They'd all heard the rumors, but nobody believed them. It was...hell, it had to be...impossible. But the news reports from that day couldn't be unseen, even if they felt more like the summer's biggest blockbuster movie than a factual retelling of the most important current event of our time.
TOKYO, JAPAN - One week earlier
"Minister Abe, the doctor has arrived."
The Prime Minister sat back in his desk chair, hands folded in his lap.
"Very well, send him in."
Abe's aide Ogata disappeared back out into the hallway. Moments later, Serizawa walked in. He was a young man, but he didn't look it. Not surprising, Abe thought. He'd always known the Dr as the type of man to get lost in his work. Lose himself, even.
"Serizawa, it's good to see you."
The doctor bowed low before taking his seat. He carried nothing with him, Abe noticed, but he seemed nervous. A thin, bony hand ran through a head of speckled black hair as the Dr met his gaze, his one good eye a bottomless pit from which Abe couldn't look away.
"I've found him."
"Yeah, but I mean how did it happen? Did they know he was there?" Parker sat atop the table, spitting pieces of his burrito across the table as he spoke.
"I don't know man...chew your damn food though!"
Matt dodged a piece of salsa flying from Parker's mouth. Parker looked at him sheepishly.
"Sorry man. I'm just saying...it's crazy. How did he know where to go?"
Matt shifted uneasily in his seat. It was a valid question, sure. But another had been troubling him even further. If it showed up once...what was stopping it from showing up again?
Raqqa, Syria - 2 days earlier
The city was quiet. You'd hardly know the most dangerous terror group in modern history called it home. A gentle breeze danced through bombed out buildings, across debris-ridden streets, and out into the vast emptiness of the desert. A group of militants at the city gates huddled around a fire were the only people stirring. Even terrorists had to sleep.
It was still early morning when the first rumblings started. At first nothing more than a quick shake. Easy to ignore in a country where bombs were landing all over the place every 5 minutes. The coalition airstrikes had numbed the inhabitants to the types of sounds quaking earth makes. By the time the premise of even a minor earthquake had been accepted, and roused some of the sleeping fighters from their dreams of global domination, it was already too late.
The desert heaved and lurched, then spit sand violently up into the night sky. A shadow emerged, taller than the nearest mountain, scouring the landscape with glowing, reptilian yellow eyes. Alarms were raised, weapons readied, rockets fired. All posed a mere nuisance to the hulking shade that had descended upon Raqqa. A city for those who sought to inspire fear became rife with terror and panic in mere moments.
Suddenly, a sound like the rip of an electric current pierced through the tumult of war. An eerie blue glow rippled along the ground, then up along the shadow's back, stopping atop a colossal skull. The beast's mouth dropped open, and energy burst forth. And Raqqa was bathed in pale blue light before descending into flames.
The only images the news networks had were blurry cell-phone videos. Matt had re-watched them a thousand times, and come to the same conclusion on each viewing. The size of the creature, the glow of the dorsal plates, the impact of the radioactive blast. Godzilla had risen from the ground in Syria and laid waste to the greatest modern threat to world peace in one deadly stroke.
TOKYO, JAPAN - one week later
Abe shifted uncomfortably at the podium. At his side, Ogata and Serizawa stood in silence.
"Emperor Akihito, members of the Cabinet. I'm here today to inform you that we've...lost track of Project G."
The shock in the chamber was palpable. Outraged politicians hurled insults at Abe. Ogata moved to take his boss's place at the podium, but Serizawa stepped in front of him first. The clamor in the chamber stopped at the sight of the eye-patched scientist standing in the Prime Minister's place. A lone voice rose from the crowd.
"How could you lose him? Where could he possibly have gone?"
Serizawa paused only for a moment.
"Gojira disappeared into the Mediterranean sea minutes after the attack. We could not manage to get a tracker on him before he fled. He could be anywhere."
More noise and discussion filled the chamber, before another voice inquired.
"Why was he there in the first place? Who's responsible? We want answers!"
The crowd roared again, before a raised hand from Serizawa ushered them into silence.
"I cannot say why he chose to appear there. All I know is that those men were a threat to us all, a threat to the order of the world itself. And nature..." the doctor paused to clear his throat..."has a way of restoring balance."
Serizawa left the podium, and then the chamber, without a word to Ogata or Abe. He had little time for speeches and politics. A titan from a bygone age was out there, somewhere, and he had to find him.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading my first post here on Writing Prompts! I of course own none of the IPs eluded to above, and this is purely a work of fan fiction.