General W.R. Monger had been in the military long enough to recognize when things were spiraling out of control. But as he sat in his office at Area 5?, watching the live feed of a 350-foot alien probe rampaging through San Francisco, even he couldn’t help but feel a knot of dread in his gut. The probe had landed just hours ago, and already the city was in chaos.
“Damn thing,” Monger muttered under his breath as he watched tanks and helicopters unload everything they had on the probe, only for it to march forward, completely unscathed. The probe’s glowing red eye scanned the landscape with eerie precision, systematically destroying anything in its path.
The general's phone buzzed sharply, breaking his focus. He glanced down at the screen: President Hathaway—Urgent. With a resigned sigh, Monger grabbed the receiver.
“General Monger here,” he said, his voice clipped.
“Monger! We’ve got a crisis! I need options, and I need them now!” President Hathaway’s voice came through loud and frantic, punctuated by the sound of alarms in the background. Clearly, the situation was worse than the live feed showed.
“I’m well aware of the situation, Mr. President,” Monger replied coolly, leaning back in his chair. “What exactly happened out there?”
Hathaway groaned, frustration bleeding through the line. “We tried diplomacy, General. Sent a team out there, and I even went myself. Tried to talk to the damn thing, but—”
“Diplomacy?” Monger interrupted, his voice sharp with disbelief. “You tried talking to a 350-foot alien war machine?”
“Well, yes!” Hathaway shot back, indignant. “We thought maybe it was here for peaceful reasons. It looked alien, after all. And besides, we come in peace, right?”
Monger pinched the bridge of his nose and took a steadying breath. He had to remember that Hathaway, for all his bluster, was still new to dealing with threats of this magnitude. And this, Monger thought grimly, was about as bad as it could get.
“Well, it didn’t work,” the president admitted reluctantly. “That thing doesn’t care about peace. It’s looking for something, and God help us all if it finds it.”
“It’s looking for Quantonium,” Monger said flatly, his tone final.
There was a pause on the other end of the line. “Quantonium? What the hell is that?”
“It’s the substance that came down in that meteor,” Monger explained. “The one that hit Ed Mercer, our newest ‘guest’ here at Area 5?. Whatever that probe is, it’s tracking the Quantonium in him. That’s why it’s here.”
Hathaway let out a slow breath. “So, it’s not just here to destroy things?”
“Oh, make no mistake,” Monger said, his voice hard. “It’s more than capable of that. But its primary objective is to retrieve the Quantonium. And if we don’t stop it soon, that thing’s going to tear apart half the country to get what it wants.”
Hathaway was silent for a few moments, clearly weighing his options. “The military can’t stop it, Monger. We’ve thrown everything at it, and it just keeps moving. I need something—anything—that can take it down.”
Monger’s eyes drifted to a large, classified file sitting on his desk. He had been preparing for a situation like this for years, ever since Area 5? had started collecting the so-called “monsters” who now resided in the facility. But using them now—especially on this scale—was a gamble.
“You’ve got something, don’t you?” Hathaway pressed, his voice rising in urgency. “Whatever it is, I need it now.”
“I’ve got a team,” Monger said slowly, as though choosing his words carefully. “A very special team. They’re... unconventional, to say the least, but they might just be our only shot at stopping that thing.”
“A team? You mean soldiers?”
“Not exactly,” Monger replied. “They’re what the world would call ‘monsters.’ But if they can bring that probe down, no one’s going to care what label we give them.”
On the other end of the line, Hathaway seemed to process this information. “Monsters. Are you serious?”
“I’m dead serious, Mr. President,” Monger said, leaning forward now. “These creatures are the best chance we’ve got. I can negotiate a deal with them—freedom in exchange for saving the world. Trust me, they’ll take it.”
Hathaway’s voice lowered, the gravity of the situation finally sinking in. “If we do this, and they fail...”
“They won’t fail,” Monger interrupted. “They can’t afford to. We can’t afford to.”
Another pause. Monger could almost hear the gears turning in Hathaway’s mind as the president considered the risks. “Alright, General. I’m giving you full clearance. Do whatever it takes to stop that thing.”
Monger allowed himself a small smile. “Yes, sir.”
Before Hathaway could hang up, Monger added one last thing. “Mr. President?”
“Yes, General?”
“When this is over, and when they succeed—because they will—you’re going to want to make sure the world knows exactly who saved them. These monsters aren’t just prisoners. They’re heroes in the making. And you’re going to need that narrative when this all blows over.”
Hathaway didn’t answer right away, but Monger could hear the faint trace of a sigh. “Just get it done, General.”
The line went dead.
Monger hung up the phone, already formulating a plan in his mind. He glanced once more at the classified file on his desk—the names, the profiles of each of the monsters he had been tasked with managing for years.
It was time to call them into action.
With a deep breath, Monger rose to his feet, his face set in determination. The world didn’t know it yet, but salvation was locked inside the walls of Area 5?, and he would be the one to unleash it.
YOU ARE READING
Ed Mercer vs the Invaders: The Giant Awakening
ActionWhen Captain Ed Mercer is struck by a mysterious meteorite, he wakes up to find himself transformed into a towering giant. Whisked away to a top-secret government facility housing others with extraordinary abilities, Ed soon learns that his new size...
