The Cavern Lab - Skull Island
"The egg is the keystone," Ernst muttered, studying the holographic schematic of the island.
"It's not just a biological entity; it's a geo-magnetic stabilizer. It generates an anti-gravity field that counteracts the island's mass."
"If we move it," the Red Queen confirmed, "the island sinks. The structural stress will shatter the tectonic plate. Everything dies."
Ernst nodded. He felt a strange kinship with the unborn creature.
It was a lonely god, sleeping in the dark, keeping a world alive with its dreams.
"Then we perform a transplant," Ernst decided.
"We replace the heart before we remove it."
He pulled up a blueprint. It was a hybrid design—part Howard Stark's repulsor technology and part Kryptonian gravity-drive tech.
"We build a Gravimetric Anchor," Ernst explained.
"We install it at the island's core. It will mimic the egg's frequency and keep the rock floating."
"And the guardians?" Azazel asked, sharpening his sword.
"The Skullcrawlers," Ernst grimaced.
"Nasty things. We can't kill them all; it would take too long and the psychic backlash of their death might harm the egg. We sedate them."
He held up a vial of glowing green liquid.
"Synthesized neuro-toxin based on their own venom. It will put them in a coma for forty-eight hours."
For the next month, the base was a hive of activity.
Ernst oversaw the construction of the Gravimetric Anchor.
It was a massive spire of steel and Vibranium, powered by Tesseract batteries.
Once installed deep in the volcanic vents of the island, the machine hummed to life.
Hummmmm.
The ground vibrated. The readings on Ernst's datapad stabilized.
"Anti-gravity field active," Red Queen reported.
"The island is stable independent of the egg."
"Phase One complete," Ernst said.
"Now for the extraction."
The problem was geometry. The egg was a hundred meters long. The tunnel leading to it was fifty.
"We can't dig it out," Ernst realized.
"We have to warp it out."
He opened his secure vault and took out a heavy case. Inside were thirty Tesseract energy cells—a fortune in cosmic power.
"I will burn through all of these to open a portal that wide," Ernst calculated.
"But it is the only way."
The Lake - The Skullcrawler Lair
Three days later, Ernst stood on the shore of the silent lake.
Behind him, Arnold and a hundred elite mercenaries set up a defensive perimeter.
They were nervous.
The jungle here was dead silent; even the birds knew to stay away.
Arnold hefted a massive, shoulder-mounted weapon.
It wasn't a standard RPG; it was a directed energy cannon Ernst had built using the Kryptonian service droid's emitter.
"If anything wakes up," Ernst told Arnold, "eliminate fast, no prolonged pain."
"Understood, Boss," Arnold grunted.
Ernst turned to Azazel. "Ready?"
"Always."
Ernst projected the coordinates into Azazel's mind.
BAMF.
The Underground Nest
They appeared in the subterranean cavern.
The air was hot and smelled of sulfur and musk.
It was a nightmare landscape. Bones littered the floor.
And everywhere, the massive, serpentine bodies of Skullcrawlers lay coiled in slumber.
The largest one—the Alpha—was the size of a kaiju.
It was curled around the glowing Star Whale egg like a dragon guarding gold.
"Quiet," Ernst whispered.
He released the nanobots.
A swarm of mechanical mosquitoes buzzed through the air, landing softly on the sleeping monsters.
Inject.
The nanobots released the neurotoxin.
The Skullcrawlers twitched, let out low groans, and then fell into a deeper, paralyzed sleep.
Even the Alpha went limp, its breathing slowing to a crawl.
"Clear," Ernst said.
He walked up to the egg. Up close, it was overwhelming.
A hundred meters of smooth, warm stone that pulsed with life.
"I've got you," Ernst whispered, placing a hand on the shell.
He began placing the Tesseract cells in a wide circle around the egg.
He linked them together with a portable field generator.
"Initiate spatial folding," Ernst commanded.
The crystals flared blue.
A ring of spatial energy formed around the egg, cutting it off from the cavern floor.
Whoosh.
The air pressure dropped.
The massive egg began to sink, not into the ground, but into a widening portal beneath it.
It was being transported directly to a containment bay Ernst had prepared in the ocean outside the island.
As the egg vanished, the cavern shook.
"We need to go," Azazel urged.
"The energy spike—"
Suddenly, the Alpha Skullcrawler's eye snapped open.
The toxin was fighting its massive metabolism, but the disappearance of the egg's energy woke it up.
SCREEEE!
The monster roared, thrashing against the paralysis.
"Go!" Ernst shouted.
Azazel grabbed him.
BAMF.
They vanished just as the Alpha's tail smashed the spot where they had stood.
The Surface
They reappeared on the ship, miles offshore.
In the water next to the hull, a massive displacement wave rose up.
The Star Whale egg bobbed to the surface, safe within a specially designed psionic isolation containment unit.
"We did it," Ernst smiled, watching the glowing prize.
"Now, we get it some light."
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