Super Science
Ch 59: Landfall Villains and Eggs
"Hello?", Egon answered his phone one day at the facility only to get the gargled and rapidly incoherent yelling of Hankoyō. "Woah woah woah there Hankoyō! Calm down and just tell me what's happening.", Egon had to shout back at him.
The man took a deep breath on the other end to calm himself and then replied, "Oh boy, where do I start? Ok, so it all began when we finally made landfall on Pacifica."
Near the shoreline of Pacifica, the cargo ship that was carrying the NIP creatures was parked and ready to unload the many cages packaged aboard. However, they were told to wait on that since they got a call from their employer, Egon, telling them to wait until Hankoyō had arrived after drifting off the Japanese shore. And so they waited for after making landfall on the island…for about three hours.
"Captain.", one of the crewmen asked the captain inside the control deck with the man, looking through a pair of binoculars.
"Yes, private.", he asked back, nose deep in the papers.
"Is it just me or is there a building-sized spider floating towards us.", the crewmen ask.
The captain put the paper down and moved out of his chair to look through the private binoculars. There he looked around the open ocean scenery and quickly spotted what the man was looking at. And so it was that he spotted the world's largest and ugliest-looking spider floating toward them on a raft made of webs. Soon the captain and the whole crew were on the port side of the boat and looking over in a mix of shock and horror as the creature began to paddle itself at a fast speed towards them with its many legs.
Though before panic could settle in they saw something stand atop the creature and call out, "Ahoy over there!"
"Dear God.", the captain said to himself.
Soon the spider came close to the ship and on its head was a scientist with five black tube-like structures coming out of his head. The captain knew this was the man they were supposed to be waiting for, but they didn't expect him to float into shore like this!
Hankoyō did a salute and asked, "Permission to come aboard."
"P-Permission granted.", the captain said back in a daze as the scientist jumped onto the ship's deck. "How-?", the captain tried to ask.
"Water! Water now!", Hankoyō demanded with his hand out as one of the crewmen handed him a canteen that he snatched and drank dry. After sighing with relief from the drink he babbled out, "Oh thank you! You have no idea what I went through! I don't think I could drink from Ungolaint's fluid sacks another day longer!"
All the people on board looked at one another and the captain asked, "What?"
"Desperate times call for desperate measures. Don't judge me.", Hankoyō snapped at the man.
The captain looked over the man and saw he had been through quite a lot. He was sunburnt, his clothes had been stained by sea salt, his eyes sunken from lack of sleep, and his mouth covered in a green tinge and scales, no doubt from eating fish but had no idea about the green color.
"So this is the giant spider we were supposed to transport, but got held up due to its…enclosure?", the captain asked.
Hankoyō changed this tune and happily told them, "Yep, this here is my pride and joy Ungoliant! Isn't she beautiful?"
The people on board looked over and saw the huge and disgusting creature as it opened its mouth at them in some form of a smile. This made the people shiver in disgust and the captain replied, "Yeah….sure. How did you survive?"
"Well, I drank from Ungoliant's fluid sacks.", Hankoyō began.
"We know.", They all cut him off in sync.
Hankoyō frowned at them and continued, "And she also caught fish for me. Raw fish is a killer on my stomach.", with that he releases a wet fart and blushes.
"Well, we're glad to see you safe, doctor.", the captain told him as he rubbed the back of his head.
Hankoyō looked over the boat and saw the distance from where the ship was to the shore and asked, "So I guess you guys can't get any closer to shore?"
The captain shook his head and informed him, "Not unless we wanna get beached. Unloading all your creatures is gonna be a lot more time-consuming."
Hankoyō placed a hand to his chin, snapped his fingers, and called out, "Ungoliant, build us a dock please."
The giant spider did as she was told and leaped from her raft to the shore. Using her many legs and many large boulders by the shore, she used her black webs to start sticking them together. Within a few minutes, using the boulders as anchor points, she spun a huge dock made entirely from her webs! The dock was sturdy enough to walk on, strong enough to hold the huge cargo vessel, and large enough that Ungoliant could walk on it comfortably.
Egon proudly displayed his spider's work and inquired, "How's this?"
"It…should suffice.", the captain said in shock and amazement as the rest of the crew all looked out with equal awe.
Hankoyō then looked around the ship and asked the men, "By the way, where is Torch Wick?"
The captain wondered what he meant for a second then realized what he was referring to, so he answered while pointing to the sky, "The dragon? He broke out of his cage and started to fly around the boat as we traveled, he's up above us now."
Hankoyō used one of his tendrils to shade his face and look skywards and saw the huge shadow of Torch Wick flying above them, looking quite happy at all the space and freedom he had to fly. And so Hankoyō, the cargo ship crew, and Ungoliant all aided in unloading the man cages of different creatures on the ship. Some of them were easier than most since all they had to do was release them into the open ocean, others were far harder. But thanks to Ungoliant, that would be a snap, since she could easily jump from one part of the island to the other where the creatures most suited to their most suited environments would go. Any animal released on the shore would have to be done so using the 420 Peace Out Splinter so none of them would get attacked. But before any of that, they first had to unload and take inventory of all the animals from the ship to the shore.
While they were doing this, one of the crewmen saw what looked like a person beginning to come out from the thick forest brush closer to the island. The one person turned to two, then four, and ten, and more.
So he called for the doctor and called, "Hey, Doctor.", Hankoyō, who was doing an inventory of the animals, turned his head as the crewmen asked, "Didn't you say this island was uninhabited?"
"Of course it is. There's nothing but plant life.", Hankoyō confirmed.
"Then who are they?!", the crewmen asked as he pointed to the group of people, now in the dozens running towards them.
"Maybe they're friendly?", Hankoyō optimistically offered as he saw the cargo ship crew begin to panic. Only for a fireball to graze his head and hit the metal cage, he was standing by. "Never mind, not friendly! Not Friendly!", Hankoyō screamed as they all started to run back to the ship with the hostile people screaming and chasing them.
Long before they could catch up to them, Ungoliant jumped in between the massive army of violent people and screamed at them! The people, either crazy or desperate, did not halt the assault and began to attack the giant spider! Thought this wasn't a problem as the huge spider used her man legs, the mouth of many teeth, and thorax to peirce, crunch, and crush all the people! But even then they still tried to attack them and climb up the huge spider.
From there the crewmen and the scientist ran back to the ship where they began to run back and pull back the ramp way. Once seemingly safe, the captain breathlessly asked, "Where are they all coming from? There's so many!"
"We have more significant problems. Ungoliant is gonna get swarmed!", Hankoyō yelled at him as they all looked over to see a seemingly never-ending swarm of people climb onto and attack the huge spider that was now begging to lose the battle. Fortunately for them, a secret weapon declined from the sky and Torch Wick soared down with a mighty roar! He breathes a weak flame on Ungoliant to remove the people on her, but keeping her unharmed. He then flew by the army of people and breathed out a straight line of flames across the sand! People got knocked away by the sheer pressure of the flames or engulfed and incinerated by them! Anyone still left over from that attack, and especially seeing the dragon, ran back into the forest where Torch Wick landed and let out a bellowing roar towards the first, warning all the leftover people.
Seeing their dire situation turn in their favor, relief washed over all of them and the captain exclaimed, "Thank god we have that dragon!"
When the coat was cleared, the ramp was lowered again and the crew made their way back to the island. Although they had more work to do, morbid curiosity took over them as they examined the men's corpses of their attacks lying all around the beach. Many of the crew got sick of the sight and either vomited or ran away.
However, one person seemed very interested in one of them and kept staring at the corpse intensely. He then called out, "Hey wait, I know this guy.", This got everyone's attention and they all came around the man as he explained to them, "I saw him on the news a few weeks ago. He was some big-time villain that finally got caught and was given a life sentence."
Hankoyō took out his Purah Pad, which he still had with him, and took a photo of the man's face. After running it through he found out it was a newly incarcerated inmate. Hankoyō thought to himself for a minute then began to run around to all the bodies and took pictures of the ones that still had intact faces. After running the faces through the finder system he found out one common thing amongst them all.
So he announced it to all the people present, "Wait a second. All of these people are villains with life sentences or the death penalty! How'd they get here?"
"Villains?! On Pacifica!?", Egon yelled over the phone as Hankoyo finished his story.
"Yeah!", Hankoyō exclaimed back.
"Why'd you wait so long to tell me!? You've been there for several days!", Egon practically yelled at the man.
"That's because…something else happened. And there was no reception on Pacifica.", Hankoyō told him.
Egon slapped himself on the head in stupidity and said, "Oh right. Go on."
"After we unloaded the animals and plants into their selected environments, we took a few days to rest, refuel the ship, and get the coordinates for home. In that time, not only did I take recordings and notes on the creatures acclimating to their new environments, Torch Wick did something I didn't expect.", he explained vaguely.
"What did he do?", Egon prompted him further.
"That brings me to this question. Torch Wick…is a guy, right?", Hankoyō inquired.
Egon was silent for a moment before answering, "We never determined that, but we called him a boy simply because it was easier. Why?"
"Cause he laid eggs…a lot of them! And all over Pacifica.", the man finally told him.
"Eggs?!", Egon repeated the word in surprise.
"Yeah, big ones too! I wanted to take a few samples home with me, but they hatched really really fast.", the man explained further.
"What came out?", Egon prompted him,
This is when Hankoyō sounded far more serious as he exclaimed, "Dragons! Lots and lots of dragons! And different ones too! All are designed to survive in several different locations! And if that wasn't enough, they were all born…grown."
"As in, small adults?", Egon questioned.
"As in fully grown adults ready to take on the world and mate.", Hankoyō corrected him.
"By the Gods. I would've never guessed.", Egon muttered to himself before sighing and telling him, "Once we have an easier way to travel between Pacifica, we'll start to document them. I'll also be calling the Prime Minister about this. I'll get back to you with more info."
After hanging up on him, Egon dials the number to the Prime Minister's office. After a bit of back and forth with her secretary, he's put on a brief hold where the woman herself picks up and answers cordially saying, "Professor. To what do I owe the-."
But Egon cuts her off and firmly asks her, getting increasingly aggravated, "Hey Prime Minister, how are you? Great? That's great. Hey speaking of talking, how about you talk of the reason there are criminals on my uninhabited and dangerous subcontinent!"
The woman was silent for a moment then asked out of the blue, "Professor Egon. Do you know how many jails there are in Japan?"
"62, not counting everything for juveniles. Why is this relevant?", Egon answers with ease and asks back.
"Do you know how fast the crime rate shot up during the heyday of quirks?", she inquires again.
This time it takes Egon a minute to think then tells her, "89%?"
"Exactly. And those numbers aren't going any lower.", the woman asserts to him.
"Maybe if you worked on restructuring Japan, maybe it would go down.", Egon rolls his eyes and gripes to her.
The Prime Minister goes silent for a moment, her irritation able to be felt through the phone lines as she says, "Ignoring what you said, the taxpayers and government of Japan can't continue to keep the already overstocked prisons in working order. And due to the law, we can only institute so many death penalties in a year. So this was the alternative."
"Sending them to an uninhabited island in the middle of the ocean was your alternative?", Egon exclaimed to her. She says nothing to this so Egon continues to chew her out, "You do realize this brings up several ethical liabilities into play? You're not Great Britain dumping their prisoners in Australia! And not even bringing up the fact that Pacifica is not yours to do with!"
"Technically speaking it's not yours either. And don't call it abandonment. Call it relocation.", she tells him with a sinister calmness in her tone.
Egon groans loud enough for her to hear and he shoots back in a deadly serious tone, "Do you know what the press, let alone the world, would think if you were throwing inmates onto an island only to be killed by the environment and wildlife? And what if they escape or manage to tame some of the animals? Some are nice to humans."
"Do you know what the world would think of the Alien you're trying to hide?", the Prime Minister shot back at him, making the man nearly drop the phone from shock as he felt his sins crawl on his back. "We all have our secrets, Professor. You said so yourself.", she tells him with a chuckle in her throat.
Gon goes from shocked to repressed rage and he resists the urge to hiss as he replies, "Don't think I won't act on this."
"I'm sure you will. Have a good day.", she tells him off-handedly while hanging up on him.
Egon carefully placed the phone down and tried to calm his rising nerves. He punches his table hard enough to draw blood and knocks over the small stack of papers on his desk. After gaining control of himself he picks up his other phone and dials a number.
Hankoyō picks up the call and answers with a confused, "Hello?"
"TELL THAT SPIDER YOU START THE BABY-MAKING FACTORY! WE'VE GOT AN ISLAND TO PURGE!", Egon yells through the phone lines.
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