Archive of Our Own

David Martin’s journal, translated from shorthand  

(Opening excerpt, dated 8-31-2024) 

My name is David Martin. 

I’ve decided to record my findings in this journal. It was a birthday gift from my daughter, Stacy. 

I haven’t seen her in months. When she graduated with her degree in medicine, and then her other degree in business, I was so proud of her. Then I found out that the people she’d left home to work with were up to some very shady things. The Titan DNA black market was part of it. 

I tried calling her, but she barely ever answered, and when she did, she made it brief so I couldn’t get a word in. She caught on quickly to what I was trying to do, trying to convince her to leave this thing she’s been sucked into and come back home. Her mother always said she could see through me. She wouldn’t hear of it. 

I'm not convinced Monarch are going to be of any help. They’re not going to listen to some single dad worried about his kid joining a big new corporation, especially since no-one pays much attention to Takashi Corp. And even if any of Monarch or the other authorities DID listen to me, Stacy could be arrested and her life flushed down the toilet. Some might say that’s her own fault, and they’re probably right. But I’m convinced that my kid made a mistake. I’m going to try and pull her back out from it, no matter what. 

This journal is a log of my mission. 

It sounds reckless; a one-man mission that could take me to multiple international territories. But I’ve been training hard for this. Physical fitness, survival skills, self-defence, hacking, how to get around in foreign countries. God forbid Stacy and by extension I go near any live Titans, but I’ve brushed up on my Titan profiles in case. That’s another reason why I’m using this written journal instead of digital logs, because some Titans with EMs can scramble up and damage that kind of stuff, whereas old-fashioned paper and ink isn’t so vulnerable. And I’ve still got old contacts in the academy. If I spare my funds in the bank, only use what I need to, I should be alright. 

I’m going to be heading to Mexico first. 

Stacy, I hope I can save you. 

(Entry dated 10-17-2025) 

My old buddy, who I’ll call Al here for the sake of DOUBLE-protecting his identity, contacted me in Seoul with big news. 

He’s found a lead on Stacy. It sounds like she’s meeting up with an international Titan DNA-trafficking gang called the Hyenas as a middleman, in coordinates that match up with Old Rio de Janeiro. 

Fuck, doesn’t she know how dangerous that is? 

Old Rio’s been overgrown and largely abandoned by humans since Titanus Behemoth trashed half of it in the Mass Awakening, and his biology terraformed what was left into new rainforest. Nowadays, it’s mostly just superfood farmers, both legal and illegal, that go to Old Rio. But even they’ve been pulling out for the last couple of months ago: another, more aggressive Titan, Abaddon, came and set up a small nest in Old Rio about two months ago, and Behemoth hasn’t retaliated since. According to Monarch’s public profiles, Abaddon is like a gigantic spider, and while she’s one of the King of the Monsters’ “subjects,” she’s not friendly to humans at all. It’s said that she can spawn spider monsters, it’s even theorised she might be like a cousin species, or a niece or aunt, to those bamboo spiders on Skull Island. 

There’s more. Al showed me cryptic messages from the Hyenas that he intercepted, and several words and phrases popped up alongside Rio’s name. “Vile Vortex,” “Godzilla.” Monarch keeps Godzilla’s exact and immediate location secret except in Titan emergencies, but the last time he was officially sighted was along the eastern coast of South America, nearly a year ago. And a Vile Vortex? I’ve never found any records of one near Old Rio, but I can believe there’s one somewhere near there. 

I’m booking a flight to Brazil, then I’m going to smuggle my way into Old Rio on the ground. It’s gonna be dangerous, but I can’t and won’t give up on my little girl. 

This is good. This is a better lead than I’ve ever had before. 

(Entries dated 10-21-2025) 

1

I arrived in old Rio from the west via Guaratiba, an hour after dusk. The route along the old Avenida Dom João VI road is less forested and will get me to the Hyenas in the South Zone faster, but it means cutting straight through Abaddon’s nest, which stretches from Barra de Guaratiba in the west all the way across the flat land between there and Pedra da Gávea. Abaddon isn’t the only thing I’ll have to worry about in there – her profile says she can spawn monsters that are like herself but smaller, en masse. 

I tried to get the better route into Old Rio through the North Zone, but I couldn’t get any smuggling routes in there that weren't even riskier or would get me to the South Zone in time to catch Stacy. It was a choice between wading through smuggler territory in the north with a high chance of being too late, or monster territory in the south with a better chance of arriving on time if I survive, so naturally I’m picking the latter. Killing dangerous animals like whatever Abaddon has spawned I can handle, but people are a different story. 

I’ll just have to risk it. 

This is roughly a 33-mile journey on foot, and that’s barring any detours I might have to make around structural collapses, Titan-rainforest overgrowth, giant webs or giant spiders straight out of Middle-earth. 

2

I’m moving deeper into the old city. The foliage is thicker in places, with trees that look a century old growing up from the ground. I can see the skyscrapers up close, some of them toppled and leaning on each-other, covered in green sheens with vines hanging between them. I think I can make out some shattered and carved-out building structures where Behemoth cut through here six years ago. 

All the buildings are still standing, and there are some belongings left behind. Livelihoods and homes with histories, some of them spanning whole family generations, abandoned, their residents relocated to who knows where. But there’s greenery everywhere. Trees that look decades old growing through the roads and out of a couple buildings that have burst, coats of vines crawling like seaweed on them. There are birds and lizards all around me. I think I even saw a couple panthers. And at night, the stars above are so clear here. 

I’ve been to many of the Old Cities before, but this never gets old. It makes you think. 

I’m passing through Ilha, just before I cross the southern mountains west of Abaddon’s place. 

<Stacy Martin, audio recording, 10-21-2025>  

I’m due to head out to meet with our potential buyers in Old Rio in 24 hours. Saito will be leading the negotiations, but I’ll be shadowing him, a chance to get more field experience, and of course we’ll be taking Saito’s security detail in case anything goes wrong with the type of people we’ll be meeting. 

I’m not worried about a double-cross. These Hyenas are vicious mercs, but they value money, and their reputation in the Titan DNA market is acceptable enough. The fact they aren’t conducting their operations near any human population centres wins them bonus points in my book, and I think the Takashi’s feels the same way. 

The company’s already acquired DNA from Skullcrawlers, Amhuluk and numerous Skull Island species, but Mr. Takashi wants Gojiran DNA too. He thinks it’s as vital as the other stuff. 

[Long pause. Sighs.] 

I have faith it’ll work. I hope it does. If this project works, the treatment could save so many lives... Dad, I know you don’t approve of the stuff I’m involved with. I can even see why you don’t. But one day, hopefully, you’ll understand. Maybe even be proud. 

<End recording>  

<G. Fresnadillo, audio recording, translated from Spanish, 10-20-2025>  

DNA extraction has been pushed back at least 12 hours, probably more. Extraction teams were deployed into Abaddon’s den to collect the DNA from her and her offspring. We seized a couple of those Plague Weavers, brought them home, got some goodies out of them. But when we went back for more, their mother and the other beasties started swarming our team. Nearly a third of my men didn’t make it. 

Per Johnson’s suggestion, we’re moving our temporary base of operations further north, closer to where we’re supposed to have the exchange tomorrow. I’ve had to push back activating the Orca Sigma. 

[Pause. Soft clattering.] 

We don’t have ANY of what we promised our clients by tomorrow. Hyenas do not go back on their word. Getting our goods packaged to those rich Japs will be a rush job. Still... I’ve always worked fine under pressure. 

<End recording>  

David Martin’s journal, translated from shorthand  

(Entries dated 10-22-2025) 

1  

I've just crossed into Recreio dos Bandeirantes. This is where Abaddon’s and her monsters’ neck of the woods begins. 

The abandoned buildings here are different, and not just because of the natural backdrop, with the islands and the mountains in the east. There’s rainforest growing through the old city here too, but there’s also this pale-grey webbing. Makes me think of those cheap black-and-white sci-fi flicks. 

I feel like I’m a fly in a spider’s web. It gives me the creeps. 

2  

It’s like a half-urban jungle, half-jungle jungle version of Shelob’s lair in Lord of the Rings . Right down to the atmosphere. There are sheets of chrome webbing coating abandoned buildings and blocking off some streets and alleyways, while is slowing down my progress. There are dead animals hanging in some of the webs, and there are spiders which look too large to be normal. Though none of the latter are moving, much less attacking me., yet. Maybe I’m not interesting enough. 

Abaddon’s official profile says she’s been moving more than once since she woke in 2019, but she can stay still in an area for years at a time, almost asleep. Hopefully she won’t notice my presence. 

3  

I was going through a half-webbed, half-forestry alleyway, when one of the spiders came down from a web-covered tree in there. I think it was a Plague Weaver. Ugly-ass bloated abdomen, sickly-green colour, and it was half the size of me. 

As soon as it had its legs on the ground, it just charged me and jumped, without hesitation. I managed to get it with the fire axe. It made a weird odour when I hacked it open. Thankfully, these things go down easily. 

I’m telling myself it’s just a coincidence that I heard something HUGE hissing like some massive snake, somewhere out of sight behind the skyscrapers and the jungle, right after I killed that thing. 

4  

I think I saw Abaddon. I thought I saw a black shape with multiple legs shrinking behind a skyscraper earlier. And that sound... it was like clicking, but deep. Echoic. Sounded and felt as big as the hiss I could feel it in my bones. 

I’d better be careful where I tread with all these webs. Spiders can sense vibrations through their webs, it’s how they close in on their catches. 

5  

I was passing just north of what used to be the Barra da Tijuca centre, when I saw these people - a man and a woman - slouching in a lane. I crouched low. The guy was wearing camos and a woolly hat, and the woman looked like the far-out-in-the-field scientist type. Looked like the Hyenas’ type. I wanted to see if I could hear them say anything that could help me get to Stacy, maybe even find out if they have a working car nearby that I could consider hijacking. 

They didn’t say anything at all, and then they sort of staggered away. Their gaits were weird and awkward, and their heads were lolling weird. They didn’t seem afraid of the Plague Weavers that keep harassing me. Weren’t even armed. 

I don’t know what to make of it. Maybe they were poisoned? Something which affects the nerves? But if that’s so, why haven’t any of these spiders eaten them already? 

6  

Found a couple fresh jeeps – not matted with plant matter and corroded by six years exposed to the elements. Definitely new here. They’re useless, though. Banged up pretty bad. The keys are still in the ignition, but I couldn’t start either of them when I tried. 

There’s blood on one of the jeeps’ doors, and more of it in the grass and ferns on the ground. I’m not keen on trying to follow those blood trails in case I find whatever got these people. 

I looked inside the jeeps for any new weapons but found none. 

7  

I don’t know where to begin. 

I heard that big thing clicking again. A block away from where I saw those two, shambling people, I’d just cut up another Plague Weaver which tried to ambush me from the trees, and then those two people came back. They were shamble-running towards me with those weird, awkward gaits. I tried to warn them off with the axe, but they didn’t notice in the slightest. I had nowhere to go except backwards, with all the jungle and the webbing limiting my directions. So I swung at the woman when she came close, and... she barely bled red at all. But something inside her bled SOMETHING, and it was screaming through her ribcage. Next thing I knew, I was hacking again and again on automatic, almost like I was trying to crack open a pinata. This GIANT SPIDER CLIMBED OUT OF HER. I SAW ITS BLACK LEGS COMING OUT OF HER BODY FIRST. 

I took a swing at the guy. Same as with the scientist woman, but when the spider came out of HIM, I kept hacking before it could get away like the first one did. 

I never read ANYTHING ABOUT THIS when I researched Abaddon. 

The two dead people, I checked their IDs. I think they definitely are were Hyenas. The woman was Dr. Omisha Bhat, a biologist who hired out to them from the looks of it, and the guy was Enrique Salamanca. 

8  

Abaddon’s definitely out there. 

I was going through an abandoned hotel, and I remember hearing this... THING moving outside. It sounded the size of a skyscraper. I didn’t dare move past a hole in the external wall for ages, because I could hear the clicking again, closer than ever before. I swear it was just outside the hole, looking for me. 

A few minutes later, I accidentally hit this column of webbing inside the corridor – I don’t know how it was inside such a small building’s intact corridor, with how big Abaddon is; maybe some of the smaller ones set it up in here – and then the wall ahead of me EXPLODED inward. I ran out of sight, but I remember the CLICKING coming from right outside that hole. Loud, urgent. It disappeared again after a few minutes – thank God it doesn’t seem to be in a patient mood. 

9  

ABADDON CAME. 

SHE FUCKING CHASED ME THROUGH A FUCKING BUILDING. 

I thought I was looking at a giant skull at first, but that’s just her back. Then I saw her real face. Those eight dead-looking eyes, those FUCKING FANGS DROOLING. 

I ran and ran. I could hear her collapsing the whole building behind me. I could hear her HISSING. 

I think she almost got me when a Plague Weaver sneak-attacked me at the same time her head was bulldozing the building behind me. Don’t know for sure, I didn’t dare look back to check. 

And her LEGS, like spears the size of a truck and with the speed of one, stabbing through corridors at me where they broke in. 

Even when I think I lost her, I could still hear her moving around outside, her loud CLICKING. Looking around for me. I think she’s still back there, looking, after I slipped out of the building back into the streets and the jungle. 

FUCK. I feel like I need to raid an abandoned bar, see if they’ve got anything that’s still good to drink. The main reason I don’t is because I don’t want them to get the drop on me if the poison dulls my instincts. 

I thank any and all deities listening that I didn’t run into a dead end in that building. 

10  

I’ve crossed the eastern road tunnel under Pedra da Gávea to the other side. There's not a single web over here. I can see mountains and a couple abandoned buildings through the trees, I can see the outline of Christ the Redeemer on top of Corcovado with his arms spread, but no webs. The air tastes so relieving. 

I feel like it's been a month since I last saw a place without any webs. 

11  

I saw a man near the lake in Leblon, outside an old gas station. Carrying a gun, dressed like the guy the spider came out of, real merc type. Hyena. 

I tried to sneak around, but he saw me in the foliage, and he started shooting. 

I worked around to him, got behind him. 

He didn’t call anyone over his radio before I got him in a headlock. Maybe he thought he could take care of me by himself? 

Christ the Redeemer high above saw me kill him. 

It was self-defence. 

I’ve hit the man’s body in case his friends came snooping when he doesn't call back in. I even took his ID just in case. I tried his jeep, but when he shot me, his bullets hit it, and it isn’t starting. Typical. 

I’ve also gotten his radio. I’m getting lots of chatter over it, but no mentions of anything that sounds like me. 

12  

I can keep up with what the Hyenas are doing since I’ve got this radio. It sounds like they've lost a lot of their people to Abaddon and those monsters back there, and it’s pushed their plans back. 

It sounds like they want to harvest Titan DNA in this place. 

They’re panicking. But their buyers are still arriving in just a few hours. Stacy.  

From what they've said over the radio, it sounds like they want to trigger some kind of Titan convergence here in Old Rio. Better to harvest more DNA they can sell, I guess. But how are they going to do this, and who’s the other Titan or Titans besides Abaddon? Behemoth? 

God forbid they're trying to bring things out of that Vile Vortex if they know where it is. 

13  

The radio just mentioned Godzilla and “the other one.” Sounds like Godzilla himself is near, and half-asleep. Maybe in Guanabara Bay or further off the coast? And what the hell is this “other one” in the water? That doesn’t sound like Abaddon. 

14  

I don't know where to begin…

Over the radio, some Spanish-sounding man called Fresnadillo – their leader(?) - gave a clear order for his men to be on alert to “harvest,” because he’s activating something called the Orca Sigma. That name sounds troubling, remembering the Mass Awakening, and what Apex did last year. 

Not two minutes later, the sea on my right pulled out a bit, like the water was being displaced. I ran for higher ground in case a tsunami started. 

Then I saw what was coming out of the sea. 

Godzilla. 

He looks different from how all the footage made him look. Shorter too. 

Godzilla came ashore, and I could FEEL his footsteps vibrating into my bones. He was looking around, angrily I thought. Then he looked right towards where I was standing in all that jungle and ruined concrete. I swear I could FEEL his gaze on me. 

Then he charged at me. 

I was running on instinct. He clotheslined a vine-overgrown skyscraper on top of me. I almost got crushed. Then, while I was still in the shadow of a TOPPLED FRIGGING SKYSCRAPER, he turned away and went into Old Rio. Roaring. 

I think he lost sight of me after dropping that building on me. I think he’s looking for something in Old Rio. The Orca Sigma? 

After that, I heard that clicking sound from the west. I saw Abaddon cresting the mountains from the West Zone, like those mountains were just a hill outside her house to her. I lost track of where she went between the skyscrapers. 

FUCK

NOBODY NEEDS THIS. 

15  

I can hear Abaddon and Godzilla roaring in the ruins. Even Godzilla’s roar sounds a bit off, compared to all the footage and recordings I’ve seen. Has he changed, like when his dorsal plates regrew with a new shape and he gained some more mass after 2014? 

I pray that neither of those two Titans notice me again. 

New chatter on the radio. They were a lot more frantic now. It sounds like more of the spiders followed Abaddon over the mountains, and they’re giving the Hyenas more trouble than they were bargaining on. 

Wonderful.  

If the Hyenas had done what they’re doing in an inhabited city instead of an old ruin... 

Maybe this choice of location was deliberate. Not every Titan-invested organisation wants to wipe out humanity or stage a monster fight for glory, some just want to make a quick buck using these things’ DNA and not attract TOO MUCH heat by getting a city massacred via Titan. 

<Audio recording, exchange with Takashi Corp, translated from Japanese, 10-22-2025>  

[Light clattering.] 

Saito: Do you have the product? 

Fresnadillo: Most of it. The Gojiran and Abaddon samples will be here shortly. 

Saito: That wasn’t part of our deal. 

Johnson: The deal was updated. 

[Clacking. Pause.] 

Fresnadillo: Be calm. Let’s all relax. Hyenas don’t betray a deal, and Hyenas aren’t snitches. We just have an unexpected delay in transit. You know what Titans are like. You will be having at least two Titans including Godzilla’s DNA from us. You won’t get many better offers. If this does not satisfy you, we have better options. 

Saito: Perhaps. 

Fresnadillo: Would you like some coffee and cards while we wait? 

Saito: I’m not here for either. 

[Long pause. Footsteps approaching.] 

Fresnadillo: Hm? (Long pause. Switches to Spanish.) Fuck! How many have followed her over the mountain? (Pause.) Pull our men out ONLY when someone radios in that they have something, and not a minute before. 

[Distant tremors.] 

Saito: What is that? 

Fresnadillo: (Japanese) Titans. Abaddon is a skittish one. Your product will be ready in the hour. But I can’t say that it’s safe here any longer. Abaddon’s children have followed her over the mountains and are spreading out, and I assure you; they’re aggressive little blighters when they swarm. I can arrange delivering the goods in the North Zone- 

Saito: We’ll pay you once we see your alleged product in person, in the North Zone, in one hour, with transport to carry them. I trust you can provide us an exact location for our chopper to land? 

[Long pause.] 

Fresnadillo: (Tense.) Yes. 

Saito: Then we will see you there, and I trust you won’t let us down again. 

<End recording>  

David Martin’s journal, translated from shorthand:  

16  

I need to write this quickly. 

I was in a square, and I’d seen glimpses of Abaddon, behind the skyscrapers above the trees again, when the Hyenas said over the radio the area was getting too hot near their base, and they were moving further north along with their buyers to make the exchange. 

I nearly collapsed – I was SO CLOSE. I thought I'd lost her again. I could never catch up to jeeps on foot. 

Then I saw Abaddon’s legs and her FACE again. Looking right at me, out in the open. I ran, and her legs were stabbing all around me, churning up plants, soil and dust. Then what I still thought was Godzilla charged her and pushed her back. 

A couple minutes later, some Hyenas rolled up in a jeep and saw me. They think I’m one of them. Saw how I’m dressed, how dirty I am (like them), and one of their IDs that I stole hanging on my belt. They called me into their jeep, and we’re driving north to their “new base.” I MIGHT CATCH STACY AFTER ALL. 

The jeep nearly ran over more spiders in its path. I was lucky not to see them again before they picked me up. 

I looked back behind us as the jeep was rolling north. I saw Abaddon and “Godzilla” fighting. Then I saw a SECOND GODZILLA wading up out of the sea towards shore, headfirst. He was BIGGER than the first one, looked closer to the footage I’d seen. 

Then it all made sense. That first Godzilla isn’t GODZILLA: the second one is. The only thing I can think of the first one being is LADON, the Apex specimen that escaped into the sea from Hong Kong. 

I’m not saying anything about it around these mercs that might give away that I don't know what they’re supposed to all know. 

He had been born beset by hostiles, little things which crawled over and hurt Him and kept Him cramped in the dark. He had fled from hostiles in the water, had fled from another who felt like Himself but bigger, chasing Him through the waters, trying to call Him in. Danger .  

Gojira , He instinctively knew the other one’s name. He had fled and fled and eluded that one, soon discovering that evading was an effective way to avoid death by the hostiles He shared the water and air of the world with. He’d shaken Gojira and the others – the small ones with their metal contraptions and the bigger ones closer to Him and Gojira in size, the fiery one who’d come to that island - off several times that way, and He’d thought He could give Gojira the slip for even longer when He’d hid Himself near an underwater hole in the world. Let Gojira pass by, fail to find him, assume he’d gone into the hole to the world’s insides and try to chase Him in, and He could move on. But Gojira hadn’t gone into the hole. Gojira had stopped and waited near the hole. Near enough that Gojira would know as soon as He moved. So, He had remained hiding and waiting. He had drifted into a light sleep waiting for Gojira to get tired and move again. 

Now a noise woke Him up. A terrible noise, a compelling noise which stank of the little ones’ machinery, demanding that He answer - like the calls He’d heard from the other, very bad, large one that He’d never seen but always heard in the dark pit where He was born, the one that had killed the slightly-large serpents. The noise had woken Him up, and He heard Gojira waking up behind Him. So Gojira had fallen asleep waiting for Him too. Not good, bad, because Gojira was still there, danger was still there. He fled onto nearby shore, where the noise was coming from. There was half-clay, half-plant forestry on this shore, like the little ones’ hives on the place He’d briefly seen when He fled from the pit to the sea. 

Gojira was closing in through the water behind Him, the land in front of Him was walled by small mountains, the noise like the very bad thing from the pit was in here somewhere, and coming over the mountains into the was another of the large ones, with many legs. For the first time in His short, fresh new life so far, He couldn’t evade easily. The many-legged one called out to Him, warning Him to back off, that this was her domain and she had done nothing to provoke. He didn’t like that. Aggressive, threat, danger . Need to kill and evade before she kills me.  

He charged straight towards where her voice had come from, manoeuvring His way inbetween the half-trees, half-little one hive cairns, His bulk knocking a few loose as He crawled on all fours for increased speed on the land. He saw the many-legged one’s bloated, grey mass, mistook the top of her body for a vast, skull-like face before seeing her smaller head in front of that, her long and thin legs, her fragile-looking fanged jaws opening in an aggressive hiss at something she was stabbing her legs at on the ground. He ran towards her and shoved her backwards, driving her through crumbling abandoned-hive jungle. If He couldn’t evade, He would use force until He could escape. She got back on her eight legs faster than He expected, and she hissed shock and outrage at Him. He charged again and collided with the eight-legged large one with a clap of noise, driving her further backwards through crumbling abandoned-hive jungle as the eight-legged one hissed so near His head. Snarling at last where He hadn’t used His voice before, He tried to shove her with His clawed forearms. She, who was nearly twice His size, was suddenly manoeuvring around and crawling atop Him, her many spindly legs flicking as she moved fast. He was astonished. How could something so big move so much faster than Him? Then He felt searing pain stab, stab and stab into Him again, around His plate-protected back, around His softer scales on the side, and He roared His pain and His anger at being hurt. Make it stop! Snarling and barking, He snapped His head fast, trying to bite and get a grasp on the many-legged thing that was half-crawling on and stabbing Him. Her legs were moving so fast! But He eventually got a hold of one and crunched hard. The many-legged one screamed, and He tasted her blood on his tongue. He crunched His jaws, trying to do more damage to her leg. 

The eight-legged one’s other legs stabbed Him more frantically, now stabbing more around His neck. He felt like fire was being burned inside His gills again as her legs stabbed and struck Him there, and it only registered after He’d screamed that screaming had cost Him His biting grip on her leg. He stomped His feet through the greenery as He circled, trying to throw her off or maybe slap her off with His tail, and she retracted from Him. The eight-legged one only withdrew a short distance from Him, eight eyes on her smaller, true head glaring, spindly legs tucked to form narrow, pointed arches, a display which screamed threat in His mind. He registered other, much tinier sounds, squeaks of tiny things below Him dying under His footfalls, but He didn’t care for them. Not the same kinds of little things that had once imprisoned Him and had probably built hives like the one outside His pit and the one which greenery in this place had overgrown – other tiny things, more like the eight-legged one. The many-legged one hissed terribly. 

MURDERER-KILLER OF MY KIN!   

She wasn’t on Him anymore, and evading was always best. He had an opening to the mountains and whatever lay beyond, He could escape her and the one in the water if He wanted. But fighting felt so good ... 

Something shot out of the eight-legged one – it was thick and sticky when it hit His blunt snout, and His jaws wouldn’t move. More of it hit and stuck to His forearms, half-gluing one to His chest. Two thick lines of the stuff now connected those parts of His body to her, and she crawled backwards away from Him, fast – which pulled Him forward with a sharp tug, and He crashed to the ground. His head crushed one corner of a low, rectangular stone structure among the jungle, a rectangular puddle of green water at the bottom corner of His vision. The eight-legged one closed back in, and terror warred with the fight-lust in Him as He saw her front pair of legs rear high in the sky above her while she hissed in rage. He pushed His stick-free legs on the ground, lunging into her exposed underside. That pushed her back and made her cry out as He pushed her with His own weight – she felt so light despite being bigger than Him. It only staggered her for a moment, before those stupid eight legs let her angle and crawl around His reach, on top of Him again. The sticky stuff she’d struck Him with was peeling under His strength, He already had one clawed forearm free and could scratch the stuff trapping His snout shut. But it wasn’t quick enough. The eight-legged one screamed and stabbed her legs again, striking His sides and shoulders a couple times to make them sting, but most of the strikes hit gills. He screamed, but He couldn’t scream clearly through the stuff shutting His jaws. Hurts, hurts, hurts. ANGRY!  

The anger made the stuff around His snout come apart faster, while He pushed His heavy legs on the ground and lifted His tail, trying to unbalance her. The eight-legged one was still atop Him, stabbing. He felt hot, wet blood oozing out of His scales, a keen whine escaping Him for the first time since He’d fled the dark pit where the little ones had kept Him. He tried throwing Himself on His side, into the jungle-and-cairn landscape, hoping to crush at least some of her under Him. But the many-legged one with her light weight angled her body and all her legs away from being crushed between His side and the ground. How was she so fast and so good if He was stronger and heavier?! 

More blood was flowing out of Him now. She stabbed Him more, her hideous face so close to His as she hissed her hot breath. He groaned in pain as she kept stabbing and she bit down into His neck – a death blow , His mind knew bites to a wounded neck would be. He screamed, hoping to- 

ENOUGH!  

The other voice bellowed furiously from by where the water had been. Gojira’s voice. Gojira had closed in. Would Gojira chase the eight-legged one off Him so that Gojira could kill Him instead? 

The eight-legged one had retracted her jaws from His neck to stare at where Gojira was stomping forth, her legs no longer stabbing Him either, but she still didn’t crawl off of Him either, all her eight legs were planted atop His hide. Gojira growled again, soft and calm, yet it still sounded dangerous to Him. Gojira’s lip curled slightly. 

BACK OFF OF HIM.  

The eight-legged one hissed a furious sound in protest. 

This attacked me AFTER I made it clear I sought no quarrel with him, and he crushed and slaughtered my young while attacking me!  

Her hissing screech turned to an odd fury, one not just for herself but for others-that-weren't-a-part-of-herself. He didn’t know how to place it. 

I have my right to defend myself and mine!  

While they were talking, He was working His remaining forelimb free, though He was too paralysed under the eight-legged one to move. 

He isn’t the only one, Great King! Those little, skinny ones you always go soft on took my young and cut them open before I defended mine! And now they use stolen voices to lead and deceive us! Where is the respect of rights?!  

Gojira growled a growl that reverberated in His bones, and He stared in awe as Gojira’s dorsal spines - the shorter ones on Gojira's tail and neck that were closer to His in size, and also the massive, strangely jagged and curvy ones on most of Gojira’s back – flared with a brilliant light, as did the air around Gojira. Intimidating . Not just to the eight-legged one – He found Himself paralysed as any notion of using His bulk to try and flee while the eight-legged one was off-guard and Gojira was focused on her seemed hopeless. He would die here. He could closely hear the many-legged one hissing, more fearfully, above Him at Gojira’s display. Gojira roared a bit louder. 

THE WHELP IS MINE. HE DOES NOT KNOW OUR WAYS YET. I WILL TEACH HIM AND DISCIPLINE HIM AS I SEE FIT. HE WILL NOT BOTHER YOU AGAIN, OR HE WILL ANSWER TO ME. UNLESS YOU WOULD CHALLENGE ME?  

The eight-legged one hissed, saliva dripping onto Him and stinging the wet wounds she’d given Him further, as she glared at Gojira. 

I seek no quarrel with you, Great King. Have your sling. Have your way. It is YOUR way, not OURS. I and my kin will still be in the world when YOU have long turned to bones without my challenge.  

He was expecting Gojira to snarl at that, maybe glow brighter, almost certainly attack. That Gojira instead did nothing but glare while the eight-legged one climbed off Him confused Him. She crawled away on her spindly-legs with a hateful sound, her bloated, many-holed rear facing them as she disappeared between and among the half-jungle, back towards the mountains. Again, He considered fleeing, even charging at Gojira in the hopes He could maybe fight Gojira off since Gojira was probably heavy like Him, unlike that eight-legged one. Those thoughts died when He felt Gojira’s breath and his air getting closer, heard and felt Gojira’s footsteps through the earth, making the jungle’s leaves tremble around His head. He froze, a last-ditch effort at self-preservation, thought again about fleeing. 

Gojira’s nostrils flared, taking in His scent, and He, half-glued by the many-legged one's sticky stuff on the ground, dared to crane His head to look at the larger one like Him that was towering over Him. He didn’t know what to make of the way Gojira was looking down at Him. The look was strange – almost as if Gojira could see something far further away than Him by looking at Him, through the ground angularly behind Him. Gojira’s sharp, ridged brows furrowed suddenly, as if annoyed by that thought in himself. A crocodilian growl rumbled out from Gojira, which He instinctively recognised. A greeting. 

He didn’t understand. Gojira had pursued Him relentlessly. First to that island, where one of the less large things that had been killed in the pit had also fled, and a fiery flying thing had accompanied Gojira there, before He had fled ahead of them back into the sea. Gojira had chased Him to many more islands and coasts, always trying to call Him in, and finally to the underwater hole in the world which led below, where He had tried to give Gojira the slip with a stupid idea to hide Himself and trick Gojira into going down the hole. So why wasn’t Gojira trying to hurt Him yet? 

Could it be... Gojira’s calls to Him weren’t a predator trying to lure Him in as prey with false sweetness? No, that didn’t make sense. Every other thing He shared the world with that lived, breathed and talked like Him was hostile, treated Him bad. 

While He was puzzling, Gojira’s eyes had moved downward to the sticky stuff that was still trapping His other arm close to His chest. Gojira’s eyes trailed back up to meet His gaze again, but he didn’t say anything – Gojira looked expectant. Slowly, after what seemed like ages of complete confusion waiting for teeth and claws at His bleeding neck, He tried something. Shifting His muscles, He fought against the sticky stuff, tearing it until both his forearms were free and He stood on all fours. Gojira, the towering, larger one; rumbled softly to Him. 

COME.  

Bafflingly, Gojira began revolving on his feet as he turned back towards the sea from where they’d come ashore, Gojira’s tail slowly flicking as he did so. He considered once again fleeing on all fours on land, trying to escape. But something in Gojira’s presence was overpowering, commanding Him to listen, to... What was this? Respect ? 

Where are we going?  

TO BEGIN YOUR EDUCATION.  

He still didn’t think that this baffling non-conflict would last, that Gojira would continue to refrain from attacking Him forever. Sooner or later, Gojira would attack Him as every other eventually did – but Gojira wasn’t doing that yet. So, standing upright on His hind legs, to a height which didn’t even come up to Gojira’s forelimbs, He the smaller one watched Gojira stride his legs back into the sea, before He began following behind Gojira’s tail, His fate entirely in the claws and teeth of the larger one like Him. 

David Martin’s journal, translated from shorthand:  

17  

I’m in their base. Their new base up north. 

Everyone's frantic, in disarray. But no-one seems to realise I don’t belong. I’m asking around now about where the buyers are. The exchange between the Takashi Corp team and their leader is due to take place in about 35 minutes, and they’re pepping the stuff Takashi Corp are buying off them for transport. 

I just need to keep my head down and hope no-one notices me, then move in. 

I’m almost there. 

<Stacy Martin, audio recording, 10-22-2025>  

[Faint voices shouting, helicopter blades distantly whirring and engines growling are audible in the background.] 

The Hyenas’ extraction methods were more unorthodox than Saito and I were expecting. Though they already had DNA from some smaller arachnid superspecies ready to go, they were holding back on harvesting the Gojiran and Titanus Abaddon DNA they promised us until the last, supposedly because of complications with the creatures. Their plan was to lure Godzilla and Ladon ashore and into a fight with Abaddon so they could harvest the shed biological material from the fight, but they only executed it at the last minute before Saito and I initially arrived over an hour ago. I don’t know what these idiots’ clusterfuck reasonings for waiting so long are, and I don’t care. Abaddon’s children are swarming north straight towards this place, and you don’t need a degree in business to see from these mercs’ faces that they weren’t expecting to lose control like this. 

I’m disappointed in these fuckers’ poor performance. (Sighs.) Whatever. Gojiran DNA is too hard to acquire with how hard Monarch and international agencies have clamped down on the DNA market these last few years, so dealing with this bullshit was worth finally acquiring the stuff. The deal’s been struck, an hour late, the Titan goods are on the company’s cargo chopper, and I’ll be very happy to leave with Saito and the others in two minutes. Project Bi- 

David: Stacy. 

Stacy: (Pause.) Dad? (Pause.) How are you here? No. No, no, no, no, no, this is all wrong. You can’t be here! 

[Sharp footsteps approaching and clothes rustling.] 

Stacy: Dad. If you’re not with the Hyenas and they find you out, and if you’re not with the company either, then I won't be able to fucking protect you! 

David: I’m not leaving without YOU, pumpkin. 

[Voices grow slightly more distant.] 

Stacy: For fuck's sake, there isn’t time! 

David: Isn’t time? Isn’t time?! YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT THERE ISN'T TIME! 

Stacy: Dad- 

David: Walking out on everything and everyone who ever cared about you – on your friends, your family, your future with a degree – all to be what? Some corporate criminal working with criminals? Helping Takashi Corp to play God with people’s lives again, just like when that same company caused those Zmeyevich births, back when they were still called Bio-Major, as you well know?! IF YOUR MOTHER COULD SEE WHAT YOU'VE CHOSEN TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE, SHE WOULD BE HEARTBROKEN! 

Stacy: I’M DOING THIS FOR MUM! THE TAKASHI’S AREN’T THE OLD BIO-MAJOR! The Takashi’s did away with all of Bio-Major's old directors when they acquired the company and rebranded it! And believe me, money is not why the Takashi’s doing any of this! They’re trying to save people from dying like Mum did! (Strained.) Do you... Do you remember what she was like in those last days, Dad? I do. I remember what it did to her. 

[Pause.] 

David: Stacy, we can talk about this once we’re a hundred miles away from these creeps. We can hide in the city; I’ve got a friend who’s going to airlift us when I- 

[Sudden shuffling.] 

Stacy: No! I’m not going with you, Dad! I’m not giving up on this! On Mum! 

David: Stacy Martin, this- 

[Sounds of gunfire cut David of. Background noise increases in crescendo.] 

Unknown (1): They’re here! 

Unknown (2): Contact! CONTACT! 

[Screaming and high-pitched vocalisations matching Araneae Pestilentiae (Plague Weavers). Background gunfire continues.] 

Unknown (3): THEY’RE COMING! 

David: Shit! We’re leaving. Now!  

Unknown (4): How did they get in so fast?! 

[Araneae Pestilentiae vocalisations grow louder. Agonised wailing from unidentified voice.] 

Unknown (5): Oh, fuck, they got Watts! 

[Gunfire increases, multiple voices including David and Stacy Martin’s yelling indistinctly. Audio tearing. Loud boom akin to an explosion or heavy artillery. Panicked yelling.] 

David: STACY! (Indistinct.) No. Oh God, oh God, oh God... (Indistinct.) ...LP MY BABY GIRL! 

[Gunfire, yells and Araneae Pestilentiae screeching continues.] 

<End recording>  

<D. Saito, encrypted private email, translated to English >  

From: dsaito@████████████ 

To: takashih@████████████ 

Via:   (1) [DATA REDACTED] 

        (2) [DATA REDACTED] 

         (3) [DATA REDACTED] 

Date: 2025-10-22    

Subject: [Project Biollante] Critical Update Report on Rio acquisition 

Mr. Takashi, 

Wishing you well for your continued support. 

My team sent to former Rio de Janeiro has secured the advertised goods from our sellers there. I can confirm that DNA from Titanus Gojira ( both the living specimens) and Titanus Abaddon are currently being shipped to our facility in █████████. From there, we can smuggle it under the guise of [DATA REDACTED] to our facility in ██████. I’ve recommended that [DATA REDACTED] hold it there for 2 months before shipping it to our main laboratory facility. 

I regret to inform you that the exchange did not go smoothly. The sellers, due to complications on their end, delayed their own harvest of the advertised goods until after I and my team had already arrived as clients. The exchange was delayed by an hour, and the location was impromptuly moved to another location to evade an ongoing infestation of Titanus Abaddon 's spawn. The spawn in question promptly attacked the new location despite the move, as my team was withdrawing after completing the exchange. The team security detail ████████ was killed and Ms. Martin was severely injured in the attack. 

I recommend that ████████’s death be reported as an accident [DATA REDACTED]. Ms. Martin is being transported to our private hospital in ████████████ as I send this. Our helicopter medics are keeping me up-to-date on Ms. Martin’s status, and she has reportedly slipped into a coma enroute. 

As an addendum, an American man claiming to be Ms. Martin's father was apprehended by my security detail during her injury. He agreed to come with us under guard for questioning and coverup in exchange for our immediate assistance in getting Ms. Martin medical treatment. I’ve alerted our security teams at ████████████ to keep him under house arrest at the hospital for the time being. If he speaks the truth about his relation to Ms. Martin, I believe he can be persuaded to work with us in exchange for the treatment of his daughter, especially if Ms. Martin does not recover from her coma soon. 

With respect, 

D ██████ Saito 

[DATA REDACTED] 

Takashi Corporation 

<Takashi Corp, encrypted private document excerpt, translated to English>  

Subject: Takashi Global Corporation - Asset Catalogue [Updated 2025-██-██ 

PROJECT BIOLLANTE 

Copying and redistribution of this material is strictly prohibited 

CONTENTS: 

1. M.U.T.O. DNA assets 

1.1. Titan DNA assets 

1.2. Other megafauna DNA assets 

1. Sample logs 

1. Laboratory logs 

Signed off by: █. Takashi, █. [DATA REDACTED] 

<End excerpt>