THE SCIENTIFIC BUILDING, ALTOONA

The building was large compared to the collage, with white concrete walls lining the outside. It wasn't the largest scientific building in the state, but it was decently sized. Martin remembered when it had begun to be built back in 2014 and had finished in 2017. It was all the hype then since it was advertised as a new, fancy building with state-of-the-art equipment.

Martin had only seen the building in passing, never the inside until now. He had to admit, it was clean with the distinct smell of cleanliness in the air.

Especially after he stepped off of the elevator on the fifth floor, a guest badge hanging from his neck. He eyed the name plaques on the wooden doors as he walked down the long hallway. He stopped when he got to the desired door, raising a hand and knocking. He waited for a moment until he had heard a 'come in' and opened the door, stepping inside and closing it behind him.

29-year-old Doctor Timothy Nesbit was sitting behind a wooden desk, shuffling a few papers around before glancing up at Martin. "You must be the one who's interviewing me, correct?"

Martin nodded. "Yes sir. Martin Brody, reporting for United World News."

"Then please, sit." Timothy nodded to the seat in front of the desk. Martin sat in the chair before taking out a pen and flipping his notebook to the correct page and readied himself.

"Alright, first thing's first; how did you get into the subject of your papers?"

"It was when I was still in university. I found a book that was published in sixty-two entitled 'The Creatures that Humanity Forgot' by Mark Rust in the library. It's about all sorts of creatures that are considered extinct like the Dodo. I sadly can't recall which chapter it was. What I can remember is that it had black and white pictures with an interview with an American man who was in Japan during the fifty-four Godzilla attacks. The man's name was Steve Martin if I remember correctly, and my interest in Godzilla had spiked ever since."

Martin wrote the answers down in his notebook, nodding as he did so before looking back up at the other. "What caused you to write your first paper? The one with the connection between Godzilla and the Operation Castle tests at the Marshall Islands?"

"It's the only thing that could have awakened such a beast. The timing was too perfect to think otherwise... as well as the fact that not everyone knows about this information."

Martin had to admit, that did make sense now that he really thought about it. He had personally known people who didn't even try to do their research in high school and just went with their personal theories.

"And what of your second paper? The one where you believe that there's a second Godzilla running around?"

"Five years ago, I was looking through some old newspaper clippings on some internet archive while using Godzilla as the keyword for the hell of it."

"And... what did you find?"

"A clipping that dated back to nineteen-eighty-four."

Martin paused in his writing and looked up at Timothy again with a perplexed expression on his face. "Why would there be a clipping from that year using the word Godzilla? I thought the talks about Godzilla died down in America in seventy-five– at least, that's what I remember when I was researching."

"I did so as well. It seemed to be true until that year."

"What did the clipping say exactly?"

Timothy paused to fix his glasses for a moment. "Apparently, four teenagers thought it would be a good idea to go to the Bikini Atoll. A captain of a ship that was passing close by noticed a half-sunken ship offshore and a wrecked motorboat on the beach. Reportedly, there were scorch marks everywhere. They found one of the teenagers hiding in some foliage, shaking and obviously in-shock. She didn't live long though, not with the acute radiation poisoning she had."

Martin's eyebrows rose up in alarm. "Radiation poisoning? How bad was it?"

"From what I researched and gathered; she looked like those who looked straight into Chernobyl's core." Timothy explained, making Martin stop writing all together to stare at the older man.

"How... How is that even possible? There couldn't have been that much left-over radiation from the tests during that year. Sure, there were probably still mid-to-lethal doses around but..." he trailed off as he thought deeply before his eyes suddenly widened. "Wait... you said scorch marks were there, right?"

"I did."

"You're not insinuating..."

"I am. When she was allowed to see the authorities back in the states, she explained why her group was on that island and that they were attacked by a large creature. She said that it had the most terrifying roar that she had ever heard. It sank their ship in a blinding flash of pink light before noticing the group. She managed to hide before her friends became no more in that same flash. When some went back to the islands... the radiation levels reported had risen, as if another atomic bomb was tested there."

"And you believe that this creature is a second Godzilla?"

Timothy nodded. "It makes the most sense. The first Godzilla leaked radiation and even weaponized it. The second one could be no different."

"So, do you think these two individuals were mutated by the same bombs?"

"I'm not sure, though with it being around the islands..."

"Do you think they could come from the same... group? Like, a family group?"

"I can't say in confidence as we will never know their social behavior."

Martin nodded in understanding. "Okay, so, I have another question. Why hasn't this Godzilla been seen before and after this incident?"

Timothy lifted a hand to stroke his short beard. "I'm not sure. Perhaps it had fallen into hibernation or... there's still radiation where it's currently resting. Like sunken nuclear submarines out in the oceans."

Martin stared for a long moment. "Wait, are you saying that they can feed off of radiation? How did you get this theory?"

"Even when the first Godzilla was still alive, its biology is still unknown to us. What we do know is that it would need to sustain itself on something and I don't believe feeding on animals would be enough. So, it would make the most sense that its source would be the one thing that mutated it. Godzilla was the first of its kind. The effects from the bomb had on the creature, besides the keloid scarring, is still not understood to this day."

Martin absorbed the information, clearly not expecting the direction of the conversation to go in, but he was intrigued. He glanced down at the page before moving onto his next question.

****

LAKE TAHOE, NEVADA, UNITED STATES

The stars twinkled in the night above the calm lake, the waves leisurely lapping at the shore as the moonlight shone on the surface of the water. On the southern shore, a 17-year-old boy was walking with a high-powered flashlight in hand that was lighting the immediate area in front of him. In his other hand was a leash that was attached to the collar of a German Shepard. It was a peaceful night for them with the sounds of wildlife and hardly any human chattering.

However, it didn't last for long as the dog's head suddenly snapped over to look out towards the middle of the lake, stopping in his tracks and forcing his owner to stop as well. The dog's hackles rose as he began to growl, ears forward, body tense and tail straight up.

"What's the matter, Ben? You see something out there?" the teen asked his companion. He swung his light up to point the beam out towards the water. He twisted the light's end, narrowing the beam and it illuminated what looked like to be a spike sticking out.

"I don't remember anyone putting something like that in the lake..."

The teen's eyes narrowed as he tried to figure things out before, to his surprise and horror, the spike started to move, revealing more of the spike as it rose until something brown breached the surface. Then, a large, green eye was staring at the duo, its pupil dilated from the light.

The teen let out a terrified scream before he ran, his dog following with his tail between his legs, yelping and whining.