"How does a sixteen foot, stark-white gorilla completely disappear from sight in the blink of an eye?"

"We don't know, Jimmy," Harold said in exasperation, as they trundled through the forest, still following the trail of green blood. "When we find out, we'll explain it to you, but in case you hadn't noticed, it's not a normal gorilla."

"True, most gorillas don't grow beyond six feet," added Helen.

"But this one did!" Jimmy said, sounding equally awed and terrified. "Way beyond six feet, like...like a Kaiju."

"Like a what?" Harold asked.

"Oh, it's the Japanese word for 'beast.' It's usually used to describe monsters far bigger than our target, but I think it fits well enough."

"No, it doesn't," Helen snapped. "It's not a monster."

"You keep saying that, but all evidence points to the contrary," Harold said.

"Well, of course you would think that, since it bashed your head into the ground. But it's not like the 'monsters' you see in those silly cartoons. It isn't some walking eldritch horror, or some appalling harbinger of destruction. It's just an animal that's...different."

"Okay, so what word should we use to describe 'animals that aren't monsters, just different'?"

Helen thought for a moment, the point of her flashlight swinging around aimlessly through the dark with every step she took. "'Giant' is accurate, I suppose, but too plain. I don't like 'Titan' either, because the word is originally associated with the murderous elder gods of Greek mythology, and Heaven knows 'Colossus' is already way overused..." Harold and Jimmy exchanged exasperated looks behind her back as she continued to ramble. But she came to a sudden halt and Harold nearly crashed into her. Helen spun around with her eyes shining with eagerness. "How about 'Gargantuan'? Accurate in terms of size, though not plain, not immediately related to monsters, and original."

Harold considered. "Hmm...not bad." Satisfied, Helen moved off again and they followed. "Okay, so I think we should work out what we're going to do if we find our Gargantuan again."

The tracker that they had followed to its original location had been destroyed by Helen's sonic screech, meaning they had to track him the old-fashioned way.

"I'd really rather avoid another fight," Helen said.

Harold snorted. "Yeah, you would. But I have a score to settle with our simian friend." He cracked his knuckles. Helen swatted his fingers away.

"No, you don't," she said sharply. "Even injured that gorilla is far too dangerous. We have to subdue it using our brains, not our muscles. No more fighting."

"But—"

"No buts!" she said forcefully.

Harold let out a growl of frustration, but didn't protest.

"Guys," said Jimmy, coming to a sudden stop with his flashlight pointed ahead of them. "The trail goes in two directions now."

Harold and Helen moved forward, surveying the areas he was indicating. He was right. The rivulets of emerald blood were now trailing through the trees on their right and left.

"Oh, that's not good," Helen said gravely.

"Why not?" Harold asked. It was obviously not a good sign, but there was something about Helen's tone that implied there was far more to it than Harold had initially thought.

"He's trying to confuse us. Disorient us. Possibly lure us into a trap. He's much smarter than I thought."

"I thought you weren't an ape expert," Harold said through gritted teeth.

"I'm not. It's a typical villain tactic. One of these paths will lead us to the gorilla; the other is a dead end, probably lined with traps too."

"So which one do we take?" Harold asked.

Helen stared ahead, as if she were contemplating, but then she hung her head and said, "I don't know..."

"Well we have to pick one!"

"I know that! But if we take the wrong one, then our chances of catching up to the gorilla are reduced to zero."

"Should we just..." Jimmy's voice trailed off, but Harold knew exactly what he was about to ask.

"No," he said, so forcefully that Jimmy jumped. "We're not turning around. If we head back empty-handed, with that thing on the loose, then...you know what'll happen. We can't do it. We'll just have to check out both paths."

"You mean split up?" Helen asked, alarmed.

"It'll be fine. You and Jimmy take the left path, and I'll take the right. Whoever finds the gorilla calls for the others, and then we find a way to take it down together. Deal?"

Jimmy and Helen looked at each other. Neither of them looked particularly thrilled at the idea, but both nodded.

"Be careful," Jimmy said.

"Aren't I always?" Harold grinned. At Helen's stern look, however, he said, "All right, all right. You too."

And they parted ways.

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The journey through the woods was quieter, and yet somehow more menacing without the other two by his side. Owls hooted, insects buzzed, leaves rustled in the wind. His every step rang out clearly through the gloom, leaves crunching underfoot, but he ignored all the mundane noises. He was listening for something unusual, out of place: an abnormally heavy body padding across the ground, or the hint of a growl.

He heard nothing.

And that was the frightening part. The woods ahead of him were entirely silent, and the line of blood was thinning. Either he was closing in on the Gargantuan, or it was on the other side, with Jimmy and Helen. Neither possibility was inviting.

A loud crack rang out somewhere around his feet and he jerked back. He had accidentally trodden on a twig....Or was it a twig?

The object was glinting up at him. As far as he was concerned, twigs didn't glint. Harold bent closer to observe it, and saw that it was some kind of beetle. It was as large as his hand, and there was a huge crack along its shell, most certainly from Harold stepping on it seconds before, but it was undoubtedly dead, long before he had even entered the forest. The membrane visible beneath the shell was dry and gnarled, as if it had congealed. Slightly disgusted now, Harold shook his head and set off again.

Fifteen minutes later, the trail of blood was practically nonexistent, but there was a large cave ahead of him. He could hear a distant droning noise emanating from the interior. He edged closer, observing the opening.

Even the brilliant moonlight couldn't pierce the veil of blackness obscuring the entrance. A feeling of foreboding crept upon him, like cold hands running over his body. Harold gulped. He wasn't sure if it was the Gargantuan or not, but something was in the cave, all right....

Harold shook his head. Whatever it was, he would face it head on.

"Round two." He mimed hitting a bell, squared his shoulders, and marched off towards the cave. It was only when he was directly in front of it that he realized he was wrong. The gorilla wasn't in the cave. The sound he was hearing wasn't growling—it was buzzing.

Before he could move away, a vast swarm of hornets erupted from the cave mouth, crowding around him. They were enormous, pale green in colour, with black stingers the size of his fingers, glimmering cruelly in the moonlight.

"Crap," he said, and the swarm descended on him.

It was far more difficult than fighting the ape. As large and as powerful as it was, it was only one opponent. Now, he was fighting what appeared to be dozens. They came at him from all angles, jabbing and biting. With every sting he took, it felt as if acid were being injected into his skin.

He lashed out wildly, feeling his fist connecting every so often with a warm, soft body. The only good thing about this was, the hornets were far less durable than the gorilla: a single hit was enough.

He punched and kicked, spinning and rolling across the forest floor, trying desperately to evade. But the swarm stuck to him. After a few more painful, frantic seconds, he realized that his movements were becoming more sluggish. The venom.

He lashed out, ripping another hole in the swarm and knocking a few more hornets away, but it wasn't enough. His body was on fire, his legs teetering on the verge of collapse, and the swarm was still coming. He couldn't fight much longer. The swarm swooped upon him as one, and he let them. For two excruciating seconds, he remained still, letting the swarm close in on him. Then he mustered all of his remaining strength, and clapped.

The shockwave from the impact was enough to almost uproot one of the trees to his immediate right. It blew the entire swarm away, and they all fell around him, motionless, some twitching pitifully.

His chest rose and fell rapidly, with every breath feeling as if a balloon were swelling in his chest, preparing to pop. Then his eyes closed, and he felt himself falling into darkness.

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"Harold!...Harold!..."

He awoke, feeling numb. A distant droning noise filled his ears. His eyes fluttered open, the harsh light stinging his pupils. Someone was calling out his name. The voice sounded far away, but the longer he was awake, the closer at hand it sounded, until—

"Harold!"

He jerked upright, gasping and spluttering. Jimmy and Helen were right beside him, both looking simultaneously shocked and relieved.

As Harold came to his senses, he became aware of the piercing stings running through his body, as if he had been lying on a bed of needles.

"What—happened?" he choked out.

"That's what we should be asking you!" said Jimmy, and he motioned around at the dead hornets littering the forest floor.

Harold took a moment to catch his breath, his heart thumping against his ribs. "I thought...I thought the gorilla...was here. In the cave. But it wasn't. They were."

"You were right, it was on the other path," Helen said.

"You saw it?"

Helen nodded. "It looked pretty bad. It was bleeding out, much worse than before. It growled at us when it noticed us, but it seemed to weak to engage us directly."

"So what happened?"

"It chucked another tree at us and disappeared again," Jimmy said casually.

"Of course," Harold said sardonically. He looked around again. "Those hornets. They weren't normal. Their stingers...the venom. It was horrible."

"Tell me about it." Jimmy nudged one of the hornets with his boot. It turned over, its broken stinger pointing skywards, oozing black fluid. "Eurgh. First a giant gorilla, now giant bugs. Does anyone else think that maybe we should get out of here while we still can before another giant something shows up and eats us?"

"As much as I hate to say it, he's right," Helen said. "We can't stay here, not like this. Besides, we need to get you home, to the Med Wing."

"I'm fine," Harold said irritably. "I have a regenerative factor, remember?"

"And it's clearly working overtime dealing with all this," Jimmy said, indicating the large red marks dotting his skin. "And you're still not in good shape. You look like a human checkerboard."

Helen dug into her bag once again and extracted another of the black balls. "Open your mouth."

"I learned how to feed myself, you know. I do it every day."

"Do you want me to stuff this down your throat? Because I will."

Harold opened his mouth reluctantly, and Helen placed the ball on his tongue.

"Two in one night," she said, as he started to chew. "You know we only get restocks of our equipment once every week, right?"

"I'm sorry I got injured fighting the mutated animals," Harold said, with a sarcastic smile. "Next time, I'll just let them finish the job, and you won't have to worry about wasting another Medipill."

"Ha ha." Helen grabbed one of his arms, Jimmy seized the other, and they helped him up. He could already feel the pill taking effect, working with his natural enhanced healing capabilities to combat the venom and repair his wounds. Still supporting him, they started along the path.

"What about the men?" Harold asked, remembering them suddenly.

"What about them?" said Helen.

"Well, they're all tied up in the same place where the gorilla was, aren't they?"

"Yeah?"

"So, what if another group of oversized animals runs into them while they're completely defenseless?"

"We have our own troubles to worry about. If they didn't want to get eaten by giant monsters then they shouldn't have been out here looking for one in the first place."

"Hah, you called them monsters."

"The gorilla wasn't a monster. But they certainly are." She pointed her chin at the countless hornet carcasses surrounding them, scrunching up her nose.

"How do you think they'll react when they find out the gorilla got away?" Jimmy asked.

Harold understood "they" to mean their superiors. "How do you think? They'll be pissed."

"Surely not if we explain the delicate and unexpected nature of the mission?" Helen said nervously. "I mean, no one mentioned that the target was a titanic primate. The report only said that a vicious animal was seen around the area after antagonizing the village nearby, nothing about it being King Kong Junior."

"Yeah, but they'll still find some way to be disappointed in us. But the real question is, where did the gorilla come from? It's obviously mutated. The white fur, the Kaiju build, the green blood. There's no doubt that it's enhanced. But what could have caused it?"

"No idea," said Helen. "And truth be told, I'm not that keen on finding out."

By now, Harold had recovered enough to walk by himself. He gently relieved himself from their grasp and fell into step beside them. They walked in silence for a time, then came back to the spot where they had initially found the gorilla.

"Hey, where are you going?" yelped one of the men. "You can't leave us—at least not like this! What if that thing comes back?"

"Well, that's your problem, isn't it?" Harold said pleasantly.

"Our superiors will receive word of what went down here tonight. They'll likely send some people in to take over the investigation. Just hope they get to you before something else in the forest does," Helen said, with a nasty smile, and the three turned their backs on the men and walked out of the forest, ignoring the men's desperate cries and screams of terror.

The drop ship was waiting for them a short distance beyond. It materialized out of thin air as they dropped the camouflage, and the plank fell towards them, permitting them entrance.

They quickly climbed up and inside the ship, which was illuminated by the brilliant glow of the overhead bulbs, and saw O'Riley at the pilot's helm, an older blond man dressed in a crisp ochre-brown suit. They received a shock to find that O'Riley, however, was not alone. Their year coordinator was there, a hard-faced man with pouchy green eyes and a thick, dark mustache that Harold found silly and unnecessary. Beside him was their Combat instructor, Mr. Dreyfus.

All three of them froze in place and saluted swiftly.

Mr. Girvan did not immediately respond. After a few seconds, he waved at them and they relaxed, though still feeling rather tense. What were they doing here?

"A simple report of an unusual animal sighting," Girvan said, in a tone of suppressed anger. "That was all. Explain to me how you managed to screw up this badly."

Both boys looked at Helen, who looked at them as though she wanted to roll her eyes. "It was a case of an unusual animal, Sir," she said. "But the thing is, it wasn't just an animal that wasn't supposed to be in the forest. It's like...it was mutated."

"Mutated?" Girvan repeated sharply. "How so?"

"I mean, it was over sixteen feet tall, as white as chalk, bled green blood, and managed to go toe to toe with Harold, Sir."

Girvan glanced at Harold. "White gorilla..." He twiddled his mustache thoughtfully. Harold rolled his eyes, and Jimmy elbowed him.

"Is that all?" Girvan suddenly shot at them.

"No, Sir. There was a group of men there as well. They wanted to capture the gorilla, to sell it, but we took them down. They're tied up a short ways ahead."

Girvan exchanged looks with Dreyfus, and Dreyfus nodded and took off swiftly into the night.

"Very well," said Girvan. "We'll be heading back now. Tomorrow, I want a full, detailed report of everything that happened. But for now, may as well get some sleep. It's a school night, after all."