The ocean felt wrong.
Beneath us, the tectonic plates groaned like ancient leviathans in their death throes, and the water's temperature plummeted without a hint of volcanic activity. Mother—Amaterasu—drifted at the trench's edge, her eyes narrowed into amber slits, every dorsal plate bristling with silent warnings I'd never before witnessed. Not even amid the chaos of the MUTO war had she shown such unease.
Then came the *pressure*.
It wasn't a sound but a wave of cosmic weight, as if some gargantuan predator was inhaling across dimensions. My blood boiled and iced in the same heartbeat. Above us, the rift we'd come to fear—the fragile tear in reality—snapped open with a crack that split the currents like underwater thunder.
From that jagged wound, a storm spilled forth.
Bolts of crackling lightning danced along the rift's edges, sending seismic tremors in all directions. A sickly-golden radiance churned out, swirling in spirals that felt older than time itself. And then, silhouetted against the glowing maelstrom, three monstrous shapes began to emerge.
The first neck strained forward, its golden scales glinting with static electricity.
The second neck followed, its maw parting in a guttural laugh that shook the water.
The third head broke free, eyes blazing like molten suns.
**King Ghidorah** had arrived.
---
### **Elsewhere – S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier**
On the deck of the Helicarrier **Helios**, Nick Fury's single eye darted between the main displays. Maria Hill's voice crackled through the comm array:
> **Hill:** "We're picking up enormous gravitational distortions—originating from a dimensional breach in the Pacific Trench. Something… not of this world."
Fury's jaw tightened.
> **Fury:** "What am I looking at?"
> **Tony Stark (via secure line):** "I'd say space hydra, but that's too convenient. Why is there a three‑headed space hydra?"
> **Fury:** "Red Dawn Protocol—engage. Full mobilization."
Hill spoke again, urgency in her tone.
> **Hill:** "Red Death and Amaterasu are in the breach's vicinity."
Fury's voice dropped to a growl.
> **Fury:** "Then let the titans decide the outcome. God help us all."
---
### **Narration – Me (Red Death)**
I was frozen.
My instincts screamed *retreat*—not roar, not fight, simply escape. But Mother never yielded. With a single rumbling bellow, she stepped forward, those radiant plates on her back igniting like a living fortress of fire.
The first head of Ghidorah whipped toward her, the sound of its roar reverberating through every chamber of the trench. The water around us boiled and froze in the same breath; the sheer pressure crushed the cavern walls, sending plumes of silt swirling in eddies of panic.
Then Ghidorah struck.
He spun through the water on massive, membranous wings that shouldn't have functioned beneath the waves—yet they propelled him like a cosmic hurricane. He crashed into Mother with earth‑shaking force, sending tremors through my bones as the trench collapsed in a cascade of rubble.
---
### **Surface – Near Hawaii**
Moments later, the ocean *erupted*.
A mile‑high geyser of seawater blasted skyward, carving through clouds like a silver spear. From its heart emerged Ghidorah, resplendent in golden scales, each head crowned with crackling lightning. He roared against the sky, and in answer the heavens opened. Storm fronts spiraled outward in minutes, hurricanes blossoming like dark flowers on the horizon. Lightning leapt from head to head, painting the gathering clouds with electric fury.
Beneath the storm, I burst through the waves—heart pounding, fins crackling with residual energy. Fear still clawed at my gut, but to see Mother locked in battle with this cosmic behemoth ignited something feral in me. I bellowed my first *true* alpha roar, a challenge that rippled through the burgeoning storm.
Then Ghidorah dove at me.
---
### **Meanwhile – The Watchtower (Justice League HQ in Orbit)**
High above the maelstrom, the Justice League watched through orbital sensors:
> **Batman:** "Confirmed: interdimensional entity. King Ghidorah."
> **Superman:** "I've fought Doomsday. This… feels *worse.*"
> **Wonder Woman:** "He doesn't belong on Earth. He's an invader."
> **Green Lantern (John Stewart):** "Do we engage?"
> **Batman:** "Not yet. We hold position—if Godzilla and Red Death fall, Earth will burn."
---
### **Narration – Me (Red Death)**
Ghidorah struck like a collapsing star. Three jaws snapped at me—one at my shoulder, another at my neck, the last at my tail. Every strike sent ripples through the water to my core. I screamed, a sound so raw it shattered the surface tension of the sea around me.
I slung my claws into his chest, but before I could twist free, he unleashed a triple‑bolt of golden lightning, searing my scales and sending me crashing into the reef below. Pain bloomed like wildfire, but before I could gather myself, Mother slammed into him again, her titanic mass driving him skyward.
Seizing the moment, I drew every iota of atomic energy stored in my core. My spines glowed red-hot, one by one, until my entire form pulsed with crimson light.
> **Red Death's Beam:** *BOOOOM.*
A concentrated lance of scarlet fire ripped into Ghidorah's flank, carving a glowing wound through his scales. He shrieked in furious agony—a sound that split the sky. But he did not fall. Instead, he turned all three heads upon me, their eyes blazing like suns, jaws crackling with raw plasma.
And in that instant, the ocean floor trembled again.
---
### **Below – Hollow Earth Tunnel (Unstable)**
Far beneath the battlefield, through the winding corridors of the Hollow Earth, tremors ran like whispers. Ancient seals, forged in a time before memory, cracked. From the depths of the earth, a low vibration echoed—an awakening more primal than fear.
A single thought pulsed in my mind: **Another titan stirs.**
One long exiled. One we had forgotten. One who hungers for release