KellHound270's Work
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Chapter II
Command Bridge of the Gotengo, Isla de Mara, Mexico
"Is there anyone in there?" Dr. Hudson asked.
"Nothing but hot-blooded bugs in there," Stanton replied. "It's like a giant beehive."
"Is there any way in?" Dr. Kashiwagi asked.
"The doors on automatic lockdown, and we need a passcode to open it. We let the outpost decide the passcode for safety reasons."
"Are all of them locked like that?" Jon asked.
"I think the shielded door may be operable from here. We only just repaired it before comms went silent, so the passcode is probably not programmed yet."
"Open it."
Stanton did so. The shield that Rodan had originally broken was now slowly opening, and a flood of iridescent-green insects the size of human beings poured out.
From the drones that shot the footage, the scientists could see that these were immature insects, like dragonfly nymphs. Unlike dragonfly nymphs, however, these Titan nymphs were terrestrial, like locust nymphs, and they also lacked the labia that dragonflies had at this stage.
"Good God," Stanton muttered. "There's gotta be millions of them."
An alarm drew his attention to a popup labeled 'alpha priority.'
"Oh, boy. We've got a massive object making a beeline for the outpost at supersonic speed."
"How big is it?" Jon asked.
"It's wingspan is just a tad smaller than Rodan's."
"Where's it coming from?"
"Hawaii."
The creature flew at breakneck speeds for the Hive. She heard that one of her kind had claimed it as his own food source, but since there was so much screaming from the Hive, it's occupant must have left for better grounds.
The speed at which she was flying was so fast, she would be there before the end of the day. She wanted to be the first there before other Titans took advantage of it. Who knows how long it's previous occupant would take before it realized that there was still food there.
Before she knew it, she was at the volcano, where the Hive was over-flooding with delicious insects. For full-grown Titans, a Hive like this could only sustain them for so long, but this location was highly coveted because young Titans could eat insects with next to no defense.
However, to ensure a safe environment for hatchlings, the Queen had to be killed.
The giant avian Titan dug at the ground and scooped the insects into her mouth. Their taste wasn't that popular, but their nutritional value and the amount of calories they packed made them the Titan equivalent of El Dorado.
She ate the little nymphs with reckless abandon. She wanted to draw the Queen out to kill her.
And she succeeded.
A loud scream was heard from the hole where the nymphs crawled out of. Massive legs rose from the pit and pulled an insectoid body from the darkness of the now-extinct volcano. A pair of orange eyes stared angrily at the intruder, and two pairs of leathery wings appeared from the pit.
Finally, the avian was going to have a fight.
"Most intriguing," Dr. Kashigawi said, watching the battle play out. "I think these insects are Meganulon."
"The eusocial dragonfly Titan species?" Jon asked.
"Yes. I think this larger one is the Queen."
Jon looked at the Rodan lookalike. It was noticeably smaller than Rodan, and the lava that poured from the cracks in it's armor were yellow. Perhaps the most interesting change was the difference in armor, as this one had pure diamond covering it's feathers. Oddly enough, instead of being clear, the armor was white, possibly meaning that it scattered light instead of carrying it, hinting at a hair-like structure beneath the surface.
"What do we call the white Rodan?" Stanton asked.
"I think Roc is a fitting name," Jon said. "The Roc was a bird of myth like the Phoenix, but was far larger and much stronger. This is fitting for this Titan, as it has diamond armor, the strongest mineral in the world."
"The scans show that it's a female," Stanton announced. "I think we found a potential mate for our favorite Fire Demon."
They focused on the battle. At first, it was very equal, but the Queen meganulon was quickly overpowering Roc. Her diamond armor protected her from serious harm, but the Queen was far more aggressive, and could very well shatter Roc's armor if the avian didn't receive help soon.
"Do we still have a replica of Rodan's screams?" Jon asked.
"Yeah, why?" Stanton replied.
"We're going to bring him into the fight."
Mt. Api, Fiji
Rodan was still wallowing in sadness when he heard the scream. It was like his, but... pained. Like it was being attacked.
With all other Titans, he would ignore their cries for help. But this... this was his own kind. His social instincts were overriding his ignorance.
Rodan allowed the anger he was feeling to come to a boil, as his anger proved to be effective in enhancing himself. Finally, it boiled over, and his scream created a powerful enough vibration to shatter Api's peak and trigger a deadly eruption.
With a single clap of his wings, Rodan flew out of the volcano and rocketed into the sky. After reaching a substantial height, he spread his wings and began to dive at a very small angle. If he held up this angle, he could be at Isla de Mara before the day was over.
And he was rarely late to a battle.