Oh, no...! There goes New York...! Go, go, Godzilla!!. Collaborative art by Matt Frank (Godzilla) and Shinji Nishikawa (Zilla)
"Can there be any question that the human is the least harmonious beast in the forest and the creature most toxic to the nest?" - Randy Thornhorn
"But we are only termites on a planet and maybe when we bore too deeply into the planet there'll be a reckoning. Who knows?" - Harry S. Truman
In 1968, the French government made a mistake, a mistake that will come to haunt the world. Thirty years later three titanic creatures converge in Manhattan, and it is up to Dr. Nick Tatopoulos, Yuji Shinoda, and others of Crisis Control Intelligence to stop them. For they must save a doomed city, rescue thousands of lives, and learn all they can about the mutants and monsters.
This is the premise of Mutants and Monsters, a revision of the infamous failure of Tristar's Godzilla (1998), although a lot of the characters, monster designs, and even plots are taken from Toho's Godzilla 2000. Thus making this into a revision/crossover between those two Godzilla movies, and also an AU and Fusion Fic. Written by Gojizilla1954, the author initial plans are to make this into a saga emcompassing 3 sequels, though that number is open to change in the future. The first sequel is already out and currently ongoing.
Links to the story are here. For it's current sequel, The Advent of Lusus Naturae, click here.
Tropes:
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: Zilla's claws (as depicted in the 1998 movie, in the TV show by it's surviving offspring Zilla Junior, and comics and other media) are built to dig through literal miles and tons of earth, rocks and concrete, and suffering with little to no wear nor dulling whatsoever. These claws not only are borderline diamond-hard strong, but also extremely sharp. Strong and sharp enough that when the battle with Godzilla and Zilla starts, as soon as the mutated lizard gets in melee range, she quickly and easily manages to do what all the forces and weapons of Man had failed to accomplish thus far: making the King of the Monsters himself bleed.
- Achilles' Heel:
- He may possess a huge tank, but Godzilla doesn't have infinite reserves of energy: using his atomic abilities, like his iconic beam or heat ray, better known as Atomic Breath, drains those reserves. The longer and how repeatedly he uses them, the faster his inner reservoir of energy is drained. Spamming these attacks recklessly and repeatedly runs the risk of the G-man running out of juice: his "energy attacks" become weaker until they are gone altogether. Not only that, if this happens during a grueling battle, his overall reaction and movement speed becomes sluggish as his energy reserves dwindle and fatigue begins to set in, with the risk of Godzilla falling unconcious or even comatose out of sheer fatigue and accumulated injuries coupled with the aforementioned lack of energy/radiation left within him (similar scenario and a nod to his Heisei counterpart's collapse after finally defeating Biollante).
- First happened at the end of the Battle of Guantanamo Bay against the Navy, he tried to summon his Atomic Breath, yet he couldn't do it anymore.
- Action Girl:
- Zilla is definitively a female here. And she is definitely an action girl too, first facing off against the military, then later on facing off against Godzilla himself. Then the Millenian/Orga: first on her lonesome, and then teaming up with Godzilla.
- Also Godzilla's mother briefly in a flashback. Baddassery runs in the family, it seems.
- Alien Invasion: Like canon, the Millenian's ultimate goal is to conquer Earth, and Godzilla plays a vital role in its plans. Although like the motives behind it they are further explored: The Millenian plans to recreate its kin using the native sentient species as a sort of prime, biological building material. And by absorving Godzilla, not only it eliminates a major threat to its plans of conquest, but it'll also became near unstoppable, and capable to challenge and kill the one responsible for destroying its species and world when the golden menace eventually finds the Earth.
- Alternate Universe Fic: The cast from both movies to some extent or the other, but mainly the monster cast, Godzilla and the Millenian/Orga most of all, differ from the canon ones here.
- Artistic License – Nuclear Physics: Granted, even the movies that came after the first Godzilla (1954) are guilty to one extent or another. Given how Godzilla iconic Atomic Breath it's as deadly radioactive as nearly all his other incarnations, none of the human cast still in Manhattan watching the giant monsters ducking it out should still be alive later. Yet none of them even feel remotely sick afterwards. Then again, it is not that unreasonable to think that the Big-G can passively absorb any radiation in the surrounding area, specially those that he himself has spread with his signature attack, so as to slow down his tank going empty. Though in the end, he ran out of juice anyway.
- Badass Adorable: You have over 200 guesses as to which character belongs in this trope. Zilla Junior. Not even 24 hours alive, heck, probably not even an hour, and he already is showing why he was the main reason his species was not deemed a lost cause as kaijus.
- Bad Ass Normal:
- Zilla. Compared to Godzilla and Orga, as well as most other kaijus, Zilla is pretty much normal due to her lack of any supernatural ability or "superpowers" most other kaijus typically have. Her abilities and skills are more "down-to-earth": more realistic, natural and mundane compared to the incredible powers of the other monsters (only Kong is more ordinary than her, and this Zilla lacks even the "Power Breath" of her canon counterpart). Despite all this, everyone of the cast learns REAL FAST, especially Godzilla and the Millenian, that Zilla is NOT to be understimated.
- Right from the start of their fight, Zilla is upon Godzilla and manages to do what the military failed to and only the Millenian had managed to accomplish so far: actually drawing blood from the King of Monsters himself, which is quite a feat, even for kaijus.
- Against the Millenian, through speed, subterfuge and cunning, she also managed to practically behead the mutated alien kaiju.
- Battle Couple: Averted here between Godzilla and Zilla, there is not even a hint of attraction whatsoever between them. Thus making this fanfic a breakaway from stories which them as or becoming either an item or as real mutual enemies.
- Breath Weapon: Godzilla, of course.
- Eaten Alive: Like in the movie, the mutated Millenian tries to eat Godzilla whole while he's still alive, so it can absorb him to basically turn itself into a clone of Godzilla, with all of his strenghts and abilities. Of course, this works as well as one expects, despite the advantages it had this time around. Unlike its canon counterpart, it tried to resist and escape its demise, though it still couldn't change its ultimate fate.
- Energy Weapon: The energy cannon of the Millenian in both its UFO and Kaiju forms.
- Fragile Speedster: Zilla, in comparison to most other kaijus, specially Toho's kaijus, like Godzilla and the Millenian aka Orga here, really is one: any of their signature attacks can and would kill it in one shot. Of course, they first have to actually land that shot, and Zilla uses her superb speed to great effect, reflexes and no small amount of cunning to not only avoid getting obliterated, but also to quick strikes and retreats, practically and sometimes literally running laps around her stronger yet much slower foes, Godzilla and the Millenian/Orga.
- Female Monster Surprise: Nick when he founds out Zilla is not a he, but a she. As well one other surprise...
- Gender Flip: Zilla. She is not some "unusual male" here, she actually IS a female. Which makes her ability to reproduce "asexually" without a mate actually more believable and realistic, as parthenogenesis is a real world form of asexual reproduction found in reptiles.
- Invading Refugees: The Millenian managed to flee the destruction of its world and entire species caused by none other than Ghidorah, then crash-landed on Earth millions of years ago. After waking up, it judges that the Earth is than suitable planet to settle, and mankind can be used, repurposed and/or molded to rebuild its species, even if he finds them aesthetically unpleasant. And attempts to communicate and negotiate with it failed in either the first or both accounts. Not surprising when the military also happened to fire it first unprovoked.
- It Can Think: As if mankind didn't have it bad enough having to fight the juggernaut that is Godzilla, it turns out that he, and the other giant monsters that have converged on New York, are all intelligent to the point of sapience. And unsurprisingly, the humans underestimate or dismiss their intellect, and pay heavily for it.
- "King Kong" Climb:
- Zilla does this many times throughout the story, most of them during her fight against Godzilla.
- One of the best examples is when she made of the buildings she climbed fall upon Godzilla, with Zilla riding the collapsing building without issue.
- Last of His Kind: The Millenian/Orga, and potentially both Godzilla and Zilla in regards to their former, original species which they once belonged to (as far as they and we know, so far).
- Mêlée à Trois: As Godzilla, Zilla, and the Milllenian see each other in the way of their goals, the climatic battle briefly turns into this where each takes opportunistic attacks at each other. It stops when Godzilla connects the dots that the Millenian/Orga had killed Zilla's offspring, remembering how his mother had protected his younger self from sharks prior to his mutation.
- No-Sell: Godzilla fits perfectly in this trope unless another Kaiju is involved. As usual, all of the weapons and plans of the military had failed to work or accomplish anything but annoy, distract or enrage Godzilla even further than he already is.
- Single Specimen Species: Godzilla becomes this after mutating into the kaiju we all know and love. Even if there were others of his kind out there in the world, he is now an entirely new species, the first and only one. And as his flashbacks have shown to imply, his survival and transformation was both a fluke and a miracle. And that's not even considering the likely possibility that if another of his kind went through the same experience, it may mutate into an ENTIRELY new species of kaiju, one different than Godzilla.
- Tunnel King: Zilla is a hell of a tunneler, rivaling if not surpassing Anguirus and Baragon, only surpassed by its offspring Zilla Junior in the animated series.
