Borneo — 1999
The jungle had swallowed the wreckage.
For twenty-six years the twisted frame of the Monarch helicopter lay hidden beneath layers of roots and moss. When the Bio-Pharma Exploration Division of Wexler Industries arrived—searching for the legendary Blood Orchid rumored to grant cellular longevity—they thought they'd found the mother lode of plant life. What they found instead was the crash site.
"Geothermal readings off the chart," said Dr. Karen Voss, brushing soil from a half-buried metallic crate. "This isn't military scrap—these are containment locks. Monarch design, early-model."
Deep below the soil, the orchid vines glowed faintly blue, their roots feeding off residual Hollow Earth radiation. The plant's genetic matrix had been rewritten by the same energy that once pulsed through the egg. The orchids were symbiotic markers, drawing life toward something older.
Unearthing the Egg
Cutting through vines, the team revealed a massive cracked stone sphere, now webbed with living roots. Faint bioluminescent veins pulsed beneath the surface.
"Whatever's inside… it's still alive," whispered one of the technicians.
They built a temporary field lab around the artifact, running scans. The instruments showed impossible results: genetic drift, multi-genome resonance, and sub-atomic radiation signatures identical to Hollow Earth energy.
Unbeknownst to them, each touch of their tools sent warmth through the ancient shell—stirring it.
The Awakening
That night, a tropical storm rolled in. Wind howled through the canopy; thunder cracked like the voice of an ancient god. Lightning struck a nearby tree, its current arcing through the camp's metal scaffolding into the containment rig.
The sphere's fissures flared, blue-white. The vines burned away. The air thickened with ozone and the scent of wet stone.
Then came a sound—a deep, resonant heartbeat.
The outer rock peeled back like shedding skin, revealing slick scales beneath—iridescent, shimmering with Hollow Earth light. The creature inside inhaled for the first time in millennia.
When it exhaled, the jungle floor rippled.
Cameras shorted out. The last frame recorded by the field team showed a serpent's eye opening, slit-pupil dilating as blue energy crackled around it.
Aftermath — 2000
By dawn, the site was gone.
Wexler Industries reported the loss of contact with the Borneo team and declared the area a "bio-hazard exclusion zone." Monarch intercepted fragments of the transmission, identifying the location as the same coordinates lost in the 1973 expedition.
Monarch Internal Memo — 2000
Designation updated: "Titanus Serpentis."
Hollow Earth resonance confirmed.
Movement detected along subterranean waterways leading toward the Pacific trench.
The serpent was no longer dormant. It was migrating.