(Chapter 9: In chains)
His eyes fluttered open ever so slowly after being closed for an extended period of time, all he could remember was being sprayed by some type of gas and then nothing else following it. At his front was a gigantic rocky mountain with strange glowing material within it, it had a purple yet blue coloring to it. The energy contained within the rocky hill was the Element X that Apex was wanting.
He tried to move forward some but his movement was restricted as he felt a harsh tug on his neck that forced him to cough, even his arms couldn't get a big range of movement. Everytime his body shifted, the sound of chains rattling was heard behind him.
Kong had been chained up after being hauled away to a gigantic sagoth outpost, behind him there were three gigantic obsidian pillars. Within these pillars was a pulley system in which the gigantic chains were attached to, the chains themselves were attached to shackles around his wrists and a collar around his neck.
The massive primate groaned weakly, still sluggish and groggy after waking up from an unconscious state. His eyes noticed one of the humans standing around five hundred feet in front of him, not too far away from the human was a large stone tool. The grip of the tool seemed to be made out of some gigantic tree limb with leather wrapped around it, the top of the tool seemed to be a ball with large iron spikes sticking out of it, a mace.
Kong was confused and looked towards the human on the ground for answers, he couldn't speak the same language, nor could he understand what they were saying. He only knew limited amounts of sign language as taught by Jia to him.
The man on the ground was a human inhabitant of the Hollow Earth, a leftover of the ancient empires that far pre-dated the kingdoms and empires of Mesopotamia. He wore red leather torso armor that was adorned with golden patterns that somewhat resembled a hissing three headed dragon. He held a whip in his right hand which was wrapped in leather gauntlets, the whip seemed to be a spine that was ripped from the back of some other human. He wore brown pants and his brown boots were made out of a red leather like his torso armor.
This man's name was Tamurka, he was one of the many slavers of the sagoth empire. He looked at the giant ape with disdain in his eyes. His face was scarred up, probably from fighting against a revolting slave.
"Kong, you are to dig the Element X from the hill you see before you! You are not to stop until every single inch of glowing material has vanished from the hill! Refusing our commands is to be put to death!" Tamurka called out as he pointed to the Element X contained on the mountainside.
Although Kong couldn't understand what the human was saying, he noticed that Tamurka was pointing to the glowing material on the mountainside and his eyes also directed themselves to stare at the large mace. Putting the puzzle pieces together in his head, Kong determined that his objective was to dig and mine away at the glowing rocks. Kong had no problem with mining or digging, he had done it before but he didn't understand why he had to be shackled and chained up...until he had a vision flash before his eyes.
This had to have been millions of years before his time but he saw many of his species attached to these pillars, digging away at the mysterious elements. The faces displayed on the members of his race looked exhausted and sad.
Other members of his race howled and roared in agony as their fur was seen glowing due to being electrocuted by something unseen. The bodies of others were charred from constant burns from electricity, other bodies were dead and stacked up in a messy heap.
In the vision, Kong also noticed that it wasn't just his kind that was made slaves by the Hollow Earth peoples, but many other titans too. He saw Godzilla's kind being subjugated to more slavery but differently than his family. He saw the young of Godzilla's race being forcefully ripped from their parents by a horde of titan warriors that were loyal to their human masters, the offspring of the two Godzilla parents being savagely beaten by other titans in a way to break their minds and spirits, to turn them into enraged killing machines due to the pent up anger. The offspring that tried to fight back was killed by other titan enforcers.
To see these titans undergo such pain and suffering set a fire within Kong, to be forced to toil and work for nothing but a meager prize that wasn't enough for what they deserved. Things the size of city buildings reduced to slaves by humans that were the size of ants compared to them.
Now, millions of years later, Kong was in the exact same position. Chained up as a slave, being threatened with certain death if he didn't do as was told. Not only was he angered by this, but he was deeply saddened as well.
Kong had a fantastic relationship with the humans, granted there were several bumps in the road, but it had mostly been spotless. The Iwi, those that helped him during the events of the 1973 mission, Aaron Brooks, and now Jia. The humans of the Hollow Earth were different, they were mean, nasty, power abusing tyrants that had to be knocked down a peg. This sadness also turned to fury and increased his anger ten fold.
He was supposed to be an ally to humanity, not their bitch...
Kong stared down Tamurka with rage in his fiery eyes before letting out a defiant roar at the slaver, but the human didn't seem to be intimidated. Seeing this, the hairy beast moved forward as he reached for the man but all so suddenly, he felt a great burning sting take over his entire body. His fur sparkled with blue lightning as he reared his head back to roar in agony before falling to all fours!
"Bad idea, Kong. We will do that as many times as we need to in order to obtain your total obedience. We will break your will to fight, and your resolve to continue trying to escape. If you die, you die. We can find another one of your kind if we need to." Tamurka said with authority as Kong groaned from the burning pain he had received.
Rage still existed inside Kong and he furiously tried to pull his arms away from the towers and rush forwards to see if he could just break free, but his restraints were too strong and with a roar of determination another surge of electricity was sent his way. Kong roared into the skies once again with his roar filled with despair and agony...
(Location: Outpost 04 "The Inner Sanctum")
(A few hours later)
It was evening time, and the game of the Rams vs the Chargers had come to pass. The bathroom was never re-opened due to the events that had transpired.
An osprey had landed which was flown from Outpost 62 to Outpost 04, out came Dr. Ilene Andrews and her adopted daughter, Jia.
Jia had been crying non-stop, sometimes she would just sit there, looking hopeless as tears streamed down her face, she would be silent. Other times she would just start breaking down into tears and would cry harder than the last, having to bury her head into Dr. Andrews' shoulder as the two embraced.
She shouldn't be going through this... Dr. Andrews thought to herself as she was currently stroking the silky smooth black hair of the child as she wailed into her body, the sound of her loud cries being muffled out.
A guard noticed the crying child and felt sorrow creep into his heart as he then turned his attention to Dr. Andrews as he approached her.
"What brings you to the Inner Sanctum?" The guard asked.
"I was contacted by Captain Gordon of the G-Team, he wants Jia to see if we can locate Kong." Dr. Andrews replied.
"Alright, I'll take you to him. Follow my lead." The guard replied as he turned around, the two began to follow him towards what appeared to be a bunker entrance but it would only lead down into the underground military base that was situated underneath the surface. It was much like an Apex base, only that this one had existed long before.
Eventually they would meet Captain Gordon in a staff only room, seated at a table with Laura sitting there to comfort the crying Jia as Dr. Andrews discussed things over with the captain.
"Sorry, she's been crying non-stop ever since we left Outpost 62. It has been on and off and I can't control it." Dr. Andrews sighed, feeling terrible for the child. Captain Gordon nodded his head as he glanced over at Jia who was holding on to Laura who was comforting her by hugging her.
"It's okay, Dr. Andrews...We understand what is going on at the moment, we're going to set up an expedition to the Hollow Earth. There are currently two locations where we can easily access it, Monster Island, or the Antarctic facility." Captain Gordon responded.
"It would be better if we entered it by the Arctic facility, I think taking the Monster Island entrance is too risky with all things considered." Dr. Andrews suggested, Captain Gordon gave a nod of approval.
"Fine then, we shall enter the Hollow Earth by going through the Arctic portal. Any questions from anyone in the room?" Gordon asked.
"Yeah, how are we going to get into the Hollow Earth safely? I don't think you can simply march into it." Laura asked, curious as to how they would arrive.
"HEAVs, the Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicle. I sent Madison Russell and Sam Brody to Denham University two years ago in 2031, they spoke with a fella by the name of Nathan Lind who previously worked with Apex. He spoke of these vehicles and how they would hold off against the negative effects of the vortex, these should help us get around safely." Captain Gordon explained, the mention of Nathan Lind being in Apex put everyone on edge.
"Wait, that man worked for Apex. Are we going to start putting trust in our own enemy?" Carson Michaels asked with an incredulous look to Captain Gordon.
"He lost his brother who went on an expedition to the Hollow Earth, his brother was a human mouse, a test subject. After his death he resigned from Apex and went rogue. We don't know where his loyalties truly are, but we know he had shipped some of the HEAVs to the Arctic facility not too long after he quit. So with everything going on, we have him to thank for." Captain Gordon replied.
It was then that Jia stood up and wiped a few tears away from her face as she began to sign something of importance to Ilene Andrews
Arctic facility, he's close The child signed to the linguist, Dr. Andrews turned her head to face Captain Gordon now and started to relay the information to him.
"She said that he's close to the Arctic facility, so when we enter the Hollow Earth. He shouldn't be too far away." She said before turning to view her adopted child again.
I'll help Jia continued.
"She'll help." Dr. Andrews said to Captain Gordon.
"Well, it is settled. This will be a two part mission, first we get Kong out of whatever situation he is in or at least try to find him. Second, we head to the Seattle Apex base and rescue the three infiltrators that I've sent, assuming they haven't been executed yet..." Captain Gordon announced.
"Sounds like a plan, we best get moving now." Dr. Andrews replied as she stood up, Jia hopped from Laura's lap and approached her foster mother, everyone else stood up and would prepare for a trip into the Hollow Earth, the first time that Monarch has ever tried such a thing...
(Location: Apex seattle base)
Maia Simmons stood in front of the large battery that would be used to power the "armor" that would be placed on the Clone Kong, it was clear earlier but now it was starting to fill up with a dim purple light.
It's working, Kong's digging Maia thought to herself as she noticed the device starting to glow brighter every fifteen minutes.
"Father, Kong's doing our work now. He's digging, I'm receiving positive feedback from the X-Accumulator." Maia told her father through a transceiver.
"Ah yes, I see it on the cameras. Everything is coming along well, I think it is time we contact the technicians to start applying the armor to our Clone. This is history in the making, Operation Mechani-Kong is a go." Dr. Simmons spoke with a growing smile on his lips, rubbing his hands together in anticipation of finally activating the X-Accumulator and kickstarting what he deemed the "superior" to Kong.
"This will be a day long remembered." Maia said with pride, relishing in the success that her and her father's company worked so hard to achieve.
"Oh yes it will, Maia. Yes it will."