_ _ _Dr Kate Caldwell Pov_ _ _
In a military transport craft, approximately ten minutes before the signal from Energyne had been sent out, an absurdly large albino gorilla lay unconscious in a metal cage. The plane was crawling with armed guards, however close by the caged animal in question there were three individuals who seemed to be at the center of attention.
Currently I was sitting down, my hands restrained in front of me by a zip tie that was wrapped around my wrists. Simply put, I was a prisoner, just like the individual sitting to my left. He was someone I had only met recently not too long ago, someone I was slowly growing to respect all things considered.
Davis Okoye, a primatologist from San Diego wildlife preserve and a former member of the Special Forces. He was a bald man with sharp facial features, a man that stood at over six feet tall and had enough muscle mass that you'd think he was a bouncer or something along those lines. Anyway, he was George's handler of sorts, George being the name of the giant gorilla, the two having a surprisingly deep bond from what I had seen so far.
Moving on though, in front of us was the one who seemed to be in charge of this little operation. Agent Harvey Russell, that was his name apparently, he was a somewhat smug looking guy in his fifties with black and grey hair and a lower jaw that was covered by shortly cut facial hair.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Davis hissed as he glared up at agent Russell. "Having George on this plane will not end well, in fact it's basically suicide for everyone on board."
"We have put him on a very powerful sedative, he won't wake up, not until we let him." The agent explained but it was my time to speak up and voice my concerns next.
"With all due respect, sir, at the rate that he is growing it will not be long before whatever you're injecting him with loses its effect."
"We've factored all of that in already, along with his increased metabolism." I was about to argue but he continued, seemingly already knowing what I was going to say. "As well as the growing amount of blood in his body."
"We may not be the smartest bulbs in the room, however I think we're doing alright, all things considered anyway. Especially when you consider that there are more of those little science experiments of yours running around out there that we have to deal with." That made both Davis and myself freeze as we processed that information.
"More? What do you mean more?" Davis asked and I dreaded the answer.
"What?" Russell looked at us with a sarcastic smirk. "You didn't know about the thirty foot wolf?"
"E-excuse me?" I stammered.
"You see..." The government agent hummed as he pulled out a tablet and showed us its screen. "Your little monkey is old news."
On the screen was a video of a massive wolf that was currently in the process of hunting down a group of deer. The moment I saw it I felt my chest tighten with guilt, after all I had worked at Energyne. I had been stupid enough to help them make that damned pathogen. Admittedly however, I had desperately tried to destroy all of my research when I found out that they were trying to weaponize it...but...but that didn't change the fact that I had caused this.
(Oh my god...) I thought, my alarm being echoed by Davis.
"Fucking hell..."
"Weirdos on the internet are calling him Ralph, pretty scary huh?" Russell muttered, apparently finding our reactions amusing. "And that is not even mentioning the other one."
Some part of me didn't want to know but I asked anyway. "Other one?"
"Yeah, the parrot with a seventy foot wingspan."
_ _ _3rd Person Pov_ _ _
In the skies above, flying higher than even the clouds below them, was a group of four fast and heavily armed jets, their pilots being trained military personnel. The jets in question were currently moving at a moderate speed, keeping some distance between themselves and the thing they were following. They had been sent out to intercept and possibly neutralize this target and they were currently several hundred meters behind it.
"Red Hawk One, do you have a visual?" Someone spoke over the coms built into the pilots helmets.
"Yes command, it's moving ahead of us in the cloud cover." Red Hawk One mused as he looked out at the massive silhouette moving through the clouds.
"Understood."
"This is Red Hawk Three, do we have permission to engage?" A somewhat impatient sounding pilot asked.
For a moment there was a silence, a long pause as the person on the other end contemplated before speaking up again a few seconds later. "Permission granted, bring it down."
"Very well." Red Hawk One hummed before he and the other pilots got ready. "Firing air-to-air missiles now."
With that said all four of them opened fire, launching a barrage of missiles that immediately locked onto their target and swerved downwards into the clouds towards it. For a fleeting moment there was silence, the air stood still as if holding its breath, and then there was a flash of orange and red followed by a deafening boom and a screech of pain.
"Direct hits, I repeat, multiple direct hits on target."
"Suck it you overgrown pigeon!"
"Don't celebrate just yet Red Hawk Three."
"How's it looking command? Does anyone on the ground see it?" One of them asked, curious to know if those below had spotted the body falling from the sky, not that such a thing should be difficult with how big it was.
After a moment command responded but not with good news. "Ground teams have reported no signs of the target." Immediately the four of them became alert as the person on the other end continued. "Target is most likely still at large, keep an eye out."
"If it is not dead then where the fuck is the dam-" Before he could finish that sentenced he was cut off.
Something massive shot up from below him, catching his aircraft out of the sky as he passed over it. Before anyone could do anything his jet was torn apart in an instant in the maw of the beast in question, the pilot inside was crushed alive before he even understood what was going on.
"Jesus fucking christ!"
"Red Hawk Three is down! I repeat, Red Hawk Three I down!"
"How the hell is that parrot?!" One of the pilots asked as he glanced out of his cockpit window at the massive flying creature.
It was gigantic in size, feathers of red, blue and green that blended seamlessly together across its form, each as long as a man was tall or even longer in some cases. The creature's beek had also become somewhat more eagle-like with serrated and jagged edges, all the while its tail feathers were far longer than normal, trailing behind it like fluttering streamers in the wind. And in addition to all of that, its massive wings were beating rhythmically as it hovered in place, its yellow and black eyes scanning the surroundings, observing its attackers with surprising intelligence.
However what truly stood out about it were the scales that glistened like jules in the sun's rays. They were focused mainly around the front half of its body, like its head, chest or the top edges of its wings. They were golden brown in colour, sharp and mesmerizing in appearance, those with any knowledge on animals would probably say that they resembled the scales of a pangling, which they did.
These scales, while focused around the front half of its body, did cover other places as well. More specifically it's legs and feet, which now ended in armoured talons sharp enough to cut through metal.
It was quite the sight to put it mildly, in fact even the pilots were somewhat awestruck at the creature before them. Unfortunately for them however, this momentary lapse in focus would not go unpunished, as the beast had finally locked on to its next target.
With a tremendous flap of its wings it shot forward with a velocity that was surprising for an entity of its large size, in fact it even pulled its wings close to its body to further increase its speed. To put it rather simply, the massive flying mutant reached the group of aircraft before the pilots had any time to process what was going on. Two of them did manage to get out of the way mind you, however the third was snatched out of the air and crushed within the creature's talons, it was then unceremoniously dropped and fell several thousand metres to the ground below.
"Damn it!"
"Evasive actions!" One of the surviving pilots yelled as the creature shot forward towards them again.
It attempted to chomp down on one of them, its sharp beak primed to rip off a wing or two, but the fighters were too fast for it. Now that they were on full alert the two remaining jets were able to quickly maneuver themselves out of the way while making some distance between themselves and the creature in question. They then swirled around and opened fire, launching a barrage of missiles at the creature's form.
Unfortunately however, said missiles had little effect, in fact, they only seem to enrage the mutant parrot even more. The fighter's attacks did hurt and damage the creature mind you, the problem was what little damage was actually done quickly began to repair itself as the beast rapidly regenerated. The regeneration was not incredibly fast mind you but it was clearly visible, broken scales began to knit themselves back together while burnt flesh and feathers began slowly healing over time.
For a while this is how it went on, the large preacher was too slow to catch the small and blindingly fast aircraft that could move at the speed of sound. As for the fighters themselves, well, while they could easily avoid getting destroyed by the massive parrot they were unable to permanently damage it, let alone kill it.
Seeing that this was going nowhere the remaining pilots were ordered to return, mostly because of the fact that they were slowly running out of fuel and ammunition. The two did as they were told and pulled away from the creature, they wanted to stay mind you, to kill it and avenge their squad mates but they weren't stupid, they knew keeping this going any longer was pointless.
The creature was about to chase them down however, to hunt them down to the best of its ability but it suddenly stopped, not because it realized they were far too fast for it to catch, no, it was because of something else entirely. It heard something, a siren call if you would, a deafening and painful ringing in its head that drove it mad with an all consuming rage.
And it wasn't just the parrot, oh no, back on the plane with Kate and the others the situation had become rather dangerous. George had suddenly awoken from his slumber, his eyes bloodshot with uncontained fury as he began tearing his way out of his cage. And that's not even mentioning Ralph or the sixty eight or so meter long crocodile in the everglades, both of which had stopped what they were doing and were now heading to the same place the parrot was. All of them had one singular goal in mind, they had to destroy the source of the call, no matter what stood in their path.