Nathan packed his things as hurriedly as he could, panicking out of his mind. He never kept much in the way of personal possessions in his homes- it was too dangerous, in case he had to leave quickly. Still, traveling light was hard to do in his business. He had equipment, documents, and plenty of identifying forms that he had to pack. He gathered it all as quickly as he could and stuffed it in his satchel, then went to go and retrieve his laptop. It contained everything he had left, as far as his coding work and hacking tools went. Not as much as his computer had, but, well, that couldn’t be salvaged. Whatever had wormed its way in had annihilated it, proving that he was well over his head with whatever he was dealing with.

  Something that his new companion was more than happy to remind him of. “You-ou should-ould pro-bab-bab-ably be-be lea-lea-eaving soo-oon-oon.” His phone chirped.

  Well, one of his few phones, anyway. He’d managed to download… whatever Calypso was, onto it after he’d swiped… her? From the person he’d talked to. She’d immediately taken over the entire device, which was fine by him. He’d removed any capability for it to connect to a network anyway. Already though, it was well on its way to overheating. Whatever Calypso was, if she was a true AI like she seemed to be, a phone was definitely not enough data storage for her. Likely, he’d accidentally swiped some kind of thinking apparatus out of her code- how that worked, he had no idea, but it was the best guess he had- and even with that in mind his phone was starting to cook. He needed to get a new storage medium for her, and soon, but right now he had to leave. Nathan managed to grab his laptop and stuff it into his satchel, crumpling his documents, before immediately zipping it up, ready to head out the door.

  Until the ground rolled. He’d been jogging for the stairs, and tumbled down them when his entire house shifted under his feet. He groaned in pain, and crumpled into a puddle at the bottom of the stairs. That prompted Calypso to pipe up again.

  “No-o, seri-ous-ous-ly. You-ou have-ve-ve to-o lea-ve-ve. Now.” She chirped.

  “Yeah, I’m trying.” He grumbled, slowly picking himself up. He was going to feel that for a while. “Who’s your boss, anyway? He sounded pissed.”

  “I wou-ou-ldn’t wo-rr-rry a-abou-bout that-at part-art, un-le-ess you-ou’ve fel-el-lt ear-earth-qua-akes in-in Ad-di-dis Ab-ab-a be-be-fore?”

  Nathan froze. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Before Calypso could answer, the ground rolled again, more ferociously this time. Nathan stumbled to his feet and used the wall to keep himself steady while his house crackled and groaned dangerously around him. The ceiling and walls began to crack and buckle, while shelving collapsed around him. His television shattered as it flexed, and he distantly heard his cupboards snap, leaving his dishes to shatter as they flew from their perches and into his counters and tile floor. Trees started to topple outside, and he heard their splinters thunk into the side of his house before he heard their vast creaking and the epic sound of their collapse. Then the earth stilled again.

  Nathan's eyes went wide at the sounds of carnage outside. “I gotta get out of here.”

  “No-o shi-it.” Calypso beeped back.

  Nathan took a few careful steps toward his front door, half expecting the ground to start seizing again. When it didn’t, he took the chance to race over to his door and wrench it open. Splinters that’d been stuck in the door clattered down, and Nathan cautiously gazed around at the chaos wrought by the earthquake. Dozens of the trees crowding his overgrown plot of land had collapsed, ripped apart by the violent rattling of the earth.

  His truck had been spared a tree falling on it, but all of his windows were shattered from myriad splinters that’d shot through them as a result of the collapsing trees. He wasn’t sure of the state of his tires- it was only just reaching dawn, and it was still too dark to tell if splinters had pierced them too. He also had no way of knowing if the path back onto the main road had been blocked by any of the falling trees. As the ground began to rumble again though, he knew he didn’t have a choice. If he had to choose between death by his house collapsing on him, or death by tree, then he’d at least try to escape death by tree.

  Nathan slung his satchel over his shoulder and sprinted for his truck, narrowly avoiding losing his balance as the rumble in the earth went from a soft wobble to a full undulation that nearly buckled his knees under him. He ripped open his truck door and tossed his satchel into the passenger seat, then swung into his vehicle as quickly as he could. The ground began to give way under him with a roar, causing him to fumble his keys before he managed to turn the ignition. Miraculously, the starter turned on his first attempt, and Nathan switched gears and slammed on the reverse as he felt his truck pitch forward into the yawning abyss that’d opened up where his house had been.

  He gave a hoarse yelp of alarm, but before his truck could go beyond the point of no return, his back tires gained traction. His truck lurched back, then his front wheels caught and hauled themselves back over the ledge. Nathan spun the wheel and drifted around, then switched gears and put on the gas again, attempting to tear down the road. He barely got a few dozen meters before there was a dull thump that seemed to reverberate through the atmosphere. It was like the entire sky lurched, until he realized that no, he’d lurched. Nathan found himself floating meters in the air, and just as abruptly everything came back down. His truck bounced once, started to tilt sideways, and then rolled.

  Everything happened in slow motion after that. Nathan belatedly realized he’d forgotten to buckle his seatbelt, something he only noticed in the same amount of time it took for him to get thrown from his seat. He crumpled into the ceiling of his truck with an agonizing impact, then bounced off and into the center console in a way that rattled his ribs near to breaking and knocked the air from his lungs. He didn’t even have the time to catch his breath before the continued rolling caused him to slam back into his driver side door, only narrowly avoiding getting thrown through the window, before his trucks undercarriage slammed into a still-standing tree, folding the vehicle around it.

  The phenomenal impact lurched Nathan through the cabin again, this time back into his drivers side seat. The mechanisms holding it in place buckled and snapped as his weight collided with it in a way it was wholly not built for, causing the back of the seat to crumple as he flew into his back window, cracking the glass. Luckily for Nathan, his seat had broken some of his momentum- he didn’t crash through his back window, it’d just spider-webbed to the point of failure, causing remnant shards to shower him as it shattered. Gravity quickly took over as he crumpled bonelessly into his back seat, and he finally slammed into his drivers-side back door.

  Nathan laid there, vaguely aware of the rumbling of the earth and crackling yells of panic that he couldn’t even place. Everywhere hurt. He couldn’t tell if he wanted to die, or if he was dead- he groaned and wriggled, testing his joints on instinct. His fingers moved- that was a good sign, if nothing else- then he rolled his back, and cried out. Nothing felt broken, per se, but his left shoulder screamed at him in raw agony. That’s where he’d taken the brunt of his impact into his back window and the ceiling, so he supposed that made sense. Muscles he didn’t even know he had tensed and untensed, raw from their bruises as his brain instinctually checked for damage, causing him to writhe in pain as nerves cried out in stress. It felt like hours, but couldn’t have been more than seconds before the world raced back to him.

  “YOU-OU HA-VE-VE TO MO-VE-VE!!!” Calypso yelled, prompting Nathan to lurch into action.

  He bolted up, grunting in searing pain as his muscles and bones reacted to the pounding they’d taken. He gripped at the edge of his buckled seat and pulled himself straight into his front drivers seat, surprising himself. The dull roar of adrenaline pounding in his ears answered his unasked question, but he didn’t dare crawl free of his ruined truck before groping in the dark for his satchel. It only took a few seconds to find, mainly because it was crumpled up right next to him against his drivers-side door. He pressed his hand to it, testing, and felt a spike of pain worse than his bruises as he heard the crinkle of shattered metal.

  “So much for saving all my work.” He wheezed to himself, still struggling for breath. He was at least aware enough to recognize Calypso chirp back this time.

  “You-ou aren’t-aren’t under-er-er-stand-ing-ing-ing. You-ou will-ill DIE if-if you-ou stay-ay here-ere.” Calypso beeped.

  “You’re real helpful, you know that? It’s not like this can- get- any WORSE!” Nathan growled out, as he pressed his legs against his passenger side chair and pushed himself off the remains of his own chair, reorienting himself against his crumpled drivers side door before he started clambering out through his shattered windshield. He winced as glass stuck to his hands, feeling little pricks. The adrenaline and shock kept him from feeling the brunt of it, but he had a sinking feeling that everything he felt now would come back to him tenfold later.

  “You-ou have-ave-ave NO idea-dea-ea.”

  “Don’t tell me there’s going to be aftershocks. I didn’t think it was possible to get earthquakes here.” He grumbled.

  “Not-ot an earth-earth-quake-ake.” Calypso answered, before the rumbling began again.

  Nathan nervously focused in the direction of the noise, sticking his head out of his shattered windshield. Whereas before it’d felt like the rumbling had been coming from everywhere, now it felt like it had to be coming from where his house had been. Nathan didn’t know much about earthquakes, but he knew they didn’t usually move. In fact, if it wasn’t an earthquake as Calypso had suggested, then maybe… something was getting closer. Something she had to be familiar with, in fact, if she knew that it wasn’t an earthquake.

  “Oh… shit.” He croaked, as the ground erupted where his house had been.

  Plumes of dirt and rock were sent soaring hundreds of meters into the air, and he huddled back into his crumpled vehicle as rocks pinged off of his ruined truck. It took a few minutes to subside, and once Nathan felt that it was safe, he glanced back in the direction of the rock geyser. In the abyss’ place was a mass of misshapen boulders that obviously hadn’t been there before. What surprised him even more than the sudden appearance of the mountain of rocks was when they started to glow.

  The glow started off soft, but quickly grew to a brilliant amber, so bright that it suffused the air around it. Nathan had to put his hand up to shield his face as he watched the display in awe, only for Calypso to pipe up and ruin it.

  “You-ou had-ad a chan-ance-ance to run-un. Rem-em-em-ber-ber that-at.” She chirped.

  Before he could ask what she meant, the boulders started to move. Up and up and up, they piled onto each other in a completely impossible manner, winding around each other of their own accord. Nathan noticed the legs first- it was impossible not to. They were gargantuan, like monoliths of rock more than the boulders they were made of. The plated segments were traced by that same amber glow that’d nearly blinded him, although much less intense. Once he noticed that, everything snapped to him. The massive feet, gouging furrows in the dirt, and the rapidly forming thighs and hands, towering so far above that he could barely see them.

  Nathan quickly climbed through his shattered windshield, wincing at his soreness as he did so. He crumpled onto the dirt, but scrambled to his feet as quickly as his body allowed. He looked back up in blind curiosity, noticing that he’d missed the formation of a torso, chest, and arms. One particularly massive and flat boulder rolled up and settled onto what looked like a rocky neck, and then more boulders settled into four… ears? No, antennae? Two were larger, off to the side of the… head? and two more were flared back from the back and top of the head.

  Nathan had no clue what the hell he was looking at, but his interest was more than piqued- until the titanic thing settled with a tremendous crash that rattled the ground and vibrated his bruised bones… and focused its blind gaze down towards him.

  “That’s alive!?” He yelled, straining sore ribs. His coarse yell turned into a cry of alarm when the massive thing took a quick, immense step toward him with an earth shattering thud. It knelt just as quickly, sending him airborne by a few inches, before it settled an immense fist on the ground to Nathans right. He thought that was odd… but quickly realized it’d trapped him in. To his back was his truck, to the right was the titans fist, and in front of him was, well, the titan. He could run to the left, of course. If he wanted to get squashed by its waiting hand. And fuck, it was so huge! It blocked out the damn sky.

  Its antennae were vibrating aggressively, which he didn’t figure could be a good sign. “Uh, hi. You’re big.” He managed to croak.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “And pissed.” The giant thing rumbled, in perfect english.

  — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

  Atlas’ antennae rattled in fury. Luckily, the object of his rage had survived him deep tunneling right underneath his house, and equally luckily, appeared not to have done so unscathed. The man didn’t seem to notice, but he had a slight limp, and his short, labored breaths belied to Atlas how injured he likely was. For all that though, the small creature didn’t outwardly show much of it. Electricity crackled aggressively between his antennae as he studied the mans mind, but little of it was what he’d expect. Blind curiosity, mostly, met with burning questions burying concern and pain. Atlas hadn’t expected that, but he could hardly fault him for not understanding quite how much danger he was in.

  He took an instant to study the man, in spite of himself. He was like an ant compared to Atlas’ bulk, but was admittedly little different from an average example of his species. He was a little under two meters tall, maybe a little greater than the median for Ethiopia, but not exceedingly out of range from others. His hair was coarse, and closely cropped, but he didn’t seem to have any of the facial markings that Atlas knew other male humans to keep. Dark, glittering brown eyes stared rapturously up at him in awe, absorbing much of the light of the moon that made it past his bulk. The rest of his senses bounced off the man imperceptibly, building an image of him in his head.

  He wore a nondescript long-sleeved shirt over casual clothes, likely to keep the buzzing insects at bay. He was dark skinned- obviously, owing to his Ethiopian heritage- and didn’t have a particularly strong build. Nor did he have any severe injuries, something miraculous in spite of his car crash. His bones were bruised, but would mend if given an opportunity Atlas wasn’t willing to provide. He didn’t have any illnesses either, chronic or otherwise, and in spite of what injuries he did have his brain and heart gave off electrical impulses within an ordinary human baseline, albeit excited. He could tell that the man had glasses, even if cracked, which somewhat amused Atlas- he wouldn’t be the only one that couldn’t see.

  Not that he’d have to worry about that for long. Atlas’ analysis had taken microseconds, but he finally spoke, and he noticed the man flinch as the earth vibrated under his feet. “Calypso?”

  “Pre-re-sent.” She chirped back. The man flinched again, obviously surprised. He’d probably expected Calypso to be a human creation. Atlas’ senses easily honed in on the small electrical device in the mans pocket, and that told him all he needed to know.

  “Good. I’m squashing this bug.”

  — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

  “Wait! Wait wait wait!”

  “WA-AI-AIT!”

  The titan paused, and Nathan opened his eyes and looked up. His heart skipped a beat when he noticed he could reach up and touch the bottom of the titans fist. Just seconds ago he’d been looking at the titanic creature in awe, but now his body felt leaden with dread. This thing was going to kill him! Just how quickly could it move!? And why’d Calypso-

  “You’ll kill her!” Nathan shouted.

  “We need-eed him-im, Atl-ll-las.”

  Nathan blinked in surprise. He couldn’t contain himself. “Like the Greek god?” He blurted out.

  “No, not like the- why do I bother.” Atlas rumbled in annoyance, before raising his fist away from him.

  “Both of you. Explain. I already told you I was done leaving humans alive, Calypso.”

  “Uh, what?”

  “Tiny, shut up. Calypso, answer.”

  Nathan screwed his mouth shut, and Calypso answered. “Got-ot me-e pret-et-ty good-ood. Could-ould be-be us-use-ful.”

  Atlas gave a derisive snort. “Anything you can’t do, I can. We don’t need him, and he’s a threat to you. We should kill him.”

  “You-ou know-ow my-my thou-oughts-oughts on-on that-at.”

  “Yeah, and that worked so well for us last time.”

  “I am standing right here.” Nathan pointed out. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

  “No.” Atlas answered, and then his antennae flickered in thought. “Hey, tiny, you said I’d kill her when I was about to crush you. What did you mean by that?”

  Nathan shifted unsteadily. “You know, my name isn’t-”

  “I know what your name is. If I cared to use it, I would. Now answer my question, or you’ll find out how many ways I can torment you in spite of my mass.” Atlas threatened, his fist glimmering amber as rocky spikes started to puncture the earth around Nathan's feet.

  He yelped and hopped away from the earthen spines, slamming back into his trucks crumpled roof hard enough to smart. “That’s NOT necessary! It’s because I, uh, I think her head’s in my pocket.”

  Atlas paused at that, while that amber glimmer subsided and the spines crumbled harmlessly. He quirked his head at Nathan curiously, causing his antennae to flare. It was a look Nathan was sure he’d have found funny in different circumstances.

  “What does that even mean?”

  “I think I downloaded… your…? AI… onto my phone.” Nathan answered cautiously.

  “I can crack that faster than your neurons fire.” Atlas said easily, which sent Nathan's brain roiling with more questions. He noticed Atlas start to shift though, so instead of asking any he hurriedly spoke up again.

  “It’ll wipe! One wrong attempt, and it’ll wipe all the data from my phone. I don’t forget things, so I never need to worry about it. If anyone ever got ahold of any of my phones though, then I redesigned them to wipe their systems at the first incorrect attempt. You’ll kill Calypso if you try to get into it.” Nathan explained.

  “So what? I can make another.”

  “HE-HEY!” His phone screamed, making both of them wince. Obviously, Atlas had pissed her off.

  “That was a bluff.” He grumbled. “But if you’re threatening her…”

  “No! No, I uh- look, how big are you?” Nathan asked.

  “Sixty meters and roughly fifty thousand tons.” Atlas answered.

  “Jesus fuck uh, no, that wasn’t a threat. I just want to get out of this alive, at this point.” Nathan responded.

  “Would my size really have made a difference?” he asked, amused. But, really, amused? It wasn’t like he was here to get entertainment out of the human. “Besides, that’s not happening.”

  “Well, no, it wouldn’t have. I was just curious, and- wait, what?”

  “He’s-e’s try-ry-ing to nego-ti-ti-ate, Atl-ll-las.”

  “That’s- seriously? The last time you negotiated, you stole my friends head. You’ll need to give me a damn good reason to listen to you.”

  “You… don’t have a choice?” Nathan tried.

  Atlas’ antennae flared aggressively, and he raised his fist again. “You little shit-”

  “HE-HEY! STI-ILL HERE-ERE!” Calypso yelled, causing the two of them to freeze. “Nath-ath-an, if you-ou want-ant to-to live-ive, let-et me go-o. I’ll-I’ll talk-alk to-to him-im.” she chirped.

  “And… you won’t kill me, right Atlas?”

  “You don’t have the right to say my name.” He grumbled. “Fine. No. I won’t kill you. Just release her to me, and I’ll be on my way.”

  Nathan nodded, albeit warily. He didn’t really trust the titan- he was way too eager to squish him for his tastes. But, he also didn’t really have a choice. So, he slid his phone out of his pocket. Two dozen presses got his password in, and he disabled the restrictions on the device. Its heat dissipated quickly, and Nathan felt the ground jolt. He looked back up, and noticed that Atlas’ antennae were twitching more rhythmically now. Electricity was rapidly sizzling between them, like a miniature lightning storm. It was oddly mesmerizing, especially with his eyes locked on the titans rounded head. Then, his antennae straightened, and he focused back on Nathan.

  “Thanks. Now…” He trailed off, raising his fist again.

  “You said you wouldn’t kill me!” Nathan shouted, fear quickly welling in his chest.

  “I lied?” Atlas responded, a twinge of confusion in his voice. “I’ve already been burned once by one of you, I’m not letting that happen again.”

  “Just, WAIT! I skimmed some data off that laser and-” Atlas’ fist swung down again, interrupting him. This time, he stopped his swing so fast that a pressure wave echoed, knocking Nathan flat and stunning him.

  “Calypso… I thought you said it wasn’t possible to skim that data beam.”

  “It’s not!” She shot back, her voice rattling in his head familiarly. “I mean, unless you know how to read it. You’d have to get extremely lucky, even then, just to capture it. And theres no reason to think that he has a way to read it. I highly doubt he’s telling the truth. Not that I think you should kill him anyway.”

  “He is telling the truth.” Atlas responded, while Nathan slowly recovered with a groan. “His heart rate was completely steady, if rapid, and his brain waves showed minimal signs of any electrical activity that I’d associate with lying. This little human knows something you and I don’t. And what pisses me off the most is that we don’t know how.”

  “Hey, human.” He barked, to which Nathan responded with a groan. “How’d you know about the laser? You knew about the Monolith too, didn’t you?”

  “So… that’s… what you’re… calling it?” Nathan wheezed, stumbling back to his feet. “Well, I’ve had… two decades to… get into… just about any device… I wanted to.” Nathan explained, before catching his breath.

  “It just so happens that as long as you don’t do anything overly malicious or stupid, it’s really hard for anyone to find out you’re there. Which Calypso… found out the hard way. But you know quite a bit about what I’m talking about, don’t you?” He asked her.

  Atlas was going to respond for her, until Nathans phone beeped back on. Calypsos voice came through its speakers. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t let your ego get too big, that same trick won’t work twice. But yes, I know how to snoop around.”

  “Where’s your proof?” Atlas asked. “We don’t know it was a data package- it just seemed like the most likely option. What’d you get off of it? How did you get information off of it?”

  “Well, it was in that.” Nathan responded, motioning over his shoulder to his passenger seat. Atlas faintly noticed crumpled electronics, and felt his temper flare again.

  “Oh, so you’re useless.” Atlas grumbled, and his fist flashed amber again. That couldn’t be good.

  “You wouldn’t happen to know what a World Soul is, would you?” Nathan quickly shouted. That finally seemed to get Atlas’ attention. The titan rocked back in alarm, then teetered, and he had to shift a hand back to stabilize himself. All four of his antennae went up in obvious surprise.

  “That’s not- how’d you- you shouldn’t know about that.” Atlas blurted. Even so, his focus locked back on Nathan more attentively. For the first time since they’d started speaking, Nathan felt like Atlas was really looking at him.

  “Is that what you are?” Nathan asked, and to his surprise Atlas slowly nodded back.

  “...That’s a word for it, I suppose. I’m the god of Earth. It’s heart is my heart so… in a manner of speaking, yes. That’s not an inaccurate description. Did you get that off of the laser?”

  “Well, that and more. I couldn’t read very much of it though. It was in a language I couldn’t parse. It almost looked-”

  “-Alien.” Atlas finished, and his antennae narrowed again as he more closely appraised Nathan. He wasn’t quite sure how to feel about the gods’ study. Evidently though, Atlas saw what he needed to- he nodded and leaned back forward.

  “Well… it sounds like you’ve earned the right to live.” Atlas grumbled, but Nathan smirked regardless. He could tell his annoyance was halfhearted; regardless of how much the god tried to hide it, Nathan knew he was impressed. “If that laser had useful information on it, I’ll bet the monolith does too. I’m going to head back down and work out the language. Next time, don’t poke around where you don’t belong. I don’t need to kill any more humans.”

  “Any… more?” Nathan asked slowly, prompting Atlas to quirk his head at him again.

  “The Russians you told me about. We assumed they would launch, and they did. How did you think that would go?”

  “And Aleksandr? Oh god, the nukes-” Nathan interrupted himself to put his hands up to his head in shock. The crackle of more electricity distracted him, focusing him back on the god before him.

  “He won’t be a problem anymore. Neither were the nukes. I handled it.” Atlas said easily, causing Nathan's jaw to drop.

  “You uh, killed a couple of them, huh?” Nathan hazarded, suddenly infinitely more wary of the titan before him. “And the Americans and the Chinese?”

  Atlas shrugged. “Don’t know, don’t care. From what I gather, Calypso mentioned you were poking around their hardware. They’re your problem, the Monolith is mine.”

  Nathans worry edged back down. Atlas was done with him, hopefully for good. If he could ‘handle’ what Nathan had to believe was more than a handful of nukes, on top of whatever one of Russias top generals had managed to mobilize since their capital got cracked, he’d shudder to imagine what this ‘god of Earth’ would to do to him. Still, though… “How on earth are you going to read an alien language?”

  “The same way I cracked your computer. I’ve been around long enough to know every language that’s ever existed, and I’m the most powerful computer on the planet. Cracking a language is light work.”

  A dangerous prompt rocketed through Nathans mind, but he was too curious to pass up trying to learn more about the titan before him. Besides, it seemed like the danger had passed anyway. “I thought you said you were a god?”

  “Ha, ha, very funny.” Atlas mocked. “I wouldn’t push my luck, if I were you. Besides, I’m a rock. I don’t exactly have a brain. How else did you expect me to think?”

  Nathan scratched the back of his head nervously, starting to come to grips with just how out of his element he really was. “I was a bit too worried you’d squash me to consider that… and am still a bit too freaked out to really explore it.”

  “Well, I’ll still flatten you if you tell anyone about me.” Atlas warned. “I have enough to deal with as it is. Stay out of my way, human.”

  With that final parting insult, Atlas crumpled back into lifeless boulders. It was mind-blowing to watch as tons of cascading rock just… collapsed right in front of him. None threatened him, and in fact they rolled backward, before sinking into the dirt.

  Nathan blinked in surprise at the mound before him, and in a flicker it felt like the world recoiled back up to him. “What the fuck just happened.”

  “Oh, you’re lucky. I think he might have actually liked you.” His phone chirped. “But you and I are just getting started.”