Xyleth, Zairon, and Gorgon: Battle of the Titans

Chapter 1: The Skies of Darkness

Life offers a series of challenges and from my experience, I was unprepared for what the future threw at us. "A monster with untold power will return to feast on those who cower", that's what a good friend of mine remarked as we faced off against this obscure threat.
I am Dr. Gregory Hamilton, and as I write down my experiences in this journal I hope that a threat like this will never occur once more.

Before I joined the 'Institute' in 2003, a series of mysterious events occurred. In early 1999, a huge number of people in the northern hemisphere disappeared, and the only survivors claim to hear a deafening roar before the attack. The people are reported to have seen the sky darken for minutes after the incident and an unidentified creature was photographed by the use of satellite imagery in the skies over Alberta, Canada. The incident was known as the "Skies of Darkness" and it was rumored that many people led expeditions to prove the existence of a mythical creature that was thought to be the cause of the terrifying incident. Decades later in 2027, global warming starts increasing, uncovering secrets within our planet's 4.4 billion-year history.

Then on October 16, 2020, there was a group of miners in the Arctic who suddenly vanished after a sudden hurricane. The only survivors, Bob Carroll and Steve Martinez, who I interrogated didn't remember what I was talking about until my son gave me his Archaeopteryx toy. The two men gasped in horror and their eyes widened, "What's the matter?", I asked, "T-that thing...it ATTACKED US!!!". "Interesting.", I thought to myself as they continued shivering in fear. I heard my 7-year-old son laughing at the witnesses, calling them names.

A few hours later I finally had the chance to talk with one of the witnesses, Steve Martinez to be exact.

"I swear I didn't make contact with it!", he said, "I don't even know what's going on!!!", he frantically yelled. "Please, I wanna go home!", he sobbed. Being the kind and compassionate person that I am, I assured him that everything will be fine. Eventually, he calmed down and I finally had an orderly conversation with him. "Don't worry, you'll get home soon, I only want to know what you saw.", I said while he nodded, "pretty sure you understand what's going on.", I continued. He started talking, "I'm not sure what it is, it was dark and there was this sudden snowstorm, we heard the glaciers behind us start breaking apart when suddenly there was this massive silhouette of a...giant bird!" Mesmerized, I kept on asking him, "What happened next?" He answered, "Its wings caused powerful gusts of wind which destroyed our entire base. We tried to escape but it noticed what we were doing and started to chase us! We were cornered by a cliff and the rampaging beast. The last thing I remembered was that I called the main station for help while the rest of my crew members were killed by the gigantic bird. Afterward, it left the two of us alone and eventually flew away." After his account of the event, I reminded him, "I'll give you some time to rest but I'll come back later tonight, okay?" He nodded as I left the briefing room. I heard him burst into tears as I left.

A little while later, I received a call from one of my close friends, Dr. Yang, that I should be on high alert and watch the news by dinnertime. I did what she told me to, and I was in for quite a shock.

A Boeing 747-8 was shot down by an unidentified creature in the skies over Beijing, China, killing all aboard, except for one, Harry Douglass. Harry was catching the flight from Seoul to Shanghai, but the aircraft was forced to divert towards Beijing due to an upcoming storm. He filmed everything as they approached their destination, and at one point, the monster's attack on the aircraft. Dr. Yang called me again, "I'll go and pick him up, you just wait here...okay?" Her phone cuts off, "She must be on the plane by now.", I thought to myself. Then I couldn't wait any longer and started to visualize what the monster could look like. I ran back to the office and with a pen and paper, started to make various sketches of the creature. My first attempts were unsuccessful, making the giant bird look a lot like La Carcagne from the Giant Claw. I kept on wondering what the creature could look like but with little resource material, I can barely figure out its appearance.
After a while of trial and error, I remembered that I should visit Steve again before lights out. Someone told me that he was already in the briefing room, so I took my stuff and left my office.
As I got to the end of the hall, I bumped into a fellow batchmate, Vanessa Whitney, the collision caused her to drop her things. Angered, she blurted out, "Ugh! Watch where you're going." I wanted to ask her why she was in a hurry, but she immediately stood up, picked up a strange red stone that started to glow, then dashed towards the exit. As I continued walking, something came to mind, "What was she carrying?", I thought to myself. As bunches of questions are made up in my head, I eventually reached the briefing room and I greeted Steve as I entered. Something feels off, Steve is still shivering in fear when I asked him, "Hey, are you okay?" He replied, "Th...the...THE MONSTER!!! IT'S HEADED THIS WAY!!!", he yelled, I groaned. I sat beside him and tried to calm him down, "You'll be alright, it's gonna be okay.", I assured him. He relaxes and I gave him some time to process it all. He took a deep breath and finally continued, "It was huge, more than 200 feet tall, it stood up, high on its hind legs and with its powerful wings, it...it caused a powerful wind blast which pushed us backward. It stepped on our base camp and after being irritated by our defense systems, it attacked, going after us one by one. It mercilessly slaughtered anyone in its way. Bob and I managed to avoid it by hiding in a shallow ravine near our camp. After its attack, the creature left and vanished in the blizzard." After his narration, he sank onto his chair and covered his face. "Can you try to illustrate what the creature looked like?", he nodded and started sketching. I gave him some time and the result was spectacular, a huge bird-like creature with feathers that are surprisingly similar to ice. 
I escorted him back to his room and thanked him for the vital piece of information that he offered. Afterward, I bid him goodnight and returned to my office. Dr. Maxwell notified me that he won't be able to attend the meeting that I scheduled since he'll be returning to his hometown to visit someone. So I shrugged it off and did continuous research on various bird-like figures in mythologies around the world.