Disclaimer: I don't own ultraman or pacific rim stuffs.
Beckett wasn't sure at all on how he got here. One minute he was totally focused on the news screen, after just one blink he was here, in this misty dark place. His clothes were still not completely rid of dampness, they were still tattered.
Beckett strolled around the place in wonder like an idiot. Oblivious to the fact that he bumped into a rescue worker, causing a huge creaking noise above. The rescue worker shoved him violently and cursed at him.
The monster's beak came down once again. It was doom for the couple in the shell. The monster was inches from its killing victory before a blast of fire surrounded it. It was now alight. The mass with no arms hopped up and down in a wild madness as fire broke its organic structure.
"Well. Well. Say hello to their little friends." The pilot amusingly fired, a smirk hidden in a respiratory mask. The task was tedious for any air strikes with both the mist and the range the giant monster could access, meaning any air support will definitely be smacked down like flies. But since the Jaegar took most of the monster's awareness, it allowed the team of the skies to launch a last ditch effort. One that's worth it; it saved 2 pilots.
"I've said, we tried to turn the debris in a circle so it doesn't fall on either one of them but it's just damn impossible. The thing's too big. We can't try to make the long debris break in 2, cause it'll just crush them both. The debris on top is like one seesaw, whichever debris below that's trapping these two you take away, you kill that victim but you save another!" The rescue worker exclaimed.
Becket immediately swore before he could react. A huge explosion sounded in the distance. Shrapnel flew and nearly wounded both the rescue worker and himself. Somehow Becket reacted with unprepared reflex and he caught the man and rolled to the side.
Now the bad news…..the missile set the place alight. They need to do the rescue very quickly.
Becket stood still like a zombie. His mind was full of holes filled with endless questions. Most of all, why was he here? What is he…an amnesiac who just got arrested, supposed to do here?
He wanted to run and just escape this hell but some part of him forbids him to even turn his face.
'Hey!' Becket embarrassingly called to a frustrated rescuer. 'You said this is like some sort of uh—puzzle, that these guys trapped by blocks of debris and above them, the debris is like a seesaw right? That if we get one person out, the other end collapse."
"Wow never expect an American to be so fluent in Korean, and, but anyway, and yes, and you just go, w-we're all need to run before the entire place lights up." The worker was breathless.
I could-speak-korean? Becket questioned in ponderous curiosity. But immediately a hand clutched his lapelled, Becket nearly tried to retaliate with force but the man was simply helping him. 'Com—Come on. Let's go. We're just going to get the boy out. Then we need to go before we're steak. There's nothing possible for the adult.'
'Wait. Wait.' Becket pushed towards the pull but pulled the worker's other shoulder, causing him to turn. 'If the larger debris is a seesaw on top of the 2, can't we rotate it so it doesn't collapse on them.'
'Forget it! Let's go! We've been working for nearly an hour now to do that!' Another less patient man yelled.
'Alright! Okay um. Fine' Becket darted off towards the ruined building. Climbing with stumbles and trips he reached the top pillar and tried to push the debris. The concrete only moving mere inches.
'HEY! STUPID IDIOT! GET DOWN NOW!' The worker's leader, cursed while they conflicted between themselves. Some preferring to leave Becket and the adult man and get the child out. Some simply wanted to wait or maybe join this mysterious American to give it a last attempt.
'I'M THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY HERE! MY TEAM'S WELLBEING IS MY PRIORITY! I ORDER YOU TO GET ONE OUT AND LEAVE RIGHT NOW! I'LL HAVE YOUR JOBS FOR THIS!' One voice yelled.
Surprisingly one was brave enough to disobey and climbed to assist. The hopeless leader could only watch as 2 more shot up. The rest of his team obeyed either out of fear for their own lives, or out of pure order. Shooking his head, the rescue captain yelled viciously at the remaining team to go, before shooting up the building himself to push the debris.
'SIR! You were missing for half an hour!' One worker stated solemnly.
'While you dumb heads are wasting effort-' The captain poured a bucket of lubricant onto the debris's trapped joint.
The captain pushed in coordination with the team, this time the joint moved a few meters. The fire surged closer, some men's face were as white as marble.
"Alright! You guys, just get out! You!" He pointed to Becket.
"Get down and get the boy out if I can't move this rubble in 40 seconds." He bellowed.
The others fled. Becket understood, his eyes narrowing on the crying boy on his side but immediately beamed his eyes on the man trapped underneath the side of his helper.
He shook his head and clenched his teeth. Sacrificing either one of them was not his nature. Not before an attempt to solve the problem before the least of evils. He kept on pushing, even if the fire consumes him.
The captain's eyes viewed with disappointment but wasted no time in pushing again. With a crack the 2 managed to just move the debris a few more meters before it nearly sank with no stable support like a seesaw in another line of collapse to the pair trapped underneath.
Before the debris could collapse it got stuck again.
'GO!' The shriek simply made Becket go down with his knees shaking. He could feel the air getting warm, the vapour in it. Becket could only now save the kid but quickly covered the small figure with his body. The captain did it. The pillar on top collapsed down without injuring any one of the. Except the captain who went down with the fall.
Becket kicked at the rubble with both of his feet while pulling the boy out with both of his hands. Letting the little life slip out of danger. Without the top pillar, the adult easily slipped out himself. The man clutched the boy's little hand and was about to dart off when he put a hand lightly onto Becket's shoulder. To remind him he needs to go.
Becket shoved it away. Giving no glance as the man hesitantly left them for responsibility of his presumed son. He needs to get the captain out. But even if it they both get lost in the fire? Becket cursed, he is ridiculous, and this is madness.
He poured the bucket of liquid onto the fire but only remembered the lubricant was probably oil after he did the action. The blast heightened by more fuel, knocking him back as he rolled on the floor trying to put out a fire on his shirt. He realized the captain was unconscious. He dragged the kind man away from the fire before a flame touched the guys' boots.
Pentecost. Stacker Pentecost. The Head of Hong Kong Shatterdome spun his pen with careful movement, deeply thinking in consideration over the events. He wasn't comfortable at the least. A monster has been so called 'revived' for reasons unanswerable. Two senior pilots nearly lost if not saved through aid of air support at timely arrival.
Plus there's something in the gut of this near retired combatant, like a knife near his throat that's troubling him. It doesn't feel right. How could a monster just come back like this? What made the monster even faster and agile? All the questions pieced together into a warning that they need to quickly retreat now. There's not even time for them to work out what's terrible, there's only enough time to run. He was certain something not usual will happen. His gut already proved right when the Becket's got their ass wooped so badly that one died, the other was traumatized enough to quit all together. They were his favorites.
He doesn't want it to happen again. His colleagues dismissed it. One of the worst mistakes they learned in a previous encounter between Atticon that killed it but costed them was that the creature could weirdly change its metabolism. In some instances it could boost its metabolism thousands of time higher than a cheetah. Meanwhile it can also lower its metabolism to be so low that it takes a HUGE amount of time to kill it. It could still fight endless for days with fatal injuries. Like some sort of hideous reptile.
He paid a greeting to a hospital hours prior. Just to check on the 2 injured pilot's conditions. Making an educated judgment from his past, the injuires Aleksis and Sasha got warned him to never let recruit anywhere near that undead beast.
Now in front of his work place. He regretted at not telling the other's off for sending young recruits into South Korea, as a training session against what they label as 'weakened' monster of Category III. Nearly the rank of the worst monster the Corps ever experienced.
All of this wasn't troubling him as much as another issue. Since day one, he had been observing and learning about these monsters called 'kaiju' initially, the study convinced him and everyone that the monsters are only animals either by some freak accident of nature, or mutated by pollution to massive scales adapted finely to a specific ecosystem. That they like all other animals are just fighting out of pure nature. Instinct for food, water, space, mating and all those. They are not self aware.
Having fought some of them who were nearly sneaky enough to outsmart humans, his beliefs began to waver. Then the matter only got more complicated as new monsters came back time after time. Also much stronger on a logarithmic scale. The scale is then produced and a new type of natural disaster became the norm. While the scientists themselves had theories, evidence was only restricted to certain locations and no widespread distribution. Thus their theories are not widely published. People never knew why they were facing monsters. They just accepted they are. Including a younger version of Pentecost himself.
Then it got more and more complicated as Pentecost after foolishly and blindly fighting battles began to ask why these animals are always attacking the cities with high population densities when they were supposed to stay in their ecosystems and be the King. In an assignment once, the foolish Pentecost was faced with 2 tiny monsters. He thought these little animals would be fighting each other but that wasn't the case. A sheer outcome that they just 'teamed up' created paranoia in Pentecost. Who now changed to a man that doesn't just 'believe,' he only chooses what makes the most sense too.
The other's dry response was never enough of an explanation. Pentecost now questions a new thing. What if they aren't animals? What if there's something behind it? Something sentient? He knew himself that it was likely paranoia. However, from experience this makes sense and explain tiny details that were consistent with what he was told.
Plus the misty weather of this new 'Atticon II' attack as the new data from the screen now suggests, fueled his fears.
Why was it misty? Coincidence? Or why is it misty now? At a time when multiple published data suggests high private industries producing chemicals that are key components in photochemical smogs? He knew those goes on all the time. Still…not at a high concentration as the data shows.
"I know, I know, but relax man. You've been through battles in all kinds of weather." A recently new member Dr. Gottlieb interrupted his worried trance.
The barbecued glob continued to swing the unbalanced robots with its last tentacle. Although skillful and sneaky, the monster was weakened to the point where it was unable to struck any of these lesser trained opponents.
With one last roar, the monster collapsed hard. Its job finally over.
The image was filmed with a device strange than man's wildest technology. The frame around it was like a mist and a hole through which multiple dimensions could be accessed. The main point wasn't the defeat of Atticon II but the fruit of the plan as the army of training Jaegars are now condensed into one little section. With them a vast force of the planet's armed population. Now they're all in one piece. It's time to strike.
Raleigh downed another bottle as he sat in depression opposite the screen. He with the help of his more mature brother always kept enough discipline or what their term of that word is, to control the limit they allow themselves to be under the influence of.
Tonight however, with his brother disappeared, their apartment which they rarely lived in feels utterly empty. The news broadcasted the 'Doom' of a small town in South Korea which he can barely pronounce the name of. It was already quite mind twisting that it was night here while that place was day. It had been a doomsday for him. One which left him to this night while the town was saved back to day.
At the sight of more Jaegar recruitment on news, he threw out his bottle at the screen but it missed a great distance and smashed into the walls, the blunt swing put him down on the floor, his head smacked into the small table on which the beers are set upon.
He rubbed the swollen spheres in his sockets, not feeling soreness as he didn't even bother to turn the light on. The only thing keeping the room from a cave is the TV. The news then shifted to scenes of rescue workers.
Raleigh felt a huge clump of mucus mixed with disgust, self pity and self hatred. He regretted his job, while these rescue workers were doing their best at minimizing casualties, he and Raleigh were swept into a lie to fight, while the fighting created false stupid confidence and one status that could plummet into nothingness, he actually believed that lie. His brother too but through his eyes which Raleigh clearly remembers the image, he knew that in some parts Yancy was only doing the job not only for his own sake but for Raleigh's desires. They all suffered under the non-existent mirage of what surrounds their job.
Raleigh stopped the drinking. It was not helping at all. He wished to re-build. He hated fighting now. For the pointless battles won nothing as the latest reports highlighted the failures of Jaegar project…He wanted to do something else for a change. Maybe to build. To reconcile with today. He doesn't want to destroy things anymore. Monsters, people, buildings, whatever you destroys, in the end the destruction will certainly hit back on you.
In a split moment something on the screen caught his gaze. As the camera flipped through a line of injured rescue workers all with their heavy gears, one somehow Caucasian looking man wear not such uniform. His clothes were tattered and somehow-somehow it was the tattered outfit of a pilot of the Jaegar, not any Jaegar, the Gypsy Dagger for which the brothers piloted together! There was no time to catch the exact details of the man. Raleigh spat. Hating the media for creating more and more misconceptions as propaganda and for now playing a cruel trick on him.
Enough false hope.
A huge wave emitted from the crack Atticon's body made.
All descended into chaos.
Frenzied hiss of electronic static exchanged between communication devices. The inexperienced Jaegar pilots forced their machines to waver in fear, some tripping themselves like frightened children with no regard to protocols or stress management. The formidable metallic giants are mere pawns, crawling like toddlers.
Some simply went complacent. Falling down like dead statues. Squashing unfortunate humans beneath.
Helicopter's mechanism broke down. The armed dragonflies sinking to the ground with an ear piercing drone, exploding upon impact. Tanks shook with the earthquake, some crashing into each other so violently that the solid cube became wrinkly junks.
The infantry collided with communication breakdown, some banging and punching the radios. Cursing, swearing, and screaming for their machines to come back to life. Refugees shrieked and bumped like balls in a truck as all electronics, mobile phones. Medical devices failed. Wails came as there's nothing doctors can do. Others began a revolt against soldiers, nurses, other refugees, anyone in sight.
Everything is infected by a virus. Chaos.
Pentecost's fears came true. He had this all along. Why didn't he follow his instinct? He walked left to right in panic. Never before was he so desperate. Nearly all the new training recruits were sent on the mission. Along with a reasonable proportion of Asia's military might. They are all in danger.