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South Pole. Monarch Outpost 32.
A black Osprey transport helicopter cut through the blizzard, engine and rotors droning as it swept over the outpost.
Inside the cabin, eco-terrorists sat in full cold-weather gear, weapons in hand. Dr. Emma Russell , brown hair falling to her shoulders , occupied a seat near the hatch. Beside her sat a young girl who could have been her mirror image.
"Outpost 32, this is Raptor Five, requesting permission to land." The pilot tried to raise the station.
"Outpost 32, please respond."
"Repeating — this is Raptor Five..."
They had internal code phrases ready. The plan was simple: pose as a Monarch supply unit, land without incident. But the outpost wasn't answering.
"You have four hours. What's the status?" Alan Jonah's voice crackled over the comms.
They'd split into two teams. One went to Mexico to awaken Rodan and pull attention in every direction. The other came straight here, to the South Pole, for the real target. Mexico was a distraction , time bought for Emma's team.
Serizawa's Sky Carrier would need at least four hours to fly from Mexico to Antarctica. That window was all Dr. Emma had to awaken Monster Zero.
"Something's wrong. The outpost isn't responding." She pressed close to the window, studying the dim expanse of snow below and the steel fortress half-swallowed by the ice shelf.
The station monitoring Monster Zero should have been heavily armed. And after what just happened in Mexico, security should have been tighter, not nonexistent.
No one was answering. The silence felt wrong.
"Land anyway. Forget the outpost — awakening Monster Zero is the only priority," Jonah said.
No guards meant less trouble. As for the possibility of an ambush waiting inside , they didn't need to worry about it. A major corporation was backing this operation. They were well-equipped. Whatever armed presence the outpost had was finite. It wouldn't stop them.
"I know." Dr. Emma nodded.
She believed it completely. The Titans could purify the Earth. They could reclaim the lands humanity had poisoned and let nature take them back.
Five years ago, Godzilla and the MUTOs tore San Francisco apart. But after the battle, plants began to grow back across the wreckage. Green moss blanketed the ruins. Vines climbed the broken skyscrapers.
That was proof enough.
Her son had been caught in that battle. He didn't survive. She had never stopped carrying it , and as the years passed, the weight warped something inside her. She couldn't accept his death as random tragedy, so she made it mean something. Humanity was a cancer. His death was fate. The belief settled in quietly, and by the time she noticed, she was already someone else.
When Alan Jonah found her, she didn't resist. She went along with it. All the Titans, awakened. The world, reset. "Prepare to land," she told the squad leader, and gave a single nod.
The helicopter touched down.
The group filed out into the dim glacial dark, bundled in heavy thermal gear, weapons up, snow driving sideways into their faces. They moved toward the outpost , its lights the only warm thing in sight. Snow boots punched through the crust with every step, crunching loud in the wind.
They met no resistance. Not a single guard. They walked straight into Outpost 32, rode the elevator down, and stepped out into a vast open chamber ringed by solid ice.
A wall of ice stretched before them, massive and pale. And inside it , a shadow. Dark, jagged, enormous. Like a dragon coiled in the moment before it devoured everything. Sleeping, for now.
"Monster Zero," Dr. Emma murmured.
Her daughter stared at the shape in the ice. Fear moved through her instinctively, the kind that doesn't need a reason. She grabbed her mother's sleeve and pulled, not saying a word.
"It will bring us salvation." Emma turned, her voice soft and certain.
Behind them, the eco-terrorists were already moving, pulling out equipment, preparing to drill into the ice wall and set the charges.
---
"Are you sure they can actually handle Monster Zero?"
Somewhere else entirely , a high-rise tower, a room buried in screens and hardware.
A middle-aged man in a suit directed the question at another man across the room: sharp features, lab coat, the look of someone who had long since stopped being surprised by anything.
"Whatever it costs, Godzilla will beat King Ghidorah in the end. And now there's an Ultraman in the mix, making things interesting."
"Our role is simple. Fund the terrorists, let them do the work, then recover Ghidorah's remains once it's dead. That's what completes our weapon."
"All you need to do is wait, Mr. Simmons." The man in the lab coat said it like a fact.
They had seen this coming. They had quietly pushed every piece into place.
APEX Corporation wasn't ready to step into the light. Not yet.
"Mr. Jefferson — Monster Zero isn't from this Earth." Simmons, CEO of APEX, studied him. "If Emma Russell knew that, would she still go through with it?"
Monster Zero wasn't like the other Titans. It hadn't evolved alongside this planet. It wouldn't restore anything.
"She doesn't know." Jefferson smiled. "And even if she found out now, it wouldn't matter."
They'd funded the operation. They hadn't told her what she was actually waking up.
That woman still had no idea she was being used.
---
Three hours later.
The drilling was done. Every charge had been set into the ice wall beneath Outpost 32.
Emma Russell stood with the terrorists, detonator in hand, ready to let the thing out.
Above the South Pole, a massive Sky Carrier punched through the storm and came to a stop over Outpost 32.
Everyone suiting up for the operation had changed into heavy snowsuits , everyone except Natsuki. Jared and Old De had also managed to lift a few bottles from Serizawa Shirō's personal stash on the way.
"They should already be underground."
"At this point..." Serizawa Shirō was already moving toward the exit. He glanced at Natsuki. "Monster Zero is about to wake up."
The outpost guards could have bought them time. But Natsuki had already told Serizawa to pull them all out in advance.
He knew the attack was coming. He wasn't going to spend lives buying himself a few extra minutes.
"Hope it's not a grumpy waker," Natsuki said.
He looked over at Serizawa. "Otherwise it might just hold its breath and walk out on us."
➤ Next: It Is the Invader
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