The road had been bumpy, but the Russells were back to normal at last.
With their Spirit Vision gone, the suite of enhanced sensory abilities that came with it had naturally ceased to exist. Emma Russell occasionally still heard strange sounds, but the impact was minimal.
Professor Serizawa hadn't dragged Bella into this ordeal out of personal friendship—they weren't nearly close enough for that. Monarch's upcoming mission required both Russells' abilities, and that was the real reason. The couple was still somewhat weakened, but both expressed their commitment to rejoining active duty as soon as possible.
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One week later, Bella boarded a helicopter alongside Professor Serizawa, Dr. Vivienne Graham, and the Russells, bound for the island that Old One-Eye and a pre-Captain Marvel Carol Danvers had discovered years ago through Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S.—Kong: Skull Island.
S.H.I.E.L.D. and Monarch had jointly taken control of the island, hoping to establish a second line of defense against the subterranean creatures beyond the giant ape Kong himself. Under no circumstances could those monsters be allowed to leave the island and reach the open sea. But Kong had always been hostile toward humans, so the human presence had been kept to a bare minimum—a skeleton crew and basic communications equipment.
Three months ago, Monarch personnel had unexpectedly discovered that the island's interior had gone quiet. Search teams were deployed, and what they found was baffling: Kong had vanished. Along with him, the Skullcrawlers that had been swarming up from the depths seemed to have disappeared as well.
This raised immediate alarms at Monarch. The Russells had spent years studying monster vocalizations, attempting to decode Titan communication. The couple had poured their hearts and souls into collecting data and developing a prototype acoustic device—the ORCA—that was still far from mature.
Serizawa intended to use the ORCA to locate Kong and the missing creatures.
"You're kidding. Just the five of us?" Bella listened to the briefing mid-flight, incredulous. She wasn't worried about herself—even if Kong proved overwhelming, she could open a portal and run. Her concern was the people sitting around her. Did any of them have hidden combat abilities she didn't know about? They were all scientists, weren't they?
A five-person squad with her carrying the other four. That math didn't add up.
The helicopter touched down on the island's southern coast, near a beach where Monarch had established an observation outpost.
The moment she stepped off, Bella realized she'd been worried for nothing. Standing there in his trademark black trench coat and eyepatch, looking every inch the commanding presence, was Old One-Eye.
"I get a bad feeling every time I see you." Old One-Eye kept his voice low, the words squeezed through clenched teeth.
Bella smirked. "Funny. I was about to say the same thing."
Professor Serizawa glanced between them curiously. "You two know each other?"
Both kept perfectly straight faces. Neither confirmed nor denied.
S.H.I.E.L.D. was participating in the search as well. Old One-Eye had brought twelve elite agents—barely sufficient as an escort detail.
As the original co-discoverer of Skull Island and the operation's ranking officer, Old One-Eye briefed the Monarch scientists on the current situation.
There wasn't much to brief. Kong and every monster on the island had simply vanished. Regardless, they needed an answer: why, and where had they gone?
All eyes turned to the Russells.
The couple scrambled to set up an array of instruments, culminating in a tripod-mounted device that resembled a road construction warning stand. They connected it to a laptop, typed rapidly for a while, and the tripod emitted a series of strange, deeply penetrating calls that carried far into the jungle.
They waited. Then exchanged a look and shook their heads in unison.
Emma Russell turned to Serizawa. "The island is too large. The ORCA's effective range is limited. We can't determine whether any Titans are present from this position."
She added: "The device is picking up numerous biological signatures—insects and wildlife, mostly. The island's food chain is still intact, so we can rule out the Titans having died of starvation."
Serizawa nodded firmly. "Please continue the search. I'm counting on you."
The Russells launched a drone, pairing it with the ORCA for an island-wide acoustic sweep.
Meanwhile, Old One-Eye sidled over to Bella. "What do you think is going on here?"
Bella recognized the gravity of the situation and didn't snipe at him. Her eyes were half-closed. "Still searching. I'll let you know when I have something. All I can say is that something is definitely wrong."
Old One-Eye's expression hardened. "This is important. You'd better move fast."
Bella wasn't fond of telepathy and didn't consider it a strength, but that didn't mean she couldn't use it.
She combined telepathic scanning with divination and her sixth sense, casting a wide net across the entire island.
The sheer volume of wildlife severely hampered her search. She proposed an aerial sweep by helicopter, but Old One-Eye shut that down immediately.
"Absolutely not. The creatures here despise human helicopters. I strongly suggest you keep your search on the ground."
The first day yielded nothing. After conferring with the Russells that evening, Bella refined her telepathic approach, filtering out the noise of irrelevant biological signals. By the second day, she had a lead.
She pointed northwest. "Professor, search that direction. There should be something."
Her tone wasn't certain, but the Russells trusted her by now. They redirected the drone northwest without hesitation, and then—the drone was shot down.
"What was that?" Everyone, Old One-Eye included, crowded around the last frames of footage the drone had transmitted.
The attack had been sudden. The drone's camera angle was poor, but judging by the trajectory of impact, it had been struck while flying over a lake—by something in the water.
"Underwater?" Old One-Eye thought for a moment. "The only thing I know of in the water is a massive buffalo. That thing weighs at least thirty tons. There might also be some giant squid."
Regardless, it was a lead.
Bella hadn't even finished grad school, but when she claimed to be part of the scientific team, nobody objected. So: five scientists, twelve agents, and one Old One-Eye. Eighteen people total, packed into four military jeeps, tearing northwest across the terrain.
Skull Island took its name from its skull-like silhouette. Their destination—the northwest quadrant—was the skull's left eye socket.
Nobody spoke during the drive. Even with twelve agents as escorts, Serizawa and the others understood exactly what a Titan was capable of. Human forces simply could not contend with that kind of power. If something went wrong, every last one of them could die in an instant.
When they reached the northwestern lake, Old One-Eye was first out of the vehicle. He scanned left and right. Nothing.
Emma Russell set up the ORCA again, cycling through several different call frequencies. The lake's surface churned, and an enormous buffalo rose from the water.