(Chapter 10: Kong escapes, Part 1)
A few hours had passed and now an osprey was seen on the horizon within the Arctic, a new facility had been built not too far away from where Outpost 32 and Outpost 60 were located. This was the location that the HEAVs were stationed at, in terms of being an outpost, this one was more under the radar than the rest. This outpost didn't house a dormant titan but instead was built over a portal to the Hollow Earth, which was just as important as a titan according to many.
"This is going to be a longshot but I hope to God that this pays off." Captain Gordon said to the others that were within the osprey with him, his eyes going from Jia to Dr. Andrews, Carson Michaels, Laura Belinsky, and Vergil Snow.
All of them had donned flight suits to prepare for this trip into the Hollow Earth, deep inside of them all, they feared what would happen. This is the first time that anyone from Monarch had taken a trip into the depths of the planet. It was a long standing theory that the Hollow Earth was where every single titan originated from and they all began to wonder how much of them would be living within it once they arrived if they arrived.
"We're almost there." The pilot was heard over the intercom.
In the distance was a snow covered canyon, it was a man-made canyon. The gigantic trench ended in a large metal valve that was opening up as they arrived, the canyon walls were covered in catwalks and entrances into an interior space like a city had been built within the large walls of the canyon.
The osprey would land on a helipad in the distance, the gang within would come pouring out to observe the area around them all. Jia had never seen snow before so she was curious as she got Dr. Andrews' attention.
Vergil Snow glanced over at Jia who seemed confused about things and wondered what she was saying to the linguist.
"What's going on?" Vergil asked.
"She's asking why is everything white." Dr. Andrews replied with a grin.
"I take it that she hasn't seen snow?" Carson chuckled.
"Yeah, she hasn't seen many things. It's good we have her here though, we need her to find Kong." Dr. Andrews replied as she patted her adopted daughter on the head.
"That is if she is able to locate him, I'm not about to travel in the Hollow Earth for years trying to find him." Captain Gordon grumbled as he took out a cigar and started to smoke it.
"Where are the HEAVs?" Carson Michaels asked as he looked over to Vergil Snow.
"Downstairs, they're heating up to prepare for the flight." Vergil answered.
(Location: Hollow Earth)
Kong had been mining away at the hillside that was slathered with that mysterious energy that Apex had dubbed "Element X."
The mighty ape was using a large stone mace that had evidently been crafted by the humanoids of the Hollow Earth to dig away, the spikes on the mace punching and grinding into the energy, making it glow as it was scraped from the hillside.
Kong was heavily annoyed by this, he couldn't believe that he was being used as a mere slave. As he brought the mace down again, watching the glowing energy fall from the rocks, he was filled with a sense of rage once again. The guardian god of Monster Island had been having spells on and off where he would become filled with wrath just as Jia had spells where she wept over his current condition.
With a roar of fury, Kong hurled his mace towards the hillside which exploded with a bright flash of violet colored energy that shoved him back some. The primate shook his head to clear the cobwebs of what had just happened but before he could register anything in his mind, he received another shock from the collar that was around his neck that caused him to roar in agony once again.
Kong was starting to get pissed off about the electro-torture that he was under if he tried to fight back, he began to forcefully jerk his arms around to try and break free of his chains only to receive another shock from the collar. This time it was twice as painful, causing him to yelp in pain and fall to his knees yet again with a groan of excruciating pain.
A single tear left Kong's eye and it traveled down his cheek as he projected a telepathic vision to Jia, he needed their help and he felt that his time was starting to run out...
(Location: Arctic Facility)
From out of nowhere, Jia began to wail with anguish once more as she collapsed to her knees. Her back violently heaved up and down as she took sharp breaths between the tears that fell rapidly from her eyes.
All eyes were on the child as Dr. Andrews got down on her knees next to her, gently rubbing her back and trying to get information out of Jia of what was going on.
The deaf Iwi girl sat up and turned towards Dr. Andrews, the area around her eyes was red and puffy as tears streamed down them, the eyes themselves were bloodshot from how much she had been crying in just a short span.
What is going on? Dr. Andrews begged to understand, tears starting to form up in her own eyes as well as this was the worst Jia had been in ever since she became depressed.
It's Kong, he's in unfathomable pain. I think we'll lose him if we don't do something Jia signed frantically as she wiped some tears from her eyes, this caused Dr. Andrews to turn towards the rest of the gang with a single tear trailing down her cheek.
"Kong's going to die if we don't hurry." The linguist said softly.
"Well shit, we need to get moving immediately!" Captain Gordon exclaimed.
"We need to move!" Vergil screamed, techs would then lead the gang downstairs to the docking bay where the HEAVs were located.
Upon entering the docking bay they were astounded at the sheer size of the aircraft, but there was one thing wrong with them, they didn't seem to have any wings.
"Uh, how the hell are we going to fly without wings on it?!" Captain Gordon barked, a tech approached with a gentle voice to try and calm him down.
"Sir, they don't have wings." The technician spoke.
Instead of wings, they had four stubby projections, two on the front and back. These things could turn and spin when needed, right now, the cylinders were vertical and would act to lift the craft from the ground but once they were within the air, the cylinders would rotate and act as thrusters.
The shape of the HEAV itself wasn't sleek or aerodynamic like a modern day jet or a plane, it seemed to be on the boxy side in terms of design, it was made that way to fit multiple people inside instead of just one or two.
"We best trust the techs on this one, Captain Gordon. We're on borrowed time right now." Laura Belinsky told her superior.
Three HEAVs would be going on this trip. Within one of them would be Dr. Ilene Andrews, Jia and Laura Belinsky as well as Carson Michaels and a male pilot. In the other HEAV would be Vergil Snow, Captain Gordon, Nathan Lind, and a male pilot as well as another G-Team trooper. The third HEAV would contain nothing but Monarch scientists and G-Team troopers that nobody really knew.
After Dr. Andrews helped Jia strap in, she strapped herself in to get ready. Everyone watched as the pilots in their respective craft flip switches and communicate with the others to prepare for liftoff.
"Get ready, we're in for a bumpy ride," Nathan Lind warned, he was tagging along for the trip and wasn't really part of the mission.
Within moments the HEAVs would burst from their landing pads and would fly towards the large hole that had been carved into the side of the canyon wall, as they entered one by one, it appeared to be a giant tunnel of sorts like that of a subway tube, but that would eventually change into a massive cavern with stalactites the size of titans either dangling from the icy ceiling or the floor of the cave. I-beams were put into place to keep the cavern stable as it was some kind of mine.
"The portal is dead ahead, we'll be sucked into it like a whirlpool from what I know. I hope you can keep the vomit to yourself..." Nathan Lind continued, he sounded playful but he meant every word.
They all noticed a strange multicolored light dancing around on the ceiling of the cave in the distance and a hole in the ground, that had to have been the entrance to the Hollow Earth. The pilots of the HEAVs punched it and they were boosted forward with a loud hum of energy!
As they went over the edge, the crafts were forcefully pulled downwards, taking a nosedive straight for a pulsing, swirling energy membrane known as the Vile Vortex. This vortex was shaped somewhat similar to a whirlpool.
The gang had never seen anything like it and there was nothing they could do now to turn around, there was no turning back. The journey had officially begun as each HEAV punched through the membrane one by one.
"This is where the fun begins..." Nathan gulped as he thought of his brother's failed expedition, this is where he had perished. He took in a deep breath as the HEAV he was in entered the vortex.
From within the HEAV that contained Dr. Andrews, she noticed that the membrane seemed to stretch as the other two aircraft entered it. She looked back at Jia with a playful look on her face, Jia looked more determined than ever to save Kong, looking bold and ready.
Are you ready? Dr. Andrews signed with a smile, Jia smiled with a thumbs up and a sniffle.
Then their HEAV was the last to enter as it punched through with some effort, evident by the craft rattling on all sides. Then they were plunged into a strange dark void that lasted for about five seconds, everything seemed to slow down now but it didn't last long.
Within an instant, the craft suddenly surged forward with insane speed that forcefully drove every single person strapped to their seats back hard that knocked the wind out of them! Bright colors flashed all around them, pinks, reds, blues, all the saturated colors you can think of whipped and danced around the HEAVs. The craft shook more violently than before, rattling intensely as it was seemingly about to come apart and rupture with the immense pressure being put on it.
Everyone was uncomfortable, with the pressure they felt driving into their chests and all around their heads to the loud rattling that came from the HEAVs. Some of them had to let out screams of discomfort and some were even yelling in extreme pain!
The discomfort came as soon as it went though, but it would serve as a memory in everyone's heads from that moment on until they passed away. That must have been the bumpy part of the ride that Nathan had been referring to.
It was smooth sailing once again as they emerged into another world, most of the gang looked at the surroundings with awe and wonder while Captain Gordon remained fixated on the task at hand: Saving Kong and getting the heck out of dodge because God knows what exists in this inner world.
"Are we...in a different dimension?" Carson Michaels asked himself, thinking that they had gone through a wormhole that was somehow within the Earth, he felt as though they had left the planet entirely.
This was Hollow Earth!
There was a sky but it was vastly different than the sky everyone knew on the surface world, the sky within the Hollow Earth was sandwiched between two different downs. Below them, all existed forests, mountains, and rivers in which stretched out in every direction. Ahead of them through some clouds; or was it fumes and steam coming from the several volcanic vents? Was tree covered mountains hanging like stalactites. Everything appeared similar that was on the different downs, but this was just the beginning of the massive world of the Inner Earth.
There existed different biomes within the Hollow Earth, deserts, jungles, forests, and even tundras. Mountains that climbed higher than Mount Everest on the surface world went for miles in some locations, there was even an ocean complete with various islands.
One would mistake the Hollow Earth for Hell as in Dante's Inferno, there were different sections or stages of the underworld, it was practically the same for the Hollow Earth. The inner world had different levels, valleys would dip below what was considered ground level, some valleys going miles lower and forming canyons of epic proportions. It was all so much to take in and the scientists contained within one of the HEAVs jotted down notes of everything they witnessed.
There was surprisingly also a light source, but no one could pin point exactly where it was coming from. Was it another sun? Or was it some source of artificial light?
They had little time to take in the majesty of this place when they hit a gravity inversion point, their crafts suddenly began to violently take a freefall towards what was considered one of the "ground!"
"All delta, reverse gravity propulsion immediately!" Nathan ordered the pilots to follow his command in every HEAV as they flipped a switch and pulled back. The change was so sudden that all of the blood rushed down from their head, almost causing many of them to pass out!
Everything went back to normal after a moment as the HEAVs rushed up again, going back into flight as they hovered over the ground. The crafts were now hovering over a lush rainforest biome that could put the Amazon to shame, as natural as everything appeared to be, everything seemed to be mystical at the same time; alien to what they knew on the surface world.
"We're here now, this is the Hollow Earth..." Nathan Lind announced over the transceivers of every pilot.
(Location: Apex Base, Seattle)
"How is it coming along, father?" Maia Simmons asked Walter over the transceiver as she walked down the hall to speak with Alan Jonah and the others.
Walter stood in the observation deck of the "artificial womb" and a smile came to his face as he witnessed the machinery going right to work at placing on the "titan armor" on the clone of Kong as he was out cold due to an anesthetic shot.
The surgery was almost complete, the cybernetic enhancements were almost completely on. The machinery was right at work at embedding it into the clone's flesh to make it stay on him instead of falling off if hit too hard.
"Fantastic, Maia. Got any info on the X-Accumulator?" He asked.
"It's been glowing brighter with each minute, Kong is doing his job. It's almost at one hundred percent now as we speak. I'm currently on my way to a meeting with Mr. Jonah and his crew." Maia replied and this caused Walter to chuckle deviously.
"Excellent, that will be the final touch to our creation..." He said coldly.
Silver-metal plating covered most of the upper body of the titan, especially the chest, shoulders, upper back, and arms. A metallic strap went down from the upper back portion of the armor and wrapped around the waist as if it was a belt, attached to the "belt" were various missiles that were programmed by artificial intelligence. The head of the Kong clone was plated by metal with only the bottom jaw being exposed. The normal amber coloring of the eyes was now going to be a glowing violet color. The hands were covered by metal gauntlets that would add extra damage to the punches this mechanical Kong would throw at his enemies.
In the left pectoral section of the armored plating was a hole that had been drilled into the Kong clone's chest, it is where the X-Accumulator would be placed and it would officially activate what Apex was calling "Mechani-Kong."
(Location: Hollow Earth)
Kong groaned as he looked over to his right to see a large robotic machine drilling into the material that he had mined, a mechanical whirring was coming from the crab shaped robot as it drilled. This was uploading Element X into the X-Accumulator as time went by, loads upon loads of energy being collected and stored into a powerful device.
Tamurka stood on top of one of the obsidian towers in which the chains that bound Kong were connected, the slaver noticed that the large ape was glaring at the robot with intense hatred.
He grabbed hold of a lever on a stone panel as he observed Kong's actions, setting the intensity of the electricity within the collar second to the highest voltage with a press of a button.
Having a new target to attack, the ape raised up the mace with one arm, ready to smash the machine into pieces with the weapon. He roared in defiance but Tamurka was quick to put that to rest with the drop of another lever, sending incredible amounts of volts into Kong's body!
Kong dropped the mace which would land on a large boulder containing loads of Element X, his labor was nowhere near finished. A loud howl of indescribable pain forced Kong to collapse to all fours, his eyes glazed over as a stream of foam left his mouth. His vision was blurry and his breathing became labored. A weak groan came out of his mouth, the ape just laying there on his stomach and barely moving. He was alive but the electric shock had taken lots out of him, the highest voltage was the right amount to kill a titan like Kong.
Kong could feel the heart within his chest beating awkwardly, the heart rate was irregular thanks to the voltage of the shock that was sent upon him. Experiencing palpitations, Kong groaned as he dug his fingers into the ground, leaving large marks. As he tried to force himself up, his arms were shaky and weak, threatening to just give way. A few tears left his eyes, he didn't think he would make it, and somewhere nearby, Jia felt the same.
Jia happened to be using telepathic visions with her eyes closed to give an approximate location of Kong, describing his surroundings to Laura and Ilene within their HEAV, Carson relayed the info to the pilot that sat in front of him.
The HEAVs went past the large archway that Kong made his secondary home, all of them noticed his massive ax that was lodged into a large stone.
"There it is, his ax." Carson said as he pointed to it, Laura acknowledged the ax before turning her attention back to Jia who was now in tears once again all while her eyes were closed.
"She said that she thinks we're going to lose him." Dr. Andrews sighed to the pilot as Jia signed something else.
He shouldn't be further away now she signed as tears ran down her face.
"We need to move as fast as we can towards Jia's direction!" Carson exclaimed, fearing for Kong's life now.
"NorthWest, she's pointing NorthWest!" Dr. Andrews shouted and the HEAVs began to fly in the desired direction that Jia was providing them.
(Location: Apex base, Seattle)
From within the observation deck, there came a loud hum, Walter Simmons looked around curiously to figure out what was going on. He left the room and went down the hall towards a camera room where he would investigate the holding chamber of the X-Accumulator.
The large battery like device was now glowing at maximum intensity, violet sparks of energy were seen flickering off of the battery, indicating that any much more power would be an overload.
"It's time..." Walter said to himself as he pulled out his phone to contact one of his techs, it was time to insert the X-Accumulator into Mechani-Kong, it was time to awaken the cyborg.
"Hello?" One of the technicians said on the other line.
"Yes, it's Walter. The X-Accumulator is completely charged, we can go ahead with inserting it within the armor. It's time to unleash Mechani-Kong upon the world." Walter replied.
"I'll do it right away." The male technician spoke on the other line before the two of them hung up.
Walter stood within the observation deck to witness his creation come to life, from within the artificial womb a slot opened up and a large crane claw descended from the ceiling to enter the slot that had opened up. Within a matter of minutes, the X-Accumulator was slowly lifted from its holding chamber.
His eyes twinkled as the X-Accumulator boomed with power and flashed with violet light intensely, crackles of purple lightning striking and sparking from the power core that was soon to be inserted into the giant cyborg that was laying on the ground before them.
"Yes..." He said to himself as the claw began to lower the X-Accumulator into the slot where it belonged on Mechani-Kong, once it was completely in, the crane claw configured into a drill and began to spin so it would be perfectly in place, a large clicking noise was heard once it was installed.
Seconds afterward, a loud mechanical roar came from the cyborg as its mouth opened up. The eyes flashed yellow and remaining as such, purple energy crackled from all around the silver-metal plating that surrounded its upper body and arms as well as most of its head.
It looked around, looking up towards the observation deck as Walter began to speak into a transceiver that would broadcast into the artificial womb. The cyborg's database detected Walter as its creator and therefore, an ally. As Walter spoke through the transceiver, his voice was broadcast into its computer and it would understand his every word.
"My Mechani-Kong, my creation. You are to head towards the Arctic Facility of Monarch, we've detected a few stolen HEAVs activating. Do what must be done, destroy the facility, leave nothing left and if anyone or anything tries to stop you, destroy them as well!" He ordered.
Mechani-Kong pounded its chest with a robotic howl as the holding chamber of the X-Accumulator opened up entirely, the platform holding the cyborg lowered into the chamber where a large hole had been revealed on the wall.
Unbeknownst to Monarch, Apex had built a tunnel that went all the way to their new facility in the Arctic. It was made by the rival organization but the hole reaching the end of the tunnel was blocked off purposefully by Apex to make Monarch think that there was no such tunnel there in the first place. The plan was to ram one of the maglev cars containing loads of explosive devices through and to storm the facility, but this was another option. Mechani-Kong was just going to barge in and begin raising hell and there would be nothing they could do...
(Location: Hollow Earth)
Kong had gone back to work, digging away at the Element X even though enough had been mined out of the hillside to power Mechani-Kong, nobody had alerted the slavers of what was going on. The mighty ape continued to heave the mace over his shoulders and slam it on the hillside to watch the Element X fall from it like an avalanche for the various sagoth troops to collect and for the large machinery to obtain it and send it up towards the many Apex bases around the globe.
Tamurka continued to oversee the progress with pride, his arms folded with a smug grin on his scarred-up face. Two sagoth guards stood with him, one to his right and left.
"How long will he be our slave?" One of the sagoths asked.
"Until every ounce of that energy is obtained, when that hillside is spotless, his labor will be over. That is if he doesn't resist enough to the point we end his life." Tamurka replied.
"Sire, what are those things coming in the distance?" The second sagoth asked, Tamurka turned to where the guard was pointing to see three flying objects encircled in glowing blue energy.
"I don't recognize those objects, ready the thipdars and trodons. Whoever is riding those things will be captives and fed to the jaloks in the arena." Tamurka said with a scowl.
"I'll prepare the flight right away." One of the sagoth guards spoke.
The thipdar was a flying reptilian creature native to the Hollow Earth, it had large bat-like wings a medium sized neck as well as a head resembling that of an alligator crossed with a snake. It had a tail that had a serrated end to it that could be used to slice into its enemies or prey.
In the same family as the thipdar was the trodon, the trodon was also native to the Hollow Earth and it was a dragon-like reptile that had pouches like those of kangaroos on its stomach. These creatures were more massive than the thipdar and could pack quite a punch with their ability to shoot purple lightning from its mouth that somewhat resembled a beak but at the same time, it wasn't one.
The jalok was a Hollow Earth name given to the hyaenodon. They were vicious carnivores and due to the energy of the Hollow Earth, they evolved to grow larger and more capable of a predator, the hairs on their back giving them a razorback appearance. These creatures, while vicious, could be tamed when they are young, they are commonly used in the arena to execute prisoners or the fighters that fought in the games.
The thipdars and trodons could also be domesticated and rode on, typically flown by warriors of the Hollow Earth as opposed to the fighter jets of the overworld.
The HEAVs could see the location up ahead, Jia was correct in her directions and the way she felt. Nobody could believe what they were seeing at the moment...
It was Kong chained up to three obsidian towers that had to have been six hundred feet tall or possibly counting, gigantic rusty chains were attached to shackles on his wrists and a large rusted collar around his neck. At Kong's front was a massive hill that seemed to big to be a hill, yet it was considered one by the Hollow Earth peoples. The hill was glowing with Element X, the miracle material that had been a topic for discussion by Apex for years.
Behind the three pillars was something even more fascinating, a gigantic city!
The city looked like a mixture of every old empire you can think of, there were large pyramids that stood at the size of the titans themselves. There were large towers, a massive coliseum that was used for events. Archways and temples.
It was like a mixture of ancient Egypt, Rome, and Mesopotamian civilizations similar to Babylon in the way the city was built. Some of the buildings had strange designs of the which no ancient civilization had ever built, several buildings of this city looked alien in appearance.
The material in which the buildings were made out of was mortar and stone bricks.
"Unbelievable..." Laura said to herself as she gazed out of the HEAV's window to view everything that was on display before them.
"There's Kong, we've got to do something." Carson muttered and it was then that all eyes shifted to the massive ape that was chained up.
"Remember our mission, we save Kong and get the fuck out of here." Captain Gordon was heard over the transceivers.
"All delta, fire on those towers!" Nathan Lind commanded, moments later, large missiles were launched from the HEAV's guns towards the towers. A smile briefly cast itself onto Kong's face, he knew that his human allies were coming to save him now.
"What?!" Tamurka screamed as he noticed the large missiles coming towards the towers, but before the missiles could connect with them, they burst into flames!
"Are you kidding me?!" Carson Michaels screamed as he noticed a blue energy shield seemed to pop up when the missiles were in close vicinity of the obsidian towers.
"That looks similar to what that Apex bitch used on her helicopter." Carson continued.
Kong roared with determination as he tried to jerk his body forward, Tamurka quickly sent another shock towards the ape that caused him to roar with agony as he fell to his knees yet again.
She was right... Ilene Andrews thought to herself upon seeing the large ape's matted fur light up with electricity. Remembering at how Jia was telling her that Kong was in pain and in deep trouble as she had her crying spells, they were telepathic visions of what was happening!
"What the hell are those things?" Nathan Lind asked himself as he noticed several flying creatures suddenly taking flight towards the "sky" and they were heading towards the HEAVs!
"Whatever they are, they aren't on our side..." Laura replied through the transceiver.
"Smoke 'em!" Captain Gordon ordered and the HEAVs began to unleash a barrage of bullets right their way via the turret guns.
The thipdars and trodons were torn apart by the turrets, some trodons remained alive due to being bigger than the thipdars. A sagoth warrior riding on the back of a trodon reached into the pouch belonging to the creature to pull out an arrow, the simian humanoid drew back the bow and released the arrow towards the HEAV, it did absolutely nothing to the aircraft!
Even though several of those flying reptilians had been gunned down, several more remained in flight and were now gaining on the HEAVs as they flew towards each other at incredible speed!
"Smoke 'em again!" Captain Gordon boomed and the turret fire continued onwards, shredding their enemies to bits as the reptilian creatures shrieked in pain as the bullets tore through their bodies and wings.
"There's way too many of those things!" Carson cried out.
"We don't have time for panicking, ramming speed!" Captain Gordon screamed and the pilots shot the HEAVs forward as fast as they could go, slamming through several of those creatures, their bodies thumping hard onto the plexiglass windows!
Some trodon riders managed to evade the attack and what came next stunned all of the humans within the craft, violet colored lightning crackled from the mouths of the dragon-like creatures and struck the HEAVs hard!
The voltage was enough to start glitching out the systems within the aircraft, forcing them to come to a landing close to the obsidian towers to prevent them from crash landing and exploding.
Kong sighed as he saw them starting to land, knowing that his only attempt at getting free could have just gone up in smoke...