He growled as his hip twinged again. It wasn't shaping up to be a good day, and Chuck's scowl only grew deeper as he glanced at the clock on the wall of his bunker in Shatterdome, only to realize that it wasn't even lunch time. Just great.
Pushing himself off his Spartan bunker bed, the Jaeger pilot limped his way to his door to yank it open and meld in to the hustle and bustle of a typical day at the Los Angeles Shatterdome. In all honesty, Chuck Hansen knew he should be grateful he was even alive. After saving Raleigh and Mako from their escape pods, the seas had been scoured to bring back the body of Stacker Pentecost. What had been a surprise (and a relief) to many, was that instead of finding his body as well, what they found was a person alive, but barely clinging on.
Pentecost had managed to shove Chuck in to a rescue pod at the last second. Despite suffering major injuries, Chuck had managed to recover after 6 months in recovery and another 2 months spent on therapy. Granted, his movements weren't up to par as before injury, but the very fact that he was alive, was a fact his father Herc, thanked God for everyday.
But to add salt to the wound, even if he had been piloting a Jaeger ever since his recovery, his father still tried to take the brunt of the work, not to mention Striker Eureka was deployed much less then before. It had been 2 months since he had fully recovered from therapy, but the injury to his hip was something he would never shake free of. With only four Jaeger pilot's left, he had been deployed along with Mako and Raleigh to the Los Angeles Shatterdome, to reinitiate Jaeger Academy under the guidance of Herc, who had taken up the late Marshal Pentecost's position.
The Hong Kong Shatterdome was now delegated to build further Jaeger's. Striker Eureka and Gipsy Danger were not enough to protect cities from destruction should another Kaiju attack come.
But why, you ask? Wasn't the portal closed?
Yes, Pentecost had been successful in his mission. But what he didn't expect, was that whilst the first portal had been closed, the sentient beings had created another portal. Just five months after the first portal had closed; a Kaiju had popped up again, much to everyone's surprise. It was through the fast work of the team, and experience both Raleigh and Mako had, that they managed to get to and stop the category III kaiju attacking Taipei.
After that attack, Herc made the decision to restart the Jaeger program, and his first step to was to reinitiate the Jaeger Academy. Raleigh and Mako, along with Gipsy Danger, were working hard to retaliate the Kaiju attacks coming at every 3 weeks or so intervals, but they weren't enough.
Gottleib surmises that the time period for lapses in between attacks would mirror the first portal's lapses, so for now, Gipsy Danger could hold its own. But Herc also recognized that it alone wouldn't be enough.
When Chuck fully healed 3 months later, he retook his position with his father in Striker Eureka. And although it was deployed much less then Gipsy Danger, due to Chuck's intermittent injury attacks, it took a load off Raleigh and Mako, who had been ran haggard. As such, Herc finally decided to speed up process, picking out the cream of the crop of the students at Jaeger Academy for personal training by the four remaining Jaeger's.
Shaking his memories of the past ten months away from his mind, Chuck rubbed his right hip in irritation, desperately willing the pain to disappear as he pushed the door to his father's office open. Nodding a greeting as the familiar three pairs of eyes from his fellow Jaeger's greeted him, Chuck took his seat at the table, a table they had often used for meetings since the reinitiating of the Academy, and looked up.
"So what's the issue? I haven't even had lunch yet when the message to gather came." The gruff, slightly egoistical but hardworking young man asked, his eyes directed at his father. Herc looked older now, the pressure of taking over the PPDC getting on him. Chuck tries to help as much as he can, but there's only so much he could do. His father had infinitely more experience after all.
"Our training isn't going fast enough. Even with the four of us handling the express program, we can't train fast enough. The Kaiju attacks are going to get more closely sparse as time lapses."
"What do you suggest Herc? There's only so much we can do. We can't risk putting inadequately trained pilots in to Jaeger's." Mako voiced out, as Raleigh nodded in agreement.
"I know. But that's why I'm bringing in ex-Jaeger's who were decommissioned"
"Decommissioned? Would they still be good? Why didn't Marshal Pentecost call them back in the first place?" Chuck questioned dubiously, a question to which Raleigh snickered at, even if he agreed. But of all people, he would know how Chuck saw all who weren't Jaeger's as he knew them.
"Not all of them. Just one. She was only decommissioned by request, after her partner was killed in a deployment. She had become a Jaeger mechanic after that, but I'm requesting her to return as a Jaeger, if only to train in the Academy."
Raleigh stared, and then gaped. "Oh no." All eyes turned to him, Mako's and Chuck's questioning. But Herc's was different, half pleading and half warning as Raleigh met his gaze head on, his head slowly shaking. "No no no, you're not putting her in this. She had enough when I lost Yancy and then she lost Gregory. No."
"We don't have a choice Raleigh. She's the last remaining Jaeger, even if she had been decommissioned a year ago."
"She was decommissioned the same time Marshal Pentecost started the plan to collapsed the Breach? Why?" Chuck cut in with a question, something which Mako mirrored her curiosity. Why would Stacker Pentecost decommission someone at the time when they need the most help?
"None of your beeswax Chuck." Raleigh interrupted with a scowl, and then turned to Herc with another shake of his head. "No."
"Too late, I'm here." A voice piped up as the door opened, and in step a girl who was probably only slightly taller than the Japanese Jaeger female already in the room. With a pair of striking blue eyes standing out vividly against her pale skin and midnight black hair, Chuck's eyes widened as he tried to determine if such a slight girl was possibly a former Jaeger.
Stepping in to the darkened room though, her eyes bypassed everyone as she zeroed in on Raleigh, and gave an affectionate smile that had Mako gritting her teeth and scowling. She would've probably gotten in to a row with Raleigh had the next words not been spoken.
"The name's Jazzy. Well, technically its Jasmine Becket, but everyone calls me Jazzy."
"Becket…?" Mako and Chuck said simultaneously, their eyes automatically turning to a very rigid and stern looking Raleigh, alternating it between looking at a rather apologetic but stubborn looking Herc.
"Otherwise known as my sister." Raleigh growled through gritted teeth.