Chapter 11

It was ten minutes to 5pm when Nick arrived outside the Conference Room of the Hog Kong Shatterdome. He stifled a yawn as he reached for the door handle when a familiar baritone voice sounded from behind, causing an involuntary frown to appear on his face.

"Wilde," Marshall Bogo Pentecost called to the fox as he arrived with a few papers in his hooves.

Nick willed his face to a neutral expression and turned back to face the cape buffalo. "Afternoon, Chief," he said cordially.

Bogo gave a nod in reply. "I received your physical, medical and psychological evaluation reports a while ago."

Nick raised a single eyebrow in a questioning stare, waiting for the larger mammal to continue.

"You're cleared for piloting a Jaeger on all three."

"Was there ever any doubt?" Nick said, the corner of his snout giving a small smirk.

"No, there wasn't," the Marshall replied evenly, much to the surprise of the red fox.

Nick pursed his lips and turned to open the door to the Conference Room, holding it open. "After you, sir," he said to the Marshall.

It was now Bogo's turn to raise one eyebrow. But he said nothing and stepped through the door, with Nick following behind.

The small Conference Room was as simple and utilitarian as the rest of the Shatterdome. The walls were a similar pale yellow colour as Nick's room, with strips of light on the ceiling, giving it a warm glow. There was two columns of chairs sized for larger mammals, arranged in ten rows, with aisles in the middle and the sides. The door was located at the back side of the room, directly opposite from the podium, the wall behind which had a projector screen, as well as a whiteboard on one side and a table on the other with a projector on top it.

Nick counted six occupants in the room already present. Major Larry Wolfard sat in the front row talking to Kevin Koslov. Raymond stood near one of the middle rows, appearing to be in a heated debate with Frank Delgato and one of the Fangmeyer sisters. At the front of the room was Dr. Pronk Oryxler, fiddling with a laptop on the table.

The Marshall walked towards the podium through the central aisle, with all five rangers standing up in attention. "At ease," the buffalo said as he reached the podium and placed the papers he was carrying onto it. The rangers took their respective seats and returned to their conversations, as the Marshall turned to talk to the oryx scientist.

Nick waited at the back of the room for a little bit before stepping forward and sitting down on a seat in the first row on the opposite side of Larry and Kevin, both of whom gave a welcoming nod to the fox before returning to their discussion.

Minutes passed while more mammals arrived to the meeting. The other Fangmeyer sister was the first to arrive, a few minutes after Nick and Bogo. She carried two cups of tea in each paw which she offered to her copilots, who were still arguing with Raymond. She gave a frustrated sigh before tapping her sister and Frank on the head and pointing to the two cups. The two felines murmured their thanks, while Raymond welcomed the third member of the Fang trio with a smile.

Next to arrive was Gary Wolfard, earphones dangling, listening to music on his phone. He sat down in the row behind his father. Quickly following behind the young wolf were a water deer and a binturong, clad in PZDC Strike Trooper uniforms, and having an animated discussion. The pair came and sat on the row behind Nick, never breaking their discussion regarding which kind of firearm was better at subduing Kaiju skin parasites.

Nick smiled at the chatter of the pair, reminding himself of the odd topics he and Finnick used to talk about all the time.

Soon enough, more and more mammals entered and when the clock struck 5pm, the Conference Room was almost filled to the brim with other Strike Troopers, Jumphawk pilots and Jaeger engineers. The small and medium sized mammals took the front rows while the larger mammals sat near the back. A skunk and a caracal came and sat down next to Nick. He turned and went over all the new faces in the room before his attention was drawn to the podium where Marshall Bogo Pentecost tapped his hoof a few times to get everyone's attention.

"Everyone," the cape buffalo began, his gruff voice loud enough to reach even the back rows in the small Conference Room, silencing the crowd. "I know some personnel are still on their way but we have a schedule to keep. So let's begin. I trust you will inform your belated colleagues of any pertinent information they miss."

A brief murmur of agreement arose from some of the mammals and the Marshall simply nodded.

"As you know, this meeting is regarding the upcoming Operation Pitfall, the Pan-Zoocific Defence Corps' last-ditch plan to stop the Kaiju Invasion and end the war. Now, many of you are already aware of the details of the mission. But this meeting is for those of you who are not aware as they've only joined us recently…" Bogo paused to look at Nick squarely, the fox sitting stiffly under his gaze, and continued, "or have resumed their post at the PZDC after a long hiatus."

As the Marshall turned his sight away from him, Nick now felt the eyes of almost the entire room on his back, specially from the two mammals next to him. He channelled his years of experience to ignore the stares and keep his attention to the podium where the cape buffalo continued on. "Make no mistakes, gentlemammals. This is our very last mission. If this fails, there will be no stopping the Kaijus and mammalkind will cease to exist soon after."

Some mutterings arose from the back side of the room. Bogo lifted a hoof to silence them. "I know there are many questions. So, I leave the stage to Dr. Pran Kumar Oryxler, our resident K-Science Officer and Breach Physics Specialist. Doctor, if you will," Bogo said as he lifted an arm to point at the oryx standing next to the table at the side, looking uneasy under the attention of the entire room.

"Um right," the oryx fiddled with the laptop and the projector on the table lit up the screen. Bogo walked to a side of the room and turned off the lights. The screen showed an incredible amount of mathematical equations with the simple title 'Breach Physics' at the top of the screen.

Nick wasn't too bad at math in high school but he couldn't even begin to make heads or tails of the formulae he saw on the screen. And judging from the groans he heard from behind him, everyone in the room was as clueless as he was, if not more so.

"So, um," Pronk began hesitantly. He paused looking at the expressions on the face of the audience, before turning back to look at the screen himself. "I now realize that those equations probably mean nothing to most of you so… shouldn't have started with that slide. Right." Pronk quickly jabbed at a few keys on the laptop and the screen changed to show the Serizoowa scale of Kaiju categorization, starting from Category 1 to Category 4, with an image of a Kaiju of the respective category under it.

"Alright, let's begin with something we all know," Pronk said, clapping his hooves together. "The Serizoowa scale, which classifies Kaijus depending on their mass, volume, movement speed, water displacement, skin thickness, blood toxicity, ambient radiation levels and a number of other factors. Now, I'm no biologist like my colleague so I won't bore you with that. What I want to bring to your attention is this…"

Pronk clicked a key and a chart appeared on the screen displaying the list of every Kaiju that has ever come out of the Breach, next to their Serizoowa category and date of appearance. "Ever since the Kaijus started emerging from the Breach, scientists all around the globe have been trying to figure out a pattern to it, so we can be ready for the next one beforehand. However, as you know, none of the hypotheses put forward by hundreds of researchers over the years have been useful. The time span between two successive Kaiju emergences has decreased over the years yet the duration has remained seemingly random."

Pronk paused, glancing at the room once more and finding that every mammal was listening to him intently. He continued, "That is, until last month. In early February, I became aware of a seismology article by a Dr. Barry DiCaprio who suggested that the presence of the Breach may be affecting the boundary interactions between the Zoocific and the Roostralian tectonic plates."

The oryx changed the screen to show a picture of the tectonic plate map under the Zoocific ocean and the picture of a bear scientist. "Dr. DiCaprio posted some interesting data in the article and that got me thinking that what if it was the other way around instead. So, I got in touch with him and with our combined knowledge I was able to come up with this." With another keystroke, the screen changed to show the initial slide full of equations.

Pronk pointed to the formulae with a laser pointer and continued, "These equations predict the next opening of the Breach, provided we have the information of the previous time of opening and the physical information of the Kaiju that came through it using the Serizoowa scale, along with some variable to account for the planet's geomagnetic field and tectonic activity. I've put in dates of all previous Breach openings and have calculated the time of the successive openings with a mere 0.6% error."

A brief gasp was heard from the back of the room, drawing the oryx's attention to the audience. The entire room looked awestruck and stared at the screen blankly.

Pronk pursed his lips and continued, "Using this, I can confidently predict with 90% certainty that there will be a Breach opening within a week. Unfortunately, I can also predict with the same 90% certainty that it will be a Double Event."

"What!" The water deer behind Nick exclaimed. "You mean two Kaijus at once?"

Pronk nodded glumly, "Correct."

"How can you be so sure of this, Doctor?" Kevin asked skeptically.

Pronk stared evenly at the polar bear and spoke passionately, "Because numbers do not lie, Ranger. Politics, poetry, promises… those are lies. But numbers are the closest we can get to understanding the true nature of our reality."

One of Nick's eyebrows lifted and he saw through the corner of his eyes many mammals turning to look to each other in confusion.

"Mark my words, gentlemammals," Pronk said. "There will be a double event. And then, shortly thereafter, three Kaijus. And then four, and then…" he trailed off.

"And then we're dead," Gary said, leaning back on his chair and slapping his paws on his lap with an air of hopelessness. "Fantastic!"

Pronk looked over the faces of the audience before continuing again. "But this is where the good news comes." The flicking ears from almost all the mammals in the room let him know that he had their attention. He turned to click a key on the laptop and the screen changed to show an image of the Breach, taken from one of the monitoring cameras fitted around the Marhyena Trench.

"Here we see an image of the Breach in its inactive phase. During this phase, we know that it is invulnerable to any form of weapon we are currently capable of creating, up to and including nuclear warheads."

Nods came from around the room and the oryx proceeded. "Now the obvious question is, how can something be invulnerable? It's because the Breach isn't a material object that we can take a hammer at. The nature of the Breach is atomic. So any bombs we drop into it are simply absorbed by the Breach itself, the energy from the explosions fuelling its presence."

Pronk pressed a few keys and a bunch of charts and graphs appeared in the screen. "Using mass spectrometry, gamma spectroscopy, atomic spectroscopy and many other readings of the Breach, both during its inactive phase and active phase — that is, when a Kaiju emerges from it — I have created a diagram of what is most likely the structure on the other side."

The screen changed to show the image of a cylindrical wireframe structure which tapered to a very narrow portion in the middle. Pronk used the laser pointer to point to the top surface of the cylinder. "Alright, so this is our side of the Breach." He then pointed to the lower surface. "And this is the place where the Kaijus are coming from, most likely another universe. For lack of a better term, I'm calling it the Anteverse. And we have no idea what is there except that the Kaijus are coming from it."

The entire room of mammals were silent as they craned their necks to get a good look at the screen.

"And this region in the middle," Pronk continued as he pointed to the narrow section in the middle of the cylinder, "I'm calling it the Throat. Now, as the Breach is a tear between two universes, by its very nature it is trying to close itself. So, some form of energy is feeding it from the other side, keeping it stable and maintaining the connection between our universe and the Anteverse. In order to destabilize the Breach, we have to do it in the Throat."

Pronk pressed a key and a video started playing, showing a tiny nuclear symbol, signifying a bomb, being dropped into the cylinder and detonating once it reached the narrowest section of the Throat. The simulated explosion caused the wireframe structure to start dissipating from the centre and ultimately reached the two surfaces, removing the passage between the two universes. "As per my simulations, an explosion of at least 7.5 petajoules or 1.8 megaton TNT equivalent would be enough to destabilize the Throat and sever the connection between the two universes."

There were muffled gasps from the room. Nick himself watched with wide eyes, realizing the implications of the closing of the Breach. It would end the war and mammalkind would be saved. He honestly didn't think it was plausible.

"However, as you saw, this requires us to put the bomb inside the Throat, which means we have to enter the Breach. And that can only be possible when it is active," Pronk said with a grimace.

"How the heck do we do that? The Breach only opens when a Kaiju is coming out of it. And by the time we kill it, the Breach will be closed," Gary spoke up angrily. Larry turned around to calm his son while many voices of agreement came from the back of the room.

"Right, right," Pronk nodded. "But you see, every time a Kaiju passes through, the Breach remains open for a short period of time before and after the passage. And from the observed data, there's a correlation between the category of a Kaiju and the amount of extra time the Breach remains open. It's roughly half a minute for a Category 4. However, with multiple Kaijus coming out in short intervals, I predict that the increased traffic will keep the Breach open between the passage of two Kaijus. And that, Rangers, is your window to drop the bomb."

Pronk finished his lecture and looked back at the audience to see every pair of eyes gaping at him as if he grew an extra head. Luckily for the oryx, Marshall Bogo intervened as he strode towards the podium from his position next to the wall, after turning the lights back on.

"And that is why," the cape buffalo started, "this is a multiple Jaeger drop. While Ursine Alpha, Felid Typhoon and Foxy Danger keep the Kaiju on this side distracted, Howler Eureka will go to the edge of the Breach and drop the thermonuclear warhead inside it. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Major Wolfard spoke up, crossing his arms and looking squarely at the buffalo and the oryx on the podium. "You said that the double event is happening within a week. But without an accurate prediction, we can't be ready for the operation by that time."

"That's true," Pronk agreed. "But I'm confident that with the additional sensor data during the double event, I can modify my equations to give a more accurate timeframe for the next Kaiju emergence. And that will give you the time to strike."

"So you're not sure?" Gary asked in an accusatory tone. "You expect us to go in with limited information on a crucial mission like this?"

"Sorry but there just isn't enough data," Pronk replied flatly. "Until the first double event occurs, this is the best we got."

Nick looked to his fellow Rangers and saw a variety of expressions on their faces. Larry Wolfard looked to be contemplative while his son looked outraged at the mission plan. The Koslovs were discussing with each other and the Fangmeyer twins seemed to be arguing with one another while Delgato tried to keep them quiet.

"What do you think of the mission plan?" a whispered voice asked Nick from behind. He turned his head to see the water deer looking at him.

"It's pretty reckless," Nick frowned. "We'll be going in based on just a prediction. But it's not like we have very many options."

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy," the deer nodded before extending her arm. "Sergeant Heidi Nermis. The scruffy one next to me is Sergeant Arcus Parad," she said, gesturing to the binturong, who gave her a friendly shove in response.

Nick turned around a bit to shake the offered arm. "Nick Wilde, Ranger. Pleasure to meet you both."

"If there are no further questions…" the gruff voice of the Marshall drew their attention, "then I'm calling this meeting to a close. Dismissed."

All the mammals rose from their seats and started filing out of the room while Pronk turned off his laptop and started packing up the cable to the projector.

Bogo saw Larry Wolfard getting up from his seat and beckoned the timberwolf to him, "Major, a word."

Wolfard nodded and gestured to his son to go on ahead, before approaching the podium where Bogo stood. Once the room was empty save for the three of them, Bogo turned to speak but a voice from the door interrupted him.

"Wait, where'd everybody go? Is the meeting over?" Bucky asked between gasps as he all but ran into the Conference Room.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Dr. Antlerson," Bogo said sardonically while Pronk gave a biting glare to the kudu.

Bucky leaned down on one of the tables on the front row and breathed heavily. "Sorry I'm late but I didn't think the meeting would be over so quickly. I got delayed because…"

"Oh, don't bother with excuses!" Pronk sneered at his coworker. "You weren't at the meeting because you don't like my theory."

"Well, considering that your theory is based on a bunch of over-the-top assumptions, DUH! Of course I don't like it," Bucky replied angrily. "But that's not why I'm late. I was poking around in Mutavore's brain samples and discovered that some parts of the brain are still active."

"You're telling me that monster's brain is still alive?" Wolfard asked incredulously.

"What? No. Not the entire brain," Bucky clarified. "Just a bunch of neurons. And comparing with older Category 4 brain analyses, I think it's the Kaiju's hippocampus."

"The memory centre?" Bogo asked.

"Some part of it, yes," Bucky replied. "So I just had a brilliant thought. What if we were able to obtain the memories of the Kaiju? They could tell us exactly what the Breach is like and what's on the other side."

Pronk snorted, "And just how are you proposing we do that? We don't even have the technology to find out what's in another mammal's memory and…"

Bucky cut him off, "Of course we do. The Drift."

Pronk's jaw dropped. Bogo stared incredulously at the kudu, while Wolfard was the first to break the silence. "You're suggesting that we initiate a Drift with a Kaiju?"

"No, no." Bucky shook his head. "Not a whole Kaiju. Just a tiny little part of one's brain."

"Don't be absurd, Doctor," the timberwolf huffed. "Mammals can barely handle each other in the Drift. Take a predator and a prey brain, for example. And you're talking about the brain of a colossal alien beast! The neural surge would be too much. Any volunteer would die instantly or be rendered comatose."

"I agree," Bogo spoke with an air of finality.

"I don't agree," Bucky said impulsively. "It's barely a couple thousand neurons. A mammal brain has that number in tens of billions. With the proper precautions, I'm sure a Kaiju-mammal Drift would be more than possible."

"The answer is no, Dr. Antlerson," Bogo said authoritatively. "You are welcome to poke those brain pieces in any other way. Now, Dr. Oryxler, I'd like a copy of your report on my desk ASAP."

Pronk gave an affirmative nod to the Marshall while Bucky looked from Bogo's face to Wolfard's in disbelief.

"But but… his idea is so…" Bucky struggled for words before grabbing his horns in frustration.

"Your input has been noted, Dr. Antlerson," Bogo said flatly as he turned to leave the room, gesturing for Wolfard to follow. "Major. I have some mission details I'd like a fresh pair of eyes on," he said to the timberwolf who nodded curtly.

Bucky called out to the pair leaving the Conference Room, "Marshall, this is… I mean… this is possibly the most amazing thing…"

"Bucky, give it a rest already," Pronk interrupted his colleague's monologue as he picked up the laptop under his arm and started walking. "I know you're desperate to be right so you can convince yourself that you haven't wasted your life being a Kaiju groupie, but your crazy idea isn't going to work."

"Oh, shut up! It IS going to work!" the kudu spoke heatedly. His nostrils flared indignantly as he raised a hoof to the oryx. "And I'll tell you something else. Fortune favours the brave, Pronk."

Pronk sighed. "No, you shut up and listen for a change. You heard the Marshall. He won't allow you to run your little science experiment. And even if he did, you'd kill yourself," he said angrily before walking out of the room.

Bucky shook his head before stretching his arms wide, addressing the empty room, "Or I'd be a rock star!"

It was 9pm and the Shatterdome canteen was crowded with people. Judy Hopps strained her head from the serving platform for a seat. Normally, the doe took her meals in her room but it was currently a mess of follow-up paperwork due to the official conclusion of the Mark 3 Restoration Program earlier in the evening.

She sighed inwardly, deciding to head to her room anyway, when she spotted Nick Wilde leaving the canteen with his dinner plate, still full of food. Curiosity took hold of the rabbit and she quickly made her way through the hungry mammals to step outside the canteen. At first glance, she didn't see the fox anywhere. But then she saw the familiar brown tail disappear around the corner heading towards the Jaeger bays.

Puzzled at the fox's direction of choice, Judy's nose scrunched up and started to twitch. She quickly moved to the corner and turned around to see the giant blast doors to the Jaeger bay slowly closing. She bolted, taking care so as to not drop any of the food from the plate in her paws, and managed to slip through the blast doors before they closed shut.

She glanced around the sparse Jaeger bay, with only a handful of maintenance workers watching over the giant robots, and saw the same familiar tail disappear around another corner. Judy finally realized what the fox's destination might be and slowed her pace as she followed him.

A little while later, she arrived at the viewing platform where she took Nick the day before and found him sitting next to the railing, with his legs dangling beyond it. His dinner plate was next to him, its contents seemingly untouched, while he gazed warmly at the sight of Foxy Danger in the Jaeger bay before him.

Judy smiled at the scene before her and started to turn around when Nick spoke. "If you're just going to turn around and leave, then why did you bother coming here?"

Judy paused in her step and found the fox staring at her intently. Her nose started twitching under his scrutinizing gaze.

"Were you just following me to make sure I wasn't up to anything shifty?" Nick asked, his expression even.

Judy stammered, "Wha… what? No. No! I was just… I was… curious why you were… at the Jaeger bay and…"

Nick gave a cheeky grin before he started laughing wholeheartedly. "Oh Textbook, you should've seen the look on your face," he said between chuckles.

Judy stood transfixed in embarrassment before thumping her right foot on the metal floor and grunting, eliciting even more laughter from the fox.

"C'mon Hopps, I'm only pulling your tail," Nick said as he calmed his laughter. "No need to be so tense."

Judy exhaled loudly as she willed her foot to stop thumping the floor.

"The canteen was too crowded. I just wanted some peace and quiet while I eat. You're welcome to join me," Nick said as he patted the floor next to him.

"No, it's fine. I'll just go to my room and let you have some privacy," Judy said.

"Don't tell me the widdle fuzzy wuzzy bunny is afraid to sit next to a fox during dinnertime," Nick said with a twinkle of humour in his eyes, knowing that the jab will get to the rabbit.

Judy's monotone flat reaction and half-lidded eyes told him that it did. "Really? Aren't you supposed to be older than me?" She shook her head and chuckled as she sat down next to him. "Fine."

Nick gave a smirk before lifting his plate onto his lap and started eating. Judy followed suit and the two ate in a companionable silence, looking over the hangar bay where the maintenance workers worked on Foxy Danger while some engineers were packing up their tools.

"Expected you at the meeting this afternoon."

Judy's ears perked up at the fox's words and she turned to see him looking at her.

"The meeting was only for Rangers, Strike Troopers and Lead Engineers," she replied. "Besides, all us cadets had the day off today."

"You don't say," Nick said smugly. "That explains why you were at the Shatterdome all day."

"Well, I'm not just a cadet. I have other responsibilities."

"Like following a certain Ranger around all day?" Nick asked with a smirk.

"Like overseeing the Mark 3 Restoration Project," Judy replied in a deadpan voice. "Today was the official date of conclusion and for your information, I spent the whole evening finishing up the paperwork and signing cheques for the outsourced engineers. You can see them packing up down there."

Nick blinked a few times at the doe's reply and turned back to stare at the floor of the hangar bay. Sure enough, he could see engineers gathering their tools and slowly heading out while maintenance workers took up their spots to oversee the Jaeger. Judy was satisfied to have shut up the annoying fox with her answer and resumed her meal.

"You know, I don't think I've thanked you yet."

The abrupt change in topic had both of Judy's ears rising. "For what?" she asked.

"For repairing Foxy," Nick replied, pointing at the Jaeger, "and giving me my old job back."

"I didn't start the Restoration Project," Judy said, looking at the robot. "I was only put in charge about halfway through it. The engineers are the ones you should be thanking. And I was only sent to rehire you because the Marshall was busy. Or he would've gone himself."

"Hah!" Nick snorted. "I seriously doubt that."

Judy studied Nick's face carefully and saw the sneer that he was struggling to hide. She knew there was some bad history between the fox and the buffalo and she felt the urge to ask him. But she stayed her tongue, feeling it would be inappropriate.

"Anyway, I appreciate it," Nick said as he turned to face her with a sincere smile. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Judy said, beaming, "for whatever little work I did."

Nick chuckled at the doe's words. "So you're telling me you weren't the one who suggested and designed the retractable sword?"

Judy's ears perked up instantly. "How do you know about that?"

"You were the one who dropped off the restoration report in my room last night," Nick shrugged.

"I just didn't think you'd have time to read up on that considering how hectic today's been," Judy said as her ears lowered.

"I read it last night," Nick replied simply as he dug into the vegetable curry.

"Oh," Judy said quietly while biting into a steamed carrot. "Come to think of it, you do strike me as the staying up late type."

Nick turned to see a very self-satisfied smug expression on the bunny's face. He gave an approving smile before throwing a couple of plums into his mouth.

The pair continued their meal in silence until Judy spoke up. "To answer your question, yes, it was my idea to add the sword."

"And redesign the Plasmacaster?" Nick asked.

"And that," Judy agreed. "From the report of your fight in Ancougarage, it was apparent that the slower recharge time of the weapon was a liability. So I wanted to improve that."

"And you needed to reduce the energy output?"

"Yeah. I wanted to upgrade it using the supercapacitors used for the Mark 5 line but they jeopardized the coolant control circuit and EMP protection of the vortex turbine."

"Never a good idea to mess with a nuclear reactor," Nick commented as he chomped on a banana.

"Let alone a double core one," Judy added as she bit down on an apple.

"Still, the energy output is only 15% less than before while the charge time is a whopping 38% less. I call that an improvement," Nick said with an approving smile.

"Thank you. And the reduction in size made me think of adding some sort of last-resort kind of weapon," Judy said. "You know, Felid Typhoon has the Thunderclaw, Howler Eureka has the Sting-blades…"

"Wait, Sting-blades?" Nick asked, never having heard the term before.

"Yeah, they were added two years ago, after the fight with Rachnid."

"Attacked Braysbane, right? In Roostralia? I only read about that yesterday. Said it was a long fight."

"Yep," Judy said, finishing her dinner and putting the plate aside. "Five hours eighteen minutes. Longest solo engagement to date. After the fight, Major Wolfard reported that a bladed weapon would've helped immensely."

"Right. The Kaiju's skin was elastic and leathery so any blunt attacks were absorbed," Nick recalled from the report, while he put his own plate aside, having finished eating.

"Even the Anti-Kaiju missiles were no good. So, Marshall Pentecost authorized the addition of a bifurcated blade in each arm of Howler, as a last resort. Messy, but gets the job done."

"So why didn't you just add those to Foxy?" Nick asked, curious. "You already had the design specs for them."

"The blades only work well with Howler because of the Mark 5's extra mobility due to the lighter frame. Foxy's much heavier, giving her greater inertia but lower speed."

"So you needed a weapon that can utilize that extra inertia," Nick said.

"Exactly."

"Colour me impressed, Carrots," Nick said as he leaned back on his arms. "Finn would've been ecstatic to see the sword."

Judy's ears raised at the mention of the fox's late brother. "Really?"

"Uh huh. He was a fan of melee weapons. As a kid, he even had a favourite baseball bat. Do you know he posed for all of his school yearbook pictures with that bat? Dad was beyond frustrated and would try to take the bat away from him. And Mom would just give it back and encourage us to be ourselves," Nick said with a nostalgic smile.

Judy looked at the wistful face of the fox and her curiosity got the better of her.

"Can I…" she hesitated, the fox turning to face her inquisitively in response. "Can I ask you a personal question?" asked the doe.

Nick raised one of his eyebrows but replied smoothly, "Shoot."

"I mean, you don't have to answer if you don't want to," Judy rambled nervously. "I fully understand if you want to keep your private life to your…"

"Hopps," Nick said, interrupting the doe. Despite finding the bunny's babbling to be hilarious, he urged her to get on with the conversation. "Ask the question."

"Right," Judy nodded. "Okay, so, you're a red fox."

"Last I checked," Nick replied smugly.

"And your brother was a fennec fox."

"Also true."

"So… I was just wondering…" Judy hesitated.

During her awkward pause, Nick leaned forward on an elbow and bluntly finished her question for her. "Which one of us is adopted?"

"Yeah," the doe replied, her ears drooping on her back.

Nick shrugged, "His birth parents were friends with my parents back when they started dating. Long story short, their van was in an accident and Finn was the only survivor. My parents didn't want the little guy to grow up in an orphanage so they got married and adopted him."

"That's terrible," Judy gasped, her palms covering her mouth.

"Sure but you wouldn't think that if you knew him," Nick said candidly. "Would you believe he used to tell this story to vixens to try to pick them up at bars?"

"What!" Judy's jaw hung open in surprise.

"It's true. He was quite the shameless tail-chaser," Nick said with a chuckle before sighing audibly. Talking about his brother's habits reminded the fox how much he missed him. And his thoughts invariably started to wander towards that fateful night.

The air between the odd pair grew heavy. Judy kept quiet, digesting the new information. Nick tried to will his breathing to a uniform rate, hoping to control his thoughts from turning too grim. They stayed like so for a few minutes before Nick broke the silence.

"Alright, my turn," he said with an animated clap, drawing the bunny's attention.

"What?" she asked, being roused from her thoughts.

"You asked me a personal question and now I'll ask you one," the fox clarified. "Turnabout is fair play, right?"

"Uh right," Judy replied nervously.

"Good," Nick nodded. "Back at Jumbeaux's Diner in Prince Roopert, you apologized saying that you didn't want me to return to my old job at the PZDC." Nick paused, carefully studying the expressions on Judy's face.

For her part, Judy's ears went completely erect as Nick finished the sentence. She was afraid the fox might bring that up but hoped that he had forgotten about that.

Nick observed the expression of the doe change from one of shock to shame in a very short interval, as her nose started twitching rapidly. He kept his own expression even and asked curtly, "Why?"

Judy turned her head to stare at her lap, her paws fidgeting. She opened and closed her mouth a few times to start talking but couldn't.

Nick waited a full minute seeing the bunny squirm while failing to come up with an answer before he spoke again. "Jeez, Hopps. Don't get your ears in a twist," he tried to sound amused, hoping to lighten the air between them. "It's like you said, you don't have to answer if you don't want..."

"I'm selfish," Judy said in a low murmur, interrupting the fox.

"What was that?" Nick asked, not having clearly heard what the doe said.

"Because I'm a selfish bunny," Judy said with a great sigh as she slumped down.

Nick frowned at the answer but waited silently for the doe to continue.

Judy took a large breath to calm herself and started, "I wanted to be a Jaeger pilot ever since I was a kid. But when I passed out of the academy, the ZN had already cut the funding to the PZDC. So no new Jaegers were being built any more and I thought my dream was over. But then the Marshall commissioned the Mark 3 Restoration Project. I just HAD to be the one to pilot it. So I decided to poke my head in various parts of the project until Marshall Bogo decided to put me in charge."

Judy paused to take a breath before continuing again. "Near the end of the project, I applied for the pilot tryouts. But… I was rejected," she said with a dejected voice.

"What's your Simulator score?" Nick asked.

Judy replied, "Fifty one drops, fifty one kills."

"Wow," Nick gave a whistle. "That's amazing. So why were you rejected?"

"Because…" the bunny hesitated, "because my Drift profile doesn't match with anyone else!" Tears started pooling at Judy's eyes so she kept her head down, hiding it from the fox.

"Ah," Nick exclaimed, connecting the dots. "So when the Marshall decided to rehire me, you felt that I stole your job. And to add insult to injury, you were the one sent to recruit me."

Judy slumped down further, leaning her head on the safety railings. "It was nobody's fault, I knew that. And I still took it out on you. I'm so sorry, Ranger Wilde."

Nick stayed quiet, lost in thought. He never really had any big childhood dreams. All he ever wanted was a normal life with his family, a few close friends he could call a pack and a job he was happy with. He never wanted to be a Jaeger pilot, not even when he saw them in action on TV. But his dream never came true either. His friends drifted apart, his girlfriend broke up with him, his father walked out on his family, his heartbroken mother died of her own addiction. All he had left was his brother. And despite some tough years without any jobs, they became Rangers, fighting Kaijus and protecting the people. He found some happiness in serving others. But even that was taken away from him alongside his brother, leaving him a broken shell of a mammal for years.

He reached out and gave a soft pat on the bunny's back, startling the doe. She turned to look at his face which showed a weak, pained smile. "I already accepted your apology back in the diner, Hopps. We're even."

Judy didn't answer, knowing that her voice would break if she did. Instead she just nodded gratefully.

They silently stared at each other for a few moments before Nick took his dinner plate and stood up. He didn't know what to say to the doe so he decided to leave her to her own thoughts to calm down. He turned to Judy and said, "See you tomorrow," and then started walking back towards the canteen, leaving Judy alone in the viewing platform.

The bunny watched the fox leave until he was out of sight, before she turned to look at the vulpine-shaped Jaeger, glinting in the many lights of the Jaeger bay. She gazed breathlessly for a few seconds before sighing loudly. She wiped the tear stains on the fur under her eyes and stood up with her plate and started her trek towards the canteen.

Author's Note:

Yet another delayed chapter. These appear to be getting more frequent aren't they? I only have my laziness to blame :(

Regarding the chapter itself, I delve into the exposition side yet again, taking a similar but different route from the film once more. And then we have some original scene of Nick and Judy becoming friendlier with each other. After all, that's pretty much 95% of the reason you're all here :P

As always,a super thanks to aemx for the proofreading and assistance with the dialogues of the characters. And me being a stubborn mule and asking for clarification every time delaying the release even further :|

And thank you very much for your continued interest in this story. Getting those little Kudos and Favourite notifications are so great to see in my emails. You're always welcome to leave your comments and reviews and do feel free to let me know if I made any mistakes and share any advice you might have :)

Also, I came across this awesome mashup fanart a few days ago. And it has a beautiful shot of Nick and Judy inside the Conn-Pod in their Drivesuits:

peterkothe_tumblr_com/post/158227931957/kaiju-category-4-code-name-tamatoa-deploy (replace _ with .)