Everything © their respective owners
-IREGRETSOMUCH
KN: Man, I had this fic idea where Dr. Stylish makes a giant mech after I first saw the Jaegars introduced in the anime, but I didn't have time to write this, and now everyone's going to think I got this idea from the 'Kill the Emperor' gundam episode and aaaagggghhhhh.
Warning: Sorry for all the CAPS, I thought they were relatively appropriate.
-IREGRETSOMUCH
Gears turned, flasks bubbled, machines whirred, and dying experiments screamed in the hellish lab of one such Dr. Stylish - scientist and medic of the Jaegars.
Normally, no machines buzzed or clicked in Dr. Stylish's domain. He was more interested in biological experiments because they produced the most fascinating results… Desperate beings wanting to continue life, paying whatever price it took, writhing and screaming under the countless tests that broke them further and further away from their original selves. It never ceased to be the most gratifying part of his work.
But right now he had other plans. Call it a passing interest in mechanics, maybe? The empire could need this product some day for all he knew, deities know they'd find no end of use for his research.
"It's finished." A wide maniacal grin graced the doctor's features.
Still just a prototype in the end, but he knew just the perfect subject to test out his new toy…
-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-
"Dr. Stylish?" Esdeath asked. "You said you had something to show us?"
"Indeed, captain!" Dr. Stylish adjusted his glasses as Seryu tossed rose petals in his general direction. "I believe my newest creation is just what the empire needs."
"If it's made by my mentor, then it is definitely needed!" Seryu agreed, picking up the rose petals she tossed since Bols told her to clean her messes.
"So, is it under that big white sheet or something?" Wave asked, pointing to the seventy-foot tall structure covered by the aforementioned abnormally large cloth.
"Ah, that naïveté of yours is simply delectable, Wave." Dr. Stylish smirked as the country boy visibly backed away. "But I suppose I shouldn't keep you waiting any longer. Minions!" He snapped his fingers.
"Yes, sir!" Dr. Stylish's experiments chorused as they took down the massive blanket to reveal a GLORIOUS GIANT MECH TALLER THAN THE EMPIRE'S PROUDEST MOUNTAINS.
"Introducing Dr. Stylish's Dominator 5000!" One of the experiments started.
"With its majestic drill in one hand!" Another experiment continued, gesturing to the drill.
"And its heavy firepower machine gun in the other!" Another experiment continued, gesturing to the machine gun.
"And its rocket thrusters built into its back!" Another experiment continued, but didn't know where the thrusters were located, so they kind of just stared at it awkwardly.
"And its SUPER STYLISH cape!" Another experiment continued, with a STYLISH flourish.
"This is the turning point of the empire's military might!" The experiments announced. "The pilotable Dominator 5000 will DESTROY the competition and CRUSH the rebel army fools! No one will dare rise against the empire again!" Sparkles came off the mech and SHINED BRIGHTER THAN DIAMONDS.
"Is this really necessary…?" Run asked under his breath. It all seemed awfully flashy, and he wondered how the scientist managed to even gather that much cloth for both the cape AND the sheet that was covering it. "How is it even being powered?"
"THAT'S SO COOL!" Wave shouted, excitedly.
"As expected of my mentor!" Seryu puffed her chest out in pride.
"Hohh?" Esdeath whistled. "It's certainly impressive."
"Is it even safe…?" Run wondered.
"I suppose since Dr. Stylish went to all the effort of making it, we should give him the benefit of the doubt." Bols suggested.
Kurome continued to munch on her sweets in unimpressed silence while Run quietly yielded to the craziness.
"Wait, you guys said it was pilotable, right?" Wave asked, stars still in his eyes. "Can I-?!"
"No." Dr. Stylish answered immediately.
"Ehhh?" Wave frowned. "You didn't even let me finish my question…"
"I suppose as the leader of the Jaegers, I am expected to pilot this creation?" Esdeath inquired, tilting her head a bit.
"This mech is still a prototype, and someone of your rank deserves to pilot only the best and finished works, Captain Esdeath." Dr. Stylish reasoned. "And since it is still a widely untested prototype, you'll probably die, Wave."
"If it hasn't been tested, then why-?" Wave's concern was cut off by Dr. Stylish's flourish.
"Because I need someone to test pilot it at this stage where death is nearly certain, and who better than my adorable protégé, Seryu!" Dr. Stylish gestured to the girl of self-proclaimed justice.
"It would be my honor, Dr. Stylish!" Seryu saluted.
"Wait, what do you mean by 'death is nearly cert-?!" Wave was again stopped short.
"Seryu has made use of all of my modifications to her body, and she has tested my experiments and equipment countless times. There is no practice pilot more perfectly suited than her." Dr. Stylish reasoned.
"I guess that makes sense…" Wave conceded.
"I will allow it." Esdeath agreed. "Seryu can see how it handles during her patrols."
"Perfect." Dr. Stylish grinned. "All right, Seryu, the Dominator 5000 doesn't allow pets, so you'll have to drop Koro off with someone. Naturally, I don't allow animals I can't experiment on in my lab either, so I'm not an option."
"Ehh?" Seryu gave a dismayed groan. "But Koro will behave himself!"
"No 'buts,' my protégé! I taught you better than that!" Dr. Stylish admonished her. "Now give Koro to a fellow teammate, and get in the robo-er, Dominator 5000." He quickly corrected.
"Yes, sir…" Seryu picked up Koro and dropped him in Wave's arms. "Take care of him for me, Wave!" She requested before jumping high into the air, doing a somersault OF JUSTICE, and landing in the Dominator 5000's cockpit.
"Wait, why me?!" Wave asked, just realizing that he was now holding the puppy teigu.
"Dominator 5000, launch off in T-minus 10, 9, 8…" a seemingly robotic voice said as the cockpit's window closed over the hatch.
"Launch off?" Dr. Stylish questioned, adjusting his glasses.
"LIFT OFF OF JUSTICE!" The robotic voice announced before it rocketed into the air, breaking through the stratosphere and leaving the Jaegers speechless.
For about a good couple of minutes.
"I was unaware anything capable of flight could go that high." Esdeath said.
"Not even my Mastema or Wave's Chariot can soar through the sky like that…" Run had to admit he was impressed. He still questioned the need for a cape, though.
"Okay, that's cool and all, but IS SERYU GOING TO BE OKAY?!" Wave asked, distraught. "I mean, she just got launched so far we can't even see her anymore!"
"I'm sure she'll be all right, Wave." Dr. Stylish assured him in a way that didn't leave the man of the sea at all assured. "She's survived all of my experiments so far, after all. It'll take more than an unexpected trip to space to kill her." He reasoned. "Probably…"
"I suppose all we can do is to have faith in her now." Bols suggested to Wave, though he didn't much like the idea of leaving Seryu to fend for herself without Koro either.
"I'll take care of Seryu's area of patrol until she gets back, then." Esdeath offered.
'And maybe I'll find Tatsumi along the way!' Esdeath broke out into a small, creepy grin at the thought as she left the area.
"I'm still worried, but I guess I'll be sure to take care of Koro in the meantime." Wave decided.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY SWEETS!" Kurome chased after the aforementioned puppy teigu, blade a blaze.
"Kurome, no!" Wave chased after her. "I promised Seryu I'd keep him safe!"
"THEN TELL HIM TO STAY AWAY FROM MY FOOD!" Kurome barked back, not even bothering to stop swinging her sword.
"Young people are so lively…" Bols followed after them since Kurome was supposed to be his patrol partner.
"I really am getting too comfortable here." Run followed after them as well since Wave was supposed to be patrol partner.
"All right, back to the lab for me, I suppose." Dr. Stylish shrugged. "It would be a shame if Seryu couldn't make it, though… An experiment as blind, determined, and resilient as she was made things so much more entertaining… Oh well! Minions!" He snapped his fingers. "Dispose of the Dominator 5000's camouflage cloak!"
"Yes, Dr. Stylish!" His minions exclaimed.
-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-
"Wooooow!" Seryu marveled as she rocketed through space. "Look at all the lights! I wish I could show everyone back at the empire this…" A couple of comets flew past her mech, eliciting more delighted cheers from the girl. "I wonder why Dr. Stylish wanted to go to space."
"It wasn't his intention." A voice said.
"Eh, what was that?" Seryu looked around the cockpit. "Is it an alien?! Where?!"
"I am no alien, budding agent of justice." The voice replied. "I am but the simple mech you pilot."
"Do all mechs talk and go into space?" Seryu asked.
"I do not know." The mech responded. "I am the first of my kind to be built back in the empire."
"Oh, so you're still trying to figure stuff out too!" Seryu smiled. "I feel a little less lost now."
"But when Dr. Stylish created me, I never thought to respond to him. I think that is because I sensed a greater potential of justice from you."
"Potential?" Seryu cocked her head. "Ha, I am justice itself! If you think I only have potential, then Dr. Stylish will need to fix your errors! He's good at that, though, so you don't have to worry too much."
"…" The mech remained silent.
'Perhaps I was mistaken…' The mech thought.
"So, how do I go back to the empire?" Seryu asked. "I'm not in any hurry or anything, but I do need to do my patrol and make sure Koro doesn't eat Wave or something."
"The empire's safety is not of importance right now." The mech explained. "There is but another group in need of justice that only you can deliver."
"Aliens in need of justice?" Seryu gasped. "So even in a vast world like this, there can still be evil… Unforgivable!" She grit her teeth. "Take me to this group of aliens that need my help! I can't let them wait any longer!"
"Understood." The mech said as it flew her towards the coordinates.
-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-
"And so it has repeated again…" A large humanoid mass of shadow droned it its monotone voice. "Really, it's like you uncivilized beasts have a death wish. You will fail like the ones who came before you, and I will be the one to eliminate you."
"We'll never give up!" A man piloting a strange mech with a face on it declared. "Maybe you were all right with stopping your species from evolving, but we're only going to continue to grow! That is the drive of our kind! Just who the hell do you think we ar-?!"
"KORO!" Seryu called. "Number five!"
"Eh…?" The man piloting the face mech turned his attention to her. "Who is that girl? Ally? Enemy?"
"Another fool has entered the fray, I see…" The humanoid mass rolled its eyes.
"Seryu, I am not your dog." The mech answered.
"Oh, right…" Seryu apologized. "Koro II, drill the evil!"
"Understood." The mech drove forward, drill out, and pierced the humanoid mass.
"Whoa, would you look at her drill!" The man piloting the face mech marveled.
"Fire!" Seryu ordered.
"The machine gun?" The mech asked.
"Everything." Seryu grinned.
"Understood." The mech proceeded to fire the machine gun, the flamethrower, the ballistic missiles, the lasers, the bombs, and the vaporizer, effectively nuking the humanoid mass. Well, if said humanoid mass didn't just shrug it off.
"Was that supposed to hurt me?" It asked.
"All units, fire!" The man piloting the face mech ordered. "We have to help that girl!"
"Fire all you want, you trivial gnats." The humanoid mass coaxed. "It will do nothing against me."
"Then how about this?" Seryu asked, grinning maniacally as she pulled a certain trigger. A clock sprang up on top of her mech, every second ticked by slowly and loudly.
"You think a bomb is going to finish me." The humanoid mass said, unimpressed. "Why go so far for people you don't know in an impossible fight?"
"Justice is meant to protect every innocent life." Seryu started, firing the last of her ammo. "Justice does not yield against evil forces." She moved the mech to latch onto the humanoid mass. "And justice. Never. Loses!"
"Seryu, the chances of you surviving this is slim." The mech advised her in a calm tone.
"That's fine." Seryu answered. "I helped another oppressed group against injustice… That's all an agent of justice needs to do. If you aren't prepared to give your life in the name of it, then you can't say you believed in your cause with everything you had."
"I knew I made the right decision when I chose you to help me with this injustice." The mech said. "It was an honor working with you."
"Likewise, Koro II." Seryu beamed.
"Koro II, huh? You called me that earlier too…I like that name." The mech wished it knew how to smile.
The bomb went off, unleashing an explosion at a range the likes of which no one had ever seen, sending Seryu and Koro II rocketing away in a flaming chunk.
The humanoid mass screeched in agony.
"H-how?!" It roared. "I can't fall here! Not when all of us, every single being of life, is at risk!"
"All units, this is the finishing move!" The man piloting the face mech radioed his fellow face mech piloters. "We can't let our new ally's sacrifice be in vain!"
'Justice Girl, we'll never forget what you've done for us!' He thought as he charged the humanoid mass. He was kind of out of ammo, after all. 'Thank you!'
-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-
"He's kind of cute…" Wave thought out loud. "…when he's not eating people alive."
Koro continued to lap up the ice cream sundae Wave decided to buy since he wasn't sure what Koro usually ate. The puppy teigu seemed to eat just about anything Seryu had. Koro's yip brought Wave out of his thoughts, and the country boy couldn't help but smile.
"I'm going to be broke at this rate, though…" Wave lamented. "Kurome made me buy a lot of cakes just to make up for Koro taking one of her cookies. Does she have to hold a grudge that deep? She takes her food way too seriously."
Koro whimpered a bit, pawing at its empty bowl. Wave put another sundae in front of the dog.
"Ah, don't worry, Koro." Wave pet the teigu. "I wouldn't leave Seryu with the bill."
"I'll split the tab with you." Run offered, walking in with two cups of coffee he ordered.
"Oh, no you don't have to-!" Wave was interrupted by the blond handing him the other cup of coffee.
"Get something else you want to eat as well." Run smiled. "It'll leave you in better spirits, and we can focus on our patrol better."
"All right…" Wave sipped his coffee. "Thanks, Run!"
"Think nothing of i-!" Run was cut off by a flaming chunk of metal crashing into the center of the Empire, setting buildings aflame and creating a huge new crater.
"What the heck?!" Wave didn't know if his heart could handle the rest of this day. "Are the-is everyone going to be all right?" He went over to investigate the area. Run set his coffee cup down, picked up Koro, and followed after him.
Before the two could get anywhere close, however, a large chunk of ice materialized over the flames, melting near instantaneously and flooding the area.
"Whoa!" Caught off guard by the sudden inundation, Wave nearly got swept away. Run whipped out his Mastema and took to the skies with Koro. "Grand Chariot!" Wave equipped his armor and soon followed into the sky as well.
'It'll take more than that to pull one over a man of the sea!' Wave thought.
"Looks like Esdeath took care of the fire…" Run marveled at the captain's reaction speed.
"But not all the people who are drowning!" Wave pointed out. "We need to help them out!"
"DID I HEAR PEOPLE IN NEED?!" a voice cried out in the general direction of the cause of the fire. Seryu jumped out of the mech's cockpit, did a somersault of JUSTICE, and struck a STYLISH pose in midair. "KORO, release the battleship!"
Koro barked and jumped out of Run's arms before spitting out a huge metal battleship onto the water.
"How does a small puppy fit something that big?!" Wave didn't know how many times people were going to make him yell like that.
"Well, at least we have a nice place to put the civilians." Run said, helping a girl out of the water.
"Good work, Seryu." Esdeath made ice platforms underneath the drowning civilians. The platforms rose out of the water and deposited the people onto the battleship. She then stepped onto the ship's deck herself along with the other Jaegars in the area. "How was your trip into space?"
"Oh, it was great, captain!" Seryu chirped. "I delivered justice onto a horrible race of aliens that were enslaving a poor group of other aliens!"
"Wow, that actually sounds pretty exciting." Wave disrobed his Grand Chariot. "Are you all right, though, Seryu? You fell from the sky, got Dr. Stylish's giant robot set on fire, and might've even drowned, you know."
"I'm just fine!" Seryu assured him. "Justice would never fall to such trivial wounds! And justice would never allow people to get hurt in the crossfire either!"
"I guess if you put it that way..." Wave helped Run tend to the civilians. "Ah…I actually didn't do anything useful, though…" Wave buried his face in his hands while Run gave him a sympathetic look.
"Were you good for Wave?" Seryu picked up Koro. "If you didn't behave yourself, you don't get any treats!"
"We'll have to report the mech's condition to Dr. Stylish when we get back." Esdeath flipped her hair.
'Maybe I'll find Tatsumi another time…' She pouted a little.
"Ohhhh," Seryu frowned, "he's going to be so disappointed about Koro II breaking…!" She then brightened up a little. "But she was a fine agent of justice! To know that she carried out what he built her for… He'll be happy about that."
"I thought the mech was called Dominator 5000." Esdeath also thought that name was far more appealing.
"The mech was a girl?" Wave cocked his head.
"Why don't you tell us all about it over coffee, Seryu?" Run suggested.
"That's a great idea!" Seryu clenched her fists. "So there I was traveling through space and watching all the pretty lights when suddenly, I hear a voice…."
-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-
"I've done it!" Dr. Stylish cackled. "I've made an even better mech than the first!"
"You're amazing, Dr. Stylish, sir!" the doctor's minions chorused.
"Ah, but I've forgotten why I built such a thing in the first place…" Dr. Stylish rubbed his chin in thought. "I don't even like mechanical inventions."
"It is a turning point in Empire technology, though." One of the experiments pointed out.
"Oh, please!" Dr. Stylish shook his head. "The empire would never reach a state of desperation so low that they'd use a piece of junk like this!" He sighed. "Ah, I'll have to throw it in the storage basement underneath the courtroom then."
"What a waste!" The experiments lamented.
"Don't be like that, my minions." Dr. Stylish comforted them. "It means we get more…time together." He grinned.
"Hail, Dr. Stylish!" The experiments chorused.
-IREGRETSOMUCH
KN: I think the only reason I wanted to write this was because of my oddly good title name. There is a surprising lack of tengen and gurren, though.