In the darkness, Wayne’s thoughts never ceased. He waited for the inevitable embrace of nothingness, yet his mind persisted. He felt no sensations, heard no sounds and saw no light, yet he was lucid enough to understand the peculiarity of it. He tried his best to drift, forcing his thoughts towards emptiness out of a hope he would eventually find peace, but after what felt like hours of continued consciousness, panic set in.

Is this what death was like? An endless purgatory of no sensation, but endless thought? He had no heart which could race, yet his perception seemed to pulse as if his cognizance itself were droning. The more his perception expanded, the more it felt like he wasn’t alone. His paranoia must have followed him beyond death, his mind conjuring the idea of thousands of others lost in the void around him, thousands who might be judging him. Just as it began to become too much to bear, the overwhelming anxiety suddenly gave way to a feeling of ease.

It was as if he were being cradled in an imperceptible embrace. The thrumming in his mind filtered down and out, as if it were water trickling down the roots of a tree. With every inch it moved, he began to feel. His senses were returning to him. Did that mean he was alive!?

Suddenly, it felt as if he were falling. Wayne felt his eyes shoot open, yet the darkness did not waver. Was he awake? What was happening!? Why was it still so dark? He tried to move, but his body was restrained on all sides. The prior calm gave way to his heart racing, its pounding alerting him to the return of his sense of hearing.

Fine sediment was moving between his fingers. Had he been buried alive!? Was he waking up after his funeral? No, that made no sense- he wasn’t in a coffin, there wouldn't be any dirt around him if he was- and he was sure that this was dirt, not debris. Come to think of it, every motion he made felt bizarre.

He could figure that out once he was safe! What mattered most was getting to the surface so he could breathe! He began to work his arms at the dirt, plowing through waves of earth as he desperately dug for his salvation. With each motion, the ascent became easier and easier, until finally, his hand breached. The man burst through the sediment and gasped as his lungs burned.

Wayne had just saved himself from one of the worst fates imaginable. It must have been quite the shallow grave if he had been able to escape it so easily, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He was alive. He had survived a Kaiju attack. Just as he was about to celebrate this miraculous set of circumstances, he finally noticed his peculiar surroundings.

His relief quickly gave way to confusion. In every direction he looked, he saw a small facsimile of modern suburbia. It was a sea of roofs, well kept lawns, and perfectly straight streets. He turned his head to the skyline and found it defined by the glowing lights of high-rises that were just shy of touching the clouds. Everything was puny. He felt like he could crush multiple of these mouse-sized homes with one errant step. Was this some kind of model city?

But why had he been buried under a huge model city? Nothing was making sense. He reached up to rub his face, only to find that he couldn’t quite reach it. It was this oddity which finally prompted him to shift his gaze downwards. Below him were two large, reptilian feet tipped with raptor-like talons.

Wayne did not see his skin, his clothes, his body.

He saw scales. Claws. With some effort, he was able to make out the snout between his eyes which his vision had hidden from him.

The man- no, the monster's breathing gave way to hyperventilation. He fell to his back in confusion, causing waves of dirt and debris to go flying with a deafening boom, shaking the ground and shattering the earth. A cloud of dust clung to his form as he attempted to escape the truth before him, feebly crawling backwards as if he could flee from his own body.

As the air cleared, he bore witness to the sheer volume of destruction his panic had wrought. Multiple blocks had been reduced to little but a smear of debris and rubble. A chorus of screams from terrified civilians filled the air, exacerbating Wayne’s panic. This wasn’t a model city. This was real. How many had just died because of his ignorance? How many had he just murdered!? Wayne’s mind and body locked up as he was assaulted by realization after grim realization. Unable to process it all, he hung his head back and let out a throat-tearing shriek of horror.

To these people, he was just another giant monster, one who was doing what giant monsters do best: destroy. They began to flee and panic, waves of injured or otherwise citizens fleeing for their lives from a monster who seemed to be flailing about in confusion. Wayne’s screams turned to wails. Why? Why had he been punished like this? What kind of sick cosmic force decided that his final punishment after living a life tormented by these beasts was to become one!?

The sound of a siren drew him back to reality. In that moment, Wayne concluded that he needed to get as far from civilization as he could to avoid causing any further harm. Maybe if he escaped while causing minimal damage, he could figure out a way to fix this. If he didn’t hold on to that one final glimmer of hope, he might succumb to mania. He needed to get the hell out of there.

Wayne clambered to his feet and took a moment to more thoroughly investigate his surroundings. It didn’t take him long to realize where he was. This was the neighborhood he grew up in. He recognized small landmarks, turns of the roads, ultimately leading him to realize he had emerged from a local graveyard. He… Didn’t like the implications of this revelation. He would have plenty of time to ponder them later. He knew this was his neighborhood, which meant he was in his hometown, Baltimore. Thanks to that, he knew he just had to go east, and he’d reach open waters.

The ocean was the source of all giant monsters. If he was going to find a safe haven where he could piece all of this together, it was bound to be there. The fastest route to get to the ocean would be to trudge through the city itself, but he quickly settled for going around. He may have become a giant monster, but hell if that meant he was going to start thinking like one!

Steadily, agonizingly, Wayne began to tip-toe down a street, shimmying along the road the best he could given his new saurian anatomy and titanic scale. With each stride his hulking tail swayed, knocking cars and trees aside as he muttered the occasional ‘sorry, sorry,’ under his breath. Alas, he knew once he first heard the sirens that he’d eventually run into opposition.

Wayne stopped once he saw it. Soldiers in green and gray fatigues pulled strips of spikes across the length of three roads as a line of armored vehicles got into formation behind them. Men with rifles took cover against haphazardly assembled fortifications, all with their sights tamed on him. Before, he had been too manic to attempt reason. He still had his human mind, so perhaps he could still speak with them. He just needed to explain his dilemma, and perhaps they’d let him go.

“Uhm. Hello?” Wayne hesitated, waving a claw sheepishly, “I don’t want to fight, I’m just trying to get to the ocean.”

There was a moment of silence, before the first shot was fired. Wayne shielded his face as he was peppered with munitions. The small projectiles did little to his tough scales, but each shell that struck body sent him reeling. BOOM! Wayne tumbled back as he let out a roar of pain. The explosives had each hit a different part of his body, but the one that landed under his lifted arm burned intensely. Not intent on dying a second time in spite of the circumstances, Wayne had no choice but to run. He braced himself, and then charged straight ahead.

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As 200ft of scale-bound muscle began to speed towards the blockade, a line of steely gazes transformed to a crowd of horror. Even the most stalwart of their rank knew it would be foolish to stand in the beast’s path, so they quickly ran for cover. Fearful gazes waited for their blockade to be reduced to rubble, only to watch as Wayne cleared the fortifications with a mighty leap. He skidded across the pavement, making use of the momentum to kick-start a sprint. He had wanted to minimize the destruction he left, but that was a bit hard when he was getting shot at! Hopefully everyone in the area had already been evacuated!

As Wayne ran, voices blared through a distant loudspeaker. He tried to listen, but no matter how hard he tried to make sense of it, he couldn’t parse a single word. Was the broadcast not in English? After he spent a frankly embarrassing amount of time pondering what language it could have been, Wayne had an epiphany. Could he not speak or understand English anymore!? Is that why his attempt at diplomacy had failed? The monster winced, imagining how the soldiers might have perceived it. Perhaps it would be smarter to stay quiet from now on.

As he sprinted, Wayne made notes on his new body. Taking advantage of his longer neck to peer over his shoulder, he noted that he had large, tan-colored plates that ran along the length of his back. Due to their smooth and inflexible structure, Wayne concluded these were likely defensive structures. They did end in points, however, so perhaps they could be weaponized? If he ever got shot at again, he could test his theory. His arms were relatively short, and he only seemed to have four fingers in total with small, nubby thumbs that were quite useless for anything but slashing. He doubted that he’d need to do much in the way of fine manipulation now, but it was still disheartening. He had powerful digitigrade legs, and a long, thick tail with a good deal of muscle behind it- likely a tool for balancing and combat.

Wayne’s analyses ceased when a blinding light impaired his vision. He hissed as he instinctively attempted to lift his arm to block it, only to be once again reminded of their meager reach. He was never going to get used to that. The monster struggled to keep his eyes open as he looked to the source. Smooth, brightly colored choppers with large numbers upon them circled around him. Ah, news choppers.

Wait, news choppers!? This could be his chance to prove he wasn’t a threat! The Kaiju came to a halt and looked skyward. To get them all to focus on what he was about to do, he lifted his arms and began waving.

The passengers of the nearest vehicle that Wayne could see exchanged befuddled looks in response to his display. After a few more moments, they drew closer.

Excellent! Now, he just had to make good use of this. If he couldn’t speak English, perhaps he could write it! He lifted his tail up as if to use it as a pen and pressed it to the ground. What followed was a silence that lasted for what felt like an eternity. Wayne stared at the ground as his mind went in loops with no end. He tried to recall English lettering, only to find nothing, then try to do so again and again.

He couldn’t remember any English characters either!? He had forgotten his native tongue in its entirety! The monster cursed under his breath. He couldn’t waste this opportunity- no, he had to do something! In the heat of the moment, Wayne settled for drawing a minimalist interpretation of ocean waves, followed by an approximation of himself facing them.

The humans inside the helicopter watched with great interest. After some moments of debate, all of them seemed to get quite excited.

Wayne smiled. They appeared to get what he was going for. Did this mean he’d finally get to go on his way with minimal resistance?

His hopes were immediately dashed when another volley of shells struck him from behind. He flinched, but unlike before, the attacks barely hurt at all. Just as he had hypothesized, his dorsal plates were much stronger than the rest of his hide. Wayne turned around with a huff, the rotation of his form dispersing the smoke.

“Give me a break…” Just when he was making progress! Annoyed, the monster clawed at the road, unearthing the street, and excavating the soil below. With each swipe, the terrain behind him accumulated into a mountain of debris designed to slow the military’s advance. Wayne didn’t waste any time inspecting his handiwork, he had to go.

He was a giant monster. The military had every right to attack him, but he still couldn’t help but feel annoyed by it all. He just woke up to a living nightmare he could never have conceived, as if he didn’t have enough to worry about. Regardless, if he wanted to communicate with humanity, he’d have to try again another day, and perhaps on the outskirts of civilization so tensions wouldn’t be so high.

Thanks to his size and his stride, Wayne traveled what would’ve taken half an hour by car in mere minutes. He’d be proud of his athleticism if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a giant god-damned monster. As the moonlit coast became visible in the distance, he slowed to a gentle pace to catch his breath. Finally. Wayne turned back to see if any humans were still following him. Sure enough, the news-choppers were trailing behind at a respectable distance, but the military was nowhere to be seen. Cameras are fine, just keep the guns and tanks to yourselves.

He leisurely approached the edge of the water and strode into the shallows. He was taken aback by a wave of comfort that washed over him the deeper he went. The water felt unbelievably nice on his scales. Even if it seemed to be the tail-end of winter, the waves caressing his form felt warm and welcoming. The depths had been his destination from the get-go, but now something within stirred with excitement at the prospect of going home. One foot in front of the other, the water levels slowly rose up to his stomach, then his chest. At that point, he flopped forward, adopting a swimming motion akin to an alligator’s. With his speed increasing thanks to this change in technique, it only took him another minute to finally be free of prying eyes.

Wayne turned and gazed at the bright lights of his home in the far distance. It really was beautiful from that far out. Alone with nothing but the view and his thoughts, introspection began, and from introspection returned the weight of the situation. Dread was knocking at the door to his psyche, but he couldn’t allow it in. It was moments like these where level heads prevailed, that was what his father always said, at least. Wayne performed breathing exercises he had picked up during his years of paranoia to ease himself- thankfully, they seemed to work just fine for Kaiju.

Wayne had died, he was sure of it. “So,” he looked down to his claws and flexed them with a frown, “Why am I a giant monster, now?” He tried to piece through his memories of everything since he had woken up in an attempt to make sense of it.

He had burst out from under the graveyard attached to the local park. It was smack-dab in the middle of the residential district of the city, and he had spent many days at that park as a kid. Wait, did that mean he had unearthed all of the graves, even his own mother’s!? The monster let out an involuntary whine of distress.

He wouldn’t have to be alone with his thoughts for long.

Wayne felt something seize his tail from the darkness, before he was forcefully pulled below the water’s surface. Whatever was dragging him, it was strong, and it was moving fast! Just as he began to try and hatch an escape plan, whatever it was suddenly released him.

Wayne was floating in a void, not too dissimilar to the one he found himself in when he had first awakened. Unlike it, however, he still had full control of all of his faculties, and beyond that, he knew for a fact that this void was hiding an unseen entity. There was no comfort to be had in this abyss. His gaze darted to and fro in a panic as he struggled to gather his bearings. He was in open water, so an attack could come from anywhere. In front, behind, above, below, or-!

His thoughts were cut short once more as a set of claws hammered Wayne from the side and grappled him tightly.

Wayne let out a shout of surprise, a cloud of bubbles flowing from the Kaiju’s mouth and obscuring his vision.

As they cleared, yellow eyes pierced the veil. Their owner floated close enough to be discerned, its gaze wandering over Wayne’s features in scrutiny.

Wayne was petrified. He recognized this creature. After all, it was the beast who had killed him.

The monster hissed as the water around it boiled. “And who might YOU be..?”