An Atlesian airship was seen hovering around the skies above the island of Menagerie towards the wilderness beyond the faunus village. Harriet Bree is seen leaning out an open side door, looking out into the terrain below, the other Ace Ops wait inside.
"Soooo, why are we doing this again?" Marrow asked.
Clover sighed, "A research station here sent out a distress call so Ironwood wants us to check it out."
Elm folded her arms "Hmph, must be important if we're the ones being sent."
Vine spoke up "All I heard was that the research station had discovered something unusual lately. Whatever it was must have come with unfortunate consequences."
"I think that's putting it lightly" Harriet said, shock was evident in her voice.
"What makes you say that, Hare?" Clover asked.
"See for yourself."
The other Ace Ops walked over and followed Harriet's gaze to see the small research station in the middle of the jungle…well, what was left of it. The entire facility was ruined and in flames. Multiple dead bodies could be seen scattered around the building. The Ace Ops looked in complete shock at the sight.
"Good God…" Elm whispered.
"What could possibly have done this?" Vine asked.
"Don't know" Clover replied, "but we need to see if anyone's left. Pilot! Take us down as close as you can!"
A few minutes later, the Atlesian ship landed a couple dozen feet away from the facility, and the Ace Ops jumped out, weapons ready.
"Stay sharp" Clover ordered, "Whatever did this might still be out there."
Marrow held his gun as steady as he could; it was clear he was nervous "That doesn't make me feel any better."
The Ace Ops slowly approached what was left of the station and looked around. The stations would have been a cluster of small, futuristic shacks lined with equipment and guarded by a shield of hard light dust. Now, the huts were broken in some places and had blood stains on the walls, equipment was scattered every which way, and the hard light dust shield only flickered occasionally.
"What could have done this?" Harriet asked.
"Oh, come on" Marrow replied, "everyone's thinking it, so I'm just gonna say it. Grimm."
"No" Clover said, "this wasn't Grimm."
"Clover's right." Vine added, "Grimm don't leave this much destruction from buildings."
Clover looked down at something "Plus, I don't think there's any Grimm that would make something this size."
The Ace Ops followed his gaze and saw a three-toed footprint easily five feet wide and deep in the ground.
"What's your guess, Harriet?" Clover asked. Harriet knelt down and examined the print "Well, it's most likely bipedal, and pretty fast too. I can't really guess how big it is from this print, but it's probably a bit smaller than a Goliath."
"Charming" Marrow sarcastically remarked.
Vine went over to one of the sheds and began digging through whatever equipment he could find.
"Vine, what are you doing?" Elm asked.
"It's possible that there might be some records of what happened that are still intact." Vine explained, "We just need to find them."
"Good idea, Vine" Clover said, "Everyone, spread out!"
The Ace Ops spent the next few minutes rummaging through the debris, picking up a few sound files and video recordings here and there, then reconvened at the center of the camp.
"What'd you find?" Clover asked.
"Not much" Elm replied, holding only a digital tablet of some kind "but it's something."
"You start then."
Elm turned on the digital pad she had found and turned it to the first recording, showing one of the scientists, a young woman with brown hair and glasses at the screen.
"This is Dr. McKinley of the Atlas Menagerie research team, Project Titan, log 15." She said, "and this has been the second breakthrough of our current few weeks here in the wilds of the island. The mysterious egg we had discovered a few days ago has now hatched, revealing a large insect larvae of some kind, it's hard to tell what kind at the moment." Here the screen changed to show the creature she had mentioned, and the Ace Ops looked in wonder.
"What is that?" Harriet whispered. The recording continued.
"The creature proved to be near harmless when our researchers approached it, even seeming to interact with them; there is no possible way the creature is a Grimm or of Grimm origin. After a few minutes, it moved off, and we followed it towards a waterfall of some kind. Strangely enough, once it got there, it created a cocoon of some kind. I've never seen a larvae go into the cocoon stage so quickly after hatching; this is truly something unique. We've decided to move our camp closer to this location to get a closer look at this."
Here the screen cut out. Clover then turned to Harriet "What'd you find?"
Harriet held a sound recorder and hit the play button. There was some static before a man's voice came into focus.
"…zzzt…-ot much is yet known about what exactly this thing is. We've analyzed samples from the cocoon, and it seems that whatever this is, it's giving off an energy that we've never seen before. It's certainly not dust based. Some of our faunus guides have been calling it 'Mosura' and 'Mothra', after some giant creature that a few of them believe in. According to legend, this Mothra was a guardian of Remnant, long before the Huntsmen and Huntresses ever showed up onto the scene. She was considered the queen of her kind, but she also answered to something else…something more powerful; they refuse to even invoke its name, so I'll have to do some more research on this when I get back to Atlas…zzzt…" then the line went dead.
"Intriguing, to say the least" Vine observed.
"Anything else?" Clover asked.
Marrow held up the pad he had found "Well, I have this."
Clover took it and turned it on. This one showed a cat faunus with short black hair.
The faunus sighed before speaking: "This is Kali Belladonna, log 20" she said, "I think it's safe to assume that this endeavor has been…interesting. I had only read stories about creatures like Mosura, but I never realized that it actually existed." Kali chuckles "I certainly have a lot to tell Ghira when I get home. Something else has been happening, though; the wildlife around here are beginning to act weird, as if they're spooked by something. I feel like something's been watching us for the past few days, though I'm not sure what. Well, I have to get back to work; signing off."
The screen went dark, but another file was on the pad, and Clover tapped it as well. It was only a sound recording, this one of a different scientist, but it was enough to fill the Ace Ops with dread.
"This is an emergency message to Atlas requesting immediate military support, we're under attack! Repeat, We're under-AAAHHHH!" A creature's roars could be heard along with some very gruesome crunching before cutting out.
Just then, a similar noise was heard behind them, and the Ace Ops only had time to see and duck out of the way as a massive, bipedal lizard shot past them and crashed into a tree.
"What the hell is that?" Harriet demanded.
"That must have been what attacked the camp!" Vine shouted.
"Fall back!" Clover ordered as the Ace Ops ran back for the ship, getting a head start on the lizard as it struggled to get up. However, as they ran, they were cut off by a second that appeared next to them.
"Another one!" Elm shouted, "Oh, come on!"
The second lizard moved its head to strike, only to be knocked out of the way as Elm slammed her hammer into its face. As Clover ran ahead, he noticed a large lake with a waterfall nearby.
"Head for the water!" he shouted, and the team changed their course. Fortunately, thanks to Clover's semblance, they got there in time, but they could hear the cries of the two lizards behind them. However, what startled them when they got there was a young girl kneeling at the edge of the lake. She had almost pale skin and white hair that was tied back in a ponytail. She also wore a sort of leather armor that was a deep red color. She turned to face the Ace Ops, revealing electric blue eyes.
"Ma'am, this area isn't safe!" Clover said, "I have to ask you to leave."
The girl simply chuckled as she calmly replied, "Nonsense, anywhere I go is safe."
"Tell that to them!" Harriet snapped pointing to the two lizards as the broke the tree line behind them. The creatures charged, only to skid to a stop as they saw the girl, who was now giving them an angry look, the blue in her eyes beginning to glow. The Ace Ops looked in confusion at the scene, but before they could ask anything, a bellowing could be heard behind them as one of the lizards was crushed by a boulder, the other fleeing back into the jungle in panic. The girl then calmed down and turned back to the team "I told you, anywhere I go is safe. And the same is true of him" she said pointing to an area behind the waterfall. The Ace Ops followed her gaze and gaped in awe at the largest gorilla they had ever seen towered behind the cliff. As they watched, the gorilla looked down at them, focusing his gaze on the girl, and, after a few moments, gave a small roar and beat his chest a few times. The girl simply nodded in return, and the gorilla then turned around and headed farther into the island.
Marrow widened his eyes, "I thought we were dead?"
The girl chuckled, "Relax, Kong was just greeting us."
Harriet stared at the girl in disbelief; how did she act so calm, and how did she know the gorilla's name? The only question she could get out was, "Who are you?"
The girl turned back to the team, a playful glint in her eyes "You can call me Mosura. I'll explain more, but shall we head back to your ship; I'd be happy to come with you."
The Ace Ops couldn't even think of what to say the whole way back.
Yes, the lizards were Skull Crawlers. Guest-Questioner, concerning your review on the previous chapter I share your concern for avoiding the "pipsqueak Godzilla stuff" (your words, not mine, and you didn't need to give me a whole lecture on it). I am a huge Godzilla fan, so trust me when I say I would never do something like that. I did edit the last chapter to clear up a few things that were left out. The titans are more on the actual godlike power scale, Godzilla especially. More will be explained in later chapters, but all I can ask (respectfully) is that you give the story a chance for right now.