At the observation deck, the reporters set up their equipment while Nathanial was introduced to the other rangers. "This is my sister, Lee McColt," Frank introduced the sole female ranger on base, a short, red head with wicked green eyes.
"Hello," he politely nodded. He wasn't quite ready to offer someone his clawed-hand yet.
"So is that hide of yours bullet proof?" she asked with a straight face.
Nathanial answered carefully, "Not that I'm aware of and I would rather not test it… anytime soon."
"Good answer," chuckled one of the dark-hair pilots. It was another set of twins, and they were tall. "James Deerherd, this is my brother Gil."
"Nice to meet you," he said. He glanced at the reporters and asked the rangers, "Any advice on handling this?"
"What never been interviewed before?" Gil chuckled. "I'd start by zipping up the jacket."
"Not by reporters, and we weren't expecting this until after we had a couple Kaiju under our belts at least," Sebastian hissed.
"Don't look at me," Nathanial growled taking Gil's advice, "I never asked to be turned into a freak… much less a freak show."
"It looks like they are ready for you," Lee said. "With your looks, I'd stick with being honest, not charming." She walked away as they heard Anna Richards call them over.
"Ready to be grilled?" Sebastian said.
"No, there's no way we'll be able to study Dancer's specs before tomorrow's review."
Sebastian winced, "Crap. I hoped they don't ask about our Jaeger."
The other rangers found places behind the camera to watch, as the reporters hooked the twins up with mics. Then Anna directed them to a set of chairs by the balcony so that a Jaeger would be seen behind them, even though it wasn't Dancer.
"So Ms. Richards, who told you that I wasn't human?" Nathanial asked again.
"Just Anna, please. It was an anonymous caller after the initial report about you was released. We tried to locate the caller for a follow up but it was a disposable cell," she explained settling in her own chair.
"How convenient," Sebastian muttered.
"All right then, so where would you like to start?"
"Your names perhaps. Since yours isn't Kaijun as we were told."
"Right introductions. I am Ranger Nathanial Wright."
"Ranger Sebastian Wright, his twin."
Anna paused and looked from one Wright to the other.
Nathanial sighed, "I was not born looking like this."
"I'm sorry," Anna said regaining her composure. "This is a bit of a shock."
Sebastian chuckled, "Try to imagine my shock when I saw him after six months of believing he was dead."
"Dead? What do you mean?"
"Sebastian, maybe we shouldn't jump around. This whole mess is confusing enough," Nathanial suggested.
"Good point."
"Hey, do you still that photo of us and Thomas?"
"Think so," Sebastian pulled out his wallet and quickly found the last photo their mother had taken of her boys before the Maverick incident. He handed it to Anna. "This was taken before the incident that changed my twin. That's me, Nathanial, and our older brother Thomas."
Anna studied the photo and then them. As she handed it back to the woman with the tablet, she asked, "So, how in the world did you go from looking just like your brother to… well, this?"
"Not willing, let me make that clear," Nathanial said. He glanced at Sebastian, "You want to start it."
"The Maverick?" they agreed and Sebastian began, "All right, about a year ago. We were going to get our base assignments and our Jaeger soon, so we decided to go watch the surfers tackle the maverick that was coming in."
"Unfortunately, that wasn't the only thing that came in that day."
"A Kaiju?" Anna prompted.
Nathanial nodded, "And it basically kidnapped me."
"After you stupidly tried to heroically lead it away from everyone," Sebastian said with a smirk.
"Hey, if it was possible to go back in time, I'd gladly trade places with you," he shot back.
"Hey, hey... what's mom always saying, hind-sight being perfect?"
Anna interrupted, "I remember this story: the sirens outside town all the way to the beach had short-circuited which is why no one knew to evacuate the area before a rookie ranger started yelling about it." Nathanial nodded, "That was you who started the warning, which means you were the one that directed the people to safety." Pointing to Sebastian who nodded. She turned back to Nathanial, "and your name was never released to the public, even after the rumor of you being found later alive."
"Four days later too," Sebastian said, "on some broken ship's hull directly over the breach."
"And no clue how I got there."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, I don't remember anything from the point the Kaiju picked me up to waking up on that piece of wood. Absolutely nothing."
"All right, so what happened next?"
The interview continued as they described at a high level what happened to Nathanial, only going into detail when the reporters asked.
"What do you mean? The scientists tried to drown you?" Anna demanded.
Nathanial shrugged, "Two of them were convinced I had developed gills. The other scientists were not and in order to prove it, those two… waited till I was coming down off the latest drug cocktail the head researcher had given me. The facility, lab, had a large salt water tank for some other research stuff, and while I was still too out of it to realize where we were, they tied a weight to my leg and pushed it and me in."
"How could they think this was a humane way to find out? It's horrid," Anna said.
Nathanial looked off to the side, obviously remembering that day. "Actually, it was terrifying. Now, if those scientists had been wrong, would either of them have jumped in to save me or leave me to drown. I don't know, but personally I rather doubt it."
"Can… can I see the gills?" she asked. Wordlessly, Nathanial unzipped his jacket a bit, pulled the collar aside turning his head and pointed to the folds of skin at the base of his neck. Anna got out of her chair to look closer. Then she reached out to touch the skin flap. Nathanial quickly leaned away wincing as though expecting something painful to happen, but said nothing. "Oh, sorry," realizing her actions were probably rude. Sebastian looked trouble by his twin's reaction.
Nathanial shook his head. "It's not your fault. I've been poke at so much and told how ugly I am, that getting touch… isn't all that comfortable anymore," he explained and zipped the jacket back up.
Anna took her seat again and continued the interview, "Your… new look is unusual but not ugly. I mean, it's not like an injury with scarring that makes one feel bad for the pain that had happened." She gestured to him, "There isn't a mark on you for that reaction. I'm not making this better am I?" Nathanial shook his head and shrugged. "Let's move on… So, ah, what happened next?"
"They gave me drugs, lots of the drugs. Test after test, looking for something that might be used against the Kaiju without killing me. And always with the carrot promise that maybe something would reverse… all this," he said waving at himself.
Sebastian snorted, "That was obviously a bunch of bull."
"Why do you think I escaped when I knew what they were really up to?"
"And what were they planning?" she asked half hoping he'd tell all.
"That's what's under investigation. Sorry."
"So you escaped even though the risk was so great?"
"I didn't see any other option. If I stayed it probably would have been a slow and painful death that I seriously doubt would have benefited anyone but CBR labs."
"What about the danger to the rest of humanity from all this?"
Nathanial leaned back in his chair, "It's not contagious. They tested it several times, they tried to replicate it. They even…" He hesitated suddenly, not sure whether he should explain what happened in the lab that one time.
"They even what, Nathanial?" Sebastian asked firmly.
He glanced at his twin uncomfortable and decided on the short version. "I glazed over it in my initial report. There was this guard that no one liked at the lab. And so one night, one of the female doctors drew my blood and that guard was in the lab making sure I behaved and she injected him with what she just took from me. He was pissed and was in quarantine for a month afterward but not a single change happened to him."
"The people at this facility sound terrible. How could they treat a human being like that?"
"Because they were determine to believe I wasn't human, not anymore. They went out of way to pretend I couldn't talk… If that isn't your concern for the risk to humanity, is it CBR's claim that a Kaiju could take over my mind and force me to hurt people?"
"We had heard something to that affect."
"That's under control too."
Sebastian frowned, "I still don't like it."
"Mom or the collar?" Nathanial muttered.
"Neither," Sebastian snapped.
"What are you two talking about?" Anna asked fighting to contain her excitement. These rangers weren't the most handsome rangers alive, but they were unique and certainly entertaining. She knew the public would love them or hate them and she would have their first interview.
"CBR convinced the PPDC to… insist I wear this shock collar so that if a Kaiju can take me over I can be stopped without trouble."
"You mean… like for dogs."
"That's what I said," Nathanial snapped obviously annoyed. The rangers laughed. "It's not that funny," he grumbled.
"Well, we can try to look at the bright side," Sebastian said in reasonable voice that immediate warned Nathanial of mischief.
"What bright side?"
"When mom does arrive and hears about the collar, we will get front row seats to her chewing out every CBR person she can find."
Nathanial sort of shrugged and nodded but still didn't look very happy.
"I beg your pardon, but your mother is coming? As in this base?"
Nathanial waved at Sebastian to explain. "Well, our mother is kind of an enforcer. She… you just don't mess with her."
Anna smiled sweetly, "You're going to have to explain that."
"What my twin is failing to mention is that when our mother says jump, we jump then ask was that high enough. Basically, the Marshals figure if the Kaiju could override their authority and my own over me, they won't be able to override her authority."
"Oh, I guess… that actually sounds clever of them even though you have to have your mother right on base with you." The Wrights did not look thrilled. Anna continued, "So, now that you are going to be allowed to fight the Kaiju, what are your goals?"
"Find a way to end the war in our favor or die trying," Nathanial said quite bluntly.
The interview ended soon after that. Anna had tried to get them to talk about Kaiju battles but the Wrights had enough sense to insist they hadn't been in a battle yet and to ask the other rangers. The Deerherds were more than happy to trade places with them.