Bird of Paradise (Godzilla)

Bird of Paradise is an episode of from the first season.

Plot

The episode opens with a man exploring a temple, he touches a star engraved onto a pedestal. Suddenly the ground shakes and the star glows, as the dust clears a giant bird reaches out of the shadows.

Meanwhile, in New York city, the team hear from a TV report that villages in Mexico are being destroyed. As the team travels to Mexico, they meet Lawrence Cohen, Elsie's former fiance who is an ornithologist. He takes them to the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, he explains that he went into the temple and accidentally released Quetzalcoatl, as they speak Quetzalcoatl rises from a volcano and lunges at them. Lawrence tries to take a picture of it but is swept away by Elsie when it starts to attack them, Monique manages to scare it away by shooting into a gas vent and igniting an explosion. Elsie soon becomes irritated by Lawrence's presence, mainly the fact that he can't seem to think about anything but work and that he risked his life for one picture. Lawrence tells Elsie that he spent ten years trying to prove birds are direct descendants of the dinosaur and this could be his only chance, just to cheer him up, Elsie tells him that the results of the analysis shows that Quetzalcoatl's feather isn't a feather, but a scale. It is also covered with a silicate barrier, meaning that it is able to survive incredible temperatures and probably lives inside the volcano.

In the morning Quetzalcoatl attacks again, and they attempt to use strong tranquilizers against it, but it has no effect. H.E.A.T. eventually considers killing it, however Cohen wants it to survive, believing it could be an evolutionary breakthrough, but they have no other option. They extract venom from an emperor scorpion and put it into a pneumatic rifle. Quetzalcoatl attacks late in the evening and Nick can't get a clear shot, then Elsie gets carried away. They soon find out that Quetzalcoatl has a nest and it carried Elsie to it to feed it's hatching chicks. As the team make their way to the volcano, they use N.I.G.E.L. to look inside, finding that Elsie is still okay. They signal Godzilla, and he distracts Quetzalcoatl while the team goes inside to rescue Elsie. After Quetzalcoatl defeats Godzilla, it hears it's chicks wailing and flies back to the volcano. While the Quetzalcoatl prepares to eat the team, Godzilla appears from behind and knocks it into the volcano's crater, then shoots a ray of atomic breath at the volcano wall which closes up the volcano for good.

Trivia

*Although Quetzalcoatl is usually depicted as a feathered serpent, the Quetzalcoatl here resembles an Archaeopteryx.

*Quetzalcoatl is referred to as Q several times, this could possibly be a reference to the movie, Q which also features Quetzalcoatl.