authors note;
Thank you SOOO much for all the Fallows and Favorites and especially the reviews! They make my day and help me write :) and i want to apologize for not updating that often, I'm not a fast writer, but you can trust that i will always update sooner or later. THANK YOU! Please don't hesitate to share your opinion with me. Stay excellent and don't forget to be awesome.
Raleigh set down on an empty table at the cafeteria with his breakfast. Curiously it wasn't as crowded as usual.
He looked around for Tendo and just as he did, Tendo set across from him with a bang "How are we doing my man, still breaking hearts?"
This made Raleigh smile "You know me I can't help my charm." He winked.
Tendo grinned a huge grin and said "that's right! Thought him everything he knows!" looking around talking to nobody in particular.
As they acted like teenagers, Herc Hansen set next to Raleigh and asked afterwords "Mind if I join you boys?"
"No sir." said Raleigh. For a moment there was awkward silence. Herc looked at Raleigh who looked like he was suppressing a smile and looked at Tendo who looked visible tensed up. Herc had a MUCH higher rank than them so being the 'respectful Tendo' was just commonsense.
"Come on now don't be shy, you're making me feel old." Said Herc winking at Tendo. Raleigh laughed at this and Tendo flashed an uneasy but a little more relaxed smile.
"So did the new Jaeger come in?" asked Herc changing the subject.
Tendo's eyes sparkled with interest and excitement. "Yes, sir. You should see it, those girls took Tacit Ronin and made it so much better with the small resources they had and we don't even understand some of the things they did! Its like I can't decide if they are geniuses or just… crazy."
Herc agreed "Yeah, first time in a Jaeger at 17… that's unheard of-"
"Wait a second, wait a second. Who are we talking about here?" Asked Raleigh.
"You've never heard of them?" asked Tendo, looking at Raleigh as if he said he didn't like to chocolate. Everybody likes chocolate.
"Heard of who?" asked Raleigh.
Tendo looked at Herc as if asking for permission, he wanted to be the one to tell the story so bad. Herc nodded giving him the go. Tendo looked like a nerd talking about the Star Wars movies. (and in a way he was)
"Ok so, these two girls, 2-3 years old little girls, orphaned by the Kaiju attacks and sent to one of the orphanages in Turkey because of the Children protection system that was set up those days, you know shipping young orphans to more secure areas, meaning far from the Pacific. As they grow older, it becomes obvious that there girls are extraordinary, one of them is a plain out genius, skipping grades, has an eidetic memory (photographic memory) AND she could do complex equations at the age of 8 and stuff!" Tendo took a breath and looked at Raleigh expectantly.
"Wow…" Raleigh obliged.
Tendo continued "And the other one is a genius too but in a different sense, this girl is like tiny this super soldier. Think Captain America but a lot younger and as a tiny girl. Knows all these different fighting styles like, she become a black belt in BJJ in 2 years!" at this point Tendo was so fired up he was practically yelling. "And she become a gold Olympic medalist in judo at the age of 16. This girl is like a machine! Kicking all kinds of ass in all kinds of tournaments!" Realising the looks they were getting, he kept talking in a calmer tone "And see them being the 'geniuses' they are they decide to fix up a Jaeger-"
"Wait a minute," Raleigh cuts him off "how can two teenagers get their hands on a Jaeger?"
"Easy actually, these girls are quite high profile in the academic world. One of them being a star athlete with all sorts of sponsors and scholarships and the other is a genius whom every school would kill to have. Some collages would pay them so they'll attend their school.
So they just decide to attend a university that had a good Mechanics program and a scrapped out Jaeger that was given to the school for study purposes." Herc added.
"Yeah," Tendo agreed. "and these girls put all their sponsor and scholarship money in to building back this Jaeger and they actually manage to do it!"
As he talks, Chuck Hansen walked towards their table and sat down in a way that made the whole table jump and Tendo with it. He was so into telling the story that he hadn't seen Chuck approach them.
Raleigh could read Chuck just from the way he moved; cocky. Overly confident. Arrogant. Raleigh didn't see anything wrong with a little bit of self-confidence but he still wondered how someone as arrogant as Chuch could be related to someone as humble as Herc. Yeah, he was a good pilot but it didn't make him less of a dick.
"Let me guess," started Chuck with a half smirk on his face. "We are talking about the new kittens that Pentecost found in a box outside the Shatterdome."
"They are Ranger like you and i boy and we need all the help we can get so show a little respect, will you?" Hissed Herc, he obviously didn't want to talk this way in front of Raleigh and Tendo but Chuck had a habit of forcing him to say thing he didn't want to say.
Chuck wished he didn't call him "boy"… he really hated it when Herc called him "boy".
"Rangers? Hardly. They have been in a Jaeger what? Once? And I'm not even sure if you could call that scrap a Jaeger. That peace of crap was in pieces at the end of their battle. They are lucky to be alive really."
"Wait battle? They fought a Kaiju?" asked Raleigh in spite of himself.
Tendo looked like he was about to say something but Chuck cut him off "Yeah they did and what happened is they got lucky. Shaolin Rogue had already wounded the Kaiju and was destroyed in the process. There girls come up out of nowhere with what remains of the Tacit Ronin, that old ass Mark-1 and they manage to stay alive long enough for the Kaiju to bleed out. So now people call em geniuses and heroes, when what they are really is lucky reckless teenagers."
As he finished his rent Pentecost, Mako and two girls walked in the cafeteria. Every head turned towards them. Ignoring this Pentecost turned towards the girls and said something after talking towards their table. The girls looked around the same age as Mako and they didn't seem to mind people's stares.
"gentleman, I would like to introduce you to our last team of rangers, Miss Akira Snow and Miss Olivia Snow." Introduced Pentecost.
First thing Raleigh observed about the girls was that they were nothing alike. Akira was a tall and skinny girl with the body of a runway model. She had pretty cat like dark eyes and dark wavy hair that was unevenly cut and the way she held herself was quite clumsy. On the other had Olivia stood as though nothing could knock her off her feet. She was quite short and had a slim but built body. Curves in all the right places. She had big brown eyes and with her long straight hair that was red her eyes glazed in a way that made them look red also.
"It's an honor." said Olivia shaking Herc's hand.
"The honor is all mine," Herc got up as he shook her hand. "This is Tendo Choi, he is our J-Tech Chief at our local command center."
Tendo smiled shook the girls hands eagerly. "Its really nice to have you on board." Both girls smiled an shook his hand.
"This is my son and co-pilot Chuck Hensen." Herc continued. Olivia held her hand out to Chuck and at the same time chuck took his cup from the table and took a sip "Sorry," he swallowed "my hands are full." For a second Raleigh though he saw a flicker of anger in Olivia's eyes but a second later it was all gone.
Relight reached for her hand.
"And this is Raleigh Becket, the pilot of Gipsy Danger" Herc added with a spike of discontent in his voice. "
"It's very nice to meet you both." Raleigh said with a smile. They both seem to not mind or just ignore Chuck's little game. In fact they both seemed quite taken with Raleigh.
"The pleasure is all ours." said Olivia and Akira jumped in and blurted out "Gipsy was always our favorite"
This caused an awkward silence. Olivia smiled at this.
"Don't get me wrong," Akira turned to Herc as if to clear up a huge miss understanding "Striker Eurika is a walking wonder, I mean she is quicker than any other previous Jaeger series produced with its T-16 Angel Wings acting as stabilizers to maintain aerodynamic balance during the turbulence of burst combat and she has amber platinum vision, equipped with advanced photochromic displays, allowing four planes of situational awareness. That's just brilliant! And then there is the 4.211 Brass Knuckles that are a temperature-resistant brass-steel compound cast around the joints of each finger extension, adding greatly to the impact potential of each friggin punch and they're backed with a pair of twin retractable Assault Mount 3.25 Sting-Blades laced with carbon nanotubes that channel thermal energy at temperatures over three hundred degrees Fahrenheit, that can wounding and cauterizing Kaiju in close combat. Striker is just wonderful!" She took a deep breath. "But we've always loved Gipsy Danger."
Chuck snorted. No body seemed to know what to say. Realizing this Olivia said "It's probably because of her name. We always found it cute."
Raleigh couldn't help his smile "Well im sure she'll love you also." This earned him a HUGE smile from Akira.
"I do hope so" she said sounding excited.
Raleigh nodded at the girl and looked at Olivia, she had smile on her face that said thank you.
"Well im sure you two are tired. Miss mori will show you to your rooms now" Petntecost said to the girls. Raleigh couldn't help but think he sensed gentleness in the Marshal's voice.
"Yes sir. Thank you." The girls said in union and followed mako with everybody's gaze still on them.
As soon as they left Pentecost barked "Hensen." It was quite obvious which one he was referring to. "You're going to stop doing what you are doing, do you understand?"
"Yess, sir." Chuck said with a mocking tone. Pentecost shared a look with Herc and walked away without another word.
"It was Pentecost's bright idea to bring these girls here, if it were anybody else they would be paying for their stupidity and recklessness instead of getting in a Jaeger." Said Chuck with a heavy tone. He got up and walked away without any other word.
"Whats his problem?" Raleigh asked. No body had an answer for him. Raleigh had been a cocky guy himself before but Yancy's death had humbled him. He only hoped nothing like that would have to happen to the Hensen's. true he didn't particularly like Chuck but he wouldn't wish a loss like that on anybody.
"They are not real siblings are they?" asked Herc.
"Nah they are not related at all, they just happened to find each other in this catastrofuck that's called life. And since they were never adopted, they gave themselves their own surnames." Tendo said.
"Do you know where they are originally from?" asked Raleigh
"Not sure, but I think they prefer to say they are Turkish. You know, grew up there an all." Raleigh nodded at this.
They were definitely an interesting bunch.
As Olive followed Mako, she clenched her fists as hard as she could digging her nails in to her palms. She hated passive aggressive people, especially when she hadn't done anything to deserve such treatment. But she did her best as always to calm herself. It wouldn't be good if she got in a fight with one of the "star" Rangers on the first day and she really didn't want to let the Marshal down.
"Here are your rooms," said Mako "they are right across from each other. If you need anything my room is right next to yours ." she said to Akira
"Please you can call us by our first names" Olivia said to her, Mako smiled at this. "and please don't call her Olivia but Olive." Akira added.
"Olive?" Mako questioned.
"Yeah, I usually answer to that." Olive winked as if to say humor her.
"Alright, Olive." mako said. It was funny she had heard similar words just this morning.
"So, are you a pilot too?" asked Olive
"No im not. But I want to be more than anything."
"Then why don't you just become one?" asked Akira as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. If you want to be something, you should just be it. Duhh.
Mako smiled "I'm afraid its not that simple,-"
"-the Marshal has his reasons." Said Raleigh in union with Mako. "you sound like you're trying to convince yourself." Said Raleigh to Mako.
"Well im sure you have more right to be in a Jaeger then us anyway" Akira murmured walking in to her room.
Mako didn't seem to know what to say about this.
"What do you think about us being pilots?" Olive asked Mako, watching her with curious eyes. She knew they werent the most popular of Rangers.
"I think…" Mako started and hesitated for a second. "I think if it were someone else they wouldn't be let in to a Jaeger. I think you are unpredictable." She stopped. She stared at Olive. "I think you are unexperienced and reckless."
Olive smiled at her and nodded.
Akira popped her head out of her room and said "Thank you for your honesty." And went back in as she did.
Once again Mako nodded, without knowing how to act.
After a good minute of awkward silence Olive cleared her throat and asked "Anyway, I was wondering where the training room was?"
Mako opened her mouth to say something but before she could say anything, "I'm going there as soon as I change, I could show you" Raleigh said.
Mako looked between Raleigh and Olive. She was staring up at him intensely and Raleigh had a comfortable and amused grin on his face. Mako hoped she didn't look like Olive when she was looking in to Raleigh's eyes.
Olive hesitated for a slight second then said "Ok, that would be fine."