After all, Drex Valen had already developed a new elental warhead capable of perfectly replacing nuclear weapons: the Spear of Longinus.
No radiation. Greater destructive power.
At the center of the blast, temperatures could reach five billion degrees Celsius, creating a zone of absolute annihilation that lasted for ten full minutes.
As Drex watched the erging monster, a vague sense of familiarity surfaced in his mind.
Pacific Rim.
He'd seen the films before. The first one had genuine heart behind it. The sequel felt more like a studio-built demolition ride wrapped in expensive CGI.
Other than the novelty of giant monsters attacking Japan, the story itself hadn't left much of an impression on him.
Well... except for the absurd na Kaiju.
The universe was vast beyond comprehension, filled with alien civilizations warped by their own evolutionary paths.
So civilizations specialized in physics and machinery, like the Chitauri.
Others leaned entirely into biotechnology.
The monsters from Pacific Rim belonged firmly to the latter category.
Alien invasions always ca with motives. Resource shortages. Expansionism. Survival. Fanaticism. The reasons changed, but the outco rarely did.
The creatures in Pacific Rim were living war machines engineered through biological science, giant monsters designed specifically for planetary conquest.
And honestly?
Compared to the Chitauri's cybernetically enhanced infantry, these things were far more terrifying.
Their destructive capacity was enormous. Against a technologically weaker civilization, even disposable Kaiju could beco extinction-level threats.
Cheap to mass-produce. Easy to weaponize.
The only real ways to stop them were simple in theory.
Destroy the dinsional breach the monsters used to enter Earth.
Or kill the beings directing them from behind the scenes.
The Precursors.
Otherwise, no matter how many Kaiju humanity killed, stronger ones would keep coming.
anwhile, out over the ocean, the situation was already spiraling.
The Navy had deployed submarines the instant the creature appeared.
All of them were destroyed.
Two cruisers sent afterward suffered the sa fate.
Humiliating as it sounded, neither ship-launched torpedoes nor missiles fired from Quinjet fighters could penetrate the monster's hide.
Weapons capable of reducing ordinary lifeforms to vapor barely managed to scorch its skin.
Inside S.W.O.R.D. headquarters, tension thickened the air like wet concrete.
"How far along is the energy weapon project?" Fury asked.
"One prototype exists," a researcher answered quickly. "But it's unfinished and uncalibrated. We don't know how much damage it can actually inflict."
He hesitated before continuing.
"But do we really have to let the monster make landfall? Based on its trajectory, the scythe-headed one doesn't appear interested in Hawaii. Current projections suggest it's heading toward coastal cities near the mainland."
"That ca directly from the Director," another researcher explained. "Scans detected toxic compounds in the creature's blood. Killing it in the ocean could contaminate entire marine ecosystems."
Nick Fury's expression darkened.
Marine contamination?
"What about the Atlanteans? Wakanda?" Fury snapped. "Tell them to provide weapons capable of killing this thing."
"The Atlanteans have already deployed military forces," the researcher replied while typing rapidly across the holographic interface. "But they admitted they lack heavy-scale weaponry capable of dealing with a target this size."
"And Wakanda?"
"They don't possess energy weapons powerful enough to guarantee penetration."
Another analyst spoke up imdiately.
"The best-case scenario is killing the creature the mont it reaches land. Otherwise the projected losses beco impossible to estimate."
Banner stood nearby gripping a steel railing.
The tal groaned.
Then crumpled effortlessly in his hand.
Even now, he still only carried a toothbrush in his travel bag.
"Large-caliber artillery can't hurt the thing," Banner said flatly. "And you expect an unfinished prototype weapon to vaporize it the second it steps onshore?"
He released the mangled railing with visible irritation.
"And why exactly am I here? You want to give the thing a pedicure?"
He cracked his knuckles.
"For the record, I'm a scientist. Not a rage-powered battering ram."
Banner glanced toward Fury.
"Wouldn't Stark's armor be more useful?"
The Hulk had beco far more stable recently. Even under stress, Banner no longer worried about losing control at the slightest spike in emotion.
Still, he considered himself a researcher first.
Unless the world was truly on fire, he preferred staying out of combat whenever possible.
Fury remained silent for a mont, staring at the satellite feed displaying the approaching Kaiju.
Then he pointed toward several highlighted coastal cities on the digital map.
"Stark is already evacuating civilians and clearing combat zones along the shoreline."
Fury turned toward Banner.
"Doctor Banner... Earth's survival is sitting in our hands right now."
Before Banner could respond, another voice interrupted.
"There's sothing else you need to see."
The screen shifted.
"The earlier readings were incomplete. There weren't one but two monsters."
Everyone in the room froze.
"The scythe-headed creature is heading toward the Arican coastline."
A second image appeared beside it.
"And the axe-headed one... preliminary projections indicate Japan."
"Two?" Fury's eye widened.
One monster was already catastrophic enough.
Two bordered on insanity.
For the first ti in years, Fury genuinely considered deploying the Spear of Longinus.
Even the new Helicarrier lacked weapons designed for targets on this scale.
The appearance of the Kaiju had exposed a brutal truth.
Humanity's conventional arsenal was nearly useless against them.
Outside of nuclear warheads and Drex Valen's elental weapons, mankind had almost no answer to creatures like this.
"Hill," Fury ordered imdiately, "contact Stark."
A pause.
"His showti starts now."
At this point, Fury could only hope Tony Stark, one of humanity's greatest minds, had so solution hidden away.
Maybe...
An anti-Kaiju armor?
Unfortunately, Tony Stark was currently wishing the exact sa thing.
Standing along the evacuated coastline, Tony scrolled through his armor schematics with growing disbelief.
Nope.
No anti-monster armor.
No skyscraper-sized ergency suit.
No "in case giant aliens crawl out of the Pacific Ocean" contingency file.
For once, even he felt unprepared.
"That one-eyed bastard really knows how to ruin a day," Tony muttered.
Thankfully, civilian evacuation required very little effort.
The mont the Dragon-Level Alert sounded, people fled like the apocalypse itself was sprinting behind them.
Tony had barely finished speaking when the ocean exploded upward.
A colossal shadow burst from the sea.
Towering waves crashed across the shoreline as the monster launched itself partially into the air, its massive silhouette blotting out the sun.
The stench hit seconds later.
Rotting flesh.
Saltwater.
Sothing chemical and wrong.
Tony wrinkled his nose inside the helt.
"Good lord, you sll terrible."
He stared up at the creature.
"Do you not believe in bathing?"
Liquid tal surged across his symbiote armor.
The suit expanded rapidly, layer after layer forming around him until a five-ter-tall anti-Hulk armor stood on the beach.
That was his current limit.
"JARVIS," Tony said calmly, "remind to acquire a lot more liquid tal."
Then, without hesitation, he stepped forward.
Alone.
Directly into the monster's path.
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