Atlas' Burden
Crimson Typhoon had pulled up beside Cherno Alpha and they were walking slowly out into the water, searching carefully for kaiju blue lights in dark waters. JinandHuandCheung were vigilantly searching for the kaiju they knew were there based on their signatures.
"Movement on the right! 3'o'clock," Jin yelled to his brothers in Mandarin. They turned and Typhoon turned with them, but a kaiju leaped from the water, spun with a chittering growl, and slammed its tail into their side. They grunted and shook in their rigs, sparks pouring into the Conn-Pod and falling backwards into the waves with a mighty crash. Typhoon shook its hollow golden head and stood back up with a whir of metal.
"Thundercloud formation," Hu barked to his brothers, each baring their own primary arm with spinning blades in a ready stance. The kaiju – Otachi – lunged at them and they ran the blades into its belly, creating six lacerations before the kaiju caught one hand and then the other, stopping the blades with its claws. Cheung activated the thrusters, jumping up, spinning the torso of their jaeger, and coming back down, tossing the kaiju at Cherno Alpha.
It squealed and turned to face Cherno as the jaeger's horn blew like a cargo ship's battle cry. AleksisandSasha slammed their left fist into the back of its neck, catching it in a headlock and pounding into its skull with their right fist. They lifted both of Cherno's arms high to bring them down on its head in a blow that would surely daze, if not kill it, but it slammed its tail into Cherno's chest, knocking the jaeger over with the crumpling protest of tons of metal. Aleksis and Sasha were slammed back in their rigs with grunts of shock and pain.
"LOCCENT, Typhoon and Cherno are in trouble, we're moving in," Herc said into the comms.
"You are to hold your ground. Do not engage. We need you for the Breach run. Do you copy?" the Marshal's voice sounded over the comms.
"Yes, sir," Herc said with little enthusiasm.
Herc glanced at Charlie and they both watched uneasily as Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon boxed in the kaiju. It gave a cry and slammed its tail into Typhoon's cockpit. It gripped the sphere, punching its talons through the Conn-Pod and yanking it out of the jaeger entirely.
"Jesus. We can't just sit here and watch them die, now come on!" Charlie urged her dad, her worry for the brother's clear.
Herc growled, "Oh, screw this. LOCCENT, we're moving in now!"
Striker Eureka began to sprint towards Cherno Alpha. Typhoon's Conn-Pod shattered in the kaiju's grip, killing the pilots instantly. Without anything to hold it up, Crimson Typhoon fell back limply into the waves. With grief and rage in his tone, Sasha said in Russian, "Typhoon is gone."
"Let's get this bastard," Aleksis ordered savagely.
She flashed all the lights on the front of their jaeger, blowing their horn again and slamming their fists together. The kaiju accepted the angry challenge with a roar and a spray of acid, discarding the crumpled cockpit in its tail's grip carelessly. Cherno dodged most of the acid but couldn't get completely out of the way in time.
"This is Cherno Alpha, we've been hit by some type of acid. The hull has been compromised. We need backup immediately," Aleksis called over the comms, watching pieces of Cherno's visor dissolve in a spray of sparks.
"Just hold on, Cherno, we're on our way," Charlie yelled, Striker's engines screaming in the background. Otachi tore into their right arm and Aleksis cried out at the transmitted pain of the jaeger's wound. She and Sasha pounded savagely on Otachi's head with their other fist, but it ignored the blows.
Behind Cherno, a large gorilla-like kaiju lunged out of the waves with a roar, leaping onto Cherno's back. Leatherback tried to rip into the jaeger but was yanked off by Striker Eureka. Leatherback screeched in distress as Striker threw it away from Cherno and pounded its fist into its face until blue blood streamed from its mouth.
Cherno Alpha kept slamming their fist into Otachi's face until it let go and sank into the water, but not without a parting blow from its tail. The large jaeger struggled to its feet again and was still, standing up but unable to move, having taken too much damage.
Otachi quickly leapt up to attack Striker from behind when Leatherback retreated but found itself facing Striker's fists. It screeched as the jaeger's hand closed around the back of its neck, crumpling some of its armored plates under his fist. HercandCharlie groaned at the strain as they picked the heavy kaiju up and threw it away into the waves. Herc said, "Engaging air missiles," and Striker's chest plates opened, and the barrels began whirling.
Leatherback recovered and roared, kaiju blue electricity sparking up its backplates and collecting in a ball between its shoulder blades. A horn of bone came down and shattered the ball, dispersing the electric blasts in a series of glowing waves of power. Striker staggered and froze, its pilots screaming as the Conn-Pod lit with sparks. Both Herc and Charlie pulled off their helmets with moans of pain, having been yanked out of a strong Drift.
"The hell was that," Charlie snapped, "I've never seen that before."
"LOCCENT?" Herc said, flicking the comm switch. "LOCCENT?"
The waves washed over the nearby Shatterdome and all the screens glitched and went black. There were cries of confusion and distress from the J-Techs as they began shout and try to reboot their screens.
"Quiet," Raleigh's voice rang through the low-lit darkness and the J-Tech's obediently stilled.
"What's going on? What happened?" Dr. Gottlieb asked Tendo in the sudden silence.
Tendo stammered, "The blast. It jumbled all the jaegers electrical circuits."
"They're adapting. This isn't a defense mechanism, it's a weapon," Dr. Gottlieb growled, but Raleigh was already sprinting away. The J-Techs were muttering again – they knew they could lose three of their five jaegers in the field today.
The Marshal ordered, "Get me Striker."
"Nothing sir, the Mark-5 is digital sir. It's fried," Tendo said.
"Raleigh?" the Marshal called out, turning for his SIC.
"Gipsy's analog – nuclear!" Raleigh yelled back, running from the room as fast as he could go, and the J-Tech's cheered their approval. They all had faith in Raleigh, who was quickly becoming a Shatterdome favorite.
Leatherback was circling Striker Eureka's still form. The kaiju kept gloating and roaring its victory. Occasionally it would poke the jaeger or nudge an arm and watch the limb swing back to its hunched-over position, dead.
"We gotta bail," Charlie glared at the kaiju. She was flicking switches and pressing buttons, trying to get Striker up and running before throwing a glance at the kaiju right outside.
"There's no emergency power," Herc said, "I'm gonna try something else."
He disconnected, the rig popping away from his drive suit, and Charlie screamed, "No, don't disengage!"
Leatherback slammed a huge arm into Striker and Herc was hurled across the cockpit and into a wall. Charlie disconnected from her rig without thought and ran to her dad as he screamed, "Ah! My arm!"
"Hey! Come on! Get on your feet old man," Charlie screamed, lifting him as he cradled his right arm to his chest protectively. Shit, what did that mean for the Breach mission? If they lived that long anyway.
"Don't call me that!" he said, surging to his feet indignantly with a groan, and Charlie steadied him when he swayed relief making her almost giddy. He was okay if he could protest her nickname for him.
"It's right outside, we gotta get out of here now!" Charlie urged. She wanted her dad to be okay, she wanted to see Max again, she wanted to be able to joke and flirt with Ray again, and quite frankly, she just wanted to live. Striker was dead in the water; there was nothing they could do.
Herc roared back, "We're not going anywhere. Now you and I are the only thing standing between that ugly bastard and a city of ten million people! Now we have a choice here. We either sit and wait or we take these flare guns and do something really stupid!" He snapped open the watertight container in the side of Striker's hull, and honestly, people called her the impulsive one. It was clearly genetic.
Charlie stared at her dad, and smirked, grabbing a flare gun. If they were going to die, the Hansens would die smug in the knowledge that they been utterly insufferable bastards to the end. They opened the top hatch and she crawled out on the ladder. Charlie gritted her teeth, standing in front of the behemoth circling their Striker and looking it directly in the eye through the rain.
She was careful not to slip off the wet surface of the top of Striker's hull. She helped her dad out as he groaned climbing up the ladder. "How's your arm?" she asked.
"Ah, just give me the gun," her dad said, and she smirked, handing him the second gun. "Hey, you," her dad yelled.
The bastard growled back at them, and they raised their arms in unison, shooting the red flares as one. Herc's bounced off its chin, his aim affected by using his nondominant hand, but Charlie's landed straight in its eye socket. It screamed as its vision was filled with blinding red fire, shaking its head, and clawing at its skull plates.
"I think we just pissed it off," she remarked in a blasé manner as it raised its arms to crush them. She silently apologized to Ray, knowing she was about to die.
A sun-bright light landed on Leatherback and the kaiju turned curiously, arms dropping. Charlie and Herc covered their eyes with their hands simultaneously as they were blinded but grinned viciously when they heard the helicopters. There was Gipsy Danger, silhouetted by a halo of light, her core glowing brightly. She was dropped and landed gracefully, standing tall before the kaiju.
"Yeah!" Herc roared.
"Come on Ray, kick its ass!" she yelled.
Raleigh skidded down the corridor and into his jaeger's Conn-Pod. He attached himself to the rig as quickly as he could, fitting his helmet over his head. The hatch above Gipsy's hanger opened and she was lifted out smoothly by the helicopters. He saw Leatherback's arms raised to land a finishing blow and he disconnected from the cables as quickly as he could.
He commed the choppers and said, "Get Striker and Cherno's pilots out of their jaegers as soon as the kaijus are distracted. We can come back for the jaegers later. Over."
"Yes, sir," was the unanimous response.
He held his arms out in a fighter's stance, feet spread for balance. Leatherback roared and charged, its back crackling with electricity. Raleigh shoved the large arm out of the way, ducked under its shoulder and grabbed it from behind, yanking on the fleshy organ that had sent out the EMP. He tore it off and sent it hurtling away into the dark waters and the kaiju roared in pain and anger.
He cried out as the kaiju wrapped him in a bear hug and threw Gipsy towards a bridge and the pier. He hit the side of the rig hard, but using the thrusters, repositioned Gipsy and landed on one knee. He barely managed to roll to avoid the bridge and left only minimal damage to some shipping containers on the pier. Leatherback stepped up onto the pier after them and roared, soft blue tentacles behind his head plates crackling sharply.
Raleigh stood up, and he and Gipsy ran forward, jumping through the air with the aid of the thrusters and slamming a fist into the kaiju's head to daze it. It charged that them, grabbing Gipsy by the shoulders and shoving her backwards. Raleigh pulled it into a headlock with one arm, expertly dodging sharp claws. He loaded the Plasma Cannon and slammed shot after shot into the creature's side. It fell limply and Raleigh flicked his wrist, unsheathing his sword and cutting through its head with it.
"Gipsy to choppers, do any choppers have eyes on Otachi? Over." Raleigh asked panting.
"Y-yes sir, it's right outside the Bone Slums of Hong Kong. Seems pretty interested in one spot actually."
"There are two kaijus. We gotta get out," the same balding man from before told Hannibal Chau as Newt raced after him.
"Hang on a second. Excuse me. What – what's going on?" Newt rambled.
"There are two goddamn kaiju heading straight for Hong Kong city," Hannibal said gravely, walking away urgently.
"No, no, no, that's not possible. There's never been two before," Newt panicked slightly. He knew that Hermann had predicted this, but it was one thing to think hypothetically, and another thing to hear it was happening right now.
Hannibal turned around and snarled, "Well maybe, that's because no one ever Drifted with one before, eh? Genius. When jaeger pilots Drift, it's a two-way street, a bridge right? It sets up a connection both ways. A hive mind, you said. Maybe those kaiju are trying to find you."
Newt began shaking and blubbering as Hannibal shoved him away, "What are we gonna – what are we gonna do?"
"I'm gonna wait out this shitstorm in my own private kaiju bunker, but you are going to a public refuge. I tried it once," he said, removing his goggles and displaying one scarred, sightless eye, "Once. Now get the hell out of here."
His henchmen pressed guns against his back and head and Newt left as quickly as he could. There were screaming and running people everywhere, all fleeing from a sound of crashing buildings and chirring monster. He yelped and held his wrist when he was shoved by the crowd into a parked car. Newt saw the kaiju turn to face his direction, glowing beady eyes pinpointing him, and he began shoving people out of the way to get to the bunker.
He kept screaming, "Move. Move! I'm a doctor! I'm a doctor!"
He shoved past people to get into the large underground bunker before the reinforced doors were closed and locked. Above them, stone rumbled, and dust rained from the ceiling. They all crouched, listening with trepidation the loud footsteps, the impact of large claws, the crumble of buildings and piercing screams. The thunderous walking stopped directly above them, and Newt knew what that meant – Hannibal was right, it was coming for him.
"It stopped straight above us. Oh my god, oh my god this isn't a refuge, this is a buffet line!" Newt rambled, making those around him that understood English in turns panicked and annoyed. "It knows I'm here. It knows I'm here!"
There were people trying to shush him and an Asian woman next to him retorted, "It knows we're all here."
"No, you don't understand, it's trying to get me! It knows I'm here and it's trying to get me!" he said in a panic.
The woman yelled something to the crowd in Mandarin, pointing at him, and they all stepped back. They formed a circle and pushed him back when he tried to move out of the middle, grabbing at people's clothes and demanding, "What was she saying? What was she saying? I have to get out of here."
His glasses clattered away as he was shoved to the ground, and he groaned, "Aw come on. Those are expensive glasses. I can't see anything without my glasses. This is the worst." He perched them back on his nose and stared at the ceiling with shaking hands as it buckled slightly, and the bricks cracked under the strain. He breathed sharply and an entire section of the ceiling came down, hooked claws straining to reach Newt's kneeling figure.
People were screaming and trying to get away from the monster, whose claws were replaced by its teeth. It shoved its head in the hole, but its skull was too big to fit. Its glowing blue tongue pushed into the bunker and unfolded like a flower, grasping at Newt, who was scared frozen and too terrified to move. As quickly as it unfurled, it retracted its tongue and turned to roar loudly at something else.
Newt heard the deep horn of a jaeger and breathed a relieved sigh.
Gipsy's horn blew loud and low, and the kaiju turned and roared at the graceful jaeger that stood before it like an avenging archangel. He walked forward, sword in hand. It charged at him, and Raleigh swung Gipsy's sword, scoring a line across its face and a massive bleeding cut across its cheek. He hit it the other way and sheared off one of its skull plates. Its head slammed into a skyscraper with a screech, spilling acidic blue blood everywhere.
Raleigh retracted Gipsy's sword to catch the claws aimed at his arm but was struck across the chest by its tri-clawed tail instead, knocking him back in his Conn-Pod and ripping the stitches in the side of his face. He breathed sharply in pain, Gipsy scraping against the asphalt and concrete in a shower of sparks. He got to his feet and ran after the retreating kaiju but lost it around a corner.
"Choppers do you have a visual? Over," Raleigh asked, head flicking from side to side – this could almost be Knifehead, disappearing in dark waters, but – he culled the thought fiercely, searching the bright city for any sign of the kaiju.
"Sir, it's coming right –"
Raleigh had already seen the shaking in the panes of glass and leaped out of the way. The kaiju lunged through the building, almost pinning him, but he rammed Gipsy's shoulder into its side and slammed its face into the building. He punched it once, twice, but it ducked the third time and Gipsy's arm went through a building.
Otachi grabbed Gipsy around her chest and threw her face first into the building, before throwing her through another skyscraper and following through the hole in its structure. His ribs cracked and Raleigh groaned as the circuits burned over his rib cage where the claws had sunken deeply into Gipsy's left side.
He punched it and dodged out of the way of an acid spray – he'd heard Cherno's warning over the comms earlier. Gipsy's arm snapped out and wrapped around the sack in its throat, trying to yank it out of its mouth. Its tail wrapped around his other arm like a snake, restraining it and snapping heavy pinchers at her hull at the same time.
He concentrated, sinking deep into his Drift with Gipsy, and straining to hold the kaiju still. Gipsy was singing and snarling, and he projected his need to her, imagining valves opening and coolant pouring out. They had practiced for a scenario like this when both his arms were occupied, and he didn't have a copilot to hit the switches needed. She listened, and the computer said in a pleasant monotone, "Coolant venting."
The tail froze solid and shattered under Gipsy's heavy elbow. Raleigh used Gipsy's now free arm to grip Otachi's horn and yank out the bulbous organ. Its cry of rage was punctuated by the blue blood frothing in its mouth, and it slammed into Gipsy, sinking the talons on its back legs into the metal on either side of her spine, pinning her to the ground.
Raleigh was tossed around and dazed, and it squawked, extending its front arms and the attached leathery wings with a loud, whip-like crack. It lifted them both off the ground and slammed Gipsy viciously into the top of a building. Raleigh groaned feebly at the new burns he could feel patterned into his back and pushed at it feebly. It slammed him into two more buildings and began to pull away from the ground.
Raleigh shook his head and unsheathed Gipsy's sword, slicing it up through the left wing in a spray of blue blood. It froze gave an agonized cry and they both fell from the sky. Luckily, it wasn't too far up, and they crashed into the water, one on top of the other. Raleigh yelped as his ribs were jostled again, by the impact and the water closed over him and the weight of the kaiju.
It snarled and tried to grab him with its remaining arm, but Raleigh and Gipsy struggled to their feet with simultaneous groans and shoved the monster back onto dry land. They swept its remaining front leg out from under it, and it fell with a cry. Before it could stagger to its feet, Raleigh brought Gipsy's sword down on the back of its neck.
Fifteen kaiju for Raleigh.
Charlie hadn't ever thought she'd be in the position of damsel in distress, but now that she was, she hated it. They watched Ray and Gipsy get tossed away by the kaiju, Leatherback, and use their thrusters to land on one knee, avoiding a bridge full of cars with deft precision. Herc whistled low and said, "That was a pretty bit of skill right there." Charlie couldn't help but agree, for all of Striker's technical advancements over Gipsy, moves like that were why the scrappy jaeger was still the best – that was pure pilot skill.
As Leatherback lumbered after Gipsy, a chopper lowered a ladder and they both climbed up. Charlie made her dad go first, and watched both him and the fight carefully, making sure the kaiju didn't come back and he didn't fall off the ladder with only one good arm.
"Why'd you pick us up?" Herc asked over the blades. He and Charlie accepted headsets quickly without taking their eyes off the fight. Another helicopter flew towards Cherno in the distance, but they kept flying high above jaeger and kaiju.
"Ranger Becket ordered us to get both the Striker and Cherno pilots from their cockpits when the kaiju were distracted and told us to come back for the jaegers later," one of the men said and it crackled slightly through the headsets.
Gipsy had Leatherback in a headlock and shot its Plasma Cannon into its side, dodging claws, and teeth. When it was dead, Raleigh cut off its head. Kaiju blood spraying across Gipsy's hull and coating the blade. Charlie had to admit that she found it damn hot.
"I heard he liked to do that," Herc barked with laughter.
Both Rangers startled when Raleigh's voice cut through their ears, "Gipsy to choppers, do any choppers have eyes on Otachi? Over," Both sat up straight at his tone, as they did whenever Marshal Pentecost spoke to them that way.
"There," Charlie pointed to the edge of the city, where the sky was alight with fire.
The helicopter pilot nodded and commed Ray, "Y-yes sir, it's right outside the Bone Slums of Hong Kong. Seems pretty interested in one spot actually."
He was right. Otachi was digging into the ground, maybe trying to crack open a bunker? Raleigh seemed to have that thought too, because he blew Gipsy's horn to get its attention away from the ground and it roared at them.
Charlie cheered when Gipsy's sword cut through its face, but winced when the tail cracked across Gipsy's chest, sending her hurtling away. He got up and chased after it, but it disappeared around the corner and began to circle around to the side.
Gipsy's head kept turning, and Raleigh said tensely, "Choppers do you have a visual? Over." Raleigh asked.
"Sir, it's coming right –" the pilot began, and Charlie leaned forward in alarm.
She watched Raleigh jump out of the way and turn the kaiju's ambush into a trap, slamming it into the building bodily. He landed a couple of punches but was thrown through a building. She muffled a curse as he dodged its acid and reached inside its mouth, his other arm holding his tail. Coolant vented from Gipsy's left flank and made the tail brittle enough for the jaeger to shatter it like glass.
Herc's eyes narrowed, and he nudged her and asked, "How'd he vent the coolant if he's using both arms?"
Charlie's brow furrowed and she asked, "Does he use voice commands?"
"Unreliable," her dad shook his head, "Sometimes you get drowned out by the noise of the battle, and one wrong hit can make the whole system faulty."
Charlie watched Gipsy grip its horn and rip the acid spitting pouch from its mouth, but it pinned her underneath it and extended its arms. Bat-like wings unfurled along its front legs and both Rangers swore up a frenzy as it lifted the entire weight of a jaeger into the air and slammed her into buildings.
"Ray's probably not in good shape," Charlie said nervously, knowing exactly how much the rig could slap you around even as it protected you from the worst damage.
It began to rise in altitude, but Gipsy only feebly clawed at its legs. She shook her head and her sword emerged from her wrist, punching through its left wing. Both fell in a tangled heap of limbs and crashed into the ocean. A wall of water tried to touch the stars, looking like a geyser, and obscuring their vision. The surface stilled and still Raleigh and Gipsy hadn't risen.
"Do you see him?" she asked her dad, hiding her growing alarm and anxiety.
"There," he pointed with his good arm. A light rose and Gipsy's head broke the surface as she staggered to her feet, slightly worse for wear. She shoved the heavy kaiju back onto dry land, kicked its remaining foreleg out from under it, and chopped off its head. She dropped the severed kaiju head in her hand and trudged heavily back to the Shatterdome.
Their helicopter followed, zipping past the jaeger, and landing before Raleigh had walked back into the hangar. Charlie walked with her dad to the med bay and the Kaidonovskys were already there. Raleigh stumbled in after them. His face was a mess of ripped stitches and blood, he was limping and favoring his side, but looked mostly intact, holding his helmet under his arm.
She walked up and gave him a hug which he returned with a slight wince. She stepped back and said, "Is your shoulder okay?"
He cocked his head and said, "Yeah, it's my ribs, back and head that hurt. Why?"
"Good," she said, then wacked his shoulder, and complained, "If you keep stealing all the kaiju, how am I ever going to break your record?"
He smiled and shook his head.
Herc was sitting on the edge of a bed in the med bay. He'd been given the good drugs practically as soon as he'd walked in. The doctor was a stern older Scottish woman in her sixties who had set his arm, wrapped it in a plaster cast dyed green to match Striker, and gave him a sling with a long string of rather creative and anatomically accurate threats about what she'd do to him if he removed it before she said he could.
She had given Aleksis Kaidonovsky practically the same speech when stitching up her arm, and the Russian woman looked impressed. Sasha was sitting patiently in a small chair beside his wife's bed, and Charlie was sitting in the chair between Herc's bed and Raleigh's, and both were watching the verbal match as though it was a train wreck they couldn't look away from. He couldn't blame Iwa and Mako for avoiding this, wherever they were.
"And ye, Becket Boy," she said, flicking him on the cheek. Sasha was terrible at hiding his mirth as the tiny old matron demanded of the large pilot, "How come I only see ye when ye've been torn into bloody pieces of meat? What's an old woman tae think? You dinnae even bring me any candy anymore Becket Boy."
"I was assigned to another Shatterdome, Dr. Annis," he protested, but she cut him off.
"Haud yer wheesht. I ken ye and yer tricky ways, so yer gonna sit here and yer going tae tell me the whole truth when I ask wha' ye need patched up. Then if yer told me everything truthfully, I won' strap ye tae tha' bed overnigh' and ye cannae escape with the bonnie Aussie lass," she said smartly.
Herc had never seen Raleigh blush before, and his shoulders were shaking with the effort it took to contain his laughter. The Kaidonovskys didn't bother, cackling in the background. It was nice to see Raleigh loosen up a little. The matching blush on Charlie's face just made it twice as sweet.
"What'd ye dae this time, ye damn dafty?"
He sighed and gave Herc a flat look, like 'you see what I have to deal with', and the man lost the battle, roaring with laughter, and the American shook his head ruefully, "I've got minor circuit burns across my side and back, nothing like the last time, I cracked my ribs, and I think I bruised my knee."
Herc winced, but Dr. Annis just grabbed Raleigh's chin and tilted his head saying, "And ye gone and torn yer damn stitches again, ye bampot. Ruinin' all me tidy work," she clucked and said, "Ye ken the drill Becket boy, the claes come off."
Raleigh worked to remove his drive suit slowly, and Dr. Annis helped, setting the pieces with great care in a pile at the foot of the bed. Even Sasha winced when he saw Raleigh's torso, which was mottled with bruises that were darkening even as they watched. The silvery burn patterns on his left arm were creeping down his skin, tracing his spine and the left of his rib cage now in reds and pinks.
"Minor burns, he says. Jus' acos they havnae burned as badly didnae mean they aren't still second-degree burns. Yer lookin' more an' more like me dead granny's patchwork quilt every time I sees ye," she grumbled.
"How so?" Charlie asked curiously, giving Raleigh – especially his abs – an appreciative look that Herc didn't miss, though Raleigh did, still occupied by the fiery old doctor.
"More an' more patchy every time I lay me yaks on the damn thing, and lookee there," she said amiably, poking at his red and purple bruises and ignoring Raleigh's slight flinch, "He's even got the same spring colorin'." Aleksis muffled her giggles with her good arm and leaned into Sasha and Herc grinned.
"Now, ye ken the routine for burns. I'll put a cold compress on and when they're nice and numb, put an antibiotic cream on them and wrap yer ribs, and I'll redo the bandages on yer hands while yer here. I'll stitch up yer braw face again, and then I'm going tae let ye go and yer going tae get at least six hours of sleep tonight."
"You aren't going to ask me not to pilot Gipsy?" Raleigh asked cautiously, though there was determined steel and warning in his tone, as though he dared her to try and stop him.
"I ken as well as ye tha' if I ask ye nae tae get back in yer Gipsy 'till yer fixed up, ye'll ignore me sound advice by mornin'. 'Sides, it's nae as if ye havnae piloted with worse. Ye Rangers are all the same. If me husband was as loyal tae me as ye lot are tae yer jaegers, he'd still be me husband." she said fondly.
Ah, so she had a soft spot for jaeger pilots and – if Herc was reading between the lines correctly – she had been the doctor to treat Raleigh after Yancy had died. She worked fast and had gentle, steady hands when she numbed and sewed up Raleigh's face, patched up his burns, and wrapped his ribs, grumbling about fixing what had already been fixed. But as much as she groaned and growled, she never hurt Raleigh and her hands still worked those same deft, practiced movements as she stitched up the side of his face.
"Now, put yer suit back on and go do yer thing, Becket Boy. Ye ken the J-Techs won' leave until they sees ye," she said, packing up her kit and disposing of the used medical supplies expertly.
"Yes, ma'am," he said, already reaching for the top half of his drive suit.
"We're gonna harvest the skin, the talons, and the wing. The Germans will go nuts over that stuff. Let me see that map," Hannibal Chau ordered, then pointed to a place within the city on the map spread across an opulent table, "Here is where the kaiju fell, here's where we concentrate our efforts."
"We'll get it, boss," the balding man said.
Hannibal said, "Right."
A soaked and shaking Newt barged into the smooth operation, yelling, "Hey! Okay, guess who's back, you one-eyed bitch? And you owe me a kaiju brain." He pointed a shaking finger at the man, blinking blood from a thin cut on his forehead out of his eye.
