A New Era

Isla De Mara

30th, May 2019.

Shortly after Godzilla meets the Oxygen Destroyer.

Down in the depths, the decapitated left head of the Alien Hydra lays motionless on the seafloor. Unbeknownst to the United States Government, their rash decisions have set of a chain of events beyond the Revival of mankind's only hope. Because deep down in this now lifeless gulf, life has found a way. A colony of micro-organisms has been stimulated by the sudden exposure to the Anti-Life weapon of mass destruction. Just as the Primordial Soup from the beginning of life on Earth has given life to our distant ancestors, and Titans alike, this manmade concoction too has given birth to new life as well. As the Colony begins to rapidly stir, in a frenzy, they begin to assimilate every living organism that they touch. With a preference for Crustaceans, they make their way to the decapitated head, and inside they begin to crawl and assimilate the creature, incorporating various elements of its genetics to theirs. The colony begins to evolve rapidly, passing by thousands of years of evolution at an astonishing rate.

In their arrogance, the United States military has brought life to an abomination far worse than Ghidorah, but, fortunately for them, this beast is in its early stages of development and wont reach maturity for quite some time. Hopefully the world will be able to prepare for this menace before the beast makes itself known to the masses…

Skull Island

19th, August 2019.

As Kong has been fighting the hordes of Skull Crawlers, wave upon wave for the first week and a half of their awakening, their numbers begin to decline, very fortunate to the Island's inhabitants, the Iwi, who have had a VERY rough time since the "Great Awakening". As the Crawlers' numbers began to dwindle due to his efforts, Kong has had to deal with an even bigger problem.

Of the Titans that awoke on the Island, several seem to be benevolent. Kong has mostly let them alone, and they keep to themselves. Others, however, not very much. This new threat has been a thorn in the Great Guardian's side for well over a month now. A new type of Skull Crawler which puts the previous ones to shame. Kong has been at war with this new species of Skull Crawler, a much more massive, and far more aggressive one. It has been terrorizing the Island and the other Titans for the better part of a month and a half. It, too, is two legged, but that is where the visual similarities end.

The new species while retaining its lithe build built for speed, is much more muscled, and the skin is a mottled black covered with thick, rough, scales that are as rough as tiny knives. Closely resembling the denticles on shark's skin. An ambush hunter, it hunts mostly at night where it will be able to blend in with the native foliage. Its trademark skull face coloring has faded over time. With much thicker legs, with the elbows topped with numerous longer bone protrusions compared to Ramarak's spikes, and feet seem to be more clawed hands than actual feet, with 6 digits on both, two of them being thumb-like appendages. The head resembles a large Komodo dragon, but with a ferocious looking smile of gnarly teeth jutting out in some places when the mouth is closed, and a curved, spiked dual crest on the middle of the snout, just above the nostrils. The tongue, or now tongues, given there are three of them which seem to be all one at the base, end with serrated barbs. The tail is much thicker and more muscled compared to the smaller breed. The monstrosity is much larger than its smaller counterpart, at a whopping 125 meters from head to the tip of the tail, and 65 meters when standing on its two legs. An underwhelming weight of 8,893 metric tons, hardly a challenge against other predatory titans, but plenty dangerous to the more benevolent of the Island's inhabitants,

What Kong has been struggling with is this beasts' unexpected ability to reproduce. It would seem, that the new breed of Skull Crawler is not an offshoot, but the progenitor of the vile demons themselves. Skull Crawler Prime. The creature seems to spawn the Skull Crawlers out of a slit in the base of the tail, indicative of parthenogenesis. This nightmare owns the ability to reproduce asexually and seems to be the root cause of the War that ended the Kongs. Spawning wave upon wave of the ravenous beasts from its lair in the Hollow Earth, it is no wonder the Kongs, who reproduce one at a time were eventually overrun and defeated! What Marlow had called The Big One was indeed A big one. But not THE Big One. The Iwi have not seen this beast for many generations and have almost forgotten it. Almost. Luckily a certain Monarch specialist was able to dig deep into the lore of the Iwi people and come up with a weakness for the heathen.

Apparently, they do not take well to electricity, as the Iwi tribe discovered one many, many moons ago. Upon returning from a hunt outside the great walls, the hunting party were besieged by a group of Skull Crawlers, around 3 of the vile heathens. Just as the party were about to lose hope of survival, a rogue lightning bolt from the storm struck twice, hitting a tree the first time, and the ground close to one of the beasts a second time. The beast began to convulse on the spot, frothing out of the mouth and spasming. Its muscles locked up tight. Upon seeing the fate of one of their ranks, the remaining Crawlers began to retreat. Not wanting to experience the same fate. The hunting party confused at first, brought home their bounty for the week as they explained to the Elders what they witnessed. Upon inspection of the carcass they noticed the thick layer of mucus coating the creature, oozing out of the skin. It would explain how these creatures can withstand the high temperatures present in the Hollow Earth, with a cool mucus membrane covering their bodies at all times.

One Aaron Brooks had come to this Island in the year 1995 in protest to Monarch's intent to hide the Island and its inhabitants from the public forever. Having arrived on the Island, he brought a small team comprised of Cryptobiologist Evgenij Medov, Doctor/Professor Evelyn Matemavi, Survivalist Helen Karsten, Mythographer Walter R. Riccio, and their Pilot, Cejudo. Of all of them, only Brooks survived. In 2012, Brook's father, Houston had received a Monarch Recorder that had been found near Australia, upon opening it and cracking the code with their mutually shared secret password, Gjallarhorn, Brooks was mortified to find out his son had against his wishes, went to Skull Island. So, he did what any father with a lost son would do. He crossed over the Rainbow Bridge to re-enter the land of the Gods to retrieve his son.

Upon arrival, Brooks immediately heads with his team to the Iwi village, finding a young Iwi man named Ato who surprisingly speaks fluent English. Ato leads him to a hut in the village, inside he is reunited with his son and in a heartfelt reunion, Aaron explains how he got there and the events which took place in more detail than what was able to be recorded, from how upon landing they were being targeted by hungry predators, to being saved by Kong numerous times. The deaths of each member of his group. The eventual betrayal of Riccio. His communion with Kong, whom Aaron now has a special, unexplainable connection with, to now. Houston is silent for a while as he contemplates the next move. With Aaron's suggestion, he radios in an evac and they are taken back to the mainland. They head back to Monarch's headquarters where they gather many of the top brass to discuss his misadventure on the Island. On careful deliberation, it is decided that they should continue to survey the Island and its inhabitants. This brought Monarch back to the Island to begin building their Outpost 33.

Unfortunately for the beast, but fortunate enough for Kong, it is no longer large enough be a large enough threat to the Mighty Ape. Kong's growth over the decades has been boosted by his exposure to the radiation in the Hollow Earth, of which he has free access to, now that he's matured and formerly unrivalled after his triumph over Ramarak, but due to the awakening of Skull Crawler Prime, now has to deal with a new challenger.

This new radiation has the unique ability to increase bone density and muscle mass, essentially allowing a species to grow even larger than they would normally. For Kong, whose species normally maxes out at 60 meters, has managed to reach an astounding 114.3 meters, nearly double the size! Kong has aged quite well the past 70 years, having grown much more muscular than we last saw him in the 1973 expedition. The fur on his back is now a light grey, giving the appearance of silver. His chin now sports a large furry beard. His fangs and teeth have gotten more ferocious looking as he'd matured. His body has many scars. His fur coat is thicker, borderline impenetrable, and has a nasty tendency to gather much static electricity when moving. Due to the amounts of radiation he has consumed, courtesy of being the only one of his kind to have any access to it, he has evolved too, and adapted to be more heat resistant. Nothing below 5,000 degrees Celsius can so much as singe him now. Courtesy of exposure to the napalm of one Lt. Colonel Packard.

His head is smaller now, having matured separately from his body to fit the size of his body instead of the neoteny that Humans possess. His arms have gotten thicker, and longer, as have his legs to support his new height and weight, which now seems to be a reasonable 25,000 metric tons. Having the build of a human professional wrestler, Kong seems fit to grapple with anything the world can throw at him. He'll need every bit of it for the trials ahead of him.

Kong, having woken up and cleaning his wounds in the falls, makes his way to the Valley of the Fallen Gods. Better known to him as his birthing ground and his parent's resting place. The area is filled with much more gas than it had been before, this makes Kong suspicious. Kong sneers, and huffs as he begins to scan through the green gasses, eventually spotting a large hole in the Earth with much gas billowing out of it. He peers into the pit, searching. He didn't have to search long. With surprising agility, the Big One leaps out of the hole narrowly missing Kong's face with its terrible jaws. Kong, surprised, stumbles backwards, catching himself just in time to dodge a tail swipe that swings wide over the spot his head was at. When the creature attempts to swing at him again, Kong grabs its tail, and using his great strength, slams it into a rock formation, before swinging it around again and letting go. The serpentine Devil is sent careening 300 meters away.

While the Skull Crawler struggles to get back to its feet, a surveillance camera in a tree surveys the battle of these two predators, recording the battle for analysis at another time.

The beast turns to Kong, and screeches, charging at the Ape. Kong seeing this, furiously beats his chest, and roars a deep primal scream before charging to meet his adversary, grappling it by the tip of the mouth, keeping its jaws clamped shut. The creature attempts to break his hold by whipping at his sides with its tail, but all it receives are grunts of pain and growls of anger. Kong, aggravated further by these attempts brings its head down to the ground hard, attempting to stomp on its head. Cunning, as it is deadly, the beast uses one of its clawed feet to rake across Kong's belly, drawing out a cry from the Great Ape. Backing up to inspect his wound, Kong brings his palm to meet his eyes, seeing his own blood on his hands, he ROARS! And thrusts himself towards the beast, grappling with it, and eventually grabbing hold of its neck with one hand, he brings it closer so it can't reach with its legs. He punches it hard on the chest, cracking bones and then chucks it to the side, as it writhes around trying to find its footing and struggling to breathe, tail whipping everywhere.

Kong, still seething with rage, charges forward, being careful of the whipping tail, parrying it out of his way. He reaches the Skull Crawler and shoulder rushes it to the ground, stunning it, before he clasps his hands together and bringing them down hard on its left leg, snapping the leg into an awkward position. The crawler shrieks loudly in pain, before staring at Kong with hateful eyes, it opens its maw, and fires its three pronged tongue, hitting its mark and wrapping around his shoulders, keeping his arms pinned to his sides as it chomps down on his midsection. Kong roars loudly, trying to wrest his arms from outside of its tongue, but every time he moves his arms, the barbed hooks sink deeper into his flesh, gouging deep tissue wounds with every movement. Kong, now surging with adrenaline and anger, begins to visibly vibrate and shiver from the stress. His fur, so thick, begins to stand up on end, eventually a faint crackling can be heard, before an audible crack, as a bolt of electricity surges through his fur, shocking the crawler and making it withdraw its hooked tongues quickly. The sudden retracting of the tongue digs even deeper into Kong's skin, making him roar in agony.

Kong having had enough of this, beats his chest, each time he hits his chest a slight surge of electricity sparks through his fur, before he roars again, and charges full speed towards the cautious creature. The Crawler can barely stand, so it prepares to counterattack with a tail whip. Kong sees it coming, and dodges it, gripping it, and biting down on it, ripping out a chunk of muscle and spitting it out. The crawler shrieks in pain, and aims its tongue at Kong again, before firing it at his head this time, intent on biting down on his head. Kong see it coming, and quick as a whip, moves out of the way before quickly grabbing the offending appendage in a vice grip, he tugs at it hard, bringing the creature closer, eventually roping it in close enough to where one more tug brings it within spitting distance. Kong jerks it forward and cranks back a fist, before rocketing it towards its open maw, shattering any teeth that are in the way, and pushing the beast back. The sudden stress on the tongue severs it at the base, leaving the creature in shock on the ground! Kong stomps over to it, before grabbing the creature by the snout, and as it tries to resist, he beats it on the head before prying open its jaws. The creature is no match for Kong's brute strength, as Kong rips open its jaws, tearing and splitting the jaws apart, eventually the neck begins to split open too, and then the chest cavity, until half of the beast has been split in two! Kong slams the unmoving corpse down to the ground, before planting his foot on the top portion of the skull and beating his chest. One pound. Two pounds. Three pounds, four pounds, five pounds, six pounds! Kong leans back and roars into the midday sun, the sound echoing throughout the entirety of the Island.

With Kong dispatching the new threat with relative ease, the humans on the island have nearly completed their Prototype. With an endoskeleton of pure reinforced titanium, so durable one would swear it was forged in space, they have begun the process of coating the chassis with an artificial flesh coating. While painfully obvious up close, at a faraway glance, it would enable the machine to pass as the actual creature itself.

Outpost 33.

Around 45 minutes later.

Dr. Aaron Brooks makes his way through the halls of the facility. Speaking to some colleagues upon the way, he receives some exciting news.

An excited female researcher bounds up to Aaron, clipboard in hand waving frantically as she runs.

"Dr. Brooks! Great news, sir!"

Aaron turns to the woman, eyebrows knit in a curious gesture. She is short, about 5 feet, 4 inches. Has medium dark brown hair, neatly straightened and tied up into a bun. On her neck is the ends of a tribal tattoo obscured by her lab coat. Her eyes are hazel, covered by a cute pair of pink eyeglasses.

"Yes, what is it?"

She begins to slow down to a light jog as she reaches him, looking up to meet his face. "Titanus Kong has finally taken care of the Matriarch, we can finally proceed with our testing of the new prototype."

Aaron smiles, taking in the new information. "Never doubted Him for a minute, this was bound to happen sooner rather than later, the bitch's days were numbered the moment she woke up to answer that Thing's call.

Now that it's over, lets scope out the situation for now as the team puts the last details on the machine's coating, need it to be able to pass off as the real thing, now don't we?"

The woman smiles softly, nodding. "Of course, sir, I'll notify the Team immediately!"

She turns and heads off down the corridor.

Aaron sighs. Muttering to himself "Why did we have to build that thing here, exactly? This can't possibly end well. Not with Kong here." He shakes his head, trying to think more positively.

"Well, nothing I can do about it, so there's no sense worrying now. I just hope Kong doesn't come to this side of the Island when we are testing it."

He walks to the newly constructed Control Room. A room created to monitor the activation, maintenance checks and statuses of the new Experiment. As well as be the command center for the Team's operations when needed.

"At the very least, this will be a huge benefit to mankind in the future, or at least that's what they're aiming for."

He reaches the entrance to the room, the sliding door opening with a mechanized whir. He heads inside, looking through the Lexan glass at the Mechanized Giant and all the cranes on the lower levels putting the finishing touches on the outer layers of the Mech.

"God, if I was still a kid, I'd be jumping up and down at the thought of seeing a real Giant Robot. Ditto for Giant Monsters, and to think that both exist? And that we built one to defend against the Titans? Fact is stranger than Fiction indeed!"

He raises his gaze to meet the face of the Mech, soulless red eyes staring forward with an expressionless face as the assembly crew finishes the detailing of the artificial layers.

The control room's doors whir open again as the rest of the Project's team filters in, led by Doctor Yuhara, the Director of the facility as well as the head of the Project, Doctor Del La Rosa.

As everyone gets settled at their stations, the two look up. "Well, is everyone ready?" queries Yuhara. Voices of affirmation. Clearing his throat, Del La Rosa announces "Good, well, let's get this show on the road. Alright, Project Gjallarhorn's first official test commencing now!"

To Be Continued…