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"First time I've ever seen someone calm down a big guy like that."
"It's a bit..." Dr. Ilene Andrews rubbed her temples, watching Kong slowly settle and the giant dissolve into motes of light. "...Hard to process."
She hadn't expected Kong to get completely steamrolled. But thinking about it, without any special abilities, if his raw physical strength still couldn't match the giant's, this was always going to be the outcome.
"You'll be fine. Stick around for the next operation and you'll see things that'll really knock you sideways." Jared snatched the five-dollar bill straight out of Old De's hand and grinned at her.
This Ultra Old Man had a whole bag of tricks.
"You've already found a way into the Hollow Earth?" Dr. Andrews asked.
Monarch knew where some of the passages were, but nobody had figured out how to enter them reliably. Could they really have made that kind of technical leap in this short a time?
"Mr. Natsuki will be going in with us," Dr. Ishiro Serizawa said. "Our goals align."
Natsuki had agreed to help find and rescue Jia's people. And based on his own read of the situation, whatever was down there, he was certain a Traveler was involved. A space that had incubated countless Titans with no Traveler lurking inside? He wasn't buying it. This trip was intelligence-gathering as much as anything else.
Besides, a hollow Earth was a rare thing. He was genuinely curious.
"Alright." Dr. Andrews glanced at Jia and looked back at Serizawa. "Then I'm coming too."
A beat. She thought about the organization's current situation and added, "Although — the military is still pushing to absorb us, and governments around the world are demanding we hand over everything we have on the Titans. You're certain you want to ignore all of that and go underground?"
What they were doing was essentially declaring war on the establishment.
Titans fought among themselves. So did humans , and if anything, humans were worse about it. As the most intelligent species on the planet, they had a remarkable talent for spending most of their energy tearing each other apart.
"We don't have time for them right now."
Serizawa's voice was level, but his tone left no room for argument. "Monarch's projections suggest the Hollow Earth contains Titans we've never even catalogued. The humans living down there are about to be slaughtered — we don't know by whom. But I'm certain of one thing: whoever it is will target the surface next." He paused. "We've already handled the surface crisis. Ghidorah is dead. With Godzilla maintaining order up here, things should hold. But the Hollow Earth is a different story entirely."
This window, the chance to go in with Natsuki, wasn't something they could afford to waste. If Hollow Earth Titans started flooding the surface blind, without warning, humanity wouldn't survive it. Against a crisis of that scale, every political complaint directed at Monarch stopped mattering.
"One more thing," Serizawa added, recalling something Natsuki had mentioned on the way over. "Mr. Natsuki says he has a way to handle those people."
Dr. Andrews blinked. "He can deal with politicians?"
An alien. Managing Earth power struggles. A man who might not even fully understand Earth culture.
"Of course."
Natsuki strolled over to them in his floral shirt, holding two bananas Kong had handed him. "I've got plenty of experience in this area. If we come back and they're still being difficult, I'll go have a word with them."
The ground trembled as Kong followed, ambling over to where they stood. He signed something to Jia , an apology.
Jared stared at Natsuki. "You've done this before?"
"Are politicians on other planets really as bad as ours?"
They'd never left Earth. Natsuki was the only alien any of them had ever spoken to. They had no frame of reference for what other civilizations even looked like , but this Ultra Old Man had clearly been around.
"About the same, give or take." Natsuki took a bite of banana. "Some are worse than humans, honestly. But I've got a method that works. Don't worry."
He sounded completely confident.
"...Fine." Jared nodded, not entirely convinced.
He couldn't shake the feeling this was going to end badly.
A few years living rough had made him think he was already pretty out there. But knowing Natsuki had recalibrated everything. His own brand of weird was deliberate, performative , Natsuki's was just natural. Organic. The Ultra Old Man's brain ran on entirely different rails than a human brain, and that was simply a fact. Whatever method he had in mind for handling politicians, Jared found himself genuinely, almost morbidly curious to see it play out.
...
In the waters near the Antarctic ice shelf.
"Descending now. Target not yet in range."
Submarine after submarine slipped beneath the surface, searchlights sweeping the dark, radar pinging. Status updates ran in a steady stream across the comms.
Above, a wide ring of vessels had sealed off the surrounding waters. The ships were crowded with personnel, most hauling professional salvage and recovery equipment. Every hull, every conning tower bore the same mark: APEX.
"Mechagodzilla is progressing faster than projected." Walter Simmons stood at the bow and spoke to the man beside him. "Once we recover biological tissue from Monster Zero, we'll have everything we need to finish it."
He let that land, then added: "We're going to take the whole world. And a great deal of that is thanks to you."
The ambition had always been there, coiled and quiet. He'd kept it buried for years. It wasn't until Jefferson came along that he'd finally let it breathe , a genuine genius who had dismantled technical problem after technical problem, who had collaborated with former Monarch member Dr. Nathan Lind to build a vehicle capable of reaching the Hollow Earth, and who had helped them harvest the critical energies waiting down there.
"It's a remarkable achievement." Jefferson adjusted his jacket and replied with a measured smile. "Though of course — none of it would have been possible without Mr. Simmons' backing."
The mutual flattery hung in the salt air.
It was simple biology, really. Titans were still living creatures. They had instincts, and instinct meant submission to a stronger presence. The plan was clean: build the most powerful mechanical Titan ever conceived, claim the throne of Titan King, and then use that authority to sweep the surface clean.
A perfect plan.
Except for one variable that hadn't been there before.
Ultraman.
Before anything else could move forward, that needed to be dealt with.
➤ Next: A New Storm Has Arrived
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