The Lake Shore - Skull Island
Ernst turned to Azazel.
"Pack the bodies. I want the carcasses sent to the London cold storage. Their biology is unique; I want to know how they metabolize the island's radiation."
Azazel nodded, opening a massive portal to swallow the dead monsters.
"And the egg?"
Ernst looked at the containment bay where the massive Star Whale egg floated.
Sunlight was hitting it for the first time in millennia.
The gray, rock-like shell was turning translucent, glowing with a soft, pearlescent light.
"We stay," Ernst said. "I need to be here when it hatches."
For weeks, Ernst sat by the egg.
He didn't just watch; he worked.
He placed his hand on the warm shell, extending his enhanced mind into the creature's consciousness.
It was a vast, oceanic mind, pure, empathetic, and terrified.
'I am here', Ernst projected, his mental voice soothing.
'You are safe.'
He wove a psychic web around the creature's mind.
It wasn't mind control; it was insulation.
He built mental walls to filter out the pain of the world, protecting the Star Whale from the very empathy that had killed its ancestors.
And in return, Ernst thought, you will listen to me.
The Fall of Berlin - May 1945
While Ernst communed with a cosmic god, the world burned.
The Red Army stormed Berlin.
Hitler committed suicide in his bunker.
The Third Reich collapsed.
The Allies prepared to carve up Germany, demanding unconditional surrender and total occupation.
They wanted to dismantle the nation brick by brick.
But Ernst had one last card to play.
"Kerry," Ernst spoke into the secure comms.
"Execute Protocol Phoenix."
In a secret bunker in Bavaria, Kerry met with the surviving German High Command.
He placed a briefcase on the table.
Inside were the schematics for a nuclear weapon and the launch codes for a prototype warhead Ernst had built before leaving.
"The Allies want your heads," Kerry told the trembling generals.
"Dr. Ernst offers you a shield."
Two days later, a blinding flash illuminated the Sahara Desert, a "test" arranged by the remnants of the German military.
The yield was fifty kilotons, twice the theoretical power of the American Manhattan Project.
The message was clear: We have the Bomb.
Negotiate.
The Allies froze.
The prospect of a nuclear exchange in Europe forced a stalemate.
Instead of an occupation, a treaty was signed. Germany would pay reparations, but it would remain sovereign.
And in the shadows, the deal was struck.
The remnants of Hydra, the scientists, the spies, the industrial assets, pledged their loyalty to their savior.
They called him the Ghost Leader.
Ernst accepted the title.
He didn't want to rule Germany; he wanted the network.
He let the generals think he was a puppet, a reclusive genius they could control. In reality, he owned them.
Skull Island
The ground trembled.
CRACK.
A sound like a gunshot echoed across the bay.
A fissure appeared on the surface of the Star Whale egg.
Ernst stood up, his heart racing.
"It's time."
The crack widened. Massive shards of shell, ten meters across, crashed into the water.
A head emerged. It was sleek, bioluminescent, and ancient, with 3 pairs of eyes that blinked in the sunlight.
It let out a low, mournful keening sound, a cry of weakness.
It was struggling to free its massive body.
"Hold," Ernst ordered the guards, who raised their weapons.
"Do not interfere. It must break the shell itself."
For an hour, the infant leviathan thrashed.
Finally, with a massive heave, the shell split in two.
The Star Whale floated free.
It didn't swim in the water; it swam in the air.
Its anti-gravity organs hummed, lifting its bulk out of the bay.
It was magnificent.
The front half resembled a blue whale, covered in armored plating that shimmered like diamonds.
The rear tapered into three massive, tentacle-like tails that glowed with cosmic energy.
From nose to tail, it was nearly three hundred meters long.
It hovered above Ernst, casting a shadow over the entire base.
ROAAAAR.
It wasn't just a sound; it was a psychic wave.
A song of birth.
Across the island, the jungle went silent.
In the mountains, King Kong stopped eating.
He looked toward the coast, his eyes widening.
Slowly, the Titan lowered his head.
In the deep caverns, the surviving Skullcrawlers hissed and retreated into the dark.
Every living thing on Skull Island felt the magnetic shift.
They felt the presence of a higher order.
They bowed.
Ernst looked up at the creature.
He felt its joy, its confusion, and its gratitude.
It looked down at him, recognizing the mind that had comforted it in the dark.
"Hello, beautiful," Ernst whispered.
"Welcome to Earth."
-------------
Authors Note:
Do you want to read 25+ Chapters ahead right now?
Stop waiting. Come over to the dark side. We have cookies, advanced chapters, and very, very detailed 'plot.'
patreon.com/
Dark_sym