Project Hyperion

by Jeremy Robinson

  She lifted Leshiy off the ground by its hair, and dragged it to the edge. Then she tossed it over and watched it fall. The whole way down, at least four hundred feet, was lit in orange light. Leshiy fell the distance, landed with a thud and lay unmoving. She suspected the creature might survive her assault, and the fall, but she didn’t see any stairs up. It wouldn’t be getting out any time soon.

  “Ey!” shouted a muffled voice. “Et ee uh!”

  Lilly?

  Maigo rushed to the ramp and dove to her stomach. She leaned her head over the side and saw Lilly dangling from a long pink appendage jutting from her mouth.

  “Urry!”

  The pink glob of flesh at the end of the long tongue was peeling away from the walkway’s bottom. Maigo thrust her arm out and caught Lilly’s hand, just as the tongue slipped free. The pink appendage snapped back into the girl’s mouth. “Yeah,” she said, “I have a chameleon tongue. Tell anyone and you’re dead.”

  Maigo pulled her up onto the walkway. “I think it’s pretty cool.”

  “You think what is pretty cool?” Lilly said, looking on the verge of anger.

  “Nothing,” Maigo said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Good.” Lilly looked over the edge at the still motionless form far below. “Now what the hell was that thing?”

  Maigo watched for any hint of movement and saw nothing. “A little of this, a little of that.”

  Lilly frowned. “Not all of us can turn out goo— Holy shit sticks!” Her yellow eyes grew wide as she looked beyond Maigo.

  The eyes, Maigo thought. Part of her didn’t want to see them again, but she had to know what was there. Had to see the real monster for herself.

  She turned and saw the eyes.

  And then the rest of it.

  Maigo staggered back and raised a hand to her mouth. “I remember... I remember it all.”

  Interlude

  Ancient History

  Akakios’s limbs shook and gave way, partially because of the rumbling ground, partially because of the horrific scene playing out in the city below. He fell back to one hand and then sat. The uncomfortable rocky slope beneath him went unnoticed. The pain in his knee was forgotten. He was a spectator for an event few people could imagine and even less ever saw. His memory of this day would be told for generations! He watched the spectacle with a keen attention to detail.

  Nemesis, the beast, the goddess, had gone mad. Surely, she had not come to the ringed city to judge an individual or a small group. She had laid her gaze on the entire legendary city and found it lacking. But it was worse than that. She found it...offensive.

  Stone shattered and exploded into the air as she swiped her massive, spike laden arms back and forth through the immense structures that grew taller toward the city’s center. Amidst the stone flew people, their features surprisingly large despite the distance.

  They’re giants, he thought, no doubt standing twice the height of many men. Their heads were topped in golden strands, far whiter than any hair he had ever seen. Their women would probably fetch a fortune in the slave trade, assuming women of such stature could be subdued. But he doubted there would be any of them left to trade, beyond the scattered bits and pieces being flung across the city.

  Walls crumbled. The ocean, once held at bay by the ringed walls, flooded in. The giant people wailed in fires. They drowned in the water. They were crushed underfoot. Had there ever been such a slaughter? Every minute ended thousands of lives.

  And then, the city was abandoned. The yellow haired giants fled in all directions, flowing from the few remaining gates.

  Nemesis spun around, her three tails smashing through the tallest structures at the city’s core. The buildings toppled and imploded. Horrified screams echoed off the valley walls. Nemesis drowned them out with a war cry of her own. The bellowing baritone rumbled up the valley and made Akakios’s insides quiver. He could only imagine the raw force experienced by those surrounding it, their bodies crushed by the sound, the air driven from their lungs, along with all hope.

  Akakios smiled. Nemesis’s wrath, so feared mere minutes ago, had become a thing of poetry. A rare beauty. Like watching a lightning storm as a child, aware of its potential for primal destruction, but still captivated by it. Still awed by the vast power on display.

  After slamming its mighty arms down on what remained of the city, Nemesis stepped through the ruined wall, back into the valley, where it was followed by the ocean that had been held at bay.

  The monster had set its sights on the thousands who had managed to flee. The giants ran in an ever widening circle. Some of them would eventually pass him by. The sight of them might normally make him run the other way, but he didn’t think any of them would pause long enough to do him harm and risk being caught.

  But the beast seemed staggered by indecision. It turned its massive head in one direction, slowly surveying the widening circle of giants. It swiveled around, and after a false start, turned back the other way. Then it stopped, roared again and lifted its clawed hands in front of its glowing chest. The claws turned inward.

  It’s going to impale itself, he thought.

  Had the goddess seen the yellow haired giants’ flight as a failure? Did it intend to take its own life?

  The claws stabbed forward, but stopped quickly, a loud clang filling the valley.

  Akakios blinked. The image before him had changed drastically enough for him to doubt what he was seeing, despite the surreal nature of everything he’d witnessed up to that point.

  But it was real.

  A second monster, equal in height, but smaller in stature to Nemesis, and built more like a man, had appeared and caught the giant claws before they could impale the orange chambers on her chest. The two titans stood face to face, each pulling on the other’s limbs, neither gaining any ground.

  Nemesis looked beyond the newcomer, who Akakios could now see was like a metal man, and roared at the still fleeing giants.

  The metal man is protecting the giants, Akakios thought. He is helping them escape.

  Akakios had no real opinion on whether he would prefer to see the giant men killed or freed. They no longer held his interest. This new struggle, which would be more of a fight than a mass execution, was far more compelling. And the giants were faster than they looked. Many of them had cleared the valley and were no doubt headed for lands far away.

  Nemesis saw this, too. The beast raised her head to the sky and let out a roar. Then with a swiftness her size made look impossible, she drove her head down and forward, striking the metal man’s chest.

  The colossal man fell back, crashing to the ground and providing Akakios with his first view of the newcomer’s front side. He saw the face first, concealed by an armor mask, but revealing glowing red eyes. Something about that gaze made him think this thing was noble. Worth cheering for. A defender of men, or at least of giants. Its body was armored from top to bottom, but not in the way Nemesis was armored. Her thick plates were organic. This metal man looked like he’d been cast in a forge of gods, shielded in hues of silver, black and glowing red. At the center of the broad chest was a symbol that matched the layout of the now destroyed city, three rings united by a single vertical line, rising from below. The center line and outer ring currently glowed with the same red blaze as the eyes.

  Nemesis lifted one of her huge hands and slammed it down atop the giant man, pushing him into the valley wall. She drew back and struck again, but this time, the man raised his fists. Three blades, as large as Nemesis’s claws snapped out of the metal man’s forearm, evenly spaced around the limb and extending far out past the fists on both hands. Metal pierced flesh as Nemesis’s hand landed atop all six blades.

  The divine judge reeled back, roaring, but not blindly. She spun around bringing all three long tails around like whips. The spines at the end gouged three divots across the metal body, but did no serious damage that Akakios could see.

  The man, who was perhaps also one of the
gods, staggered away from the strike, the two titans regrouping.

  Nemesis hunched and roared, arms splayed wide, ready to attack again.

  The blades on the metal man’s right arm snapped back inside. With a flick of the giant’s wrist, three metal prongs shot out of the forearm from hidden compartments beside those that housed the blades.

  It keeps its weapons hidden inside its body, Akakios thought. While Nemesis was pure rage and passion, the metal man was a thinking fighter.

  The goddess charged.

  The metal man stabbed with the left hand, plunging the three blades through the armor of Nemesis’s shoulder. But he was caught. Nemesis lifted him up, leapt in the air and drove him toward the ground. They landed together. The valley shook. The walls collapsed inward. Rocks rolled past Akakios on all sides, some thumping against his back, but he remained fixated.

  And then, just as it had arrived, the metal man disappeared in a flash of blue light. But as quick as he left, the man returned, winking back into existence above Nemesis. He fell on her back, narrowly avoiding the bevy of spikes large enough to cleave his waist in two. While the goddess pushed herself up, despite his weight atop her, he drove the left hand, with those three blades, into her back. Held in place, he lifted the right hand, and those long prongs into the air.

  What is it doing? Akakios wondered. The metal spears atop the raised fist didn’t look sharp enough to pierce the monster’s hide. But then, with a crackle of power, the prongs unleashed the very power of the storm that had once impressed Akakios as a child. Lightning arced between the metal spears, which were then thrust against Nemesis’s back.

  The goddess writhed and wailed, her booming voice once conveying deep rumbling rage, now shrieking in high-pitched pain.

  The three tails rose again, wrapping up and over the metal man, grasping his shoulders. There was a moment of resistance before the man was lifted off his feet and tossed, head over heels, into the ocean.

  Blood poured from Nemesis as the monster climbed back to its feet and staggered around. Flesh and armor seemed to be peeling free, revealing patches of white flesh beneath. The sun struck Nemesis from behind and those white spots glowed brightly enough to make Akakios squint. The goddess was changing.

  The ocean heaved and then burst as the metal man stood. Water poured from the great body, now gleaming in the sun. Aside from the three scratches across its chest, the man-god still looked unharmed. The first and second rings on his chest now glowed bright red. He stood at the ready, weapons hidden inside the arms. The two titans both seemed to be waiting, but for what?

  Flesh dropped away from Nemesis’s body, revealing blinding white diamonds. But whatever the goddess was doing, it wasn’t fast enough.

  The innermost ring on the metal man’s body blinked bright red.

  A flurry of movement sprang from the arms, forming things Akakios couldn’t make sense of. And then the same happened to the giant man’s head.

  Sound like thunder.

  Blinding light.

  Roiling heat.

  It struck him all at once, burning his clothes, raising boils on the outer layers of his skin.

  And then it faded.

  He opened his eyes and saw the impossible. Nemesis stood before him, her back to him, but he could still see the metal man on the other side, staring at him through a hole in the giant creature’s chest. The metal man tilted his head as though they had actually made eye contact.

  Akakios held out his hand in a wave.

  The metal man transformed back into his original form and held out a hand, acknowledging Akakios. Nemesis dropped to her knees, and without another sign of life, toppled forward.

  The goddess of vengeance had been slain.

  As Akakios shivered from the burns covering his body, the metal man lifted Nemesis’s tails, pulled them tight and then dragged the monster into the ocean. Akakios watched them go, mind running rampant with thoughts of how to tell this story. But before he could finish his mental ramblings, or even attempt to stand, a shadow fell over him.

  He looked up into the upside down face of a giant, yellow-haired Atlantean—one of thousands who had fled and no longer needed to fear the wrath of Nemesis. Aside from his size and the three-ringed symbol carved into his chest, the man looked human, but in Akakios’s heart, he knew it wasn’t true.

  “The goddess is slain!” Akakios said, hoping his enthusiasm might endear him to the large man.

  “These things were not meant for your eyes,” the Atlantean said.

  Akakios stammered, unsure of how to proceed. Then he managed to say, “I—I won’t tell anyone what I saw, if that is what you want.”

  “No,” a second voice said. “You won’t.”

  Akakios turned and found a very ordinary man standing beside the giant. He was dressed like a traveler. A fellow witness perhaps. Then the man shed his clothes and fell to his hands and knees, his body bending and contorting, changing into something else. When he—it—looked up again, many more eyes looked upon Akakios, framed by bony horns and a sharp-toothed grin.

  Akakios tried to shove himself away, but his body revolted. His skin cracked and made moving nearly impossible. “What are you?” he shouted as the transformed man stalked closer.

  “I...am hungry.”

  16

  The wave of pressure that strikes Helicopter Betty pitches the vehicle forward and carries it for a moment, before releasing it into a free fall. Before we can recover from the blow, the thunderous sound of a MOAB detonating chases the pressure wave and tears through us. If the others are shouting, I have no idea. Even with headphones on, designed to protect the wearer from the constant beat of the rotor blades, the roar has set my ears buzzing. My body feels like it’s been liquefied, and I find myself puckering my asshole, just in case.

  Warning lights flash across the dash. Betty’s insides have been shaken loose. The chopper levels out, but shudders violently. Woodstock is shouting, pulling on the controls. I’ve seen him go through a lot. I know what his surprised face looks like. This is different. This is worse. I can see it in his eyes. Betty’s fate is sealed.

  Woodstock’s voice crackles to life in my ear, pushing its way past the buzz. “Satan’s taint!” He’s fighting the controls, somehow keeping us in the air despite the warning lights and the shaking.

  “Can we make it back to shore?” I ask.

  He glances at me, his mustache bending up with a lopsided smile. “Can a moose lick its asshole?”

  “Umm, no?”

  “God damn right, no.” The other side of his mustache lifts, completing the smile. “But I can get us close. Probably.”

  “Before you do,” I say, and he grunts. Knows what I’m going to ask.

  “Hold on,” he says, and he puts the chopper into a slow counterclockwise spin while keeping us heading toward shore. After turning ninety degrees, he stops, letting Collins and me look out the side window.

  “I don’t see it,” Collins says. Lovecraft is once again cloaked in rising smoke and steam.

  “It’s there,” I say, “watching, waiting.”

  But is it in one piece?

  Collins leans closer to the window, her forehead against the glass. “I see it.”

  And then I do, too. A breeze thins out the smoke for a moment, revealing what looks like a ribbed cocoon. Shimmering greens and blues ripple through the broad sheets of flesh, revealing sinews and veins large enough to drive a car through. Despite its opacity and apparent thinness, the surface looks undamaged.

  The cocoon separates.

  Pushed from the inside out, the column of smoke bulges, rises and billows away, propelled by the opening cocoon.

  Wings, I think, they’re wings.

  I’ve been calling this thing Lovecraft because the tentacled face bears a striking resemblance to the fictional monster Cthulhu, created by weird fiction author, H.P. Lovecraft, and because Alicio Brice theorized that Lovecraft had been influenced by a Ferox, whose goal was to condition the human
race to fear beings with similar appearances. But I still believed it was more coincidence than conditioning. This Kaiju’s obvious similarities to Lovecraft’s creature solidifies Brice’s theory. For me at least.

  The monster stands up tall, revealing a bulky torso covered in random spines and tufts of undulating tentacles. Despite the wings, this thing seems inspired by sea life. Some of it is clearly Aeros, but they’ve merged that ugly mug with who-knows-what, from who-knows-where. The end result is this abomination, and I’m pretty sure every person on the planet will be scared shitless when they see it, whether or not they’ve been exposed to Lovecraft’s story “The Call of Cthulhu.”

  The Kaiju stretches its wings wide, curls its long arms and fists to the sky and then lets out an angry bellow, tentacles warbling, its ring of teeth splayed wide. It’s in one piece, but that doesn’t mean the bomb didn’t hurt it.

  Energy flickers over the creature’s body and then it goes dark. The wings fold in tight. The tentacles pull down into smooth ribs. And then the beast lowers itself into the water, slipping into the depths, this time invisible from above.

  A clang and momentary grinding sound reminds me of our plight. We’re headed back to shore, but losing altitude. Starting at 18,000 feet might be what saves us. That, and Woodstock’s skill as a pilot.

  “How we doing?” I ask.

  “Let me put it this way,” he says. “Ain’t no way I’m putting her down in the drink with that fugly SOB swimming around out there. If I have to sprout wings and fly us there myself, I will.”

  Betty jolts and coughs, but the rotor keeps spinning, just fast enough to keep us from plummeting out of the sky.

  Bouncing and shaking our way back toward the coast, I contact Cooper and put things in motion. Lovecraft is gone. It’s not even showing up on sonar, which means it either has a way to avoid detection, or it’s hugging the sea floor. But we’re going to assume it’s headed toward the coast. For now, the military is standing by just outside Boston, ready to deliver a second round of entirely ineffective ordnance. But if we can make it back to dry land, that might not be necessary. I look down at the hard Zoomb case, now sitting between my feet. After hanging up with Cooper, I call Alessi.