An intense, earth shaking rumble roared through the still air. It cracked multiple stalactites of unfathomable age, sending them careening far, far down to the barren floor below. The titanic crash of their splintering reverberated through the massive amber lit cavern, further adding to the cacophony of noise. Then the rumble stopped, and all fell silent again. Until the next one reverberated through, fracturing the ceiling and sending dozens more tree-sized stalactites crashing to the ground. The floor splintered under their mass and fractured under their weight with ear splitting cracks. The cavern heaved with the energy of the billowing waves coursing through the earth, threatening to collapse in on itself.

  All quieted again, for moments longer. Then the rumble began anew. Before it could get started, though, a force seized the walls of the cavern with a huge sigh. The amplified wave passed through the chamber, but the stalactites were stubbornly held in place. The walls didn’t so much as tremble, and the floor didn’t shudder even the slightest bit while held in the grip of a force much greater than that being exerted on it. The rumble subsided again, and yet collapsed rock surged. Titanic boulders the size of houses were shouldered out of the way, sent skidding across the cavern floor like scattered marbles. Fallen stalactites bigger than logs thundered as they were swept aside like matchsticks, and a buried, rocky form surfaced from the ruin.

  The thing stood, up, up, and up, stretching as it went with a massive yawn. It shook itself free of the rubble, then gazed down around its legs, its blind face glancing curiously upon the destruction surrounding it. It gave a huff, and four large, rounded, wedge shaped antennae behind its head shifted in annoyance. More rumbling echoed through the cavern, a sign of another wave approaching. Just as before, the moment it began to pass through, a force seized the walls of the chamber. The giant's rocky hand glowed around the seams of its earthen plating, the bright, near magma color suffusing the air around it to the barest degree. The moment passed, and the glow faded as the titan relinquished its grip on the Earth.

  It shook itself again, coming to full wakefulness, and wearily trudged toward a concave portion of the wall. The segment was dozens of meters away, a span the huge thing crossed in a few steps. It pressed its palm into the section, and amber energy trails raced away from it. Ancient computer terminals flickered to life, and the behemoth jolted with a start, taking a heavy step backward. The thing was so immense that the harsh stomp shook the entire cavern, though not as fiercely as the rumbling from earlier had.

  “Ah, sorry for the data load. I’m running a lot of information right now. I was going to wake you, you know.” A soft, feminine voice echoed.

  The rocky giant gave an amused snort. “Yeah, right.” He rumbled, just in time for the reverberations to return. This time, he seized the cavern and didn’t let go. “How long has it been?”

  “About fifty years?” The voice answered.

  The giant gave another huge sigh in response. “That isn’t nearly long enough. What are they doing this time?”

  Before the voice spoke again, it took a moment to compute. When she answered, she did so uneasily. “Well, that’s the thing. I’m not so sure it’s them. The surges almost feel like an earthquake, but-”

  “This isn’t an earthquake.”

  “Let me finish, Atlas.” The computer shot back. He grumbled, but obliged. “The surges feel like an earthquake, but they’re obviously not. There’s too much energy, and it's repeating at full strength. With something like an aftershock, we would see it lessen.”

  That gave him some pause. “Any other theories?”

  “None that make sense. If it was a meteor shower, we’d see it and send the humans our condolences. But they’d see that too, and their reaction to this event, whatever it is, has so far been pretty muted. So, that rules out anything from space. We’d see any eruption, or series of eruptions, thousands of years before they happened, so this isn’t that, either. It’s not even in the right place for an eruption-”

  “Where is it coming from?”

  The computer made a much-too-human sound of annoyance, almost like hissing between teeth. “The epicenter is Moscow, Russia. And no, the humans didn’t nuke it, either. We wouldn’t even feel that down here, and again, there’d be a lot of chatter about it. There hasn’t been.”

  “Is it an experiment, maybe? It’s possible they’re trying to design an earthquake weapon. Or maybe they’re trying to experiment with subterranean mapping?”

  The computer gave that some thought, but he could almost hear her shaking her head. “Putting something like that under your capital city would be stupid, to put it mildly. Besides, the Russians have been spending an obscene amount of money on satellite technology these past two decades. They can’t afford both at once. I checked.” She said smugly.

  Atlas shook his head ruefully, but there was a smirk across his blind face. “Humble as ever, Calypso. Pick that up from the humans these last few decades?”

  “Hey! My personality matrix is fully capable of developing itself, thanks. And before you ask, I checked the satellites too. Theirs and ours. Human satellite activity is picking up, but no one has seen anything out of the ordinary. Somehow, whatever’s going on is hidden from everyones eyes.”

  Atlas gave a rumble of annoyance, his rocky plates scraping against each other loudly as he shifted. The amber light suffusing the air around him shifted with them, changing minutely as the energy lacing just under his exoskeleton ebbed and flowed. His antennae flicked with irritation too. Calypso could read him well enough to know what he was thinking.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “You’re going to go up there?”

  “Do I have a choice? Our satellites and your sensors aren’t getting anything out of the ordinary, and neither are the humans. And yet, my ceiling’s falling on my head while I’m sleeping. Something’s obviously wrong, and no one knows what. That’s odd enough to check out.” Atlas answered, before turning and beginning to stomp over to the other end of the cavern.

  Calypso's voice stayed in his head, now that he was interfaced with his systems. “Is this really any more odd than them melting down antarctica?” She asked teasingly.

  “No, but it’s significantly more annoying.” He responded, as the immense room quaked under his feet.

  “It’s going to be a lot more difficult to avoid their detection while you’re up there.”

  “Then deal with it.”

  “No, by ‘difficult’ I mean ‘approaching impossible’. The humans have satellites and sensors everywhere now, and Moscow is swarming with people, cameras, and military equipment. This isn’t like last time, there won’t be any ‘popping up in literally the least inhabited continent to scope things out’, this is more of a ‘marauding through the capital of a large, technologically advanced country and blindly hoping to stay invisible.’ Besides, it’s not exactly like you blend in.”

  Atlas flexed his shoulders and studied himself. He was humanoid… enough. Albeit at a gargantuan sixty meters tall, and with an exoskeleton made entirely of ultra-dense rock. Amber energy trails coursed just below the surface, glimmering vibrantly between the rocky plates that made up his ‘skin’. While he was somewhat humanoid, the biggest difference in form, besides his size, was his head. It was made of the same rocky-exoskeleton material as the rest of his form, but whereas a human might have facial features, Atlas… didn’t.

  His head was wide and flat, shaped not dissimilarly to that of a salamander, although its width ended at a similar scale to that which a human's collar bone would reach. There was a soft slope to the shape, tapering slowly over the crown of his head towards his mouth. No other feature adorned his face though, save the same amber glow that emanated from around his plated segments, and from his mouth. Instead of eyes or ears, he had four rocky, smooth, wedge shaped antennae. Two of them were substantially larger, bridging diagonally back and out from his head. The two smaller ones were between them, angled more directly backwards, and all could act independently, sensing electricity, vibrations, and even light.

  Atlas grunted in begrudging agreement. “Maybe you’re right about that. Do you really mean to tell me you can’t wipe any footage of me?”

  “Well, sure. Phones, cameras, satellites, that’s no problem. People, though?”

  “Leave the people to me.”

  “I’m not sure that’s-”

  “If they see me, yes, it’ll be necessary.”

  “‘If.’” Calypso echoed.

  A few more steps, and Atlas made it to the other end of the chamber. Mirroring how he’d interacted with the terminal, Atlas simply pressed a palm to the wall. The rock echoed and groaned with decades of disuse, but the mechanisms moving it were engineered to last millennia before repair. He didn’t mind a little noise, especially all the way down here. The dull earth of the cavern wall opened up before him, revealing his equally dull colored armor. It was a shade darker than he, but whereas Atlas was bulky rock and stone, his armor was sleek, segmented, and angular. He let his power flow more than just what was holding the chamber together, and the stronger amber glow crept up from his hand to his shoulder as he willed the armor to slip around him.

  The moment he felt it settle, he released, only to grunt under the new weight. The cavern's floor fractured immediately, and he took a few careful steps, getting used to his armor's mass. Now, Atlas’ form cut a sleek, imposing shape around his bulk. The dusky brown armor surrounded him almost utterly, from plated boots and greaves, to gauntlets, an angled chestplate, and more. The only portion of his body lacking in armor was his head, and the only major addition the armor added to his profile was that of a large, angular, diamond shaped segment settled between his shoulders. Power, and flight, all in one small bundle. There was something missing, though.

  Atlas looked quizzically at the space where his armor had been. "Where's Ladon?”

  “Mantle shift.” Calypso answered.

  “Ah, right.” He acknowledged, before twisting quickly and putting his fist through the wall. A titanic crack echoed, sending hundreds of tons of rubble tumbling away from the impact. Enough poured free to bury the titan to his shins as he rooted around.

  “Annnnd… gotcha.” He rumbled, once he felt the handle. Atlas ripped his sword free, sending more of the wall scattering. He lifted it over his shoulder and settled it against his back until he heard the magnetic thunk that indicated his sword had anchored to him. To the outside observer, it wouldn’t look like much. Simply a handle attached to a twenty meter hunk of jagged, twisted metal. Atlas knew how to use it quite well, though. He hadn’t had to before, of course, but he’d had more than enough time to practice.

  Atlas rolled his shoulders and arms, testing the seals on his armor. Now that he had contact with the armor, he interfaced with it just like he had with the terminal prior. The jolt of information hit him again, but it was much less intense than melding with Calypso had been. In a moment, he saw everything the armor did. Visually, and electronically, he could ‘see’ everything through the armor's sensors like a second set of eyes, ears, and more.

  He looked to the ceiling of the cavern, and thought to begin to carve open the earth above him. His armor began to hum with that same amber glow, but as he felt another rumble approaching, he paused.

  “Are we sure I shouldn’t fast track this?” Atlas asked abruptly.

  “Deep tunneling? Why would you? Just because we can’t see what’s going on doesn’t mean it’s anything serious.”

  “Not being able to see a major capital city is pretty serious.”

  “It’s not quite serious yet, but it is weird. Which is why you need to get up there, and stop thinking about doing something stupid. That’d be a lot of effort if this turns out to be something minor.” Calypso argued.

  Atlas grumbled to himself, but he didn’t disagree. “Fine. ETA?”

  “You know as well as me.”

  Atlas mimed rolling eyes he didn’t have. “An hour and a half from the core to Moscow. Joy.” He said, as stabilizing thrusters dotted across his shoulders and back powered on. A few rends in his power pack opened up, and his boosters came to life, glassing the earth underfoot. The mantle opened above him, and with an immense shock of sound, the titan began to ascend.