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"Monsters are not contrary to nature, because they come from divine will."
Isidore de Seville
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Part 2
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The Fullerton Hotel
Singapore, The Republic of Singapore
April 27th, 2013----12:15am
Rick and Lilly stood frozen in time as they watched the fifty-five meter tall dinosaur rise from the wreckage of the tanker that was turning the once dark water of the bay into a reflective blaze of light. Lilly was shaking at the mere sight of the prehistoric creature. It stood in the water looking at the city which now surrounded it. Its behavior, despite its ferocious entrance, appeared to be more cautious than wrathful. With its powerful hind legs, the monster started to lumber its way towards the bright lights of Singapore’s shining skyline.
"Lilly,” Rick said as he turned her quivering half-naked body towards his, “we gotta get out of here.”
“It followed us,” Lilly whispered, fear rising in her throat.
Rick looked at her with worry. She was such a strong confident woman just a split second ago. Did this creature really disturb her reality that bad? Did she have that much pent up fear for what happened at the Challenger’s Deep? Rick’s train of thought was broken when another thunderous roar of the giant dinosaur wading to shore signaled the peril that they were in, but what could they do? This wasn’t a typhoon or any other natural disaster. It was an animal. A gigantic unpredictable animal.
“And whats worse,” Rick thought as he put one of his shirts over Lilly’s shivering body and ushered her towards the stairs, “I warned them this was coming.”
Lilly and Rick walked unsteadily down and saw Sean and Zach looking out the window to the harbor, where the emerald dinosaur continued its march towards the Downtown Core of Singapore. The stairs creaked as the two descended; Sean looked over and raised an open beer at the two. “Well, I helped myself to the bar. You know, because most likely the hotel will be demolished and two unpaid beers will be the least of their problems.”
“Shit,” Zach said as he sipped his beer, “he looks way bigger when he’s out of the water. Look at the length of him! He’s gotta be at least three hundred feet long.”
“We should probably find some place of safety and bunker down,” Sean advised.
“What kind of safety?” Zach said. “This isn’t like a typhoon. Do you think Singapore has ‘giant dinosaur shelters’ for the public? Where could we go?”
“We can run,” Lilly whispered, “we run like hell.”
“Run where?” Rick asked. “We’ll be safer here if we stay here. It looks like he is going deeper into the city and away from us.”
“He?” Lilly questioned before the animal’s symphonic roar of a bygone age once again left the group of humans silent. They stood in a mix of the shadows of their room and the orange light of the burning wreckage in the bay. The four of them thought they had escaped all of this. They thought they would never have to see the creature ever again. As Rick watched the creature’s massive foot made landfall. Salt water rained off the monster’s giant mass as it moved onto the land. Rick shuddered at what was to become of him, Lilly, his friends, the city, and the world itself.
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The Downtown Core
Singapore, Republic of Singapore
April 27th, 2013-----12:25am
The creature howled as he felt the hard concrete beneath his massive feet. It had been a long time since the verdant leviathan made landfall and the appearance of this place was incredibly strange to him. He stared peculiarly at the towering spires that seemed to create a metal forest, the likes of which the animal didn’t realize could exist. Taking a sniff of the night air, the foreign smell of humans and pollution clouded his nostrils. Shaking his head in disgust at the aroma; the world was so different from what he remembered in his youth.
The giant dinosaur moved through the odd environment, he was still dwarfed by the tall and unnatural structures that surrounded him. The bright lights emitting from the buildings made the creature snarl. So many lights where around him from the side and below and this made the animal most uncomfortable. It was an alien world to him; he had to find what he was searching for and then return to the depths of the ocean, where the comforts of safety and food laid in wait for him.
As he began to walk on what was known as Marina Boulevard, the giant dinosaur could hear the honking and screeches from the strange metal objects that were below him. He felt a small impact, like a pebble hitting against his thick scales and looked down at the wrecked cars that were colliding with his massive foot. He made another step on the street, causing more explosions of flame and shrapnel to burn underfoot.
The dinosaur’s ear-like protrusions twitched at unseen screams causing him to look below. Seeing the small creatures that ran in horror at the sight of him. He growled at the howls of the small and panicked beings below him, returning his gaze back at the city’s skyline. Shaking his head from the panic around him, the dinosaur was now encouraged to look for the reason he came ashore for. Letting loose a low hiss, he could feel the soft and cool fold of skin cover his crocodile-like eyes as the bright and unfamiliar world suddenly turned to one of dull colors. Sparks of light though began to be visible, striking up and down in the metal spires of the city. The relic from an age long past had found his target. A bellow escaped his throat and he began to trek towards the largest source of light that was coming from one of the towering structures before him. His passing through the streets became some bizarre scene from prehistory: a dinosaur hunting in a forest of steel for its unseen prey.
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Fullerton Hotel
Singapore, Republic of Singapore
April 27th, 2013------12:45am
“Look at that!” Rick said. “That stance! Its like he’s looking for something.”
“Rick,” Zach replied calmly, “An animal like that isn’t just looking for something. He’s hunting.”
“And we are in a city full of people,” Sean said, “so prey isn’t something too limited here.”
“But look! There are a lot of cars under his feet. He isn’t going for them. Its like he’s looking at the buildings for something else,” Rick mused.
“Rick,” Lilly said, “that thing ate your dad.”
The group grew quiet as they watched the unimaginable path of horror; the creature was plunging Singapore’s downtown core into an unholy sea of chaos. Flames and destruction lay in its wake as news helicopters buzzed by to document the carnage. Rick recoiled as it seemed like the world was becoming so incredibly surreal. He could hardly imagine what the others were feeling. As he watched the giant creature continue its unchallenged advance through the city, Rick felt that the sight of the dinosaur was oddly familiar.
A memory surfaced and he was temporarily sent back to when he was a kid in the backyard of his dad’s house in Montana. It was his sand box and he was eight years old. His father and mother had just gotten divorced. He didn’t really understand because even though at the time he knew his mother left, he was surprised that his father was so oddly okay with everything. The two of them were in the sandbox playing with a collection of dinosaur toys. He played with a figure of a tyrannosaur while his dad looked at him.
“So you really like that T-rex?” David Winston said with a warm smile.
The young Rick beamed up at him, “Yeah! It’s my favorite!”
David smiled, “Yeah, the T-Rex is a really cool dinosaur. It used to be my favorite!”
“Used to?” Rick asked.
His father grinned and pulled out from his jacket’s pocket a figure the same size as Rick’s T-rex. It looked familiar with its spines and tusks. It had long arms and what looked like a strong and alligator-like tail. “Is that a Henosaur, Dad?” Rick asked.
“Yep,” David laughed placing the dinosaur figure next to Rick’s t-rex, “Cool, isn’t it? They just came out today.”
Rick picked it up and was amazed by the creature, “Its so cool! Is it mine?”
“Yeah buddy! Of course!”
Rick remembered how happy he been in that moment, seeing the figure that would later inspire him to explore their shared passion of paleobiology. As the young boy picked it up he then compared it the tyrannosaur, Rick smiled to himself, “It looks like Rex has a new friend!”
“Rex the T-rex?” David asked, “And what will you call the new guy?”
Rick looked at it closely and smiled, “Tyrannus. I want to call him Tyrannus.”
“Tyrannus,” Rick whispered to himself as he watched the creature move into the city and saw the long crocodilian tail follow the disappearing body behind the skyscrapers of Singapore.
“Tyrannus?” Lilly asked, worried by the random word.
“The name of this creature,” Rick said, “Tyrannus.”
As if on cue, the creature’s ancient and unchallenged call echoed through the city; even from a distance, the windows rattled by the thunder of the gigantic predator.
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The Downtown Core
Singapore, Republic of Singapore
April 27th, 2013-------1:15am
Tyrannus moved delicately through the city while on his search for what he needed. He sensed that targeted structure before held what he was looking for. As he got closer, Tyrannus could see his reflection in the skyscraper’s windows. The creature was somewhat startled at the sight of another of his kind right in front of him. He growled a challenge to the reflective foe, arching his back and spreading his arms in an aggressive and territorial manner. The small blue spines that lined in double rows down his back and side, as well as the large elbow spike on his arms started to spark up, illuminating the dinosaur amongst the buildings. As Tyrannus’ reflection did the same, the two giants readied themselves into combat. Letting loose a powerful bellow, Tyrannus swiped his claws at the familiar foe that failed to back down; the claws smashed through the delicate glass as Tyrannus ripped open the side of the building. As the mirrored opponent faded into nothingness, Tyrannus’ primal rage let loose a rain of glass and steel onto the street below.
Cars screeched, stopping as the people underneath tried to escape the storm of debris. A woman screamed as she watched herself and others get pummeled by shards of glass, piercing the flesh as the sidewalk soon began to be drizzled in blood. A steel beam crashed into a car, killing the driver and leaving the crying baby inside it still strapped in its car seat. The baby was still screaming as the cacophony of Tyrannus muffled the child’s fearful cry for help.
Unchallenged.
No mercy.
As the people ran, Tyrannus stopped to realize that his reflective foe was now destroyed, lost in the grim skeleton of a monument to mankind’s ingenuity. The nictitating lens on his eyes still showed that the light he was seeking was still in the building, for it was now pulsed all around him. Tyrannus dove his head into the standing carcass of glass and metal to feed on what he so longed for.
Suddenly, a loud and uncomfortable noise could be heard in the air. Growling, Tyrannus pulled his head out of the building and looked around. The sound was something that he had not heard before and it was getting louder. Letting loose an annoyed hiss, the crocodilian eyes finally found the source of yet another interruption: A group of flying metal objects, similar to silver fish that Tyrannus had fed upon in the ocean, came soaring at him. Tyrannus shouted a terrifying roar of dominion at the unknown creatures. To his roar, these flying metal creatures replied with smaller shards of steel that came shrieking from their wings. In an instant, the rocketing metal shards collided into Tyrannus, washing the giant in flames. Tyrannus howled in surprise as the heat and impact rippled down his body. The once unchallenged creature was now feeling pain for the first time. Tyrannus was now being challenged yet again and as his head emerged from the cloud of smoke, the toothy maw of the dinosaur erupted with echos of primal fury to accept it.
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Fullerton Hotel
Singapore, Republic of Singapore
April 27th, 2013-----2:00am
Rick watched as, for an hour, Tyrannus went unhindered in his assault until the jets came. Tyrannus plowed through several buildings before the Republic of Singapore Air Force retaliated with a squad of F-16s and their unleashed barrage of missiles. Rick watched as the deep sea monstrosity emerged from the flames and from the looks of it, Tyrannus was truly pissed. The dinosaur kept snapping at the aircraft as they kept passing by with their attacks. Rick was amazed that modern day weapons where proving little damage to the creature. He wondered what was the reason for it. “The scales of the creature could be extremely thick to handle the deep pressures of the oceans which could be a pretty potent defense against harm,” he thought as Rick realized he started to admire it in the mist of its rampage.
He turned to see the others watching the news. Already it was being reported that the death toll getting higher by the hour and the destruction of Singapore was unfathomable. The local government was at a loss of how to handle the “attack” and it was already said that the local Navy was also being called to aid in the defense of the city. Rick could see that Lilly was still shaken as she sat on one of the seats while Zach and Sean lounged on the couch. Despite their calm body language, Rick could see that they too were shaken from these events as well. They all needed sleep, but how could they get any? A giant dinosaur was destroying a city. It was like something out of a bad B-movie. Rick doubted that anyone was truly prepared for the chaos that this animal brought into the world.
The hotel had told its guests to stay put in their rooms and to be ready to evacuate when needed, since the creature was heading away from where the Fullerton Hotel was and away from what the media tried to call Tyrannus’ “projected course.” Rick shook his head at the thought of advertising this animal as one would with a hurricane. How could you predict what such an unknown life form could be capable of? Rick took a seat opposite of Lilly and began to think of the one thing that kept bugging him, “Why would Tyrannus make landfall in a populated city when his approach was so cautious?”
“Uh,” Zach said, suddenly bolting up as a breaking news story chimed its way onto the television, “Rick, you better see this.”
Rick and the group suddenly looked at the screen and went wide-eyed. Rick couldn’t believe it.
“Oh my God.”
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University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah (USA)
April 27, 2013---12:00pm
Jack Hudson sat in his seat unamused on the lecture about poetry from the early 20s. He couldn’t stand this course, but he needed the credit so he could take the more advance writing workshop at the university. He gazed at the clock that hung on the wall above the professor, who continued to bore the class of forty odd students with the concept of metaphor for the human emotion of passion. Drooping a little, he pulled out his phone and thought maybe he should text Samantha and see if she wanted to meet of coffee after class. And maybe for a quickie.
And then the whole classroom shook.
“What the hell?” He said to himself as everyone also seemed as surprised by the sudden tremor. Before the professor could ask for calm, another tremor. And another. And another. The students, ignoring the professor’s request to remain seated hurried to the window. A classmate muttered, “Is it an earthquake?”
“Terrorists?” Another said.
Jack was confused because it seemed somewhat regular as the tremors followed one after another. The professor asked for the students to return to their seats when suddenly a gigantic and dark blue scaled pillar of flesh came bursting through the roof, crushing the front half of the class under its tremendous weight. Jack looked at the thick trunk-like foot that had large and stubby toe claws; amazed by the size of it all as the sapphire leather-like skin rippled with unseen muscles. Jack was horrified at the sight of blood caking onto the greyish toe claws. The remains of the former professor and classmates in the front: squashed like bugs in a decaying log.
The impact weakened the roof and parts of the ceiling started to crash down onto the class room. The students went into a flurry as Jack dove under his desk. The giant foot rose into the sky when he saw what the foot belonged too. The creature was massive as its reddish orange plates blocked out the sun. The campus was now overwhelmed in its shadow of the bulky and blue muscles of the giant spiked animal.
With a powerful bellow, the giant stegosaur-like creature announced its presence not just to Salt Lake City, but to the world.
A second unimaginable animal came into existence that day.
End of Part 2
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Next Time:
With the appearance of another giant monster in the United States, the stakes are ever higher for the human race. What is their purpose? Why have they appeared? What are they after? The human race will soon find out in the shadow of the first Titans....
All content unless otherwise stated is (c) of Henry Winston Ball
