The Devil with Three Heads

Doctor Shirazwa watched from the main bridge of the USS Bartholomew, his eyes glued to the large dorsal fins sticking out of the water. They stuck out like a shark fin, swaying in the waters of the South Pacific. Godzilla was hunting again, who knows what exactly. After the Battle of San Francisco, a lot of lips began to loosen, and even more doors began to open. There was at least a dozen or so researchers piecing together Godzilla's hunting patterns onboard. The working theory was that Godzilla's territory stretched the entire Pacific Ocean, if the King of the Monsters heard so much as peep from another Kaiju it would it seek it out to defend its territory. Or as Doctor Shirazawa put it, 'to restore balance in nature'.

As the good Doctor continued to observe Godzilla, Admiral William Stenz approached. The same Admiral who had accompanied Monarch when Godzilla and the MUTO's first landed. Clearly that incident had put some years on the Admiral. He starred at Godzilla along with Shirazawa for a moment or to before saying.

"You're going to have to tell me what Godzilla is doing, unlike you Doctor I'm not the most exactly the most 'in the know' about the Monsters." The Admiral asked with bated breath, "We have the entire East Coast of Australia in the process of evacuation just as a precaution."

"Gojira won't attack the Coast, he's heading towards Fraser Island…" Shirazawa answered, before digging into his pocket and taking out a packet of cigarettes alongside a lighter. He offered one to the Admiral who held his hand up in a friendly refusal.

"I understand Doctor, that you're more confident in Godzilla as…an ally of sorts, but Godzilla needs to be handled as a threat, just like the MUTO's." The Admiral replied, as Shirazawa lit his first cigarette.

As the doctor dug into his pockets again and pulled out a few classified documents incased within a yellow folder. The Admiral rolled his eyes, typical MONARCH agent, everything was classified. It was almost as bad as the CIA or NSA. Admiral William opened the folder and turned to the first page. It was a long-detailed report about a series of recent earthquakes in the area and reports of people seeing a large island moving along the shore. There were even some phots of what appeared to be a large rock with several large spikes.

"Another one of your MUTO's?" Admiral William asked closing the folder and handing it back to Shirazawa who continued to nurse his cigarette.

"Yes, the working theory is that this is a territorial creature. We don't have a working name for it yet, sightings are even raring since this creature can burrow itself underground…" Doctor Shirazawa said, flipping to a page in the folder with several large holes along the coast of Fraser Island. They were deep and thick.

"How do we know, its not just a series of earthquakes? Judging by the pictures I'd think you'd have me believe it's the Loch Ness Monster… It could be Godzilla is just heading south to try and get the Navy off his back." The Admiral replied.

Doctor Shirazawa turned to face the Admiral. That solemn knowing look in the doctor's eyes.

"Nature never makes a mistake. Gojira is hunting, what, I don't know…but we must maintain our vigilance." The Doctor said gravely, that something both men could agree on.

A few days later in the Antarctica Monarch Facility, things were a constant buzz in the research halls. Scientists from every field were clamoring for information on Monster Zero, studying skin samples and tossing around theories about this gargantuan creature. Though the Higher-ups at MONARCH attempted to discourage to much discussion on the beast, they were always paranoid. Viviane Graham did not seem to help the discussion much, put in all honest her hands were tied. Between maintaining good relations with the Russians and MONARCH's more curious members she could barely keep her head on straight. She would have found kinship with one Nick Tatopoulos, who like all the other biologists was hitting a roadblock in his research.

Nick, sat alone in the MONARCH facility cafeteria eating an MRE. It was late so most of the facility had already gone to sleep. But Nick could not seem to stop himself from researching 'The Devil' as the American staff affectionately called it. Nick rubbed his eyes as he peered over his notes, they seemed like scribes to the untrained eye. As Nick began to write down another possible theory about Monster Zero, footsteps approached. Nick turned to see it was Boris, the Russian Geneticist he had met the other day. His head was on a swivel and turned every which way.

"Hello there…Nick…" Boris said, trying not to sound suspicious.

"Hey Boris." Nick replied, as he leaned back in his chair, Boris sat next to him.

"So…any luck?" Boris asked, shifting in his seat trying to get comfortable.

Nick sighed, he showed Boris his research notes. "Look this thing isn't in the fossil records, hell Godzilla is in the fossil records if you go far enough back. The MUTO's are in the fossil record…'The Devil'? Not a trace, I got nothing…believe me I've tried everything." Nick said almost defeated.

Boris nodded. "If it makes you feel any better, neither do the boys in genetics…" Boris replied finally getting comfortable in his seat. "Apparently Ghidorah has about twenty times the genetic information as humans, it's a pain to sort through it all, we should have answer in about a decade or two."

"Twenty times?" Nick asked in astonishment. "What does that mean?"

"The working theory is that Ghidorah can lose a limb and grow it back if it absorbs enough energy…" Boris said.

"Ghidorah?" Nick asked perplexed.

"You call it 'The Devil', we call it Ghidorah, it's based on old Russian story about a Three-Headed Dragon. It's fitting isn't it?" Boris explained.

"Ghidorah, huh…well I guess it's no more ridiculous than Godzilla." Nick said as Boris shifted again his seat. "Are you alright Boris?"

Boris turned his head from side to side, making sure him and Nick where the only ones in the room. He then leaned in close to Nick.

"You promise not to say anything?" Boris asked, Nick nodded, the biologist was curious about why his associate seemed a bit off kilter this evening.

The geneticist looked around the vacant room one final time, before digging into his coat pocket to reveal a chipped dull golden scale. Nick starred at in amazement, MONARCH had never let him see a sample this closely. They usually had about seven or eight levels of security just to observe one skin sample from ten feet away. Boris set the scale out on the table, so both of them could get a good view of it. It was now Nick's turn to swivel his head to make sure nobody was around.

"We could get fired…no worse than fired, thrown into the deepest cell in the world, anyone finds out you stole a sample from Monster Zero." Nick whispered in a hush and frightened tone.

"…I know but…look here me out." Boris replied nervously in a equally quiet tone. "Look, MONARCH and my government are being a little paranoid, understandably after San Francisco. But, Ghidorah needs to be studied, for all we know it could hold untold secrets in its DNA…"

Nick frowned not liking where Boris was coming from in his reasoning.

"That may be true, but still MONARCH's gonna have to ease up eventually. I mean come on, Ghidorah's dead…nothing can survive being frozen for millions of years." Nick said trying to reassure himself.

"Nick are you really gonna wait for MONARCH, the Americans and my government to classify all the information about Ghidorah…besides this one might be frozen, dead as a doornail even. But whose to say there aren't more Ghidorah's?" Boris asked.

Nick practically swallowed his tongue at the thought. He could hardly imagine the idea of multiple Ghidorah's roaming around alongside Godzilla's and M.U.T.O.'s, it was a thought that sent shivers down his spine. Nick sighed then, he remembered the American Government's response after the Battle of San Francisco, rebuild and forget. It took Nicholas years of digging into the dark corners of the web just to find a damage report on San Francisco. As for the Monsters, every government in the world was working together in truth, but also putting up red tape everywhere they could. Paranoia and conspiracy theories became ever more common in public discourse, whether you where in D.C. or Beijing, Moscow or Tokyo. Everyone was on edge, and if a Ghidorah did pop up, Nicholas feared the response would be to just drop a nuke on the damn thing without thinking through the implications. Or as Doctor Shirazawa wanted, 'to let nature take its course'. Nick turned to Boris who starred at him stone faced.

"Do you know a quiet place we can examine this scale?" Nick asked, Boris nodded gently grabbing the scale and putting it back into his coat pocket.

On a crisp spring day on the evacuated Fraser Island, a coalition of American, Australian and British forces waited for Godzilla to make landfall. They were led by General Smith, the Australian general, after all the Australian's reasoned that it was there land and their decision on how to defend it. If there was more time the Americans probably would have pressed the issue, since Australia had not been in a formal conflict such as this for some time. About a hundred Combat Tanks riddled the shoreline of Fraser island, two hundred attack helicopters and armored vehicles would offer support. On the horizon line, plain as day, they saw the American Aircraft Carriers, approaching the shore alongside the spiny dorsal thin of Godzilla.

Godzilla dived for a moment, causing the water to reside beneath him, driving back the tides before emerging from the depths. Thankfully the allied forces where quiet far inland so the waves hardly affecting any of the units. The Allied Forces starred at Godzilla, it was like starring at a typhon or an erupting volcano, they were trained to face of the worst, but this was beyond. Godzilla stomped ashore shaking the very ground with each passing step. Each one like a miniature earthquake.

Doctor Shirazawa and Admiral William watched from the lead aircraft carrier. A captain approached Admiral William, they saluted one another.

"General Smith is about to encage, Orders?" The Captain asked, Admiral William was about to reply when the ground shock with a violent force.

All eyes returned to the King of the Monsters, who let out a low snarl. But Godzilla was not moving, instead it was something else. The Allied Forces along the coast tried to maintain balance, a few tanks fired their shells amidst the confusion. A few shots landed along Godzilla's chest, none of them hit the vulnerable gills. Godzilla ignored the rank and file of the allied army, instead he continued to lumber ashore. As the Allies were about to reassemble and restore unit cohesion, the ground shock more violently and even opened in the middle of tank block. Several tanks and soldiers fell into the massive gape caused by the hole. The ground continued to shake violently, it was hard to make out what was happening at the shore. General Smith ordered a retreat, as the ground continued to shake and swell, Godzilla did not move though. The monster was only digging his feet into the sand, an fearsome look across his battle scared face.

From the depths crawled out another Monster, a different one from the M.U.T.O.'s. A horned and angry looking monster appeared from beneath the grounds. It crawled out of the depths snarling and growling like a mad dog. The new monster snapped its long jaws at Godzilla in shear rage, the American Navy and Doctor Shirazawa got a good look at the new monster. It was a colossal quadrupedal dinosaur resembling an Ankylosaur. It was much bigger than that though, standing a little over half a size of Godzilla and in both height and length. This new monster sported a long tail, a carapace studded with sharp spines and horned on both its head and snout. This new monster roared with such ferocity it sent shivers down of the American Navy. The allied forces on the shore tried to score a few cheep shots on it in Godzilla, engaging both the monsters in a messy unorganized assault. The American Navy, was still awaiting orders.

"Admiral…umm…orders?" The Captain asked again, shaken up by the sight of the new monster.

"Engage the Monsters." The Admiral said solemnly.

The monsters generally seemed to ignore the humans and their measly weapons. Even as cannon shots and ballistic missiles rained around the two Monsters, they barely batted an eye. Godzilla and this new monster circled one another. They were sizing one another up, getting ready for fight. Shirazawa could was not an expert in animal behavior, but there was something about the way these Monsters moved. Almost like old enemies.