertion accumulates power, which they can project through their beaks and talons or unleash as deadly EMPs depending on which mode of combat is required. This system also allows them to absorb lightning strikes and external sources of currents such as power lines for a quick energy boost. When fully charged, their eyes glow a brilliant blinding white, allowing them to temporarily blind and disorient foes and leave them open to a follow-up assault. 
• Stormy Skies: Alongside their ability to control electricity, the Gappa can manipulate air currents and atmospheric water vapor through careful use of the electromagnetic fields they emit. As such, this allows them to create storm clouds as long as there is water in the surrounding environment, in either liquid or gaseous form, shrouding themselves and the battlefield in a volatile cloak capable of producing lightning, hurricane-force winds, heavy precipitation, or any other kinds of dangerous weather.. The three of them have learned and taught each other a variety of creative ways of using this ability, both offensive and defensive.
• Radiant Heat Beam: As a trump card, the Gappa are able to channel their electrical currents and emit a powerful stream of water vapor at the same time, heating it up to such an extreme that it is converted into a deadly beam of plasma. This is able to boil the fluids and char hide and hair of any creature unfortunate enough to be struck, as well as melting steel and blasting rock and concrete. The heat beam is an energetically taxing weapon and can be difficult to use for very long, but it's able to be swept about quickly and can be used while moving, often to snipe targets from afar or deal the finishing blow in an aerial dogfight. At point-blank range it's able to even blow a hole clean through kaiju at a similar size range to the Gappa that fired it.

Weaknesses:

• Enemy Of Serpents: For reasons unknown, the Gappa have an instinctive aversion to kaiju derived from non-avian reptiles, with non-maniraptoran dinosaurs (even fellow theropods like Gorosaurus), retrosaurs, squamates, and even certain stem-chelonians included in this list. This makes it difficult to cooperate with such creatures and more likely for a Gappa to start a fight if the other kaiju fits the layman's definition of a reptile, with draconic kaiju being the ones most likely to be targeted. If the artificial origin for the species is the truth, it may be possible that this is an instinctive defense against a certain infamous space dragon that constructed the current iteration of its DNA from similar stock to what they Gappa oppose, albeit one that backfired to some extent given the number of reptilian kaiju native to Earth.
• Paper Wings: While the Gappa have reasonable sturdy hides, as with the Rodans, their membranous wings are somewhat more delicate and easily torn through with enough artillery - although conventional weaponry can't even scratch them, kaiju and mecha attacks are a different story. As they hold more than half their body weight on their wings normally, a Gappa with a torn or broken wing will be hobbled until the accelerated regeneration common to most kaiju can repair the damage. For this reason, all three members of the family dislike close combat, choosing to attack from a distance first and then close ranks only after they can guarantee that their foe won't retaliate once they do so.
• Parental Care: Both Tarkshya and Unnati have a deep attachment to their son Sampati, and will fly, swim, and stalk to the ends of the earth to protect him - a fact which has unfortunately been used against them several times. Many unscrupulous parties and individuals have Sampati near the top of their list of potential victims, knowing that any harm dealt upon him will cause his parents to enter a destructive frenzy out of grief and rage. As with other kaiju that have familial bonds, however, this gambit is as risky as it is tempting, and botching it has more than once led to lost lives, needlessly destroyed property, and unnecessary conflict with other kaiju that were forced to step in before or after things got out of hand.

Chapter Text

Antarctic Monster: MAGUMA

Statistics

• Classification: Gorgonopsidae
• Height: 98.43 feet/30 meters
• Length: 164.04 feet/50 meters
• Mass: 27,557.78 short tons/25,000 metric tons
• Locality: The Southern Ocean, surrounding Antarctica

Bio

History:
A descendant of an ancient group of creatures from the Permian that could barely even be considered mammals, Maguma's involvement in the outbreak of kaiju across the world has been fairly minimal. His emergence would have been a greater problem if it had not been for the fact that it was in a location too far away from civilization to lead to significant conflict - at the time, scientific analysis concluded that the gravitational pull emitted by a mysterious planetoid that had passed through the solar system at about the same time was responsible for inducing increased volcanic activity in the southern hemisphere, resulting in the proto-mammal being freed from hibernation in the Antarctic ice. Attempts to dispose of him were largely unsuccessful, with the creature even tunneling his way out after being buried by a manmade avalanche due to his aggression in defense of his territory, but ultimately he was tranquilized and sent to a Monarch outpost elsewhere in the Southern Ocean. He remains there to this day, not really inclined to leave any time soon now that he has his basic needs sorted out.

While Maguma has been largely uninterested in mankind's activity, instead choosing to hunt the aquatic megafauna within his territory as a typical sea animal would, there has been one interesting development since his discovery. The colossal aquatic sphenacodont, Vagnosaurus, took up residence in the Southern Ocean shortly after her first appearance in 1998 partly due to being attracted to Maguma as a potential companion. She visits his territory on a regular basis but seems to shy away whenever the gorgonopsid responds, both of which occur for reasons that can only be guessed at; the most logical explanation is that she is looking for a mate, and only Maguma has close enough relations in the tree of life to be considered compatible. He has yet to return her affections, however, being as territorial and irritable as ever, and so the Antarctic giant remains solitary for now.

Personality and Combat Style:
Maguma is a brute, plain and simple. Nothing in his mind cannot be solved by simply smashing it to rubble or tearing it apart, and any foreign presence is met with furious violence. He is not a social creature and isn't fond of company, but fortunately for humanity he is also territorial and prefers to remain in a single given space that has all his basic needs such as a consistent heat source, suitable populations of prey, and adequate tracts of sea and land to roam in. No disturbance in his vicinity comes away without a wound or two, most of which are quite vicious because of his sheer ferocity and bluster. If he were more inclined to torment humanity he would be very feared indeed, but he is thankfully restricted by the colder waters of the Southern Ocean and would much rather be left to his volcanically active den and the hunting range surrounding it.

It is also fortunate for Maguma that his home turf is so remote, because despite his ferocious demeanor and sheer strength, he is not especially powerful as kaiju go. He is certainly capable of a vicious assault and doesn't hold back in a fight, but when sufficiently outmatched, his stubbornness does him more harm than good. Faced off against even a powerful opponent, he will continue latching on and tearing in until he is forced off and beaten unconscious, and when he recovers he will go right back to attacking the first thing he sees, and then the next thing he sees after he's destroyed or disabled the first one, and so on. About the one thing he does deserve credit for is that he doesn't hold grudges despite his ferocity - whenever something that has beaten him leaves, he doesn't give chase. Pursuing opponents for petty reasons is too energetically taxing for him to bother, and anyway, sending them packing is usually his intent in the first place even if he's lost.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Maguma is a powerful creature for his size, packed with muscle and sporting a tough, leathery hide that is loose enough to allow him to twist around to strike back even when his foes get a hold of him. His powerful front limbs, his main implements for swimming, can batter opponents senseless and leave ragged wounds with the sharp claws on his flipper-like front feet. More deadly still is his bite - his neck and jaw muscles are quite strong, and his mouth can open especially wide to drive in his thick, sturdy saber-teeth, more like walrus tusks than the fangs of most other carnivores. He can easily shred through any exposed hide he can get a hold of, severing blood vessels and tearing out viscera. With a sturdy build and a reinforced, rather solid skeleton to aid in diving, he can easily shrug off most forms of attack and keep on coming at a struggling adversary - in fact, his typical method of initiating combat is simply rushing violently at the opponent, mouth and claws first.
• Amphibious: Maguma is a powerful swimmer and a surprisingly swift charger, his powerful front limbs propelling him through the water and over land with deceptive speed for his bulk, if only for the short distances required to intercept prey. He has similar adaptations to deep-diving pinnipeds despite being only very distantly related and as such, he can dive for up to an hour and down to 7,500 feet below sea level in pursuit of prey. His solid bones act as a ballast to keep him submerged, his lungs are collapsible with high hemoglobin concentrations in his blood for alternative oxygen storage, and his hide is pliant enough to withstand the hydrostatic pressure of a deep dive. He is easily able to cruise at a speed of 35 knots, and can move twice as fast over short bursts, enough to outpace most of the large marine creatures such as whales, giant squid, and Ebijin that make up his diet.
• Heat Absorption: One interesting adaptation Maguma has developed, presumably as a result of living in the Hollow Earth, is the ability to absorb external heat, despite being warm-blooded in metabolism. This is achieved due to a dual network of blood vessels within his skin whose redundancy enables them to act as a sort of radiator crossed with a solar panel, retaining heat while keeping his organs at a stable, livable temperature. With proteins in the cells of his skin that make it effectively fireproof, this allows him to withstand intense heat, even the fire attacks of other monsters. He is even able to survive being immersed in lava and regularly bathes in it to keep his body temperature from dropping too low in his Antarctic territory - one of the requirements in it is in fact a volcanically active area from which he can derive enough heat to survive. It is speculated that despite looking like a pinniped, this ability is due to his kind having evolved in a warmer environment than today.

Weaknesses:

• Simple-Minded Brute: Maguma is not an especially intelligent creature, even if he isn't exactly stupid either. Still, he has no complex strategies for most situations, preferring to solve problems by simply smashing them to bits or running them out of his territory. A clever opponent can easily outsmart him or lure him into a difficult situation, but if his needs are recognized and provided he is also easily placated. He also has no real desire for cooperation and lacks the social intelligence for it, leaving him with no companionship amongst other kaiju.
• No Special Abilities: Self-explanatory. Maguma has no real tricks to distinguish him from other monsters such as beam weapons, and has to rely on his physical strength alone to get by. While certainly capable of holding his own in a fight and tenacious enough to punch above his weight with surprising proficiency, against kaiju with more distinct and powerful abilities, he tends to buckle.
• Stopped Cold: Maguma is not adapted for extremely low temperatures like in the Antarctic, relying on geothermal heat to keep himself sufficiently warm and only venturing out into the cold ocean waters when necessary, as the blubber beneath his skin is not as thick as in the case of other aquatic polar inhabitants. In theory, depriving him of external heat sources could be dangerous to him even with the endothermic metabolism he has. Ice-based attacks from other kaiju in particular are an effective and reliable means of disabling him entirely.

Chapter Text

Subterranean Fire-Breather: YONGARY

Statistics

• Classification: Tyrannosuchidae, Megalotyrannidae, Carnodontidae
• Length: 1200 feet/365.76 meters
• Height: 114.83 feet/35 meters (at hip)
• Mass: 104,719.57 short tons/95,000 metric tons
• Locality: Originally from a part of the Lost Continent near what is now West Papua, Indonesia, but first appeared in in South Korea in 1967 and has been sighted throughout east Asia since then. Her current territory is on Mondo Island and part of Skull Island - one and the same as that of her mate, Gorosaurus.

Bio

History:
The nations of the world aren't exactly static. Even in the modern age, new ones are made based on changing political climates. The Korean peninsula is one such example, with its divide into the dictatorial North Korea and the democratic South Korea occurring as recently as 1945, and thousands of years before then, it had been divided into the Three Kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla. In a similar way, the continents are gradually changing, drifting away from or towards each other at a gradual pace, and some have been lost entirely. The connection between a divided peninsula and a lost continent comes in the year 1967, and the month of August that year specifically. For it was on this month that a creature from ages past emerged with hunger on its mind...

The previous month, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake had struck Indonesia, and more specifically the province of West Papua. While this was regarded as normal, what no human being could have suspected was that it also awakened a creature that had been hibernating deep underground for an indeterminate length of time, perhaps millions of years, perhaps thousands. When it did awaken, however, it knew one thing for certain: it was very, very hungry. In search of sustenance, the mysterious beast proceeded to tunnel its way through the planet's crust, making its way towards the first sign of anything organic it could think of, eventually coming across and decimating oil pockets in eastern China in a trail of destruction leading towards the northeastern corner of the Asian continent. Unintentionally following a crude oil pipeline leading towards North Korea, the unknown beast would eventually tunnel its way towards the surface world, finally emerging on the outskirts of Panmunjom...

It was as though the world had regurgitated a horror from time before man. Swathed in scales hard as steel and armed with too many teeth, talons, horns, and spikes to count, the beast saw the sun for the first time in its life... and with a terrible roar and what sounded like a faint sizzling coming from its skin, it proceeded to go into a furious rampage, tearing its way through all manner of resistance and every destructible feature in the surrounding environment in its bid to feed itself. The dragon-like creature - dubbed "Yongary" by the press after a portmonteau of two mythical Korean monsters - would eventually find its way towards Seoul, devouring every source of fossil fuel in its path and countless livestock in the bargain. Diving in and out of the ground, vanishing from sight one moment and reappearing to continue ravaging the landscape elsewhere, it seemed as though the monster could not be stopped - but as it continued tearing the countryside apart in a bid to sate its hunger, several key weaknesses were revealed in attempts to stop it. Of note was its vulnerability to certain compounds rich in nitrogen, with precipitate of ammonia being the easiest to acquire. It was also found that ultraviolet light, while not especially harmful to the beast, gave it what seemed like an allergic reaction akin to a nasty rash. It was expected that the creature would be repulsed from civilization by the judicious applications of these deterrents, and hopefully be convinced that the world of man was too much of a hassle to be worth the effort.

What was not expected was that upon being subjected to a point-blank radiation burst from an experimental weaponized UV emitter, the agonized Yongary in its violent throes would proceed to tumble straight at the regiment manning the weapon, as though expecting to be struck by it a second time. The ensuing dance of death, with the military attempting to outmaneuver the flailing, thrashing monstrosity and attempting to overwhelm it with blast upon blast of both ammonia solution and what would come to be known as the "itchy ray", lasted for a full day before Yongary finally succumbed to wounds both self-inflicted and received by the opposition, bleeding heavily from every orifice and having ripped away more than a third of its own hide once it had stopped moving. Once it was determined that the body was well and truly lifeless, it was hauled away from the coastline and bombed with as much firepower as the surviving military of South Korea could muster, in the hopes that the creature would never rise again.

At the very least, the government forces had thought they'd succeeded in their goal, as Yongary was not sighted near the area after that fateful incident. But humanity was only half-right.

It would be several months before the monster was sighted once again. But eventually, following the nearest sources of heat and sustenance, it carved a trail under the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, through the Earth's crust, until it quite literally fell into a world untouched by man. Following the causeways of the Hollow Earth, hunting whenever it could along the way, it would soon reemerge to find itself at the heart of an island paradise, teeming with life and free of any of the strange structures it had laid siege to earlier in the year. Sensing that this was an ideal habitat for a creature from the ancient past, Yongary was about to make itself at home when a terrible roar echoed through the jungle and something equally massive came into view. A threat, a rival. Not wanting to give up a new nesting site, Yongary returned the perceived challenge and charged at the newcomer, fangs first.

As it happened, the intruder was none other than Gorosaurus the Time Dragon, who had just returned from a sojourn to Tokyo to lend a certain simian rival his aid against another foe. Because Mondo Island was his territory alone, for all his compassion, he refused to let any other creature take it — and learn of the secrets within it. The fight was long, brutal, and incredibly destructive, but ultimately there was no real winner. The point was made, however, and Yongary tunneled its way to the next island over… discovering a population of creatures very much like it. That, it decided, was to be its real home. Still, Skull Island was part of Gorosaurus' territory as well, and the two would clash several more times in the next few decades. Yongary would not be present for the Kilaak invasion, however, having ventured into the Hollow Earth on a hunting run at the time, and so the invaders never knew that the Subterranean Fire-Breather of Korea had even existed... nor did humanity suspect that it had survived the one attempt made to destroy it.

The 1973 expedition to Skull Island changed all of that. While Kong's clash with the Skullcrawlers was the most significant chain of events recorded from this particular visit, another major discovery was that Yongary was, somehow, still alive. It had been expected that with Gorosaurus also being on the island, the two would be at odds with one another, but when a Skullcrawler attack attracted the attention of both giant predators, against all odds, they started cooperating, working together to bring the beast down. Something had changed in the flame-spewing retrosaur, and even Gorosaurus himself was less introverted than usual. The mystery would be solved when observations of the two later on included a courtship ritual prior to aiding Kong in the fight against the Skullcrawler "queen" - the two archosaurs had, by some strange quirk of kaiju biology, discovered that they were compatible... not to mention that Yongary was actually female.

The governments of both halves of Korea had opposite opinions over what to do about this situation, with South Koreans advocating for Yongary to be left in peace with her newfound mate, and North Korea's government demanding that the beast be killed off once and for all lest it reproduce - or worse, return to Korea once again for one reason or another. But ultimately, nothing came of the debate, and Yongary and her companion cared little either way, remaining undisturbed on the Skull Island archipelago... at least as far as humanity is concerned. The Hollow Earth was in need of protection as well, and Gorosaurus had begun wondering now if Yongary was willing to lend her aid in this regard, as he had had difficulties in convincing Kong about the same. It wouldn't be until years later still when the hard-hearted, stubborn palaeo-tyrant would finally accept, however - shortly after an encounter with both another, strikingly different Korean monster and an invader from outer space by the name of Cykor...

Personality and Combat Style:
While undoubtedly a specimen of Vastatosaurus rex, one of the largest and most notorious predators of Skull Island, Yongary exhibits many characteristics that the rest of her species is lacking in, with her flaming spit-up and heat emission being the most prominent. How and why such a creature could have evolved from the V-rexes was considered a puzzle for the ages for decades, but genetic tests have led to the startling conclusion that she may have been artificially engineered, or at the very least, her genetic code was tampered with in the embryonic stage. More disturbing still was that the modifications to her DNA were found to have occurred during the Pleistocene, far before the advent of any civilization on Earth. Some fringe theorists have taken this as confirmation of the so-called "ancient alien" theory, with Yongary being a long-lost bioweapon that was altered from a Terran organism by a visiting spacefaring civilization, but these theories have been dismissed as sensationalist press-mongering and have no basis in reality.

Yongary herself can be considered a foil to Gorosaurus in almost every way possible: courageous and reckless where he is meek and cautious, viciously territorial where he is welcoming, gluttonous where he is abstinent, and overconfident to the point of being borderline suicidal where he is self-conscious. Whenever the couple get dragged into a difficult situation, it's usually Yongary who got involved first, with a frustrated Gorosaurus having to interfere to try and bail her out - and even when her intent is to try and help someone else, the probability that she might only make things worse is always nonzero. As brash and rebellious as she is, though, Yongary is far from a mindless predator bent solely on bringing death and destruction to all she sees, no matter how much North Korean propaganda tries to push that exact sentiment. Beneath her bottomless hunger and penchant for solving problems with violence is a streak of honor and a desire to do genuine good in the world despite her origin, which has in turn spawned a deep-seated revulsion towards needless cruelty, especially towards those who don't deserve it. Unlike Gorosaurus' victual preference exclusively for those who are willing to accept death for someone else's sake (or the already dead if possible), Yongary is thus more partial - gastronomically speaking - towards the hale and healthy who prove themselves to be cruel of heart, and will risk life and limb to slaughter such bullies and tyrants should she become aware of their existence and actions. Although she does have a problem of caring little for collateral and isn't above devouring or incinerating an entire stretch of city space just to reach a single hated foe, she considers intentionally harming the helpless a pathetic, boring, and wasteful behavior and pointedly refuses to tolerate the existence of any megafauna exhibiting such a habit. It is perhaps fortunate for a certain type of featherless biped that she does not consider humans as prey or even worth acknowledging most of the time, because if that were the case, the crimes humanity has committed since it began establishing civilization would have given her more than enough justification to dedicate her entire existence to wiping mankind off the face of the planet.

Despite her hidden kindness and drive to protect others, Yongary is held back by three core flaws: her competitiveness, gluttony, and sadomasochism. The confidence she has in her raw power sometimes lapses into outright arrogance which can lead to her either underestimating opponents or goading rivals and even allies into making contests out of otherwise serious matters, attempting to outdo those around her in a bid to prove herself. When she feels her opponent deserves to be made an example of, she can be quite vindictive and brutal in delivering retribution, often savaging them even when they're already down and saving a killing blow for when they are at their most physically and emotionally broken with no other way to disgrace them. This can lead to her going to dangerous extremes in defense of those she cares about and if it wasn't for Gorosaurus' teachings and having to hold her back before she crosses a line she shouldn't, she would be a terrible force of vengeance well on her way to losing sight of what motivated her in the first place. She also cares little for how powerful her enemy is when it comes to exacting revenge or saving innocent lives, and even chooses the strongest potential targets available - if she ever got the chance to fight King Ghidorah, she'd do it in a heartbeat. Notably, she actually seems to welcome opportunities to challenge dangerous enemies because of the risk of injury, and whenever she gets maimed in a fight she seems to draw some sort of sick pleasure from it, even goading her opponent into hurting her more and more just to enjoy the painful sensation - and this isn't just a strange interest of hers, either. The more damage she takes in battle, the stronger she seems to get, which makes her brutal, straightforward style of combat a high-risk, high-reward strategy that is as liable to end in spectacular failure as it is to succeed.

It is the monster's enormous appetite, however, that is the most likely cause for concern. She goes into battle not just to avenge wrongs or protect those she holds dear, but more often just to get something to eat... whether or not her designated lunch is willing to humor her. Most kaiju who know her have at least one scar from the obligatory occasion where she tried to snack on them, usually during her first encounter with them. When not in pursuit of fresh meat, she also has a constant craving for fossil fuels such as oil, petrol, coal, and natural gas, which has led to her raiding cities in search of them more often than her mate would like even if the use of them by humans would have worse long-term effects otherwise. While the flame-spewing palaeo-tyrant shares with Gorosaurus an utter lack of interest in hunting people and doesn't care much for regular fauna in general outside of population culls if need be, she will otherwise try anything once and will blithely ignore any personal risk in doing so - she has even attempted to make a meal out of extraterrestrial creatures should she deem them despicable enough to be worth eating. Yongary makes no distinction between enemies and food sources and believes in consumption as the universal solution to conflict resolution - if she can solve a problem by devouring it, that's usually the first thing she'll try to do... even if, again, it only causes an even bigger disaster than what is already happening.

For all her personal issues, Yongary's heart is certainly in the right place, and with Gorosaurus to rein her in, she has managed to ease into alliances with other prehistoric monsters such as Anguirus, Ogra, and fellow burrower Baragon - even her species' nemesis, Kong, isn't above cooperating with her should the need arise. Humanity has also managed to coexist with her since her rediscovery, though somewhat more tenuously due to her dietary preferences which are most often alleviated through delivery of large amounts of waste and fuel which could easily put a dent in the economies of a number of global superpowers if given too freely; nonetheless, several notable people have managed to get on her good graces simply by appealing to her basic needs. In almost all cases where she is present, though, care must be taken by all concerned. Her appetite and her lust for combat are equally insatiable, and there's always a chance that one or both may get the better of her and cause things to escalate more than they otherwise would have.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: With a tough hide sheathed in bone-cored scales, a reinforced skeleton, powerful muscles from snout to tail, and appendages capable of exerting astounding amounts of force, Yongary is a juggernaut among palaeo-tyrants and all in all a horrific brute to be reckoned with. The size she has attained compared to normal V-rexes has led to reinforcement of every part of her from hide to bone to even her internal organs, attributes which can only be attributed to the machinations of the alien civiization that presumably modified her. With a single three-clawed kick or a blow from her powerful thagomizer-tipped tail, she can topple buildings or smash kaiju bones, and a head-slam from her is made all the more dangerous by the sharp horns protruding from her snout, capable of piercing through stone. She has no problem thrashing and flinging foes around as though they were weightless and tearing them apart with impunity, and with a surprising turn of speed for her bulk she can close the distance between herself and her prey before they can get the chance to react, smashing through anything that gets in her way without fanfare and usually plowing her chosen target into the ground. She has no glaring weaknesses physically, her major issues being due to her metabolism and character faults, but once she starts fighting, there is precious little capable of immediately stopping her.
• All-Crushing Bite: Yongary's primary weapon is her cavernous maw, a horrific instrument of destruction that can obliterate almost anything unlucky enough to be stuck inside. It's able to bite down with a force of over 60,000 psi, enough to rend steel and shatter concrete, to say nothing of kaiju flesh and even armor plating she manages to catch in her mouth. Her teeth are replacable with new ones growing in to replace broken or lost ones within less than a day, but tooth breakage is rare due to her two rows of railroad-spike-like, finely serrated fangs being reinforced with metals and minerals from her extremely varied diet, giving them the strength to punch through almost any material known to science - there is very little that can withstand her bite and even those substances will still end up being warped and deformed afterward. Yongary uses her teeth quite liberally in combat and to devastating effect, shaking her powerful neck and reinforced head around once she's gotten a hold of her prey - thereby tearing off limbs, hurling gore and innards wildly about, and leaving gaping, bleeding wounds without any need for precision or discretion. She saves targeting the cranium or equivalent of her opponent for after she's dismembered every other part of them, but her finishing move, with or without setting her quarry on fire, involves her clamping down on their head like a car crusher, either ripping it off entirely or - if she feels her foe truly deserves it - slowly and brutally crumpling their skull like an empty paper cup.
• Burrower: Yongary is able to move under the ground almost as easily as she can over it, a useful trick for outmaneuvering and surprising opponents from unexpected directions. The large, reinforced horn on the front of her snout is her main implement for subterranean movement, though her large foot claws are also useful in this regard and may be employed to initially break up the ground before she slams herself face-first into it. Like a Skullcrawler, she uses her reinforced head and pointed horn to push her way through the soil, her powerful legs acting like pistons to ram her along. The primary use of her heat aura is to burn and melt the dirt and soil around her into ash and "soften" it up as she goes, which often leads to rivulets of molten rock and slag being left in her wake. Her rugged armor is easily able to withstand any underground cave-ins that might bury her alive otherwise, and she isn't especially quick underground compared to other more specialized diggers like Baragon, she is more than strong enough to overcome structures and obstacles that other burrowers would have more trouble handling. She can also come up directly under an opponent to skewer them on her horn or catch them with her teeth before dragging them beneath the earth's crust, and has even been known on a few occasions to collapse the ground around her to create a conical sinkhole, dropping multiple opponents straight towards her waiting jaws at the bottom.
• Underground Senses: Being a subterranean creature has both benefits and drawbacks, and while Yongary's eyesight is not particularly good, she has taken the ability of most crocodilians to detect vibrations in their surroundings and enhanced it to an exceptional level - countless sensory cells packed into the skin between her scales mean her entire hide is one big sense organ for radiation, heat, chemical traces, vibration, and even light to some extent. This enables her to keep track of her surroundings even when buried deep underground and home in on anything of interest especially if she thinks it's edible. Her senses of hearing and smell are powerful enough as well to track things above-ground as well, and the latter in particular is able to identify the unique scent signatures of individuals and environments with enough precision to make a mental map of an entire stretch of territory based on smell and taste alone along with keeping track of things moving in it. Needless to say, she is very, very good at locating hidden things both living and otherwise even through cloaking devices and other means of concealment, and is virtually impossible to take by surprise.

Special Abilities:

• Heat Aura: Yongary's latent heat absorption ability is similar to that of many other monsters that evolved to live in proximity to geothermal heat, with a redundant circulatory system that can both absorb and disperse heat rapidly along with keeping her insides at a stable, safe temperature. She can even bathe in lava and dive straight into the Earth's mantle without ill effects, with only her need for oxygen keeping her from doing so regularly. On a more offensive front, she can disperse excessive amounts of thermal energy to her extremities such as plates, scutes, and horns which causes them to give off a brilliant red-hot glow and emit enough heat to burn most things upon contact. She is also able to project her heat aura outward in the form of a shockwave of scalding air to deflect attacks and weaken foes from afar, though she prefers to superheat her natural weaponry for an extra edge or to make it easier for her to break through obstacles while tunneling. Needless to say, her scales are by necessity entirely fireproof.
• Brimstone Bile: The other way Yongary disperses heat is through the lining of her digestive tract, which leads to the contents of her stomach being heated up to incredibly dangerous levels, and with a contraction of her archosaurian crop, she can then discharge the molten mixture from her mouth as a ranged attack. The copious digestive fluids she produces inside her are rich in sulfurous compounds and unusually flammable, catching alight when exposed to both extreme heat and atmospheric oxygen. The resultant gout of liquid fire burns hotter than magma and emits rancid, choking fumes reaching similar temperatures that can not only burn the lungs of other creatures from within but also carry the revolting rotten-egg smell of poisonous sulfuric acid that can induce painful effects on even fire-resistant prey. Yongary is able to regurgitate enough of this hellfire incarnate to inundate an entire city block in molten death, but usually prefers to launch explosive fireballs or a precise, waterjet-cutter-like stream to conserve her digestive fluids for the long term.
• Ultimate Omnivore: The bile inside Yongary's stomach is not only combustible but able to break down virtually any substance it touches, with only an antidote secreted by her digestive lining keeping it from hurting her. Anything else both organic and otherwise will be melted to slag and processed into raw constituents, the energy produced by his process sustaining the rest of her biological processes in the same manner as human digestion. There is almost nothing she cannot derive sustenance from, and her long list of potential foodstuffs includes even things most other kaiju would consider inedible, with fossil fuels being a particular favorite as a reliable means of sustaining her internal heat reserves. She has been known to eat her way straight through buried obstacles when underground or bite right through the defenses of settlements she wishes to raid for food. Any byproducts of her digestion are retained in her gut as additional fuel for her fiery attacks and only rarely excreted the standard way, instead being vomited back out through her mouth when she feels something is in need of incineration.  
• Agony Meter: Yongary's pain threshold is absurdly high, and while she is desensitized to certain forms of stimuli such as temperature, the nervous system signals from physical discomfort give her a hormonal rush akin to a drug-induced high, increasing in intensity depending on how much she has been hurt. Once this "high" reaches a critical mass, the hormones surging in her will have doubled her physical strength, the intensity of her heat-based attacks, and her stamina reserves compared to normal levels. By that point she will have lost all inhibition, becoming a raging, fiery berserker with no self-control and enough destructive power to reduce entire cities to ash within a day... to say nothing of what she'd do to the opponent unlucky enough to trigger this so-called "rage mode". Foes who wish to live to fight another day would find it wise to subdue her as quickly as possible before this limit is broken.

Weaknesses:

• Sunburn: Yongary is adapted for a subterranean existence, and despite her scaly hide being rugged enough to keep her protected from soil and debris, it is not adapted to withstand ultraviolet radiation - including and especiallly sunlight. Her skin is in fact even more vulnerable to UV rays than in most animals due to the radiation-sensing network in her skin, meaning that too much exposure to sunlight or other forms of this radiation can seriously inconvenience her. While she can function normally in the sun for short periods, long-term exposure or a concentrated UV burst can leave a painful, burning sensation in her skin which has been known to cause her to scratch and claw at the affected area and even tear her own skin off in response. The so-called "itchy ray" that was used to distract her when she attacked Seoul, actually an experiment in weaponizing UV radiation that was not meant to be directed at her, is still one of the most effective means of drawing her attention, though instead of being repulsed, her masochistic tendencies lead to her seeking out such sources in a bid to draw more strength from the pain they induce - a potentially self-destructive behavior should this be overused. Regardless, the daytime, with the constant risk of sunburn and dangerous overheating, is not her time to shine.
• Burning Hunger: Yongary's fire abilities cost a lot of energy to maintain, especially since she regurgitates her own digestive fluid. She needs to eat almost constantly to sustain her power requirement or at the very least take in much, much larger amounts of food than a typical kaiju would need. While technically able to draw strength from the heat produced by her own body size in the same manner as most other kaiju, she needs to build up most of her fuel reserves using physical matter as a basis and as such she is always on the lookout for sources of ammunition. This can lead to unpleasant situations where she either mistakes a teammate for possible prey, enters places she shouldn't have just because she thought a good meal was contained in them, or provokes the wrong individual or collective by trying to eat something they consider more important than she does.
• Down The Hatch: The one weak spot in Yongary's anatomy is the inside of her mouth, along with her nostrils and eyes to a lesser extent. Her penchant for leading with her maw can cause issues in that she has been known to take far more damage from things attacking or exploding within her mouth and throat than if they'd struck her skin instead. The rare occasions where she's had her stomach ruptured are especially bad for her because leakage from it can result in tremendously painful damage to her inner organs and potentially melt her from the inside, such as in the ammonium overdose she recieved during her attack on Seoul. In theory, a powerful enough explosive detonating inside her stomach could kill her outright before she had the chance to neutralize it.
• Nitrogenous Overdose: Certain nitrogen-based compounds are both incredibly offensive to Yongary's senses of smell and taste and dangerously toxic, including and especially ammonia (a common and poisonous waste product of animal metabolism) and its various derivatives. Inhalation or ingestion of these compounds has been known to cause increased blood pressure and tremendous internal bleeding, temporarily crippling her and potentially causing her to go comatose from exsanguination. This is one of the very few means of harming her she is not especially fond of, and even the scent of such substances will drive her into a berserk frenzy bent on destroying the source of the compound, injury and collateral be damned.
• Sadomasochist: With a viciously cruel streak towards foes she thinks deserves it, Yongary's mentality is about sending a message to foes rather than neutralizing them efficiently, and as such she tends to draw out violent fights so she can deal as much agonizing harm to her prey as possible. This can be used against her in that she often lets her guard down while dealing hideous retribution upon her foe, and someone capable of withstanding her assault can take advantage of the tunnel vision she gets in the process of exacting what she thinks is an appropriate punishment. While striking back at her is not the smartest idea if one does not have a means of instantly knocking her out cold, she can also get carried away in her bid to hurt herself for the hedonistic pleasure of it by running straight into sources of discomfort and especially enemy attacks. The effect is disturbingly similar to a drug addiction and she has even been known to experience withdrawal symptoms if she hasn't fought anything for too long. Drawing blood or physically irritating her is a good way of getting her to hyperfixate on the offending entity with increasing and relentless intensity, hounding and pursuing them in the hopes of  being hurt more and more. In theory, a strong enough opponent can get her to blindly continue a hopeless assault against them and ultimately deliver a demise that's as much her own fault as it is theirs, though her damage output might be just enough to take said opponent down with her in the process.

Chapter Text

The Walking Nightmare: GABARA

Statistics

• Classification: Carnivora(?)
• Height: 190.29 feet/58 meters
• Mass: 71650.24 short tons/65,000 metric tons
• Locality: Monster Island

Bio

History:
The terrible thunder ogre of southern Japan, Gabara has made mercifully few appearances in the heart of civilization since his emergence, mostly stalking and browbeating the outskirts of humanity's settlements and retreating into the Hollow Earth during times of major conflict. It is speculated that he was responsible for a number of stories of ogre-like beings in several Japanese regions, and his cruel demeanor towards weaker creatures does lend credence to this theory. Based on artistic depictions of the beast from various historical eras, it is thought that he started out at a much smaller size than he is currently, with his growth occurring sometime during the Edo period, possibly during the early 1700s, although his transformation into a monstrous being from a more mundane creature may have occurred before then. This is not to say that he didn't present a threat prior to becoming a kaiju, however, and the fact that recorded mass killings of entire villages or whole populations of animals have been historically recorded in the same areas where he was sighted at the time of their writing is by no means a coincidence.

It isn't known what particular kind of animal Gabara is, with various DNA tests being inconclusive, as he has characteristics of both feliform and caniform mammals, but these same tests also showed that his genetic code seems to have been modified by an external source of some sort. What if anything could have done this to his genome is a mystery, but some have speculated that it may have been due to contracting a kaiju mutagen of extraterrestrial origin - perhaps even carrying the DNA of a certain tricephalic space dragon. It may even be possible that a derivative of the titan in question could have been unconsciously absorbed by a Terran life form eons ago, instead of the other way around, which would have then changed it into the ferocious mutant he is today.

Although he has managed thus far to avoid any serious encounters with mankind, or at least none that have resulted in the same level of property destruction or loss of life as other malicious kaiju (in part because many major cities are within the territories of other endemic kaiju, most of which refuse to tolerate him), Gabara is still considered a high-priority threat, and was considered a target for destruction by several kaiju extermination campaigns since his entry into Monarch's database of recognized titans. While none of these programs have panned out and few have produced any significant results - with even those having unexpected and severe consequences - Gabara is still an unwelcome presence in the eyes of most other intelligent beings. As soon as Monster Island's kaiju reserve was established, he was one of the first study subjects to be transported there, where he quickly established a designated territory that he has only rarely strayed from since. He remains under close surveillance in case of potential conflict with mankind, but the other kaiju that have since taken up residence on Monster Island have been the primary obstacle between him and the world beyond his turf, not that he particularly cares to leave anyway. Minilla in particular is one of the kaiju he nurses an active grudge against despite the danger of picking on someone so closely associated with his adopted father - the two of them inevitably come to blows whenever Minilla's activities lead him into Gabara's territory, with the amphibian usually being on the losing end, although Gabara has not always been the winner during these encounters thanks to Minilla's ever-increasing capability throughout his maturation. Nonetheless, despite the danger he poses, Gabara has not caused any truly serious trouble since he was moved to Monster Island, and hopefully he won't for a long time to come if Godzilla has anything to say about it.

Personality and Combat Style:
Cruel and cowardly on equal measure, Gabara is a violently territorial creature who is nonetheless easily dealt with by creatures that can match him on equal footing. The range of kaiju capable of doing that is thankfully a broad one, meaning that the ogre-beast is quite low in the titan pecking order, something the prideful creature truly cannot stand. With no true way of matching wits or blows with his peers, he nurses a very severe inferiority complex that is expressed in the form of a brutal, petty streak of sadism towards creatures weaker than him, be it civilians or smaller megafauna. He takes morbid pleasure from striking fear into beings lower than him, hunting because he can and spending unhealthy lengths of time mutilating his victims, and often devouring them alive should he be hungry at the time. His spitefulness towards smaller life forms is infamous among both the Japanese population and the residents of the Hollow Earth beneath East Asia, who will immediately set up defensive measures as soon as his presence is detected, knowing that he is easily deterred by a spirited-enough response.

Relying on brute strength above all else with little strategy or coordination, Gabara needs little sophistication or subtlety when pummeling opponents into the ground, primarily using his electrical charge to augment his physical attacks and preferring to engage in close quarters. Of note, however, is his ability to distort others' perception of him, making him seem more formidable than he really is - a deceptively confusing tactic that he often uses to further terrorize smaller creatures, but can also be used as a bluff to cover an escape if need be. He doesn't have that many creative uses for it aside from that, however, preferring his fists, claws, teeth, and horns along with the occasional electric shock, and preferring to flee when things get truly desperate.

While relatively weak for a kaiju, Gabara is still valuable enough to some interested parties or individuals to be sought after for use in dirty labor, and his services can be easily brought as long as he gets the right incentive and the chance to entertain himself along the way, almost always at someone else's expense. He has been known to cooperate with other kaiju with grim intents for Earth and its biosphere, though this is less out of a hatred of all life and more akin to falling in with the crowd most likely to give him an opportunity to wreak havoc as he pleases. His cowardly streak remains even in these occasions, however, and without mental subjugation or some other means of forceful control, his "employer" will likely be in for a nasty surprise once he selfishly bails out at the worst possible moment, usually because there was a sign that things were about to go wrong for those he was cooperating with or that they were about to turn against him.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Gabara is pathetically weak compared to a good portion of the better-known and more formidable monsters out there, but he is by no means useless in a fight. His short but sharp fangs and semi-retractable claws are useful for ripping into a chosen victim, and his defenses include sharp spikes and horns coming out of his shoulders, neck, and forehead, all of which can be enhanced by his electrical charge as desired. His warty, largely hairless hide is thick and reinforced with collagen fiber bundles like the skin of a rhinoceros, able to deflect attacks from other weaker monsters although it obviously isn't as durable against creatures of his own size or larger. He has no qualms thrashing and flinging about smaller foes and can even tussle with lighter creatures at his scale as long as they don't carry anything capable of overwhelming him - though in fairness, in his case this isn't that hard to do.

Special Abilities:

• Electrical Projection: Like some other kaiju such as Kong, special cells in Gabara's muscles allow him to generate an electrical charge with every movement, accumulating it inside redundant nerves throughout his body and then discharging it. He is able to project a charge of up to 20,000 volts, with the outcome ranging from severe pain and tissue scarring to death by heart failure. He prefers high voltage but low amperage when using his shock attacks in order to cause as much pain as possible while not killing his opponent outright, drawing out the torment as much as possible. Gabara's horns and spikes also act as electrical conduits to draw in electrical charge including lightning attacks which can give him additional energy in a pinch, and if desperate enough he can also discharge electricity from his spines to strike foes from a distance.
• Mind Screw: The one notable ability Gabara has that can be considered above mundane levels of megafaunal  or sub-kaiju capability is his ability to mess with the perceptions of other creatures, usually to scare them away or augment their suffering. By emitting a specific electromagnetic frequency from his horns and spikes, he can hijack their neurotransmission frequencies and brain activity before altering what they perceive within his field of effect. Creatures under this influence see a frightening illusory form in place of Gabara himself which varies depending on the individual, but always looks scarier than he really is - observers have variously reported multiple pairs of limbs, extra eyes and mouths in places where they shouldn't be, far more horns and spikes than normal, distorted proportions, organs and muscles bursting out of his skin along with other kinds of body horror, or even multiple heads and other added features such as wings. One consistency among these visions is that his bluffing form always looks much bigger than he is, which has the added advantage of making attacks more likely to miss him because they were aiming for the illusion instead of the kaiju himself. Gabara uses this ability primarily to mess with his victims or attempt to scare off enemies otherwise capable of overpowering him, but in the rare occasions where he has no other recourse, he can enhance his mental tampering for a short time and create distortions of the surrounding environment along with his own image. To fight a truly angered Gabara is to enter a twisted, nightmarish landscape that can only be dispelled by landing a blow on Gabara himself, which is easier said than done - not to mention that he himself is counting on the disorientation this effect may entail and has plenty of opportunities to land strikes of his own.

Weaknesses:

• Elemental Resistance: Gabara's electrical attacks have no way around kaiju or other opponents and obstacles with a resistance or immunity to electricity - because they aren't especially powerful, they can be easily shrugged off with only a mild stinging sensation to show for it in many cases. A sufficiently insulated opponent can withstand his shocks entirely, and with enough adaptations to prevent external frequencies from affecting them, they can no-sell his mental hijacking effects as well, forcing him to rely purely on physical combat.
• Broken Horns: Gabara's horns are his main means of discharging both electricity and the electromagnetic "broadcast" he uses to distort perception of himself. If broken off, they take as long as several months to regrow, and until that happens, he will not be able to discharge electricity through them, leaving him bereft of one of his only special tricks. He is extremely proud of his horns as well, so damaging them will demoralize him significantly.
• Paper Ox-Tiger: A cowardly, scheming bully, Gabara crumples upon facing any actual challenges - if his opponent is able to overcome him with raw brute force or disable or bypass his special powers, he will flee with his tail between his legs every single time. This can actually cause even more problems if he is near populated regions, as he might plow through neighborhoods without thinking when making his escape. Gabara is also entirely friendless because of his habit of abandoning situations when they go wrong for him which, along with his habit of picking on the weak and helpless, has earned him the contempt of more or less every single guardian of Earth's ecosystem, something which he is well aware of. The restriction of his home range and his reluctance to encroach on most noteworthy locations worldwide is largely due to his habit of instantly making himself scarce should he come across any other titans stronger than he is, but he has also proven more elusive and difficult to capture than other, bolder kaiju for this exact reason.

Chapter Text

First Host Of The Yog: GEZORA

Statistics

• Classification: Sepiidae
• Length: 196.85 feet/60 meters (excluding tentacles; length estimates are normally twice the listed length if they're included)
• Mass: 18,143.7 short tons/20,000 metric tons
• Locality: Technically cosmopolitan due to being a marine organism, but most often seen in the South Pacific, particularly in the waters surrounding Monster Island and Infant Island.

Bio

History:
In the wake of the revelation of extraterrestrial life, the pressure mounted for humanity to begin developing the technology for proper space exploration. Several attempts at spacefaring vehicles had already been created before then, the first of which were originally purely mechanical devices such as Sputnik, which the testing of live animals as passengers occurring later. The first time a human would be sent into space would occur in 1961, and only three years later, a monster from outer space would prove that life did indeed exist beyond our planet. Of course, not every instance of alien invasion would be so dramatic - the Dogora specimen that had visited Earth the same year had only appeared in one specific location. Other malicious extraterrestrials were even more subtle, sometimes barely even noticeable if not for the effects they had on native life...

One such example landed on Earth in 1970, after a mission involving the Helios 7 space probe, meant to explore the planet of Jupiter, was intercepted by a mysterious life form that had been previously sighted in low Earth orbit. The mission ended in failure with the probe crashing back to Earth before it could even breach the stratosphere, landing specifically in the South Pacific. Unbeknownst to the crew monitoring the launch, this would lead to the life form finding its way to Earth, in search of a suitable organism with which it could acclimate to its conditions. The first such creature it would encounter, and thus take parasitic possession of, was apparently a cuttlefish. The unfortunate creature would soon learn that what would come to be called the "Space Amoeba" was carrying a fast-acting mutagen, one which would induce accelerated growth and adaptations towards living at a much larger scale than usual - in other words, the creature could basically turn mundane animals into kaiju. Which was exactly what it did.

Reports came in a few days later of ships being sunk and then of a gigantic tentacled creature appearing off the coast of the Phillipines. The monster was soon confronted by the Japanese military, which dubbed it "Gezora", after their word for cephalopod tentacles, but claimed no responsibility for the incident because there was no connection between its emergence and the Helios 7. It was soon discovered that the creature was freezing cold to the touch, presumably due to leaching heat from the surrounding environment just to keep its body temperature stable, an appropriate countermeasure was soon brought into play, with the creature being firebombed with incendiary explosives and mortally wounded as a result. Seemingly dying, Gezora sank beneath the waves, but its passenger slipped away unseen, presumably sensing that it could no longer use the body it had been piloting and needed a new host.

Eventually, the Space Amoeba would find a new creature to take over, but despite public perception, Gezora did in fact survive - but just barely. The mutagens that had affected the creature had also given it the durability and healing factor needed for a kaiju of its size to even exist, and as such, it eventually managed to recover from the attempt on its life, before retreating into the deep ocean where it would never be found. Ultimately, the monster would resurface only after the establishment of Monster Island as a kaiju sanctuary, taking up residence in the waters off the coast of the island and coexisting alongside several other aquatic kaiju — and it wouldn't be long until the other two hosts that the Space Amoeba would go on to mutate would join it as well.

Personality and Combat Style:
Gezora is one of four Terran animals affected by the "Yog", an extraterrestrial microorganism. Under the influence of the parasite, her mind was entirely enslaved by its mental manipulation, completely obedient to the whims of its controller. Bent on spreading its infection and mutating all life it affected into an army of monsters at its disposal, the Yog seems to have had the ability to form a kind of mental connection between the organisms it altered, allowing them to act as one. Even after the Yog was purged from each of its former hosts, all of them still exhibit a gravitation towards one another, and are often seen in close association regardless of their respective temperaments.

Gezora is an inquisitive yet self-conscious creature whose intellectual prowess is a blessing and a bane in one. She seems to exhibit a greater degree of cunning compared to other monsters, but is largely amoral and would much rather operate independently of others, though she does nonetheless crave social stimulation and will often approach her fellow kaiju not to fight or seek cooperation, but simply to get to know them. She does seem able to communicate to some capacity, but her distinct flashing patterns of color playing across her skin during interactions with others, while clearly a kind of visual language, have yet to be fully understood by either man or beast. Other kaiju frequently seem confused and uncomfortable around her and typically act cautious around her lest her whims lead her elsewhere at an inopportune moment or lead to her taking offense at the wrong gesture. While she isn't averse to working with others, she is easily distracted and has no real allies outside of the other former hosts of the Space Amoeba, as Ganimes and Kamoebas seem to be the only others capable of truly understanding her. Her struggles to understand the social dynamics of other kaiju are her main hindrance when it comes to fitting in among them, but another major reason for her failure to become accepted is her own lack of resolve - while the Yog's influence did make her relatively slow-witted but far more aggressive, she is far more cautious now that she is no longer affected by it, preferring to hide and wait out danger rather than immediately attack. While her keen intuition can be a vital asset if one knows how to work with her, this can also lead to difficulties due to her more animalistic mindset in terms of looking out only for herself without really caring about other species or individuals, focusing only on her basic needs and trying to avoid trouble as much as possible.

Primarily geared towards aquatic combat, Gezora is capable of coming onto land, but is as clumsy and awkward over the water as she is swift and agile under it. Her main strength in battle is her flexibility and intellect, often coming up with sophisticated strategies for gaining whatever advantages she can, playing mind games with her opponents and leaving them vulnerable to other allied combatants. Gezora doesn't like to get involved in combat directly, but should she be cornered or if one of her companions is in trouble, she can still prove to be quite the vicious fighter, aiming to subdue opponents but only rarely striking to kill, instead attempting to give herself an opening to make an escape or rescue those she's close to. Part of the reason for her dislike of close combat is her fragility with few hard parts to speak of, and it's easy to guess that she'd need significant defensive backup to be at her most capable. Perhaps her alliance with Gamimes and Kamoebas may be for other reasons than the Yog having mutated them.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Gezora's body, despite being soft-skinned, is packed with muscle, giving her surprising physical strength. This enables her to constrict and grip onto opponents with an almost inescapable embrace, haul herself over most obstacles by using her arms like legs, and even use her tentacles as whips to bludgeon opponents into submission. Her body is not as flexible as with most cephalopods and remains vulnerable to certain energy-based attacks, but unlike a standard cuttlefish, her internal cuttlebone structure is articulated and collapsible, allowing her to contort in ways few other cephalopods are capable of and squeeze into surprisingly tight spaces as need be; she also has cuttlebone plates on her back which offer some degree of protection, though not the full shell of a nautilus or orthocone. While her hide is permeable by necessity, it's also thick and leathery to better retain her internal anatomy at such a large size, and also highly elastic, enabling her to better withstand blunt trauma from both enemy attacks and collisions with obstacles or hazardous terrain.
• Aquatic: Gezora is primarily a sea creature, and is as such at her most confident when immersed in water. Her primary means of respiration, a typical cephalopod-like siphon, is able to propel her at speeds of 65 knots, and she can and routinely does dive down to several miles below sea level for hunting or escaping danger. While capable of venturing onto land as long as she can keep herself reasonably damp, she prefers to remain submerged whenever possible and is more maneuverable in such a state. With enough room for a preliminary dive, she can even propel herself clear out of the water up to surprising heights to ambush fliers passing overhead.
• Barbed Tentacles: The main weapons Gezora uses in combat are her ten muscular appendages, which are equipped with suction cups that bear retractable hooks in the center. The suckers themselves provide an inescapable grip which allows her to drag prey into the depths, but for especially difficult quarry, she will also extend her arm hooks with enough force to punch through concrete or plate metal. The arms can be used to either directly constrict and eviscerate an opponent or pull it towards the beak in the center, itself capable of biting through even kaiju bones unfortunate enough to be caught and comprised of the same substance as the arm hooks. Her extendable hunting tentacles are also comprised of highly elastic muscles that normally store energy like coiled springs when at ease, and can stretch out to three times their normal length in a second to slam their hooks into prey from afar and then reel it within reach of the rest of her weaponry. According to some historians, a few scattered reports of ships being attacked by strange headless "sea serpents" in the South Pacific since the early 70's were most likely due to Gezora firing her tentacles at them from hiding, presumably mistaking them for the whales or other large sea creatures she considers prey.

Special Abilities:

• Chromatophores: Like virtually all other cephalopods, Gezora has the ability to change the color of her skin thanks to manually controlled pigment cells of various hues within it, essentially turning her hide into something akin to a gigantic display screen - even her cuttlebone armor plating is translucent, allowing it to change color as well. While not as capable of camouflaging herself as some other cuttlefish species are, Gezora is still able to use her color-changing ability in a number of creative ways, most notably a mesmerizing pattern similar to that of a broadclub cuttlefish, in which she displays a series of rhythmic color bands running along her body. Less intelligent opponents seem transfixed by the display, enabling her to sucker-punch them in plain view, and by adjusting the speed of the pattern movement and the thickness of the color bands, she has even been known to use this ability as a means of communication to other monsters, much like Morse code. In general, she prefers a light greenish blue body color with dark blue bands, but she has been known to take on other colors and patterns to signal emotions or conceal herself as needed.
• Ink Screen: Another cephalopod ability has carried over to Gezora's altered form: special glands opening up to her siphon enable her to discharge a cloud of ink, which can easily obscure vision in a watery setting and is comprised of a mix of melanin, mucus, and waste matter from digestion. Depending on the circumstances she can cause it to blanket an area in a smokescreen-like fog or choke an opponent in a thicker, more viscous mire. On land, the ink becomes a sort of glue, easily clogging orifices and being difficult to remove even when immersed in water; it also acts as a marker for sight and smell alike, and Gezora can track a victim splattered by her ink with ease as long as they are within range of her senses.
• Cold Snap: The strangest ability Gezora has is a sort of "freezing aura" around her - the temperature of the surrounding air or water seems to drop the closer one gets to her, with the temperature reaching near-freezing upon contacting her skin. This is due to her equally bizarre ability to draw in heat from the surrounding environment as a means of keeping herself from losing too much thermal energy in the cold ocean waters, as she does not seem to generate as much internal body heat due to her size as other kaiju do. When riled up, this ability becomes weaponized, allowing her to freeze the tissues and bodily fluids of other organisms upon contact and even chill the surrounding water or atmospheric moisture to the point where ice crystals start forming. This ability has not been developed further than merely freezing an area immediately around her, but in theory, further enhancement of it could enable her to control local weather patterns and summoning weaponized precipitation such as heavy rain, sleet, or even actual snow.

Weaknesses:

• Squishy: Gezora does not have much in the way of armor, since she partly respires through her skin when submerged, which makes it more susceptible to damage than in most kaiju. Even conventional weaponry is capable of sending her packing, to say nothing of other kaiju that have the physical strength to overpower her. There's a reason she uses underhanded tactics in combat and prefers to ambush her foes while their guard is at their lowest.
• Water-Dependent: Simply put, Gezora cannot stand being outside of the water for extended periods of time. While she can breathe in air to some extent, her gills and skin have to remain moist for her to do so, and if not submerged for too long, her entire body will begin to desiccate. She is not comfortable in arid environments such as deserts and prefers climates with a certain degree of humidity, restricting her largely to tropical regions. Should she find herself in an environment too dry for her to handle, she will immediately flee for the nearest body of water, and it may take a long time to coax her back out if the water source is important to others aside from her.
• Kill It With Fire: Similar to the above, Gezora's freezing abilities are easily neutralized by extreme heat, and much like Manda, she is unable to withstand fire, rapidly overheating due to lacking any means of safely dispersing internal body temperature outside of water immersion. She's terrified of fire of any kind and as such she will immediately flee should she discover that her opponent uses heat-based ranged attacks.
• Stimulus Response: Being more intelligent than most other kaiju does not necessarily make one wiser, as Gezora demonstrates handily. She is easily distracted and prone to misunderstanding situations quite easily due to her mentality being on a different wavelength than creatures that became kaiju in a different way, making it difficult to properly comprehend her actions without a direct mental connection a la the Yog's workings. She is as such unpredictable both as an ally and an adversary, prone to switching sides on a whim and even playing all parties against the middle out of simple curiosity and naivete. Her relatively animalistic mindset also prevents her from recognizing broad-scope aspects of the world around her most of the time, making her an instinctively selfish creature with the added flaw of requiring frequent mental stimulation. While she does not mind companionship like the kind Ganimes and Kamoebas provide, she isn't one to seek it out either due to her kind being largely solitary in nature.

Chapter Text

Second Host Of The Yog: GANIMES

Statistics

• Classification: Coenobitidae
• Length: 98.43 feet/30 meters
• Height: 311.68 feet/95 meters
• Mass: 13,227.74 short tons/12,000 metric tons
• Locality: Monster Island

Bio

History:
Following the defeat of Gezora, the "Space Amoeba" fled into the world beyond in search of a new host. The microscopic invader did not care for what particular species it would subjugate next, for as long as it was in control of a body that could survive in the habitat it had found itself in, that was all that mattered. The first living thing it could find following its escape happened to be a coconut crab that had blundered just a little too close, seeking to feed from Gezora's unconscious body. Unknown to all except the parasite, the scavenging crustacean left with an unexpected new passenger, and over the next few days, it began to grow... and grow...

The week after this saw the gigantic crab continue where Gezora had left off, now able to move about on land without any restrictions. The creature laid waste to several islands in succession before the military intervened once again, luring it into a trench with explosives lining the walls and burying it alive until it suffocated. Though forced out of the host body, the parasite had by this point undergone a crucial development: inside the crab monster, it had reproduced.

So it was that some time later, the two spawns of the Space Amoeba, having ventured into a town the previous monster had destroyed, had taken control of two more creatures: another coconut crab and an escaped snapping turtle. The two monsters now began carving a trail of destruction across the south Pacific, until it was discovered that the parasite was weak to ultrasonic waves, which led to the use of a broadcasting system to dispel its influence and neutralize it for capture. All specimens of the parasite were detained, but the mutated forms of the monsters they had affected were unable to change back. The turtle monster, overcome by hunger, attacked the giant crab, which was forced to defend itself until they both fell into the volcanic trenches of the island they had been attacking at the time. It seemed they would never be seen again…

However, all was not lost for the two. Eventually, the crab monster, Ganimes, would be sighted on the shores or Monster Island, carving tunnels beneath the sand and soil of the island's coast. He would live there, safe from the chaos of a world at war, and with only Monarch as the sole human presence in his life. As of the current time, this is where he has remained, though whether or not he will be involved in future events is as yet unclear…

Personality and Combat Style:
Ganimes is one of four Terran animals affected by the "Yog", an extraterrestrial microorganism. Under the influence of the parasite, his mind was entirely enslaved by its mental manipulation, completely obedient to the whims of its controller. Bent on spreading its infection and mutating all life it affected into an army of monsters at its disposal, the Yog seems to have had the ability to form a kind of mental connection between the organisms it altered, allowing them to act as one. Even after the Yog was purged from each of its former hosts, all of them still exhibit a gravitation towards one another, and are often seen in close association regardless of their respective temperaments.

Ganimes is the most outgoing of the trifecta of monsters affected by the first Yog invasion, being rather active and interested in the company of others. He has been deemed by observers as a sort of kaiju equivalent of a pet dog, being quite affectionate if somewhat unaware of his own size and strength, which can cause problems on occasion, though he can be fearsome in his own right when in defense of those close to him. While his animalistic nature can lead to being easily distracted and unable to understand especially complex means of communication, he is still a friendly, welcome presence and an important scavenger in the coastal ecosystems of Monster Island, feeding on whatever he can find and keeping debris from accumulating. A few of the more gregarious aquatic titans have formed a closer partnership with him in a similar manner to large fish with cleaner wrasse, allowing him to pluck parasites off their skins as free snacks in exchange for his safety; Chitanosaurus in particular has been known to dote on the mutant crab monster, and frequently brings him the remains of her hunts as an extra treat. As mentioned, though, he is closest to Gezora and Kamoebas, his fellow mutants affected by the Space Amoeba. In particular, he does not begrudge Kamoebas for his attempt to feed on him when they first recovered from the Yog, and now that the mutant turtle has mellowed out, they are often seen in each other’s company.

In fact, very little seems to truly unsettle the chipper crustacean, who will often respond in a friendly manner to most creatures he encounters… perhaps a little too friendly for the comfort of some of them. His durable shell allows him to weather most resistance to his attempts to "play", and such attempts can be dangerous due to his powerful claws and shearing mandibles. More than one more malicious kaiju has been forced to flee when Ganimes mistook their threat display for an invitation to frolic with him and returned the gesture, heedless of the harm he inflicted upon the unfortunate opponent. It is perhaps for the best that his temperament is as mild as it is, though — the rare occasions when he becomes aggressive, such as and especially when his friends are threatened, turn him from an unwittingly destructive but ultimately well-meaning creature into a frightening assailant that can be much harder to dissuade than his insignificant skill set may suggest. If something were to control him forcefully in the way the Yog did, he could easily become one of the most formidable monsters known to man, but as it is, he is content to live out his days quite peacefully on the beaches of Monster Island.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Despite being about average in size as kaiju go, Ganimes is still one of the larger monsters of his island home, his long legs giving him an impressive height. This allows him to tower over a good portion of his neighbors and put his functioning limbs to use with ease should he be roused into action. The spikes on the ends of his legs are turned inward to avoid damage but are sharp enough to punch through plate armor, but like his base species, his claws are his most dangerous implements with the ability to crush bedrock into gravel and swing like bludgeon to bash holes into mountainsides with enough effort. Ganimes is built for close combat and can easily wade through most attacks to get within pinching distance of an unlucky opponent, with armor plating that's tougher than most other substances despite having the same honeycomb structure as in other arthropod kaiju to reduce weight. The spikes protruding from his armor make attacking him from certain directions most as dangerous as facing his claws, and a casual body-check can leave nasty wounds if it catches a foe off guard. Built for both offense and defense, it is easy to see why most other monsters dread the prospect of "playing" with this living war bunker.
• Burrower: The same legs and claws Ganimes uses to walk and fight are also useful for digging, being operated by powerful muscles that can drive them with forces capable of smashing through all but the hardest of stones and the most compact soils. He is not as fast at tunneling as some other monsters and has more difficulty escaping cave-ins if unlucky enough but he is capable of using similar tricks such as sinkholes as other subterranean beasts, though not quite as creatively. Most of the tunnels that have been made beneath Monster Island (that weren't there already thanks to the Hollow Earth) were constructed by him, and are of ecological importance as the homes of many other fossorial species.

Special Abilities:

• Brine Blast: Like many members of his mundane crab bretheren, Ganimes is capable of spitting forth jets of water containing concentrated waste salts from his mouth. This takes on the form of an extremely concentrated blast of stinging, briny foam which can be quite painful should it get into the eyes, nostrils, or open wounds of an opponent, but is not especially damaging otherwise. This can take on the form of either a water jet like a fire hose or an aerosolized spray like a giant fog machine. Like Gezora's ink it's primarily a means of distraction and cover rather than a direct attack, but it's often enough to allow him to close the distance with his pain-blinded, disoriented adversary.

Weaknesses:

• Heavy Armor: While certainly not weighty enough to leave him unable to move, Ganimes' shell is still quite a burden and one that can only be temporarily lightened via regular molting, a vulnerable period he dislikes despite it being necessary. In all other occasions he is a cumbersome, clumsy beast that is restricted to an awkward shuffling scuttling most of the time. He is not to be underestimated in spite of this, though - while most of his attacks have a predictable windup period, his long reach and raw physical power are nothing to sniff at.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Ganimes has two chinks in his armor: the inside of his mouth and a joint on his underside in the middle of the plates protecting it. Should he take damage in either location, his internal body pressure will be temporarily negated and he'll be left to keel over helpless. That said, reaching either of these spots is harder than it looks.
• No Ranged Attacks: Exactly what it sounds like - Ganimes has no actual ranged abilities that can damage foes from a distance, forcing him to rely entirely on melee combat. Opponents capable of both dodging his foam spit and staying out of range of his limbs are therefore entirely safe.
• Animal Instinct: Prior to being mutated, Ganimes had only the most basic crustacean instincts to go by, and afterward he hasn't improved much. He is easily distracted by food or other interesting objects and often fails to understand all but the simplest commands or other forms of communication, being only barely sapient at best. While not exactly hard to trick or dissuade because of this, though, he isn't to be underestimated, for his brawn exceeds his brains by quite a large margin and he doesn't need strategy to tear an opponent apart. That said, his appetite is easily his biggest motivating force, and he can display a surprising amount of cunning and determination should "treats" be at stake.

Chapter Text

Third Host Of The Yog: KAMOEBAS

Statistics

• Classification: Testudines, Cryptodira, Chelydridae
• Length: 262.47 feet/80 meters (neck retracted)
• Height: 98.43 feet/30 meters
• Mass: 66,138.68 short tons/60,000 metric tons
• Locality: Monster Island

Bio

History:
The third animal species chosen by the "Space Amoeba" as a host during its initial invasion in 1970, Kamoebas' base species is also the only one of the three it mutated that is not actually native to the South Pacific. Formerly a captive snapping turtle intended for wildlife trade, the animal's containment facility was one of the buildings destroyed in the first Ganimes' rampage. The parasite had undergone division when possessing the first Ganimes, and as soon as the creature had been killed, crushed under tons of earth due to a landslide, the two life forms that had been inhabiting the creature escaped once again and began seeking out new specimens to inhabit. Moving through the ground for several hours, they eventually happened upon the same destroyed facility, swiftly possessing the first two specimens they encountered: a second robber crab and the snapping turtle in question. Controlled by the same extraterrestrial entity, the two creatures would mutate into kaiju and continue its quest to destroy all of human civilization... assuming it could actually find it.

The parasite would never make it further than the islands it had chanced upon, however. With the aid of a prototype ultrasonic broadcasting system, the specimens were forced out of the bodies they had been controlling, and although several casualties followed, the last remaining specimen would be detained and confiscated by Monarch, leaving the monsters themselves to their own devices. The now enormous turtle, inexplicably and ravenously hungry after its sudden growth spurt, turned on the first living thing it could find that was large enough to sate its appetite, the second Ganimes, the two of them engaging in a vicious battle to the death that ended with the reptile dragging its prey down into a lava tube in the heart of the island they were on. Neither of them would be seen again for several more years, and they had been presumed dead - until Gezora and Ganimes were both sighted on the shores of Monster Island. But the turtle monster, dubbed Kamoebas, was still unaccounted for...

It would not be until 2003 when the turtle monster would reappear. Mortally wounded and unconscious, the creature had washed ashore on the coast of Japan, a massive set of claw marks on its neck. Already it had been discovered by several Ookondoru, picking at the festering wounds, but the creatures were easy to dissuade, and Kamoebas' body was taken in by Monarch for further analysis. Forensic DNA testing confirmed what had been suspected: Godzilla was indeed responsible for the monster's wounds, indicating that the previous attempt on its life by the cyborg monster Kiryu had not been entirely successful.

A few weeks after Kiryu and the new Godzilla's second, final clash in Tokyo, however, the unbelievable happened: Kamoebas' body began showing signs of life, its wounds regenerating and vitals becoming active once more. While its handlers scrambled to regain control, the massive turtle eventually awoke to find itself in an unfamiliar environment, but the outside world could not be far away. Smashing its way out of the facility, it managed to make it just a few miles before the authorities stepped in, and the beast was promptly led to a new home on Monster Island.

Kamoebas has been content to remain there since then, particularly in the company of Ganimes and Gezora, its fellow mutants affected by the Space Amoeba. But one final question had yet to be answered: what became of the Yog itself? What if it escaped? And what, if anything, could possibly be capable of curbing its murderous influence once and for all?

Personality and Combat Style:
Kamoebas is one of four Terran animals affected by the "Yog", an extraterrestrial microorganism. Under the influence of the parasite, his mind was entirely enslaved by its mental manipulation, completely obedient to the whims of its controller. Bent on spreading its infection and mutating all life it affected into an army of monsters at its disposal, the Yog seems to have had the ability to form a kind of mental connection between the organisms it altered, allowing them to act as one. Even after the Yog was purged from each of its former hosts, all of them still exhibit a gravitation towards one another, and are often seen in close association regardless of their respective temperaments.

Of the three specimens living on Monster Island the Yog had mutated, Kamoebas is the calmest and most grounded, but also the most stubborn - if he wishes to stay put, there is precious little that can move him, and if he chooses to move, almost nothing can stop him. An ambush predator by nature, one could say that the main thing he hunts for is an easier way of life, and like any good turtle, he prefers to simply lounge wherever he pleases, moving about only to maintain a comfortable body temperature but otherwise content to observe the goings-on around him. He has been known to remain in one place for so long that plants, corals, barnacles, lichens, and other sedentary life forms accumulate on his boulder-like shell, camouflaging him to some extent and providing habitat for smaller creatures, but he has no strong opinions regarding the miniature ecosystem atop his shell, its only benefit to him being as a lure for larger organisms he can prey upon. Generally, he is very slow of mind and body, guided by animal instincts alone and thinking of little except his next meal.

While very difficult to rouse, with the amount of creatures that have provoked an aggressive reaction being countable on one hand, Kamoebas can still be a vicious opponent should such a mistake be made. His hide and shell are virtually indestructible, and if he has to go somewhere or wants to settle things with a choice opponent, he will simply steamroll any obstacle in his way until he gets to his destination. He is tenacious when motivated and once he latches on to either a goal or an adversary's body, it's all but impossible to get him to let go - such single-mindedness can even cause him to ignore one opponent when focusing on another. His powerful beak, spiky shell, and fearsome claws allow him to hold his own in a fight despite his lack of major flourishes, and his stretchy neck gives him a deceptive reach, more than making up for his poor mobility. Fortunately for most prospective prey items, he rarely continues a chase if they move out of biting range, and it's easy to see that he needs team support to cut off an opponent's escape to be at his most effective. This makes his partnerships with Ganimes and Gezora, both more nimble and active than he is, more than simple association due to the parasite that altered the three, although they are generally on good terms with each other regardless - Ganimes in particular is his most frequent companion, though whether this is because of the free buffet his shell-based microcosm offers or due to genuine affection is anyone's guess.

His lack of intelligence or agility notwithstanding, Kamoebas is still a brute of a turtle that can withstand the full might of anything short of a larger kaiju without so much as a scratch. Fortunately, outside of the Yog's influence or direct threats to his person, he rarely needs to move at all, let alone actively stalk a potential meal - as long as there is enough prey to reliably sustain him wherever he sets up shop, Kamoebas is not a major threat to humanity. Hopefully he will stay that way for a long time to come.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Kamoebas' durability is on par with that of Anguirus, able to soldier through all but the heaviest forms of opposition. His carapace is a complex defensive apparatus comprised of a combination of his ribcage, modified osteoderms, and keratin covering, a triple-layered shield studded with deadly spikes modified from ridges on its facets, and while he cannot withdraw completely into his shell (which is also true of his base species), the armor on his limbs and head is often more than enough to compensate. Should he be forced to act, his beak, claws, and spiky body-checks can leave serious wounds, and he has the strength, weight, and leverage to drag down opponents several times his size. While very slow to act, he is far from helpless in a fight, and mistaking his passive temperament for incompetence can mean the difference between life and death should he be pushed too far.
• Tether-Grab Bite: Kamoebas' main weapon is his mouth, a lethal, powerful implement with a razor-edged beak that can shear through all but the toughest hide. As if this wasn't enough, the inside of his mouth is lined with modified papillae not unlike those of a sea turtle, mainly used for trapping small prey when regurgitating ingested water, but also sharp and strong enough to aid in gripping onto a bitten victim. He is capable of biting down with forces of close to 70,000 psi and can split stone and concrete and rend steel with his jaws alone. One might think he'd be limited in the range with which he can use his bite, but his neck is packed with elastic muscle and the ligaments between his cervical vertebrae and his spinal cord itself are exceptionally stretchy on top of the length of the neck itself, allowing him to extend it up to twice his body length to slam his jaws onto foes from a distance. Once he has latched on, it is impossible to get him to release his opponent and more often than not he will come away with a piece of them in his mouth, injury be damned. There are very few things he can't bite through and most of those aren't native to Earth.
• Tongue Lure: A side-effect of the Yog's influence on his anatomy, the worm-like lure protruding from Kamoebas' tongue is tipped with an organ comparable to the esca on the females of many species of deep-sea anglerfish. Specialized bacteria found within this organ synthesize chemical hormones secreted within his body to produce a mesmerizing blue-green glow, attracting prey within reach of his maw. Waste and dead bacteria are cycled back into his body for proper disposal, keeping the culture inside the lure relatively stable. A opaque membrane around this organ (between it and the crystalline outer shell) can also be drawn over it to conceal its light if he needs to hide it. This is not a particularly notable ability in combat, but it does seem to have a hypnotic effect on less intelligent creatures, possibly a hold-over from when the Yog was in control of his body.

Weaknesses:

• Extremely Slow: Predictably, Kamoebas' shell is extremely heavy, and his bulk makes it very difficult for him to keep moving for long periods. He prefers to stay in one place primarily because most of the time, it takes a lot of effort for him to go from A to B even when in a hurry. While this obviously makes keeping track of faster opponents difficult and he can be easily out-maneuvered, he is to be underestimated at one's own peril - his stretchy neck and lightning-quick bite can and have caught many foes unaware.
• No Special Abilities: Kamoebas has no significant powers and no need for them, relying entirely on his defensive prowess and brutal physical might to get by. As long as he can't reach an opponent, he can't hurt them, especially due to his complete lack of any sort of ranged attack. While his natural abilities are formidable as it is, they don't especially stack up compared to other, more exotic peers such as Godzilla.
• Cold-Blooded: Another weakness carrying over from his base form, Kamoebas is ectothermic and as such is incapable of handling extreme temperatures well. In either intense heat or intense cold, his metabolism will essentially stall and render him helplessly immobile. Strong-enough cold- or heat-based attacks can disable him temporarily.
• Bite First, Questions Later: What he makes up for in brute strength and durability, Kamoebas notably lacks in intelligence or strategy. He is relatively easy to deal with thanks to his needs being simple, but also easy to trick or goad into difficult situations, especially because his instinctive response to threats or enticing stimuli is to try and grab onto them with his mouth. This can be taken for aggressive behavior, but in truth he is simply acting on the urge to feed whenever he can lest the environment fail to provide for him. When well-fed he is mild-mannered but if in need of sustenance he can be quite persistent in obtaining it, even attacking percieved prey much larger than him if it has to come to it. When truly pressed into action, he is as receptive to reason as he is breakable (read: not very, if at all).

Chapter Text

Carrier of the Space Amoeba: BAGORAH

Statistics

• Classification: Terran/extraterrestrial hybrid: 87% Desmodus rotundus (Common vampire bat) + 1% Sepia lycidas (Kisslip cuttlefish) + 1% Birgus latro (Coconut crab) + 1% Macrochelys temminckii (Alligator snapping turtle) + 1% [REDACTED] + 9% unidentified protoplasmic life form
• Height: 114.83 feet/35 meters
• Length: 213.26 feet/65 meters
• Wingspan: 360.89 feet/110 meters
• Mass: 38,580.9 short tons/35,000 metric tons
• Status: Unknown, but presumably off-world. He has not been sighted on Earth since his fight with Godzilla III a.k.a. Gazzira in Vancouver, Canada, in 1995.

Bio

History:
Darkness. Emptiness. Nothingness. That was all it had known for eons as it had drifted through the vast depths of deep space. There was precious little that could be found in this endless void, and what there was had proven to be almost as useless - dead planets that could not sustain life, too hot or too cold, too choked by poisonous fumes or bereft of the elements needed to produce organic compounds. So it was to the great relief of the protoplasmic being that it would soon detect a planet that did, in fact, carry creatures other than itself. These would be its thralls, its prey, its subjects, and its victims to conquer in a hunger for other living matter to take into itself. And so the Space Amoeba, The Yog, found its way to Earth...

August, 1995. It had been two and a half decades since the Yog had tried and failed to subjugate all life on our planet, taking over and mutating the bodies of three different native species in a bid to further its goal. In a bid to spread its influence it had split itself apart, feeding on the nutrition within the bodies of its hosts, intending to colonize as many creatures as it could and form an army of its own. But it would never get this far - for as soon as it was driven out of the monsters it had been controlling, all specimens of the Yog were hunted down with the intent of containing this invasive life form before it could spread its influence further. Almost all specimens that did  encounter resistance were smited outright before they could find a new host - it was rumored that at least one had managed to find exactly that, and a human being no less, but the unfortunate soul had committed suicide before it could fully take hold, their body being cast into the fires of a volcano to destroy the vile thing with it. Ultimately, only one of the Space Amoebas survived, and eventually it was captured, imprisoned in a secure container, and sent to Monarch's research facilities to be kept under maximum security.

The terrible parasite, its psychic influence useless without a mind to connect to, despaired in its trapped state. It had hoped that Earth's life would be at its mercy before long thanks to its rapid mitosis, but enough preparations had been made once it had arrived that this plan had ended in failure. All it could do was simply enter hibernation once again and wait for the right moment to make its escape. It had after all taken millions of years to reach Earth, it could afford to wait a little longer before civilization ended on its own. But it didn't have to wait for long...

The facility the Space Amoeba had been contained in happened to be located in Lima, Peru, close enough to the east Pacific coastline to bear witness to a terrifying phenomenon that had ravaged the entire volcanic chain called the Ring of Fire throughout the same year. One of the mutated life forms had chanced upon said facility, and in the ensuing chaos, several specimens were lost... including the Yog. With no way of controlling the invading creature, which was killed by security forces in short order, the parasite escaped into the wild, homing in on the first living thing it could find out of desperation for something, anything, to take control of once again.

And thus the extraterrestrial psionic eukaryote eventually found itself in a colony of common vampire bats. Their natural sonar was playing merry hell on the unfortunate invader, but it was left with no other choice. The first animal that got too close was swiftly detained, the creature forcing itself in before its screeches of alarm could disrupt it or the rest of the colony. But in so doing, the Yog found itself up against one of the strongest immune systems of any mammal - for bats are highly disease-resistant because of their need to live in densely packed roosts, so any pathogens they carry are incredibly powerful and infectious by design. Fighting as hard as it could to survive long enough to take over its new body, the Yog was forced to mutate, changing itself again and again just to keep itself from being recognized as an intruder and being wiped from the face of the Earth. But finally, it succeeded - but at a steep price. For in its adjustment to the anatomy of its host, the Yog had altered itself so much that it could no longer infect any other organism, and in the same process, its mind had entirely absorbed that of the animal it was inhabiting, every cell in its nervous system replaced with adapted cell matter produced by the amoeba. But that didn't matter by this point. Now in full control of a body that had once not been its own, the Yog began to alter its new form into something stronger... something deadlier... something hungrier...

The night skies above Peru would not know peace. Spreading his leathery wings, the alien/chiropteran hybrid took wing, its drastic change leaving it hungering for the flesh and blood of all other creatures in enormous quantities. Soon, whole populations of animals and entire towns' worth of people and pets would go missing. Even the plant life of certain areas had been ripped from the earth with barren, corroded land left in the monster's wake. The only evidence of its presence was scattered accounts of a shadow that blotted out the stars and the moon, and an unearthly scream that foretold certain death. It was as though the Mayan bat monster, Camazotz, had arisen from the pages of legend to terrorize the world once more. But the chaos was not over yet...

At around the same time, in British Columbia, Godzilla III had been at an impasse against the forces of the United Nations. A weapon in imitation of that monstrous Simian mecha, Mechagodzilla, had been deployed against him in a desperate bid to bring his reign of terror to an end. The rogue Kerokujira was on his last legs, the "Cybersaur" overpowering him with its mighty G-Buster weapon specifically adapted to take down kaiju, gravely wounding him, although it wasn't certain if he was dead. His shrieks of agony would carry across the continent, the atmosphere itself resonating faintly even as far south as Mexico. There they would reach the one called "Camazotz", who knew not who it was that was due to die, but recognized that a potential meal was at hand, one big enough to finally sate him and build his new body into a monstrosity guaranteed to end and rebuild all life on Earth. And so the Yog-carrier winged his way north, killing everything in his path as he sought the beast whose blood he now craved.

As it turned out, Godzilla III had already been subjected to a dose of an experimental toxin ten months prior, though that had not been enough to stop him. But more importantly, it had prevented his healing factor from taking effect, so his brutal battle with the mech had left his  with wounds that would take much longer to recover from than usual. This was what the U.S. government had been counting on, in the hopes that his vital functions would shut down for good before he could regenerate. "Camazotz" was... an unexpected development, however, and unlike Godzilla, he was not one to simply live and let live. His gluttony, his want, his burning desire to consume all things living, would leave far more destruction and suffering in less than a month than Godzilla could accomplish in his lifetime. So it was that despite great reluctance on the United Nations' part, the new King of the Monsters would be revived with the antidote to the poison seeping through his veins. Cybersaur was tasked with stalling for time, its attention being turned to the incoming mutant as it closed in on Vancouver. A feast of human flesh was at hand, but before he could descend, the mecha intercepted him. The ensuing fight leveled a quarter of the city, but against all odds, Cybersaur was overpowered, and the bat monster, sparing not a moment to gloat, continued on his way towards the downed Godzilla. Seeing his prone form, the antidote still taking time to take effect, he swiftly moved in while he still could, sinking his fangs into his neck and beginning to take his essence for himself. Bigger and bigger he grew, leeching off Godzilla's essence, until for the first time in his history, clear, sapient thought came to him...


≪FATHER!≫ Minilla's mind shrieked in Miki's head. ≪PLEASE GET UP! PLEASE GET UUUUPPPPP!!!≫

≪Brother, stay strong!≫ Biollante's thoughts added, their tone clearly pleading. ≪Why isn't the antidote working faster?!≫

"I don't understand," Yoshiwara could only whisper from behind the wrecked vehicle she and the three other humans were using as cover, watching as Gazzira's life-blood continued to dribble into the crimson pool around him. "I administered the correct dose, enough to neutralize the poison but not affect anything else! What's going on?!"

To her right, Miki glanced at her, worried. Though she hadn't completely forgiven her fellow scientist for her prior lapse in judgement, she knew they couldn't argue over the ethics of it with Gazzira's life at stake. "I'm trying to get through to him, but... something's wrong. His mind is completely addled! It's like... like a television broadcast, but it's showing only static!"

Thousands of miles away, on the other side of the Pacific, Gazzira's son shrieked skyward in utter anguish. ≪NO!! He's not... This... it... THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!≫

≪I'm trying to reach to him, too, but-≫ Biollante's thoughts were interrupted by a terrible sound, one that would make the pod-person avatar she had dispatched to aid them clutch her head in sudden pain, with Miki doing the same.

An unearthly rumbling, a primordial snarl like the earth itself being rent apart, emanated not from "Camazotz"'s gut, but from his mind. It was like the sound of a stomach growling only many times louder, the call of hunger itself.

"Dr. Shiragami!!" cried Burton, grabbing the arm of the remote-controlled puppet of the botanist-turned-kaiju in a bid to hold her steady. "What - What's going on?!"

"The Space Amoeba..." Erika's voice was haunted, her breathing labored. "It's... It has a voice now. It's SPEAKING!"

≪And it is SUCH a thrill to finally be able to communicate with my supper,≫ the chiropteran's rumbling, oddly Hispanic-sounding mental voice echoed in the heads of Miki, Biollante-slash-Erika, and Minilla all at once as he finally pulled his maw free from his meal, his terrible visage rising higher and higher. ≪Yes, I know you are there. That you ALL exist, wherever and whatever you 'dai-kai-ju' are. Now, come on out, now, puny humans. Don't be shy~≫

"...Oh. Oh, God..." was all Miki could say, before she and the other humans (or entities resembling them) slowly emerged to behold the mutated vampire in all his glory.

≪Ah, I was expecting bigger life forms than this.≫ "Camazotz" frowned slightly as he hungrily regarded the tiny humans, his enormous ears twitching this way and that. ≪Consider yourselves lucky, FOR NOW, that I already have what I need right here.≫ He glanced down at the scale-swathed body he was perched upon, the puncture wounds from his fangs clear as day. ≪So enjoy your freedom while it lasts. I'm coming for you all eventually. This world is mine, its life forms my livestock, and its crippled queen the first feast The Yog shall savor in over TEN MILLION lifetimes! Oh, you have no idea how long I have WAITED for a moment like this...≫

≪Y-you...≫ Minilla's horror was echoed by that of his aunt, the realization that they were facing something far, far more insidious than a simple mutant hitting them like a ton of bricks. ≪What ARE you?!≫

≪Only the last remaining vestige of a world that has long since flung itself into its own sun,≫ replied "Camazotz", already considering the tempting possibility of having Gazzira's son for dessert. ≪The people of that planet existed long before your very, very, VERY distant ancestors had even crawled ashore and taken their first breath of air. Already, they were a wasteful, violent, and insufferable bunch... much like what your kind are starting to become, actually. And as they grew fruitful, they sought more and more to take for themselves. Land, life, water, air... power. And in their hunger for that last one, they created many terrible things to get it.≫

"W-what kind of things?" Yoshiwara asked to Erika, who was translating "Camazotz"'s thought-speak to the rest of the increasingly horrified group.

For the very first time since he had taken this stolen form, the giant bat seemed... sullen. Almost... disappointed, even. ≪I... I honestly don't remember too much about them. Probably 'cuz I never really got to know them properly. All I know is that once upon a time, they found something they shouldn't have, and made the mistake any militant race would if they ever came across something of unfathomable, near-limitless power.≫

All the color drained from Erika's face as the botanical colossus she was tied to put two and two together. "No... Oh, NO!"

≪Oh, yes. They cut a piece of that horror from the birth of the universe, the one you dumb little morsels once called 'The Reijuu', and tried to shape it into something that could assimilate whatever they couldn't just take for themselves, so only they could have a use for it when the time came.≫ He paused, baring his fangs with a snarl of utter contempt. ≪Well, we all know how that turned out now, don't we?≫

≪But... but WHY?!≫ Minilla asked, his thought-speech virtually hollow. ≪Why would they do such a thing?≫

≪Same reason why those ridiculous hairless monkeys flopping around this planet like they own the stupid place came up with that so-called 'destroyer of worlds' that screwed over your uncle and his ill-fated da-da,≫ "Camazotz" sneered, earning a startled squeal from Minilla and a murderous look from Erika. ≪I managed to sneak a peek inside the head of one of those morons shortly before they locked me up, and honestly, humans? I see no difference between you and those bastards who thought they could control me.≫

≪I- We-≫ Biollante stammered in shock, but the bat kept going.

≪Give a sapient being a reason to over-indulge - be it on sustenance, material wealth, or heck, the hard-on they get from conquering whatever they consider beneath them - and they'll do it without a second thought. They'll come up with a means to enable that even at the expense of each other... or other beings whose opinions on the matter they can't care less about. I would know. You idiots shut me in a sterilized box for twenty years while trying to find a way to use me for your own sick whims, and you would've if I hadn't been busted out completely by accident!≫

"Busted out?!" Burton spluttered, trying to find words that could adequately describe what the bat had been saying with Erika as a proxy. "By who?!"

≪Oh, that? No damn clue. But no matter. I'll probably find out someday, once I have finished PICKING EVERYTHING EDIBLE ON THIS PLANET CLEAN DOWN TO ITS ROTTEN CORE, JUST AS I DID WITH THE ONE I WAS KEPT IN! ...though perhaps I might sneak a nibble from the core itself, too, just for the heck of it.≫

Miki had actually had to sit down, the nightmarish implications of everything she'd heard being overwhelming beyond belief. "But they... Surely, they would've realized their mistake..." She choked back a sob, surprised at how sympathetic she was feeling towards a species that had presumably been wiped from existence while life had only started existing on Earth. "Why didn't they do something? They'd have had plenty of time to come to their senses and start treating you more kindly-"

≪YOU THINK THEY DIDN'T TRY?!≫ The chiropteran's furious howl, startling everyone present, was not of mere mania, but also one of bitter contempt and misery, and of pity for the race that had attempted to bring him to heel. ≪YOU HONESTLY BELIEVE THEY DIDN'T DO EVERYTHING IN THEIR POWER TO TRY TO APPEAL TO THE FACT THAT I WAS THEIR CHILD AS MUCH AS THAT OF THE REIJUU?! OH, BOO-FUCKING-HOO!! THE ONLY LOVE THOSE SHITHOLES HAD WAS FOR THE RESOURCES OF THE WORLDS THEY WISHED TO COLONIZE WITHOUT ANY REGARD FOR THOSE THAT WERE ALREADY ON THEM! Whatever and whomever they used to collect them be DAMNED. They got what they deserved regardless of whether or not blowing their own planet to smithereens could rid the universe of me, and the closest thing I can think of that can compare to how delicious they and their folly tasted is YOU! YOU DAMN DIRTY APES AND THE WEAPONS OF WAR YOU SELF-RIGHTEOUSLY CLAIM WILL PROTECT YOUR HOME!≫ With another terrifying screech, he flapped his wings in outrage, generating a tornado-force gust. ≪I've had ENOUGH of this. When I'm done with your so-called King, YOU'RE NEXT!!≫

It was then that the seemingly lifeless body stirred beneath him. Titanus Gojira III's claws flexed, his tail twitched, and his eyes flickered open.

≪Not if I have anything to say about it,≫ he snarled. He stoked his inner fire, preparing to atomize the beast that had dared to feed off of his-

-but nothing happened. There was no heat coming from within his spine. To his immense consternation, it was as though his inner flame had gone out.

A collective gasp of horror could be heard from every human present, and every kaiju Miki had broadcast her psionic signal to besides.

≪F-Father?!≫ Minilla thought in terror from an ocean away.

Godzilla slowly lifted her head to look up at the accursed winged predator, and thought four words in a horrified rage.

≪WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?!≫

"Camazotz" chuckled darkly, the noise sounding like distorted, vastly slowed-down bat squeaking. ≪Eh, just a precaution. Don't you HATE it when you bite into something only to find that its insides are too hot? I just drew out the excess heat so you'd make for a better-≫

≪YOU... HOW DARE YOU!!!≫ The Third King of the Monsters reared up with alarming speed, forcing the bat monster to leap backwards off of him and land on all fours while he spun around to face him, roaring in pure rage. ≪I NEARLY DIED! YOU ALMOST FINISHED WHAT THAT PIECE-OF-SHIT METAL BEAST HAD STARTED! WHO... IN EVOLUTION'S NAME... ARE YOU?!≫

The fiendish vampire cackled, rearing up and spreading his wings in a clear threat gesture as the singular voice within his mind slowly became a thousand, then a million, then a billion and beyond. ≪Who am I? I am the Beast of Worlds' End that exists only to endlessly, mindlessly indulge. Though this body was not mine to begin with, and though I can no longer spread my sin of consumption to other forms of life, this planet shall know the terror of the Devourer Eternal regardless! FOR I AM GLUTTONY INCARNATE! I AM THE FINAL SHADOW THAT CONSUMES WITH̷O̶U̵͙̞͑T̸̟̯͠ ̷͚͓̕M̴̠̪͊Ẻ̴͉͚̽R̸͕͉̀̄C̵̩̏Ỳ̶̠͛ͅ,̶͈̼̚͝ ̵̘̹͛A̶̹̟̐̚Ń̴̦̼̿D̷̠̽͑ ̷̺̄͝Ī̸̘͠ ̵͇̾A̸̜̪͐̾M̵̛̩̖͑ ̶̛͇̱Ţ̷̄͌H̶̢̰̜̆͂͌͝Ȩ̷̢̛̻̓͠ ̶̺̪͖̓͠͝S̶͔̀̍̇̈C̷̳͖̞̋̓͗̕͠Ṙ̸͙̀͊̎E̷͇̜͈̹̎̍A̷̗̻̖͠M̴͓̜̳͊̽͑ͅ ̶̖͚͖̉Ṭ̸̞̦̬̱̉̈̈̚H̸͎̠̯̣̟͆̇̓Ä̶͔̣̈̆̆̃Ť̷̙͉̥̲͗ ̶̬̪͎̖̒̑͗́Ḩ̶̤̯̤̖̽͋̓̉͌É̶̙͖̳R̷̡̥͆̍̚Ä̶̯̪̺́̂̊͑͋L̵̢̠̟̱̈́͌̆͌̕D̷͇͇͑̒̎͋Ş̸̖͙͍͙͂̾̓̂͂ ̴̢̟̝̐͑́̃͜R̴͎͉̯͇̓̈́͐̏̏U̵͙̭̿͆ͅI̷̢̯͓̪̱̽̆̔̚͝N̵̨̘͈̻̤͆͊͒!̷͓̺͉̉̐̒͜͜ ̷̙̰͐̍̇̍̄Í̶͖͖̯̣̰̜͉̓̆̈́̈͆́̓̏.̷̱̜̪̺̘̲̞̉̅̎͂̔ ̷̧̧̗̭͕̥͓̠̀̈́̿̽͘̕͝À̴̝̖͉͊̌͑̅͑͑͘͝M̸̩͔̰̯̈́̄̔̐̈́͑́̌̂.̷̻͛̏͊̍͛̏͠͝ͅ ̸̨̤͔̀̂̊̃͆͝B̵̡̜̖̘̞̋̆̀͜À̴̤̗͚̑͐̆͜G̸̣̣̥̖̈́̌Ơ̴̺̄̅͂͊͋́̍̎͐R̵͖̟̤̻̃̆̏̓Ạ̷̧̢̰͚̭͔̹͙̍̓͆̏̐̀̄̽̍͠H̴̠̉̈́̑̋̈́!̵̢̡͖̼͍͓͓̟̖̙̔͛̔̃͛̕!̶̝̱͎̫͆̐̐͌̈́̒͂͝!̴̘̺͕̠̇̒̄̇̓̆̊͑͘>̵̼̮̾̒̍̂̅̊̈́̕͝>̴͔͚̯̘͆̓̀͝


His thoughts forming coherent sentences for the first time in his existence, the mutant revealed to all observing telepaths that he had known the humans attempting to revive Godzilla III were present this entire time, and struck up a conversation with them and the two other kaiju that were psychically linked to the psionic kaijuologist, Miki Saegusa, who had been offering assistance at the time alongside Dr. Erika Shiragami a.k.a. Biollante (the other kaiju in on the conversation being Godzilla III's son Minilla a.k.a. Godzilla Junior, who had only recently gotten to know his true biological parent). When asked about what he truly was, the Yog's host bitterly divulged his dark past as a fragment of a mysterious entity known to the ancient Shinto practitioners as The Reijuu, the Primordial Destroyer. An ancient race of warmongering sapients had siphoned a portion of the Reijuu's essence in a bid to create their ultimate bio-weapon: The Yog, a eukaryotic assimilator of all life that could convert resistant organisms into resources and sustenance for those it was to serve in exchange for its protection and satiation - but in a bid to keep it under their control, they had prevented it from consuming anything except the regions they wanted subjugated, intending to turn it towards other planets once they had perfected interplanetary travel. This had backfired on the unfortunate civilization when, discovering that it could never truly satisfy its intentionally engineered state of indefinite starvation, the protoplasmic life form had turned against its captors and consumed guilty and innocent alike along with every other living thing within its reach as it grew to planet-threatening proportions. With certain annihilation at their figurative doorstep and no way to escape due to the "Devourer Eternal" dismantling all forms of planetary evacuation, the civilization had had no choice but to destroy their own planet and what few remnants of themselves were still on it in a bid to eliminate all trace of the creature, sending everything that remained out of orbit and eventually plummeting into the fiery depths of their own sun. That would have been the end of the Yog... except that one very tiny piece of the being had been launched in the wrong direction by the earth-shattering explosion. Guiding itself along only by tracking the faintest traces of life throughout the dark abyss, it had found nothing until it had entered Earth's solar system and discovered a veritable smorgasboard of living things with which it could regrow. Although in its initial attempts at worldly conquest had ended in failure thanks to the timely intervention of mankind, it had bided its time until it had been inadvertently freed during the attack on the Monarch facility containing it and found a new body to claim for its own, calling itself Bagorah, Carrier of the Space Amoeba and Gluttony Incarnate.

While all concerned were disturbed, outraged, and revolted over this series of revelations, Godzilla III in particular was further infuriated by Bagorah's siphoning of his internal heat reserves and the thought he sensed in him of killing his descendant once he was done with him, and so the battle was joined. Once it was deduced that man and Terran kaiju now had a common enemy, a repaired Cybersaur was planned to be sent in to join the battle as well, but its overclocked fuel processor caused it to detonate, reducing the several-billion-dollar project to useless scrap and leaving Godzilla to fight Bagorah all by his lonesome. The battle was long, brutal, and tremendously destructive, but once Godzilla's recuperating internal physiology enabled his to rebuild his inner thermal stores to the point where he could vent his atomic breath once more, he managed to turn the tide against the avatar of consumption and sent him tumbling into the ocean off the coast of Vancouver, before following him into the sea. While Godzilla would certainly return to fend off future threats from elsewhere in the galaxy, however, Bagorah would not be seen again after that calamitous battle.

It is not known where, exactly, the host of the Yog went, but there were a few scattered reports of a mysterious light above the waters off Vancouver shortly after the battle, and this, coupled by the absence of an identifiable corpse, led some to suspect that Bagorah had been spirited away by observing aliens with their own agendas concerning him, Earth, Godzilla, or any combination of the three - claims which would not be entirely unfounded given visits from several other hostile extraterrestrial factions in the months since this incident. Some other more benevolent alien visitors have also brought in reported sightings of the gluttonous space bat in other local solar systems, too, but for the most part there was too little evidence to conclusively determine his status or location. Some who have been born since the fight have even bought into claims that he doesn't even exist and never did to begin with.

Wherever he is now, though, should he still be, Bagorah still hungers. He still waits in the vast depths of deep space. And should he return to planet Earth... the world will hear the scream that heralds ruin, and all on it will tremble.

Personality and Combat Style:

"There is no rationality in a being as twisted by mad indulgence as the Devourer Eternal. Everything he does is without restraint or hesitation, and he leaves nothing in his wake because he believes that every other living thing will inevitably take what they feel they want for their sake alone... which is not entirely unfounded if the actions of those who shaped him are anything to go by. Bagorah is an unreasonable creature to be sure, but also a pitiable one despite the atrocities he committed - for they were in response to being denied the nurturing respect and care needed for him to be seen as an equal, rather than as a means to an end. This does not mean we should be wholly sympathetic to the Space Amoeba, however, for he has long since cast aside the prospect of any other form of life choosing not to give in to their more basal urges and thus to compete against him. Thus, one can only flee from him, do battle with him, or meet a gruesome end within his wasteful digestive tract. There is, alas, no other choice."
- The Shobijin, on Bagorah and how he became the all-consuming menace he is today

The fourth of the Seven Beasts of Worlds' End to emerge, Bagorah is one of four Terran animals affected by the "Yog", an extraterrestrial microorganism, which was in turn derived from the enigmatic, interstellar being called the Reijuu. As Bagorah himself explained, it was intended that he would be subjgated and used as a weapon of conquest with no regard for his condition, so he turned against his captors and devoured almost all life on their home planet before they destroyed it and themselves in a bid to wipe him out of existence. Their failure would ultimately lead to him coming to Earth millions of years later, and with plenty of time between then and now to let his resentment fester into a savage, all-consuming grudge against sapient life, he is now considered one of the highest priority threats to mankind and Earth's biosphere alike alongside the six other supposed offshoots of the Primordial Destroyer, which include such biological abominations as [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and especially King Ghidorah, the Golden Calamity.

Unlike the other three kaiju mutated by the Space Amoeba, who live relatively normal lives without his influence to trouble them, Bagorah's host body has been completely subjugated by the parasite in response to its extremely powerful immune system, and as such, it is no longer capable of propagating to otehr species. He is not troubled by this, however, having found other ways of furthering his own agenda that do not require truly infecting other creatures, and is flexible enough to work with what he has currently.

Bagorah is defined, for the most part, by his voracious, endless hunger, intentionally engineered by his ancient captors so they would never need to worry about any lapses in his efficiency in his designated role. The effect this had on his psyche was irreversible by design, as the behavior patterns that he would develop as a result are not unlike those of a substance addict, which is actually a disturbingly apt comparison. Every waking moment of his is devoted to either devouring organic matter or desiring to, and as such he is ruthlessly fanatical about this pursuit to the point where any other stimulus is either ignored or treated as an obstacle. While more than willing and often eager to slaughter any living thing he encounters for the sake of wanton hedonism, he prefers large prey such as similarly sized kaiju for pragmatic reasons. Simply put, the larger the meal, the more energy he can gain for maintaining his endless hunt. This means that every single encounter with another titan begins in an invariably hostile manner due to his tendency to try and devour the other monster, and he is neither penitent nor even hesitant about this habit because he does not seek long-term companionship in his selfish gluttony. To him, every other life form is a potential rival in his endless quest for sustenance, and potential rivals simply mean more prey for him in the long-term.

 
≪You're not fooling me, Drumsticks,≫ Bagorah thought with a smirk as he stared down the terrified Ookondoru pinned beneath his foot. ≪You have something we want. So SPILL IT.≫
 
≪W-wait! So, you'll spare me if I give you something, right?!≫ the vulture responded, his heart pounding in his naked throat. ≪What do you want?! I'll give you anything, just let me go!≫
 
≪What we need,≫ Bagorah replied, snapping his fangs an inch from his quarry's beak, ≪is information. The Simians dragged you and the rest of your buddies to this big stinky slammer here on Gorath for a reason. Your flock saw something, didn't you?≫
 
≪YES!≫ The carrion bird's thoughts were clear as day, blind panic overriding any reason or valor… not that he had any to begin with, mind. ≪We saw something… the hairless apes were bringing in all those shiny things and… a-and tasty things, and—≫
 
≪And then what?≫
 
≪THEY WERE PUTTING THEM TOGETHER!≫ the Ookondoru responded in stark terror. ≪There were bones… the bones of the Burning One, the FIRST Burning One, the monster burned by the Poisoned Light—≫
 
Bagorah's rapacious shriek startled him into silence. The Devourer’s ears twitched, his spiked hackles standing on end.

≪Am I hearing that right, Chicken McNugget?≫

≪T-that— wha?!≫

≪There is more than one?≫

The vulture blinked. ≪There's more than one Burning One?≫

Incensed, Bagorah slammed his other foot down on the bird's wing, snapping it like a twig. Even within one of the deepest, darkest recesses of Gorath’s subterranean caverns, the shriek of pain could still be heard for miles.
 
≪OF COURSE THERE'S MORE THAN ONE BURNING ONE, YOU. DENSE. MOTHER. FUCKER!!≫ Bagorah’s retort was punctuated by a point-blank shriek that nearly ruptured the bird’s eardrums. ≪ I'm not asking about him. Who do you think the Simians of the New Era really want back, HUH?!?≫
 
≪I… I…≫ And then it hit him. Recognition dawned upon the sputtering, mortally wounded scavenger as he recalled what the half-assembled project had reminded him of. His flock had been one of the carrion-feeders that had assembled in the aftermath of the clash between the Space apes' greatest weapon and the armored beast. Ankylus, was it? The spiky reptile had been all but ripped limb from limb by the metal-clad terror, which had been clad in a false skin imitating the second Burning One. He and a few other birds had only caught a fleeting glimpse of the false king before it had vanished over a distant hill, and hoping for more meat to fill his craw, they had followed. It was then that they had chanced upon the ensuing battle between the real Godzilla and his imposter, during which the latter's disguise would be burned off, revealing—
 
≪The Third Beast,≫ Bagorah thought with a cruel smirk, finishing the vulture's thoughts for him. ≪The Simians' ultimate destroyer… the Raging Machine!≫ The host of the Yog cackled like a bat possessed — and indeed, he really was one. ≪If only they knew the truth…≫

≪W-what do you—≫

≪SILENCE!≫ Bagorah snapped his fangs a feather’s breadth away from the Ookondoru’s throat. ≪That isn’t important. What matters is the answer to my final question: Are the Homo-sapiens creating him again? A new Beast-3?≫

The bird would have swallowed if he could. As it was, he gazed up in terror at his chiropteran captor, and warbled an affirmative.

Bagorah smiled, baring a set of fangs that would have frightened off a V-rex. ≪Then we’re done here. The Simians have what they need.≫

The Ookondoru’s mind seemed almost hopeful at this. ≪So… does that mean you’ll let me go?≫

Bagorah pondered this for a few moments, and then smirked once again. ≪I said the Simians have what they need,≫ he replied, leaning down until he was nearly snout-to-beak with his prize. ≪I never said I did. But for what it’s worth…≫
 
The bird felt a drop of poisoned drool land on his neck, singing it and making him cry out in agony. Only then did he realize what was about to happen, much, MUCH too late.
 
≪…I do have what I want.≫
 
The Ookondoru's eyes widened before he shrieked at the top of his voice: ≪NO! NO, PLEASE, NOOOO!! NOOOO-AAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE-!!!≫
 
The avian's terrified screech was silenced in an instant. There was a snap of powerful jaws, the crunch of splintering bone and a wet SHRIP of flesh being rent apart.

And that was how the towering figure emerging from a nearby cavern entrance walked in on the grisly sight of the Devourer Eternal in the middle of a midday snack… or, well, a snack for whatever could be considered the equivalent of midday in the labyrinth of caverns within the sun-less rogue planet that was Gorath.
 
≪Well, crap, that was the last one,≫ the beaked, blade-armed creature thought with a half-amused, half-disappointed metallic chirruping call. ≪I was hopin’ you’d at least consider sharin’ just one o’ those birdies, but seein’ as you’re, well, the Beast o' Freakin' Gluttony—≫
 
Bagorah snarfed down the last scrap of mutant vulture meat before letting out a belch that would have blown the roof off a small house. ≪Well, DUH. But enough about me. You mind passing a message to the rest of the crew?≫
 
The other titan rubbed his blades together in anticipation with a sinister metallic scraping sound. ≪Ooh, got anythin’ good?≫
 
≪Oh, you have NO idea.≫ Beast-4 flashed a razor-toothed grin. ≪Seems like Beast-3’s gonna be back in business soon… and I think I know where to find him.≫
 

Despite his self-centered appetite, however, Bagorah is not entirely averse to cooperation, and is open to alliances borne out of convenience if respected and given the right incentive. He is most motivated by the promise, not of food up front, but of the freedom to indulge in his urge to consume, pillage, and subjugate. He also does not hold grudges, either, because dropping everything just to challenge a target of his ire is wasteful to him, especially when he already has a reward at hand which he often chooses to selfishly use up without leaving anything for other creatures before moving onto his next meal. Most monsters who have managed to get on his good graces, or as close to such as is theoretically possible anyway, are fully aware that his might makes right when it comes to dividing the spoils of war, and frequently make off with their own loot well in advance of his act of claiming his share… usually the vast majority of the gastronomic, territorial, or materialistic rewards obtained. It’s also worth noting that most of the kaiju he has partnered with have little interest in said rewards themselves, only acting in the best interests of the parties they either hold jurisdiction over or answer to… or for depraved whims of their own in some cases. The other kaiju whom he is on (sort of) good terms with also don’t begrudge his habit of trying to eat them, having learned about his past from various sources and records kept by the Coalition, with some getting the story quite literally straight from the space bat’s mouth. Seeing as some of the other Coalition-affiliated kaiju have had similar histories of being created or controlled as living instruments of destruction, something which more than a few aren't terribly fond of, they sympathize greatly and have tried to reach out to him despite their own destructive tendencies... though needless to say, providing offerings of food as bargaining chips is not only advisable but mandatory when associating with the Devourer Eternal.

Bagorah, for his part, is actually more appreciative of these attempts at socialization than he lets on. One of the behavioral traits that was imbibed when the Yog absorbed its current and final host body is the highly social, altruistic nature of vampire bats and other colony-dwelling chiropterans, which was at first a foreign set of emotions to him due to being solitary and genetically unique, much like Ghidorah's initial form that arrived on Earth during the Cretaceous extinction event. Over time, however, he realized that by treating him as a fellow kaiju as opposed to a mere tool or potential resource, his associates were in fact giving him the one thing his original controllers had not: respect for his rights as a living, thinking being. As such, the titans he is less enthusiastic about attempting to devour than most (even if he still keeps making such attempts anyway out of habit) include, of all creatures, Gigan, Megalon, Monster X, and the Xillian Coalition’s most recent acquisition, Megaguirus. The latter, despite being an energy stealer herself and thus an ecological competitor on top of being an insect — a favored foodstuff of most microbats — has found common ground with the Beast of Gluttony, and while they are vicious rivals whose dogfights are famous wherever they are active, each often covers for the other with their own capabilities should either one find themselves in a tight spot; her Meganulon younglings likewise bring him food and information as tribute and have no qualms about sacrificing a suitable number of their own should he feel like chowing down on them, which does happen from time to time. Conversely, he is bitter enemies with kaiju that can be considered planetary defenders, with the Godzilla family being the ones he most despises for buying into Earth's supposed "agenda" and believing that its biosphere is trying to come off as far more significant than it really is in the grand scheme of things. He is also a staunch opponent of creatures and beings that enslave or attempt to subjugate others for their own ends exclusively, and if he discovers that a civilization's beliefs deem slavery as the norm rather than the exception, he will not hesitate to "liberate" it with a vengeance, though unfortunately he does not distinguish individuals and will associate even innocent life with the general whole. For the same reason, he doesn't get along with kaiju or other creatures that behave as tyrants towards their peers and underlings. When it comes to his fellow Beast of Worlds' End, King Ghidorah, who embodies much of what he despises in sapient life, he answers to the Astro-Monster only because he has been promised the material spoils of the Coalition's interstellar war to do as he wishes... and also because once Ghidorah inevitably decides he's had enough of the Coalition, there will be plenty left for Bagorah to pick over after the fact.

A tragic villain with a dark past rife full of bitter disappointment, Bagorah is a monster to be pitied, but not one whose actions can be condoned. He is hunger incarnate and gluttony without reason or rationality, but like all but one of the forces of sin, he isn't without a means of getting on his good side, though this often comes at a terrible cost to those currying his favor and is a very dangerous gamble. In the end, however, as cold and empty as his soul may be, some very small part of him still desires companionship after all these eons, and though everyone knows he will inevitably devour those he considers genteel company, the time spent with them before then is time he considers as valuable as any good buffet... even if said genteel company is still required to offer him something good to nosh on to stop him attacking them on sight.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Bagorah is a fearsome opponent in battle because of his speed, agility, and vicious natural weaponry. While otherwise lightweight and relatively frail, his wings are densely muscled and can be used to launch himself into the air with explosive force, or drive the claws on his thumbs through the hides and even light armor plating of other kaiju. His toe claws are hook-like and most often used to hang from ceilings or vertical surfaces, but are just as effective in latching onto other kaiju and leaving terrible puncture wounds and gashes. Most insidious, however, are the 26 deadly fangs inside his thick, powerful jaws, all of which are serrated, sharp, and strong enough to shred through the toughest hide to get to the flesh within, allowing him to guzzle down meat, viscera, and bodily fluids with wild abandon. His fighting style is that of a starving wild beast bent on tearing out as much of his opponent as possible, and even when on the losing end of a fight he frequently carves off a piece of the foe to munch on before making his escape.
• Flight: With large, membranous wings powered by immense arm muscles attached to broad, sturdy bones in his chest and shoulder-blades, Bagorah is a strong flier whose agility in the air is matched by only a few other flying kaiju such as Megaguirus. While not quite capable of reaching supersonic speeds as some other fliers can, he can still reach speeds rivaling commercial jets and, more importantly, has a relatively small turning circle thanks to his wings being capable of folding up more easily than the muscle-fiber sheets or feathers of certain reptilian fliers. He has been known to loop, spin, and twirl through the air with the grace and maneuverability of a far smaller creature to either throw off pursuers or line himself up with airborne prey, and while somewhat less gifted than other aerial kaiju in terms of stamina, he can still swoop and soar with the best of them. In the right conditions, he has even been known to outmaneuver missiles attempting to lock onto him.
• Bat Senses: The impressive senses that vampire bats and other microbats use for navigating and tracking prey have been enhanced by Bagorah's "pilot" to impressive levels. His sense of hearing is impressive enough that he can "see" by monitoring the echoes from the almost inaudible ultrasonic waves produced by his nose leaf, mapping his environment to the finest detail even mid-flight. He can pick up the sound of a songbird's wings from several miles away or the roar of a kaiju from clear across another continent. Less well-known is the sense of smell vampire bats use to track prey, which in Bagorah's case is enhanced enough to detect the faintest whiff of suitable quarry from distances almost as impressive as his hearing - enough to trace and identify a single drop of blood on the other side of an area the size of a large city. Most unusual of all, but also true of mundane vampire bats as well, is the fact that his nose leaf also contains cells capable of sensing infrared radiation, giving him a heat-sensing ability not unlike vipers; while vampire bats use this skill to home in on warm-blooded prey, he has refined it to be able to detect the vital organs and blood vessels inside other animals so that he can determine the most optimal spot to cut open and bleed his prey dry. Needless to say, Bagorah is almost impossible to sneak up on when in peak condition and can locate creatures even through cover, cloaking devices, or camouflaging abilities.

Special Abilities:

• Shattering Shriek: A more refined and powerful version of microbats' natural sonar, Bagorah's main ranged attack is a powerful conical blast of soundwaves with devastating resonance effects. It's able to fracture materials as hard as concrete, shatter fragile materials such as glass panes, scramble sonar systems, and rupture sensitive organs like eardrums at close range. Exposure to his terrible scream can lead to deafeness, disorientation, nausea, and even internal bleeding if he focuses it on a target point-blank for long enough. While he generally utters a wide-area sonic blast to strike multiple opponents at once, he is also capable of focusing it into a more precise "beam" that can blow clean through buildings and bust open the bones of an unfortunate victim. When sufficiently enraged, his cries become inaudible to the human ear but so loud and high-pitched that entire city blocks crumble to powder before them and every organism up to the size of a smaller kaiju unlucky enough to be too close will be quite literally shaken apart.
• All-Destroying Venom: One of the abilities unique to Bagorah compared to his mundane kin is a custom-made cocktail of salivary agents that range from enzymes catering to specific types of organic matter to certain organic compounds that bind with oxygen to form hideously caustic acids when exposed to air - only specialized protective substances in the inside of his mouth and within his tooth enamel keep his saliva from corroding his own maw. His spittle can nonetheless eat through almost anything that isn't chemical-resistant and a few things that are, essentially "softening up" whatever he bites down on to make it easier to chew. There is no reliable antidote to his venomous bite due to the sheer variety of venoms and enzymes contained within it which makes it difficult for a counteracting agent to neutralize more than several of them at once, and he is also known to "customize" his toxins to optimize the damage his venom does to whatever opponent he's facing. One encounter with him almost always produces a different combination of poisons than the next.
• Energy Drain: Like mundane vampire bats, Bagorah's diet largely consists of blood and bodily fluids from endothermic prey, typically obtained by using his incisor teeth to cut through the skin and lap up the blood as it oozes out. Being the embodiment of gluttony, of course, Bagorah simply swallows smaller prey whole most of the time, but for larger prey he will sink his teeth into a well-irrigated area and use his jaws to "squeeze" the blood out. Interestingly, Bagorah is also capable of leaching heat and other sources of energy such as electricity or radiation from the target in the same manner, metabolizing the stolen energy for his own benefit and gaining a temporary power boost depending on how much he was able to drain from the victim. The mechanisms behind this particular skill, as with other kaiju capable of such, are still not fully understood.
• Brainwashing Pathogen: The most insidious ability Bagorah has at his disposal is a specialized immune cell within his saliva manufactured by the Yog itself, which has replaced the nervous system tissue of its host organism. Every cell the Yog reproduces is psychically tied to the source, and when transferred into a host with a bite, the pathogens travel into the nervous system and settle there to multiply, eventually forming a tumor that worms tendrils throughout the brain and takes over the mind of the unfortunate victim. This essentially shuts down the mind of the luckless infectee with the Yog's own consciousness taking its place, allowing Bagorah to control the poor creature like a puppet in a sort of sick reversal of how he was once enslaved himself. Usually the enslaved victim will be forced to gather food for Bagorah before offering themselves up as prey if they can't provide for him anymore, but he has also been known to sic mind-controlled monsters of suitable power onto opponents as a diversion or to make up for his weaknesses in a one-on-one battle. Bagorah is well-aware of the hypocrisy involved in his use of this ability due to his abhorrence of slavery on principle, and prefers to brainwash targets that have been known to selfishly control others themselves as a twisted sort of "revenge". While he has previously infected monsters that can be considered the closest to allies from his standpoint when attempting to feed on them, he purposely restricts the resultant tumors to benign, unnoticeable growths that merely give the other kaiju an enhanced telepathic link to him and a greater access to their thoughts and feelings. This makes him surprisingly empathetic towards those he has infected in this manner, which is helped by his ability to store the memories and emotions of those he has infected for later use... which may also explain how he came to share the social nature common to microbats in the first place.

Weaknesses:

• Only Skin And Bones: Bagorah is not exactly a durable creature, and although his agility is often more than enough to make up for it, a one-on-one brawl is often too much for him to handle. His skeleton was attenuated during his rapid growth partly due to the Yog having such little mass to start with and partly to keep himself lightweight enough to fly, but this comes at the cost of not being reinforced in the same manner that bird skeletons are. Combined with his lack of armor and delicate wing membrane, this leaves him uncomfortably vulnerable in close-range combat, so he doesn't like to get within melee range until he's absolutely sure that he's subdued his victim or can take them by surprise. He primarily uses a hit-and-run fighting strategy, darting in and out to rip into his opponent just enough to bring his deadlier abilities into play, but should he be caught off-guard, he crumples relatively easily.
• Noise-Sensitive: The Yog's weakness to sonic waves is carried over to Bagorah's final form, and if anything only exacerbated by the sensitive hearing that microbats possess. Loud-enough noises that register before he can react will temporarily deafening him or even damaging his hearing, robbing him of his primary means of detecting his environment as he can't see very well, (though he isn't blind as some assume). Sonic attacks are the best means of both countering him from a distance and momentarily disabling his core strengths.
• Genetically Sterile: Because the Yog adapted itself so thoroughly to the anatomy of its current and final host, it has irrevocably changed its genetic code as a side-effect and cannot truly infect other life forms the way it was able to during its first foray on Earth. This has drastically reduced the threat he poses towards the biosphere because of his restriction to a single species as a viable host, not helped by the specialized diet of the Desmodus genus. In theory, should his host genus go extinct, he will inevitably die with it.
• Mindless Hunger: The most dominant aspect of Bagorah's personality by far is his gluttony, and because it has bled into every aspect of his being, it is his greatest weakness as well as his greatest strength. The monster is easily distracted by the prospect of a meal, and might abandon or even betray those he is working alongside if it means satisfying his hunger - in fact, in almost all cases he only joins collaborative efforts for the sake of sustenance. He is also permanently addicted to the neurological and hormonal stimuli generated by feeding - an intentional modification by the race that modified the Yog in the first place - and has been known to lapse into symptoms of violent withdrawal should he be starved for extended periods. This can lead to desperation and impaired judgement in his desire to feed himself, and it isn't difficult to trick him into a dangerous situation by using food or prey as a lure, either. While relatively easy to bargain with should a sufficient amount of nourishment be on hand, that is literally the only thing one can use to curry his favor - otherwise he'd much rather make a meal out of the bargainer instead.

Chapter Text

Monster From Rainbow Valley: BARUGON

Statistics

• Classification: Chamaeleonidae
• Length: 262.47 feet/80 meters
• Height: 65.62 feet/20 meters
• Mass: 77,161.79 short tons/70,000 metric tons
• Locality: The "Valley of Rainbows" Earth Hollow, New Guinea

Bio

Origin, Personality, and Combat Style:

≪Aurora Australis?! At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the planet, localized entirely within this valley!?≫
≪Um, yes?≫
- A rough translation of part of the dialogue between Gamera and Barugon, upon confronting each other for the first time in 1966

Barugon is the offspring of one of several creations of a civilization originally native to various locations throughout the Mediterranean Sea and Western Atlantic, which historians have come to name Atlantis after its capital, whose precise location has been a subject of debate. The civilization was supposedly populated by a mixed community of different sapient species native to Earth, and due to its harmonious existence it was able to advance significantly in terms of technology as opposed to other more terrestrial nations at the time. One of the lost technologies it was familiar with was apprently bio-engineering, with the creation of a number of artificial or enhanced species for various purposes. One of the most important projects was the creation of a guardian beast to protect the capital, which resulted in three different creations, Barugon being one of them. Only the last of these three creations was successful - the first would eventually turn rogue and begin attacking the various cities under the Atlanteans' jurisdiction, and the second, originally created for the purpose of stopping the fallen guardian and its kin, would fail in its mission following a horrific discovery that left it at a disadvantage, forcing it to flee into the Hollow Earth, never to be seen again. The third and final guardian was by far the more successful, managing to prevent much loss of life but too late to stop the civilization collapsing with its surviving populations also emigrating to the Hollow Earth to rebuild anew. The second guardian beast would not be found until thousands of years later, however...

Just a year after the most successful of Atlantis' guardian beasts emerged into the world for the first time, the previous attempt at a guardian would resurface in the Phillipines of all places, having made his way through the Hollow Earth to settle in a hollow beneath the island nation known as the Valley of Rainbows. Or rather, its egg would resurface, its parent being parthenogenic (though nobody knew of this at the time). The massive opal-shaped object, looking for all the world like a huge, smooth gemstone, was planned to be removed from the hollow by treasure-hunters - who were unaware of the massive reptilian skeleton nearby - until it hatched into a new creature, the progeny of a creature depicted in archaeological findings from various locations associated with Atlantis. Quickly christened "Barugon" after this same being, it grew into a dangerous predatory creature that emerged onto the surface world and eventually attracted the attention of the other lost guardian, Gamera. The two of them would clash several times before Gamera would abandon a mortally wounded Barugon to whatever fate had in store for it. Barugon would survive despite all odds, however, and clash with Gamera several times more before they would end their rivalry for good. Barugon has since returned to the Valley of Rainbows to live out the rest of its days peacefully, though Gamera does visit his fellow ex-guardian occasionally and has been helping the new Barugon ease into a proper role as a protector of life.

Character-wise, Barugon is a naive, flamboyant, and immature, but ultimately well-meaning monster. Being relatively young, and born into a world that couldn't care less about her due to her clade having no parental investment, she has had to get by on her wits and capabilities alone, and as such she attempts to compensate for her impotence in some regards with bluster and pettiness that can be aggravating to some. When truly pressed into battle, she has a flair for the dramatic because threat displays are her go-to for warding off enemies, and as such she will throw out every flashy combat technique in a bid to indicate to an opponent that they aren't welcome in her presence. Should she be sufficiently overpowered, however, she tends to panic, wildly swinging or blasting everywhere in the hopes of hitting at least one thing. This makes her as much of a liability as she is an asset, potentially causing excess collateral and making combat situations harder for allies. It has been suggested that this was a problem with her mother as well which was why she was rejected as a guardian in favor of Gamera, something which she is still bitter about ever since she discovered this fact, although Gamera's assistance is helping her grow out of it.

While she does not actively seek friends or companions, Barugon doesn't exactly mind company, either. She tends to shy away from being in contact with others, but should a non-malicious fellow kaiju persist while respecting her boundaries, she will develop a tolerance and eventually a healthy respect for them as long as they don't breach her trust and do not irritate her by being excessive in their attempts to stifle her. She will even engage in sparring matches with those she has become especially close to on occasion, and holds those who have bested her in combat with high esteem provided they otherwise give her space. She particularly sees Gamera as a sort of parental or at least sibling-like figure despite having no instinctive sense of familial attachment, and has a sense of honor despite her gaudy and sometimes childishly petty demeanor. Her attitude towards Gamera has improved since the invasion of the Zanons in 1980 that saw her and several other kaiju mind-controlled by the invadors, as she was grateful to have been given mercy and rescued from their influence, going on to assist him in her captors' defeat.

While largely content to live in the Valley of Rainbows for the time being, some have wondered if Barugon ever intends to return to her mother's homeland to revisit her roots. Thus far, however, she has made no attempt to leave the hollow outside of necessity, and has no interest in going anywhere near human civilization at all. This is perhaps for the best, as although she has improved since her first appearance, she still has a way to go before becoming a fully fledged guardian of our planet.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Barugon is a low-slung monster with a rather long reach to make up for her lack of height. Her heavy body sports sturdy clawed limbs that can wrestle opponents to the ground, but unlike climbing chameleons her feet are strictly adapted for a ground-dwelling nature and aren't as good at grasping; as such, she pins down opponents instead of clutching them, though this is usually enough to subdue them. Her long spiked tail is heavily muscled and partly prehensile, allowing her to either tail-slam opponents with enough force to puncture their hides with her thagomizer or grip and constrict them. On the other end, her head sports powerful jaws full of small but sharp teeth and an array of fearsome horns with which she can jab and pierce the softer parts of a foe trying to tackle her head-on. Her natural defenses include tough dorsal scales, a hardened skull, and sharp plates on her back that deter attacks from above, and she has been known to body-slam foes in a bid to cut into them with these same plates. Her low-slung body allows her to duck under most attacks and retaliate with a bite or tail swipe, making up for her relatively poor mobility which would otherwise leave her an obvious target.
• Tether-Grab Tongue: Like those of most other kinds of chameleons, Barugon's tongue is a deadly hunting apparatus. It's a spring-loaded tube of muscle surrounding a specialized projection of her hyoid bone, and can shoot forth up to twice her body length to latch onto prey from afar with the grasping suction-cup at the tip. This sucker also secretes a powerful adhesive which makes its grip almost inescapable unless dissolved by a chemical agent in her saliva, and the retractor muscles in the tongue are strong enough to pull victims up to her own weight back towards her. Unlike mundane chameleons, the tongue's movement can also be controlled to some extent in a manner akin to an elephant's trunk, allowing it to constrict or swing  around those it's captured especially when in tandem with her own body movement; its initial strike is also delivered with ballistic force and is powerful enough to knock even other kaiju flat on their asses. It's even been known to swat flying monsters out of the sky with enough aim and quickly yank them within reach of her teeth even before they hit the ground if she can get a good-enough grip. This is Barugon's longest-reaching attack method by a fair margin and the one she usually initiates fights with.
• Dual Visual Tracking: Barugon's eyes are the same as those of most chameleons and as such highly specialized. Capable of moving independently of one another, their sense of vision is sharp enough to detect movement from a mile away, with a reliance on monocular depth perception rather than binocular vision. She is also able to see into the ultraviolet spectrum and perceive colors and patterns that humans cannot detect without special equipment. This makes her excellent at tracking and locating things as well as locking onto prey, and her independent eye movement also makes it difficult for psionic abilities that rely on eye contact to affect her. She has a 360-degree field of vision and can detect things from any horizontal direction or even directly above her, with her only blind spot being underneath her head.
• Color Change: Like mundane chameleons, Barugon has both a series of pigment cells under her skin and a manually controlled covering of translucent, crystalline scales, which enables her to change the color and pattern of her skin on a whim. Unlike the camouflaging ability of cephalopods, she and other chameleons use this ability for communication as an emotional and display signal, with concealment being largely secondary. Her default color is a dull, plain brown so she doesn't stand out from her environment but she can also turn into virtually any other color in the rainbow and various patterns as well in order to broadcast her mood or intimidate enemies as well as better absorb or deflect environmental heat for thermoregulation. If sufficiently pressed, she can even create a psychidelic effect of numerous pulsating bands and patterns of color running down her body like a cross between a strobe light and a kaleidoscope, which can cause disorientation and even seizures in visually-reliant opponents.

Special Abilities:

• Chilling Liquid: Barugon is ectothermic and relies on the environment to control her body temperature, and as such she has to find a way to avoid overheating herself in hotter environments. Her species was engineered with this in mind, and is capable of producing liquid nitrogen within a special gland connected to her digestive tract. A duct coming from this gland travels through her tongue and opens up to a pore at the center of its capture pad, allowing her to spray liquid nitrogen from her tongue in a freezing vapor at a temperature of around -100 degrees Celsius. This enables her to freeze opponents with a long-range spray or through contact with her tongue attacks. The adhesive slime coating the tip of her tongue can also be infused with liquid nitrogen, enabling her to cause ice crystals to form upon and within an opponent's flesh once her tongue sticks onto them.
• Rainbow Death Ray: The bony plates on Barugon's back are hard and sharp, but their main purpose is as a venting mechanism for a truly destructive weapon. It's a lethal freeze ray comprised of a mysterious heat-sapping energy, capable of turning the moisture in the surrounding air into ice crystals that can shred through anything in their path as they fall or are sent flying by the sheer force of the energy, forming a mist of microshards that refracts light around it like a prism. The result is a rainbow-colored beam of icy doom that can hit opponents above or behind her and can be angled to strike foes to the side if need be. She is also able to emit individual beams from her plates and arch her back a little to cause them to disperse in all directions, blasting multiple targets at once. The workings of this particular attack are still poorly understood, but analysis of the plates of the original Barugon skeleton has revealed a crystalline core in each of them which may serve as a refractor for the freezing energy produced within her.

Weaknesses:

• Slow Stalker: Barugon is not built for high-speed movement, instead being an ambush predator. This is compensated for by her long reach and special ranged weaponry but when faced with a faster opponent that can deflect or outmaneuver her long-distance attacks, she will often come up short. Such enemies have been known to run circles around her and wear her down with hit-and-run attacks while she vainly tries to strike them down and destroys the environment around her. While not incapable at close combat, she needs enough room to unleash her ranged combat techniques to truly come into her own.
• Freshwater-Intolerant: Barugon's anatomy is not tolerant of freshwater, although saltwater is fine by her. This is because she is part of a lineage adapted to a maritime civilization, so her mother's creators simply didn't have any need to address this drawback. Nonetheless, exposure to freshwater will cause a hydrolyte imbalance in her body chemistry that can lead to sickness, toxic shock, and even internal bleeding as her cells are ruptured due to her body attempting to re-balance its composition. While decent at swimming - possibly due to traits of water-capable monitor lizards spliced into her genome - she dislikes entering freshwater bodies like rivers and lakes for this reason.
• Petty Vanity: Young, immature, and still figuring out her way in the world, Barugon has a slight inferiority complex due to not being as powerful as other titans such as Gamera, and she often tries to make up for it by sheer pomp and bluster. She often tries to be as flashy as possible in battle and is fond of dramatic finishing moves against a downed opponent. This can be used against her because she can get sidetracked while acting up in this way which means an especially crafty opponent can get her to let her guard down by playing along. She is also selfishly fond of her physical appearance and will regularly clean herself by rolling in dust and snow and polishing her scales obsessively - anyone who scuffs or wounds her will quickly earn her vicious ire, and defacing her dorsal plates and the large, iridescent scales on her back especially will lead to her completely losing her composure against better judgement and usually launching a savage retaliatory assault.

Chapter Text

Scourge of Atlantis: GYAOS

Statistics

• Classification: Unidentified artificial avian/mammal hybrid
• Height: 32.8 feet/10 meters (Gyaos), 98.43 feet/30 meters (Super Gyaos), 278.87 feet/85 meters (Hyper Gyaos)
• Length: 49.21 feet/15 meters (Gyaos), 131.23 feet/40 meters (Super Gyaos), 288.71 feet/88 meters (Hyper Gyaos)
• Wingspan: 98.43 feet/30 meters (Gyaos), 295.28 feet/90 meters (Super Gyaos), 656.17 feet/200 meters (Hyper Gyaos)
• Mass: 22.05 short tons/20 metric tons (Gyaos), 165.35 short tons/150 metric tons (Super Gyaos), 551.16 short tons/500 metric tons (Hyper Gyaos)
• Locality: Technically cosmopolitan, but most sightings have been recorded in and around east Asia. The first recorded sighting of the creatures was in Mt. Fuji, Honshū, Japan, but other sightings have since been reported in various other locations in the western Pacific.

Bio

Ecology and Behavior:

"It's looking for food."
"For food? That'll be us if we're not careful!"
- Part of a conversation between ornithologist Mayumi Nagamine and Monarch inspector Osako Hotaru, regarding a Super Gyaos' attack on several cities and towns in Japan, including Tokyo, in March of 1995.

One of the most feared creatures on the planet, the Gyaos are an ancient experiment in militarized biotechnology that backfired in the absolute worst way possible. Engineered by the ancient civilization of Atlantis, they were originally intended for use as guardian beasts until it was discovered that they were instinctively driven to kill and consume every living thing around them, without any restraint whatsoever and in defiance of natural predator behavior. The Atlanteans attempted to seal away the ravenous creatures while trying to engineer a guardian beast that could counter them, the first Barugon being an initial attempt, before they succeeded with Gamera, Guardian of the Universe. By then, however, the damage was done. Atlantis' collapse would send their fell creations into the caverns of the Hollow Earth, Gamera in pursuit, and while most of them were hunted to extinction, the scattered remnants were only barely kept in check by every other kaiju resident of the caverns that recognized the threat they posed to the biosphere. During the Vietnam War, the Gyaos would reemerge into the surface world due to strip-mining opening a gateway into the Hollow Earth, whereupon they would ravage numerous communities around Mt. Fuji. The creatures would reappear several times in the following decades, and some were even being taken by extraterrestrial civilizations in attempts to control them for use as weapons of war... attempts which almost always ended in disaster for all parties involved.

The Gyaos are genetic chimeras of various species of birds, bats, flying reptiles, and other species, all merged together in a bid to create a sort of ultimate superweapon. They are, as previously noted, insatiable in their hunger and driven by preprogrammed instinct to consume every other living thing in their presence, which defies common sense because meat-eating animals do not practice indiscriminate killing or waste energy attacking everything in sight. Their high metabolism makes them constantly active and on the lookout for their next meal, focusing on little else even to their own detriment. More concerning still is their high reproductive rate - they were designed to live fast and die young, and while genetically female they are capable of parenthenogenesis and birth litters of a half-dozen at a time. Even when newborn, a Gyaos is still the size of an eighteen-wheeler and utterly vicious - cannibalism of others of their species is a common occurrence should their food supplies become too low. Because they breed quickly, they are also capable of adapting to environmental conditions to some degree, though this is more limited than some other kaiju with such an ability. Regardless, they are feared across the globe, the shadow of their swarms darkening the sky sending all manner of fauna and sapients instantly running for cover.

The Gyaos are also notable for a semi-eusocial lifestyle - while all capable of reproduction, should enough of them be present in a single area, some will undergo a hormonal influx and rapid growth spurt, becoming Super Gyaos. Their larger size demands greater subsistence requirements which makes them even more aggressive than their smaller kin, and it is usually they who lead a swarm attack should they be part of one. Gyaos will defer to Super Gyaos as their leaders, and as the latter are somewhat more intelligent than the former, they have been known to issue simple commands to the regular Gyaos for various purposes such as defense, prey capture, or scouting. Some Super Gyaos are however so ferocious that they have been known to turn on and cannibalize their own kind, devouring their entire swarm and then moving on to the other creatures around them. Should enough Super Gyaos exist in one area, one or two will then mutate further and become Hyper Gyaos, kaiju-sized members of the species that are the strongest of their kind and the de-facto "alphas" of multiple swarms. Like the Super Gyaos, however, their hunger and savagery often means they are the first to launch an attack should a feeding opportunity present itself.

While the Gyaos are lethal, they are not invulnerable. Fire is the best way of deterring them because they are not resistant to it and burn easily, and they will panic and flee from even the faintest presence of it. They are also largely nocturnal and are less active during the day, making them more prone to lethargy and lapses of judgement (or what little they have of it) during the daytime, especially due to their vision being impaired by bright light. Their blindness to reason and communication is also a liability to them because they are prone to aggressive, predatory responses to any sort of stimuli which can lead them straight into traps or send them diving into a suicide charge should they be up against a powerful-enough opponent such as Gamera. Nonetheless, the Gyaos are still some of the deadliest creatures on planet Earth and beyond, and even pacifistic, nature-aligned cultures make an exception to their rules against killing when it comes to them, as they are against the natural order due to being artificial.

At least a few Gyaos swarms which have been taken off-world have been noted to have pledged a sort of "loyalty" to other, similar monsters, with two of the Beasts of Worlds' End being some of their prime candidates as a sort of "master". King Ghidorah, The Golden Calamity for his part can't care less about them and is prone to obliterating or hunting them as his whims dictate, but they still attempt to serve him nonetheless even at their own peril. Bagorah, Carrier of the Space Amoeba has been somewhat more receptive, and has actually taken in several swarms as minions of sorts, but his own selfish appetite makes him prone to fighting with these very same underlings for the spoils of his hunts, and the Devourer Eternal isn't above killing and eating any Gyaos unlucky enough to be in his way, either. No interactions with the other Beasts have been recorded thus far, but the Xilian Coalition has nonetheless been attempting to employ the creatures for their own ends... though as with many other races that have tried this, their success rate has been utterly abysmal, and casualties are common.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Sub-Kaiju Strength: The Gyaos are deadly predators that present a threat to every other living thing they chance across, including each other. Their teeth and claws are razor-sharp and can leave gashes in materials as hard as concrete, while their powerful wings can bludgeon smaller victims into submission. The bony plates on their heads are also hard enough to deflect gunfire and their sharp edges allow them to be used to slash at prey and enemies, though this is their only means of defense. These monsters are built primarily for attack, and with a high reproductive rate, they care little about sacrificing their own as long as the survival of the population is ensured.
• Flight: A Gyaos' wings are powerful enough to give it flight even at a size much larger than any other flying creature, a trait shared only with certain aerial kaiju. While capable of standing bipedally without too much trouble so they can use their wing claws to fight, they primarily use their forelimbs for launching skyward like bats and pterosaurs do, so they don't need to build up their back legs to do it. An explosive launch and a sweep of its wings can carry a Gyaos at up to 50 mph through the air in an instant. The Super and Hyper Gyaos stages are even faster still, with the latter able to reach speeds of Mach 3.5 and leave shockwaves in its wake.
• Echolocation: While the vision of a Gyaos is as good as any bird's, its hearing is bat-like and is much more acute, fitting for its nocturnal habits. The Gyaos is able to emit a series of high-pitched clicks like a dolphin or bat, and can map its surroundings based on the echoes even when flying at top speed. It's also able to detect noises that are not its own with incredible precision, picking up the sounds of even the faintest movement from a range from a mile for the regular Gyaos to the range of a large city for a Hyper Gyaos.

Special Abilities:

• Sonic Cutting Beam: An extension of its ultrasound-generating ability, a Gyaos is able to concentrate its sonic projections into a beam of soundwaves that appears as a shimmering line in the air. This sonic blast is capable of piercing through steel, to say nothing but the bodies of even kaiju, the effect being comparable to an armor-piercing bullet. The range of a Gyaos' sonic beam is impressive, ranging up to several miles with enough power behind it, though generally its strength diminishes the further one is from it. The Gyaos swarms tend to fire off these beams en masse to tear an opponent apart from a distance.
• Blood Drain: Like Rodan's species, Gyaos have a long, spike-tipped tongue with an internal duct running down its length, allowing them to tap into blood vessels and drain the bodily fluids from their prey. A special anticoagulant in their saliva enables them to continue feeding for longer, while also leading to exsanguination in an affected victim. A swarm of them can drain a small kaiju completely dry within an hour, leaving behind a shriveled, dessicated husk.
• Parenthenogensis: Gyaos are exclusively female, able to produce young without having to breed with one another, and live-bearing so they aren't restricted by nesting sites. The young are independent within a day of being born, with the pregnancy itself being relatively short - about two to three weeks. This means that despite their insiginficance compared to larger monsters, they can easily build up enough of a population that they become a formidable threat. Strict sanctions have been put into place worldwide to terminate any Gyaos that have been sighted anywhere, with not a single one being allowed to live, because no matter what happens, one Gyaos will soon become many.

Weaknesses:

• Fragile: Gyaos have hollow bones, naked skin, and little in the way of body armor even with their bony head plates. A strong-enough kaiju is capable of tearing even a Hyper Gyaos apart with relative ease, which is why they prefer to attack in massive swarms - as a group, they aren't afraid to sacrifice their own members if it means bringing their opponent down.
• Kill It With Fire: Without any heat-resistant aspects to their anatomy, Gyaos are highly flammable and prone to fatally overheating in the presence of high temperatures. Fire terrifies them and they will attempt to hurl themselves through obstacles just to avoid it, even killing each other in a bid to escape. Some cities have been known to deliberately start massive fires if it means keeping the creatures away, though this of course carries the risk of the infernos causing problems of their own. Kaiju with fire attacks are often avoided by the swarms entirely.
• Super-Persistent Bloodlust: Gyaos have hyperactive metabolisms that demand so much flesh and blood that they treat every hunt as though it was their last - which in many cases it really is given their short lifespan. They are perpetually addicted to the taste of living flesh and are prone to going into violent extremes to feed for sheer hedonistic pleasure, and will even stoop to cannibalism in a bid to sate themselves. A Gyaos can thus be expected to attack without provocation, but this also causes them to prioritize hunting over every other instinct they have, obsessively pursuing even prey as small as humans regardless of personal risk.

Chapter Text

Combined Space Monster: VIRAS

Statistics

• Classification: Unknown extraterrestrial
• Height: 314.96 feet/96 meters
• Mass: 132,277.36 short tons/120,000 metric tons
• Status: Listed by Monarch as "Unknown", but suspected by a number of off-world allies of Terran forces to be recuperating on Gorath.

Bio

Origin, Personality, and Combat Style:

The champion of a cephalopod-like sapient species from a distant aquatic planet that was ravaged long ago by pollution and rampant waste disposal, Viras is a member of the Xilian Coalition, a collective of civilizations and their respective bioweapons both kaiju-sized and smaller that share the common goal of interplanetary expansion, justified from their view by the notion that no planet lasts forever and that sooner or later, all sapient populations will grow too large to sustainably exist on a single planet. In other words, their policy is that conquering other planets is required for survival, and any other approach would be suicide. As such, the "Virasians" (the term given to this race by Earth's civilizations after Viras himself, though many insist that it is not the name they use for themselves) have become accustomed to the routine of constantly searching for new worlds to expand into and forcibly subjugate should the need arise. Viras' very name in his people's langauge means "to conquer", as he is the ultimate outcome of their experiments in augmenting their own kind: through a grotesque scientific procedure that was signed off during a dire emergency during a campaign on a certain little blue dot, an entire army of these invaders, with each and every one of them having given express permission, fused together to form a much larger, more powerful monster that could match the likes of Gamera. While the resultant amalgamation managed to hold his own for some time against the Guardian of the Universe, he was ultimately frozen in the stratosphere and then shattered to pieces in their final clash. While his remains were eventually retrieved and reassembled by the Xilian Coalition, his recovery is still incomplete, and he and his people are as such currently recuperating off-world in the rogue planet of Gorath, where they have been cooperating with allied populations from other races such as the Neo-Simians, the Nebulans, and the Kilaak, all of whom have taken issue with Earth's guardian kaiju themselves and are also waiting to have their day in the future.

≪Commodore Viras to Admiral Zanon. Vanquishment of fleet dispatched to Terra imminent. The 'reptile' with breath of destruction is upon us. Requesting permission to enact the... the Unification Directive.≫
≪...≫
≪...≫
≪...≫
≪...≫
≪...Granted.≫

-Translation of Commodore Viras' final transmission to his superiors as an individual being, prior to him and his subordinates voluntarily undergoing the fusion procedure transforming them into a kaiju in an attempt at a turnaround in their fight against Gamera. Viras had notably transmitted footage of the fleet itself being handily defeated by a number of Earth-native kaiju back to Admiral Zanon immediately prior to this transmission, the ≪unspeakably horrifying≫ (in Zanon's words) subject matter of the footage itself being a major factor in greenlighting this decision.

A joint product of militaristic conquest and brutal self-experimentation, Viras is a conglomerate of several hundred martial veterans of his race's war effort who have participated in countless battles and many, many atrocities across the galaxy. The mind within his collective that is the center of his consciousness and the one that speaks for the regiment that became his current form was their highest-ranking commander and the one who gave the order for his soldiers to merge with him, a procedure which was regarded as an absolute last resort because given the state of their home world, retreat was not an option. According to him, none of his soldiers regret their decision to become part of the hive-mind within his conjoined anatomy, as they felt they had nothing to lose and were willing to die fighting for a new home. His justification for his actions, both to himself and to others, was that every conflict with the worlds his people intended to subjugate could easily be the last, so his superiors had to make it a rule not to care for those they were fighting against, as doing so could easily lead to those they conquered rising up against them.

To this end, Viras' higher-ups actively and harshly punished any act of empathy towards thinking beings who did not look like them, and would accept nothing less than termination with literal extreme prejudice of such beings. In a time where disobedience meant exile - which, in an uncaring universe with so few planets that could both sustain life and had significant amounts of water, was practically a death sentence - Viras could not afford to go against the word of those who had his very life in their tentacles, and was forced to go along with the death and destruction his people had wrought in the name of protecting their own. Being thusly kept from taking action against the crimes his race was committing - and having to commit more than a few himself to keep his platoon from being flung into deep space - left him so utterly traumatized that whatever personality he had before joining the galactic wars was all but gone by the time he and his forces arrived on Earth. There was literally no other option but to continue fighting, conquering, and committing genocide in the name of his people, who lionized him as a champion of their values regardless of what others thought of them.

≪...Holy shit, Mister Beaky. I already feel bad asking you this, but... can't you simply tell your lil' Papas to go have mating rituals with themselves or however they said it on Earth?≫
≪We wish we could speak against our commanders and what they do. But if we uttered so much as a whisper in dissent of Admiral Zanon and his associates, our entire race would abandon us in an instant. We'd have nothing whatsoever. Just our own flesh and hide, with nowhere to go that isn't certain doom.≫
≪You sure 'bout that, Mister Beaky? A nothing whatsoever that's all yours to keep is still better than whatever you claim to have that belongs to someone else.≫
≪Tch, well, that's rich, coming from you. The Seatopian factions on the side of the Coalition have you under lock and key in the same way that Admiral Zanon is in control of us.≫
≪Yeah yeah, maybe I've got no room to talk there. But here's the thing, Mister Beaky... My new tiny Papa and his friends at least let me roam around as I please when I ain't needed, and back on Earth, I found a home on my own after my old tiny Papa went away to that lovely little fungus farm up north. I get it, I get it, you're proud to be a champ of your lil' Papa's kind an' all that. But is it really better to be fed and petted all day while stuck in a cage, or to be free to just up and rough it with nothing holding you back?≫

-Translation of part of a private conversation between Megalon and Viras, both the chief warbeasts of their respective peoples, after the latter confessed to the former about his perceived responsibility for his people despite his commanders' prejudice and their mistreatment of even their own race. Megalon and his constant companion, the Xilian kaiju Gigan, are thus far Viras' only friends in part thanks to this conversation and the relevant interactions to follow, with Megalon in particular hoping that Viras will eventually recognize his commanders for being the 'Bad Tiny Papas' they are and then step up to lead the "Virasians" on his own terms.

Due to personally witnessing the countless lifetimes' worth of suffering he and his people's armies had inflicted upon many defenseless civlizations and being forced to do nothing about it - or actively partake in it - Viras eventually developed a sort of superiority complex as a coping mechanism, acting like a sadistic, petty tyrant because from his standpoint, no one else could understand his perspective on the matter. While he styles himself as being domineering, snide, and dismissive of everyone around him, it's clear from most interactions with him that aren't taken at face value that this is a front to hide his absolute misery over his lot in life as basically his civilization's living WOD. His defeat at Gamera's claws was seen as a total humiliation for his people, who were subsequently led by propaganda and subjective recounts of the encounter to regard Earth as an enemy and join the Xilian Coalition in protest - but to Viras it was a catharsis of sorts, demonstrating that at least one world had a means of fighting back against a controlling force in his life and the lives that had merged with it that they had all thought was inevitable. As opposed to other Xilian kaiju who hold Earth in contempt because of its constant resistance to their efforts to take control of it for the good of the galaxy, Viras secretly harbors a grudging respect and even a bit of pining jealousy for our planet and its titanic protectors, because it is no small feat indeed that it has managed to survive the Coalition's relentless assault for as long as it has. The liberty enjoyed by Earth's kaiju is something Viras feels he can never afford because attempting to live out the life he and his constituents truly desired would be going against the wishes of their race as a whole, so his expectation is that he will continue to serve them and cling to the delusion that it's for the good of his people for fear of being callously left to die if he does anything else.

≪You're not proud of what your kind are doing, are you?≫
≪...no. We are not. But we have no choice. Our kin need us to win. And win we must, or perish trying.≫
-Translation of part of the pre-battle conversation between Gamera and Viras during the second attempt on Earth by Admiral Zanon's fleet in 1980

The restrictions imposed on him by his civilization's culture and his own reputation have therefore left Viras an empty shell merely acting cruel to try and escape the nightmare-come-true of his new existence, and he and his constituents have thus given up any hope of finding peace. While his original motive was to lead his people into an era where they can exist without the trouble of their homes and lives being ruined by forces beyond their control, he believes deep down that he and his commanders have lost sight of this motive and why it mattered in the first place. His secret, most hidden desire, however, to be treated as a friend rather than an idol or an enemy, and to feel the emotions of attachment, affection, and contentment that were stamped out of him and his squadron long ago. While he considers this a prospect far too remote to be even worth considering, and while his people wouldn't care either way due to putting him on a figurative pedestal, those who have gotten to know him believe that if by some miracle he could defect from the empire that sired him without consequence, he'd do it without a second thought.

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Relatively speaking, Viras is actually only somewhat above average in terms of physical might, rather than above and beyond in this regard, and much to his embarrassment and bitterness he can only be considered the most powerful member of his race by virtue of scale alone. Regardless, his anatomy was repurposed and reinforced specifically to exist on a larger scale, and because of this he does indeed need to be much more durable than the average "Virasian" because anything less would lead to gruesome results as reality kicks in. The micro-crystal reinforcement of his cellular anatomy was intentionally introduced as one of the changes brought about by the Unification Directive which makes every part of his body both inside and out as tough as any Earth kaiju, allowing him to actually slug it out with his fellow monsters rather than being overwhelmed and ripped apart within a split second. His powerful tentacles can lash out with enough force to shatter stone, his central beak can crack bone and shred flesh, and the tough armor plates affixed to his head, which are durable enough to resist missile fire and the physical attacks of most other kaiju, can be put together to form a spear-point capable of puncturing even plate armor with enough force behind it. That said, while Viras is indeed a savage fighter who can go toe-to-toe with other monsters and occasionally come out on top, he is ashamed to live with the knowledge that he is an equal rather than a superior to his fellow titans because he is fully aware of how risky it is to come into conflict with them, since there is a very good chance that he might meet a messy end at their teeth and talons. This is arguably why he fights so fiercely and desperately, hoping to end the clashes he gets involved in as soon as possible or at least survive long enough to walk away from the battlefield alive.
• Triphibious: Viras' race of origin is notable for a sort of organic turbine on the back of the head, which in mature individuals is able to swiftly propel them through the water and even launch them skyward for some distance if they put enough effort into it. With his enhanced anatomy, Viras is able to travel at much higher speeds and greater distances in the same way. He is able to breathe both air and water, though he needs his skin to remain moist in order to survive. At full speed he can outpace most watercraft, and with enough room to maneuver he can propel himself into the air like a rocket, arcing through the sky and coming down shell-first to impale the first thing in his way.
• Alien Anatomy: Viras' anatomy is quite unlike any Earth organism. The swollen bases of his tentacles contain not just muscle but also most of his digestive system, with each appendage bearing a mouth of its own at the tip; respiration is performed by chambers within his cranial mantle which also contains most of his brain tissue, which wraps around the lung-like gas exchange organs in order to obtain as much oxygen as possible - unlike in a cephalopod, the mantle turbine and lungs are separate, with the former being powered by waste material from digestion. None of his anatomy corresponds to anything on Earth, which can throw inexperienced foes for a loop when trying to land a strike disabling his vitals. He also lacks any sort of skeleton with his only hard parts being his armor plates and beak, while the rest of his tissues are highly elastic, enabling him to stretch and contort in unpredictable ways to outmaneuver opponents.

Special Abilities:

• Telepathic Suggestion: Viras' brain tissues are highly developed, with no less than twenty brains within his cranial mantle, but he is no more intelligent than any other member of his kind. As with regular members of his kind, what all that extra gray matter is for is to serve as the power source for a psionic field that can be tailored to match the nervous-system frequency of other organisms around him. This enables him to establish a two-way connection to the minds of others which is normally used for communication, which is the main method of communication between individuals of this race. After enhancement, however, Viras has learned that he can also manipulate those he is communicating with by subtly adjusting their brain activity, essentially performing a sort of hypnotic suggestion that can be very difficult to spot - especially if one does not have mind-reading powers of their own, let alone ones sensitive enough to detect the right clues. If sufficiently pressed, Viras can also emit a sort of psionic "scream" that is basically the brainwave equivalent of white noise, overwhelming other creatures under his influence and shocking them into unconsciousness for a few precious minutes.
• Reassembly: Viras' race is notable for having a distributed nervous system, nutrient storage throughout the entirety of the body, and connective tissue adapted for rapid autotomy, similarly to starfish on Earth. This enables them to detach their limbs from their bodies in case of emergency, and if a piece manages to live long enough to grow a beak of its own it can grow into a complete clone of the source. This also plays into their reproduction, with multiple individuals purposely removing small portions of themselves and putting them in a purpose-built incubation chamber to create a genome for a new infant via gene exchange among the fragments. Viras is, to his chagrin, incapable of reproduction in this manner, but any piece of him that is removed from the rest can survive for an extended period - usually a week or two - and be reattached to his body and grow back into place without issue. Should he be taken apart, he will be rendered comatose until reassembled, but his body parts will be able to survive long enough to be put back together if assistance arrives in time. Should a portion of him be lost permanently, it can be regrown in about a month if enough nutrition is in supply.

Weaknesses:

• Freezing Cold: Viras does not do well in cold environments, and freezing temperatures especially can cause him to lose body heat very quickly without any form of insulation or heat absorption. This combined with no adaptations to resist the cold means he needs a warm environment to function most effectively. Gamera was able to defeat him during their first encounter by flying him into the stratosphere to freeze him solid and then simply letting him fall and shatter upon the ground below. In theory, if he were to find himself in a cold environment such as the poles or climates near them, his metabolism would be slowed to a crawl and he would be rendered comatose until the temperature of his surroundings is brought back to a reasonable level.
• Squishy Appendages: While the armor on Viras' head is highly durable, the same cannot be said for the rest of his body. His skin has no real means of protection or reinforcement outside of the usual changes to his biology to exist as a kaiju, so his fellow titans would have no issue tearing off his limbs or vivisecting his inner mantle. His regeneration is enhanced enough to compensate to some extent, but because severed parts of him do not have sensory perception, they would be functionally useless unless reattached.
• Brain Damage: Viras' redundant brains are critical for his mind-manipulating technique, but also this ability's greatest weakness. Only one brain can be used for thought processing at a time, with this particular function cycling between them at random on a regular basis, so while this makes it difficult to determine which one to disable to leave him temporarily brain-dead, this also means he is only as intelligent relative to other organisms as a typical sophont being. More importantly, damaging any of his brains reduces the efficacy of his telepathy - the fewer brains are intact, the hazier and more tenuous the mental connection. There's a reason his cranial mantle is the most heavily armored part of his body.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: A soldier and commander mentally scarred by eons of fighting, Viras is a cunning and ruthless adversary - but at the cost of his former identity and any capability of feeling positive emotions. The horrors of too many wars to count have left him disillusioned with every aspect of his life and under the impression that all that matters is to continue coming into conflict with other life forms for the sake of his people. While a valuable asset in terms of martial strategy as much as physical might, he is not good with cooperating with others because being treated as a means to an end by almost everyone he was close to has led to his belief that anyone could regard him as such. This has driven him to act selfishly as a sort of coping mechanism and purposely drive others away to ensure that they don't use him for their own ends or force him to participate in yet another act of barbarism that would no doubt erode what little remains of his consciousness further. In a group effort he often attempts to take charge with only minimal respect for the feelings of those he's working with by using the justification that his greater experience on the front lines is essential and that anyone else would act selfishly enough to lead the whole group into ruin, further harming his only nominal popularity with others and preventing him from seeking companionship as much as the restrictions imposed upon him by his commanders. While Viras does want to reach out to the titans who have at least touched base with him and be appreciated as a being rather than used as a tool, he has internalized his superiors' ruling that this is both forbidden and the wrong idea, and will often attempt to shun even those who have done nothing at all to him under the belief that his lot in life as a champion of his race alone can and should never be changed.

Chapter Text

Antichthon's Blade: GUIRON

Statistics

• Classification: Unknown extraterrestrial
• Height: 180.45 feet/55 meters
• Length: 278.87 feet/85 meters
• Mass: 121,254.24 short tons/110,000 metric tons
• Locality: Northern Continent of Antichthon

Bio

Origin, Personality, and Combat Style:

The sole kaiju resident of a life-bearing planet named Antichthon after the Greek term for the Counter-Earth hypothesized by the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Philolaus (though it orbits another sun-like star, and not opposite to Earth itself as was once assumed), the blade-faced monster Guiron is a modified specimen of the largest herbivore of its habitat, which a colony of unidentified carnivorous sophont extraterrestrials from a more distant planet attempted to capture and train as beasts of war. The visiting race is largely unknown due to no other encounters with human civilization, with the only known account of their existence having been given by two human children who claimed to have been accidentally abducted by them when they attempted to forcibly acquire Earth's guardian monster Gamera along with at least one Gyaos specimen for reasons unknown. The colony was apparently on its last legs with only two survivors left, driven to desperation and hoping to transfer themselves to the next habitable planet over. In any case, the Gyaos were dispatched by Guiron after they predictably went rogue, before he turned his attention to Gamera himself. A grueling series of fights followed in which both monsters severely wounded each other, but ultimately Gamera proved victorious, before recovering the children who had hidden in the last escape pod in the colony base and bringing them back to Earth. While it was suspected that Guiron had died during this encounter, he was ultimately confirmed in 1980 to have recovered in the years since then. This was because an invading fleet of Viras' race, led by Admiral Zanon, had intended to conquer both Earth and Antichthon for their own use, and had captured Guiron among several other monsters to do so, but Gamera managed to turn the tables on Zanon, whereupon the freed monsters that had been spared by Gamera were teleported safely back to their respective homes. No other incidents involving Guiron have been reported since, and multiple scouting parties have confirmed that he is indeed living out the rest of his days peacefully on Antichthon's northern landmass.

Unlike most other kaiju, Guiron's nature has not changed compared to his base species, and as such he has no real personality aside from the instincts possessed prior to becoming a kaiju. This species, now called the "Great Saberface", is a highly aggressive plant-eater whose main diet consists of both mineral and vegetable matter, with its favorite being iron-rich silicates covered in the various analogs of mosses and lichens native to its habitat. Guiron's diet is no different and he will typically carve gouges and ditches into small hillsides while feeding, spending much of his time digesting food in a large digestive chamber after grinding it to a pulp in a smaller antechamber where harder shards are kept to aid in this function. His daily routine consists of eating, sleeping, keeping an eye out for danger, and little else, and his needs are basic enough that he can be basically regarded as a very large megafaunal animal with no civilized intelligence... or much in the way of smarts at all, for that matter. His reactions to any stimulus are purely instinctual, and like any large herbivore, he is easily startled - and likewise more dangerous than any predatory animal for this reason. Anything that he considers threatening is met with a blade-first charge and a total lack of restraint, and he will slash, bite, and tear at the unfortunate presence until he feels the problem has been dealt with. The results are anything but pretty, but once he has thoroughly mangled a perceived danger, he will simply leave and continue going about his business as though nothing had happened. In short, he is a gruff, dimwitted, and incredibly dangerous creature who generally should not be approached.

Despite reacting with extreme violence towards almost anything in his presence, however, Guiron is surprisingly mellow towards things he knows do not present a danger. In a similar fashion to large Earth-native plant-eaters with small birds, he pays little attention to most smaller flying creatures, which can rest on his back with the confidence that his ferocity towards most organisms that hunt them will keep them safe, and may even remove parasites from the folds of his hide, though he doesn't really care either way. Human-sized beings (including humans themselves) don't warrant his attention either, though his size and inattentiveness might lead to him unwittingly flattening settlements or campsites in his way, and vehicles are unfortunately prone to setting him off. Regardless, he is generally content to mind his own business on his home planet, and can theoretically coexist with other kaiju so long as he is given space by others and isn't provoked (though given that no other titans have been found on Antichthon, whether that will really happen is anyone's guess).

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Guiron is a hefty, powerful, sturdy, and surprisingly nimble beast. His thick, rugged skin is covered in bony scales and reinforced with microfibers, making it difficult for most attacks to get past it, while spiky plates on his back protect from attacks from above. Bulging muscles within his limbs and torso hold his body upright, and enable him to charge with deceptive speed and close the distance with a startled opponent. His hoof-like claws are more built for traction than offense, but a powerful stomp can be used to pin his opponents down. His beak and tusks are strong and sharp, however, and if he's close enough he can bite an opponent and shake the life out of it with the strong neck muscles he uses to hold his head up. Powerful in both offense and defense, when he charges forth, he is virtually unstoppable.
• Saber Horn: Guiron's most powerful weapon by far is his enormous cranial horn, which is reinforced by metallic compounds extracted from his diet and is thus both incredibly strong and razor-sharp. A single slashing blow from this horn is capable of slicing cleanly through armor and bone, brutally dismembering anything unfortunate enough to challenge him from predators to obstacles. It has a density distribution such that the edge wears slower than the sides, so it can be kept sharp by constant use, and the loss of material is easily compensated for by minerals from his sustenance intake (see below). The inner structure of the bony core of this horn is hollow with a lattice-like interior for weight reduction and shock-absorption, but it's still as heavy as it is devastatingly effective, so to reduce the effort of holding it aloft, a thick, elastic ligament runs from a large hump over his shoulders to the back of his skull, much like giraffes, bison, or the extinct entelodonts, which also allows the horn to snap upwards with ease once it's been lowered so he can catch an opponent with its blunt side and catapult them onto his spiny dorsal plates or simply hurl them away from him. It is this implement of destruction that makes Guiron so dangerous to face head-on, but it has downsides that keep it from being exceptionally powerful (see below again).
• Metal-Eater: With robust, strong jaws and teeth, a stone-shearing beak, a grinding fore-stomach and powerful acidic digestive juices, Guiron is adapted for feeding on mineral deposits and digesting all kinds of non-organic substances, and metal is no exception - he actually gravitates towards metal-rich compounds and especially iron and rarer metals in order to maintain his blade's condition. While not as prominent as his horn, his bite is strong enough to rend steel and break through concrete, easily dismantling most structures if he hasn't chopped them down already. A sizable gouge carved into a given hillside or bite marks taken out of toppled buildings in a particular area are a sign that he has paid the place a visit. Mechanical and cyborg kaiju are also treated as potential meals, and are some of the few types of animal life that can be considered at least partial prey for him.

Special Abilities:

• Projectile Razor-Stars: The mundane Great Saberface removes waste from its body by collecting it into large, solid pellets comprised of metallic residue bound by solidified, crystalline fecal matter; these it then launches from ports on either side of its horn, which conveniently gives it a ranged attack with which it can strike enemies, foodstuffs, or rivals from a distance. Guiron's enhancement enabled him to refine this particular ability to form metallic "throwing-star"-like projectiles in this manner and fire them from these same ports, allowing him to send out pairs of spinning razor-edged propellers that spin through the air as they go, and can slice through granite with enough speed behind them. Guiron is able to fire these blades with tremendous force thanks to a pressurized launching system within the internal cavities of his horn, but can control them post-launch using the below ability...
• Magnetokinesis: A significant portion of the otherwise hollow interior of Guiron's horn contains an enormous cluster of nerves, metallic microfiber coils, and specialized muscular cells that enable him to emit an electrical field from his horn. While capable of being weaponized via electrocution on physical contact, its main purpose is to manipulate metal objects around him via attraction and repulsion, allowing him to control the movement of things such as debris, his own bladed waste pellets, vehicles, or even other living things like kaiju that also exhibit a significant metallic constituent. Being relatively slow of mind, he typical result of this is the unfortunate object or being being sent airborne at terminal velocity, being crumpled into an unrecognizable contorted mass, or simply drawn into his mouth for consumption, although he is somewhat more creative with his metal throwing stars as the colonists who enhanced him intended and can control their movements in mid-air to some extent, giving them eerie homing abilities as they close in on a target. His own skeleton is reinforced with metals as well which allows him to manipulate his own body with the same magnetic field and launch himself at impressive speeds even for a creature of his size.
• Energy Reflection: The metallic material comprising Guiron's blade has highly reflective and conductive properties. This means most forms of light, heat, electricity, and even gamma radiation can be reflected from or stored within it and transferred to things he attacks physically, or outright bounced in another direction as though it were a mirror. The same substance has a resonating property which allows it to reflect sound-based attacks in a similar fashion, even being able to redirect a Gyaos' sonic beam almost as though it were a beam attack. This ability dose not apply to physical ranged attacks such as vapor-based breath weapons or hard projectiles.

Weaknesses:

• Non-Metallic Obstacles: Guiron's magnetism ability does not work on materials that do not conduct an electric charge or magnetic field, such as rubber, concrete, or minerals that lack metallic compounds. A sufficiently insulated structure - or opponent - would of course be better able to withstand his magnetic abilities.
• Big Heavy Blade: The same giant blade that Guiron uses for combat is also a liability in the wrong circumstances, because its very size limits its maneuverability. It takes quite a while to actually swing around which is why he usually employs a charging attack to make the most of its power. It is also prone to becoming stuck in substances it gets lodged in which can leave him vulnerable to attacks from behind or the side if he times a hard swing incorrectly.
• Viciously Single-Minded: Guiron is dimwitted, bestial, and barely sapient, relying entirely on instinct to dictate every action. This means he is incapable of complex thought and strategy and can therefore blindly run straight into a difficult or even fatal situation if sufficiently provoked. He refuses to rest until any offense or potential threat has been rectified and will ignore pain, injury, or any other present danger until he has achieved this goal, which can come back to bite him in fights against multiple opponents. He also cares little for collateral damage when it comes to eliminating opponents, and those he is cooperating with are as much at risk as the opponents in question.

Chapter Text

Guardian of the Universe: GAMERA

Titanus Gamera I, Xuánwǔ/Genbu the Black Turtle

Statistics

• Classification: Placodont
• Height: 262.47 feet/80 meters
• Length: 656.17 feet/200 meters
• Mass: 88,184.91 short tons/80,000 metric tons
• Locality: Known to appear at various locations throughout the West Pacific. Several nests have been recorded in the Hollow Earth tunnels beneath Japan and Southeast Asia, with one surface-level nest located on Infant Island and another within the volcano in Sakurajima, Japan.

Bio

History:

"Is this [creature depicted on this tablet] the turtle that lived on the Arctic continent?"
"Yes. It is the devil's envoy... Gamera."
- Monarch scientist Dr. Eiji Hidaka and an Alaskan native overseer of the Caspak Earth Hollow, who provided an archaeological find detailing the existence of Atlantis' last creation

Not all giant monsters are born from the heart of the Earth. For that matter, not all defenders of our planet's biosphere evolved over millions of years with only the tender mercies of natural selection and adaptation to countless changing climates to further their development. Some have been quite literally made specifically for the role of protecting our world, and our civilization. Such is the case with the Guardian of the Universe, the Black Turtle of the North, and the Friend to All Children: Gamera, the Invincible.

The story of Gamera begins not millions of years ago, but merely thousands - a blink of an eye in the relative span of Earth's natural history. The Lost Continent, and several others like it, had given rise to a number of ancient civilizations, and the most prominent and best known to popular culture was none other than Atlantis. It may come as a surprise to many today however that it was not actually referred by this name during its heyday, and in fact it was but one of the major cities of a much larger oceanic nation that reached far into the northern oceans, one that is now known as Hyperborea. The name Atlantis comes from a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works Timaeus and Critias, wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that besieges an older, pseudo-historic version of Athens said to embody Plato's beliefs, only to lose the conflict and be damned by the gods to be sunken into the sea. While this is largely a straightforward, black-and-white narrative with clear patriotism on Plato's part, the moniker of "Atlantis" will still be used for clarity, as it came to refer to a recently discovered ancient civilization in the north Atlantic with an eerily similar backstory, but one somewhat more complicated than a mere metaphor...

One of the most notable aspects of Atlantis was that, like several other landmark cities in Hyperborea, it was familiar with the Hollow Earth, its civilization reaching into the network of tunnels beneath the planet's crust whose mysterious properties of preservation had contributed to the continued existence of extinct life in the habitats therein. Archaeological records suggest that the Atlanteans were highly fond of the many wondrous creatures within the Hollows and had attempted to domesticate them for their own use, but this proved far more of a challenge than they could handle, so with assistance from the Delugians they lived alongside, they had turned to the next best solution: genetically engineered companions. The genetic chimeras known as Balkardzan and Razin have been confirmed to have been two successful experiments in this respect, but for every viable asset there were several failed creations with various unpleasant effects on their creators... some of which were outright lethal. The most ambitious project Atlantis would undertake, and its last, was the creation of an army of warbeasts meant for taking on some of the more powerful land-based civilizations at the time, as they were already expanding and concerns were growing that they might pose a threat to the Hyperboreans as a whole.

The fact that the sole outcome of this project was the first known Gyaos flock in recorded history should tell the reader all they need to know about how it fared.

With a far more pressing threat at hand, the Atlanteans scrambled to create a guardian monster, but there weren't any at the time that could mature fast enough to be of use against the Gyaos horde. So it was that with great reluctance, Atlantis reached out to a more southern civilization, the sunken Lost Continent's country of Mu, to produce a specially commissioned guardian beast that was meant not to subjugate, but to protect. Once the threat of the Gyaos was determined not to be a mere tall tale meant to scare others into compliance - in no small part because at least one Gyaos found its way to Mu itself and wreaked absolute havoc - the decision was made to go ahead with the guardians' production. Fortunately for the remnants of Atlantis, they got it right in only two attempts: the first being the rogue monster Barugon, and the second being a far more stalwart kind of beast whose base organism was a species of massive, heavily armored reptile with ancestry dating back to the Triassic period. As soon as it was tested to ensure it didn't go rogue and turn on its creators, the "Invincible" titans were promptly sent to Atlantis and tasked with exterminating the Gyaos horde before it invaded the rest of Hyperborea. This mission was nearly a success, but the last few Gyaos that escaped the conflict with their lives retreated into the Hollow Earth, forcing the one surviving protector creature to follow after them, never to be seen again until thousands of years later...

The Atlantean guardian would be nothing but a tall tale, known to be the truth by only a few surviving Atlanteans that secretly integrated into the rest of human society after Hyperborea's decline - but many of their children, and their grand-children, and future descendants believed that the creature their ancestors had called the "Guardian of the Universe" didn't even exist. All that changed in 1965, as the Cold War was going into full swing. The aerial dogfights between the United States and the Soviet Union taking place over the Arctic Circle wreaked devastation throughout the ecosystem, but little care was given towards the collateral damage. Things became noticeably more dire for the northern Pacific however when one particular skirmish resulted in an atomic blast going off accidentally within the vicinity of a strange iceberg that had appeared days before - suspicuously close to one of the entrances to the Caspak Earth Hollow where the last known population of Rhedosaurus existed. Concerns abounded that a retread of the Foghorn Incident but in the Pacific would transpire, but what happened was much, much stranger: an enormous "flying saucer" traveling along the eastern coast of Asia, destroying any military settlement and power plant in its way. What was thought to be an alien spacecraft of some sort - not as nonsensical a speculation as one might think in light of King Ghidorah's first appearance being just a year prior - turned out to be a monstrous turtle-like creature, as confirmed by two witnesses to its arrival in northern Japan, siblings Nobuyo and Toshiro Sakurai. A scientific consultant for Monarch, Dr. Eiji Hidaka, was at the time studying a stone tablet believed to have come from Atlantis, and upon recognizing the similarities between what the Sakurais had witnessed and the creature the tablet depicted, he promptly tracked them down to obtain as much information as he could from their observations of the beast, only to find a startling discovery...

"Gamera saved your life." Dr. Hidaka's tone was incredulous, but by this point, there was no disbelieving.
"Because he knows I like turtles," replied Toshiro.
"Gamera liked you," his sister Nobuyo said with a chuckle. "Gamera must have a good heart."
Toshiro simply smiled. "Gamera's a good turtle."

As it turned out, Toshiro believed that Gamera - the name of the turtle-like creature depicted on Hidaka's artifact - was actually a mutated form of his pet turtle who had been released into the wild some time prior. Motivated by curiosity and the need to prevent Gamera from causing severe loss of life, the three of them would follow the trail of destruction in Gamera's wake, discovering that the creature drew strength and sustenance from energy and was targeting power plants as an easy food source. Consulting with the Japanese military, Dr. Hidaka convinced officials not to destroy the creature, but instead slow it down - despite witnessing it level much of Tokyo when multiple efforts to slow it down ended in failure - and diverted its attention enough to lure it onto the nose cone of an experimental rocket, which successfully sent the creature into low orbit. The creature would obviously return to Earth someday, but for now, its immediate threat was no more.

Then Barugon's offspring emerged, and after much havoc was wreaked, it would be defeated when Gamera plummeted back down to Earth from orbit somewhere near the Phillipines and tracked down his half-sister's daughter for two spectacular confrontations. After this, Dr. Hidaka lent archaeological discoveries relevant to both it and Gamera to Monarch for further study, whereupon part of the actual history of Gamera was revealed. Ominously, some of the engravings in key sites associated with Atlantis depicted a creature much like Gamera fighting a swarm of winged monsters, an image that would come back to haunt the world just a year after Gamera's return...

Over the next few years, Gamera would attract the attention of both humanity and a few invading alien races, who had been trying to conquer Earth in the wake of Ghidorah's debut. Viras would spearhead one of the first attempts by these extraterrestrials on Gamera's life, and just a year afterward, the Guardian of the Universe would be abducted and taken to Antichthon to confront Guiron. Two more encounters with alien monsters - one sent to Earth and another descending from space as Viras did - led to Gamera finally establishing his role as a protector of mankind and planet Earth. It would be another nine years before Viras' kind tried another attempt at our planet, but in spite of the capture and attempted use of every monster Gamera had done battle with, that attempt ended in disaster as well. The shelled kaiju had made sure of that by freeing all the other monsters from Zanon's control - save for the Gyaos that had been brought in, which were killed off by Guiron when they predictably turned against him out of hunger - and sent all of the survivors back to their respective homes.

For a while, there was peace. Gamera would eventually realize that his world had changed too much and that Hyperborea was no more, and thus attempt to find his place in the world for a while, without ever encroaching upon the world of mankind. It was hoped he would keep a healthy distance from civilization for the rest of his days, but while the world's governments were as alarmed by him as they were with any other kaiju, his exploits as a defender of humanity and, notably, a friend to all children had made him a beloved hero of Japan and beyond by the time of Zanon's second attempt at Earth. Still, he would not be seen again after that particular incident, and the youths of the world could only pray that he would return someday.

Then, in 1995, the prayer was answered. The Gyaos swarm would once again arise anew, emerging from the Hollow Earth onto Himegami Island with the intent of devouring all life on Earth, as they had tried to do before. But in their wake... Gamera, the Guardian of the Universe... the Black Turtle of the North... and the Friend to All Children... would return to save us all.

Personality and Combat Style:

"Gamera is... a complicated creature, to be sure. I know now that he isn't REALLY the pet turtle I once had to send away, but he's so much like that old friend of mine it's almost scary. Curious, kind-hearted, and eager to see the world as much as his reptilian ways would allow. But that's not why I've grown attached to Gamera, at least not entirely. In fact... I actually see myself in him a lot. He's trying to find his way in the world as much as I am, and in many ways he's learning how to behave himself and what's the best way of fitting in with the other kaiju he lives alongside. Perhaps that's why he's so protective of kids: because he sees a bit of himself in them, too."
-Dr. Toshiro Sakurai, on Gamera. Toshiro would pursue a career in aerospace engineering and would prove instrumental in keeping track of Legion's invasion of Earth and its attempt at Gamera's life in the 1990's.

When initially sighted, Gamera was thought to be an ancient beast, having lived for thousands of years and gained the wisdom to match, being as long-lived as the turtles he resembled. That expectation was shattered when he came into conflict with mankind for the first and only time in his life. As it turned out, he was not acting out of malice, just hunger, because he had been bereft of any significant energy sources to feed on throughout his time in the Hollow Earth and as such was acting out of a combination of basic instinct and a volatile temper more than anything else. Rather than a prehistoric titan akin to the likes of Godzilla, Gamera can fact be considered a shallow imitation of these creatures - it's even been speculated that the Atlanteans were attempting to produce a species in Godzilla's image when they came up with Gamera's kin - and has yet to reach the maturity and experience needed to stand as Godzilla's equal. As such, compared to certain much older biosphere-protecting kaiju, the so-called Guardian of the Universe seems to come off as more of a hot-headed teenager with the drive to do good for the world but with precious little of the restraint a defender of Earth is expected to have. He is childish, brash, and prone to the recklessness and thrill-seeking of a typical adrenaline junkie, throwing himself into fights with nary a second thought and often expressing excessive confidence in himself, much to his detriment in many situations and to the chagrin of those supervising him. 

In Gamera's defense, he is far from incapable in battle, something which many who know him are willing to concede. Though unrefined for now and somewhat predictable in terms of strategy - his responses to oncoming dangers basically amount to either charging straight at them, blasting them in the face with a plasma ball, or both - the Guardian of the Universe is nevertheless adept at both close- and long-range combat, his tough hide and bulky figure allowing him to trade blows with creatures much larger than himself. Confronting him is a battle of attrition, and even while thrashing, blasting, ripping and tearing with violent and frequently irrational fervor, his endurance is leagues above even most adult-aged kaiju. This is far more of a vital asset than one would think, because between his lack of maturity and tendency to overestimate himself, most of his initial fights with other more hostile titans do not go his way. He is nothing if not persistent, however, and fittingly, getting up and trying again is his philosophy in life. As far as Gamera is concerned, the thrill of making an earnest effort to achieve victory is every bit as valuable as the victory itself.

Be that as it may, for all his careless nerve when it comes to confronting threats to the world at large, and for all the graphic violence he has employed when dispatching villains who threaten those under his care, Gamera is an idealist at heart, and believes that all beings are capable of goodness as much as evil, with their moral compass being entirely their choice. Since his creation he was always indoctrinated in the notion that in every population, the proportion of those who prove themselves to be corrupt, hateful, and toxic compared to the whole is small enough that assuming an entire race is bad by default is generally unhealthy. He is as such prone to seeing or at least trying to see the good side of everyone, even his most hated foes such as the Gyaos... whom he has stated more than once are creatures to be pitied as well as feared, as their collective descent into madness is owed to a tragic series of misjudgments that weren't the swarm's doing to begin with. It is when one exhibits refusal to change for the better that he chooses to take action, and unrepentant adversaries can expect him to go out of his way to make them pay... though preferably with as few innocent casualties as possible and none if he can avoid it.

This sense of idealism is also the reason for one of his most renowned and beloved traits: his love of children. The innocence that he senses in the world's youth ties into his belief that evil - as much as goodness - is never inherent to any living thing, and that every life deserves a chance at redemption and the embracement of virtue. Despite the problems his collateral may cause (something which he is always apologetic for if telepathic correspondence with him is anything to go by), he will actively protect any and all sapient life he can, and children in particular are his main priority. He also does not see human-sized beings as prey because of his size, but instead finds people endearing because of how much they remind him of his own character - perhaps his partly artificial origin and familiarity with the Atlanteans may have something to do with that. As such, Gamera despises any creature that actively targets innocent human life even though they get no benefit from them, and despite seeking to understand the reasons behind the actions of anyone and everyone, he will not condone such behavior and will condemn even allies or fellow Terran guardians who partake in it on the side - rationale is one thing, but justification is entirely different and far more difficult to provide. Attacking bystanders who had nothing to do with the conflict, even kaiju, is also a good way to get on his redlist, and young kaiju in particular are especially precious to him, the result being that many such younglings like Gorgo, Sampati the Gappa, and Minilla look up to him as a sort of older sibling and often turn to him for help against a common threat or just general comfort, something which Gamera himself appreciates very much.

Gamera's fascination with the lives of others has a somewhat darker, more tragic undercurrent, however. The discovery of the remains of many other creatures similar to Gamera throughout much of Hyperborea has led to a chilling hypothesis that far from being a unique creation, he is in fact the last of his kind, and had a population to associate with prior to the Gyaos-centric debacle that led to his creators' downfall. One would think that without such company he would never be able to see eye-to-eye with any other living thing, but the fact that Gamera is such an empathetic kaiju seems to suggest that the loneliness he suffered from after the near-extinction of his species led to him attempting to connect with other creatures in a bid to stave it off - first as though they were pets or livestock and then as though they were equals. It is therefore no surprise that he considers all other life forms as a sort of family to him and while he understands the cycle of death and rebirth and that every living thing must live at the expense of another, needless, wasteful bringing of death and destruction purely for selfish reasons is against the values he has projected onto this perceived family, justifying his campaign to stamp out evil whenever possible.

Ultimately, Gamera's greatest desire is to be accepted by the rest of the world's titan population, and though many older, wiser kaiju are quick to turn him down because they feel he isn't ready to join their ranks, there are just as many who see him as a promising candidate as one of Earth's latest protectors. Whether he will live up to such expectations, of course, is for him alone to decide...

Combat Statistics

Normal Abilities:

• Standard Kaiju Strength: Gamera is a powerful, sturdy, and viciously armed creature. His heavily muscled physique and robust skeleton are built for supporting a thickly armored, bone-scaled hide, granting him the strength to spare for beating the absolute shit out of opponents unlucky enough to get too close. His limbs are powerful enough to stomp most smaller creatures to paste and drive his front claws through kaiju hide, as well as pound, wring, and hurl his foes about with ease. His mouth is equally formidable, with a powerful bite on its own but also armed with savage tusks and a razor-edged beak that can shear through bone with enough force. Aside from these main weapons, his tail ends in a hefty club of enlarged scales and spikes and his limbs bear sharp scales that can shred exposed skin, and a body-slam from his shell can also cause nasty lacerations from the sharp edges of its protruding segments. This is a beast built for battle, engineered under the philosophy that preparedness for war is the only way to keep the peace.
• Reinforced Shell: The bony plates on Gamera's back and belly are similar in nature to both the scutes of a turtle's carapace and the armor plating of the related placodonts from which he himself is descended. As with turtles and some more derived placodonts, the plates are attached directly to extensions of his ribs, forming a triple-layered protective buffer alongside the titanium-hard keratinous covering over the plates themselves. The overlap between the plates ensures that his back is virtually impregnable and when on all fours or withdrawn into his shell most attacks seem to bounce off of him without so much as a scratch. These plates also sport a network of blood vessels and nerves custom-tailored to his energy-absorbing ability (see below), which enables him to withstand many energy-based attacks as well.
• Amphibious: Gamera was engineered as an aquatic creature, and he is more comfortable in the water than on land. While capable of functioning on land just fine due to air sacs in his body placed in such a way that respiration is feasible outside of the water, he has an almost entirely solid skeleton reinforced with far more diamond microfibers than most other kaiju just to keep his bones from breaking under his own weight, specifically as a ballast to keep him from being hampered by buoyancy when submerged. His powerful, wing-like flippers are used in the same way as those of a sea turtle, allowing him to "fly" through the water at speeds rivaling what Godzilla's species can accomplish - when moving quickly near the surface or rising out of the sea, he can create tidal waves and riptides with his movement alone. Gamera is also able to dive to impressive depths due to his shell being articulated to be slightly collapsible against water pressure, and can remain underwater without having to surface for air thanks to oxygen-absorbing membranes lining the inside of every orifice of his that opens to the outside world, from his cloaca to his throat and nostrils and even the gaps in his shell containing his thrusters. He has been observed hibernating on the ocean floor when not in action, and has been known to search for food by diving up almost 1.5 miles below the ocean surface. (For comparison, among non-kaiju marine reptiles, the armor-free leatherback turtle he somewhat resembles holds the world dive depth record at 4,200 feet below sea level, while the Cuvier's beaked whale, the deepest diving animal, dives up to 1.9 miles below sea level.)
• Energy Absorption: Like Godzilla's species, Gamera can absorb energy from the outside environment and convert it into energy for himself, with special cells within his plate armor which are quasi-photosynthetic. Provided such energy, carbon dioxide from respiration, and water filtered from his environment, these cells can produce chemical energy capable of sustaining him even when food is scarce. One unusual property Gamera exhibits is that he can actually absorb and snuff out heat sources in this manner, which is why he is said to feed on fire; radiation and electricity are handled in the same way. Gamera's physiology is even resilient enough to draw strength from even chemical toxins such as pollutants and process them in a similar way, though through his oxygen-absorbing orifice linings instead of his armor.
• Primitive Mentality: The brain of Gamera's base species was not advanced evolutionarily, being wired primarily for perception of stimuli and instinctive responses. While the Atlanteans modified his kind to be more intelligent, he is still simple-minded enough that psionic attacks don't affect him as much as with kaiju with more developed nervous systems. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to control his mind to some extent, but the hardware is primitive enough that what to do after you've gotten that far is another matter entirely.

Special Abilities:

• Extremely Collapsible: Gamera's skeleton does not seem able to fit in his shell as a defensive maneuver the way some tortoises are capable of, and yet he can withdraw into it anyway. The cartilage joints and ligaments between his bones are extremely elastic and able to contort to a greater degree than most other creatures, so he can essentially fold himself up into an armored ball, but larger features like his flippers and tail are more of a challenge. Amazingly, however, these parts of him seem to shrink when he withdraws, and scans and readings of him upon doing so indicate that he has some degree of localized spatial manipulation which enables him to alter the size of his body parts at will. This is an enigmatic ability that requires a lot of further study, but the fact that almost no other kaiju possess it furthers the hypothesis that he is artificial or perhaps even magical in origin.
• Internal Plasma Generator: The most famous ability Gamera possesses is his production of plasma as a means of venting excess energy gained from his absorbing ability or generated by his great size. A special organ in his shell like a sort of organic water heater directs this energy into converting fluids obtained from his metabolism into plasma, which he then put to use in various ways. The plasma itself can reach temperatures of 8,000 degrees Kelvin and is highly volatile and therefore incredibly destructive, but is by design free of contamination from poisons or radiation, and leaves no lasting effect on the environment aside from the obvious issue of setting it on fire.
• Plasma Projection: The plasma stored within Gamera's shell can be transferred into his bloodstream and released through pores in the skin between his scales. This enables him to emit a superheated energy in a similar manner to Godzilla's nuclear discharge, burning enemies upon physical contact. He is also able to project the plasma outwards through his extremities, his teeth and claws especially, and surround them in red-hot burning energy for extra lethality.
• Shell Thrusters: Withdrawing his limbs into his shell allows Gamera to expose hidden blasters that open up just above and behind their bases. Connected to the plasma chamber by specialized channels, these are not unlike the siphons of mollusks but are far more reinforced by cartilage and are by necessity entirely heatproof - because their main role is to discharge plasma in a similar manner to a rocket propulsion system. When directed behind him this allows him to propel himself through the air at tremendous speeds, using his flippers to steer and keep himself balanced rather than actually fly. Needless to say, staying behind him while he jets across the sky in this manner is a terrible idea.
• Oral Plasma Blasts: A fifth channel runs from Gamera's plasma storage organ to the back of his throat, enabling him to spit explosive spheres of plasma with impressive speed and force. These energy bombs are affected by gravity but only just barely and can strike from incredible distances - and the further each blast travels, the stronger the explosion seems to get. This is his primary ranged attack and the best-known weapon in his arsenal.
• Whirling Fortress: The other most famous technique Gamera uses is to pull his limbs, tail, and head into his shell, and fire off all four of his thrusters as well as two more at the base of his neck and just behind his cloaca. By angling them in a specific manner, this enables him to start spinning like a discus and thanks to the shape of his shell and its plates being aerodynamic, he is able to whirl through the air like a flying saucer and tear through anything in his path. This is actually a slightly more economical usage of his plasma discharge, and is as such his preferred option for long-distance air travel.
• Energy Redirection: The most interesting property related to Gamera's energy absorption ability is that he is able to retain energy within him in ways that do not involve production of plasma. This seems to manifest in the form of control over a number of different types of energy to a limited degree. He is most familiar with thermal energy control but has also been known to manipulate gravitational, sonic, electrical, and even nuclear energy in various ways. The most frequent use of this is the augmentation of biological processes, such that Gamera can provide a temporary energy boost to other beings, actively heal the injuries of others, or convert enemy attacks directed at him into additional energy to keep himself from tiring in a prolonged fight - this has led to some claiming that he can control "life force" in a manner not unlike Mothra. Other manifestations of this strange ability include a personal gravity field that aids in flight despite his heavy bulk, boosting the physical effort he exerts to perform feats of acrobatics above and beyond what he should otherwise be capable of, and affecting objects he comes into contact with in ways that shouldn't be possible (such as using pieces of debris to bludgeon opponents far more times than they can handle without crumbling). Some accounts have even described him being able to reflect an enemy's energy attacks right back at them.
• Cryptobiosis: When confronted with environmental conditions ill-suited to survival such as immersion in lava, complete freezing, or being sent above the breathable limit of the atmosphere, Gamera exhibits an ability to go into biological stasis not unlike a mix of reptilian hibernation and the tun state of a tardigrade. Shrinking his entire body (including the inner organs within his torso) and withdrawing into his shell before sealing off all openings, he enters a state of torpor in which he recycles carbon dioxide back into oxygen and carbon inside his bloodstream and internally processes physical waste compounds into basic elements for re-use, essentially surviving indefinitely but remaining in stasis until he finds himself in a survivable environment. While virtually indestructible in this state, the only way he is able to revive is if a significant amount of energy such as an explosion is absorbed and turned into the energy needed to revitalize him. Gamera has been known to remain in this state for years at a time, and analysis has revealed that prior to his reawakening in 1965, he was trapped in this state in the Arctic ice for centuries or even millennia. Historians have speculated that this hibernation-like ability was the Atlanteans' doing, citing records that a true guardian beast would need to remain dormant for many ages until its services were needed, and return to stasis once the job was done.

Weaknesses:

• Piercing Damage: Gamera's armored shell can deflect all but the heaviest impacts, a must for anyone who gets tossed around and pummeled as much as he does, but the same cannot be said for puncturing attacks such as horns or beaks that are delivered with enough force behind them. The effect is even worse if such attacks hit a seam in his armor plates or the softer skin between his joints, but a direct hit to even the center of a plate is still enough to punch through it if the implement is hard enough. The curvature of his plates is specifically designed to make it easier for pointed weaponry to glance off of them, but his ventral armor is flatter and easier to bust through with enough aim. It also goes without saying that any attack that manages to enter his shell thrusters can easily damage them and render them temporarily useless.
• Slow And Unsteady: Heavy-bodied and ponderous, Gamera is not a nimble creature by any stretch. His body shape is adapted primarily for quadrupedal locomotion and when fighting bipedally he is rather unbalanced and prone to tipping over at inconvenient moments. He is capable of reaching impressive speeds in a straight line, but accelerating and changing direction are a different story.
• Think Of The Children!: Gamera is not called the Friend to All Children for nothing. Young and innocent beings of all kinds can guarantee his protection from any hostile being he takes notice of as long as they maintain a safe-enough distance to avoid being caught in the crossfire. This is however as much of a flaw as it is a virtue, because it makes it easy for an opponent to get him to start having second thoughts simply by holding juvenile beings hostage or threatening them if he tries to press any conflict with them. The loss of any life that has not reached adulthood is always a devastating blow to his psyche, especially if he was the one who accidentally brought harm upon them, and his reactions may range from inconsolable grief to an all-consuming fury towards whomever dared to hurt a poor kid in his presence. Even at his most enraged, however, he always tries to avoid hurting innocent lives if he can help it, which can leave him at a disadvantage due to his opponents often not needing to hold back for the sake of others and therefore having him entirely at their mercy.
• Adolescent Recklessness: Despite his size and power, Gamera's behavior makes it clear that he is not quite mature as a character, and is still finding his way in a world he might be just a little too big for. As such, he is prone to making short-sighted decisions and gestures of bravado in a bid to prove himself, especially when aiming to gain the respect of his elders and demonstrate that he deserves to stand alongside them. Unfortunately, this sense of entitlement has backfired on him more times than he can count, and while he is working to overcome this personal issue, Atlantis' creation is deeply embarrassed and disappointed to admit that he has never actually won his first encounter with any monster he's come into conflict with, and in almost all cases it was because he underestimated his opponent by taking their outward appearance and demeanor at face value and letting his dauntlessness as a so-called "student guardian" go straight to his head. This has resulted in the unfortunate placodont being blindsided by hidden advantages on the enemy's part or falling for strategies that more experienced fighters would have no trouble predicting or handling. Underestimating Gamera himself in the wake of such defeats has been many a foe's last mistake, however - the Guardian of the Universe is a deceptively fast learner, and a single opportunity to regroup and actually think things through is often all he needs to turn the tide.